RFP from the Agencies/Individual Consultant/Researchers for preparation of CommunityForest Management Plan for Climate Justice Program.

Submission Guidelines:Agencies/Individual Consultant/Researchers Interested in this assignment may write to email with a detailed list of the deliverables, processes and financial quotation by 15 th August 2024. Mail Id- admin@badlao.org.in Content- Preparation of Community Forest Management Plans for Climate Justice Program of Badlao Foundation, Mihijam, Jharkhand Introduction Badlao Foundation was born out of a contextual necessity of people whose land was submerged in water due to construction of Maithon dam on Barakar river in early fifties in the state of Jharkhand. The displacement created huge problems of livelihood for the affected people and Badlao Foundation organised them to promote non-farm income generating activities like sericulture and got affiliated to Khadi and Village Industries Commission in 1984. Since then the organisation has continuously expanded its efforts to empower people for social transformation to achieve self-reliance and gender justice. Badlao believes that for effective intervention it is imperative to build community based organisations which can undertake the task of development. Badlao foundation has extended its operations in six districts of Santhal Pargana region and recently expanded its intervention area to Gumla and Lohardaga districts. It has interventions in the sectors of agriculture development, health nutrition and sanitation, women empowerment and gender justice, education, forest rights and advocacy.  Background/Context In the context of Jharkhand, Adivasi claims to rights and resources have been legitimised to some extent with national and local legal frameworks, which have been attempted to dilute and weaken in the interest of ease of doing business.  However, time and again, the Adivasi community keeps protesting against such moves. The Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006, is a move towards protecting the rights of the Adivasis and securing their tenancy on the forest land, which they have been managing traditionally.  Badlao Foundation has been ensuring the smooth implementation of FRA in the 3 districts of Jharkhand namely- Godda, Lohardaga and Gumla, Badlao Foundation. Badlao works across 35 villages in these 3 districts with a team of 12+ members.  Assignment of the TOR Badlao Foundation under its mandate to facilitate the process of filing of Community Forest Rights in 35 villages across the 3 districts, proposes to develop Community Forest Management Plans for all these villages.  In all these villages, the Community Forest Management Committees have been formed and these committees have also been explained about their roles and responsibilities. They are conducting meetings at their village levels and are eager to participate in the process of preparation of the Community Forest Management Plans. The Agencies/Individual Consultant/Researchers is expected to develop the Community Forest Management plans initially for these 20 villages- 5 from Gumla, 5 from Lohardaga and 10 from Godda. The management beside reflecting on the generic processes and plans, emphasis needs to be made on planning of activities for enhancing the livelihood opportunities for the community by use of the forest resources.  Outcomes of the assignment: 1.    Participatory planning process at community level in 20 villages for documentation of resource inventory 2.    20 Community Forest Management Plans 3.    Implementation plan for each of these Management Plans with clear roles and responsibilities of the members of Community Forest Management Committees 4.    Develop a template for preparation of Community Forest Management Plan Timeline: The assignment can start from 1st September 2024 and can come to a closure by 1st week of January 2025. Thanks, Ritesh Tripathi Badlao Foundation

RFP from the Agencies/Individual Consultant/Researchers for preparation of a Policy Brief on Implementation of Community Forest Right for Climate Justice Program

Content- TOR Preparation of a Policy Brief on Implementation of Community Forest Right for Climate Justice Program  Introduction Badlao Foundation was born out of a contextual necessity of people whose land was submerged in water due to construction of Maithon dam on Barakar river in early fifties in the state of Jharkhand. The displacement created huge problems of livelihood for the affected people and Badlao Foundation organized them to promote non-farm income generating activities like sericulture and got affiliated to Khadi and Village Industries Commission in 1984. Since then, the organization has continuously expanded its efforts to empower people for social transformation to achieve self-reliance and gender justice. Badlao believes that for effective intervention it is imperative to build community-based organizations which can undertake the task of development. Badlao foundation has extended its operations in six districts of Santhal Pargana region and recently expanded its intervention area to Gumla and Lohardaga districts. It has interventions in the sectors of agriculture development, health nutrition and sanitation, women empowerment and gender justice, education, forest rights and advocacy.  Background/Context In the context of Jharkhand, Adivasi claims to rights and resources have been legitimised to some extent with national and local legal frameworks, which have been attempted to dilute and weaken in the interest of ease of doing business.  However, time and again, Adivasi community keep protesting against such moves. The Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006, is a move towards protecting the rights of the Adivasis and securing their tenancy on the forest land, which they have been managing traditionally.  Badlao Foundation has been ensuring the smooth implementation of FRA in the 3 districts of Jharkhand namely- Godda, Lohardaga and Gumla, Badlao Foundation. Badlao works across 35 villages in these 3 districts with a team of 12+ members.  Assignment of the TOR Jharkhand is one of the many states in India that have lagged in the implementation of FRA, 2006. As of December 31, 2020, the percentage of both IFR and CFR rights recognition in the state was at 56 per cent. The minimum potential of CFR to transform Jharkhand is around 21,175 km2 / 52.32 lakh acres, according to a recent GIS-based research study by ATREE (Lele, Khare, & Mokashi, 2020). Other studies (RRI, 2016) also corroborate (CFR potential of 51.58 lakh acres) with the recent estimation. These rights could potentially be claimed by 12,516 villages out of the total 32,395 villages in Jharkhand. Recent data from the Union ministry of tribal affairs (MoTA) confirmed that only 2.57 lakh acres have been distributed as part of these entitlements out of which CFR area is 1.03 lakh acres. This means in the last 15 years, since the landmark law was passed, forest rights recognition in the state has been a mere 2% of its true potential. Looking at the current situation, when there is a huge lag in the implementation of the same. Badlao Foundation wishes to take out 1 policy brief which analyses the factors responsible for the poor implementation of the Act along with the key actionable for the implementing body.  The outcomes of the assignment are: 1.    Map all the relevant stakeholders at the State Government level which is responsible for FRA implementation 2.    A matrix is prepared which has the status of FRA for the 3 districts-Gumla, Lohardaga and Godda 3.    The matrix has the reasons for the lag in implementation against each district 4.    A policy brief which has at least 2 policy level recommendation for the Government  5.    5-6 actionable for Badlao Foundation to address the lags in implementation as a Civil Society Organization 6.    A slide deck with the key findings and some recommendations to be shared during a State Level Workshop Process to be followed: 1.    Interview with officials of SDO for the 3 districts 2.    Interview with officials of Forest Department-DFO 3.    Interview with District Welfare Officer 4.    Interview with State & District Level Tribal Welfare Department  5.    Interview with Circle Officer and Circle Inspector at block level 6.    Interview with PCCF, Tribal Welfare Secretary, Welfare Secretary 7.    CSOs present at the State Level 8.    CFMC representatives from the 3 districts/ community representatives 9.    Tribal Research Institute (TRI) Time-Line for the assignment: The assignment can start from 1st September and the first draft of the report can be shared with Badlao Foundation by 20th November and final report can be submitted on 30th November 2024. The slide deck is shared with Badlao by 20th November, for sharing and discussion in closed groups.   Efforts should be made in a way that these recommendations can be presented to the Government and together with them some way forward can be discussed. Budget: It needs to be indicated by the Agencies/Individual Consultant/Researchers. The budget should include the travel and stay of the Consultant/agency.   Last date for the proposal submission – 15th August 2024 Drop you Mail if you are interest at admin@badlao.org.in Thanks & Regards, Ritesh Tripathi Badlao Foundation