Nairobi, Africa Career
ORGANIZATIONAL LOCATION: UN-HABITAT DUTY STATION: Home Based FUNCTIONAL TITLE: Consultant: Land tools for food security DURATION: 60 days over 6 months CLOSING DATE: 5 September 2013
BACKGROUND The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.
The Urban Legislation, Land and Governance Branch supports the development of adequate land management tools, urban legislation and urban governance models and institutions as a contribution to sustainable urban development. It provides policy and technical assistance, through operational projects, to national and sub-national governments, including local authorities, and other Habitat Agenda partners with respect to urban legislation, land and governance, including urban safety;
The Land and GLTN Unit - The Land and GLTN Unit, located within the Urban Legislation, Land and Governance Branch of UN-Habitat has the mandate to develop, test and disseminate pro-poor and gender responsive approaches in regard to urban land, innovative residential tenures, affordable land management/administration systems, and land related regulatory/legal frameworks and tools. The Unit hence focuses on research and tool development also to supply technical advice to Member States and backstop the Regional offices and other sections of UN-Habitat. Land tools provide a resource for enabling action. While there has been extensive global discussion around land policies that work for the poor, there has been insufficient attention paid to the development of methods for developing and implementing these pro-poor land policies. Consequently what are required are land tools that are affordable and accessible for all sections of the population in countries around the world. This is essential for creating societies with sustainable, equal access and use of land. Work has already started on these approaches, both for developing and post-conflict societies. Incremental expansion of this work over time, as capacity is developed, will take place through the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN, the Network), the Secretariat of which is located at UN-Habitat.
The Global Land Tool Network - The goal of the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) is the development and adoption of pro poor and gender sensitive land tools and approaches. The core themes on which the Networks focuses on are: access to land and tenure security, land management and planning, land administration and information, land-based financing, land policy and legislation. The Network also works on cross-cutting issues, such as capacity development, land governance, youth, capacity development, land in the Muslim world, human rights, food security, conflict/disaster, environment, gender, and grassroots. GLTN has developed a global partnership on land issues pulling together global partners, as well as many individual members. These partners include international networks of civil society, international finance institutions, international research and training institutions, donors and professional bodies. It aims to take a more holistic approach to land issues by: improving global coordination on land; establishing of a continuum of land rights, rather than just focus on individual land titling; improving and developing pro-poor land management, as well as land tenure tools; unblocking existing initiatives; assisting in strengthening existing land networks; assisting in the development of gendered land tools which are affordable and useful to the grassroots; and improving the general dissemination of knowledge about how to implement security of tenure. More information on GLTN can be found on www.gltn.net.
This post is located in the Urban Legislation, Land and Governance Branch. The consultant will be reporting to the GLTN Unit Leader.
RESPONSIBILITIES Poverty reduction and food security are at the heart of the GLTN phase two implementation. Food security goes beyond agriculture production to include the food systems and chain from research to consumption. GLTN partners believe that land is the foundation upon which the food security of millions of people living in poverty depends. For that foundation to be strong, good land governance is a necessity, both to improve livelihoods (in rural and urban areas) and to meet the ever-increasing food demands of a growing population, made more difficult by fossil fuel dependency, natural resource depletion and the negative effects of climate change. Therefore developing food security ‘compliance’ land tools will contribute to improve food security situation of poor, women and other vulnerable groups. GLTN sees food security land activities to support the poor in food insecure areas, value chain improvements, and small and medium towns. The consultancy will build and strengthen emerging commitments to collaboration across multiple sectors, actors and perspectives and uses of the world’s land. The consultant may consider the following approaches to achieve the objectives of the outputs listed below: desktop study, interviews and surveys (online or on the phone), consultation validation workshop, writeshop; contest; research compilation and packaging, etc. The consultant will be provided with key documents such as the Voluntary Guidelines, the GLTN related document, African Land Policy initiative, Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Framework for African Food Security.
Under take a scoping study on land tools, tenure security and food security including the following elements: a. Identify the nexus between GLTN land tools, tenure security and food security through literature review emphasising evidence based arguments and availing the literature lists; b. Review GLTN land tools and projects to assess their pertinence and possible contribution to food security and how food security can be embedded and mainstreamed into GLTN land tool development process; c. Develop a framework for knowledge management in the area of land tools and food security developed (database, references, tool, methods, etc); d. Review GLTN land tools and approaches to ascertain their contribution to food security, especially for women and the poor; To what extent GLTN work explicitly or implicitly supports and contributes to food security; e. Propose a range of land tools that are needed to improve food security outcome and vice-versa; f. Identify strategic entry points for ensuring that land tools are contributing to food security, including collaborative action with other organisations;
Design, develop and/or pilot tentative tools to assess the food security ‘compliance’ of land tools and initiates or projects: a. These tools may take the form of simple checklist, score cards, impact assessment tool, food security monitoring and evaluation tools for food security; b. Ensure linkages with Voluntary Guidelines, the post-2015 development agenda and the African Land Policy Initiative;
Develop information, communication and packaging around land tools and food security: a. Communication strategy element b. Development of facts and figures for collaborative action, c. Advocacy tools for global and country level purposes
Desk review mapping of global actors and GLTN partners working on land and food security: a. Identify opportunities of GLTN engagement with the view to foster better collaboration and networking b. Identify on-going global and regional initiatives that could be strategic entry points
c. Identify entry points for resource mobilization d. Identify experts, organisations, institutions and funders working on land and food security