Consultancy to Provide Technical Assistance to conduct annual landscape integrity assessment (FY 2023)

Request for Proposals (RfP)

Technical Assistance to conduct annual landscape integrity assessment (FY 2023

IUCN Rwanda Country Office

RfP Reference: IUCN-24-06-P03168-05

Welcome to this Procurement by IUCN. You are hereby invited to submit a Proposal. Please read the information and instructions carefully because non-compliance with the instructions may result in disqualification of your Proposal from this Procurement.

1. REQUIREMENTS
   1. A detailed description of the services and/or goods to be provided can be found in Attachment 1.
2. CONTACT DETAILS
   1. During the course of this procurement, i.e. from the publication of this RfP to the award of a contract, you may not discuss this procurement with any IUCN employee or representative other than the following contact. You must address all correspondence and questions to the contact, including your Proposal.

IUCN Contact: tenders.rwanda@iucn.org

1. PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE
   1. This timetable is indicative and may be changed by IUCN at any time. If IUCN decides that changes to any of the deadlines are necessary, we will publish this on our website and contact you directly if you have indicated your interest in this procurement (see Section 3.2).

DATE

ACTIVITY

11 June 2024

Publication of the Request for Proposals

15 June 2024

Deadline for submission of questions

17 June 2024

Planned publication of responses to questions

1 July 2024

Deadline for submission of Proposals to IUCN (“Submission Deadline”)

4 July 2024

Planned date for contract award

8 July 2024

Expected contract start date

1. Please email the IUCN contact to express your interest in submitting a Proposal by the deadline stated above. This will help IUCN to keep you updated regarding the procurement.
2. COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL
   1. Your Proposal must consist of the following four separate documents:

• Signed Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2)
• Pre-Qualification Information (see Section 4.3 below)
• Technical Proposal (see Section 4.4 below)
• Financial Proposal (see Section 4.5 below)
  1. Your Proposal must be submitted by email to the IUCN Contact (see Section 2). The subject heading of the email shall be [RfP Reference – bidder name]. The bidder name is the name of the company/organisation on whose behalf you are submitting the Proposal, or your own surname if you are bidding as a self-employed consultant. Your Proposal must be submitted in PDF format. You may submit multiple emails suitably annotated, e.g. Email 1 of 3, if attached files are too large to suit a single email transmission. You may not submit your Proposal by uploading it to a file-sharing tool.

Proposals must be prepared in English.

IMPORTANT: Submitted documents must be password-protected so that they cannot be opened and read before the submission deadline. Please use the same password for all submitted documents. After the deadline has passed and within 12 hours, please send the password to the IUCN Contact. This will ensure a secure bid submission and opening process. Please DO NOT email the password before the deadline for Proposal submission.

1. Pre-Qualification Criteria

IUCN will use the following Pre-Qualification Criteria to determine whether you have the capacity to provide the required goods and/or services to IUCN. Please provide the necessary information in a single, separate document.

Pre-Qualification Criteria

1

3 relevant references of clients similar to IUCN / similar work

2

Confirm that you have all the necessary legal registrations to perform the work

3

How many employees does your organisation have who are qualified for this work?

1. Technical Proposal

The Technical Proposal must address each of the criteria stated below explicitly and separately, quoting the relevant criteria reference number (left-hand column).

Proposals in any other format will significantly increase the time it takes to evaluate, and such Proposals may therefore be rejected at IUCN’s discretion.

Where CVs are requested, these must be of the individuals who will actually carry out the work specified. The individuals you put forward may only be substituted with IUCN’s approval.

IUCN will evaluate Technical Proposals with regards to each of the following criteria and their relative importance:

No.

Criteria

Points

1.

Approach and Methodology

1.1

Conceptual and methodological approach

Description of the conceptual and methodological approach including experimental designs, sample size and power calculations, and training delivery approach. (15 pt.)

Explanation of the relevance and effectiveness of the methodological approach (5)

20

1.2

Operationalisation of the approach and Methodology

Ability, proven by the experience/previous assignment, of the firm to implement the proposed methodology (10)

Working programme / working schedule for delivery of outputs. Service provider providing the most advantageous and realistic delivery schedule (15 pt.),

Staffing schedule and task assignment descriptions aligned with team members expertise/experience (10 pt.),

Work organisation, back-up services, quality control, logistics (5 pt.)

40

2.

Consultants Competencies

2.1

Team Leader:

Education: post-graduate degree at or above MSc level in Natural Resources or Environmental Management, Forestry, Agriculture, Climate change adaptation/mitigation or a related discipline (5 pt.)

Work experience: at least five (5) years leading biophysical, ecosystem integrity, and soil health assessments (7 pt.)

Program/Project M&E experience (3 pt.).

Donor experience, (GCF or GEF preferred) (10 pt.)

25

2.2

Experts/Subject matter experts:

Education: Master’s degree in fields related to data requirements/themes of the assignment, but not same as team leader (5 pt.)

Work experience: at least three (3) years as a subject matter specialist in evaluation/Outcome measurement studies in the areas of biophysical, ecosystem integrity, and soil health assessments (5 pt.)

Program/Project M&E experience in Rwanda (3 pt.)

Donor experience, (GCF or GEF preferred) (2 pt.).

15

Total (maximum)

100

1. Financial Proposal
   1. The Financial Proposal must be a fixed and firm price for the provision of the goods/services stated in the RfP in their entirety.
   2. Prices include all costs

Submitted rates and prices are deemed to include all costs, insurances, taxes (except VAT, see below), fees, expenses, liabilities, obligations, risk and other things necessary for the performance of the Terms of Reference or Specification of Requirements. IUCN will not accept charges beyond those clearly stated in the Financial Proposal. This includes applicable withholding taxes and similar. It is your responsibility to determine whether such taxes apply to your organisation and to include them in your Financial Proposal.

1. Applicable Goods and Services Taxes

Proposal rates and prices shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax.

1. Currency of proposed rates and prices

All rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in USD

1. Additional information not requested by IUCN should not be included in your Proposal and will not be considered in the evaluation.
2. Your Proposal must remain valid and capable of acceptance by IUCN for a period of 90 calendar days following the submission deadline.
3. Withdrawals and Changes

You may freely withdraw or change your Proposal at any time prior to the submission deadline by written notice to the IUCN Contact. However, in order to reduce the risk of fraud, no changes or withdrawals will be accepted after the submission deadline.

1. EVALUATION of PROPOSALS
   1. Completeness

IUCN will firstly check your Proposal for completeness. Incomplete Proposals will not be considered further.

1. Pre-Qualification Criteria

Only Proposals that meet all of the pre-qualification criteria will be evaluated.

1. Technical Evaluation
   1. Scoring Method

Your Proposal will be assigned a score from 0 to 10 for each of the technical evaluation criteria, such that ‘0’ is low and ‘10’ is high.

1. Minimum Quality Thresholds

Proposals that receive a score of ‘0’ for any of the criteria will not be considered further.

1. Technical Score

Your score for each technical evaluation criterion will be multiplied with the respective relative weight (see Section 4.4) and these weighted scores added together to give your Proposal’s overall technical score.

1. Financial Evaluation and Financial Scores

The financial evaluation will be based upon the full total price you submit. Your Financial Proposal will receive a score calculated by dividing the lowest Financial Proposal that has passed the minimum quality thresholds (see Section 5.3.2) by the total price of your Financial Proposal.

Thus, for example, if your Financial Proposal is for a total of CHF 100 and the lowest Financial Proposal is CHF 80, you will receive a financial score of 80/100 = 80%

1. Total Score

Your Proposal’s total score will be calculated as the weighted sum of your technical score and your financial score.

The relative weights will be:

Technical: 70%

Financial: 30%

Thus, for example, if your technical score is 83% and your financial score is 77%, you will receive a total score of 83 * 70% + 77 * 30% = 58.1% + 23.1% = 81.2%.

Subject to the requirements in Sections 4 and 7, IUCN will award the contract to the bidder whose Proposal achieves the highest total score.

1. Explanation of procurement procedure
   1. IUCN is using the Open Procedure for this procurement. This means that the contracting opportunity is published on IUCN’s website and open to all interested parties to take part, subject to the conditions in Section 7 below.
   2. You are welcome to ask questions or seek clarification regarding this procurement. Please email the IUCN Contact (see Section 2), taking note of the deadline for submission of questions in Section 3.1.
   3. All Proposals must be received by the submission deadline in Section 3.1 above. Late Proposals will not be considered. All Proposals received by the submission deadline will be evaluated by a team of three or more evaluators in accordance with the evaluation criteria stated in this RfP. No other criteria will be used to evaluate Proposals. The contract will be awarded to the bidder whose Proposal received the highest Total Score. IUCN does, however, reserve the right to cancel the procurement and not award a contract at all.
   4. IUCN will contact the bidder with the highest-scoring Proposal to finalise the contract. We will contact unsuccessful bidders after the contract has been awarded and provide detailed feedback. The timetable in Section 3.1 gives an estimate of when we expect to have completed the contract award, but this date may change depending on how long the evaluation of Proposals takes.
2. Conditions for participation in this procurement
   1. To participate in this procurement, you are required to submit a Proposal, which fully complies with the instructions in this RfP and the Attachments.
      1. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted a complete and fully compliant Proposal.
      2. Any incomplete or incorrectly completed Proposal submission may be deemed non-compliant, and as a result you may be unable to proceed further in the procurement process.
      3. IUCN will query any obvious clerical errors in your Proposal and may, at IUCN’s sole discretion, allow you to correct these, but only if doing so could not be perceived as giving you an unfair advantage.
   2. In order to participate in this procurement, you must meet the following conditions:

• Free of conflicts of interest
• Registered on the relevant professional or trade register of the country in which you are established (or resident, if self-employed)
• In full compliance with your obligations relating to payment of social security contributions and of all applicable taxes
• Not been convicted of failing to comply with environmental regulatory requirements or other legal requirements relating to sustainability and environmental protection
• Not bankrupt or being wound up
• Never been guilty of an offence concerning your professional conduct
• Not involved in fraud, corruption, a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism, or any other illegal activity.
  1. You must complete and sign the Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2).
  2. If you are participating in this procurement as a member of a joint venture, or are using sub-contractors, submit a separate Declaration of Undertaking for each member of the joint venture and sub-contractor, and be clear in your Proposal which parts of the goods/services are provided by each partner or sub-contractor.
  3. Each bidder shall submit only one Proposal, either individually or as a partner in a joint venture. In case of joint venture, one company shall not be allowed to participate in two different joint ventures in the same procurement nor shall a company be allowed to submit a Proposal both on its behalf and as part of a joint venture for the same procurement. A bidder who submits or participates in more than one Proposal (other than as a subcontractor or in cases of alternatives that have been permitted or requested) shall cause all the Proposals with the bidder’s participation to be disqualified.
  4. By taking part in this procurement, you accept the conditions set out in this RfP, including the following:
• It is unacceptable to give or offer any gift or consideration to an employee or other representative of IUCN as a reward or inducement in relation to the awarding of a contract. Such action will give IUCN the right to exclude you from this and any future procurements, and to terminate any contract that may have been signed with you.
• Any attempt to obtain information from an employee or other representative of IUCN concerning another bidder will result in disqualification.
• Any price fixing or collusion with other bidders in relation to this procurement shall give IUCN the right to exclude you and any other involved bidder(s) from this and any future procurements and may constitute a criminal offence.

1. Confidentiality and data protection
   1. IUCN follows the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The information you submit to IUCN as part of this procurement will be treated as confidential and shared only as required to evaluate your Proposal in line with the procedure explained in this RfP, and for the maintenance of a clear audit trail. For audit purposes, IUCN is required to retain your Proposal in its entirety for 10 years after then end of the resulting contract and make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when requested.
   2. In the Declaration of Undertaking (Attachment 2) you need to give IUCN express permission to use the information you submit in this way, including personal data that forms part of your Proposal. Where you include personal data of your employees (e.g. CVs) in your Proposal, you need to have written permission from those individuals to share this information with IUCN, and for IUCN to use this information as indicated in 8.1. Without these permissions, IUCN will not be able to consider your Proposal.
2. Complaints procedure

If you have a complaint or concern regarding the propriety of how a competitive process is or has been executed, then please contact procurement@iucn.org. Such complaints or concerns will be treated as confidential and are not considered in breach of the above restrictions on communication (Section 2.1).

1. Contract

The contract will be based on IUCN’s template in Attachment 3, the terms of which are not negotiable. They may, however, be amended by IUCN to reflect particular requirements from the donor funding this particular procurement.

1. About IUCN

IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.

Headquartered in Switzerland, IUCN Secretariat comprises around 1,000 staff with offices in more than 50 countries.

Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,300 Member organisations and some 10,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards.

IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development.

Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well-being.

www.iucn.org

https://twitter.com/IUCN/

1. ATTACHMENTS

Attachment 1 Specification of Requirements / Terms of Reference

Title: Technical Assistance to conduct annual landscape integrity assessment (FY 2023)

1. Objectives and Specific Tasks for the Consultancy

The landscape integrity assessment has a twofold objective of assisting the project team and participant to determine quantitatively the project results at the household, farm and landscape level in FY 2023 while building their capacity to conduct annual survey in subsequent years. Both the measurement and capacity building efforts will emphasize the indicators set out in the project logical framework and Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Plan. The specific tasks of the assignment include:

1. Design and train project participants on the annual survey framework with appropriate methods, sampling protocols, data collection tools, analytical framework, and reporting template.
2. Undertake the annual survey and determine the values of the key socio-economic and biophysical indicators (refer to Annex 1: Indicator table) before and after restoration activities that started in October 2023.
3. Determine the ex-ante values of the following metrics of results of project interventions:

Data

Disaggregation

1. Baseline Silvopastoral resilience metrics

• Cattle productivity
• Pasture productivity

Treatment and Control areas, Landscapes, gender.

1. Baseline Agro-forestry resilience metrics

• Soil moisture and nutrient content
• Biomass productivity
• Soil erosion rates

Treatment and Control areas, Landscapes, gender.

1. Knowledge Attitude and Practice (KAP) score of climate action (risks and mitigation/adaptation practices)

Treatment and Control areas, Landscapes, gender.

1. Availability and Accessibility measure of biomass fuel

Treatment and Control areas, Landscapes, gender.

Background

Project Reference: P03168

About IUCN

IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.

Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,400 Member organisations and around 15,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards.

IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development.

Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well-being.

www.iucn.org

https://twitter.com/IUCN/

About the Project

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a membership Union comprising both State and non-State Members. Created in 1948, it is the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of six commissions, and its more than 1,300 Member organizations and some 17,000 experts. IUCN finds pragmatic solutions to the world’s most pressing environment and development challenges and works with governments, partners, and the international community to mobilize and implement an ambitious global program aimed at restoring the functionality, productivity, and ecological integrity of landscapes for the benefit of people and nature. IUCN’s current programming is focused on three areas (i) Valuing and conserving nature; (ii) Effective and equitable governance of nature’s use and (iii) Deploying nature-based solutions to global challenges in climate, food, and development.

The IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) operates in twenty-four countries in the Horn of Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa and the Western Indian Ocean. The current ESARO programming is composed of a suite of mutually interrelated programs and projects designed to address some of the most profound challenges affecting people and nature in the region. Among the projects implemented by IUCN’s Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office is the TREPA Project – Transforming Eastern Province through Adaptation. It is a six-year project, based in IUCN Rwanda Country Office, and funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

The TREPA Project intends to restore 60,000 hectares of drought-degraded landscapes into climate resilient ecosystems through re-forestation, agroforestry, restoration of pasture-lands, and soil erosion control measures in the Eastern Province of Rwanda. In addition, irrigation infrastructure projects in the targeted landscapes of the eastern province will be climate-proofed by the TREPA Project. These projects under MINAGRI could include Export Targeted Modern Irrigation (ETI) in Mpanga (600 hectares) and Mahama (1200 hectares), Kayonza Irrigation and Integrated Watershed Management Project in Kayonza (2000 hectares), Warufu- Mugesera in Gatsibo and Ngoma as well as Rurambi dyke in Bugesera.

The TREPA Project will finally support the national and local institutions to effectively plan, manage and monitor climate adaptation outcomes from improved land use at national and decentralized levels.

The TREPA Project is implemented by IUCN (accredited entity) together with the Rwanda Forestry Authority and Enabel as executing entities in partnership with ICRAF, World Vision, and CORDAID. The Ministry of Environment is responsible for chairing the Project Steering Committee and ensures coherence with national strategies and policies.

For implementation of the TREPA Project, three components will be considered namely:

Component 1: Restored landscapes that support climate resilient agro-ecological systems and livelihoods in Eastern Province.

Component 2: Market and value chain development for climate resilient agricultural and tree products linked to financial products and services for sustainable management of agro-ecological systems.

Component 3: Strengthened enabling environment to effectively plan, manage and monitor climate adaptation outcomes from improved land use at national and decentralized levels.

To ensure that the project activities are implemented in the respective Components, the Executing Entities will enter relevant subsidiary and/or procurement agreements with Service Providers and suppliers of Goods and Services and in respect of Component 3, relevant TA Provider(s) for the relevant Activities.

Description of the Assignment

TREPA is, in nature, designed to strengthen climate resilience of forest landscapes, people and markets, and subnational institutions. By employing a paradigm shift approach to deployment of nature-based solutions, TREPA hypothesizes that adoption of these NbS within 100 landscape (each landscape comprising of 400 ha of agroforestry adjacent to protected forest, public forest, smallholder private forest and pasturelands) will positively impact livelihoods and resilience of smallholder farmers and the health of their lands while creating environmental co-benefits. To monitor progress towards these positive impacts, the project will be conducting annual surveys. The first survey is planned this year (2023) and will require technical assistance/support from an external consultant.

The purpose of the technical assistance is, on the one hand, to conduct the annual survey to determine quantitatively the project’s outcomes at household and landscape levels. Specifically, it will assess landscape condition and integrity (and resilience) by measuring biophysical parameters of the representative landscapes. While such annual surveys measure the changes observed year, for FY 2023, the survey will be a reference for future targets and constitute the basis to measure the project performance in future years.

This technical assistance will, on the other hand, build the capacity of the project team and participants (beneficiaries and local leaders) to competently conduct participatory monitoring and evaluation of ecosystem restoration and locally led climate adaptation actions. It is assumed that future annual surveys will be conducted in a participatory manner by project team and participants.

Therefore, the technical assistance to conduct landscape integrity assessment will establish necessary survey protocols and tools that will be tested and piloted in FY 2023 while establishing ex-ante and ex-post status of key biophysical and environmental parameters of the project results.

Methodology

The consultant will design the most appropriate and efficient study design, methodology, sampling and data collection approaches, and analytical framework for discussion and agreement by the project team. The study design will employ a quantitative landscape degradation assessment methodology such as the land degradation surveillance framework (LDSF) or similar, for collecting and analyising biophysical data. In addition, the design may prioritize the experimental or quasi experimental methods that will allow determination of ex ante and ex post values of the project indicators. Moreover, the desk review of relevant project documents, land degradation and forest cover and soil erosion diagnostics and secondary data from the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) or other public institutions related to household, land, and forestry within the project’s selected landscapes. It is envisioned that, to be representative of the target, the sampling approach will consider stratification by type of restoration measure (e.g., Agroforestry, PFMU, Silvopastoral, …), and randomization of and landscape/sites.

The major activities will include (but not limited to) the following:

• Documentation Review
• Tailor the LDSF study design to the project requirements: Experimental design (Randomized Controlled Trials – RCTs), or Non-experimental methods or Mixed methods, Sample size and Power calculations; sampling and allocation into treatment and control groups
• Adapt the LDSF data collection tools to the project context and geography.
• Train the i) project team on the design and implementation of biophysical/landscape integrity monitoring and evaluative assessment process, protocol and tools and ii) enumerators on data collection tools
• Field work to supervise and deploy enumerators and ensure high data quality
• Analyze data, write survey report and integrate comments from the project team in the final report. Develop project learning plan/questions detailing what stakeholders (per category) need to know, how and when, general and specific learning questions, learning activities, audience and timing for each activity.
• Review and include in the report the Project MEL Matrix to show clear indicator definition, calculation/computation mode (as at baseline), needed disaggregates, baseline values, MTR and overall targets.
• Disseminate findings.

Duration of the Assignment

From 2st July 2024 –31th August 2024

Deliverables and Activities

The consultant will provide the following deliverables and carry out the following activities:

Deliverable/Activity

Description

Deadline

Deliverable 1

Inception Report

08 July 2024

Deliverable 2

Training and training Report

16 July 2024

Deliverable 3

Draft Annual Landscape Integrity Assessment Report

10 August 2024

Deliverable 4

Final Annual Survey Report

15 August 2024

Deliverable 5

Data sets

31 August 2024

Deliverables details

1. Inception Report: During the inception phase, the consultant will undertake consultative calls and meetings combined with review and analysis of documents, which will culminate in the development of the inception report which will be submitted to IUCN within 7 days of contract signing. This report will describe in detail the Standard Operational Procedures (SOP) for the conduct of landscape integrity assessment. The SOP will consist of the adaptation of the approach, sampling in treatment and control areas, methodology and workplan of the land degradation/integrity assessment framework used (LDSF or others) in the selected landscapes. The report will also include the proposed outline of the annual survey report. The consultants will convene an inception meeting/workshop to discuss the inception report with a view to making comments for improvement and validation of the Standard Operational Procedures (SOP) for landscape degradation/integrity assessment and monitoring.
2. Training and training Report: The focus of the training of project team involved in M&E activities will be the Standard Operational Procedures (SOP) for the landscape degradation/integrity assessment and monitoring. After the training, a report with a comparative narrative of the pre- and post-training capacities of trainees will be developed to showcase the acquired knowledge and capacity to independently conduct further annual surveys using the protocol, tools (data collection and analysis) and templates developed during and after the inception phase. The must be submitted to IUCN within 16 days after contract signing, and shall recommend among others, a possible learning plan that will guide the monitoring, evaluation and learning in the subsequent years, as well as the remaining gaps to be filled throughout the project lifetime.
3. Draft Annual Landscape Integrity Assessment Report: The draft report will clearly indicate the results obtained and the utilized methodology specifications listed in Section 4 above and the values for the key indicators. The values should be in the units of measurement indicated in the project documents (e.g., indicator reference sheets). The draft report will be submitted to IUCN within 40 days of contract signing, and must include the following sections:
   • Executive summary
   • Introduction
   • Context (Project background and objectives of the study)
   • Methodology
   • Analysis of the main results (preferably by indicator and/or index, with all appropriate disaggregates)
   • Proposed learning agenda/plan

Conclusion and recommendations

1. Final Annual Survey Report: Project stakeholders will review the draft report and provide feedback that will inform the subsequent update of the draft report to final report. The final annual survey report will be presented to project management and coordination committee for their adoption or approval. The final report will be submitted to IUCN within 45 days of contract signing.
2. Data sets: All data sets and supporting documentation such as code books, data dictionaries will be submitted to the IUCN

Payment Schedule

The Timetable below summarises the chronological order of deliverables and indicates milestones at which IUCN will pay the Consultant.

Deliverable

Milestone payment

Inception Report

20%

Training and training Report

10%

Draft Annual Landscape Integrity Assessment Report

30%

Final Annual Survey Report

30%

Data sets

Skills and Experience

The consultancy firm will meet the following conditions:

• Proven experience in conducting biophysical assessment, land health evaluation and FLR monitoring using the robust methodologies such as Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF) or similar.
• Having undertaken biophysical surveys in Rwanda, preferably using LDSF or similar frameworks in the Eastern Province
• Experience in designing ex-post impact studies with demonstrated application of various evaluation designs – experimental non-experimental designs, sample size and power calculations.
• Capacity to plan, manage and collect biophysical data with a management system to ensure quality, robustness, and rigor throughout the data collection.

The consultancy firm is expected toprovide a pool of experts to implement the outlined tasks. The key skills and competencies of team members include:

A relevant post-graduate degree at or above MSc level in Natural Resources or Environmental Management, Forestry, Agriculture, Climate change adaptation/mitigation or a related discipline;

• At least five (5) years’ experience in experience in biophysical assessment, climate change impacts assessment, land health measurement and FLR monitoring;
• Proven experience conducting evaluations (baseline or midterm) and annual outcome studies for bilateral and multilateral donor funded projects; experience with GCF/GEF-funded projects is desirable;
• Previous experience in the development and analysis of monitoring metrics and indices, preferably land health indices, climate adaptive index, agroforestry/silvopastoral resilience index, ecosystem integrity measure;
• Clear understanding of research methodologies and experience using a range of research tools and techniques with regards to outcome measurement in the areas of climate change resilience.
• Previous experience using robust methodologies such as Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF) or similar in sub-Saharan Africa, preferably in Rwanda.
• Fluent in spoken and written English;
• Knowledge of Kinyarwanda language is desirable.

Reference Documents

Relevant documents that IUCN will share with the Consultant include (but not be limited to) the following:

• GCF Accreditation Master Agreement (AMA)
• Funded Activity Agreement (FAA)
• TREPA funding proposal (including ESMF)
• Project Revised logical framework.
• Project Monitoring and Evaluation plan
• Project Implementation plan
• TREPA Project Feasibility Study
• Map of the targeted landscapes/villages
• Project gender action plan
• Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology Report
• Preliminary Baseline Report
• Annual Progress Report FY 2022
• Annual Work Plan FY 2023

Supervision and coordination

The consultancy firm will work independently in collaboration with the IUCN Monitoring and Evaluation Office providing overall coordination.

Annex 1: Indicator table

Intervention Logic/Indicator

Output Indicators

Area (hectares) brought under rehabilitation and sustainable management through establishment of woodlots and tree plantations;**

Average tree density in restored agro-forestry lands*

Area (ha) with improvements in measured agro/forestry resilience metrics such as: (1) increased soil moisture and nutrient content, (2) increased biomass productivity and (3) reduced soil erosion rates*

Area (ha) of pastoral lands brought under climate resilient silvopastoral packages**;

Area (ha) with improvements in measured silvopastoral resilience metrics such as (i) increased cattle productivity and (ii) increased pasture productivity**.

Average tree density in restored Silvo-pastoral lands**

Area (ha) of ecologically sensitive and erosion prone lands with reduced erosion and improved ecological integrity measured by reduced soil erosion rates*

Average tree density in [restored] road/riverside/lakeshores and Akagera Buffer

*Indicators required to be measured using Land Degradation Surveillance Framework

** Indicators required to be measured through project activities

*** New indicators not initially part of the result framework

Attachment 2 Declaration of Undertaking (select 2a for companies or 2b for self-employed as applicable to you)

How to apply

https://www.iucn.org/procurement/currently-running-tenders