Governance And Social Stability Specialist

Lebanon Reforestation Initiative Terms of Reference Governance and Social Stability Specialist   I. INTRODUCTION Project Background Information The Lebanon Reforestation Initiative (LRI) is a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the United States Forest Service (USFS) that provides technical assistance and institutional support for sustainable native tree reforestation and wildfire management. With administrative offices in Beirut, LRI technical experts manage a multi-year work program of activities throughout Lebanon in collaboration with grassroots organizations and local communities. Governance and social stability Recent economic, social and environmental developments have increased attention given to the role that good governance and sustainable engagement of local communities plays in achieving long-term development goals. Reforestation being a long-term process that requires continuous follow-up and good management, active community involvement and community ownership of this process becomes crucial for its success. LRI seeks to ensure a process of community involvement and local community-based governance that enables interested local citizens or stakeholders to meet on equal terms to facilitate a participatory decision making process. The goal is to provide local communities and their constituent stakeholders with ownership of the project to help promote success and longer-term sustainability. With the increasing Syrian refugee crisis, and the consequent accentuation of environmental and socio-economic issues in Lebanese rural areas, LRI also seeks to facilitate dialogue between the local communities of different backgrounds, and between host communities and Syrian refugees,  to support them in assessing their common environmental concerns and jointly planning solutions to those common problems.  II. PURPOSE OF THE CONSULTANCY LRI seeks a full time Governance and Social Stability Specialist to work together with LRI staff to help promote community ownership and governance of reforestation projects in each of three (3) regions of Lebanon where LRI is working to expand its reforestation activities on a biocorridor level.  The Governance and Social Stability Specialist will focus on establishing sustainable community environmental committees in each town included in LRI’s reforestation activities as well as biocorridor environmental committees in each of the three biocorridors (North, West Beqaa and Chouf), promoting local ownership of reforestation efforts and supporting them to develop their own community engagement plans, defining common environmental issues and advocating for them, and to identifying ways of bringing neighboring communities together over reforestation efforts, with emphasis on communities hosting large numbers of Syrian refugees.   The Specialist is expected to perform the following duties: Develop a governance and social stability strategy that builds upon the stakeholder engagement conducted to date by LRI and its partners; Identify key local stakeholders as “champions,” building upon LRI-initiated community development plans in communities where LRI has initiated reforestation projects; Building upon previous community engagement work, organize stakeholder mobilization meetings and workshops to help form community interest groups in three regions/biocorridors that can serve as a governance board for the environmental activities on each biocorridor; Help integrate into community interest group activities multiple objectives of LRI community engagement, including outplanting, fire management, environmental education, etc.; Facilitate the development of work plans for each interest group; Facilitate regular meetings of interest groups to support their activities; Support local authorities by facilitating regular stakeholder dialogue in an open and transparent manner; Support the biocorridor interest groups in advocating for their common environmental issues; Assess the social interactions between neighboring communities in the identified biocorridors and help create linkages between both through dialogue and joint planning for activities; Assess the social interactions between the Syrian refugees and the local communities and help create linkages between both through dialogue and joint planning for activities; Coordinate the collection and interpretation of community mobilization, governance and social stability best practice and other social data and make them available to community interest groups to enrich their efforts; Develop a monitoring and evaluation plan for community engagement and benefits to be monitored by local stakeholders; Document the process of establishing community interest groups through written, photographic and video media to provide model case studies of reforestation-related community mobilization for use in other communities; and Any other related activities and assistance that may reasonably be required. III. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES  In close coordination with the LRI’s Project Director, Community Engagement Specialist, and other LRI component managers, the Governance and Social Stability Specialist will develop a governance and social stability strategy for LRI and three community governance models that are implemented at the biocorridor level and documented for broader use and potential replication across Lebanon. Specific deliverables include but are not limited to: Governance and Social Stability strategy for 2016-2018; Monthly field reports on the development of community interest groups and work plans; Priorities of intervention, with list of objectives to be implemented in the short term (1-5 years); Monitoring and evaluation plan for the short term (1-5 years); Three (3) documented model case studies of the governance efforts for use in future community reforestation projects. A strategy for LRI on how to address the Syrian refugee crisis and encourage engagement of Syrian refugees in planning for activities tackling common environmental concerns IV. REQUIREMENTS The Governance and Social Stability Specialist should possess the following competencies, skills, and experience: Strong academic and proven practical knowledge in the field of community mobilization, governance and social stability approaches and programming; At least 10 years of relevant experience in the development of integrated strategies for community engagement and governance in rural areas in Lebanon; Demonstrated track record of success in achieving community mobilization and engagement; governance and social stability in diverse communities; Extensive experience working in rural areas in Lebanon; experience in the North of Lebanon and the region of West Beqaa is preferred; Strong analytical and inter-personal skills; Excellent reporting and presentation skills; Willingness to travel outside Beirut to the project sites for at least 80% of the time; Fluency in both written and spoken English and Arabic; and Possess a car and a driving license and able to use his/her car for field trips on a cost-reimbursable basis. V. Contact Information For further information or to submit a letter of interest and accompanying curriculum vitae, preferably by Wednesday, September 30, 2015, please contact: Lebanon Reforestation Initiative     info@lri-lb.org