JOB DETAILS:
Purpose of Assignment:
The USAID Program for Local and Urban Sustainability (PLUS) is working to refine USAID’s understanding of the presence and priorities of environmental defenders working in urban and peri-urban areas. The USAID Environmental Defenders Landscape Assessment Activity is hiring an in-country Consultant to support in-country fieldwork with the potential to also provide capacity building under the PLUS grant program.

Rationale / Justification for Assignment (for conducting this piece of work and how it contributes to project outputs):
The field work is the basis for case studies that provide a deep understanding of the key challenges, barriers, and opportunities faced by urban environmental defenders as well as possible interventions that USAID could implement to address these challenges and support and sustain urban environmental defenders. The Consultant role is critical to ensuring the PLUS team conducts interviews with the most appropriate stakeholders and understands the cultural context and sensitivities around environmental defenders in the country. The Consultant may also support capacity building of grantees working to support environmental defenders.

Scope of Assignment:
The Consultant will provide in-country fieldwork support including (1) preparatory work that supports the team strengthen their understanding of the local context and review the case study methodology to ensure its appropriate for the local context; (2) interview scheduling with municipal, national level, and civil society stakeholders, private sector actor allies, and/or recipients of criticism from urban environmental defenders; (3) participate and support site visit meetings and activities, which could include language translation services and conducting follow-up meetings after the field visit on an as needed basis; and (4) provide inputs to complete the preparation of case studies. The Consultant may also be asked to provide technical expert assistance to the PLUS Environmental Defender Civil Society Organization Grant program, which could entail meeting with grantees and supporting cross-grantee collaboration through meetings, workshops, or other activities.

Brief Background:
The purpose of USAID’s PLUS is to tap into the inherent advantages of cities to drive locally led development outcomes in the urban areas of low- and middle-income countries that build the capacity of local actors, socialize integrated planning concepts, increase the exposure to customized city service delivery, and catalyze the budgets of cash-strapped governments. To address the unique climate challenges confronting cities in low- and middle-income countries, PLUS centers on five objectives:
1) Advancing net-zero system
2) Increasing urban resilience
3) Reducing pollution and waste
4) Improving local governance and equitable access to services
5) Maintaining inclusive green jobs
This specific buy-in activity requested by USAID is designed to align with the PLUS core objective of reducing pollution and waste (#3) by refining USAID’s current understanding of the presence and priorities of environmental defenders currently working in urban and peri-urban areas, helping USAID to prioritize future geographic focus, identifying key threats and opportunities, and presenting case studies that highlight best practices. The PLUS team understands that this is a new technical area for USAID and a Congressional priority. The PLUS team will work with USAID to deepen the understanding of environmental defenders, how these organizations operate and can be supported and sustained and set the groundwork for future USAID support to this key environmental and urban group. As the world urbanizes, environmental defenders will be critical components of healthy, robust urban ecosystems.

The US Government considers environmental defenders as citizens, activists, journalists, and members of groups who exercise their human rights to try to peacefully protect an area or its natural resources from negative environmental impact by ongoing or proposed activities. Environmental defenders, and the groups of which they are members, often encounter threats of violence, attacks, or criminalization as they exercise their human rights, such as freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association. They may also be silenced or denied when they impart and receive information that should be provided under law, engage in public participation, and request access to justice on environmental matters.

An urban environmental defender, as currently defined by USAID, is an individual or group of individuals who actively work to create healthy, resilient, and sustainable cities for all people. These defenders focus on addressing environmental challenges and associated economic, social and health inequalities tied to urban environmental degradation (e.g., pollution, inadequate waste management, access to green space, ecosystem loss, air and water quality degradation, climate change impacts, and unsustainable urban development). Urban environmental defenders catalyze change by building community awareness and public support for addressing environmental degradation through citizen science and advocating for transparency, the creation of new policies and practices to protect the health and well-being of urban communities, or the enforcement of existing policies. As they challenge powerful interests that contribute to environmental degradation, urban environmental defenders are often under attack. Despite the challenges, their efforts are essential for creating more sustainable and equitable urban environments.

This buy-in activity includes the following tasks:
• Prepare a Rapid Global Assessment to understand potential hotspots where urban environmental defenders may be at greatest risk.
• Develop the case study methodology and apply the methodology to conduct in-country fieldwork and virtual interviews with a wide-range of urban environmental defender stakeholders in up to four countries.
• Develop up to four case studies detailing the most significant environmental threats to urban environments, the existing and potential threats to urban environmental defenders; and recommended USAID interventions to address these challenges to support and sustain urban environmental defenders.
• Prepare a national and local-level assessment of the status of urban environmental defenders in each of the case study countries that aims to reveal local stakeholder dynamics, key constraints, and opportunities for USAID engagement on urban environmental defenders.
• Provide capacity building, coordination, and engagement of urban environmental defenders under the concurrent PLUS Environmental Defender Civil Society Organization Grants Under Contract (GUC) Activity.

Specific Tasks:
Specific tasks for the Consultants are to:
• Review the proposed case study methodology and provide feedback to ensure its appropriate application in country.
• Collect information and conduct desktop research to help the team prepare for the site visit and to develop the case study.
• Identify and map relevant urban environmental defender stakeholders in country that can be interviewed to collect relevant information to support the preparation of case studies.
• Support activity preparation to ensure a smooth site visit, which will include a kick-off meeting with the PLUS team to learn about the Activity and stakeholder analysis and coordination to schedule in-person meetings with up to up to ten municipal stakeholders and up to ten national level stakeholders.
• Actively participate in the site visit, including contributing to interviews to elicit relevant information from engaged stakeholders.
• Review and provide feedback on the draft case studies, as well as support to incorporate comments provided by USAID on the case studies.
• Conduct additional follow-up interviews, as needed.
• Depending on guidance from the PLUS’s leadership, the Consultant may also support capacity building of grantees working to support environmental defenders

Key Deliverables & Expected Outputs:
By the end of the assignment, the following outputs are expected:
• Inputs to support the team´s site visit, including the identification of proposed stakeholders to be interviewed and the site to be visited by the team, a draft agenda.
• Notes from interviews and meetings held during the team’s country visit as well as from follow-up interviews.
• Inputs to support the preparation of case studies, as well as to incorporate comments received from USAID or other reviewers.

Profile /Type of Consultants Required:
• Degree in economics, law, political sciences, social sciences, sustainable development or in another related discipline.
• Five (5) years of experience working in the fields of pollution management, waste management, environmental management, climate change, urban development or another relevant area.
• Demonstrated capacity to undertake research and data collection and participate in teamwork. Prior experience conducting research and preparing case studies is preferred.