People NDC’s in the MENA region: promoting accountability through civil society participation.

Oxfam is a global movement dedicated to ending poverty and injustice by fighting inequality. Operating in around 70 countries with numerous partners, we empower communities to improve their lives, build resilience, and protect livelihoods, especially in times of crisis. We seek lasting solutions by addressing systemic inequalities rather than just their symptoms, aiming for genuine and durable change towards a just and sustainable world.

By 2025, under the UNFCCC Paris Agreement, all nations must submit revised climate action plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). These plans should comprehensively address greenhouse gas emissions and climate adaptation needs, aligning with national governments’ requirements and including community perspectives. Recent Oxfam research in 11 Low- and Middle-Income countries indicates that NDCs often lack community involvement and diverse civil society perspectives. This exclusion is attributed to government dominance in the processes, limited resources for inclusivity, insufficient political support for civil engagement, and negative governmental attitudes towards inclusion.

Transparent and participatory NDC reviews are crucial for allocating resources to the most vulnerable. However, current NDCs in the region overlook the needs of those most affected by climate change, including women, youth, farmers, and indigenous communities. Oxfam has successfully facilitated dialogues with grassroots movements and human rights activists to engage with the climate agenda, which was previously viewed as Western-centric.

In this TOR, Oxfam seeks a consultant(s) or consultancy firm to evaluate the inclusiveness of NDCs in Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, and Egypt, focusing on the involvement of women’s rights organizations in the NDC process.

1 – Scoping Research on NDCs

Publisher

Oxfam Regional Platform

Purpose : Why is this being commissioned? Why now?

• The third cycle of NDCs (NDCs 3.0) should aim for greater ambition by 2035, responding to previous COP statements and Global Stocktake (GST) outcomes, we want to explore the current NDCs process and inform the next cycle.
• These documents are public commitments, and follow a relatively fixed format, which makes them comparable at international level. But they also represent the outcome of a national process.
• In some cases, the process to create and update the NDCs has been participatory and inclusive of a wide range of stakeholders, but in others the process has been less inclusive. With weak participation by civil society and other stakeholders, there may be:
  • less ownership for, or awareness of the NDC commitments from stakeholders across society.
  • Risky or far-reaching plans being included in the NDC (such as land-intensive carbon-offset projects or massive transformation of food, agriculture and energy sectors) without considering the impacts on affected sectors.
  • Commitments on mitigation or adaptation which fall short of the civil society demands for climate justice
  • Failure to credibly consider and address gender, ethnicity, regions, conflict dynamics etc.
  • Plans which are inadequately costed; or where the international finance needed (vs. domestic finance) is not be indicated.
• Exclusion from the NDC process endangers parts of the population who are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, but who may remain unsupported, for instance, in terms of climate adaptation plans.
• It is therefore important to understand how inclusive NDC processes have been, and important questions remain about whether the quality of national climate responses can be improved through empowering understanding and engagement in NDCs by civil society, and by women, youth and indigenous peoples. The purpose of the research, therefore, will be
  • To get a more detailed picture of how participatory and inclusive NDCs have been in a representative sample of developing countries.
  • To determine if lack of participation by civil society has been a widespread problem in the way NDCs have been prepared, and to understand the implications of this.

Audience List primary and other audiences Who are we trying to influence? What will be the style and tone?

• Civil society, including partners of Oxfam
• Governments updating or implementing their NDCs
• experts who are assisting governments with their NDC
• donors who are providing climate finance to support conditional financial needs expressed in NDCs

2 – TERMS OF REFERENCE

Proposition Short (c. 75 words) on the paper’s core argument and policy recommendation(s) for all countries Include specific gender/women’s rights points here if possible.

In some countries, NDCs are failing to be genuinely inclusive. We need to convene and empower a wide range of CSO actors in developing countries (eg. women’s rights orgs, land rights movements, indigenous peoples, farmer organisations, journalist networks etc) to engage more deeply in the development, implementation and monitoring of national climate plans (which, through NDCs, are formal government commitments under the UNFCCC Paris Agreement).

Contents List contents section by section, with estimated word counts, including case studies. Outline recommendations Indicate other content proposed, including killer facts, infographics, charts, etc.

For each countries mentioned (Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt & Tunisia)

1. DESCRIPTION OF THE NDC PROCESS SO FAR

What was the process to develop NDCs so far? Will consider:

• Timeline highlighting consultation rounds with civil society. Civil society (CS) includes, but is not limited to, NGOs and NGO platforms, youth and women’s rights organisations, community organisations, indigenous peoples, sectorial organisations, independent right-holders, movements, or other members of society including .
• Which are the key responsible stakeholders who lead the process (Ministries, consultants, others?)
• Which members of civil society have been involved in the process, highlighting at what stage where they involved?

How many civil society consultations can be identified? How was CS consulted? Will consider:

• What input by CS was sought?
• How much space was given for CS to influence and participate?
• In which language were the consultations made, local or foreign?
• Has the process also addressed the financial aspects of the NDC, including spending priorities? Was this part of the consultation?
• Has the process respected the right of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for indigenous peoples?

2. Assessing Participation:

• Were relevant groups included? Were relevant groups who should have been included left out?
• Were CS perspectives actively excluded or sidelined?
• Was civil society participation in the NDC process sufficient?

3. REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS:

• Have consultation processes involved different stakeholders to promote transparency, minimize inequality, and avoid the exercise of undue economic or political influence in the design and implementation of the NDC?
• Do NDCs lay out the mechanisms for guaranteeing the effective participation of the public in decisions related to the NDC? Have participatory processes taken place along reasonable timeframes ensuring meaningful and effective participation?

Methodology

• Literature review
• Key informant interviews (decided with Oxfam country office) from difference stakeholders in civil society, and within the Ministry of Environment (or whichever ministry is responsible for the NDC.
• Collected supporting documentation supporting research to be shared with Oxfam

Inclusiveness

The paper assesses the inclusiveness of NDCs, and the research will consider the extent to which women’s rights organisations have been invited or involved in the NDC process.

Countries

The consultant/consultants will have to work with Country offices and Oxfam Regional Platform to Identify audience and coordinate.

Countries are “Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Egypt”

3. Deliverables:

1. An inception report detailing the plan of action, proposed structure of the paper, key stakeholders to be interviewed in each country.
2. Draft report for review and validation by Oxfam MENA RP and Country offices involved. With a regional recoemdnations and overall overview and a section for each country that they can use nationally.
3. A final edited paper

4. Timeframe and Time Commitment

The assignment is expected to be fully completed by end of January 2025. Applicants are kindly requested to indicate in their offers the required number of days broken down by deliverable/activity versus cost, in addition to the team size involved (if feasible).

5. Required experiences and qualifications:

– At least 5 years’ experience in climate justice policies

– Arabic proficiency in writing and speaking

– Proven experience in policy analysis

– Strong experience in gender and inclusiveness

– Ability to work independently and organize meetings with Governments, CSOs, etc…

– Strong research and excellent writing skills in English and Arabic

– Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure

– Ability to be flexible and respond to review and feedback process

– Strong interpersonal skills, able to communicate and work with diverse people

– A previous experience in one or more countries where we want to conduct the study

– Accessibility to and knowledge of the context in the four countries of interest