Consultant - Community Participatory Assessment on Access to Climate Change Mitigation Adaptation and Agroecology Support at ActionAid Nigeria

Contract: Short Term

Background
ActionAid Nigeria in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation - Abuja Office is working on Promoting Public Finance for Agroecology. Climate change poses major challenges to agriculture in Nigeria. Impacts range from desertification in the north to an increase of extreme climate events such as droughts and floods across the country, depriving smallholder farmers of land and destroying crops.

With a 25.2 percent contribution to Nigeria’s GDP and employing about two-thirds of the labour force, agriculture is a major backbone of the country’s economy. Women farmers constitute 60–80 per cent of the agricultural labour force. However, their access to credit, inputs, training and advice, technology, crop insurance, etc. remains poor. Despite the crucial role they play in society, smallholder women farmers are hardly involved in local, states and national decision and policy making.

Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) made under the Paris Agreement embodies the country’s efforts to reduce national emissions and to adapt to the effects of climate change. If fully implemented, these efforts will pave way for a low carbon and climate resilient economy. However, government action towards these commitments is perceived to be poor.

Meanwhile, agroecology offers an important nature-based solution to the challenge of feeding the world in an era of climate change. By working with nature, increasing biodiversity and avoiding harmful agrochemicals, agroecology improves resilience to climate change and reduces the greenhouse gas emissions released in the process of producing agrochemicals and growing food.

Against this backdrop, this project, in close collaboration with the Small-Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON), seeks to analyse the budgetary allocations and actual expenditure of the Nigerian government at national and state level on line items that would contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation in the agricultural and environmental sectors. Smallholder women farmers will also develop community score cards on their access to government support on climate change mitigation, adaptation and agroecology.

Therefore, the Food and Agriculture Team intends to work with community and citizens groups and a consultant to carry out the assessment in Ondo, Kwara, Delta, Gombe, FCT, Bauchi, Kogi and Ebonyi States.

Objectives of the Assessment:

• To provide in-depth analysis of the budget allocations and actual investments and expenditures from 2015 - 2019 to uncover the extent of government’s budgetary commitment to climate adaptation and mitigation and agroecology.
• To scrutinize identified allocations and expenditures for their potential for and/ or actual support of agroecological farming practices among smallholder farmers especially women.
• To review the gender responsiveness, accessibility, adequacy, appropriateness, usefulness and timeliness of climate change mitigation, adaptation and agroecological support to smallholder women farmers due to climate change or other eventuality.
• To assess to what extent the objectives of the government’s spending on climate change mitigation, adaptation and agroecology have been achieved and or met its set targets.
• To determine if smallholders especially women were involved in the design and priority setting for programmes on climate change mitigation, adaptation and agroecology.
• Ascertain the level of government expenditure on climate change mitigation, adaptation and agroecology that specifically targets and supports smallholder women farmers in the respective states.
• To provide the needed information that will enable smallholder farmers especially women, CSOs and citizens to effectively engage with the government on public financing for agroecology, climate change mitigation and adaptation.
• To work with, mobilise and support smallholder farmers, especially women, CSOs and citizens to effectively engage with the government on public financing for agroecology, climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Methodology
A two-prong approach will be employed involving desk reviews/document analysis and key informant interviews and community participatory approach using the score card tool and involving direct assessment by and with supposed beneficiaries. The assessment will be undertaken across eight states (Ondo, Kwara, Delta, Gombe, FCT, Bauchi, Kogi and Ebonyi States), focusing on national and local expenditure in each state and harmonization of the national level analysis with ActionAid Nigeria.

For the participatory approach, ActionAid Nigeria’s Food and Agriculture Team and Partners will facilitate a Focus Group discussion with the farmers on the one hand and the providers of the services on the other hand (government) to develop the community score cards after which the consultant will analyse the data.

The FGD is aimed at developing criteria and grading system for assessing the government’s agricultural services provision. Information thus generated would be put together in the form of a scorecard for each participating state. Thereafter an interface meeting will be held with both groups to ensure feedback.

The desk reviews / document analysis and key informant interviews will focus:

• States Level Budget analysis of allocations and actual investments and expenditures covering the years from 2015 - 2019 of the State Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), National Agency for the Great Green Wall, and the Ecological Fund Office but not limited to:
• Budget Analysis of the budget allocations and actual investments and expenditures from 2015 – 2019 to uncover the extent of government’s budgetary commitment to climate adaptation and mitigation and agroecology
• Percentage of allocations from the total State Government budget of the mentioned ministries and agencies from 2015 - 2019
• Extent of State Government's adherence to International Commitments in the allocations
• Percentage of Recurrent and Capital Expenditure from 2015 - 2019 Budget of the ministries and agencies
• Real Value of budget allocations from 2015 - 2019 considering nominal value, deflator/inflation, shortfall, etc.
• Allocations & Expenditures to critical sub-sectors on climate change adaptation, mitigation and agroecology of the State Ministries and Agencies to be covered
• Questionable Budget Items and Expenditures in the budgets from 2015 - 2019

Outputs and Deliverables:

• The overall output is a comprehensive evidence base for advocacy for increased public financing of agroecological approaches in agriculture as a nature-based solution for promoting climate change adaptation and mitigation in Nigeria.

Required Profile
The Consultant (She/he) to be recruited should have the following experience:

• A good understanding and practical experience of development work including advanced skills in Public Finance Analysis/Budget Analysis in Climate Change, Environment and Agriculture
• Be a graduate of Economics, Statistics or any related field (Master's / Ph.D or Professor preferred)
• Have at least a minimum of 7 years experience in carrying out such an assignment and capacity for budget analysis (a report of such work done in the last 2 years is a required evidence)
• Experience in developing tools for Community Participatory Assessments of Government Expenditures
• Experience in developing tools for the development of Community Score Cards
• Excellent facilitation and writing skills (keeping it simplified)
• Computer literate and able to apply Microsoft Office and other analytical tools efficiently
• An excellent team worker.

Reporting Lines:

• The Food and Agriculture Programme Coordinator will provide technical oversight to the Consultant during the work
• The consultant shall be responsible for pulling together the report and documents for submission to the Food and Agriculture Programme Coordinator at ActionAid Nigeria who will confirm reports satisfactory before balance payments are made.

Payment

• The Consultant shall be paid daily consultancy fee of N50, 000. Fifty percent of the total sum shall be paid in advance at the beginning of the consultancy period
• The balance of 50% will be paid when the final reports have been submitted and signed off by the Director Programmes.
• ActionAid will deduct 5% withholding tax from the total sum in accordance with the Nigeria tax law for onward remittance to the Federal Inland Revenue Service.

Interested and qualified candidates should send their Expression of Interest and Profile in one Microsoft word document to: Procurement.Nigeria@actionaid.org using the Job Title as the subject of the mail.

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Note

• Applications should be sent in one Microsoft word document or may be disqualified
• Only selected the applicant would be contacted.