1. What We Do

Shire Valley Transformation Program - Phase 2

Overview

NOTICE AT-A-GLANCE

  • P176575

  • Shire Valley Transformation Program - Phase 2

  • Malawi

  • OP00251263

  • Request for Expression of Interest

  • Published

  • MW-MOAIWD-326786-CS-INDV

  • Individual Consultant Selection

  • English

  • Oct 23, 2023 17:00

  • Oct 06, 2023

CONTACT INFORMATION

  • Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development

  • Stanley Khaila

  • Capital Hill P O Box 30134 Capital City Lilongwe 3

  • Malawi

  • Malawi

  • 999930235

Details

Request for Expression of Interest

 

 

REPUBLIC OF MALAWI

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE

SHIRE VALLEY TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME (SVTP) -2

 

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

(CONSULTING SERVICES – INDIVIDUAL SELECTION)

 

 

Country:                                  MALAWI

 

Name of Project:                    SHIRE VALLEY TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME-2

 

Credit No:                               71350-MW

 

Assignment Title:                   FORESTRY SPECIALIST

 

Reference No.                           MW-MOAIWD- 326786-CS-INDV

 

 

  1. Introduction

The SVTP is a 14-year program (2017-2031) which will be implemented in 3 partially overlapping phases: SVTP-1 (2018-2023), SVTP-2 (2022-2027) and SVTP -3 (2025-2031). The scale and complexity of the development challenges in the Shire Valley can only be effectively addressed through an integrated multi-sector approach. The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to develop irrigated commercial agriculture and strengthen the management of natural resources in the Program area. The Program is structured around four coordinated pillars: (i) providing reliable, professionally managed, and sustainably financed irrigation service to a number of irrigators in a phased construction of an irrigation and drainage scheme; (ii) supporting farmer organizations within a comprehensive land use plan, and supporting land tenure strengthening and voluntary consolidation; (iii) establishing and investing in smallholder-owned commercial farm enterprises transitioning into commercial agriculture from subsistence farming and integrating them into commercial value chains; and (iv) natural resources management in and around the Program area. These four pillars are expected to increase the beneficiaries’ capacity to respond to ever-increasing drought and floods. The Program aims at providing irrigation to over 43,000 ha through the phased construction of a new gravity-fed irrigation scheme that will supply surface water to over 27,600 ha of agricultural land presently under rainfed cultivation, creating agricultural development opportunities in the fertile valley, as well as approximately 15,700 ha of existing irrigation areas that currently use electric pumps to abstract water from the Shire River.  In case one or more existing irrigation schemes opt out from drawing water from SVTP’s gravity canal, additional new lands can be developed, mostly on the right bank of the main canal in the Nsanje District.

Unlike SVTP-1 which had four components, SVTP-2 will have 6 and these are: Component 1 - Irrigation Infrastructure Development and Service Provision; Component 2 - Land Tenure and Consolidation; Component 3 - Agriculture Development and Commercialization; Component 4 – Strengthening Landscape and Natural Resources Management; Component 5 – Contingent Emergency Response; and Component 6 - Project Management and Coordination. These ToRs are for a position in component 4 which has been described below.

Component 4:  Strengthening Landscape and Natural Resources Management

The Lower Shire Valley contains some of the most important natural resources in Malawi, which provide global public goods, such as biodiversity, climate stabilization, and nationally significant ecosystem services. The natural resources in the area play a critical role in contributing to the national economy and resilience of local communities, by providing goods and ecosystem services to the local population, such as freshwater, food, construction material, medicinal products, and wood fuel. Despite their socioeconomic and environmental value, the protected areas, forest reserves and community biological resources face several challenges to their long-term integrity and sustainability and there is a need to strengthen existing management capacity and explore alternative management arrangements. The recent experiences of SVTP-1 have highlighted the significance of improving natural resource management to realize the long-term transformational ambition of the valley and protecting valuable forest ecosystems  and biodiversity that will enable the landscape to remain productive for the long-term. SVTP-1 is assisting in the enhancement of management of protected areas, forest reserves, and the Elephant Marsh. SVTP-2 will build on this by encouraging long-term funding for the management of the Lower Shire's natural resource base and biodiversity, which will ensure the sustainability of community livelihoods, the economy at large and the ecosystem services on which they rely.

In phase 2, component 4 will support the strengthening of key biodiversity hotspots and protected areas to ensure continued generation of revenue and provision of important ecosystem services to vulnerable communities. Component 4 activities will strengthen the management of Lengwe National Park, Mwabvi Wildlife Reserve, the Elephant Marsh (EM), Matandwe and Thambani Forest Reserves (Figure 1)and other areas . Investments under this component will improve the conservation and management of key ecosystems in urgent need of additional support and financing, including the important wetlands, forest reserves, and protected areas. The component has been divided into 3 sub-components as follows: Sub-component 4.1. Improvement of infrastructure and equipment for strengthened management of protected areas and forest reserves (USD 4.3 million); Sub-component 4.2. Strengthened management, monitoring, and enforcement (USD 5 million); Sub-component 4.3. Community capacity development, promotion of income generating activities (IGA), and livelihoods interventions (USD 10.7 million).

The Ministry of Agriculture now invites applications from suitably qualified candidates to fill the position of Forestry Specialist under component 4.

 

  1. The Position

 

The Forestry Specialist is part of a larger Project Management Team, which comprises the Coordinator and other specialists. The specialist will be recruited through a transparent competitive process in line with Government of Malawi and World Bank recruitment procedures. Within component 4, the specialist will be responsible for support on the forest sector related activities, which include (i) forest reserve management, monitoring, and enforcement; (ii) community engagement; (iii) Performance Based Grants (PBG) for plantation forest development; and (iv) development of awareness and capacity for Carbon Marketing. The specialist will work with the Department of Forestry (DoF) to develop the forest sector in the Lower Shire Valley. The incumbent will be expected to meet three objectives as follows:

1.         Strengthen the productive forestry sector through the preparation, implementation and successful distribution of a Performance Based Grants (PBG) Scheme;

2.         Strengthen the management, monitoring, and enforcement of conservation forest reserves;

3.         Promote the Carbon Credit and Marketing Scheme in customary, private and public lands.

S/He will be reporting to the Project Coordinator. On a monthly basis, the incumbent will be expected to submit a progress report to the Project Coordinator focusing on achievements against what was planned, challenges which might have hampered progress and corrective measures.

 

 

  1. Scope of Services

 

For Objective 1 (Strengthen the productive forestry sector through the preparation, implementation and successful distribution of a Performance Based Grants (PBG) Scheme)

No

Task

Specific activities

1

Facilitate development of Forest Plantations

  1. Develop strategy and action plan for strengthening productive forestry in the lower Shire. The strategy should be consulted and agreed with DoF and MoA, as well as the Districts;
  2. Prepare/update the design and operation manual of the PBGs according to experience, lessons learned, and implementation constraints;
  3. Facilitate sensitization and awareness of District Council level staff on the scope of PBGs;
  4. Lead baseline survey for forest cover in the project implementing sites;
  5. Facilitate awareness campaigns of PBGs to eligible pparticipants including private sector individuals, small-to-medium forest growers/enterprises, community groups, wood producer associations on the scope of PBG, etc.
  6. Facilitate identification and assessment of PBGs sites and beneficiaries;
  7. Review and support the development of forest and plantation management plans;
  8. Facilitate planting of certified trees and management of forest plantations according to the management plan.

2

Facilitate capacity building efforts of the Department of Forestry Staff and tree growers in the restoration and management of forestry

  1. Facilitate capacity needs assessments of the tree growers and DoF/GoM extension staff, and other identified stakeholders;
  2. Develop capacity building materials;
  3. Conduct capacity building sessions through training, learning visits to successful PBG sites, meetings and workshops.

3

Facilitate disbursement of PBG funds

  1. Facilitate development PBG related information materials, contract materials, and facilitate the development of agreed disbursement schedules;
  2. Support the verification exercises to check performance and health of the planted trees;
  3. Facilitate presentation of the results of the verification exercises to tree growers and relevant district staff
  4. Develop summary case studies of the growers to establish lessons learned, good/bad practice, improvements to PBG structures, etc., which will be used during project communication and evaluation. 

 

For objective 2 (Strengthen the management, monitoring, and enforcement of conservation forest reserves)

No

Task

Specific activities

1

Support law enforcement operations and management

  1. Review and strengthen field patrols
  2. Facilitate procurement of field and communication equipment for forest guards
  3. Facilitate training and capacity building of senior law enforcement managers and forest guards
  4. Facilitate construction of infrastructure services (Control room, stores and inventory)
  5. Develop innovative law enforcement strategies or tactics
  6. Develop and/or review standard operating procedures (SOP) specific for law enforcement, radio communication etc

2

Promote ranger based monitoring and evaluation

  1. Provide training for application of innovative data collection and analysis methods.
  2. Provide means and standardised reporting format for forestry in the Lower Shire landscape
  3. Support procurement and use innovative data collection and analysis methods and hardware including SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool), drones, acoustic traps, camera traps, trimbles or smart phones
  4. Ensure rapid information exchange between data base manager and patrol leaders
  5. Provide and ensure user-friendly and appropriate mechanism for storing and analysing information collected in place

3

Monitor effectiveness of forest management systems on status of trees

  1. Develop monitoring and evaluation systems on forests and trees in the lower shire landscape
  2. Conduct annual performance of trees and forests
  3. Develop a data base of forest and trees for the targeted areas
  4. Produce tree and forest performance reports on annual basis
  5. Support the M&E procedures for the Program and the Forest Monitoring Unit (FMU)

 

For Objective 3 (Promote the Carbon Credit and Marketing Scheme in customary, private and public lands.

 

No

Task

Specific activities

1

Establish carbon credit and marketing schemes at identified sites

  1. Facilitate sensitization and awareness of District Council level staff on the scope of Carbon Marketing;
  2. Evaluate financing models for the SVTP impact area to balance the required upfront financing of carbon offset projects with the long-term sale of issued carbon credits
  3. Lead in identification of potential areas for carbon marketing in the project sites
  4. Lead in baseline scenario surveys to establish carbon levels
  5. Facilitate linkages of the potential carbon credit beneficiaries at project sites to carbon markets

2

Facilitate capacity building of the Department of Forestry Staff and tree growers in the restoration and management of forestry

  1. Conduct capacity gap assessments relating to carbon marketing;
  2. Develop capacity building approach and material; 
  3. Conduct capacity building sessions through training, learning visits and workshops

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.0    Qualifications and Experience:

 

•     A postgraduate degree related to Forestry, Natural Resources Management and Environment

•     At least 5 years of working experience in productive forestry;

•     Experience in managing performance based grants, payments for ecosystem services, and/or carbon marketing will be highly advantageous;

•     Exceptional skills in training and capacity building of local communities, extension workers and middle carrier professionals 

•     Excellent communication skills (fluency in both English and Chichewa), Computer literacy with familiarity of main software such as Word and Excel and basic GPS/ GIS skills

•     Work experience in forest reserves in Malawi or SADC Region

•     Sound understanding of co-management approaches and sustainable livelihood programmes.

 

 

5.0       Performance Assessment Criteria

  1. Baseline scenarios at project sites and reports for PBG and Carbon Marketing schemes;
  2. Strategy and action plan for strengthening productive forestry in the lower Shire;
  3. Detailed design of PBG schemes with key milestones, indicators, responsibilities and budgets
  4. Capacity building programme for Department of Forestry Extension Staff and community members on PBG and Carbon Marketing;
  5. Capacity building sessions undertaken for DoF extension staff and community members
  6. Overall performance monthly and quarterly reports of PBG and Carbon Marketing schemes
  7. Establishment of at least 10000 hectares of plantations at the end of the project
  8. Improved forest cover and biodiversity in forest reserves

 

 

 

 

  1. Location of Employment

 

The Forestry Specialist will be based at the Project Management Team (PMT) in Blantyre, but will be required to travel regularly and extensively to the project areas of Chikwawa, Mwanza, Neno and Nsanje. He/she will work closely with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change in Lilongwe to ensure that activities are planned and implemented in line with the aspirations of the ministry and Government of Malawi in general.

 

 

7.0       Duration of Employment

 

The Contract is for an initial period of one-year renewable upon satisfactory completion of the assignment and satisfactory appraisal results.

 

8.0       Reporting Requirements

 

As part a member of the Project Management Team (PMT), the Forestry Specialist shall report to the Natural Resources Component.

 

9.0       Services and facilities to be provided by the Client

 

The client will provide the following services and facilities to the consultant

  1. Office space
  2. Office equipment
  3. Communication facilities
  4. Logistics for field work

 

10.0   The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Section III, paragraphs, 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” dated November 2020 (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest. A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Individual Consultant selection method set out in the Procurement Regulations.

 

11.0 Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours from 7:30hrs to 12:00hrs and from 13:00hrs to 17:00hrs except on Weekends and Public Holidays.

 

12.0 Expressions of interest including detailed updated curriculum vitae and copies of professional and academic qualifications must be delivered in a written form to the address below (in person, or by mail, or by e-mail) by 23rd October, 2023.

 

            The Project Coordinator,

            Shire Valley Transformation Programme,

            Makata Industrial Area,

            Private 379,

            Blantyre

            Malawi.

           (Attention: The Senior Procurement Specialist)

 

 

          Alternatively, applications may be emailed to: procurement.doi@svtp.gov.mw     

          cc: mmaoni.doi@svtp.gov.mw; mtewete.doi@svtp.gov.mw; mwalabu2005@yahoo.co.uk