SNV recruits 01 Social Safeguard Specialist
Social Safeguard Specialist
Nairobi, Kenya
Contract
Contract type: Consultancy contract
Company Description
SNV is a not-for-profit international development organization, working in Agriculture, Renewable Energy, and Water, Sanitation & Hygiene. Founded in the Netherlands in 1965, we have built a long-term, local presence in more than 28 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Our global team of local and international advisors works with local partners to equip communities, businesses and organizations with the tools, knowledge and connections they need to increase their incomes and gain access to basic services – empowering them to break the cycle of poverty and guide their own development.
For more information on our operations in Kenya and SNV, visit our website: www.snv.org
Programme Overview
Driven by the imperative to provide equal opportunities across the entire Kenyan territory as key to achieving Kenya’s Vision 2030, and the national target of achieving universal access to electricity by 2020, the Government of Kenya (GoK) seeks to close the access gap by providing electricity services to remote, low density, and traditionally underserved areas of the country. GoK intends to use US$150 million of financing from the World Bank to deliver an Off-Grid Solar Access Project for Underserved Counties Project (KOSAP). KOSAP promotes these objectives by supporting the use of solar technology to drive electrification of households, enterprises, community facilities, and water pumps.
Geographic Scope
The Project targets 14 of the 47 counties in Kenya that have been defined as “marginalized areas” by the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA). The 14 underserved counties – Garissa, Isiolo, Kilifi, Kwale, Lamu, Mandera, Marsabit, Narok, Samburu, Taita Taveta, Tana River, Turkana, Wajir and West Pokot – collectively represent 72% of the country’s total land area and 20% of the country’s population. Their population is highly dispersed, at a density 4 times lower than the national average. Kenya’s underserved counties present profound infrastructure deficits, including lack of access to roads, electricity, water, and social services. The cultures in eight of these localities – Garissa, Mandera, Marsabit, Narok, Samburu, Turkana, Wajir and Isiolo – were historically nomadic, based on pastoralist lifestyles, and overwhelmingly poor. The other six counties – Kilifi, Kwale, Lamu, Taita Taveta, West Pokot and Tana River – are of mixed cultures and livelihood strategies which include fishing, livestock keeping, farming and hunting/gathering, and are also marked with extreme poverty. Roughly 1.2 million households are un-electrified in these fourteen counties, of which approximately 600,000 could be serviced by solar home systems (SHS). Market analysis and precedents show that the major bottlenecks to uptake of SHS in these geographies are availability and affordability of the service.
Project Component 2a: Household electrification via standalone solar systems
The component will support electrification of households using solar home systems (SHS) in areas where sufficient load clusters do not exist and SHS provide the best technical and financial solution. The component design draws upon international best practice and leverages experience to date from the Lighting Africa program, which has been present in Kenya since 2009. Two main instruments will be financed by the project, which seek to catalyze a private sector led, market-based approach to delivering off-grid access in the underserved counties:
i. Competitively awarded incentives, (US$12 million) to compensate SHS operators for initial, ongoing incremental, and opportunity costs associated with an expansion of operations in Underserved Counties
ii. Debt financing to solar companies, (US$30 million) to support ongoing growth in the Underserved Counties, specifically targeting working capital constraints associated with getting hardware inventory into the market and with providing consumer financing to end-customers
The World Bank’s social safeguard polices on Indigenous Peoples (known in Kenya as Vulnerable and marginalized Groups) and Involuntary Resettlement
The World Bank has a set of “Do No Harm” social and environmental safeguard policies that are designed to protect project affected persons (PAPs) and the environment from adverse impacts and risks resulting from Bank financed projects.
Some World Bank financed development activities have significant impacts on the rights and livelihoods of Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups (VMGs), who worldwide constitute the “poorest of the poor and continue to suffer from higher rates of poverty, lower levels of education and a greater incidence of disease and discrimination than other groups” (World Bank 2010). Since the early 1980s the World Bank Group (WBG) has adopted a number of policies, designed to mitigate harm to indigenous peoples in WBG-financed projects (Mackay, 2005). Similarly, some World Bank financed projects may require land take and may result in physical and/or economic displacement of PAPs, collectively referred to as involuntary resettlement, regardless of whether or not know people have to physical move.
The World Bank has two social safeguard policies that are designed to protect VMGs from project related harm – Operational Policy/Bank Procedures OP/BP 4.10 (Indigenous Peoples), and to protect PAPs from involuntary resettlement, Operational Policy/Bank Procedure 4.12 (Involuntary Resettlement).
OP 4.10 requires that Bank-financed projects are designed not only to avoid adverse impacts on VMGs, but equally important, to recognize that “the distinct identities and cultures of VMGs remained inextricably linked to the lands they inhabited and the natural resources they depended upon to survive”. Where adverse impacts on VMGs cannot be avoided, these should be reduced, mitigated or compensated. Likewise, OP 4.12 requires that projects should be designed in a manner that avoid impacts that may result in physical or economic displacement of people, and where these cannot be avoided, impacts on PAPs should be minimized, mitigated or compensated if residual impacts remain.
The OP 4.10 and OP 4.12 contribute to the Bank’s mission of poverty reduction and sustainable development by guaranteeing that development process fully takes due regard to the dignity, human rights and cultures of indigenous people, and that any adverse impacts resulting from involuntary resettlement are avoided, minimized, mitigated or compensated.
The implementing agencies has prepared a Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups framework (VMGF) in accordance with the OP 4.10 requirements, and Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF) to guide the implementation of the social aspects of KOSAP. These two documents set out the principles that will guide the project in its relations with, and project benefits to VMGs, which will be in accordance with the VMGF while issues of involuntary resettlement or land take will be in accordance with the RPF.
The Constitutional/Legal Provisions on VMGs and Involuntary Resettlement
Under Article 43, the Constitution guarantees the right of every person to economic, social and cultural rights. The Constitution affirms fundamental national principles and values of unity, participation of the people, equality, equity, inclusiveness, non-discrimination and protection of the marginalized and vulnerable people. It also protects the cultural foundations and expression of the Kenyan people as an integral part of the right to self-determination. The principle of non-discrimination runs throughout the Constitution as a further affirmation of the country’s commitment to recognize and protect the diversity of the people of Kenya and their right to self-determination as equal members of the Kenyan population. The Government of Kenya (GoK) promotes respect for all cultures, ethnicities, races, gender, political opinions and religious beliefs.
The CoK acknowledges minorities and marginalized communities which have been established through historical processes. The definition of marginalized groups, being broad, encompasses most of the groups that identify as Indigenous Peoples (IPs).The recognition of minorities and marginalized people aims at contributing to the preservation of their identities and enabling them to obtain equality with other groups in that state, including in relation to participation in political life as well as development matters. VMGs include: the Endorois, Ogiek, Elmolo, Watha, Munyayaya, Yakuu. In the project’s target counties, Lamu, Tana River, Taita Taveta, Kilifi, Kwale and West Pokot are hosts to Indigenous Peoples who are in the minority compared to the more dominant communities among whom they live in.
Among the social challenges to smooth implementation of development projects are issues of land acquisition and related matters of compensation; resettlement; livelihood restoration; benefit sharing; perceived historical and developmental injustices; relations with host communities; socio-cultural issues such as attachment to ancestral lands, and/or cultural sites. These challenges are recognized and catered for in the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, the 2009 National Land Policy (NLP), the Land Act, 2012, and the Prevention, Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons and Affected Communities Act, 2012.
KOSAP has triggered the World Bank’s Operational Policy (OP 4.10) for Indigenous Peoples, the Involuntary Resettlement Policy (OP 4.12), and the relevant laws and regulations of the Government of Kenya concerning VMGs and involuntary resettlement.
Job Description
I. Objective of the Assignment
To provide technical assistance to the facility manager for social risks and impacts management in line with the social safeguards policies of the World Bank and the legal provisions of Kenya, as well as on the RPF and VMGF that have been prepared to guide the implementation of the social safeguards aspects of the project. The consultant will be expected to ensure that all documents mainstream social safeguards issues so that the project under component 2 does not detrimentally influence the social well-being of the population.
The K-OSAP project has triggered the following Environmental and Social Safeguards policies of the World Bank (a) Safeguard OP 4.01 Environmental Assessment; (b) OP 4.10, Indigenous Peoples, (c) OP 4.04 Natural Habitats, and (d) OP 4.12, involuntary Resettlement. Additionally, it has triggered relevant laws and regulations of the government of Kenya concerning Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups (VMG’s) and involuntary land take.
II. Scope of the Assignment
The Social Safeguards Specialist will report to the Project Co-ordinator-SNV/Sun funder and will have the following major duties and responsibilities: –
Familiarization with each of the World Bank’s Social Safeguards policies that have been triggered for the project. These include OP 4.10 and OP 4.12, as well as the VMGF and RPF that have been prepared to guide the implementation of the requirements of OP 4.10 and OP 4.12 respectively.
Develop a Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP) and strategy that will seek to inform discussion and build awareness of all stakeholders, on the social safeguards requirements and social risks that may arise from the implementation of the project, and how to mitigate and manage them, including safe management of used batteries. The stakeholders include rural remote community members, vendors/suppliers of products and service providers.
Assist the project under Component 2 to support the aspirations and needs of the Vulnerable and Marginalized groups and indigenous peoples in the project area, especially about accessing SHS in accordance with the provisions of the VMGF.
Identify and prepare a comprehensive plan that will avert any potentially adverse effects from project interventions on Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups
Ensure that the project benefits reach the Vulnerable and marginalized groups and peoples in an equitable manner and through institutions that respect and are able to serve them in a decentralized manner.
Spearhead the preparation of social risk management plans social risks and impacts related to the project. These include the preparation of VMGPs and RAPs/ARAPs and grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) in accordance with the VMGF and RPF respectively.
Supervision and monitoring of the implementation of social instruments-VMGP and RAP’s in accordance with the respective Bank’s guidelines and policies, while paying special attention to ensure the active participation in project activities of VMGs who are in the minority in the counties in which they live. (The counties with minority VMG communities include Kilifi, Kwale, Lamu, Taita Taveta, West Pokot and Tana River)
Supporting Solar companies in the review of documentation pertaining to Social compliance
Training and capacity building of the project beneficiaries – in O&M – Use the tertiary institutions in the counties to build local capacity; Support/empower the local technicians to participate in the project
Track the perception of the VMGs and other component 2 community level stakeholders towards the project during the implementation phase.
Track the project’ compliance with proposed mitigation measures with regard to socio– cultural and environmental aspects-to determine the impact of the KOSAP Project on the wellbeing of the VMGs in all the 14 counties, and with special attention to minority VMGs in the six counties afore mentioned.
Ensure the free, prior and informed consultations with VMGs to enable their involvement and participation
Contribute to project’s Component 2 progress reports pertaining to overall implementation of Social requirements of the project
Preparing training materials and conducting technical training workshops to Solar Companies and Microfinance organization on Social Safeguards requirements
Prepare social information materials and disseminating the information to the relevant stakeholders; and organize environmental and social orientation & awareness, consultations, and training programs
Review bid documents to ensure social factors and mitigations are incorporated, and they are in harmony with social safeguards requirements;
Support the formation of the grievance/complaints redress committees and communication of the grievance mechanism to all the stakeholders and other relevant procedures to deal with all social matters including those related to-Labour Influx, gender based violence (GBV) which include among others, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA), and Sexual harassment that may result from the Actions of project workers In this regard: a) Support the contractors in the preparation of Labor Influx, GBV/SEA and Child Protection Plans, including Codes of Conduct (CoC) that guide the relations between project workers and the communities in which they live and work, as well Codes of Conduct in relation to Sexual Harassment (SH) among fellow project workers and Child Protection strategies. b) The Labour Influx, SEA and SH management plans and child protection strategies should be complete with necessary sanctions/punishments for non-compliant project workers.
Preparation of Social monitoring and evaluation reports and, perform tasks and responsibilities related to the social issues including SEA and SH by solar companies staff, GBV, HIV/AIDS program, issues related to labour influx (people coming into the project area for project related work) and child labour
Appraise the social aspects of the Project interventions. Advice on how the programme activities can be more gender sensitive to meet the priories of both men and women beneficiaries in K-OSAP project area
Undertake site visits during project execution and operation to assess how social screening and mitigation measures are succeeding or have succeeded in minimizing impacts
Ensuring that all the decisions made on Component 2 of the project are gender informed and socially sustainable
Assess any significant social issues and if required draw on KOSAP policy and best practices to provide advice on corrective action plan
Advice on how the programme activities can be more gender sensitive to meet the priorities of both men and women beneficiaries in KOSAP areas
Facilitate communication among various project stakeholders to promote socially and environmentally and socially sound project implementation with sustainable development outcomes-
Liaise on a regular basis with the Ministry of Energy, Local CBO’s ,NGO’s and other implementing Agencies
Produce and document social safeguards implementation reports; and Undertake other duties as per the requirements of the project or as directed by Project Coordinator.
III. Deliverables/Consultant’s Reporting Obligations
The Consultant will be required to submit reports as follows:
One copy of quarterly progress on activities undertaken and solutions to challenges
One copy of annual progress report; and
One copy of project completion report after the completion of the task period
Qualifications
The candidate should have, as a minimum, a postgraduate degree from any recognized institution in the area of Social Sciences: Community development, Participatory Rural Appraisal, or any related discipline with combination of appropriate trainings;
A minimum of ten years of relevant work experience in social development
At least 5 years’ working knowledge in the World Bank’s Social and Environmental safeguards policies and IFC Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines
Experience with Community development, gender mainstreaming issues, VMG’s and participatory approaches, and in particular, experience in World Bank’s social safeguard policies, direct experience in working on implementation of Social Assessment, RAP, VMGP, ESIA and ESMF, and other environmental and social safeguard issues preferably in Conservation organization or large industries in any private or public sector are an added advantages
Good communication skills both verbal and written
Fluency in English is essential and fluency in Kiswahili is an added advantage
Additional Information
Supervision
The social safeguard specialist will work in close co-operation with and under the guidance and supervision of the Project Co-ordinator –SNV/Sun funder and the PCU Project Coordinator in the Ministry of Energy
Duration of the Assignment/Contract Period
Up to 120 person days spread over a 12-month contract period with the possibility of extension based on satisfactory performance and continued project needs.
This is a Consultancy position with the successful candidate being contracted on a consultancy contract.
How to apply
Please apply by clicking on the “I’M INTERESTED” tab above/below and complete your application in our in-house recruitment system before 14 March 2019 attaching your CV and Cover letter.
We do not appreciate any commercial mediation based on this advertisement.
NB: Kindly note that SNV Kenya does not require you to undergo any medical test prior to employment. Only shortlisted will be contacted.