RE-ADVERTISEMENT: MAPPING CLIMATE CHANGE AND BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION PRACTICES AND INDICATORS FOR INCLUSION IN THE TANZANIA VSS FRAMEWORK

1. Introduction

Solidaridad Network is an international solution-oriented civil society organization working through eight regional expertise centres to transform markets to make them more sustainable and inclusive. Our eight regional expertise centres include Asia, Eastern and Central Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, Southern Africa, South America, West Africa and our global Secretariat in the Netherlands. Solidaridad Eastern and Central Africa, one of the regional centres, is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya with country offices and programmes in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda. Solidaridad works in over 13 commodities, however for East Africa the common commodities include Tea, coffee, Sugarcane, aquaculture, Livestock, Dairy, Textiles, Cotton, leather, fruits and vegetables, Cocoa, Oil palm and Gold. We bring together players across key commodities and engage them with innovative solutions to improve production, ensuring the transition to a sustainable and inclusive economy that maximizes the benefit for all. In many ways, the rise of Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) is a response to wider environmental and social transformation, and it has a growing impact on international trade. However, complying with VSS is not simple, especially for small and medium sized farmers, as it takes great effort and investment. Furthermore, the infrastructure and the public finance needed to support the compliance process does not exist. However, existence of best practices, mandatory standards and government policies provide a good starting point to facilitate implementation of voluntary standards.

2. Context

The demandfor increasing commodity production while conserving critical ecosystems and addressing the climate change menace has become a critical National and Global agenda in the recent past.This is mainly because of the increasing global consumption that has resulted in unsustainable land-use practices, that includes excessive use of chemicals, poor waste management, deforestation amongst other negative practices This practices are also a major reason for continued water and land degradation, a process that affects critical biodiversity and livelihoods across the region. More so, degrading ecosystems are forcing poor communities to engage in exploiting nearby resources in a bid to increase access to farmlands and other productive areas, which then impacts negatively on biodiversity and ultimately increasing Green house gases and increasing vulnerability to climate change impacts. To address this challenges, Solidaridad in Tanzania has Launched the “Project Title – To certification and beyond: Market access for sustainable coffee, horticulture and tea from Tanzania, that aims at addressing issues surrounding effective use of certification schemes and use of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) to improve and drive market opportunities for Tanzanian “branded” sustainable tea, coffee and horticulture products. The present assignment therefore aims at supporting the program in the identification of environmentally sustainable practices and indicators to be integrated in the VSS development and capacity building process. Such environmentally sustainability practices need to address the critical concerns of climate change while addressing biodiversity protection aspects.

3. Background

Standards tend to drive large-scale investments towards high impact activities required for tackling complex challenges like climate change and biodiversity degradation. Hence standards are an important tool in linking climate actions and sustainable development processes on environmental conservation. Voluntary standards are not only critical in facilitating implementation of best practices, but could also be used to ensure compliance with national and global policy processes, by especially the private sector. Voluntary standards need therefore to provide an important framework for establishing norms and practices that could transform into laws and regulations required to enforce best practices across supply chain actors. Solidaridad would like to engage the services of a consultant to facilitate integration of environmentally friendly and climate resilient best practices as part of the Voluntary standards framework for Coffee, Fruits and vegetables and Tea in Tanzania. The consultant will facilitate the process of developing a shared understanding of environmental aspects of the VSS standards by ensuring existing climate resilient and biodiversity protection practices and indicators become part of the VSS Tanzania Framework. This study aims to build a concrete case for using the existing best practices and Tanzania environmental policy frameworks (climate change, biodiversity/natural resources policies) as critical environmental sustainability pillars for integration in the Tanzania VSS framework.

Objective

The objective of this assignment is to develop a profile of biodiversity threats and climate vulnerabilities related to Coffee, Horticulture and Tea production and develop a set of best practices and indicators required for integration in the VSS framework. Identification of best practices and solutions will need to cascade along the whole commodity supply chain from production to processing. This should include practices derived from existing good practices, potential practices and strategies laid out within policy frameworks on climate change and biodiversity protection. The assignment covers the project areas of the “To certification and beyond: Market access for sustainable coffee, horticulture and tea from Tanzania project.

Major outcomes of the assignment would be:

a) Scoping analysis outlining the current status of climate change vulnerability and biodiversity trends related to tea, horticulture and coffee in the target area.

b) Profile of climate and biodiversity responsive best practices across the 3 commodities.

c) A validated framework, with practices, indicators, tools and guidance, to quantify and verify environmental impacts on any of the 3-targeted commodities.

4. Approach

This study will need to meet the below criteria;

d) Be able to profile significant climate vulnerabilities and biodiversity trends and threats within the target commodity production landscapes. This should entail (i) The current climate risks and Green house emissions associated with the target commodities ii) The status and trends on land use, water and soil biodiversity in the target production landscapes.

e) Identify interventions that support Climate change, and biodiversity goals simultaneously across the 3 commodities generated from best practices, literature and policy frameworks.

f) Embed the best practices into a standards framework, with indicators tools and guidance, to quantify and verify contributions to the climate change adaptation, mitigation and biodiversity protection goals. The standard framework should be able to ensure real time quantification of environmental impacts on any of the 3-targeted commodities.

g) Profile key actors and identify/propose governance frameworks that exist/needed for implementation of the environmental component of the developed framework.

h) Hold a multi-stakeholder meeting to validate the developed measures, practices and indicators for inclusion in the Tanzania VSS framework.

The consultant will be required to address these questions among others:

a) What are the key climate risks affecting the target commodities?

b) What is the GHG emission and sequestration potential for the target commodities?

c) What is the contribution of identified commodity supply chain actions to land-use change, soil and water degradation? (What are the impacts of commodity supply chain actions on biodiversity)?

d) How does climate change contribute to unsustainable actions across the commodities?

e) What are the best scenarios needed also to ensure a shift towards climate smart land use systems, reduced risks and improved climate change mitigation potential across identified commodities?

f) What aspects of climate policies and biodiversity frameworks could help to advance development of the Tanzania environmental component of VSS framework?

g) What best practices and policy approaches for mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity protection are critical for integration in the Tanzania environmental component VSS framework?

h) What actors/institutional frameworks are needed to cause a shift towards sustainable environmentally responsive thinking among the identified supply chain actors?

i) What is the stakeholder perception on identified practices, indicators and guidelines and their implication for integration in the VSS framework?

5. Scope of work

Coverage

i. Four regions in Tanzania mainland i.e. Mbeya, Songwe, Njombe and Ruvuma (Mbinga and Nyasa districts)

ii. Zanzibar (Unguja and Pemba)

Solidaridad expects the consultant to perform the following activities:

a) Desk study.

b) Expert interviews.

c) Field missions.

d) Validation workshop/meeting.

Methodology

The consultant will be expected to set out a short methodological approach, which can be further developed during the inception phase. We are open to different methodological approaches and part of the proposal should focus on what approach(es) will be used and why, if possible give different research scenarios and cost implications. While we will not prescribe the approach we would anticipate the following elements:

• Desk based research both from regional and country level perspective:

• Interviews with key institutions, implementing organizations, and funders / donors interested to invest in.

• Possibly site visits to specific mentioned areas to understand the context on the ground – the scope of any such visits would need to be discussed and agreed beforehand.

6. Expected deliverables

The key deliverables are:

1. Brief inception report and detailed work plan for the assignment execution – Deadline is on 3rd December 2020

2. A draft report (with identified Climate risks, biodiversity trends/threats and climate/biodiversity responsive best practices) Deadline is on 8th January 2020

3. A draft framework with practices, indicators, tools and guidelines for integration in the Tanzania VSS framework – Deadline is on 8th January 2020

4. A detailed final report, including but not limited to:

5. Detailed scoping analysis

6. Profile of climate and biodiversity responsive practices

7. Environmental component of the VSS framework.

8. Stakeholder mapping and validation report

9. List and contact information of stakeholders consulted (if any)

Deadline for above is on 15th January 2020

7. Duration

The assignment is expected to be carried out for a period not more than 32 days. The final report will be submitted by 15 January 2020.

8. Required expertise and qualifications

To be eligible to apply for this role the consultant must have:

● Proven experience in undertaking such commodity based work linked to standards development.

● Strong analytical skills to identify current trends, gaps and opportunities related to biodiversity and climate change.

● Proven experience working on development of best practices across target commodities.

● Good understanding of climate and biodiversity/environmental policies in Tanzania and globally.

● Knowledge of the Tanzania commodity (tea, Coffee, Horticulture) ecosystem(including actors and actions) would be an added advantage.

● Ability to communicate findings in an accessible way for technical and non-technical readers, including presentation of data in visually appealing ways & well-structured rigorous summaries of findings.

● A team with mixed professionals on commodities, conservation and climate analytics and standards development.

● Flexible and adaptable approach to the assignment to respond to new information and gather quality information in a short time period