Call for the Consultancy Services to Develop a Web Platform and Create/Document Indigenous Content

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Shaping a stronger Oxfam for people living in poverty.

Department Purpose

Oxfam’s Asia Regional Water Governance Program focuses on further improving cooperation in governing shared water resources to strengthen riparian communities' resilience to climate change's impacts. The program is supporting climate-resilient livelihoods for vulnerable natural resource-dependent communities in the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna (GBM) basins, improved management of shared river ecosystems, and scale up efforts to empower and increase participation of women, youth and Indigenous People in water governance, as well as strengthening institutions and partnerships for cooperation on higher level governance of shared water resources.

Oxfam is working towards an Asia Water Governance Program that aligns with various ongoing water governance programmes in Asia like Mekong Regional Water Governance PEM (People managing their eco-systems in the Lower Mekong basin) and T2-3R Programme.

Oxfam's program objectives are to enable communities and civil society to be better able to realize sustainable livelihoods, reduce poverty and promote cooperation in the shared waters. Our objectives are that we will achieve this by facilitating i) increased civil society participation and engagement in cooperation and water resource governance of shared waters and ii) promoting more open, inclusive, accountable, and effective water and natural resource governance. Iii) Strengthened climate-resilient livelihoods of communities and improved and inclusive management of river and wetlands ecosystems and protection of biodiversity across the GBM river basins. We seek to convene dialogues and work with a range of partners and allies, including governments, the private sector, academia, and institutions.  The work seeks to influence change at the community and civil society levels and changes in policies and practices at the national and regional levels.

South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions globally to the effects of climate change. Shared river basin ecosystems in the region support the provision of water, energy and food for up to 1.9 billion people, and projected changes in the shared monsoon and pre-monsoon river flows pose major challenges for both riparian communities and the wider population.

Water governance and climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience are intrinsically linked, and effective water resources governance must systematically address the impacts of climate change, especially on the most vulnerable communities.

Limited public participation in shared water resource governance could lead to many problems, including reduced transparency, accountability issues, increased conflicts, ineffective governance, and environmental degradation. To address these challenges, it's essential to promote people’s participation and strengthen civic space and ensure the active involvement of various stakeholders in the sustainable management of these water resources.

It is noteworthy that engaging community organisations, community leaders (including women and indigenous leaders), public policy influencers, youth organisations, youth networks, civil society networks should not be limited to the traditional grant to NGO method – although resource sharing is necessary for strengthening civil society organisations and grassroots actors. These community organizations need to participate in the water governance processes from local to national level and support to monitor the utilization of available resource for better impact.

To procetect and conserve these resources, indigenous knowledge and practices play a crucial role. These knowledge, folklores, art forms and music have huge potential to connect an aware new generation, youth, women and indigenous leaders. These leaders having a better access to the relevant knowledge can take lead to create an enabling environment for water governance of shared waters with locally available resources to protect nature and biodiversity. These traditional knowledge, folklores, art, music and local artforms will be useful to highlight riparian communities’ issues related to water governance and will strengthen civic space.

Job Purpose

Oxfam is looking for a consultant/team/ agency to document these traditional art forms, folklores and stories & music related to water governance, river ecosystem and biodiversity of the area/ river basin. This assignment includes following objectives:

• Identify and document some traditional art forms, folklores and stories & music related to water governance, river ecosystem and biodiversity of the river basins.
• Developing knowledge products of the abovementioned.
• Developing a web based attractive platform to host these knowledge products

Methodology

Consultant/ agency may suggest suitable methodology to document these indigenous knowledge, artforms, folklores, music etc and may suggest some innovative ways to engage the relevant stakeholder. Review of existing resources, knowledge, and documents will be useful. Consultant /agency may propose different innovative methodologies.

Management

This consultancy will be managed by the PMU based at Oxfam in Cambodia. The PMU will provide overall management and assist in the entire process. The management will support both the technical and financial aspect of the consultancy.

Key Outputs/ Deliverables

1. A detail report on
2. A brief note (not more than 4 pages) for public distribution and dissemination purpose

Terms of payment

The indicative budget available for this assignment is USD 8500. The cost includes all travel, accommodation and taxes.

Team composition

The consultant or team of experts or an agency, having background and experiences preferably in developing web stories, web portal development documentation of indigenous knowledge, artforms, folklores related to water resources management, cooperation on water governance and protection of nature and biodiversity The team should be composed of equal gender representation and will be subjected to Oxfam’s vigorous safeguarding checks and commitments.

Timeline

• Start date is expected on 23th December 2024.
• The timeline to complete this assignment and submission of final report is 15th Jan 2025.

Assignment location

• Brahmaputra and Meghna River Basins

Recruitment process

Qualification

The assignment will be done by a consultant or team/ agency with competency and sound understanding of the context of South Asian water governance context, water governance, indigenous knowledge, local arts and artforms. Some specific requirements of the are:

• Demonstrated experiences in developing knowledge products, videos and web stories on rivers, water resources, indigenous knowledges to engage youth, women and indigenous leaders
• Experience of covering programs or projects related to water cooperation, natural resource governance.
• Strong analytical skills in gender dynamics, human rights and civic space strengthening.
• Strong experience of website development, content creation, video documentation, and website management experience.
• Demonstrated high level proficiency in writing and concise analysis and in developing reports that include visual representation of data and findings.
• Consultant /Team member should be fluent in local language (Ahomiya, Bangla and Hindi).

Key Attributes:

• Ability to demonstrate sensitivity to cultural differences and gender issues, as well as the commitment to equal opportunities;
• Commitment to Oxfam’s safeguarding policies to ensure all people who come into contact with Oxfam are as safe as possible;

Organizational Values:

• Accountability – Our purpose-driven, results-focused approach means we take responsibility for our actions and hold ourselves accountable. We believe that others should also be held accountable for their actions;
• Empowerment – Our approach means that everyone involved with Oxfam, from our staff and supporters to people living in poverty, should feel they can make change happen;
• Inclusiveness – We are open to everyone and embrace diversity. We believe everyone has a contribution to make, regardless of visible and invisible differences.

Other

• Eager and required to adhere to Oxfam’s principles and values (click here) as well as the promotion of gender justice and women's rights (click here);
• Understanding of and commitment to adhere to equity, diversity, gender, child safety and staff health and wellbeing principles.

Application

1. 1. Application process

Applicants/consulting firms should submit the following documents for the selection process:

• Technical proposal as per requirement in the description above and information reflecting applicant’s financial and technical capacity to complete similar assignments.
• Financial proposal with indicative budget of the entire assignment including daily rate; no. of hours per person; fees and specification of operational costs, VAT/ taxes included, etc.
• Samples of similar assignment/ review reports which were written by the team leader and that are relevant to the ToR
• CVs of key evaluation team members

The application should be submitted to our recruitment website at

https://jobs.oxfamnovib.nl/job-invite/13793/

by 18 December 2024 at 5 pm (GMT +07 time).

For further questions related to this ToR, please contact Mr. Avinash Singh at Avinash.singh@oxfam.org

ONLY SHORTLISTED CANDIDATES WILL BE CONTACTED.