Environmental Education Specialist 58 views0 applications 253 views

Malawi’s leading conservation NGO, Lilongwe Wildlife Trust, is looking for a dynamic environmental education specialist to oversee an exciting project that aims to develop a gold-standard programme for inspiring the next generation of conservationists within Malawi.

Lilongwe Wildlife Trust is uniquely positioned to act as the country’s leading facility for conservation education. Each year our education team and award-winning sanctuary – the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre – delivers environmental education to thousands of school children across the country. To date, our bespoke educational programme has reached over 175,000 school children across Malawi.

We are seeking an experienced and visionary education specialist with experience of designing high-impact environmental education programmes, ideally in both classroom and ‘experiential’ settings (e.g. education centres). Specific experience of working within the Southern African context is a plus, but not essential. We are open to proposals regarding the approach and budget, although you will need to spend at least some time in Malawi within the short-term contract.

There are two strands of work to this consultancy, outlined in the terms of reference on the link below. Ideally we would like one person to manage both, but would also consider separating the strands if necessary.

Background to LWT

Established
in 2008, Lilongwe Wildlife Trust (LWT) is a leading conservation NGO working
to protect and restore Malawi’s wildlife and wild places. It invested over $4
million into nature-based initiatives last year, implemented by 115 staff
nationwide. LWT tackles Malawi’s most urgent conservation challenges from
multiple angles, and inspires action at every level of society to protect our
natural world. Its connected and pioneering approach has moved beyond wild
animal rescue and species rehabilitation to incorporate conservation justice,
advocacy, education and research. Collaboration with Government,
international agencies, local NGOs and grassroots community networks has
helped to maximise the impact for which it is now world-renowned.

Scope of Work

LWT
is undertaking two pieces of complimentary work for which we are seeking
consultancy support (with a third potential area of work also noted below).

1.
Reviewing and developing LWT’s Environmental Education programme

LWT has run Malawi’s largest Environmental Education Centre at the
Lilongwe Wildlife Centre (LWC), for almost 10 years. This Centre receives
over 40,000 school children each year and (supposedly) delivers a wide range
of conservation education programmes covering topics such as: wildlife
conservation, biodiversity, climate change, deforestation, wildlife crime,
human-wildlife conflict and water conservation and management.

In addition to running environmental education at LWC, LWT also carries
out (supposed) outreach to our 346 school members within the Lilongwe
District and has developed a set of environmental learning modules for the
Eco-Schools Malawi programme. The modules are designed to help support the
national curriculum and have subsequently been approved by the District
Education Manager, within the Department of Education, for use as
extra-curricular learning at the upper primary level in schools. In addition,
LWT’s Environmental Education programme extends to protected areas in the
Central and Northern Region.

LWT is
committed to promoting sustainable livelihoods and helping to ensure that
local communities in the rural border communities of National Parks and
Wildlife Reserves understand the wider importance of wildlife conservation.
The Environmental Education programme, which is delivered at schools and
community centres, purposely reflects the priority areas for wildlife
conservation and environmental protection at national and local scales. LWT’s
wider Community Education Programme (supposedly) remains Malawi’s leading
environmental education project and continues to grow e.g. in 2016/17, LWT (supposedly)
provided conservation education to over 55,000 school children across 394
schools. This included c. 30,000 urban/peri-urban school children engaged in
conservation education at LWC, and a further c. 25,000 pupils engaged through
our Protected Area Environmental Project.

LWT’s Environmental Education programme has been active for many years
without a formal evaluation and review process – and yet it remains ambitious
not only to deliver the highest quality environmental education at a local
level in target geographies but also to influence the broader education
framework within Malawi – especially as this pertains to the environment and
the socio-cultural environment of Malawi.

To promote good practice and develop the programme, LWT is seeking a
review of the environmental education programme in three steps:

i)
The consultant will undertake a formal
review of LWT’s environmental education programme

ii)
The consultant will produce a set of
recommendations for and a design of an improved and up-to-date environmental
education programme

iii)
The consultant will also provide support to
the initial implementation of the re-designed environmental education
programme

Overall, the review must determine whether the education programme is
good value for money – or would LWT be better spending its limited funds on
other things.

2. Advising on high
quality education facilities and experiences at LWC

The
LWC is undergoing a significant redevelopment which will result in the
upgrade and renovation of its facilities for both animals housed within the
centre and for visitors to the centre. As part of this project we have
ambitious plans to develop a pioneering education zone at the heart of the
new site. This will serve as a gold-standard facility for inspiring the next
generation of environmentalists and conservationists within Malawi. The
cornerstone of the new education zone will consist of multipurpose buildings
for classes and other educational experiences. Other ‘experiential’ elements
of the education zone could include activities, information and facilities
such as trail / canopy walks, playgrounds, an outdoor amphitheatre and
interactive experiences (to be determined).

The
consultant will contribute to the design and development of the new education
facilities and experiences at the redeveloped LWC, ensuring that the content
and messaging is consistent with those used in LWT’s wider Environmental
Education programme.

In the future, there is the potential
for a third strand of work that could also be included in this consultancy,
subject to budget constraints, and relevant experience and skills of
candidate. 

3. Aligning LWT’s campaigning and
advocacy work with the new environmental education content

Alongside delivering environmental
education, LWT also designs and delivers campaigns and advocacy work aimed at
mobilizing public and political support for critical issues, as well as changing
attitudes and behaviours. A decade after launching its first pilot project –
the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre – LWT is looking to move away from a primary /
sole focus on ‘wildlife’ and align its campaigning and advocacy work to a
broader ‘nature’ agenda. This shift reflects broader international trends in
the environmental sector, as a growing number of stakeholders respond to
evidence that biodiversity losses are progressing at a catastrophic scale. The
shift will also bring LWT’s campaigning and advocacy work into line with its
Environmental Education programme, which already covers a broad range of
‘nature’ related issues beyond just wildlife. 

The consultant will be asked to work
with the LWT team to align the messaging and content of the campaigns and
advocacy with the improved environmental education content – and vice versa.

Expected Duties

1.
Review of Environmental Education programme

·
Conduct an extensive literature review and study existing documents
related to contemporary environmental education programmes/training and build
this into the review process.

·
Undertake a detailed review of the Environmental Education Programme –
with the aim of determining those aspects that are leading to genuine and
measurable change of attitudes and behaviours as well as those that are
either failing to achieve genuine and measurable change of attitudes and
behaviours

·
Ensure stakeholder involvement and participation in the review

·
Assess all the teaching materials and teaching techniques used by the
team for Environmental Education and provide recommendations for improvement (or
complete overhaul, as appropriate!) – with the aim of incorporating the most
progressive but socio-culturally appropriate educational techniques,
materials and practices into the education programme.  We are interested in ensuring that
necessary emphasis is placed on the holistic development of the learner’s
competency especially as they relate to pro-environmental behaviours.

·
Having carried out an assessment of the capacities and competencies of
the education team: i) provide recommendations to LWT’s Senior Management as
to whether they do indeed have the capacity and competency to fulfil their
tasks and responsibilities, and, if so, ii) their continued capacity
development needs such that they will be in a position to deliver the
overhauled education programme in an effective manner.

·
Develop a tool that may be used for monitoring the environmental
education campaign – building on the Knowledge, Attitude, Practice (KAP)
surveys that have been developed elsewhere precisely for this.  This will require a review of the KAP
survey tools that have been used in similar circumstances and adapting and
incorporating the best aspects into a bespoke tool that is appropriate for
the socio-cultural environment in Malawi (but that in no way will lead to
inadvertent impacts – e.g., through the creation of expectations that LWT
will have no way of fulfilling).

·
Present the overall recommendations, including any course adjustment
that is necessary, within the context that LWT’s environmental education
campaign has an annual budget of approximately USD 120,000 and has existing
commitments to deliver various outcomes, outputs and impacts to donors.  The recommendations should include a
realistic roll out/implementation schedule and indicative resources (both
financial and human) required to achieve all identified goals, impacts,
outcomes and objectives of LWT’s Environmental Education programme.

·
Present the findings of the review, with recommendations, first, to the
education team and a broader set of LWT staff to receive and incorporate
feedback.  Thereafter, present the
final findings and ways forward to LWT Senior staff.

·
On completion of the review and with guidance from LWT’s Senior Staff,
initiate the progressive implementation of the findings and recommendations
from the review.  The implementation
should be phased with the consultant taking the role of advisor/mentor to
ensure that the mutually agreed vision will be achievable.  The length of the implementation phase of
the contract will be determined on completion of the review but the initial
implementation is included in the contract; in this way, LWT would like to
hold the consultant to account for the recommendations that s/he makes.  This may include working with LWT’s broader
team to develop teaching materials, manuals.

2.
Development of educational facilities and experiences at LWC (some of
the above duties will also be relevant for this strand of work)

·
Work with the LWC team and the broader LWT team to identify
target audiences for LWC-based educational facilities and experiences.

·
Conduct market research / literature review of best
practice environmental education – that would be seated within the socio-cultural
context of Malawi, and within a physical, non-classroom setting such as the
LWC.

• Develop a list of recommended
  educational facilities and experiences to raise awareness, change
  attitudes and drive pro-environmental behaviour change, with associated indicative
  budgets and staffing/operational needs for their implementation.
• Design a monitoring and
  evaluation process to measure the impact of educational facilities and
  experiences.

3.  (If it works out …) Align LWT’s campaigns
and advocacy work with its new environmental education content

·
Summarise the key messages and
ideas that shape the (new) content for the Environmental Education programme.

·
Advise on how to adapt these
messages and ideas into LWT’s campaigning and advocacy work.

Outputs

1.  Environmental Education
programme

·
Carry out the review in an inclusive and participatory way

·
Bring together key people to present findings and recommendations, and
receive feedback on findings and recommendations

·
Incorporate feedback into findings and recommendations

·
Present findings, recommendations and a roadmap for implementation to
LWT’s Senior Team

·
With the support of LWT’s Senior Team, initiate the implementation of roadmap
– that includes ongoing mentoring of staff

·
Agree with LWT Senior Team the modalities for ongoing support for the
Environmental Education programme.

2.  LWC
educational facilities and experiences

·
Working in an inclusive and participatory way, develop a strategy for
the development of the new educational facilities and experiences at LWC. This strategy should
include:

–
Audience mapping

–
List of recommended educational facilities and
experiences, including details of content, design, format (the development / construction
of these facilities will fall outside the scope of this consultancy and will
be managed by the LWC Manager). The recommendations should take a phased
approach, starting with priority facilities, followed by future or scaled-up
facilities if/when funding becomes available

–
Budgets and operational / staffing costs for new
facilities and experiences

–
Summary of research to support to support
recommendations (either primary or secondary sources)

–
A suggested monitoring and evaluation process to
measure the impact of the educational facilities and experiences

3.  Campaigning and advocacy work

·
A presentation summarising the key
messages and ideas that shape the (new) content of the Environmental
Education programme and a roadmap on how these two areas may converge.

To register your interest, please send through a CV, and a cover letter including details of your availability and day rates by 6th December 2019 to [email protected] We will then be in touch by 13th December to discuss next steps.