Capacity Building on Climate Change Adaptation (CCA)
and Vulnerability Assessment(VA), Cameroon

Terms of References

Location: Cameroon

Duration: 10 days

Type of consultant: National independent consultant

1. Background

Rising temperatures and increasing unpredictable climate patterns are threatening biodiversity and livelihoods around the globe. Climate change has the potential to destabilize both economies and societies, compounding other environmental challenges and undermining sustainable development effortsi. It has been substantially demonstrated that mangroves are sensitive to projected climate changeii the primary impact likely to be rising sea level, affecting inundation period, productivity and sediment budgets to cause dieback from the seaward edge and migration landward, subject to topography, and human modificationsiii . The Cameroon National Adaptation Plan (NAPCC) has four main strategic axes which includes Strategic Axis 1: Improving knowledge on climate change - Strategic Axis 2: Informing, educating, and mobilizing the Cameroonian population to adapt to climate change - Strategic Axis 3: Reducing the vulnerability to climate change in the country's main agro ecological sectors and zones - Strategic Axis 4: Integrate adaptation to climate change into national sectoral strategies and policies. This activities and work of WWF Cameroon country programme office aim at contributing towards these strategic pillars of which the WWF Cameroon programme is aligned and also towards the WWF climate and energy practice strategy and the Africa Adaptation Initiative strategy.

In order to bring about a world where people live in harmony with nature, efforts are being made to understand the level of vulnerability of ecosystems and humans in the face of rapidly changing climate in different ecosystem systems. The planning of efforts to addressing impacts of climate change requires the knowledge of the level of vulnerability, the current coping capacity of local population and ecosystems.

Moreover, Climate change adaptation—the process of adjusting to the changing climate and its cascading impacts, seeks to reduce the vulnerability and build resilience of people and nature to the current and anticipated effects of climate change while managing the uncertainties of the future. To do this, it is paramount to know how different communities – ecosystems and people are vulnerable to climate change in order to better inform management decisions. It is in this respect that WWF Cameroon has opted to facilitate the process of analyzing climate change vulnerability within the context of people and ecosystems, specifically starting with a pilot in the mangrove ecosystems, as it constitutes one of the hard-hit areas on climate change (NAP, 2016).

The first major step in the vulnerability assessment had been on assessing the capacity of stakeholders (local communities, CSOs, government institutions) in climate change adaptation and the gaps which has recently been conducted in the southwest region of Cameroon, host to a significant amount of Cameroon’s mangroves, including the Ndongere (Bakassi mangroves zone and part of the Tiko-Douala component of the mangroves).

With the current knowledge on the level of capacity and gap in conducting vulnerability assessment, a capacity building training workshop on climate change adaptation in general and tips in conducting a vulnerability assessment are planned. Also, an important component of the workshop is equipping journalists with tools and techniques of reporting climate change in Cameroon’s media. Most often, journalists who report it, are baffled on how to gather and constructively disseminate legitimate information on climate change and climate adaptation. This is the result of the lack of basic scientific/technical knowledge on climate change reporting.

Overall, the training will provide an opportunity for participants to enhance their knowledge and gain skills on climate change in general and issues of adaptation and vulnerability assessment in particular. Aspects of climate change financing mechanisms will be strongly embedded.

2. Objective:

The workshop aims at providing participants with the required basic knowledge about CC, CCA and VA, including methodology and tools, focusing largely on the mangroves ecosystem. More specifically, the consultant will be required to cover the following aspect of the training:

• The General Introduction to CCA concepts and principles including definition of key terminologies
• The different Climate risk and assessment
• How to Mainstream climate change into projects and programs?
• The Introduction to the goal and objective of VA
• The guides to defining the scope of a VA, including the existing tools in gathering information on Vulnerability Assessment
• The different Climate financing mechanisms, pros and cos.
• Reporting guide on CCA to Journalists

3. Methodology:

The training will emphasize on interaction between the trainers and participants and more importantly among the trainees themselves where experiences are shared in group as well as plenary sessions. Trainees will be organized around sector specific issues and areas such as agriculture, energy and environment in order to ensure trainees have the opportunity to share and learn from each other on sectoral issues and challenges. Journalists will be led through several introductory topics regarding climate change and adaptation. Through a participatory approach, the consultant will present the final outline approach during a half day working session for adoption. Emphasis in the one-day training of Journalist shall center on effective communication in the different media landscapes.

4. Workshop sessions

The workshop will be in two sessions. The first session (maximum of 20 participants) that will last for four days will include, CSOs, Government line ministries, universities’ representatives, research institutions and WWF staff. The second session will be entirely for journalists. (maximum of 15 journalists) will last for a day.

The first two days of the first session will be focused on introduction to climate change adaptation; while the last two days will dwell on vulnerability assessment. Finally, the second session, which is one day, will focused on the climate change adaptation reporting for journalists.

The first session of the workshop will bring together a maximum of 20 participants targeting members of CSOs, Government line ministries, representatives from universities, research institutions and WWF staff. A maximum of 15 journalists are expected in the last session of the workshop.

5. Responsibility of the consultant and profile

The responsibility of the consultant will include but not limited to;
I. Advise /propose a complete training agenda to cover 05 days as per the targeted participants mentioned in item 04 and objective highlighted in 02 above.
II. Work with the organizers to conclude the final agenda
III. Prepare and deliver the training as per adopted training agenda
IV. Prepare a detail report of the training workshop

The consultant should have;

• At least 3-5 years of relevant work experience at the national or international level in policy development and analysis, development, public relations, communications, media and/or environmental advocacy
• Strong awareness of the global and Cameroon national context of climate change and climate change adaptation
• Strong background in capacity building and training on conservation-related work, including CC and CCA
• Experience as a workshop facilitator
• Excellent knowledge of English and French (both spoken and written)

Team members may not be required fulltime, but must be available for the assignment proper. Any deviation in the methodology, scope, personnel or budget from that accepted in the consultant’s contract must be approved in writing by WWF-Cameroon before such change takes effect. The lead consultant contracted for the assignment is ultimately responsible for the expected outputs, deliverables and their quality.

6. Expected Outcomes:

At the end of the workshop, participants should gain knowledge on:

• Climate Change and Climate Change Adaptation concepts and principles
• Mainstreaming climate change adaptation agendas in conservation and development planning
• Cameroon journalists are equipped with basic tools and techniques of reporting climate change facts
• Relevance of Vulnerability Assessment
• The different climate finance mechanisms….

7. Expected output

Training materials taught and shared with all the participants
A detail training workshop Inception report including a plan of action with a detailed framework of activities, methodology to be applied, schedule etc.
A final report detailing the achievement of the expected outcomes, lessons learned and recommendations to WWF, CCPO. The data and information presented in the report should be appropriately disaggregated. The report is expected to be in good English and suitable for an international audience. Texts should be in MS Word, tables in Excel and images in JPEG format. WWF Cameroon will formally approve the inception report before the consultant engages with the training.

8. Tentative Timeframe:

Tentatively, the workshop will run consecutively during the week of November 11th -16th 2018.

The consultancy is expected to cover a period of 10 days distributed as follows;

I. Preparation of the workshop (2.5 days)
II. Briefing of the organizing team and adoption of final program of the week (0.5 day)
III. Training workshop (05 days)
IV. Reporting (02days)

9. Financial offer guide:

The consultancy fees shall be calculated on a fixed number of days (see duration above). The operational fees (national travel, lodging and subsistent for a maximum of two persons) shall be calculated based on the WWF Cameroon travel policy. NB: international travels cannot be covered. Any other related cost should be notified in the financial offer for reimbursement.

10. Expression of interest

Interested applicants shall submit the following:

• A technical offer indicating the applicant’s expertise and experience in relation to the subject of the Consultancy highlighting appropriate methodological approach.
• A financial offer indicating the expertise fees;
• Brief Curriculum vitae,
• References for similar previous assignments.
• A clear statement describing why the consultant is a suitable candidate;
• Brief outputs of at last two similar assignments;
• A clear methodology/procedure for implementing the training;
• A work plan that provides a breakdown and a logical sequencing of activities, including timeframe;
• A detailed budget (consultancy fees, travel costs, subsistence allowances, activity costs, etc.), including rates (hourly and/or man days) and time spent by each team member on each assignment.

Applications shall be sent by email to recruit-cam@wwfcam.org, copying Gbuh@wwfcam.org with subject "CC/CCA/VA Capacity building workshop".

Application Deadline: 30th October, 2018

The highest or lowest cost bidder may not necessarily be awarded this contract. Overall cost and best value for the budget will be strongly considered. WWF is under no obligation to issue a contract as a result of the call for tenders.