The Global Environment Facility (GEF) through UNDP has committed US $2.63 million over a period of 4years to contribute to reducing land degradation on the highlands of Kilimanjaro through Implementation of actions targeting removal of barriers for Sustainable Land Management (SLM) in a multi-level approach. At the local level, the project will strengthen capacity and incentives for SLM through participatory planning processes involving the local institutions and knowledge systems. This will be complemented by a national level dialogue on SLM which will facilitate national level stakeholders to identify ways to adopt a systematic approach to SLM. The project goal is to ensure “Sustainable Land Management provides the basis for economic development, food security and sustainable livelihoods while restoring the ecological integrity of the Kilimanjaro region’s ecosystems”.

 

The Kilimanjaro ecosystem provides range of services including, cultural services and supporting services (soil formation, nutrient cycling and primary production). Indeed, the region hosts about 2,500 plant species and 179 birds’ species, some of them endemic. The watershed is critical for regulating hydrological flows to the Pangani River Basin, which flows into the Indian Ocean. The catchment also provides drinking water, traditional small holder irrigation and power generation for the National Grid. The mountain acts as major climate modifier and supports a tourism industry, hosting close to 10,000 tourists annually. The ecosystem is however experiencing an extensive process of degradation and deforestation, with serious consequences on its ability to continue providing these services. Degradation is driven by a set of complex and interrelated factors, such as rapid increase of a population largely dependent on natural resources, land use change, poor land management practices, unsustainable harvesting of natural resources, declining commodity prices and climate change. Land use change was triggered by the high dependence on coffee as a cash crop, which has been disrupted by a combination of ageing coffee trees susceptible to coffee berry disease, decline in world coffee prices in the 1970’s and unreliable marketing systems

 

The project intend to address four key barriers to sustainable land management in the region which are: limited livelihood opportunities outside the natural resources, weak incentives for adoption of SLM, weaknesses in the policy, planning and institutional environment that influence SLM, and, inadequate skills at all levels required for promoting and/or adopting SLM. The project will endeavor to remove these barriers, through a multi-level approach. At the local level, the project will strengthen the capacity and incentives for SLM through participatory planning processes involving the local institutions and knowledge systems. This will be complemented by a national level dialogue on SLM which will facilitate national level stakeholders to identify ways to adopt a systematic approach to SLM.

 

The scope of the assignment will cover identification of relevant institutions and programs/projects involved in extension service delivery; identify capacity gaps in the effort of increasing knowledge, skills, technologies and change in attitude for adoption of SLM.

 

 

The tasks are, but not limited to the following:

       I.          Assessment of existing capacity for extension service delivery at regional, district and community level (staff, infrastructure, skills);

     II.          An assessment of the required capacity for effective extension delivery, identifying gaps;

    III.          Identify best practices in terms staffing mix of government community inputs

    IV.          Identify other programs/projects supporting extension service delivery/SLM at the regional, district and community         levels anaylyse potential synergies with the SLM project;

     V.          Design a capacity bridging plan including partnerships/synergies with existing programs/projects/institutions.

 

The consultant will be required to collaborate with the Local Government technical staff when conducting this assignment.