UN Women - In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In doing so, UN Member States took an historic step in accelerating the Organization's goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system, which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Inview of the below, UN Women seeks to engage a professional Consultant, with excellent analytical, writing and editing skills, amongst other competencies to develop and develop a Comprehensive Media Tool Kit for the programme "Promoting Women's Engagement in Peace and Security in Northern Nigeria", funded by European Union.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Position: International Finance Specialist On Integrated Analyses for a REDD+ Strategy in Nigeria, with focus on Cross River State

Additional Category: Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction
Type of Contract: Individual Contract
Post Level: International Consultant
Starting Date: (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)09-Nov-2015
Duration of Initial Contract: 30 Working Days
Expected Duration of Assignment: 30 Working Days

Background

• Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is an international effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests through offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. REDD+ (“plus”) goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
• Nigeria's forests, which currently extend over 9.6 million hectares, have been rapidly declining over the past decades. The current deforestation rate, estimated at 3.7%, is one of the highest in the world. The Federal Government of Nigeria, reinforced by pioneering efforts from Cross River State, began to engage in REDD+ in 2009 and signed an agreement with the UN-REDD Programme in August 2012.  In February 2015, Nigeria’s REDD+ Readiness Programme was extended through 2016, following two years of stakeholder engagement with little progress towards a REDD+ strategy.
• It envisions a two-track approach to achieve REDD+ readiness in Nigeria, based on: (i) the development of institutional and technical capacities at Federal level, and (ii) consolidating four key UNFCCC requirements for REDD Readiness on a pilot basis in Cross River State: the four Warsaw Framework elements of Strategy, Safeguards Information System, Forest Monitoring System, and Forest Reference Levels for carbon.
• Nigeria’s REDD “readiness” programme entails the participatory development of a national REDD+ Strategy. As a pilot state, Cross River State will develop a REDD+ Strategy that will both inform the national strategy and serve as a model for other states.
• The Strategy will comprise policy reforms, investment priorities, and a related REDD+ implementation framework, with due monitoring and safeguard systems, as called for under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• The REDD+ Strategy intends to enhance the value of standing forests and to incentivize sustainable forest management through a multi-stakeholder approach and a green development perspective

Duties and Responsibilities

• To explore and assess financing, incentives, and benefit sharing opportunities and options relevant to REDD+ implementation in Nigeria (Federal and Cross River State levels).
• This includes exploring broader and long-term benefits from REDD+ (such as enhanced governance, more secure [tenure] rights, improved environmental services, and income) in addition to incentives from the transfer of financial benefits.

Tasks to explore and assess financing:

• Identify and assess opportunities for and challenges to mobilizing financing activities relevant to REDD+;
• Review on-going work on climate finance readiness and similar initiatives including options for a sustainable financing mechanism for REDD+ activities taking into account, the national policies and strategies to addressing climate change;
• Take stock of the major existing, new, and emerging global (and/or regional) funding sources, mechanisms and instruments for REDD+.Screen each of the identified potential sources of finance for REDD+ and related initiatives to highlight and recommend entry points and opportunities for Nigeria (Federal and CRS level);
• Assess status of REDD+ forest carbon finance policy and legal frameworks in Nigeria (in coordination with the policy, legal, and regulatory analysis);
• Assess and analyse existing and potential financial resources for REDD+ from domestic sources, including budgetary approaches, decentralized approaches, targeted funds (e.g. ecological and other national funds, amongst others), foreign direct investments, Development Banks, and official development assistance (ODA), as well as an assessment of their delivery mechanisms.Outline those with potential to support REDD+ implementation;
• Assess trends related to REDD+ and forest carbon finance in Nigeria. Consider scenarios of the levels of finance that may be channelled through carbon trading as well as current and potential financial benefits that could be accrued in the forest management including eco system services;

Identify options for market and non-market approaches for REDD+ incentives. This will include, inter alia:

• Assess the potential for mobilizing resources mobilized through fiscal incentives and other forms of incentives
• Assess the determinants of resource allocation and recommend how REDD+ can benefit from higher allocations of budget resources through such incentive mechanisms;
• In coordination with the private sector analysis, assess private sector involvement and interest in REDD+; identify incentives for private investment in both the readiness phase and results-based phases of REDD+.
• Analyse the incentives driving business-as-usual finance and investment in forestry and agriculture. These might include regulatory, economic or informational instruments.

Based on the above, analyze and draw conclusions on:

• The priority issues that interest the above-identified stakeholders;
• The risks that may be linked to the broader REDD+ safeguards, particularly in the areas of managing financial risks, reporting, and ensuring full and effective participation; and
• Identify and analyse the potential bottlenecks/constraints to accessing resources for REDD+ in Nigeria. (e.g. institutional, policy, and capacity constraints), whether from domestic or external sources;
• Based on the above, propose recommendations for the REDD+ strategy, including,Identification of various financial instruments that could be used for financing REDD+ at Federal and CRS levels;
• Lessons and experiences on funding mechanisms and their delivery mechanisms that Nigeria can draw from; including those that are performance based; and
• Potential options for a sustainable, equitable and fair funding mechanism for REDD+ activities and implementation in Nigeria/CRS;
• Potential institutional arrangements for management and provision of oversight of REDD+ financing mechanisms taking into account the current government approach to climate change.

Tasks to explore and assess benefit-sharing:

• Beyond financing, the creation of incentives and broader benefits that accrue from REDD+ should be used in a manner that helps to improve accountability, transparency, and equity in terms of participation, access, and fair distribution of costs and benefits.
• To create sufficient incentives for actors to actually change land use practices that drive deforestation and degradation-and the benefits that accrue to them-will require that benefit sharing mechanisms, in the broad sense, target the right actors at different levels and be tailored appropriately to meet the needs and interests of these actors.

In line with this, the Consultant will focus on the following aspects:

• Identify carbon and non-carbon benefits that the local communities obtain from the different forest ecosystems in CRS;
• Assess the status of benefit distribution processes (with special attention to local communities and groups therein, e.g., women, landless, youth, single-parent households) and any weaknesses that should be considered as related to requirements for REDD+ readiness;
• Examine how non-financial/non-monetary incentives can contribute to fair and equitable benefit sharing in REDD + implementation;
• Take stock of programmes, initiatives and experiences that provide incentives related to REDD+.Identify and examine the most appropriate and applicable in the national context and assess how such initiatives can be replicated in CRS from a benefit sharing point of view;
• Analyse existing and emerging benefit-sharing mechanisms in relevant programmes and how this can inform the potential design of a benefit-sharing mechanism for Nigeria.

Based on the above, provide recommendations for the REDD+ strategy including:

• Practical benefit sharing options at different levels and how these can be targeted and tailored to various constituencies;
• How non-monetary incentives can best be used in the Nigerian context to motivate change in behaviour in REDD+ implementation;
• Recommend the institutional arrangements for management and provision of oversight of REDD+ benefit sharing mechanism.

Best or good practices that can be used to help improve accountability, transparency and equity in terms of participation, access and fair distribution of costs and benefits and safeguard the rights of communities including:

• How the various laws of Nigeria can provide for non-carbon benefits in order to ensure equity distribution (in coordination with PLR consultant[s];
• A set of options for defining carbon rights and benefit-sharing arrangements that balances the interests of government, the private sector, and local communities.The Consultant[s] will consult with members of the Safeguards Working Group and coordinate with the PLR consultant[s]);and
• Lessons and experiences on benefit-sharing mechanisms that Nigeria can draw from, including those that are performance based.

Competencies:

• Excellent writing skills;
• Good interpersonal skills;
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment;
• Excellent Team building skills;
• Broad knowledge of climate change mitigation and/or adaptation in Nigeria;
• Broad knowledge of political and economic development in Nigeria and how REDD+ fits in with that.

Required Skills and Experience
Education:

• At least a Master’s Degree in Natural Resource Management, Forestry, Natural Resource Economics or development-related subject.

Experience:

• At least 10 years demonstrated experience and strong knowledge in REDD+ and related areas in Nigeria, such as general forest management, incentive and benefit sharing models;
• Experience in the designing benefit sharing models in programmes and projects, preferably in the climate change/forestry area;
• Experience in developing financial services for small- and medium-size enterprises and producer groups;
• Demonstrated strong knowledge of financing sources, mechanisms and instruments;  Broad knowledge of REDD+ and its role in climate change discussions and approaches;
• Relevant experience in research in the area of forest governance and public financial management in the natural resource sector;
• Demonstrated experience in assessing laws and policies related to fiscal management, economics and finance;
• Prior experience from Sub-Saharan Africa preferred.

Language:

• Fluent in English.