Daphine Gitonga

1.0 Introduction

AFF signed in December 2019 an  Agreement  with The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to provide  support to development of a multicounty project on Scaling-Up Resilience in Africa’s Great Green Wall led by FAO and Great Green Wall Agency (GGWA) to be submitted to the Green Climate Fund. AFF’s support will mainly contribute to the component 2 of the project on Promoting and developing sustainable, low emissions, equitable commodity value chains contributing to forest conservation and sustainable management and to reducing emissions driven by land-use change in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal. The  objective of the agreement is to partner and deploy AFF’s expertise on non-timber forest product value chains, in complementarity with FAO’s expertise on restoration of agro-sylvo-pastoral production systems in the Sahel and in particular in the Great Green Wall to: (a) Identify key non-timber forest product value chains (VC) in each of the six countries that are more equitable  (including provide greater incomes), resilient, and reduce emissions, and that can constitute an incentive for smallholder producers to engage in restoration of agro-sylvo-pastoral landscapes; (b) Carry out a literature review addressing the above issues; (c) Identify and propose actions the project can undertaketo upgrade the VCs in each of the countries, and how to engage relevant private sector members of the VC to ensure an equitable sharing of benefits.

The project rationale is based on the hypothesis that improving the efficiency, equity and positioning of smallholder producers and other value chain (VC) actors in key NTFP value chains will provide them with a strong incentive to engage in the restoration of agro-sylvo-pastoral systems, and will make an essential contribution to both climate change adaptation of rural livelihoods, and climate change mitigation through greenhouse gas emissions reductions and removals.

1.2 Rationale and purpose of the call

In undertaking this work, AFF is recruiting an expert to assist the Secretariat in activities in the six selected countries and to enable timely response on the expected deliverables within the planned period of executing the assignment between AFF and FAO.

1.3 Specific tasks of the expert

In collaboration with the AFF secretariat and enumerators at country level, the expert will:

  • Undertake relevant literature review on the subject areas, and more specifically addressing selected NTFP value chains from the study countries and elsewhere, as well as on relevant transboundary issues;
  • Support data collection and analysis and backstop lead enumerators in the drafting of national reports in the six countries;
  • Participate in organizing and attend national validation workshops in all the six countries and thereafter develop the workshop reports and consolidate with AFF secretariat all the inputs in the final validated national reports to be submitted to FAO;
  • Synthesize national reports into one draft regional report;
  • Lead the organisation of a regional workshop and consolidate all the inputs from the workshop into a final regional report to be finalized in collaboration with AFF secretariat;
  • Based on the key findings from the country studies, contribute to the writing of the relevant Chapter of the GCF-GGW multi-country project in collaboration with AFF Secretariat; and
  • Initiate in collaboration with the relevant staff at the Secretariat for any other means for adding value to collected data through scientific publications, working papers and policy briefs.

1.4 Deliverables

The expert will be expected to deliver the following at the end of the contractual period:

  • A synthesis data file from the six countries with appropriate data analysis;
  • Six national validation workshop reports and national reports, one each for Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal to be finalized with relevant staff at the Secretariat;
  • One regional report to be finalized with the AFF secretariat;
  • One draft contribution to be finalized by the AFF secretariat on the GCF project made of summaries of the national and regional reports, including investment criteria, paradigm shift, financial and economic analysis and carbon accounting; And
  • At least two knowledge products (scientific publications and/or working paper, and policy brief) to be finalized by relevant staff at the Secretariat and recognizing valuable contributions from enumerators and FAO.

2.0 Minimum qualifications and skills

The interested applicant should meet the following minimum qualifications and skills:

  • (i) Be a research scientist or a forest officer with proven knowledge and experience in value chain analysis of forest products in Africa;
  • (ii) Be knowledgeable on current and emerging issues in NTFPs, more specifically economic valuation and contribution to climate change;
  • Have good and demonstrated experience in sustainable management of forest resources;
  • Have good scientific writing skills and have at least written a book chapter and published peer reviewed journal papers;
  • (v) Have at least a master’s degree in any of the following areas: forestry, natural resources management, environmental issues, rural development, climate change, or any related area;
  • A PhD, prior experience with FAO projects and good understanding and application of FAO developed Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool for Value Chain (EX-ACT VC) will be an added advantage;
  • Have experience in formulation and development of GCF and GEF based projects; and
  • Have excellent written and oral communication skills in English and/or French, with good working knowledge of the 2nd

The selected candidate should be available on full time basis for the assignment during the contractual period and ready to travel between his country, Nairobi and the study countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal) frequently to support the above tasks.

3.0 Application requirements

The applicant shall submit the following:

(i) Cover letter stating how the above qualifications and experience requirements are met.

(ii) A brief proposal/concept note containing:

    • Approach to undertake the proposed tasks;
    • Draft work plan (clear deliverables plotted against work weeks for each task); and

(iii) Curriculum vitae.

4.0 Duration: This assignment will take three calendar months spread across four months.

5.0 Deadlines

  • (i) Applications must be received by the AFF Secretariat on or before 15th July 2020;
  • Successful applicants will be informed by 25th July 2020; and
  • the selected expert must begin no later than 06th August 2020 and expected to conclude the assignment by the 6th of December 2020.

6.0 How to apply

All applications must be submitted by e-mail with the subject line: “AFF-FAO Internship “Great Green Wall (GGW) Non-timber Forest Product (NTFP) Value Chain Analysis” to Dr.  Marie Louise A. T. AVANA-TIENTCHEU and Dr. Doris Mutta of the AFF Secretariat through the following e-mail addresses: m.avana@cgiar.org and d.mutta@cgiar.org and copied to Prof Godwin Kowero (g.kowero@cgiar.org) and to exec.sec@afforum.org.