Local Recruitment: Consultancy services- Monitoring of Forest Degradation

Vita is an Irish based International Development Organization. Vita has been legally registered in Ethiopia in 2005 under the Ministry of Justice, later re-registered under Charities and Societies Agency, and recently registered as permanent NGO based on the new Ethiopian Charities and Societies Law.

In partnership with regional, zonal and woreda level government offices Vita is currently implementing a large scale rural improved cook stove (ICS) program in Gamo and Gofa Zone. This programme will distribute over 200,000 improved cook stoves to 150 Kebeles within these two zones. The overall aim is to eliminate cooking with three-stone open fires (sost gulicha) in these Kebeles. From previous ICS projects, Vita has seen that increased adoption and use of ICS typically reduces consumption of fuelwood, and Vita assumes that ICS will therefore protect trees and slow forest degradation.

To this end the organization intends to test this assumption and monitor if the programme is slowing the rate of forest degradation or having any impact on forests in the target area that can be attributed to the programme using external consultants. In this regard the consultant is expected to review the program logic and related framework, determine baseline figures and produce guidance document

Hence, the organization would like to invite knowledgeable and well experienced consultants at firm/individual level who is required to fulfil the following minimum requirements:

• At least a masters degree in forestry, natural resource management, climate change, agriculture, environmental science, or a related field is required.
• A minimum of 10 years' experience in this field, at least some of which (3 years +) has been spent in Ethiopia.
• Relevant consultancy experience on projects of similar scope
• Knowledge and experience of quantitative and qualitative techniques for measurement of forestry change such as remote sensing, forestry inventories, etc.
• Knowledge and experience with participatory qualitative data collection and analysis methods.
• Excellent interpersonal, negotiation, networking and communication skills.
• Strong analytical and writing skills.
• Fluent in English and Amharic