The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) – the largest conservation and education advocacy organization in the United States – is requesting proposals for a contractor for one year, for a service contract to provide technical support, country expertise, corporate and government outreach in Ivory Coast and in Europe for a project fostering transparent monitoring of forests and cocoa supply chains in Ivory Coast. This work is part of a Internationale Klimaschutzinitiative (IKI) supported collaborative project focusing on transparent forest monitoring that can help improve monitoring and reporting to the UNFCCC.

Location:

Flexible, travel to Ivory Coast, ability to attend virtual meetings during European working hours.

Description:

The Contractor will provide technical support, coordination, report writing, outreach to the public and private sector and will organize and host workshops, on a project aiming to encourage transparent forest monitoring and traceable deforestation-free cocoa supply chains in Ivory Coast. The goal is to help Ivory Coast to report effectively to the UNFCCC and serve as an example of transparent forest monitoring, and to ensure that the Ivorian cocoa sector can meet international demands (through voluntary processes and importing country pending regulatory efforts) for deforestation-free cocoa supply chains.

Deliverables:

• Attend grant consortium meetings, weekly partner virtual meetings and weekly NWF meetings.
• Provide biweekly updates on progress on cocoa monitoring, private sector actions, Cocoa and Forests Initiative (CFI) and any other relevant news from Ivory Coast.
• Represent NWF and the project at pre-agreed cocoa workshops and in relevant multistakeholder processes.
• Organize and lead a virtual workshop for CFI country technical experts on monitoring cocoa and deforestation worldwide to promote synergies across countries on assessing greenhouse gas emissions, and other aspects of monitoring, and determine the extent to which there can be interoperability among CFI countries. Share best practices and lessons learned regarding obstacles and challenges.
• Organize and lead a virtual workshop for the European national cocoa associations (ISCOs) to create synergy and deepen understanding – particularly the ISCO coordinators and those running point in each ISCO on traceability and monitoring/mapping. The goals will be to educate, inform, and harmonize definitions, demands, and approaches towards transparency monitoring and traceability among the ISCOs.
• Host a virtual session in the EU to create synergies (with Ivorian Embassy, EU institutions, EU stakeholders involved in cocoa mapping, and the planned EU Observatory for monitoring deforestation and high risk supply chains.
• Organize a virtual South-South exchange between key stakeholders in Ivory Coast and Brazil. Consult with GHG calculation experts to ensure the use of advanced technology to discuss and support lessons in monitoring, assessment and traceability.
• Organize, lead and attend workshop (virtual and in-person) with key stakeholders in Ivory Coast. This includes:
  1) a virtual workshop to determine the connection between deforestation/GHG monitoring and cocoa supply chains – how to make these interoperable with the Ivorian monitoring mechanism covering land use and deforestation.
  2) a workshop for donors to national forest monitoring systems to enhance their synergies and understanding of project activities and encourage the open sharing of their investment in such activities. The aim is to promote funding for improved monitoring (scope, accuracy), without duplication or gaps.
  3) a virtual workshop bringing together Ivorian CFI members, including all member companies, to ensure CFI corporate stakeholders and civil society advisors are informed of the monitoring taking place, to share what each is doing, and to create synergies and minimize costly duplications.
  4) Co-organize a REDD+ stocktaking and debrief, to incorporate and consolidate activities and achievements.
• Provide support for the production of reports and guidance.
• Support the production of grant progress reports and verbal updates to the consortium leads and funder as requested.
• Produce reports for each workshop, including summaries for participants and write-ups for grant partners to track and document progress.
• Support the production of Good Practice guidance, for national accountable (credible, flexible, responsible) implementation of transparent monitoring approaches that are (1) developed, (2) tested and approved, where (3) monitoring capacities have increased and (4) taken up in the international processes, including in the context of the UNFCCC process.

Qualifications and Skills:

• Bilingual French/English
• Knowledge of key actors in government institutions in Ivory Coast relevant to forest monitoring, and in the Cocoa and Forests Initiative and European Sustainable Cocoa Platforms (ISCOs)
• Field experience understanding deforestation in Ivory Coast
• Expertise in forest monitoring in Ivory Coast
• Demonstrated knowledge of the chocolate industry; relevant cross-commodity experience working on high forest-risk commodities
• Experience running workshops in French and English
• Track record of successful report writing for government and corporate audiences
• Demonstrated experience changing policy and practice of industry and government
• Ability to empower local NGOs to undertake community-based forest monitoring
• Knowledge of international voluntary and potential mandatory measures to reduce deforestation in cocoa supply chains, including proposed EU and US regulations for curbing deforestation

Award Criteria:

• Experience in forest monitoring and supply chain (cocoa) traceability and understanding deforestation drivers in Ivory Coast (15%)
• Knowledge of government and private sector institutions and relationships with key stakeholders in Ivory Coast relevant to forest monitoring and cocoa production (15%)
• Multistakeholder and Private Sector Engagement Expertise on deforestation policy (including evidence of ability to influence policies) (10%)
• Experience working with international corporations and platforms relevant to the Cocoa Sector, including working with NGOs (CFI members, cocoa value chain actors, ISCOs) (15%)
• Experience organizing in-person and virtual workshops in English and French on relevant topics (15%)
• Project management and report-writing skills (English/French), international collaboration experience (10%)
• Budget/Value for Money (20%)

To Apply:

Please send a resume, and a proposal setting out ability to meet the Qualifications and Skills, and ability to meet the deliverables, as well as the daily rate and total for completing the deliverables (at least 2 days/week of time and a maximum 65,000 USD over 12 months). Travel and costs associated with the workshop (room hire, catering) can be excluded.

Applications must be received before 5pm EST/11pm Ivory Coast, December 30th 2021, by email to international@nwf.org, subject line (Contractor: Transparent Forest Monitoring)

Posting opens November 29th 2021.

National Wildlife Federation,
National Advocacy Center,
Washington DC 20005, United States.

Status: Open – Accepting applications

Details on how to apply below