ThienNhien.Net Dự án Đói nghèo và Môi trường (PEP) hiện đang tuyển cán bộ dự án trợ giúp kỹ thuật cho các nghiên cứu về chiến lược thích nghi, đảm bảo sinh kế cho các cộng đồng dân cư ven biển miền Trung Việt Nam chịu ảnh hưởng của biến đổi khí hậu. Thông tin chi tiết như sau:
Terms of Reference (TOR)
Summary
Title: Technical assistance to help implement study on adaptive strategies for coastal livelihoods most at-risk to climate change impacts in Central Viet Nam.
Team members: One National Consultant Co-Team Leader (NTL)
Duty station: Hanoi with possible visits to Ha Tinh and TTHue Provinces.
Duration & timing: 40-60 days (to be confirmed)
Supervision: PEP National Project Director
Date TOR: 2 March 2009
1. Introduction
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) began implementing this UNDP/DFID-funded project in October 2005. The goal of the PEP is “to strengthen government capacity to integrate environment and poverty reduction goals into policy frameworks for sustainable development”. Implementation of PEP aims to assist Viet Nam move along the path of reducing poverty while protecting the environment by:
(i) promoting best practices in poverty reduction and environmental improvement and strengthening monitoring practices;
(ii) mainstreaming environmental and poverty reduction concerns into policy frameworks and legal instruments; and
(iii) improving coordination within and between the government and donors.
PEP’s initial Activity 1.1 has sought to expand the knowledge base on poverty-environment linkages through conducting 10 case studies, reviews of national programmes and the development of policy and investment models. The tasks have included:
1 Synthesizing and analysing existing information on poverty-environment linkages and identify priority knowledge gaps
2 Assessing poverty-environment linkages in participatory poverty assessments, (Understanding Voices Of The Poor)
3 Undertaking ten case studies on P-E linkages to define policy gaps, institutional and capacity barriers, best practices achieved in the delivery of projects and programmes, and priorities for future action, including thematic studies on:
(i) Understanding voices of the poor
(ii) Environment on health of poor people
(iii) Water and sanitation for poor communities
(iv) Poverty in environmental policies and legislative system
(v) EIAs and the poor
(vi) Income sources for poor people from the environment
(vii) Enhancement of environment conditions for the poor
(viii) Renewable energy for poor communities (includes review of renewable energy projects/programmes)
(ix) Gender in poverty -environment
(x) Impact of migration on environment (includes review of transmigration programmes)
4 Defining policy and investment models for adaptation and replication
In this set of thematic studies, the challenge of climate change is notably absent. This is due to significance of the issue has only emerged since the project was designed. Moreover, the participatory methodology adopted by PEP to identify P-E linkages cannot be expected to fully capture such concerns, as most poor people are yet to be aware of them. However the issue is central to PEP’s mandate, as climate change poses a real threat to the poor in Viet Nam.
To enhance MONRE’s capacity to assist the poor to adapt to the consequences of climate change, PEP has conducted an eleventh case study, Climate Change Adaptation and the Poor. The study interviewed a number of mainly poor households in poor coastal marine fishing communities in four communes, two in Hà Tĩnh and two in Ninh Thuan.
In response to strong feedback from stakeholders, there is now a need to build on this study, to deepen and broaden it, through a comprehensive examination of how to build resilience and develop adaptive strategies for coastal livelihoods most at-risk to climate change impacts in Central Viet Nam. Technical Assistance is required to help conduct the study.
2. Designing the Study
The title of the study is “Building Resilience – adaptive strategies for coastal livelihoods most at-risk to climate change impacts in Central Viet Nam”
Objective of the study
Policy measures and support interventions identified that can build:
a) Short term and long-term resilience to the impacts of climate change of most-at-risk coastal people
b) Robustness of local institutions, support services and ecological systems for sustaining livelihoods and increasing livelihood opportunities in the face of increased climatic stresses and shocks
Key research questions
1. What are the past and current vulnerabilities of specific poor and near-poor coastal livelihood groups (women and men) to climatic stresses and shocks?
2. Which policies, programmes and services are in place to support these livelihoods, and the ecological services on which they depend? In the view of programme beneficiaries, programme providers and others proving ancillary support services (eg mass organisations, local authorities):
o how successful have these programmes been in building livelihood resilience?
o what programmatic gaps exist?
o what additional programmes are planned fill the gaps?
3. How can the most at-risk coastal livelihood groups become more resilient to the stresses posed by climate change effects, including slow-onset stresses and sudden shocks, and contribute to building resilience for future generations?
4. How can the robustness of socio-economic institutions, services and ecological systems supporting local livelihoods and creating new livelihood opportunities be enhanced?
3. Study Outcomes
I. The study will provide evidence-based recommendations for policies, investments and services that strengthen coastal livelihood resources, improve access to those resources, optimise resilience for various climatic stresses and shocks, and help create adaptation options and livelihood opportunities for selected “archetypical” coastal livelihoods.
4. Tasks for The National Consultant Co-Team Leader (NTL)
4.1. General Responsibilities.
Working collaboratively with the International Consultant Team Leader (IC), the NTL will supervise the team of National consultants and assist them in undertaking the following tasks:
1. Assess climate change (related) policies, strategies and programmes
• Assess policy and programme documents, and documents assessing their implementation in order to understand what was intended and planned in climate change related fields. This includes the National Target Programme (NTP) on Responding to Climate Change, and also the National Disaster Management Strategy, Energy Efficiency NTP, National and Local Agenda 21, and e.g. provincial Integrated Coastal Zone Management documents. Impacts of (some of) those policies and programmes need to be assessed based on the written materials as well as dialogues at the provincial and lower levels.
2. Assess geographic and social-economic information and build climate change scenarios
• Analyse, describe poverty, natural resources, and patterns of natural disasters over the past years, in the two provinces and specifically in the focus localities.
• Review relevant studies, and analysis of existing social economic statistics and data on infrastructure (dikes, roads, harbours), land use and natural resources (agriculture, fisheries, forest, industrialisation, mining, etc.), using GIS.
• Build general climate scenarios from hydrological and weather data, with localised impacts (e.g. changes in weather related floods caused by intense rainfall, typhoons, storm surges, river flooding, drought, sea level rise and saline water intrusion). This will be informed by MONRE who are downscaling global circulation models under different assumptions of economic growth and social-economic equity to portray long term futures that are used in the research.
• Prepare relevant climate change scenario-maps, e.g. for 2050 and 2100, that will be inputs to focus group discussions with officials at different levels, and with teenage boys and girls (who represent society’s aspirations for the future).
3. Identify and select livelihood zones
• Based on “grey literature” including project reports, administrative (social economic) statistical data, research reports and publications, and interviews with provincial and district officials, formulate and map coastal livelihood zones in the two focus provinces – prior to final selection of research communities. Livelihood zones could be characterized by particular livelihood-mixes and weather-related natural disasters as well as gradual impacts of climate change, i.e. where some or several of the following dominate
• Market-oriented agriculture
• Mix of marine fishing and agriculture, perhaps salt collection
• Paid labour in aquaculture
• Many migrant workers sending back remittances
• New settlement with small-scale lagoon fishing
• Artisanal, industrial villages with agriculture or fish processing
• An expanding, nearby town or city and/or large scale tourism industry has provoked major changes in employment make-up, access to land and land and house prices, etc.
• Coastal communities with extensive mangrove that offers some protection from storm surges; and or comparatively good dykes
• Communities with comparatively extensive problems of sands in the coastal belt, including moving dunes that encroach on homesteads and fields
• Communities that experience severe saline water intrusion, and / or challenges of brackish water for maintaining viable coastal agriculture
4. Select ‘archetypical’ livelihoods in livelihood zones, and conduct a climate change impacts-related risk and resilience assessment.
Conduct a qualitative assessment to cover one commune in each of four districts in Ha Tinh and Thua Thien Hue province, to be selected jointly with authorities using criteria of representativeness of communities that face different climate (change) risks and where different livelihood systems are predominant, e.g. relative importance of near shore fisheries, shrimp farming, agriculture, tourism, etc.
• Identify in Ha Tinh and TT Hue four most-at-risk ‘archetypical’ poor coastal communes within agreed livelihood zones; include one (peri-)urban community of four. The following communes could be considered but do not include an urban(ising) situation: Hong Loc commune in Loc Ha District and Ky Ninh commune in Ky Anh District (Ha Tinh); Quang An commune in Tam Giang Lagoon, Quang Dien District, and Vinh Hien commune in Phu Loc District (Thua Thien Hue).
• Develop community profiles based on livelihoods, vulnerability and resilience to shocks – identify key factors of resilience through detailed investigations using time lines of past climate related stresses and shocks; vulnerability, resource, capacity overviews for different social groups, women and men; through Participatory Vulnerability and Adaptation Analysis.
• Conduct participatory research in the selected coastal communes with tools from (a) V&A analysis; (b) HVC Assessment; and (c) PRA. Use the SLF to formulate, refine questions in different research steps (see annex). Based on the data collected, identify the key factors contributing to communities’ resilience to shocks and stresses through the SLF-lens, considering resilience and livelihood opportunities, and data at different scales / levels and from different sources (triangulation). Discuss draft conclusions and recommendations in community meetings and meetings with officials at different levels.
• Evaluate landscape-livelihood interactions to assess support for the supply of quality ecological services in the face of climate changes impacts. A SWOT analysis, for example, could be undertaken of continued provision of the supply of safe drinking water, in light of current water use and allocation policies. Assess changes to regulation, allocation and use needed to ensure security of safe water supplies, especially to the poor.
5. Future visions and “paths to a resilient future”
• Summarise and analyse the provincial vision to 2050 and one to 2100 in light of climatic change, assumptions of national economic growth, and national and international opportunities.
• Develop “paths to a resilient future” (or: long term strategy for responding to climate change) with different assumptions and key measures over time that would enable achieving these visions. This will be informed by climate change scenario-maps that are inputs to focus group discussions with officials at different levels, and with teenage boys and girls (who represent society’s aspirations for the future).
4.2 NTL specific tasks:
The NTL will lead the national team members in the conduct of the following specific tasks:
1. Meet with PMU and IC to clarify the iterative methodological approach to be adopted in the study, and the range of collegial support.
2. Review the project’s study design as set out in the attached paper “Design and methodology of a study on Poverty and Climate Change in Central Viet Nam” and associated materials and annexes.
3. With the assistance of the PEP STA and in collaboration with the IC, finalise the study design within the approved budget, including additional human resource requirements.
4. Prepare a draft work plan and draft work schedule and submit to PMU for approval.
5. Draft, submit to PMU for review, and finalise ToRs for National Consultants.
6. Identify and recommend suitable National Consultants available to assist as required by the study design, for PEP PMU to consider.
7. Work with all team members to clarify roles and responsibilities, build team spirit and implement the amended final study design in the approved manner, closely observing and maintaining the agreed-upon work schedule.
8. conduct a “grey” literature review of policy information and secondary, analytical literature. This will include policy documents in Vietnamese and analysis of climate change-related project implementation and impacts; published articles on change-related coastal livelihood resilience studies from VN and elsewhere. Analyse and, use this information to prepare a draft contextual chapter and to finalise methodological details including concrete questions and issues to be addressed during further steps of the research; use for final analysis of findings.
9. collect suitable geographic (GIS) and social-economic information, and IHMEN downscaled climate change scenarios and conduct grey literature review of policy and analysis relevant to the study.
10. Collect information on, and conduct a preliminary analysis of, climate-related national policies and target programmes etc, including provincial implementation decrees and budget allocation. This should include information on, for example, application and impact of Integrated Coastal Zone Management, Strategic Environmental Assessment (if applied in the province), Local Agenda21, and similar policy instruments.
11. Following selection of livelihood zones (below) review their ecological health, focusing on water resources, to assess climate change impacts on water resources for lives and livelihoods of most at-risk groups (assuming continuation of current trends).
12. at Provincial level, hold initial meetings ((4 days) with TTHue and Ha Tinh provincial and district authorities, information and research centres, and mass organisations prior to the work in districts and communes, in order to introduce the overall study, identify target livelihoods and relevant livelihood zones, identify and confirm district site selection to prepare for the fieldwork, obtain general information on the changes in livelihoods of the people in the past 10 years, and any data on climate change impacts and responses.
a) Review findings of (e), (f,) and (g) above, and start discussing impacts of those policies and programmes, in order to prepare for later feedback discussions / Focus Group Discussions.
b) Draft ToRs and “recruit” selected provincial and district staff of different stakeholder organisations as field researchers at the district/commune level, and include them in a two day exposure / training on analytical frameworks and research methodology.
13. at District level. Briefly (2 days) meet with district authorities and mass organisations prior to the work in communes, in order to introduce the overall study, prepare for the fieldwork, obtain general information on the changes in livelihoods of the people in the past 10 years, and any data on climate change impacts and responses. These data should be studied and detailed methodology of the overall study including fieldwork in communes should be adjusted accordingly. Some of this data will be included in draft sections of the research report.
14. at Commune level. (Briefly (2 days) meet with commune authorities, Village Heads, and commune level mass organisation leaders, in order to introduce the overall study, prepare for the fieldwork in villages, obtain general information on the changes in livelihoods of the people in the past 10 years, and any data on climate change impacts and responses.
a) Select villages for in-depth research based on agreed criteria – minimum 2 villages / commune. These data should be studied and detailed methodology of the overall study including fieldwork in villages should be adjusted accordingly. Some of this data will be included in draft sections of the research report.
b) Prepare a detailed participatory methodology to be applied to the fieldwork in communes. The methodology should reflect issues arising from the data already collected. Apart from semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions, tools to be used could include:
i. Ranking of households on vulnerability and well-being / poverty, by card-sorting
ii. Village mapping, and (related) ranking of hazards, capacities, adaptation options
iii. Trend analysis in climate related stresses and shocks, as well as preparedness and response activities, through seasonal calendars and historical timelines
iv. Venn diagram, net diagram or other, for analysis of institutional links and strengths
v. Matrix ranking/scoring of changes in (natural, social, etc) resources and impacts of climate-related events (shocks), and changes (stresses, e.g. to crops, water supply)
vi. Cause and effect diagram or problem tree to analyse causes and effects, of problems and possible solutions.
vii. Daily activities calendar or matrix, gender & age specific, for different moments in history (this year / season & 5 & 10 years ago, and/or whenever there was a major shock ore period of sustained climatic stress such as repeated longer-than-average droughts.
c) Finalise, with stakeholders, and undertake village-level fieldwork schedule.
15. at Village level (3 days/village)
a) introduce purpose and work plan to village leaders. With these leaders, do vulnerability ranking of households, partly to select “purposefully” the households for in-depth interviews, i.e. across the well-being / vulnerability spectrum, and with different focus of their (household) livelihood systems (agriculture, livestock, near-shore fishing, aquaculture, fishery processing, service providers, wage labourers, migrated household members, employment in tourist or manufacturing industry, etc.).
b) do participatory assessment of hazards, vulnerabilities, and capacities with different social groups, women, men, boys, girls, using jointly made and/or analysed resource and hazard maps (use e.g. the GIS outputs) (in focus groups of e.g. 6-8 people each). Use other tools in semi-structured interviews with individuals, households; focus groups and community meetings.
c) focus analysis on the present / this year first; then analyse jointly how things were in the past (e.g. “retrospective vulnerability ranking”), e.g. 5 years earlier, or in a year or period of major climate-related stress or shock.
d) establish links between social groups “with agency”, meaning social actors who operate with clear common interest, as against groups differentiated by gender, age, income level, or class. Links between (important) social actors should be analysed for specific topics (livelihood & vulnerability related topics), instead of all there is to life, with for example “Venn diagrams”. Such links will extend beyond the geographic location (e.g. business and family ties extend beyond the village) and level (e.g. district and province extension services tend to be important for agriculture and forestry development).
e) Prepare summary report of outcomes of village-level fieldwork.
16. Review and implement the following Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). These FGDs need to be documented immediately:
a) At commune-level, conduct a FGD on the current situation and future scenarios (after work in villages; using GIS and climate change scenario outputs, and findings from villages), with officials from the Commune People’s Committee, Village Heads, and commune leaders, staff of Fatherland Front, Farmers Unions, Women’s Union, Labour Union, and Youth Association.
b) At district-level, conduct two FGDs on the current situation and future scenarios (after work in communes; using GIS and climate change scenario outputs, and findings from communes), with officials from e.g. departments and divisions on NRE & Land; Social Affairs; Planning & Investment; Fisheries, Agriculture and Forestry; Construction; leaders, staff of Fatherland Front Farmers Unions, Women’s Union, Labour Union, and Youth Association; and local NGOs.
c) At Provincial-level conduct three FGDs on the current situation and future scenarios after the work in communes (using GIS and climate change scenario outputs, and findings from communes and districts), with officials from e.g. DONRE & Land Office, DOLISA, DPI, DARD (including fisheries), Extension Centre, Construction (especially re urbanising communities); leaders, staff of Fatherland Front Farmers Unions, Women’s Union, Labour Union, and Youth Association; and local NGOs; researchers and experts, e.g. from Hue University and (provincial) higher colleges private / business sector representatives, of companies with major operations in the province including upmarket resorts and manufacturing industry. Immediately document FGDs outcomes.
17. A review, after completion of work in provinces, of the methodology for final analysis and feedback at national level with project stakeholders to address the following:
a) do analysis of all data;
b) compile draft report in Vietnamese, and assist the IC in preparing this draft Report in English and present it to national stakeholder consultation workshop with some representatives from provinces and district included, notably those who participated in the field work.
18. Incorporate feedback from the stakeholder consultation workshop at the national level
19. Submit Final Report.
5. Deliverables
• Finalised Study Design
• Work plan and work schedule
• Outcomes of grey literature review.
• Secondary data analysis
• Primary raw data and data analysis
• Minutes of discussions with all stakeholder groups.
• List of people consulted.
• Draft report and PowerPoint presentation in English and Vietnamese
• Final report in English and Vietnamese
6. Reporting lines and requirements
The Consultant will report directly to the Project Manager and PMU of PEP, and closely consult with the STA.
Draft and Final reports are to be in English and Vietnamese.
7. Qualifications and experience
National Consultant:
– Postgraduate degree in disaster risk reduction, environmental economics, natural resource management, or a relevant climate change-related field in Viet Nam or similar developing country required.
– Experience in working as part of a Team, able to work harmoniously with a wide range of stakeholders is required.
– Experience in reviewing and analysing social and environmental data required.
– Experience in hazard and vulnerability analysis, disaster risk reduction, use of PRA tools, poverty-reduction, sustainable livelihood development in Vietnam an advantage.
– Excellent computer literacy and English and Vietnamese language speaking and writing skills required.
– Competency in using climate-change related modelling and analytical software an advantage
– Knowledge of the policy and institutional framework related to climate change adaptation in Viet Nam an advantage
Interested candidates can send an application letter and CV to email address: pep.vn@undp.org
