Consultancy:Training and Developing a Policy Recommendation Document on the Role of Traditional Knowledge in Climate Resilience Building 80 views0 applications

TERMS OF REFERENCE (TORs): Consultancy Services for Training and Developing a Policy Recommendation Document on the Role of Traditional Knowledge in Climate Resilience Building

General Information

Intervention: Capacity strengthening and policy formulation the role of traditional knowledge in climate resilience building.

Work Description: Consultancy for the development of a policy recommendation document advocating for community-led innovations in combating climate change to strengthen the capacity of climate resilience building using traditional knowledge and best practices to key stakeholders.

Project Title: African Activists for Climate Justice

Duration:11 days (excluding weekends)

Introduction

Natural Justice is a non-profit organization rooted in the struggles of communities in Africa. As a team of pioneering lawyers and legal experts, we specialize in human rights, environmental, climate, land, indigenous, and heritage law, in pursuit of social, climate, and environmental justice.

We strive to enhance the collective rights of people and protect the sacred relationships that Indigenous people and local communities have with nature. Our work is informed by the values, knowledge, and self-determination of the communities which we stand in solidarity with.

Through legal empowerment, research, policy influencing, and our Litigation Plus approach, we work in alliance with communities and like-minded coalitions to support communities to know the law, use the law, and shape the law.

Natural Justice’s focus includes enhancing community access to land and governance of natural resources, contributing to the struggle against harmful extractive and infrastructure development supporting processes for recognizing traditional knowledge and access and benefit sharing, supporting community rights within conservation and customary use of biodiversity, and strengthening community actions towards the climate crisis.

Together with the communities we work with, we aim to play a key role at the national, regional, and international levels by influencing policy and laws to recognize and enhance the rights of Indigenous people and impacted communities and environmental defenders.

We are headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa with regional hubs in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dakar, Senegal. Natural Justice also has additional staff in Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, and Somalia.

Context

Indigenous peoples and local communities have been considered as mere victims of climate change impacts, rather than key agents of adaptation and resilience building. Their traditional and collectively held knowledge offers valuable insights and a crucial foundation for community-based adaptation and mitigation actions. However, indigenous communities and their traditional knowledge continue to be excluded from the global processes of decision and policymaking as well as key regulatory frameworks that define their future. As a result, climate adaptation programs are poorly designed and implemented, further weakening their customary rights to their lands and natural resources, and ultimately impairing their resilience.

Critical assessment of the state of traditional knowledge in building adaptive capacity and identifying barriers and enablers to building it in Kenya remains underexplored in climate change literature. Consequently, research into place-based understandings of climate change, local impacts, vulnerabilities, as well as adaptive capacity is needed to enable effective adaptation and inform efforts to integrate traditional knowledge. Furthermore, the interplay between climate change and wider socioeconomic and cultural changes, such as development pressures needs to be fully considered. In the presence of such critical gaps, existing legislative frameworks may create contradictory or competing effects on the resolution of climate crises and related justice issues.

Project Description

NJ is currently implementing a project titled African Activists for Climate Justice (AACJ), intending to build strong inclusive, and effective movements promoting climate justice and ensure policies, practices, and frameworks that advance climate justice are adopted, funded, and implemented. Through the Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation department, NJ conducted a Thematic Analysis of Traditional Knowledge and Climate Resilience Building in Kenya, based on the examples in three counties,to document the practices of indigenous and local communities (IPLCs) in Kenya to combat climate change, and the traditional knowledge attached to these practices. The collection was conducted in May, October, and December of 2022, in communities located in 3 counties: Turkana (the Esanyanait Assembly, Ekalaale Assembly, Lorgum community, Lobei Community, and local CSO networks), Lamu (Aweer indigenous community, Amu Beach Management Unit, and Kililana farmers), and Elgeyo Marakwet (Sengwer indigenous community). The data collection was followed in October 2023 by a validation exercise, that allowed the same communities to review and discuss the draft report and conclusions. The following research questions were used as a framework:

1. The dynamic role of traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, and perspectives in local adaptive capacity and climate resilience building.
2. Emerging issues, challenges, barriers, and opportunities influencing the communities’ use of traditional and local knowledge for climate resilience.
3. Key policy gaps in climate resilience building, looking at the promotion, preservation, and utilization of traditional knowledge/cultural expressions in the context of climate resilience building.
4. Preservation and sustainability of traditional knowledge as future means to combat climate change. Lessons, opportunities, and gaps.
5. Opportunities and conditions to establish synergies between state and non-state actors, in the combat against climate change.

Towards this end, NJ seeks a climate justice expert to 1) intervene among a convening of stakeholders, facilitate dialogue, and strengthen the capacities of participants on the role of traditional knowledge in combating climate change, and 2) develop a policy recommendation document advocating for community-led innovations in fighting climate change from the deliberations as well as the research findings documented by the Natural Justice team on how IPLCs have been relying on their indigenous knowledge to withstand the effects of climate change.

Scope of Work

The consultant shall use the research findings from the report developed by the Natural Justice team to facilitate dialogue, strengthen capacity, create awareness, and explore areas of synergies among the stakeholders, to amplify the effectiveness of building resilience toward climate change. From the dialogue, a policy recommendation document shall be developed in collaboration with the stakeholders, to promote the use of community intervention best practices amid social and environmental changes.

The assignment will seek to solve the following key problems:

1. Awareness gaps among key stakeholders such as IPLCs, government, CSOs, and climate experts, regarding climate resilience building using community best practices.
2. Lack of comprehensive documentation on the role of traditional knowledge in resilience building as well as the involvement of IPLCs in decision-making processes and their recognition as the custodians of indigenous knowledge.

Objective

The overarching objective of the study was to understand the state of traditional knowledge and cultural expressions that support local adaptive capacity and climate resilience building among Kenya’s Indigenous People and Local Communities.

Towards this end, this project will seek to strengthen the capacity of key stakeholders to engage and amplify the use of community innovations in combating climate change.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of Natural Justice’s Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation Coordinator, the consultant shall be expected to:

1. Develop a draft training manual.
2. Develop a facilitator’s guide to accompany the training manual.
3. Formulate a policy recommendation document arising from the discussions held with the multi-stakeholders.
4. Compile a report based on the input from the stakeholders during the convening.

Qualifications of the Consultant

• Expert knowledge/advanced university degree in environmental law, human rights, sustainable development, or any other related field.
• A minimum of 7 years of relevant experience.
• Experience in conducting policy briefs.
• Expert knowledge in climate justice, traditional knowledge, and the legal dynamics around it.
• Expert knowledge of government processes.
• Ability to produce high-quality outputs on time while understanding and anticipating the evolving client needs.
• Strong organizational skills.
• Excellent written and spoken English and Kiswahili.