Terms of Reference – Monitoring, Data Analysis and  Reporting

Consultant – COAST Project 

Consultancy Objective: 

To assist each demonstration project (9 in total) across the 8 partner countries within the Collaborative Actions for Sustainable Tourism (COAST) project to: 

i)                    Identify what baseline data to collect in order to help make an assessment of progress which can be attributed to the COAST project interventions (either wholly or in part);

ii)                  Advise on the best tools and methods to use in collecting such data;  

iii)                Advise on the simplest and most easily understood ways to display and report on the nature of what these data show;  

iv)                Advise on which data to collect on a regular basis, and which can be collected only on a before/after time series basis.

 The consultant is expected to work from his/her home base, and to utilize; telephone, email, skype and any other remote or web based technologies to provide the necessary technical assistance primarily to, COAST Project Demonstration Project Coordinators and Project Management Site Committee members in order to help them establish:

 

i)                    a suitable demonstration project baseline for monitoring changes;

ii)                  a selection of appropriate data collection tools to use during data collection;

iii)                a simple and clear approach to data analysis

iv)                a simple and clear reporting format for reporting results.  

 

The major output from the consultancy will be a written set of recommendations and proposed actions for; collecting and analyzing data and later reporting on the findings revealed by such data, for each COAST project demonstration site.

 

Further information about the COAST project can be found on our website (http://coast.iwlearn.org ). 

General Background:

 

The COAST project supports 9 demonstration projects in 8 African countries, additionally the Seychelles is participating as a 9^TH partner country sharing lessons and experiences from demonstration projects that are part of a ‘sister’ GEF funded Mainstreaming Biodiversity Project which includes support to coastal tourism.

 The overall goal of the COAST project is:

 

“Supporting the conservation of globally significant coastal and marine ecosystems and associated biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa, through the reduction of the negative environmental impacts which they receive as a result of coastal tourism.”

 

There are four main objectives within the project namely:

 

(i)                 To capture Best Available Practices and Technologies (BAPs and BATS) for contaminant reduction & sustainable collaborative tourism investments¹. This general objective has four specific sub objectives:

 

a.       Establish and implement Environmental Management Systems and Voluntary Eco-certification and Labeling Schemes

 

b.      Develop eco-tourism initiatives to alleviate poverty through sustainable alternative livelihoods, and generate revenues for conservation of biodiversity and for the benefit of local communities

 

c.       Improve reef recreation, management and monitoring mechanisms and strategies;

 

d.      Integrated ecosystem/coastal zone land use planning.

 

(ii)               To develop and implement mechanisms for sustainable governance and management that measurably reduce degradation of coastal ecosystems from land-based tourism sources of pollution and contamination;

 

(iii)             To assess and deliver training and capacity support requirements emphasising an integrated approach to sustainable reduction in coastal ecosystem and environmental degradation within the tourism sector;

 

(iv)             To develop and implement information capture, information processing and management mechanisms to promote information dissemination, learning & sharing.

 

 

This consultancy will focus on general objective (i) and will therefore have to consider the provision of advice in relation to four specific thematic objectives (refer to the logical frameworks for each demo project as some sites contain overlapping objectives). These tasks are listed below in more detail.

 

Specific Objectives and Related Activities:

 

a.       An assessment for each appropriate demo project vis-à-vis the data required to ascertain current practices in relation to; Environmental Management Systems, Eco-certification and Labeling Schemes. Specifically, this must contain advice on:  

-          Developing a monitoring framework and time plan for each demo project  

-          Sampling methods and targeting of stakeholders

 

b.  Collaboration may involve a number of stakeholder groups including; the private sector, public sector bodies and local communities supported by NGO or CBOs.

-          Interview and questionnaire design

-          Data recording formats and data storage

-          Data analysis and presentation of results.   

c.       An assessment for each appropriate demo project vis-à-vis the data required to find out the current status of stakeholder; understanding, practice and knowledge on: eco-tourism and how this can contribute to the alleviation of poverty as well as; how it can benefit biodiversity and conservation. This input must specifically include:

 

-          Developing a monitoring framework and time plan for each demo project  

-          Sampling methods and targeting of stakeholders

-          Interview and questionnaire design

-          Data recording formats and data storage

-          Data analysis and presentation of results.  

d.      An assessment for each appropriate demo project vis-à-vis stakeholder; understanding, practice and knowledge on: reef recreation, management, and monitoring mechanisms and strategies. Specifically this input will involve:  

-          Developing a monitoring framework and time plan for each demo project  

-          Sampling methods and targeting of stakeholders

-          Interview and questionnaire design

-          Data recording formats and data storage

-          Data analysis and presentation of results.  

e.       An assessment for each appropriate demo project vis-à-vis coastal zone /ecosystem land use planning with specific reference to stakeholder; understanding, practice and knowledge of the same. Specifically this input will involved:

 

-          Developing a monitoring framework and time plan for each demo project  

-          Sampling methods and targeting of stakeholders

-          Interview and questionnaire design

-          Data recording formats and data storage

-          Data analysis and presentation of results.  

Activities of the Consultant 

All work will be undertaken within the timeframe indicated in the table below.

Products expected from Consultancy

 

Based on the above conditions, the Consultant will produce one report for each demo project (some projects cover multiple sites). 

 

Profile of the consultant

 

The selected consultant(s) will have an advanced university degree in Environmental Sciences, Environmental Management, Natural Resource Management, or Economics and will have extensive and specific experience in monitoring and/or evaluation, data collection, methods, tools and analysis. They must be able to show evidence of previous M&E work assignments of a similar nature, and have excellent communication skills. For this reason, spoken and written ability to communicate in; English and French (preferably also Portuguese) are a basic condition for competing in this tender. 

 

Timing

 

The Consultant will carry out the proposed activities within the following timeframe:

 

Tasks	days	Deadline	Expected results
	allocated
Initial consultations with
Country Focal Points (FPs) and
Demo Project Coordinators	18 (2 days	November 30TH	Monitoring frameworks
(DPCs) to assist in the design of	per demo	2010	written down and baseline
a monitoring framework and	project)		data collection proceeding
for the collection of suitable
baseline monitoring data
Advice on sampling, and data
collection tools and methods.	18 (2 days		Written submission of tools
Agreement on which tools to		December 31ST
use for which purpose.	per demo	2010	to be used and data
	project)		collection plan
Agreement on data collection
plan.
Technical back stopping role	18 (2 days	February 28TH	Written submission on data
during data collection	per demo	2011	collection completion on a
	project)		project by project basis
Advice on data analysis tools	12 (1 day
	per demo		Submission of final reports
and presenting results. Writing
	project, 3	15TH      May 2011	(draft- one per demo
final report (one per demo	days writing		project)
project)
	up)