Company Profile

The World University Service of Canada (WUSC) is one of Canada’s leading non-profit international development organizations, committed to building a more equitable and sustainable world. Our vision is a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable world for youth. It is a world in which all young people, especially women and refugees, are empowered to secure a good quality of life for themselves, their families, and their communities. We work with a diverse network of students, volunteers, institutions, governments, and businesses to improve education, economic, and empowerment opportunities for youth, and to improve the lives of millions of disadvantaged people around the world.

Job Description

Naturebased Climate Adaptation in the Guinean forests of West Africa Project

TERMS OF REFERENCE
Request for the services of a Consultancy Firm to develop several Biodiversity Benefits Financing Methodologies and pilot strategies to implemented in landscapes with Ghana, Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire

• WORK PACKAGE:Consultancy
• LOCATION:Home based (with the possibility of travel to West Africa)
• DURATION: 40 days
• APPLICATION DEADLINE: Applications will be accepted until January 31st, 2025
• ASSIGNMENT START DATE: March 15th, 2025

BACKGROUND
World University Service of Canada (WUSC)
The World University Service of Canada (WUSC) is one of Canada's leading nonprofit international development organizations, committed to building a more equitable and sustainable world. Our vision is a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable world for youth. It is a world in which all young people, especially women and refugees, are empowered to secure a good quality of life for themselves, their families, and their communities. We work with a diverse network of students, volunteers, institutions, governments, and businesses to improve education, economic, and empowerment opportunities for youth, and to improve the lives of millions of disadvantaged people around the world.

Centre d’Etude de Coopération Internationale (CECI)
The Centre d’Etude et de Coopération Internationale (CECI) is a leading Canadian organisation dedicated to fighting poverty and exclusion by building the developmental capacities of disadvantaged communities. The mission of CECI is to combat poverty, exclusion and inequality. To this end, CECI builds the development capacities of disadvantaged communities. We support gender equality, violence reduction, food security, resilience and adaptation to climate change. We mobilize resources and promote knowledge sharing.

The NbS Guinean Forest Project
The NbS Guinean Forests Project funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) is being implemented in Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana by a consortium made up of the World University Service of Canada (EUMC) and the Centre d’Etude de Coopération Internationale (CECI). To ensure the delivery of the project’s implementation strategy, the Consortium is working closely with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Center for International Forestry Research and the International Center for Research in Agroforestry (CIFORICRAF), ABANTU for Development in Ghana and the University of Guelph (through the International BarCode of Life Association).

The NBS project aims to strengthen the uptake of genderresponsive and inclusive climate change adaptation (CCA) solutions among communities residing in the Guinean forest region of Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Guinea. This will be accomplished by improving women's leadership in CCA planning processes, increasing the restoration of degraded forests and key habitats with biodiversity benefits, and increasing gendersensitive investments that have a strong earning potential for women. The NBS project is engaged with a wide range of stakeholders including women's organizations and local and national organizations to prioritize locally relevant solutions. Six landscapes are targeted by the NBS project with two in each country respectively;

• Ghana: Lake Bosumtwi and the Wassa Amenfi Landscapes
• Guinea: Kounoukan and Madina Oula Forest Reserves
• Côte d’Ivoire: Loh Djiboua (Divo Botanical reserve) and the Nawa region (Tai National Park)

The NBS Project Context
Naturebased climate adaptation in the Guinean forests of West Africa project (abbreviated as the NbS project for the purposes of this announcement) is a 3year collaborative initiative (March 27, 2023 – March 31, 2026), implemented by that World University Service of Canada (WUSC) and Centre d’Études et de Coopération Internationale (CECI), as a consortium. It will contribute in enhancing the adoption of gender responsive and inclusive naturebased solutions (NbS) for climate change adaptation (CCA) among communities residing in the Guinean forest region of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Guinea.

The NbS project aligns with elements of the National Adaptation Plans (NAP) of the targeted countries, the Sustainable Development Goal – SDG 5 on gender equality, SDG 13 on Climate Action, the Whistler Principles to Accelerate Innovation for Development and Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP). With respect to the FIAP, the NbS project is a GE03 initiative meaning that gender equality is a principal outcome of the project; the project will also support the full realization of women’s and girls’ human rights; and reduce gender inequalities in access to and control over resources and benefits of development. The NbS project partners will operate at multiple levels (personal, relational, and structural), taking into consideration the multidimensional and complex nature of empowerment.

This project will improve women’s leadership in Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) planning processes (Intermediate Outcome 1100), it will increase the restoration of degraded forests and key habitats with benefits for biodiversity (Intermediate Outcome 1200), and will also increase genderresponsive investments with income potential for women (Intermediate Outcome 1300). Through these three outcome areas or pillars, the project will also conduct a biodiversity assessment on the target forest landscapes to gather evidence on the state of biodiversity using DNA barcoding techniques, with a focus on selected species. It will engage communities in the landscapes through local partners to implement restoration activities in and around protected reserves, in lands degraded by mining activities, and in farmlands through agroforestry practices and soil enhancements. This will include evaluating and setting up monitoring systems for local ecosystem services as an opportunity to better understand their state, their value to the community and as a benchmark to capture the extent of the project’s contributions in restoration of these services through interventions to rehabilitate key degraded habitats. Under the project’s 3rd pillar, there will be ongoing and concerted efforts to engage the private sector through market based approaches that can drive longterm and sustainable restoration within the target landscapes, and deliver value in terms of climate adaptation, biodiversity preservation and livelihood improvement for affected communities, particularly women vulnerable groups within the NbS project landscapes. Under this component the project will explore public interest and pilot payments for environmental services (PES) in targeted landscapes. The objective of this pilot is to develop a financial mechanism, with particular focus on biodiversity credit market, to scale and sustain the restoration activities in the targeted landscapes.

Using an inclusive market systems (IMS) approach, the NbS project will focus on engaging with a wide range of stakeholders to develop local and regional capacity to use evidence and engage with women and marginalized groups to prioritize locally relevant NBS to climate change adaptation that contributes to enhanced biodiversity and gender equality.

Climate change has significantly impacted the Guinean forests of West Africa and the populations which they sustain. Documented impacts include: i) an overall decrease in average annual precipitation, and a marked change in rainfall patterns (Quenum et al 2021) ii) an increase in the frequency of drought years; iii) a reduction in the average annual flow of some rivers; iv) an increase in average local temperatures and frequency of heat waves. While these challenges cannot be uniquely attributed to climate change, there is increasing evidence of the links between climate change, increased temperature and erratic rainfall, and humaninduced impacts on the local environment.

An overall assumption is that restoration of degraded habitats (terrestrial and aquatic), will be critical to supporting vulnerable populations, women and their communities to adapt to climate change challenges and will be central to protecting and restoring biodiversity in this critical global hotspot. This initiative builds on WUSC’s and CECI’s decades of experience supporting vulnerable populations and leverages the experience of a variety of local and international partners who bring a strong climate NbS lens, are fully immersed in their respective ecosystems and whose work can be accelerated by this project.

Scope of the Assignment
The NbS project would like to engage the services of a Consulting Firm legally operating within any of the project implementing countries (Ghana, Côte d’Ivoir and Guinea), to develop biodiversity benefits financial methodologies including accompanying pilot implementation strategies, that are anchored on voluntary standards, and can attract private sector investments to address biodiversity loss in project communities through climate adaptation processes. Interested firms that are located outside of NbS project countries can also submit applications jointly with locally operating firms.

For the purposes of this assignment, biodiversity credits are credits that are generated with the intention of having a netpositive impact on nature and biodiversity1 in the long, medium or short term. As a result, these are referenced within this assignment to mechanisms for financing the benefits of adaptation and biodiversity. The scope of this assignment does not include biodiversity offsets, a different marketbased tool, which is intended to compensate for companies’ negative and unavoidable impacts on nature2. Our overall goal is to promote external financial investment mechanisms that will contribute biodiversity benefits within target communities and landscapes, using voluntary standards.

As a nature based solutions project, there is an expectation that the Consulting Firm will strive to design a biodiversity benefits financing mechanism that achieves balance between the need for technical robustness (both in data and implementation) often required by demand side actors, with the flexibility and pragmatism often needed by supplyside actors3 in order to maintain continued levels of engagement in the climate adaptation practices that generate the biodiversity benefits that are needed by all.

The ultimate goal is to build on the findings of this assignment to pilot the methodologies in three implementing countries, with a focus on ecosystems improvement achieved through climate adaptation for aquatic and terrestrial habitats. The methodology should largely build on models that can attract private sector investment and strengthen community engagement in applying best practices for climate adaptation that can generate biodiversity cobenefits. The consultant should propose methodologies for the applicability of biodiversity benefits financing schemes for aquatic and terrestrial habitats building on the climate adaptation efforts of the NBS Guinean Forest project in the target landscapes and should be specific to each landscape. Climate adaptation remains the core of our work and all aspects of the proposed methodologies to be developed by the Consulting Firm should align with this global focus.

The NbS project is deploying a range of restoration approaches to build community resilience to climate change through nature based solutions. Current project restoration efforts are focused on both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. For instance, several initiatives are under implementation by the project to protect water bodies with declining levels ( both in volume and in aquatic species that communities depend on for livelihood), from encroachment and human activities that increase pressure on these habitats. Using climate adaptation solutions such as the creation of buffer zones around some of these water bodies as well as the planting of particular tree species that contribute to improved water quality and groundwater retention, the project is contributing in making streams more resistant to droughts thus ensuring continuous water supply to communities throughout the year.

The African Development Bank has also developed recommended approaches to climate adaptation that are anchored on their Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM) in order to further drive climate adaptation and biodiversity preservation. The NbS project will also aim to leverage some of these approaches in the development of the proposed adaptation and biodiversity benefits financing mechanism that focuses on aquatic habitats. The Consulting Firm will therefore be expected to engage with the relevant content that can enable them to factor key requirements of this approach for the development of any biodiversity benefits financing methodology that relates to aquatic habitats.

Currently, the NbS project is conducting a biodiversity assessment using the innovative DNA barcoding approach as well as the Environmental DNA process for inventorying a range of species for both terrestrial and aquatic habitats. The inventory will contribute to the body of knowledge on the diversity species that exist within selected water bodies, as well as in other terrestrial ecosystems, thus setting a base for future conservation activities targeting these landscapes.

The NbS project is also introducing adaptation solutions through agroforestry and other tree and crop planting approaches that contribute to improving community livelihoods and resilience to changing climatic conditions. Agroforestry in many cases is deployed for instance in cocoa farms to promote a microclimate in which young cocoa shoots can thrive, thus improving their capacity to be drought resistant. The choice of agroforestry in many cases is also contributing to income sources and livelihood improvement particularly where the choice of selected trees are those that have income and dietary value for communities. Cocoa production and mining constitute the major economic activities in the target landscapes.

Objective of the Assignment
Main Objective
As a nature based solutions focused project, the range of climate adaptation approaches that are deployed are those that have the potential to yield biodiversity cobenefits. The goal of this assignment is to understand how the biodiversity cobenefits generated through project climate adaptation interventions can attract private sector investments, as a means of securing continuous community engagement and commitment to the recommended climate adaptation best practices that generate these cobenefits. In particular, the assignment will have the following specific objectives:

Specific Objectives
Through this assignment, the Project aims to:

• Analyse the demand / interest to invest in biodiversity benefits financing schemes from a niche segment of private sector actors including but not limited to those active in the cocoa and mining sectors in West Africa, particularly with relevance for Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea.
• Analyze the demand / interest of local communities within NbS project landscapes to engage / commit to interventions that are built around biodiversity benefits financing schemes supported by the private sector for the promotion of climate adaptation and biodiversity preservation.
• Identify and select biodiversity financing mechanisms that are appropriate for the project and align with voluntary standards
• Develop four (04) unique adaptation and biodiversity benefits financing méthodologies that can each be piloted, in at least one project landscape, in each of the implementing countries. Out of the 04, atleast, one of the methodologies needs to be focused on an aquatic habitat and leverages the Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM) of the AfDB.
• Develop a project pilot implementation strategy including a full activity work plan for each of the proposed methodologies or mechanisms that can be tested and scaled in the respective project landscapes and habitats. The pilot implementation strategies and proposed methodologies need to be anchored on voluntary standards that largely build on models that can attract private sector investment.
• Capture and document useful evidence from current project interventions that can contribute important insights to the growing body of knowledge on market based climate adaptation and voluntary biodiversity benefits financing schemes.
• Analyze the pros and cons of biodiversity credits that focus on netpositive impact on nature as opposed to biodiversity offsets in the light of their applicability for the NbS project.

Key Activities
The key activities that will be undertaken by the Consulting Firm involves the following: :
Private Sector:

• Conduct a mapping of private sector institutions in the three countries, regionally and internationally to identify potential biodiversity benefits financing “buyers”, including an analysis of their requirements, taking into consideration their feasibility for the target landscapes and the nature of the NbS project. This mapping process should be supported by a framework that clearly indicates the key motivations of each identified private sector institution, including the landscape of interest as well as their criteria for investment.
• Analyze the industry need for nature positive credits in general, with a specific focus on the key demand drivers for biodiversity benefits financing generated by interventions in the selected project landscapes. The demand drivers should be assessed in the light of their capacity to influence the decision of “buyers” to invest in biodiversity financing schemes in the project implementation zones and the supporting conditions of these drivers. This can be in terms of the business case, integrity of the biodiversity unit supply, alignment on recognised voluntary standards and metrics etc.
• Recommend potential biodiversity benefits financing “buyers” that the project could eventually collaborate with for a pilot, including their requirements in terms of integrity, size, community benefits, linkage (or not) with carbon credits.

Local Communities

• Engage with local communities within project landscapes to understand their interest / motivation to commit to interventions that are built around voluntary biodiversity benefits financing schemes cofinanced by the private sector to support climate adaptation and biodiversity preservation.
• Identify barriers that prevent local communities’ engagement in biodiversity benefits financing schemes as well as opportunities and make recommendations

Sector Experts

• Identify and engage with biodiversity benefits financing / credit certifiers to gain insights on the processes for certification (including for voluntary standards) and provide key recommendations for consideration by the NbS Project for complying with certification requirements during the pilot phase. These recommendations also need to be taken into consideration in the proposed pilot implementation plans / strategies.
• Conduct interviews with expert organisations in the project countries or Africa globally (or countries with similar contexts) with existing biodiversity benefits financing / credit initiatives to draw useful insights and provide recommendations that can inform the methodology development process and enhance shape the structure of the pilot implementation plans
• In each project country, identify local organisations with the relevant expertise that the project could potentially engage or collaborate with to implement the biodiversity benefits financing pilot implementation plans.

Regulatory Environment

• Provide an in-depth analysis of the regulatory environment for nature credits in general and biodiversity benefits financing in particular, with a specific focus on the NbS project implementation countries.
• The review process should address both the barriers and opportunities which the existing regulatory environment for these countries have for implementing biodiversity benefits financing initiatives and for attracting private sector investment to support these initiatives .
• Provide recommendations for engaging with regulatory actors in the 03 countries to support the growth of the regulatory environment for nature credits in general, and biodiversity benefits financing schemes in particular.
• NBS project team and partners
• Collaborate with project teams and project partners to analyze the different landscapes, the richness of their biodiversity, the ongoing project restoration efforts and the comparative advantage of each country in terms of ease of setting up pilot biodiversity benefits financing initiatives. This analysis should also be done in the light of the interest of potential “buyers” to invest in a specific project country, in order to better inform the pilot planning process
• Engage project team and partners in the process of developing the four biodiversity benefits financing methodologies and corresponding pilot implementation plans for the project, which should include but not limited to:

1. Core content of for each of the methodologies
2. The accompanying pilot implementation plan for each of the proposed methodologies
3. A clear roadmap for establishing the pilots in the different countries,
4. A robust monitoring and reporting mechanisms
5. The methodologies should include a benefits sharing mechanisms among stakeholders (community members , project developers, private investors and state institutions)
6. It should also take into consideration the mechanism for mobilising community engagement and support for interventions that are supported through private sector-led biodiversity benefits financing mechanisms.
7. A clear cost structure for implementing the pilot plan as well as a mechanism for the calculations of benefits, including the structure for any financial flows that could potentially be involved in the benefits sharing process.
8. The proposed methodologies must be contextually relevant for the implementing countries, the target landscapes, the key habitat and should fit within the overall nature and scope of the NbS project.
9. The methodologies should also factor in findings from other consultations, relevant documentation such as those in connection to AfDB Adaptation Benefits Mechanism ( particularly for the methodology that is related to aquatic habitats) and as well as existing NBS project documentation.
10. Present methodologies including the accompanying pilot implementation plans as well as overall report findings to stakeholders (private sector actors, community representatives, project developers, state institution representatives) in three workshops, (each in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea). The workshops would be organized by the NBS project where the Consulting Firm will be expected to lead the facilitation, secure additional inputs from stakeholders and validate the overall content and structure of the methodologies and pilot plans.

Key considerations for the data collection methodology
The following elements should guide the design of the overall data collection and analysis to be proposed by the Consulting Firm.:

• The study should consciously apply participatory and feminist approaches where possible, engage in consultation with stakeholders and participants at all stages, from the design of the methodological details to the analysis, interpretation and dissemination of all collected data;
• The data gathering process, literature review and other analysis, to the full extent possible, should always take into consideration the context of the project landscapes including the surrounding ecosystems as well as the project interventions within these landscapes.
• Additionally, the methodology described in the proposal should provide explicit details on the process to determine the selection of respondents for the data collection as well as details of how key ethical issues related to the data collection, analysis and dissemination processes will be addressed.

Deliverables

1. Inception Meeting: Participate in an inception meeting with the NbS project staff and key stakeholders to clarify expectations of the mandate and provide information necessary to produce the inception report and accompanying work plan.

2. Inception Report: Take part in an inception meeting and produce an inception report that incorporates the feedback from the meeting including a literature review of relevant documents, studies and available secondary data sources regarding nature credits in general and biodiversity benefits financing / credits in particular, for the regions and the NbS project countries. The literature review should also capture the market constraints from a demand and supply perspective, trends and useful recommendations in the area of biodiversity benefits financing / credits. The literature review should have direct relevance for the NbS project implementing countries, target landscapes and the key habitats in which restoration interventions are under implementation ( aquatic and terrestrial).

The inception report should capture the following information:

• Detailed methodology to respond to each of the key elements identified in the scope of work;
• Provide a clear implementation schedule (Gantt chart) that details out the activities and timelines4 leading up to the finalization of the mandate.
• Selection criteria for data collection tools including selected respondents.
• Level of effort of each team member and detailed budget including professional fees, other reimbursable costs etc.; The total number of days for this assignment should not exceed 40 days cumulatively irrespective of the level of effort provided by each team member.

3) Data Collection tools: Develop data collection tools that will be reviewed during the inception phase and must be included in      the inception report and workplan. Conduct data collection, as per the agreed methodology. The Consulting Firm would be expected to conduct in-person consultations within the NbS project implementing countries and virtual consultations with other relevant stakeholders. Analyze all primary data collected, also triangulating with secondary data as appropriate.

4) Preliminary report: the preliminary report should present the overall findings that capture the different aspects mentioned under the assignment objectives and also represent the outcomes of the activities mentioned under the Activity section of the assignment. The preliminary report should include the key constraints, limitations, lessons learnt and overall recommendations.

The report should also include the following content in the annex:
a) Four (04) distinct biodiversity benefits financing methodologies for the target landscapes and key habitats;
b) Four (04) distinct pilot implementation strategies (including the pilot work plans) accompanying each of the proposed biodiversity benefits financing methodologies;
c) A map of recommended private sector institutions including a framework that clearly indicates their key motivations including the landscape of interest as well as their criteria for investment. One key consideration for these recommendations should be the feasibility of their applicability within the target NbS project countries and landscapes.
All reports need to be submitted in both English and French and in word version The Table of Contents will be reviewed and validated during the inception phase by the Consulting Firm and the NbS project team.

5) Preliminary report review session: Organise a half day virtual review session with NBS project team and stakeholders to discuss inputs to the report and gather additional feedback on the report and proposed methodologies .

6) Facilitate three (3) workshops of one day each in the three implementing countries to present key findings and validate proposed biodiversity methodology with relevant stakeholders.

7) Final Report: Complete and submit final report in English and French and in both Word and PDF, including a summarised PowerPoint version with all annexes and raw data files included.

Level of effort
The expected level of effort for each task leading to the above outputs should be included in the submitted proposal. The final timeline will be discussed and agreed upon during the inception meeting.

Required Skills or Experience

• At least, a Master's or PhD degree in climate change, green finance, conservation, environment, sustainable agriculture or related field;
• Demonstrated experience working with private sector actors in any of the three implementing countries, and the region at large to advance climate sustainability and environmental objectives;
• Demonstrated experience on working on biodiversity credits initiatives within SubSaharan Africa will be a distinct advantage.
• At least 10 years' experience (or equivalent) in climate policies design, biodiversity credits, carbon projects, or other Payments for Environmental Services (PES) schemes.
• Experience at the country / regional levels in designing, or implementing carbon, climate adaptation, or biodiversity conservation for projects in West Africa
• Experience developing structured finance vehicles for nature credits, standards and methodologies will be a distinct advantage
• Knowledge of gender mainstreaming within nature credit schemes will be an asset.
• Contextual knowledge of the forestry landscapes in Guinea, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire will be an asset
• Ability to produce high quality work under tight timeframes.
• Consulting Firms will also be required to show evidence of bilingual fluency in both English and French within their teams.