Consultancy Opportunities

Duty station: Home-based / remote

Type and duration of contract: Consultancy contract, part-time for 3 months (with the option to extend for up to an additional 3 months based on ClientEarth’s need and available budget)

Preferred starting date: 1 July 2024

Closing date for applications: 24 June 2024

Background: ClientEarth has been engaging in the Republic of Congo for the past 10 years. Over this time, our work has focused on supporting civil society engagement in law reform processes in the forestry sector and on the promotion of community forestry as a tool to enhance Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ forest management and governance, reduce deforestation, conserve biodiversity and enhance livelihoods. ClientEarth’s activities in the Republic of Congo focus on legal analysis, training and advocacy. We work through trusted partnerships with in-country associates who have proven track records to ensure that interventions are locally owned, suited to the local context, and that relationships with key stakeholders are properly nurtured. Elements of this work are mirrored in Gabon, where ClientEarth also supports legal reform processes in the forestry sector and the implementation of national community forestry legal frameworks. In July-September 2024, ClientEarth requires support on the following tasks related to our work in the Republic of Congo and, in a more limited capacity, in Gabon.

Tasks for the consultant: Analyse selected implementing decrees to the Congolese Forest Code and Environmental Code, in order to provide legal inputs to civil society’s advocacy efforts. This may include sharing experiences from other regions, good practices and suggestions on legal approaches and processes; Support ClientEarth and national Congolese partners to develop a training programme for community members, community lawyers and a nascent paralegal network; In the event of a new draft text being published by the Government, analyse the draft of the Gabonese Forest Code, in order to provide legal inputs to civil society’s advocacy efforts; Support the development of user-friendly materials to make existing briefings and research on selected legal topics more accessible to Congolese and/or Gabonese audiences; Supporting Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning and reporting processes, if required; and Attending external project and/or civil society coordination meetings, if required. Biweekly reports or meetings should be sent to or held with ClientEarth staff to update on ongoing work and results of monitoring activities. The consultant will not be asked to represent ClientEarth. The location for this consultancy is home office. The consultant is expected to provide her/his own office space, accommodation, transport, IT equipment (including email address) and working materials. The consultant will be expected to keep a timesheet and bill based on hours worked on a monthly basis.

Profile and experience:

• Bachelor's degree in law (desirable), or equivalent professional experience (essential);
• Working knowledge of one or more of these areas: natural resources governance; human rights law and policy; environmental governance; forest governance; land tenure; legal reform processes (essential)
• Experience working on, or knowledge of issues relating to forest governance, international forest policy processes (such as FLEGT VPAs, REDD+ or EUDR), community rights and land tenure (desirable) Good understanding of civil law legal systems (essential)
• Experience delivering projects with civil society organisations in an international setting (essential)
• Knowledge of and or experience in the Congo Basin and/or Republic of Congo and/or Gabon (desirable)
• Commitment to ClientEarth’s vision, mission, values, and a working style which reflects these, including a commitment to a decolonial, feminist, anti-racist and partner-led approach (essential).

Skills

• Excellent legal and policy analysis skills
• Ability to explain complex legal information in a simple language and to adapt language, content and style to different audiences
• Critical thinking, highly creative, flexible and solutions-oriented
• Fluent in French and English (CEFR level C1) with outstanding written and oral communication skills
• Well-developed interpersonal communication style and ability to work collaboratively with partners from a distance and split across different geographies

Timeframe

The consultancy should start by 1 July 2024, at the latest.

Fees

Consultancy of a maximum of 40 days (spread over 3 months), up to a maximum fee budget of £15,000.

The possibility of an extension of this consultancy for up to an additional 3 months is based upon ClientEarth’s continued need for support and the availability of funding.

How to apply

Send your CV, including a proposed fee rate, and a short concept note to Caroline Haywood (chaywood@clientearth.org) and Eugenie Galbas (egalbas@clientearth.org) before 24 June 2024.

Interviews will take place in the week of 26 June 2024.

1.     Background

1.1.          About the organisation

ClientEarth is a global environmental organisation that uses the power of law to bring about systemic change that protects the earth for – and with – its inhabitants. The organisation works in partnership across borders, systems and sectors, using the law to protect life on earth. The aim is to bring about end-to-end systemic change: informing, implementing and enforcing the law, advising decision-makers on policy, and training legal and judicial professionals.

ClientEarth was set up in 2007 in Europe. More than 17 years on, it is now actively engaged in over 60 countries through a network of ClientEarth branches, representative offices and subsidiaries, as well as through strategic partners with a shared vision of a future where people and planet thrive together.

1.2.          About the project

ClientEarth is currently implementing a 2023-2028 project with the title “Putting the Law on Nature’s side” with funding from the Arcadia Foundation. The purpose of the project is to drive the effective protection and restoration of nature. This will be achieved through a systemic approach, using the power of the law to support the successful implementation of global policies and commitments and respond to the global biodiversity crisis, with the aim to halt and ultimately reverse it.

Geography

The project builds on ClientEarth’s extensive nature protection work in Europe, reflecting our knowledge, impact and work with Arcadia under previous grants. The current grant includes an ‘international’ component to support the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework; the project also includes deepening the work in countries across Africa and Asia, connecting with our experts already working on and from these regions.

Objectives and Outcomes

The following objectives contribute to three ambitious outcomes:

Outcome 1: Terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems are appropriately safeguarded, managed and restored with

1.1 Improved management of freshwater ecosystems in Europe;

1.2 Robust environmental standards applied to infrastructure projects and policies which put nature at risk in Europe and

1.3 Enhanced stewardship of terrestrial ecosystems in Europe.

Outcome 2: Marine protected areas and ecosystems are appropriately safeguarded, managed and restored with

2.1 Increased protection of marine ecosystems including implementation of the 30x30 targets in European seas and

2.2 Increased restrictions on destructive and non-selective fishing in marine protected areas, including bycatch of protected species.

Outcome 3: International policies and commitments are effectively implemented to halt and reverse biodiversity loss with

3.1 Global 30x30 and degraded land restoration targets mainstreamed into international policymaking and national legislative frameworks;

3.2 Effective implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy;

3.3 The EU securing and beginning the effective implementation of the Nature Restoration Law; and

3.4 West and Central African stakeholders (emphasis on Liberia) delivering legal and policy responses to ensure that emerging economic drivers and international mechanisms align with environmental governance and conservation goals.

Aligned projects

This project sits alongside a grant from Ecological Restoration Fund, which enables ClientEarth to work on two significant leverage opportunities in Europe: the EU Biodiversity Strategy and Nature Restoration Law. The ERF funded work sits alongside the Arcadia funded project, ensuring that critical biodiversity and ecosystems globally are protected and restored, and should be considered part of the theory of change and baseline exercise. The ERF funded work has the following objectives:

Objective 1: Effective implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy at a regional level and in selected Member State jurisdictions

Objective 2: Adoption, implementation and enforcement of a binding, robust and ambitious Nature Restoration Law

2.     Purpose

In the frame of this project, ClientEarth would like to commission an external consultant to undertake:

1. A general theory of change exercise to underpin the intervention logic of the five-year project;
2. Deep-dive theory of action underpinning the Nature Strategy in Asia;
3. Co-design an impact measurement framework for the five year project with ClientEarth staff and partners, and conduct baseline measurement for Year 1 of the intervention (2024); and
4. Ensure that the feedback received from the external evaluation commissioned by Arcadia is also measured through the tools above.

The development of the overall Theory of Change aims to:  

• support a better understanding of the implementation context for the five-year project at the onset of the project;
• specifically, in Asia, the impact pathways embedded in the theory of action will clarify the assumptions underpinning the Nature Strategy that is meant to guide fundraising and programming in Asia (including Southeast Asia);

The indicator development and baseline evaluation will help

• validate the assumptions in the project’s Theory of Change (ToC) and targets of the indicators in the project’s Impact Measurement Framework (IMF);
• establish starting points or baselines for all indicators in the IMF, suggesting revisions in their formulation if the need emerges.

Baselines provided in the evaluation report must be accompanied by narrative to explain how this starting point data was collected, analysed and validated. This narrative shall include an explanation of baseline data limitations at the onset of project implementation, and how these gaps will be dealt with as part of the project’s first-year workplan.

3.     Methodology

3.1 Principal learning and evaluation questions

The Theory of Change and Baseline evaluation will be undertaken by a supplier or a consultant (the “evaluator”) under the overall responsibility of the Deputy Chief Programmes & Impact Officer at ClientEarth. The consultancy shall follow a participatory approach and engage a range of project stakeholders in the process. Data collection should be triangulated to the extent possible to ensure validity and reliability of findings and draw on (not limited to) the following methods: comprehensive desk review, including a stakeholder analysis; surveys; key informant interviews, participatory workshops and focus groups.

The evaluator should engage in quantitative and qualitative analysis in responding to the principal evaluation questions and present the findings qualitatively or quantitatively as most appropriate.

The following questions are intended to guide this learning and evaluation process:

1. What lessons have been learned from previous (and ongoing) initiatives and experiences on the subject matter (Nature) and to what extent have lessons been incorporated into the project’s design (e.g. after the evaluation commissioned by Arcadia)?
2. What are the environmental challenges that the project is trying to address over the next five years in target geographies?
3. What eco-systems of organisations exist in target geographies addressing these challenges?
4. What is ClientEarth’s approach to addressing these challenges?
5. What are the logical chains embedded in the approach and what are the assumptions behind its proposed approach? What is the evidence base for the proposed approach?
6. What key indicators and targets should the project select (and what is the baseline measurement for these) in order to ensure a robust monitoring and evaluation approach throughout the project duration?
7. What learning approaches should the project team adopt given the different approaches, geographies and eco-systems of partners in various locations?

4.     Scope of Work

Overall role and responsibilities of consultant in relation to the project team: The data collection process will be directed by the consultant (i.e. responsible for design and analysis) and managed (responsible for data collection) by the project team, as holders of internal and external relationships as well as implementers of the impact frameworks.

The consultant will be responsible for:

• Phase 1: Preparation and Consultation
• Interviews with the ClientEarth project team to understand the current state of research and data collection as well as available documents for the desk based review.
• Review select desk-based documents
• Co-design the methodology to deliver the scope of work with the project team (and select partners).
• Phase 2: Implementation
• Implement work plan based on agreed-upon methodology, which will include, at a minimum:

• Facilitating 2 workshops (ToC workshop + ToA workshop) with the ClientEarth project team in September.
• Conducting Y interviews with ClientEarth staff and key partners as required.
• Guiding the team in creating a robust Theory of Change for the Project (1) and the Nature strategy in Asia (2)
• Consulting on the detailed development of the Theory of Action based on the established Theory of Change.
• Advising on structuring and developing the final strategy document, incorporating both the ToC and ToA.

• Phase 3: Measurement

• Work with the project team (and select partners) on the development of indicators and targets and support the team to develop impact frameworks.

• Phase 4: Write up

• Theory of Change narrative (project and Asia-focused)
• Baseline evaluation report

 4.1 Deliverables 

• Inception: Proposed methodology and workplan

The consultant shall submit a brief evaluation design/question matrix following the comprehensive desk review, stakeholder analysis and initial key informant interviews. The evaluation design/question matrix should include a discussion on the methodology and, if required, revisions to the suggested learning and evaluation questions. The Evaluation design/question matrix should indicate any foreseen difficulties or challenges in collecting data and confirm the final timeframe for the completion of the work.

• Implementation:
  • Preparatory documents for the development of the Theor(ies) of Change;
• Close out:
  • Theory of change narrative (Project-level and Asia);
  • Theory of action narrative (underpinning the Nature strategy in Asia)
  • Baseline evaluation report

4.2 Duration and Timeline 

• The consultancy will commence in mid-August and conclude no later than mid-December 2024.
• The key milestones include:
• Phase 1: Inception: Mid-August to early September
• Phase 2: Implementation (September – October)
• Phase 3: Write up/Close out (November – mid-December)

4.3 Budget 

• The total budget available for this consultancy is £29,000.
• This includes all consultancy fees and any associated costs incurred by the consultant.
• Travel and per diem (if required by the consultancy will be covered additionally).

5.     Qualifications and Experience

• The consultant should have at least 5 years of proven and well-documented excellent research and analytical skills, including experience in a variety of participatory evaluation methods and approaches.
• Demonstrated experience in designing baseline studies including proven experience in sound sampling, mixed methods approaches (quantitative and qualitative), tool development, etc.
• Excellent facilitation skills;
• Experience in Asia and environmental programmes is desirable.
• Excellent writing skills.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Cross-cultural awareness and flexibility.
• Fluency in English

6.     Application Process

Interested candidates should submit the following:

• A letter of intent (max 5 pages), including:
  • a high-level methodological proposal given the scope of work and budget available.
  • A capability statement, including demonstrated ability to execute the assignment.
  • Updated curriculum vitae of the consultant that clearly spells out qualifications and experiences aligned to the tasks.
  • Attach work sample (baseline report and Theory of Change) from at least one recent organization where the services of the consultant/ team have been utilized

Letter of intent evaluation criteria:

1. a) Experience and skillsets of the consultant (30%)
2. b) Interpretation and understanding of the TOR (20%) and high-level methodology (50%)

Mode of application Consultants who meet the requirements should submit their letter of intent to: Ailsa Griffith, Programme Management Group Lead not later than 29 July 2024; at agriffith@clientearth.org.