Description of the assignment (Title of consultancy): Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus Consultant for IW:LEARN
Project/Section Title: IW:LEARN/MPR
Modality and Period of assignment/services: 60 working days spread over a period of 4 months
Within the overall framework of the IOC Programmme and Budget 2026, in particular the project IW:LEARN5, the Individual Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Head of MPR/IOC and the direct supervision of GEF IW:LEARN Project Coordinator. This ToR is designed to describe the role and tasks of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus Consultant for IW:LEARN, to perform the assignment as described in section II.
II. Scope of work, purpose & responsibilities of the proposed work
The main activities that the Consultant will perform are:
- Revise the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis/Strategic Action Programme (TDA/SAP) Methodology to include WEFE Nexus considerations: the Consultant will develop input for the TDA-SAP Methodology so system thinking methods and tools are incorporated in the TDA-SAP Process, resulting in Nexus considerations and trade-offs to be part of the analysis through the TDA, as well as part of the Strategic Action Programme.
- Develop the methodological approach of the IW:LEARN Guidance Publication ‘‘How to integrate the WEFE Nexus approach in GEF IW projects’’: This guidance publication is part of the IW:LEARN’s “How to” series. This provides a detailed methodological approach on how to integrate WEFE Nexus and systems thinking into the GEF IW projects, providing step-step guidance for each phase of the GEF IW project cycle: project development, CEO endorsement request, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. For reference please review other publications in the same series, for example, How to Integrate Gender Equality, Women’s Empowerment and Inclusion in GEF IW Projects.
The input to be developed should allow the GEF Projects:
- Enable the identification, as part of the TDA analysis, of the WEFE Nexus issues and trade-offs that lead to or influence transboundary problems. This could be done as part of e.g. the socio- economic analysis to identify and understand the relative importance of the WEFE sectors, and the effects of trade-offs to the society and economy; governance analysis to understand the level of integration of sectoral strategic documents and policies at the national and the transboundary levels; ecosystem, hydrologic/hydrogeologic, pollution analysis to identify the effects of each of the WEFE sectors and the effects of the trade-offs among the sectors to anthropogenic and
natural environment. - Enable the identification, as part of the SAP development, of the specific solutions and actions that will lead to addressing the tradeoffs among the WEFE Nexus sectors. The solutions should be in the form of policy and managerial measures as well as in the form of infrastructure investments.
The input to be developed under point 1 above should be integrated in the updated TDA/SAP manual, which includes the enhancements developed for the incorporation of the source-to-sea considerations. This should lead to an enhanced TDA/SAP that will incorporate systemic thinking, in identifying and addressing transboundary issues and their root-causes.
The methodological approach, under point 2 above, should be approximately 30 pages. It should include a chapter on following systemic thinking, combining the WEFE Nexus approach and the Source to Sea approaches, in the implementation of GEF IW projects. This Guidance Note will be accompanied by case studies from the GEF IW portfolio. The collection of data and compilation of the project fiches to be annexed in the publication will done by the IW:LEARN team, under the guidance and following the template that the Consultant will propose.
