Type of Contract: Individual Contract  

Location: Home-based  

Project Scaling up Climate Ambition on Land Use and Agriculture through Nationally  Determined Contribution (NDC) and National Adaptation Plan (NAP) (SCALA) 

Additional Category: Resilience, Agriculture and Climate Change 

Starting Date: July 2024 

Duration: 63 days spread over 6 months (till 30 December 2024)  

BACKGROUND 

The Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) is Nepal's national sectoral strategy for 2015-2035. The ADS is  a living strategy designed to evolve and improve through continuous monitoring and review. The ADS has  five key objectives: enhancing food and nutrition security, reducing poverty, increasing competitiveness,  ensuring higher and more equitable incomes for rural households, and strengthening farmers' rights. 

Regarding food security, the ADS outlines that all its outcomes, outputs, and activities aim to improve food  and nutrition security, either directly or indirectly. It focuses on sustainably increasing food production  through higher productivity and sustainable resource use; reducing farmers' vulnerability by improving food,  feed, and seed reserves, emergency preparedness and response, and implementing climate-smart  agricultural practices; increasing farmers' incomes; enhancing market access; reducing post-harvest losses;  improving food safety; promoting trade for a more diversified diet; and accelerating the growth of micro,  small, and medium agro-enterprises, particularly those led by women, youth, disadvantaged groups, and  individuals in disadvantaged regions. Additionally, the ADS supports the development of legislation related  to food rights and food sovereignty in line with the principles of the Nepal Constitution 2015. 

The ADS also aims to boost the prosperity of farmers and agro-entrepreneurs through higher incomes,  improved livelihoods, and enhanced food and nutrition security. It emphasizes the inclusion of  disadvantaged groups and regions and adopts a value chain development approach based on the markets  for the poor framework, which focuses on more equitable benefit distribution along the value chain. The  ADS promotes the growth of agro-enterprises led by traditionally excluded groups such as women, youth,  Dalits, and Janajatis. 

The Flagship Programs represented about 37% of the total program cost. Among the Core programs, the  forestry sector included the 8% of the budget. The ADS refers to the broader agriculture sector that: a)  Includes crops, livestock, forestry, and fisheries, Develop, and integrate land use models with forestry.  Productive, commercial, socially inclusive, agro-forestry production land use models is also integrating into  existing forest management practices across the landscape/physiographic region1.  

The ADS is a living document intended to be updated every five years through continuous monitoring and  periodic review. It also includes a provision for an external review every five years to make necessary adjustments. In this context, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) reviews the ADS  vision indicators annually using the ADS Joint Sector Review (JSR) mechanism. This mechanism, established  in 2018 by MoALD in collaboration with development partners, supports Nepal’s agricultural development. Review of ADS is an important task for Government of Nepal (GON) to revise it in line with new domestic and  international contexts, including the federalized governance structure. For this purpose, it is important that  MOALD, DPs, and related stakeholders, who jointly formulated the ADS, need to hold common  understanding on the rationale and scope. As review and revision of ADS is planned in FY2023/24, it was  timely and relevant to document its rationale and scope, which is incorporated in the report as one of the  contemporary issues2.  

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT 

The purpose of the assignment is to provide technical support for the review and revision of ADS and  incorporates forestry, land use and natural resource management in the document.  

DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT AND REMUNERATION  

The duration of the contract is for the period of 63 days on intermittent basis spread over 6 months.  

REQUIRED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE 

The consultant will have competency and demonstrated experience and expertise in undertaking the  assignments. The consultant shall possess following qualifications: 

Education 

• Master’s degree in forestry or Natural resources Management, or Environmental science with 10 years  of experience in forestry management, land use change, managing other natural resources or any other  relevant field. 

Experience

• Demonstrated work experience in Forestry, land use (including use of GIS), Natural resource  management, knowledge and preparing strategic policy framework in agricultural sector in Nepal. 
• Demonstrated track record experience in similar assignment to support policy advise and policy  advocacy on forest, land use and Natural resource management.  
• Track record of leading multi-disciplinary team in complex assignment with experience in liaising and  coordination with government agencies. 
• Good understanding, knowledge and prior experience in forestry, land use change, and agricultural and  natural resources management in Nepal.  
• Strong knowledge of agriculture, climate change, setting national and sub national climate priorities,  implementation framework, strategies development and other key requirements to advise government.  
• Also have a proven track record of publications in NRM, Forestry and Land use and governance and  generation and dissemination of knowledge products. 
• Excellent communication skills both written and oral in English.  

Competencies 

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;  
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;  
• Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment. 
• Demonstrated excellence in clear, concise and convincing writing and communication skills;  
• Ability to work with diverse partners and ensure coherence in activities;  
• Ability to work under pressure and time constraints.  
• Excellent written and oral communication skills; 
• Fluency in English is required; 

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