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DAI Washington 7600 Wisconsin Avenue Suite 200 Bethesda, Maryland 20814 USA Tel: 301 771 7600 Fax: 301 771 7777 www.dai.com SCOPE OF WORK CLMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE EXPERT BASE OF OPERATIONS: Quetzaltenango, Guatemala 1. PURPOSE DAI, a global development company, is seeking a short-term Climate-Smart Agriculture Expert to serve the USAID-funded Nexos Locales Project. This five-year project is based in Quetzaltenango, with a field office located in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. 2. PROJECT BACKGROUND The USAID Nexos Locales Project (previously known as LGP), Contract No. AID520-C-14-00002, was awarded to DAI on June 20, 2014. Nexos Locales is a threeyear project, with two option years, and is based in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala with a regional office located in Huehuetenango. The primary goal of Nexos Locales is to strengthen municipalities in the Western Highlands of the country so they foster more responsive, inclusive, and effective socio-economic development while reducing local vulnerabilities such as food insecurity and natural disasters. The Nexos Locales will increase the capacity of local governments to raise revenue, respond to citizen concerns related to violence and security, food insecurity and global climate change as well as to manage public resources in a participatory and financially sound manner. The Nexos Locales will also strengthen the capacity and systems of local governments to deliver basic services and develop and implement security plans; strengthen the National Association of Municipalities (ANAM) and the Guatemalan Association of Indigenous Mayors and Authorities (AGAAI); and strengthen civil society participation in decision-making via the Development Council System. In order to achieve this goal, and the objectives of both USAID and other development partners, local governments must be able to better manage public resources and deliver services in an efficient and transparent manner. Strong and inclusive municipal governments are crucial for local development and is key to the sustainability of interventions supported by the United States Government (USG) in Guatemala. 3. GEOGRAPHICAL FOCUS Nexos Locales will work in the Western Highlands, Guatemala’s region of greatest need, under a framework for the collaborative implementation of activities in the departments of Huehuetenango, San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Totonicapan and Quiche. Nexos Locales will concentrate activities in the five departments around the Page 2 needs of agriculture, health, and education programming. Citizen security and environment programming will be focused in municipalities and regions where there is greatest need. 4. WHIP STRATEGY The Western Highlands Integrated Program (WHIP) is USAID’s conceptual framework for the collaborative implementation of USG-funded activities in the departments of Huehuetenango, San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Totonicapán and Quiché. WHIP activities are designed to reduce poverty and chronic malnutrition through programs of food assistance, school feeding, applied agricultural research, improved access to quality health care, nutrition, increased agricultural income from high value horticulture crops and handicrafts, sustainable production systems, increased capacity to adapt to the impacts of climate change and strengthened local governance entities. WHIP recognizes the comparative advantages of USG-funded partners and seeks to harness and focus these resources and our partners’ productive access to communities and understanding of the development context to address poverty and chronic malnutrition. During the consultation/start-up phase, Nexos Locales completed a series of meetings with local partners in the Western highlands region to coordinate alliances and plans to achieve overall WHIP goals. 5. USAID GUATEMALA COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION STRATEGY As a key cross-cutting issue for the achievement of USAID Guatemala’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS), Nexos Locales activities will work toward the achievement of “A More Secure Guatemala that Fosters Greater Socioeconomic Development in the Western Highlands and Sustainably Manages its Natural Resources” through activities that support three the Mission’s three Development Objectives (DOSs), which include: 1) Greater security and justice for citizens; 2) Improved levels of economic growth and social development in the Western Highlands; and 3) Improved management of natural resources to mitigate impacts of global climate change. The improvement of local government’s ability to raise revenue, respond to citizen concerns and demands, and deliver services are crucial to development in four key areas of the CDCS: crime prevention, food security, health, and disaster and risk mitigation against vulnerabilities to climate change. 6. OBJECTIVES AND DUTIES Page 3 Global climate change is expected to irreversibly impact ecosystems, food production systems, social structure and stability, and water dynamics around the world before the end of this century, with some regions projected to be impacted earlier and more strongly than others. In terms of overall vulnerability and foreseen impact, the Guatemalan Altiplano places high on every scale of evaluation of risk from climate driven impacts; and many of the projected effects are already being realized. Traditional economic development strategies have in many cases worsened the vulnerability to climate change by promoting land and resource degradation for the generation of high-value export products, without adequate consideration for the inter-relation of agriculture and natural systems that support agriculture (soils, filtration, biota, water demand, forest health, carbon capture); nor for the local value chains that produce the region’s own food supply. One of the most important factors defining community vulnerability to climate change is the dependence of that community’s economy on agricultural practices that are very susceptible to changing climatic variables. In the case of Guatemala, changes over the past two decades in the frequency, timing, intensity, and duration of both normal weather patterns (such as seasonal rains) and the incidence of extreme weather events (prolonged droughts, intense rains), have placed undue pressure on water, soils, and both traditional and modern agriculture systems of the Western Highlands region. Said practices form the economic backbone of the regional economy, increasing Guatemala’s social and ecologic vulnerability to climate change. There is a great need to generate and promote agricultural practices that will add market, nutritional, and ecologic value to the product by using agricultural adaptation to specific climatic pressures. Such technologically and culturally appropriate climate-smart practices will be a key element in meeting development goals for optimizing human wellbeing, ecological responsibility, income, and acceptance by the highland population that the DAI PGL project serves. Nexos Locales will need to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate activities with climate-smart practices and capacitation of this theme at the core of much development strategy. The Climate Smart Agriculture Expert will be based in the Quetzaltenango office with overall responsibility for providing technical guidance in the assigned area. S/he will work as part of a highly motivated team and be required to coordinate across the functional areas of Programs/Clusters, Grants, and Senior Management. The nature of the work will require coordination with other USAID partner programs. Roles and responsibilities of the Climate-Smart Agriculture Expert include, but are not limited to: Page 4 Become knowledgeable in the production, use, and application of climate change projections and models related to agricultural production. Evaluate existing agriculturally based economic development projects, and bids for new projects, for the presence of, absence of, and suggestions for inclusion of; regionally appropriate climate smart practices and long-term climate resilience. Work with partners in development of practices, training manuals, and programs that meet climate, income, market, pest control, soil, and water demands in practices. Climate risk evaluation of existing supply chains through USAID partner programs of the PGL project. Evaluate added value of climate-smart practices selected for use in the program for: market valuation, application of quality standards, and development of fair pricing mechanisms. Develop strategies for inclusion of climate considerations in monitoring and evaluation of existing and new agricultural projects. Develop a needs-based plan for short and long-term research, development, and extension for climate-smart agricultural practices in the area of coverage, with USAID and other regional partners. Evaluate soil and water in agricultural production sites for quality and quantity [where directly related to agricultural use]. Partner with food security program for evaluation of nutritional and health benefits of climate-smart practices. Partner with youth and gender program for development of small-scale economic projects based in climate-smart agricultural practices. Partner with climate change programs to strategically reduce vulnerability due to poor land-use practices, intensive water demand, economic reliance on vulnerable agriculture, and ecological fragility. Serve as liaison between Nexos Locales and other regional programs where appropriate to do so. 7. DUTY STATION The Climate-Smart Agriculture Expert will be based in the Quetzaltenango office with frequent travel to the Huehuetenango regional office, and to field sites where projects are based. 8. REPORTING The Climate-Smart Agriculture Expert will report to and be supervised directly by the Technical Director. S/he will receive management support from the Chief of Party. Page 5 9. QUALIFICATIONS A university degree in agronomy, with experience in the development, use, and/or theory of climate-smart practices; At least five years’ experience in highland agricultural practices; Extensive knowledge of soil nutrition, watersheds, and low-intensity irrigation; Ability to perform climate risk analysis of agricultural practices; Experience in designing of programs, preparing technical proposals, and developing methodologies related to integrated agricultural practices; Ability in agricultural project monitoring and evaluation; Value chain analysis, marketing strategies, and supply/demand evaluations; Experience in effectively working with national associations, grass roots organizations, local government institutions, senior government officials, other donors and USG projects; Experience designing appropriate interventions to meet project goals in assisting women and youth; Fluency in Spanish is essential; fluency in a Maya language and/or English is desirable; Experience in Guatemala and/or Latin America highlands – Central America preferred.