Consultant - Environment and Climate Change (ECC) Specialist

Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) invites applications for a Consultant to join our dedicated and talented team on our mission to create business solutions to poverty!

Background

In December 2023, the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) launched the initiative Opportunities for Circular and Inclusive Diversification in Agriculture (OCIDA). OCIDA is a five-year initiative funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) that has the goal of improving the socioeconomic wellbeing of diverse women and youth producers in the Dry Corridor of Honduras. The OCIDA project expects to increase prosperity and decent job opportunities for 7,000 women and youth small-scale producers and 80 micro-SMSs enterprise’s through developing more environmentally sustainable, equitable, inclusive, and profitable cacao and coffee market systems in Honduras.

Starting in 2024, MEDA is conducting an inception process with the aim of updating the background information on the project and gathering additional data to support the development of the OCIDA Life-Of-Project Implementation Plan (PIP). As part of this process, MEDA is looking to identify a Honduras-based specialist – consultant or consulting firm – to assist with the development of the project’s Environmental and Climate Change strategy.

Environmental considerations are integral to the OCIDA project's goals. OCIDA will create opportunities that support producers and enterprises to diversify products, markets, and income streams through circular economy strategies, by adopting from a variety of activities to efficiently use inputs and natural resources, ultimately buffering the effects of climate change, and becoming more environmentally and economically resilient.

The country’s extreme vulnerability to climate change due to its high exposure to climate-related hazards such as hurricanes, tropical storms, floods, droughts, and landslides continue to have devastating impacts on crops as well as critical infrastructure. High adaptation efforts are required to keep coffee and other crop production active and sustainable in Honduras. Thus, the project will promote circular business models in the coffee and cacao sectors to contribute to the Honduran economy’s movement away from a linear economic model based on “extraction, production, consumption and waste”, to a circular model that turns waste into resources and builds resilience to climate change.

OCIDA’s Environmental and Climate Change Strategy feeds back into MEDA’s market-driven approach, through which MEDA emphasizes shifting the behaviors and attitudes of market actors to move food market systems toward greater environmental sustainability, equity, and inclusivity. As such, OCIDA’s environmental analysis and strategy design will be carried alongside the development of MEDA’s Integrated Markert System Analysis (IMSA) for the project.

The IMSA is a market systems analysis that integrates economic, social, environmental, and financial assessments. The IMSA was initiated at MEDA to bring together disparate assessments and contribute to technically cohesive analysis. IMSAs include value chain assessments but go beyond the value chain to examine the supporting functions and enabling environment of a specific market system. It also examines the system level challenges underlying cause of market failures.

Purpose of the Assignment

This assignment aims to contribute to the development of a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the food market system in Honduras, focusing on environmental and climate change challenges and constraints faced by women and youth involved in the cocoa and coffee value chains in the targeted geographies, as well as opportunities for to address these challenges through women and youth’s involvement in circular economic models.

In parallel, the ECC specialist will contribute to the development of the project’s Environmental Management Plan (EMP), taking into consideration the analysis on the overall environmental context, the key risks and potential impacts identified that can affect (and/or derive from) the project, and the recommendations on the appropriate intervention strategies to achieve the project goals – including monitoring of environmental risks and risk mitigation strategies.

The ECC Specialist will work in coordination with the Market Systems Specialist and the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Specialist based in Honduras to incorporate environment and climate change considerations into MEDA’s Integrated Market Systems Analysis (IMSA).

MEDA’s technical team will provide guidance and support to the EEC specialist in the deployment of the IMSA framework and tools to ensure consistency of data collection and integration of the environmental considerations into the analysis.

The ECC Specialist will work in coordination with MEDA’s team to ensure the project’s Environmental Management Plan (EMP) meets all donor and MEDA requirements.

Scope of Services

The scope of work covers two phases:

1. The research phase, which includes the support to the design and implementation of the inception research, by conducting desk research, preliminary consultations, and field research activities.
2. The project implementation plan (PIP) design phase, which includes the analysis of compiled data during the research phase, the preparation of executive reports and the development of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP).

1- During the research phase, the following activities are to be conducted:

• Rapid gap analysis: review key documents and existing research materials, including OCIDA’s project proposal and related documentation. Conduct a rapid gap analysis to identify what essential data related to environmental and climate change issues is needed to update the initial project assumptions and build on existing analyses.
• Stakeholder analysis: within the existing project’s stakeholder mapping, identify and expand on the community-based platforms, cooperatives, associations and MSMEs, public sector actors, enterprises, and financial, investment and business service providers (BSPs) that could be leveraged by the project interventions to address environmental and climate change issues in the targeted geographies.
• Validation of research design: In coordination with MEDA’s technical team, the Market Systems Specialist and the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Specialist, review the IMSA toolkit, and provide feedback (as needed) to adapt/validate the research tools and questions.
• Research implementation: Conduct and expand on desk research, and conduct interviews with key stakeholders, including the support to MEDA’s field mission in April.

Research phase deliverables will include an executive IMSA report covering the results of the above analyses co-developed with the Market Systems (MS) Specialist and the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Specialist.

2- During the project implementation plan (PIP) design phase:

• As part of the IMSA, complete the Environment and Climate Change analysis: The analysis will bring up-to-date information and address the following questions:
  • Description of Honduras general – and the project’s selected geographies – landscape and context, main environmental issues, ongoing programs and policies aimed at addressing environmental and climate change issues, specifically around coffee and cacao sectors, and policies/programs that promote circular economy activities.
  • What are the key environmental concerns for smallholder farmers and small-scale processors (especially women in youth in their traditional roles) in the coffee and cacao value chains?
  • Which environmentally sustainable economic activities within each value chain have the most potential to impact on the socio-economic wellbeing of diverse women and youth while promoting a diversified and circular economy?
  • What are the partners and/or services that need to be engaged through the project’s interventions to carry forward the activities and achieve the goals related to environmental sustainability?
  • What are the recommendations on impact measurement, particularly as it relates to Environmental sustainability and climate action.
• Develop the project’s Environment Management Plan (EMP): Building on the analysis above, on MEDA’s and donor environmental management policies and standards, develop the OCIDA’s project EMP. The final EMP outline will be jointly designed with MEDA’s technical team, and address the following:
  • Potential (beneficiary and/or adverse) environmental impacts resulting from the project.
  • Environmental Management Plan, including risk management and mitigation measures.
  • EMP implementation plan, including monitoring and reporting activities, capacity building, and other related activities.
  • If applicable, list of all project activities which would require a more fulsome Environmental Impact Studies (EIS), plans and related timeline.

DELIVERABLES AND EXPECTED DURATION

*dates subject to change

Activity

• Rapid gap analysis.
• Stakeholder analysis.
• Validation of research design.

Expected Completion: March 22, 2024

Deliverable

• Executive report containing: Rapid Gap Analysis; Stakeholder analysis; research design validation, focusing on environmental and ECC elements of the project

Activity

• Research implementation

Expected Completion: April 19, 2024

Deliverable

• Research inputs and data collected systematized and shared

Activity

• Environment and Climate Change analysis.

Expected Completion: April 30, 2024

Deliverable

• Executive IMSA report co-developed with the MS and GESI specialists, focusing on the focusing on the environmental and climate change components of the analysis.

Activity

• Project’s Environment Management Plan (EMP) development.

Expected Completion: May 20, 2024

Deliverable

• EMP draft document

KEY QUALIFICATIONS/EXPERIENCE FOR THE ASSIGNMENT

The ECC Specialist – consultant or consulting firm – must have strong capacity, knowledge of, and experience in environment and climate change related issues relating to production and agribusiness in the coffee and cocoa sectors in Honduras. The ECC specialist should have the following minimum qualification criteria:

• Advanced University degree in the field of environmental science, climate change, or a related field required.
• Minimum of five (5) years of professional experience, three (3) of which must be environment and climate change-related in an international development setting. Knowledge and experienced on Global Affairs Canada funded programs will be highly valued.
• Demonstrated understanding of environment and climate change issues and needs, research and analytical tools, strategies and approaches especially those related to coffee and cocoa, and circular economy activities.
• Demonstrated experience conducting environmental analysis and climate change adaptation programming, including on-the-ground participatory approaches, and knowledge of the coffee and cacao sectors – including a writing sample.
• Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing Environmental Management Plans and/or Environmental Impact Studies for development programs.
• Familiarity with value chain and market systems development concepts.
• Experience in rural socioeconomic development.
• Experience in working with NGOs.
• Strong analytical and report-writing skills, both in Spanish and English.
• Must be based in Honduras and willing to travel to project selected locations to carry forward with the assignment. Tentative project locations include the departments of Copan, Santa Barbara, Ocotepeque, Lempira, Intibucá, and La Paz

REPORTING

The successful consultant or consulting firm will report directly to MEDA’s Global Program Operations Manager and will work closely with MEDA’s Technical team – MEDA’s Sustainability & Inclusion Director, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Specialist and Business Value Creation Director.

TIMELINE AND REMUNERATION

The assignment is expected to be completed by the end of May 2024.
The consultant will be reimbursed for the professional services provided based on the agreed value proposition.
In addition, the consultant will be reimbursed for direct costs within budget, that are preapproved, invoiced, and properly documented. These can include: internal travels expenses required to conduct the field research.

SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS
The interested consultant or consulting firm is required to present:
1- a value proposal in USD, indicating the number of days in which expect to complete the overall assignment – and/or each of the activities outlined – within the timeframe provided, and their daily rate.
2- an updated resume (no more than 3 pages) demonstrating key qualifications and experience.

A remote video interview may be part of the selection process.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Wednesday, March 13, 2024 by 4:30 pm Eastern Time