TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) 

 INVITATION FOR STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP: Technical Support for Mt. Kenya Landscape Management Board (LMB) on Integrated Landscape Governance under Rainforest Alliance MSuLLI Program  

Lead Organization:                   Rainforest Alliance 

Partnership Coordinator:      Team Manager, MSuLLi Program                                        

Location:                             Kenya 

Period of partnership:          January 15th, 2025, to March 31st, 2026

1.       About the Rainforest Alliance

The Rainforest Alliance (RA) is an international nonprofit organization working at the intersection of trade, agriculture, and forestry to make responsible trade the new normal. RA is building an alliance to protect forests, improve the livelihoods of farmers and forest communities, promote their human rights, and help them mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. To advance our mission, we focus on amplifying our impact on the ground through systemic transformation: change across the entire supply chain, change in the relationship between people and nature, and change within our own organization. We achieve this transformation by working in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders to create a stronger Alliance. Together, we amplify the voices of farmers and forest communities, improve livelihoods, protect biodiversity, and help people adapt to climate change in bold and effective ways. 

Within our 2030 vision, we have 3 main strategic pillars:  

1. Transforming agriculture and forestry to net positive: We partner with farmers and communities to promote regenerative methods that give more than they take 

1. Thriving Landscapes – Transforming landscapes at scale with an alliance of local-to-global stakeholders who share the same vision  

1.  Impact Data – Empowering stakeholders with impact data: We are building one integrated data system for all our programs to drive continuous improvement from individual farms to surrounding landscapes.  

We embrace transparency because we believe that the best way to build trust across our alliance is through openness about our tactics, our impact, and partners on the ground. Find out more about our work at Rainforest Alliance.  

2.       About the program

The RA is implementing a six-year, Mount Kenya Sustainable Landscape and Livelihoods (MSuLLi) Program targeting counties and communities around Mt. Kenya. The objective of the Program is to support a hybrid landscape management structure of the Mount Kenya landscape where smallholder producers, women and youth groups, forest dependent communities, public and private sector, jointly plan and take collective actions to improve the management of the landscape, sustainably manage and conserve natural resources and thereby improving people’s livelihoods. The Program focuses on two (Embu & Kirinyaga) of the six counties around Mount Kenya where we work directly work with 50,000 smallholder tea & coffee farmers and 1000 forest dependent communities as project beneficiaries.

The program has adopted a hybrid multistakeholder management structure to bring together the different clusters. At the county level, the structures are registered as societies (Mt. Kenya Landscape Management Society Kirinyaga Chapter and Mt. Kenya Landscape Management Society Embu Chapter). This redesigned registration structure allows for expansion of members in future as the body evolves and grows. The two societies then converge to form an apex body that represents the Mt. Kenya landscape. This has been legally registered as “The Mt. Kenya Sustainable Landscape Management Trust” herein referred to as LMB. The trust has an oversight role on the landscape and can mobilize resources for its operations and fund interventions within the landscape. With the LMB in place, it calls for setting up of a secretariat and developing appropriate tools to support in day-to-day operations for the effective implementation of the landscape management functions.  Learn more about the MSuLLi program here. 

3.       Focus areas of the partnership

The focus areas of this engagement are to:

Focus Area 1: Support in the operationalization of the LMB Secretariat.

Focus Area 2: Mentor the LMB on institutionalization and operationalization of organizational policies and procedures.

Focus Area 3: Support the LMB with Knowledge Management.

Specifically, collaboratively with RA offer the following support to the LMB:  

• Set up and operationalize the LMB Secretariat to effectively discharge its mandate. This includes day to day office operations, report writing, networking and forging partnerships, managing statutory requirements of the LMB among others.

  
  

• Mentor LMB on institutionalization and operationalization of organizational policies and procedures: Assist the LMB implement systems that shall support in prudent utilization of resources through good governance, transparency and accountability.

  
  

• Support the LMB on Knowledge Management: This will involve providing mentorship support for the LMB on Knowledge Management aiming to enhance and promote the visibility of the LMB, documenting case studies, developing profile, factsheets, website and social media accounts

4.       Deliverables

5.       Implementation Arrangements

Project Management Unit shall organize for all necessary meetings and workshop in accordance with the agreed workplan. 

6.       Institution/Firm/Organization expertise

• Governance framework development and operationalization

• Risk management and compliance

• Corporate ethics and accountability

• Human Resource Management and Advisory Services

• Talent acquisition

• Capacity Development through training, coaching, mentorship etc.

• Stakeholder management strategies

• Communication strategies

• 10 years of experience in providing similar services  

7.       Anticipated partnership duration

The partnership period will run from January 15th, 2025, to March 31st, 2026.

8.       Documents Submission:

Expression of interest should be submitted through this platform in one single PDF document which shall include: 

a)       Technical proposal

b)      CVs of team that will be involved

c)       At least three references on previous engagements

d)      Economic proposal.   

We shall be accepting and reviewing proposals on a rolling basis effective from the time the publication goes out until January 3rd, 2025.

Interested parties with specific competencies even if not all are still eligible to apply. In such a case, kindly specify the areas or expertise you interested in offering.