Position: Blue Carbon Roundtables Senior Facilitator

Project: Integrated Natural Resources Management (INRM)

Place of Performance: Remote with some travel

Level of Effort: 29 days

Background: INRM is a five-year task order (July 2020 – July 2025) under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) STARR II IDIQ. INRM is managed by the USAID Land and Resource Governance (LRG) Division within the Center for Natural Environment (CNE) in the Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security (REFS). Activities under this contract may be identified and funded by USAID Washington-based offices and/or by Missions. INRM supports integrated analysis and programming across development sectors. By using a multi-sectoral lens, INRM seeks to strengthen the impacts of USAID’s core environmental programming by recognizing synergies, adopting best practices, and building broader constituencies for integrated programming. INRM is designed to help USAID operating units achieve higher impact environment programming and to support the uptake of principles and approaches outlined in the Agency’s Environmental and Natural Resource Management Framework.

INRM is currently conducting research, funded by USAID’s Asia Bureau, to understand and analyze blue carbon potential for small island developing states and archipelagic countries in the Indo-Pacific region and identify blue carbon opportunities for climate finance. The geographic scope for this research is the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Pacific. To further this research, INRM will hold a series of in-person roundtable events in January and February 2025 to identify and explore constraints to using blue carbon finance models in the Indo-Pacific region.

Purpose: INRM is supporting USAID to organize three blue carbon roundtables to bring together stakeholders to identify opportunities and explore constraints to using blue carbon finance in the Indo-Pacific region. The roundtables will provide opportunities to share research findings about blue carbon archetypes, facilitate introductions between different stakeholders, and identify opportunities for financiers and countries to implement blue carbon finance. Each roundtable will focus on a different geography and will be 1 day.

• Indonesia
• Philippines
• Pacific Islands (Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu)

Each roundtable is anticipated to have 20-30 in person participants, plus INRM staff and facilitators. The target participants for the roundtables will be identified through a stakeholder landscape assessment but are anticipated to include:

• Government of target countries
• Regional entities
• Private sector
• Multilateral finance institutions
• Civil society
• USAID staff members

Each participant group will bring distinct perspectives on how blue carbon potential can be realized. The event will seek to capture these views and encourage new relationships to catalyze blue carbon finance.

To these ends, INRM is seeking the services of a Senior Facilitator consultant to facilitate the three roundtables. The roundtables are anticipated to take place in January and February of 2025.

Objectives and Duties: The Blue Carbon Roundtables Senior Facilitator will support the facilitation of the three roundtables through the following tasks:

1. Preparation and Design:

· Participate in planning sessions for the roundtables with INRM Blue Carbon Activity Manager, USAID, and team members as needed.

· Develop facilitation work plan and timeline (run-of-show) for roundtable that identifies necessary supplies and human resources and develop any required materials for the roundtables. This might include agendas, presentations, participant bios, and others materials.

· Work with INRM and USAID to determine the critical information to be documented during the roundtable and the appropriate way to capture the ideas, which could include videos, photos, the use of large canvasses and post-it notes, template forms, questionnaires, and other ideas the consultant proposes for ensuring everything is accurately captured.

2. Implementation and Facilitation

· Facilitate roundtable sessions by serving as master of ceremonies, maximizing participation from diverse participants, keeping discussions on track and on topic,

· Oversee time management of the roundtables. This might include keeping sessions and lunch/snack breaks on time, facilitating group movement into breakout sessions, gallery walks, information-sharing activities, icebreakers, group exercises, session recaps, and other participatory methods to maintain momentum and engage participants.

3. Roundtable Follow Up:

· Responsible for documenting and submitting to INRM the outputs from each of the roundtables. This will include a summary report (5-10 pages) capturing the events and outcomes of each roundtable to be submitted to INRM within a week of the roundtable closing. Event notes will be provided by the INRM team.

· Submit to INRM all roundtable materials, including participant list, agenda, presentations, and all forms of participant feedback mentioned above.

Reporting: The Consultant will report to the Blue Carbon Activity Manager.

Required Qualifications: The Blue Carbon Roundtables Senior Facilitator should have the following qualifications:

· At least 10 years of relevant professional experience, and an advanced degree (MS, PhD) in a relevant field;

· Demonstrated track record in timely delivery of high-quality technical deliverables;

· Experience living and working in the Indo-Pacific, and strong regional technical networks;

· Experience with workshop design and facilitation.