FOR TDEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF KEY INDIGENOUS DIVERSITY, EQUALITY AND INCLUSION (IDEI) ACTIVITIES

Indigenous Peoples Alliance for Rights and Development – IPARD

Cooperative Agreement No. 7200AA20CA00013

REQUEST FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES

FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF KEY INDIGENOUS DIVERSITY, EQUALITY AND INCLUSION (IDEI) ACTIVITIES

1. IPARD PROGRAM INFORMATION
2. BACKGROUND

In 2019, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) established the FSC Indigenous Foundation (FSC-IF) as the operational office of the Permanent Indigenous Peoples Committee (PIPC). FSC-IF, recognized under Panama’s Law No. 25 of June 12, 1995, is a private interest foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to create an environment that safeguards the rights of Indigenous Peoples and advocates for sustainable forest-based solutions across 300 million hectares of Indigenous Peoples’ forests worldwide. The vision is to integrate Indigenous Peoples’ global values, rights, livelihoods, ecosystem services, natural capital, and communities into forest governance, climate change governance, and market systems.

Indigenous Peoples Alliance for Rights & Development

The FSC-IF is the implementing agency of the five-year Global Development Alliance (GDA) program funded by USAID and FSC—the Indigenous Peoples Alliance for Rights & Development (IPARD). The IPARD Program is guided by three development objectives:

● Objective 1: To organize and convene a capacity building program for Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and stakeholders;

● Objective 2: To foster an enabling environment for the recognition, effective participation and joint decision-making by Indigenous Peoples in matters affecting them; and

● Objective 3: Promote the sustainable development of Indigenous Peoples based on sustainable economic models.

IPARD uses three interconnected approaches to support Indigenous Peoples in overcoming their development challenges:

1. Multi-Sectoral Approach (MSA): Under the strategic guidance of IPARD’s Steering Committee (SC), the Program convenes and leverages the expertise of multi-sectoral partners to ensure that the needs of Indigenous communities are considered across a wide range of sectors.
2. Country-Focused Approach (CFA): IPARD’s programmatic strategy is guided by a country-focused approach, driven by specific national contexts related to Indigenous Peoples. IPARD implements a structured process to identify, evaluate and select countries for its programs. FSC-IF works in conjunction with the IPARD Steering Committee, and according to the guidelines of the multi-sectoral approach, in order to select countries and identify key priorities and strategies.
3. Indigenous Project Management Approach (IPMA): Leveraging FSC-IF’s networks and relationships with Indigenous leaders and organizations around the world, IPARD seeks ongoing dialogue, consultation, and feedback with Indigenous Peoples to inform the Program. IPARD supports a forum through which the FSC-IF serves as a bridge between Indigenous Peoples, technical partners, national governments, and the private sector. IPARD invests in best practice conservation and effective approaches and methodologies to ensure strategic cohesion of partnerships at various levels.

Through these three approaches, IPARD aims to empower Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and catalyze an enabling environment where Indigenous Peoples can pursue their development.

FSC Indigenous Foundation

We are Indigenous Peoples; our strategies and our future actions are shaped by ancestral knowledge, practices, cosmovision, values, and respect for Mother Earth and our past. We as FSC-IF are providers of Indigenous-based solutions, and our ancestral knowledge and traditions have driven Indigenous-based solutions for centuries. We are Indigenous Peoples; we are the owners of Indigenous-based solutions to global challenges, and the FSC Indigenous Foundation is the global vehicle to design, manage, facilitate, and scale up Indigenous-led solutions through multi-sectoral partnerships. FSC-IF is shaped to respond to key challenges and opportunities faced by Indigenous Peoples to achieve their self-development, self-governance, and self-reliance. Driven by this perspective, the way we operate differs from traditional organizational planning because our cultural and traditional way of thinking, acting, and interacting do not fit into a pre-determined Western tradition of thoughts, organizational management, or governance.

We are committed to work driven by our values of being guided by and supporting Indigenous Peoples’ values of: 1) Respect for Mother Earth—Managing our lands, waters, and ecosystems with great respect to nature and care by recognizing that we only borrow them from future generations and 2) Respect for ancestral knowledge—Keeping our promises to our ancestors to manage nature and the resources provided by the Mother Earth in a sustainable and respectful way.

1. CONTEXT

The FSC -IF has in its current Global Strategy 2023 – 2027 made Indigenous Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (IDEI) an important stand-alone component of its programming, hence the ‘Indigenous Social Inclusion and Intersectionality for Sustainability’ a cross cutting programmatic area. In this regard, FSC-IF seeks to ensure that social and marginalized groups such as women, youth, the elderly etc. are not left behind. Our Indigenous Women’s Economic Empowerment (I-WEE) initiative in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as well as our project on Promoting Socio Economic Empowerment among Ogiek Women of Mau, Kenya, are some of our efforts to generate enabling environments for women and girls’ active participation and advocacy and to strengthen their productive capacities.

To kick-start our IDEI work, the FSC-IF has identified key activities for immediate implementation. FSC-IF now seeks to recruit a IDEI consultant or consultancy firm to support the FSC-IF in developing and implementing these activities considering Indigenous women’s cosmovision and sociocultural context. Under the supervision of the IPARD Deputy Program Director and in collaboration with the IPARD Team, the consultancy will deliver on the following activities through a co-creation process with Indigenous women via virtual interviews, focus group and workshop to incorporate their Indigenous cosmovision, values and culture.:

• Capacity building for the FSC-IF staff on IDEI issues and approaches;
• Mainstreaming of IDEI into the FSC-IF documents;
• Mainstreaming of IDEI into the IPARD and I-WEE documents and Programs; and
• Developing the IDEI policy for the FSC-IF Global Strategy

The consultant or consultancy firm will be expected to develop a plan and methodology for the development and implementation of the identified key IDEI activities.

1. OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY AND EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

General objective

The purpose of this consultancy is to support the FSC-IF with the development and implementation of key identified IDEI activities considering Indigenous women’s cosmovision and sociocultural context (listed in the specific objectives below).

Specific Objectives:

1. Develop tools in a participatory and co-creative way with Indigenous women for capacity building for all FSC-IF staff (leadership and team) on IDEI issues and approaches and identify other key partners and stakeholders that will support with these trainings such as USAID and FSC.

2. Analyze FSC-IF internal documents to identify gaps in IDEI responsiveness and develop tools in a participatory and co-creative way with them for IDEI mainstreaming to address these gaps. These documents include the Human Resources manual, Communication Strategy, Monitoring, Evaluation and Social Learning (MESL)s Framework, governance structure at FSC-IF and FSC-IF Council level, Financial Manual, Gender policy, Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH) manual, Travel Policy and Procedures, etc.

3. Evaluate our current IPARD and I-WEE Programs to determine their IDEI responsiveness and develop tools in a participatory and co-creative way with Indigenous women for their IDEI mainstreaming.

4. Develop ToRs for data collection in Africa, Asia and Latin America for the development of an IDEI Policy that will form an annex of the FSC-IF Global Strategy 2023 – 2027.

5. Work with the FSC-IF Monitoring Evaluation & Social Learning (MESL) Specialist to develop a plan to monitor and evaluate the development and implementation of the IDEI identified key activities.

Expected Deliverable:

1. Workplan and methodology to implement the consultancy, considering Indigenous women participation.
2. Training tools and capacity development of IPARD and FSC-IF staff.
3. Mainstreaming tools and IDEI mainstreaming of FSC-IF internal documents.
4. Mainstreaming tools and IDEI mainstreaming of IPARD and I-WEE Programs.
5. IDEI Policy to be annexed to the FSC-IF Global Strategy.
6. A Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for the identified IDEI activities.

Profile of the Offeror

• A consultant or consultancy firm with a team of IDEI experts with Master´s degree in Indigenous studies, social sciences, gender studies, community development, peacebuilding or other relevant field;
• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience managing and implementing development activities, including those related to gender integration and inclusion in Indigenous Peoples’ contexts;
• More than 5 years of experience working in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples or indigenous communities.
• Experience engaging men on gender-related issues;
• Demonstrated ability to influence, motivate and collaborate with others;
• Experience with gender equality, social inclusion and Indigenous People’s analyses.
• Knowledge of behavior change methodologies to promote the participation of men in reducing gender gaps;
• Knowledgeable about laws and regulations regarding human-rights and especially Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
• Demonstrated cultural awareness and sensitivity to the diversity of values, views and approaches to issues relevant to the FSC-IF and Indigenous Peoples.
• Being a member of an Indigenous community would be a plus.
• Strong oral and written communication in English and Spanish and French would be added values.

Technical and financial proposal

The proposal must include a technical proposal with the methodology and timeline that will be used to complete the consultancy. The technical proposal should also include the methodology to use in the building capacity process, data collection method, obstacles that might come up during the consultancy, ways to mitigate them, and a consultation and consent process with IPOs and how to involve them in the development and implementation process of the IDEI activities.

The financial proposal should include a budget, explaining each line item. All financial proposals should include taxes when applicable and explicitly note it in the budget.

Coordination

The consultant or consultancy firm will coordinate the expected work with the IPARD Program Deputy Director who will serve as the liaison with the FSC-IF Council and the IPARD Program Director and all the other stakeholders involved with this consultancy. During and at the end of the consultancy development, the consultant or consultancy firm may be asked to present results to key stakeholders, including the FSC-IF Council, the IPARD Steering Committee, the Forest Stewardship Council and USAID, as needed. A final electronic report in English will be submitted at the end of the consultancy.

Conditions for payments of the products:

The products must be authorized by the FSC-IF Council in order to proceed with payment. All products must be delivered in digital format.

Deliverable

Payment

Workplan and methodology

10%

Training tools and capacity building of IPARD and FSC-IF staff

16%

Mainstreaming tools and IDEI mainstreaming of FSC-IF Internal documents

16%

Mainstreaming tools and IDEI mainstreaming of IPARD and I-WEE programs

16%

IDEI Policy to be annexed to the FSC-IF Global Strategy

16%

Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for the identified IDEI activities

16%

Final report

10%

Duration of the assignment

The assignment is expected to be completed within 9 months from the day of the contract signature.

Intellectual property rights, patents and other proprietary rights

The Indigenous Foundation shall be entitled to all intellectual property and other proprietary rights including but not limited to: patents, copyrights and trademarks, with respect to products, processes, inventions, ideas, know-how, documents and other materials prepared or collected by the consultant in consequence of or in the course of the performance of this consulting engagement, and the consultant acknowledges and agrees that such products, documents and other materials constitute work performed under the Indigenous Foundation’s engagement.

All material, information or knowledge shared by Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations and Indigenous leaders will be kept strictly confidential and cannot be used for any purpose other than for the development and implementation of the Indigenous-focused gender inclusion plan. This material, knowledge and information is protected by national and international intellectual property rights protection regulations.

Interested candidates should submit a proposal including:

• Methodology
• CV of the consultants
• Chronogram
• Budget (including taxes)

Deadline for submission of proposal

Four weeks