The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has issued a request for proposals for a consultancy to provide support on Environmental and social management systems (ESMS). Closing date and time: 5 May 2021 at 23:59 CEST.

The IUCN ESMS has been designed for projects where IUCN is the entity legally responsible for the project. This includes grant-making mechanisms, where IUCN provides funds to other organizations to implement projects that align with IUCN’s mission. Grant making refers to the process of attributing a financial sum (the “grant”) to individual projects towards the realization of a specific conservation objective, according to the guidelines set out for the overall scheme or programme. Projects are submitted in response to a call for proposals and approved on the basis of selectivity and eligibility criteria, and of an assessment of capacity of the grantee to execute.

IUCN has already implemented a number of grant making mechanisms such as Save Our Species (SOS),
Integrated Tiger Habitat Conservation Programme (ITHCP), Mangroves for the Future (MFF) in Asia and the BEST Programme which provides grants for projects promoting conservation and sustainable use of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in EU Overseas Countries and Territories. An ongoing grant making scheme running since 2018 to 2023 is the BIOPAMA Action Component, that is a component of the second phase of the EU-funded BIOPAMA programme, The Action Fund supports institutions managing protected areas in ACP
countries (Caribbean, Pacific and Africa) in implementing actions as identified by management and governance assessments.

Just as with projects implemented by IUCN, it is essential to ensure that these IUCN-funded projects avoid, minimize, and compensate for any negative environmental and social impacts that arise as a result of their implementation – through a safeguard system like the ESMS. Implementing such a system for grant mechanism requires a good understanding of a designated staff member to implement safeguard review and compliance steps along the project cycle.

The deliverables of this consultancy are:

1. Review and assess the ESMS compliance of submitted project proposals including Rapid Response
   Grants (RRG) and Small Technical Grant for Assessments (STGA) and the future Medium Grant (MG) and Small Technical Grant (STG) calls. This includes the ESMS screening and risk categorization, providing advice to grantees to develop ESMS tools (e.g. Process Framework, Indigenous Peoples Plan etc.), ESMS clearance, advice and review of the Environmental and Social Management Plans(ESMP) and other ESMS tools as identified by the Screening. Estimated: ~150 projects.
2. Develop training materials with guidelines and video with tangible examples for the upcoming medium  grant call (in 2021/2022).

Closing date and time: 5 May 2021 at 23:59 CEST.

All the details of this consultancy are available here.