Building capacity of project staff and key stakeholders in facilitating community level shared natural resource agreements in BORESHA project area

Building capacity of project staff and key stakeholders in facilitating community-level shared natural resource agreements in the BORESHA project area

1. Background

BORESHA is a cross-border project funded by EU trust fund and is implemented by a consortium of 4 organizations namely, World Vision, DRC (Danish Refugee Council), CARE, and WYG. The overall goal of EUTF is to address the drivers of instability, irregular migration, and displacement in the Kenya-Ethiopia-Somalia border areas comprising Mandera county in Kenya, Dolow, and Beledhawa district in Somalia, and Dolow Ado and Dolow Bay Woreda in Ethiopia. This area is also sometimes referred to as the Mandera Triangle. CARE is working on a component of the project aimed at enhancing sustainable and equitable management of cross-border rangeland and other shared natural resources. The project supports ongoing regional efforts to build sustainable livelihoods, improve natural resources management and strengthen resilience.

2. Justification

Key transboundary rangeland resources in Mandera Triangle include grazing land, surface water resources such as the Daawa River, and groundwater resources including the transboundary Daawa-juba and Juba-Shebelle aquifers. Livestock production based on nomadic pastoralism through the exploitation of the extensive transboundary rangelands is the dominant land use pattern in the Mandera triangle (Mandera-Kenya, Dolow-Somalia, and Dolo Ado-Ethiopia).

Participatory GIS mapping and community consultative forums revealed widespread and accelerated degradation of transboundary rangeland resources in the Mandera triangle that contributes to livelihoods deterioration, more incidences of resource-based conflicts, and increased vulnerability to shocks and cyclic humanitarian crises.

The first phase of the BORESHA project (January 2018, – February 2021) supported the formation and/or strengthening of village level Natural Resource Management (NRM) Committees and Rangeland Management Councils (RMCs) at the district level to provide leadership, supervision, and coordination of sustainable management, equitable sharing, and protection of key natural resources. The Action also improved the capacity of NRM committees, RMCs, and local government officials in the Participatory Rangeland Management (PRM) planning process and development of Participatory Rangeland Management Plans (PRM) plans.

3. Objective of the Consultancy

A customary-based natural resource- use and management agreement between cross-boundary communities in Mandera Triangle or cluster comprising the Mandera county, Kenya, Dolow and Beled Hawa district, Somalia and Dolo Ado and Dolo Bay Woreda, Ethiopia.

The specific objectives of the assignment are:

a) Develop simple tools, guidelines, and processes that will be used in facilitating inter-community dialogue workshops for formulating customary-based community level cross-border natural resource sharing and management agreements.

b) Develop a framework or formats for documenting inter-community natural resource utilization agreements.

c) Provide two days of training to BORESHA project staff and key stakeholders on the rationale, concepts, and best practices in community-level transboundary natural resource agreements, equitable utilization and sustainable management of shared natural resources, and use of the tools, guidelines, processes, and frameworks developed in (a) & (b) above to facilitate inter-community natural resource agreements. The training will be held in Mandera.

4. Methodology

a) Desktop review of literature on the rationale, concepts, and best practices in transboundary range resources management and inter-community resources agreements within a cross border context especially in the horn of Africa (HoA) or other cross border cluster areas in East Africa.

b) Review of community-level reciprocal natural resource management and grazing agreements between cross-border communities and frameworks and tools applied and drawing best approaches and tools to apply in the BORESHA project.

c) Design of framework, guidelines, tools, and procedures for facilitating community-level resource sharing agreements.

d) Training workshop facilitation through presentations, plenary discussions, and group brainstorming sessions.

5. Deliverables

1) A set of precise and simple frameworks, guidelines, and procedures that will be used in facilitating inter-community dialogue workshops for developing customary-based shared natural resource utilization agreements.

2) A customized framework or formats for documenting community-level natural resource utilization agreements.

3) Trained BORESHA project staff and key partners in the rationale, concept, and practice of inter-community natural resource sharing agreements and their application in mitigating resource-based conflicts and maximizing sustainable utilization and equitable sharing of transboundary natural resources. The consultant should submit a training report and a list of staff trained.

6. Desired qualifications of the consultant

· More than 10 years experience in natural resources, rangelands, environmental or drylands resources management, research, and training facilitation.

· Should possesses Ph.D. in rangelands management or sustainable management of dryland resources ecosystems or landscape.

· The consultant is expected to demonstrate verifiable knowledge of the opportunities provided by the transboundary rangelands and other shared natural resources in Mandera triangle/cluster, the various pressures and threats to its sustainable utilization, and viable corrective actions that will contribute to rehabilitation, restoration, productivity, and sustainability of transboundary landscapes in Mandera triangle.

7. How to apply

The interested consultants should apply by submitting the following:

· Inception report/response to the TOR detailing how the assignment will be executed; the approach, tools to be used outputs, and duration of the assignment. It is expected that the consultancy will be undertaken in 6 days, tentatively in the last week of July 2021.

· A budget that is inclusive of all costs: professional fees, accommodation, per diem, transport, and any other incidental cost of the assignment. The consultant will be responsible for organizing own travel and accommodation arrangement.

· A CV or resume clearly indicating how she/he is qualified for the assignment and highlighting similar assignments undertaken in the last five years.

· The consultant will be paid after completion of the assignment and submission of the deliverables outlined in the TOR.

All interested consultants are requested to send technical and financial proposals send by email to: SOM.Consultant@care.org. Please indicate ‘**Building capacity of project staff and key stakeholders in facilitating community-level shared natural resource agreements in BORESHA project area**’** as the subject heading. Application deadline 21-july-2021. Any canvassing will lead to automatic disqualification.