Consultant - Harmonization of COMITAS Conflict and Natural Resources Management and Service Delivery Action Plan at Mercy Corps Nigeria

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we collaborate to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within, now and for the future. In Nigeria, Mercy Corps works in 13 states within the key thematic areas of humanitarian response, conflict mitigation and adolescent girls’ empowerment.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - Harmonization of COMITAS Conflict and Natural Resources Management and Service Delivery Action Plan

Locations: Adamawa & Taraba
Employment Type: Contract
Total Level of Effort: 40 days

Job Summary

• We are looking for Consultants to Facilitate Natural Resource Management Planning and Implementation – Consultancy Service for Harmonizing Conflict and Natural Resource Management and Service Delivery Action Plan in Adamawa and Taraba States (22 project communities, 9 LGAs)

Background

• Mercy Corps has been present in Nigeria since 2012, focusing its interventions on humanitarian assistance, economic development, conflict mitigation and peacebuilding. Considering the emerging trends of conflicts across different regions in the country, many communities continue to grapple with intense insecurity, displacements, and threats to livelihoods, particularly in Nigeria’s North-East.
• While Mercy Corps started its humanitarian response in the region in 2014 to address rising humanitarian needs, the persistence of the crisis in the region influenced the organisation’s strategy to expand towards addressing the root causes of the conflict and pursue the building of long-term resilience capacities of communities. This strategy utilises integrated program approaches that focus on the intersection of governance, the recovery of markets and livelihoods, improving social cohesion and local conflict management, increasing community protection, and promoting food security, youth empowerment, and social inclusion.
• The competition for access and use of scarce natural resources continues to escalate violent conflicts between farmer and herder communities in Nigeria’s Adamawa and Taraba States. While there are other tensions between these groups, several sources prioritise that the struggle to control economically viable land and water resources exacerbates resource-based conflicts in these States. Moreover, even though these economic and social factors influence conflict intensity, variations, and the quality of social cohesion across farmer and herder communities, the impacts of these conflicts also affect their livelihoods.
• The findings of several conflict and natural resource mapping reveal that resource-based conflicts also impact a clear visualisation of opportunities for transforming resource-based violence and improving resource-related service delivery, interdependence, and collaboration.
• These opportunities will enhance collaborative problem-solving between farmers and herders, strengthen community-government relationships towards de-escalating protracted resource-based conflicts, and improve collaborative natural resource management in communities.

Project Description

• Following a clear understanding of the varying drivers of resource-based conflicts between farmers and herders, the COMITAS II project was conceptualised to provide strategic responses to transform the conflicts over shared natural resources between farmer and herder communities.
• This project builds on the comparative strengths of each consortium partner – the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Search for Common Ground (SFCG), and Mercy Corps (MC) – to strengthen early warning and response mechanisms. Most notably, while the project uses IOM’s long-standing experience in flow monitoring and data analysis to facilitate the identification of early warning signals that arise from transhumance activities in Adamawa and Taraba states, it also leverages SFCG’s expertise in community mobilization to mobilize early responses to the early warning signals through established Conflict Resolution Networks (CRNs) in the project communities. Meanwhile, to ensure that early warning signals related to competition over natural resources are addressed through this project, MC leverages its strength and experience in enhancing farmer and herder communities’ capacity to negotiate resource-based conflicts and collaborate over natural resource management to strengthen the capacity of Natural Resource Management Committees (NRMCs). These NRMCs design and lead locally-led negotiation and action plans to address the drivers of resource-based conflicts between farmers and herders. The NRMCs also work closely with the CRNs to develop local solutions to threats that could escalate conflicts associated with shared natural resources.

The project has the following four specific objectives:

• Strengthen traditional conflict resolution.
• Improve trust in authorities.
• Enhance collaboration on natural resource management.
• Improve intra and inter-communal perceptions.

Consultancy Objectives:

• In support of objective 3, Mercy Corps’ component in the program, a series of activities to develop community-based conflict, natural resource management, and service delivery action plans were implemented.
• These activities resulted from MC’s capacity building for Natural Resource Management Committees (NRMCs) and local authorities. The capacity-building activities strengthened the negotiation and mediation capacities of NRMCs and local authorities to mitigate natural resource conflicts and engage in natural resource planning and management actions between farmers and herders.
• Through interest-based negotiation and mediation (IBN+M) capacity building and natural resource action planning, NRMCs, their communities, and local authorities have become more informed about their natural resource priorities and crucial strategies for managing shared natural resources and resource-based conflicts.
• They are also raising awareness of collaborative natural resource use and management initiatives and climate change mitigation and prioritising sustainable concrete solutions – i.e., quick impact projects (QIPs) – that will enhance peaceful coexistence, mutuality and reciprocity between farmer and herder communities.
• Following the capacity building of NRMCs and local authorities in IBN+M, MC facilitated resource-related service delivery and conflict and natural resource management action planning sessions with NRMCs, their communities, and local authorities in Adamawa and Taraba States.
• The action plan activity enabled project communities and local authorities to identify shared natural resource issues, prioritise options to address the identified resource-based conflicts and determine the processes, stakeholders, and resources required to implement community-level natural resource management, conflict mitigation, and service delivery actions. Therefore, Mercy Corps is seeking a consultant to conduct the following set of activities:
  • Analyse and harmonise the conflict, natural resource management, and service delivery action plans developed by project communities and local authorities in Adamawa and Taraba States.
  • Identify and assess relevant national and state natural resource management and service delivery frameworks.
  • Provide analytical recommendations for policy implementation, programming, and collaborative action between communities, government institutions, and Mercy Corps.
  • Contribute to developing a harmonised conflict and natural resource management and service delivery action plan document.

Required Experience & Skills
The ideal Consultant will possess the following experience and skills:

• 3+ years of experience conducting trainings and designing and facilitating action planning activities.
• Demonstrated expertise in governance, conflict management and peacebuilding, and natural resource management.
• Profound knowledge of farmer and herder conflicts in Adamawa and Taraba States. Knowledge of project locations will be value-added.
• Strong writing and communication skills, especially for publication purposes.

Reporting: The Consultant will report to Mercy Corps’ COMITAS Program Manager. However, s/he will work closely with the Natural Resources Management Advisor.

Application Closing Date
1st August, 2024.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified consultant or consulting firm should send their Application to: [email protected] using “RFQ082_Consultant for Harmonization of COMITAS Conflict and Natural Resources Management and Service Delivery Action Plan in 9 LGAs in Adamawa and Taraba State” as the subject of the mail.

Note

• Submit the following
  • CV and cover letter detailing relevant training and writing experience(s) related to governance, conflict management and peacebuilding.
  • A Detailed workplan for the consultancy Services
  • Budget or Financial Proposal
• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.
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• Safeguarding & Ethics: Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our stakeholders and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venue