LandScale study on Governance

Delhi, India

Summary Information

Department: Programme/ GEF India project
Location(s): New Delhi
Commitment: (list term if relevant and estimate of days required): 120 days
Desired start date and duration: 10th November 2023 – 31st March 2024
Under the direction of: Senior Project Manager

Consultancy Summary

About the Rainforest Alliance

Rainforest Alliance, a New York-based 501(c)3, and UTZ, an Amsterdam-based foundation, merged in 2018. Together, the new Rainforest Alliance is now a $70 million per year organization with offices in 17 countries (and growing) and over 5000 staff. The merged organization has two main offices—one in Amsterdam and one in New York City.

The Rainforest Alliance is creating a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities.

We work towards making responsible business the new normal through our certification program, tailored supply chain services, landscape and community work and advocacy.

About LandScale

LandScale is a tool to assess and communicate landscape sustainability performance. It helps landscape stakeholders gain critical insights, make more informed decisions, and share credible stories of impact. Companies, industry initiatives, NGOs, governments, donors, and financial institutions can use LandScale to measure the sustainability status and trends of any landscape with substantial natural resource-based economies and supply chains.

The LandScale system which is to be used to conduct this work is comprised of the following:

The LandScale Platform: an online tool that facilitates conducting the five LandScale steps described below and exposing the products of the assessment to a global audience, if desired.
Assessment Framework: the goals, indicators, and performance metrics that constitute the scope of an assessment.
Assessment Guidelines: detailed guidance on the process of conducting a LandScale assessment, accessible through the LandScale platform.
Validation Mechanism: The process of reviewing the assessment methodology and results by the LandScale team (LandScale validation) and local experts (local review).
Communications and Claims Policy: information on the type of claims that may be made based on LandScale assessment results and the process for communicating such claims.

Overview

Introduction to the Project and need for consultancy.

We are looking for a collaborative Consultant (LandScale – Governance) who is responsible for supporting the coordination and carrying out LandScale study in Rainforest Alliance’s project: Transforming agricultural systems and strengthening local economies in high biodiversity areas of India through sustainable landscape management and public-private finance, funded by the Global Environment Facility.

The Consultant, LandScale – Governance, will support the project by working with Rainforest Alliance staff, GEF partners, and stakeholders to build a range of knowledge products relevant to all sustainability themes within the assessment scope. This includes interdisciplinary expertise in land use, natural resource management, commodity production, social development, governance, and agriculture or forestry if these are significant sectors in the landscape. LandScale assessment of the Governance component will support the project´s results-based management and reporting over the project´s lifetime. The position includes training and advising technical staff, partners, and field consultants on LandScale assessment methods, preparing tools and processes, and knowledge management and reporting (e.g., infographics) on the key findings. The Consultant, LandScale – Governance, is also expected to coordinate closely with other Rainforest Alliance Asia Pacific communications units.

Main Objectives

List main objectives

Coordinate and oversee LandScale – Governance assessment activities related to GEF India – Landscapes Project. LandScale’s assessment process consists of five steps.

General

All inputs to the LandScale platform are required to be in English using proper spelling and grammar. A custom landscape report and the ability to interact with stakeholders in Kannada's local language are required.
In addition to the specific requirements below, the assessment team will, after each step, request validation by the LandScale team and work with LandScale to achieve satisfactory validation of the completion of each step.

Step 1: Preparation

In this step, the assessment team works on the preparatory steps of an assessment.

Document the assessment objectives.
Develop a plan for stakeholder engagement.
Define landscape goals.
Complete the landscape partnership module.
Create the landscape profile.
Compile documentation and submit the step for validation.

Step 2: Boundary Selection

In this step, the assessment team works on the process of defining an appropriate area for which to conduct the assessment based on the landscape’s context and characteristics.

Compile the landscape overview.
Define the landscape boundary.
Conduct the adjacency analysis.
Document boundary limitations.
Compile documentation and submit the step for validation.

Step 3: Indicator and Metric Selection

In this step, the assessment team works on selecting the indicators and metrics that will be used to assess landscape performance and trends.

Select indicators to include in the assessment. Develop and include custom indicators based on the requirements.
Select metrics to include in the assessment including the optional and custom metrics.
Set targets and milestones for any metric.
Compile documentation and submit the step for validation.

Step 4: Data Evaluation and Metric Assessment

Following the indicator and metric selection, the assessment team will define data needs, collect relevant data, assess data suitability, generate results, and conduct local review.

Specify data requirements to measure each metric.
Identify and procure candidate datasets.
Evaluate candidate datasets for suitability, procure supplemental data as necessary and feasible, and finalize data selection.
Process and analyze data to generate results for each metric, including, assessment against targets and milestones if included in Step 3.
Compile documentation and submit the step for the first LandScale review.
Conduct the local review.
Address feedback from the initial validation and the local review.
Compile updated documentation and submit the step for final validation.

The previous activities may require:

Integrating data from multiple sources
Classifying and coding data
Reviewing, validating, and editing data
Transforming data values or attributes
Imputing any missing data values, if possible
Deriving new variables and their values based on the source data
Calculating descriptive statistics, such as averages and distributions
Calculating quantitative measures of trends or rates
Assigning variable weights and calculated weighted averages or sums
Disaggregating data by appropriate variables and calculating metric values according to these disaggregations
Finalizing data files

Step 5: Reporting and Publishing Results

This final step uses results and inputs from the previous steps to craft a standard LandScale Report [and optionally a custom report if desired by the organizer], optionally obtain local review of the draft report, and publish the final report.

Determine assessment milestones for publication.
Using the LandScale platform, generate the standard report, which entails a combination of auto-populating fields and writing additional content such as interpretations and conclusions.
Integrate additional features to the report, such as photos and data visualizations from the assessment results.
Obtain local review of the report, address comments, and revise accordingly.
Obtain final LandScale Validation and publish the report.
Download the report and the export file of all inputs to the LandScale platform and provide them to the organizer.

Contractor Services at a minimum, must include:

Qualifications - Subject Matter Expertise

The Consultant needs technical expertise in all sustainability themes within the assessment scope. This includes interdisciplinary expertise in land use, natural resource management, commodity production, social development, governance, and agriculture or forestry if these are significant sectors in the landscape.
The assessment team must have the relevant expertise across all pillars of the LandScale framework. Below are some of the areas where expertise is needed:

Governance

Land and resources tenure
Land and resources conflicts
Transparency, participation, inclusion, and coordination in land-use policy, planning, and management
Illegality and corruption related to land and resources (if included)

Deliverables

Coordinate with Rainforest Alliance Project staff and Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh partners for conceptualizing LandScale assessment study, understanding the overall project framework, stakeholder engagement, geographic field operation, etc.
Contribute to the design, articulation, and execution of LandScale-Governance study as per the timeline planned for the project – like the project´s mid-term and end-of-project reviews and case studies of project achievements.
Collect required data from primary and secondary sources, analyse and interpret to draw inferences.
Prepare draft study report, share topline findings with the RA team and obtain feedback to refine the report.
Finalization of project reports – based on RA communication and branding guidelines.
Based on the Project Communication Strategy, undertake steps to execute wider dissemination about achievement.

General terms and conditions for Request for proposal

Selection Criteria

Agriculture or Management Graduate with a Master's in Economics / Agriculture Resource Economics / Ecology / Global Development from a reputed and recognized institution.
Minimum 5+ Years of work experience in Public sector and Development sector evaluations, LandScale studies, and diagnostics studies. Preference will be given to candidates who have worked in Environmental Economics, Resource Economics, Agriculture Production, Natural Resource Management, and Ecosystem analysis at the National and State level.
Ability to work in a highly demanding environment, liaising with stakeholders and partners.
Computer proficiency with familiarity with commonly used packages like MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and web surfing to search relevant data documents. Analytical software skills will be helpful, like any statistical packages and reporting tools.
Excellent communication and presentation skills, analytical and interpersonal abilities, and excellent oral and written communication skills in English and Hindi. Candidates with proficiency in the Kanada language are highly encouraged to apply.
Ability to travel locally at least 30% of the time.

Proposal Process and Format

Interested applicants are invited to submit an electronic copy of their Curriculum Vitae, including the following:

A cover letter
Profile of the applicant and background experience
Expected payment rate
Contact details, including phone and mail ID
At least three recent references

Donor Requirements

The contract is for a fixed term of 120 days, unless otherwise extended with mutual agreement.
For any inquiries about this vacancy, please write to Mr. S. Rajan at the Rainforest Alliance using the following email address: srajan@ra.org
Deadline to apply: Apply within 10 days of publication of the advertisement.

Thank you for your interest in working with The Rainforest Alliance.