Company Profile

Tetra Tech combines the resources of a global, multibillion-dollar company with local, client-focused delivery in more than 550 locations around the world. Our reputation rests on the technical expertise and dedication of our employees — 27,000 associates working together to provide smart, scalable solutions for challenging projects. We are proud to be home to leading technical experts in water, environment, infrastructure, resource management, energy, and international development. 

Job Description

SCOPE OF WORK

Project Name: West Africa Biodiversity and Low Emission Development (WABiLED)
Task Order No.:7200AA18D00003/72062421F00005
Consultant Name: TBD 
Consultant Title: Land Tenure Advisor

Background
Tetra Tech ARD has been awarded the West Africa Biodiversity and Low Emission Development (WABiLED) under the Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights (STARR II) IDIQ. WABiLED will be implemented with the support of five subcontracting implementing partners: Born Free USA, Winrock International, TRAFFIC, Re:Wild, and Dahlberg Associates.

WABiLED is the successor project to the West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change (WA BiCC) program that was implemented by Tetra Tech and partner for five and a half years between 2015 and 2021. It is a four-year program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with 3 core objectives: combating wildlife trafficking and enhancing great ape conservation; reducing deforestation, forest degradation, and biodiversity loss in key transboundary forest landscapes; and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sequestration from land use.

To achieve these objectives, WABiLED will work with partners to strengthen the capacity of national and regional networks and institutions to enforce and prosecute wildlife trafficking laws across the region; implement regional and transboundary cooperation and biodiversity conservation strategies in the key forested countries of Guinea, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Sierra Leone; and improve capacity for economic planning and development of low emissions development strategies to reduce West Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions thus contributing to national and global climate commitments. WABiLED’s targeted learning landscapes include three transboundary forest landscapes that were subject to interventions during WA BiCC and two proposed additional transboundary forest landscapes as follows:

Landscapes continuing from WA BiCC
a) The Tai-Grebo-Krahn-Sapo (TGKS) between Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia.
b) The greater Gola-Foya between Liberia and Sierra Leone;
c) The Ziama-Wonegizi-Wologizi (ZWW) between Guinea and Liberia;
Proposed additional landscapes
d) The Mount Nimba between Guinea, Liberia, and Cote d’Ivoire; and
e) Outamba-Kilimi-Kuru Hills/Madina-Oula + Soya-Pinselli (OKK-MOPS) between Sierra Leone and Guinea

Job Summary
The Land Tenure Advisor will serve as technical expert on land tenure, resource rights and access and resource governance issues; capacity building; climate change-related land tenure issues; post-conflict land tenure; and rights and access for women, youth, and disadvantage groups. S/he will report to Tetra Tech’s Low Emissions Development Strategies (LED) Lead who will collaborate closely with relevant WABiLED staff and partners. As a core member of the technical team, the Land Tenure Advisor will provide technical support to program implementation and ensure that land tenure considerations are adequately integrated within in WABiLED Program activities to enhance efforts in investments and reduce obstacles and conflicts related to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sequestration from land use across the transboundary landscapes. The Advisor will generate information and lessons from these efforts and use them to inform policies and practices on the local, national and regional levels. Specifically, s/he will support the development and implementation of activities related to achieving improved tenure security, especially for vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, and other incentives for low emissions land management of protected areas, community resources (e.g., community forests, farms, landholdings), and private investments (existing and future investments). S/he will work in close coordination with the REDD+/LED Specialist, MEL Team and the GYSI Specialist.

The Land Tenure Advisor is responsible to:

• Provide expert analysis of site-specific land tenure issues that threaten the success of LED activities with a focus on women, youth, and other vulnerable groups, taking into consideration the country-specific processes required to secure customary tenure rights.
• Integrate recommendations from the expert analysis into LED activity design and (as needed) provide the support for implementation through grants and technical assistance.
• Support processes to secure land rights and responsibilities for customary owners with particular focus and analysis on women and youth as well as women-run households.
• Prepare and deliver land tenure and land use specific trainings to target populations and Protected Areas Managers across WABiLED learning landscapes.
• Consolidate and present land tenure/land use related information as part of LED activity development, to assist stakeholders in the landscapes to understand and appreciate the importance of customary rights (especially women’s rights).
• Collaborate closely with other technical team members to undertake Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology (ROAM) exercises across WABiLED’s priority landscapes as a geographic entry point to further inform the baseline assessments and further identify land tenure and related issues and potential entry points for WABiLED engagement.
• Provide technical support to the PEA including activities such as organizing workshops for various PA managers and management planning committees to sensitize them to the conflict issues (human rights, land tenure) associated PAs creation and management.
• Map and document land tenure arrangements and issues arising from ROAM and the Political Economy Analysis (PEA) processes and develop briefing materials for practitioners and decision makers.
• Work closely with Grants Team to use the Grants Under Contract options as seed funding for promising LED pilots, to accelerate and scale investment in tested concepts, and to find creative financing solutions while de-risking investments.
• Identify and collaborate with land-based private sector, bilateral and multilateral partners and strengthen coordination of initiatives in the landscapes.
• Provide technical inputs and contribute to annual work planning, quarterly and annual reporting, Objective 3 work stream implementation, stakeholder coordination and engagement, and other strategic activities, as needed.
• Work in close collaboration with the MEL team to monitor and achieve land tenure specific indicators and targets.
• Perform any other task as assigned by LEDS Lead, DCOP or COP.

Required Skills or Experience

• Advanced university degree in a discipline relevant to land tenure and its administration, land and property law, development, communication for development, economics, social or rural development, gender issues, or international cooperation.
• At least ten years of relevant experience in interventions mainstreaming VGGT principles and practices in an international development setting, land tenure reform, land administration, tenure governance, land governance, land-based investments, land economy, land policy and law.
• Demonstrated experience in designing, implementing, or evaluating land tenure and governance or land management programs in Sub-Saharan Africa required.
• Extensive experience guiding and undertaking technical analysis and integration of social inclusion and/or gender and youth issues in project designs, assessments, management plans, studies, and contract documents is preferred.
• Professional fluency in English required. Knowledge of French preferred. Candidates with the ability to produce excellent written products and oral presentations required.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to interact with a wide range of stakeholders, including high-level government officials and donors, required.
• Experience working with multilateral or bi-lateral international donors such as USAID, SIDA, EU, UNDP or the World Bank is preferred.

Skills and Competencies

• Knowledge of customary land tenure systems, land use and environmental planning, gender issues in land tenure and property rights, community-based adjudication of land disputes, public outreach on land rights issues, and land allocation and land use in sensitive ecological environment.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with a range of people at all levels, including those from host country governmental and non-governmental organizations, private sector, communities and other counterparts, clients and funders.
• Proven ability to work within and contribute to existing programs and collaborations.
• Knowledge of USAID project rules and reporting requirements, grants management processes and VGGT Principles and practices is desirable.
• Keen listener, team builder, and a good negotiator
• Strong problem-solving skills.