International Consultant on strengthening a framework for REDD+ investment and benefits sharing distribution system in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a significant area of intact tropical forest covering 77.8% of the country’s 46.9m ha of land. Together with the forest of West Papua (Island of New Guinea) they represent one of the largest areas of intact tropical forest in the world. These forests are critical to the livelihoods and economy of the country and a commercial logging industry has for a long period been a central part of the economy.
These forests, however, have been impacted by development activities linked to a rapidly growing population and efforts towards economic development. These impacts while unavoidable in some areas have been identified as being excessive in other areas and as result the Government of Papua New Guinea (GoPNG) has started efforts towards developing an approach to reducing those impacts through engagement in the mechanism for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, the Sustainable Management of Forests and
the Conservation and Enhancement of Forest Carbon Stocks (REDD+) as laid out under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

With support from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility’s (FCPF) REDD+ Readiness Funds implemented by UNDP Country Office in PNG, the GoPNG developed key elements of the Warsaw Framework on REDD+ including a Forest Reference Level (submitted to the UNFCCC in 2017) and a National REDD+ Strategy, approved by National Executive Council (NEC) under Decision 126/2017 in 2017. Based on these documents the Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) with continuing support from FCPF and in partnership with other government agencies and development partners has worked to develop a REDD+ Finance and Investment Plan (RFIP) that identifies the potential costs and benefits of implementing the National REDD+ Strategy (NRS). The RFIP provides a basis for the GoPNG to make more informed policy decisions relating to the potential costs and impacts of different action areas within the NRS. With the nature of international markets for REDD+ continuing to evolve and a need for the GoPNG to be able to both access additional international and domestic finance to support the implementation of the RFIP further support is required to increase understanding of the potential financing options available to the GoPNG and the steps and structures needed to access these, as well as to support action to access upfront finance to implement the RFIP.

The International Consultant will work closely with the CCDA General Manager for REDD+ and Mitigation, FCPF Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) as well as other development partners specifically UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), Australian Government in supporting consultation on key elements of the RFIP document and improving assessments of finance and benefit sharing based on work done during 2019. The International Consultant will:

• Coordinate and provide technical support to all actions of the REDD+ Decision Making Team;
• Work with the CCDA and UNDP in liaising closely with government on elements of the RFIP and supporting key government stakeholders in presenting results and recommendations to senior government representatives across different sectors;
• Working with the FCPF and FAO CTAs in the development and running of a number of training and consultation events (in country if possible or remotely if needed);
• Work with the FCPF and FAO CTAs in coordinating and providing technical support to other consultancies under the FCPF project as well as those under GEF and other development partners to help ensure coordination across inputs and to strengthen and streamline policy advice to government;
• Work with the FCPF and FAO CTAs and key government officials in engaging with, where relevant other development partners and funding agencies to discuss potential options for support to RFIP implementation;
• Work with the FCP and FAO CTAs, and FAO consultant team working on a REDD+ Results-Based Payments (RBP) proposal to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), draft of which is due for completion in November 2020, to ensure that

(a) the use of proceeds and non-carbon benefits (Section C2), the investment framework (Section D) and the legal and institutional framework (Section F), and any other relevant sections of the RBP proposal are consistent with the outputs of this consultancy and

(b) information generated through this consultancy is shared promptly and transparently with the RBP proposal development team, and vice versa.

The International Consultant will work as part of a team in close collaboration with other government agencies, development partners and consultants to:

Strengthening understanding of the potential costs of REDD+ actions under the NRS and how costs and benefits could be shared

This element of the assignment will include work to:

• Refinement of an assessment of the costs of implementing elements of the National REDD+ Strategy and consultation on key variables within this;
• Consultation on and revision of proposed benefit sharing structure for REDD+ in PNG;
• Integration of the benefit sharing framework within the current RFIP structure;

Strengthening understanding of linkages between national and sub-national approaches and requirements for ‘nesting’ of projects

This element of the assignment will include work to:

• Review of how nesting has been undertaken globally and description of key lessons learnt from country´s experiences;
• Outline of the potential impacts of different approaches to nesting linked to allocation of baselines as well benefit-sharing arrangements in PNG;
• Provision of information and guidance on the need for registration and guidance to subnational actions and potential approaches to be taken based on international best practice

Strengthening approaches to guiding subnational projects

This element of the assignment will include work to:

• Review and comparison of existing guidelines of subnational REDD+ projects and integrating them into national or jurisdictional programmes;
• Review of international best practice on guidance for subnational projects;
• Inputs into guidelines revision and ensure inclusion and integration of the CCDA Guidelines for FPIC on REDD+ in PNG (August 2017) and other supporting operational FPIC documents developed for Madang, East and West New Britain; and the CCDA Grievance Redress Mechanism for the National REDD+ Strategy Guidelines (August 2018);

Strengthening understanding and agreement on a REDD+ financing and investment framework and links with other programmes within the climate change space in PNG

This element will involve:

• Integration of elements of the benefit sharing and financial management into the RFIP document;
• Consultation on the revised RFIP document and further revisions based on input from stakeholders;
• Review and comments on other key programmes including GEF7 Protected Area Finance work, work under the GGGI initiative as well as other initiatives.

Sharing of lessons learned and knowledge from the FCPF REDD+ Project

This element will involve:

• Identifying a key series of three lesson learned and knowledge products that can be developed based on the FCPF programme experience;
• Development of three lesson learned and knowledge product in collaboration with key stakeholders;

The work will be conducted remotely with regular video and audio conferencing with members of the FCPF team as well as other key stakeholders to support deeper understanding of the elements being developed during the assignment. Should travel become possible time in country will be supported directly by the FCPF team.

Deliverables:

The International Consultant will be responsible for delivering the following outputs:

• Fluency in written and spoken English.
• Strong inter-personal skills, in particular, demonstrated team leadership qualities and excellent oral communication skills.

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• High level planning, organizational and time management skills, including flexibility, attention to detail and the ability to work under pressure to meet challenging deadlines;
• Ability to quickly adapt to change, and to remain calm under pressure;

Education

• Minimum university degree in forestry, natural resources economics, development economics, finance, or closely related field. Post-graduate degree (MSc) is an advantage.

Work experience

• A minimum of 10 years progressive experience in forestry, natural resource economics and management or a related field;
• Minimum 5 years of experience with public expenditure reviews related to forestry finance, natural resource management in developing country contexts;
• Minimum 5 years of experience with REDD+ in PNG or the Pacific region an advantage.