Terms of Reference: Call for Consultants for Portfolio Analysis and Learning Framework for Grassroots Loss and Damage and Resilience-Building Grantmaking
Organization
Global Greengrants Fund provides grants to grassroots groups around the world at the intersection of human rights and environmental sustainability. The fund’s grantmaking decisions are made by a network of over 200 activists and expert advisors located in the countries where we grant who are embedded in local environmental justice struggles, such as social change leaders, human rights activists, and environmental lawyers.
Summary
Global Greengrants Fund is accepting proposals for consultants to support the framing of a learning process for Global Greengrants Fund’s grantmaking to grassroots initiatives focused on loss and damage and resilience-building; including carrying out a data analysis of Global Greengrants’ recent grantmaking in this area, designing a learning framework, and supporting the development of case studies for external and internal audiences.
Context
Global Greengrants Fund has been supporting grassroots initiatives working on environmental and climate justice in flexible ways for three decades. The Fund’s grantmaking is responsive to and led by local solutions identified by communities and movements. In recent years, the related concepts of loss and damage and resilience-building have become increasingly relevant within climate philanthropy; and Greengrants is interested in understanding how the intersections of these concepts translate into our network’s diverse grantmaking strategies and, ultimately, the activities and lived realities of the grassroots partners the Fund supports.
Loss and damage refers to the destructive impacts of climate change that cannot be or have not been avoided by mitigation or adaptation. We are interested in both economic and non-economic loss and damage, encompassing a broad range of harmful impacts of climate change, from harm to individuals (physical and mental health, mobility and displacement, gender-based violence etc) to harm to livelihoods, property, and communities (loss of territory, cultural heritage, Indigenous and local knowledge, etc.) and the natural environment (loss and damage of biodiversity and habitats).
Connected to loss and damage, resilience-building is a controversial and polysemic concept, lacking a solid theoretical base.[1] To help Global Greengrants understand better how resilience-building and loss damage are defined and implemented in its network, and how its grantmaking supports these strategies, further analysis and a deeper discourse are required.
While all these areas are addressed in the activities Global Greengrants supports, the grantmaking analysis is meant to help the organization understand how the communities supported respond to loss and damage, and foster resilience-building, which advisory boards support related work, and where there are gaps and opportunities in local grantmaking strategies. In that context, the organization is also interested in how these concepts connect to just transition strategies that the Fund is supporting.
On the basis of this analysis, the aim is to develop a learning framework, to help the organization analyze on an ongoing basis how these concepts intersect and appear in grantmaking strategies in various regions and contexts, and how to effectively measure the impact of grassroots initiatives focusing on non-economic loss and damage, resilience-building, and just transition. This work will be supplemented by case studies identified through the analysis, which will be supported by the consultant.
General Objective
To support Global Greengrants’ understanding and analysis of the concepts of loss and damage and resilience-building, and the intersections to environmental and climate justice.
Objectives and Illustrative Activities
- Portfolio analysis of recent grantmaking (last five years) related to loss and damage and resilience-building, developing a solid understanding and definitions of these concepts and the kinds of strategies and activities currently funded across Global Greengrants’ advisory network
- Support the Learning Team in identifying at least 3 case studies from our global network of grantees to highlight the variety of activities supported over the last five years
- Develop a learning framework to help Global Greengrants code, track, and assess future grantmaking focused on loss and damage and resilience-building
- Support the planning and delivery of 1-2 learning circles with our advisory network to disseminate the findings of the analysis and the learning framework
Deliverables
- Synthesis of global grantmaking over the last five years related to loss and damage and resilience-building
- Working definitions of loss and damage and resilience-building for GGF based on the funded activities and strategies identified in the grantmaking analysis and a set of example grants to illustrate the concept in practice
- Learning framework and indicators to support impact assessment of future grantmaking related to loss and damage and resilience-building
- 1-2 learning circles with the advisory network
Required Expertise for this Project
We are looking for experienced consultant(s) who have a track record of data analysis, quantitative and qualitative research, and designing learning frameworks. An understanding of the concepts of environmental and climate justice would be helpful, and specific experience in loss and damage and resilience-building desirable.
You are flexible, not just in terms of time zones, but also with us an organization engaged in emergent strategy and change processes, and understand the realities of movements and activists engaged in justice struggles.
Timeline
We anticipate this work to take a total of 10 days between January 2024 and April 2024.
To Apply
Please send a short introduction of yourself and previous similar professional experiences, and an outline of the approach and methodology you would take in response to this call, as well as your daily rate(s) to Sarah Richmond, [email protected] by 15 January 2024.
If you have any questions about this opportunity, please do not hesitate to contact us at the above email address.