Abt Global seeks a qualified Expert to work as part of the evaluation team in support of the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s ALTIF and FoVEP Projects of the Solomon Islands Threshold Program Evaluation.

The Solomon Islands Threshold Program is a four-year program that began on January 22, 2022. The program consists of two Projects: the Accessing Land for Tourism Investment Facilitation Project (ALTIF) and the Forest Value Enhancement Project (FoVEP.)

The ALTIF Project consists of a single Activity—the ALTIF Activity with three subactivities:

• Improve Access to Land and Establish Social License to Operate for the Tourism Investor (“ Land Sub-Activity ”).

The objective of ALTIF is to identify registered land parcels that have a high potential to attract outside tourism investment to Solomon Islands and to support the process by which an investor obtains access to that land via a long-term lease and establishes Social License [1] to operate with the neighboring community, which is necessary for long term land tenure security.

• Increasing Tourism Investment through Investment Facilitation (“ Investment Facilitation Sub-Activity ”).

The objective of the Investment Facilitation Sub-Activity is simplifying the investment process to facilitate tourism investment. This approach shall provide investors with definitive information about land parcels available for tourism investment and assistance in navigating the investment process.

• Facilitated Governance Reform (“ ALTIF FGR Sub-Activity ”).

The objective of the ALTIF FGR Sub-Activity is to provide a governance structure for the ALTIF Project that facilitates building capabilities and implementing the reforms that are identified by the Land Sub-Activity and Investment Facilitation Sub-Activity.

The FoVEP consists of a single Activity—the Forest Value Enhancement Activity. The sub-activities under the Forest Value Enhancement Activity are:

1. Forest Value Enhancement Project

The objective of the payment for ecosystem services (“ PES ”) Sub-Activity is to facilitate community-based forest and land management that is supported by a market-based PES, most likely, carbon finance, program in participating project locations. PES programs seek to incentivize better management of ecosystems by providing payments derived from markets for accredited management outcomes.

The evaluation of the ALTIF and FoVEP projects will seek to determine the extent to which the projects were implemented according to plan (in terms of quantity and quality of outputs), whether the projects achieved their stated objectives in the timeframe and magnitude expected, and why or why not. The SITP expert will be expected to work collaboratively with the Abt evaluation team; to provide technical knowledge; and to support evaluation design and implementation. This position is anticipated to be part time and is contingent upon award of the evaluation to Abt Global.

The contract will cover both projects.

Responsibilities:

• Provide technical input, guidance, and thought leadership on tourism development and investment, community- based forest and land management, and institutional reform as well other sector-relevant topics.

• Ensure the evaluation design and methods are tailored to the country and sector.

• Review and collect important documents and existing data related to the activities.

• Ensure data collection, which could include key informant interviews, focus group discussions, surveys, and other methods of data collection, is tailored to the local context.

• Travel within Solomons Islands as needed to engage and consult with key stakeholders, including dissemination of evaluation findings.

• Support analysis and interpretation of findings and contribute to the development of evaluation reports.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in political science, international development, economics, statistics, public policy, or another relevant subject area. PhD. preferred.

• Demonstrated expertise in tourism development and investment, community-based land and forest management and/or institutional reform and governance.

• Experience supporting evaluations of tourism development and investment and community-based land management programs preferred.

• Experience with quantitative and/or qualitative data collection.

• Candidate is ideally based in the Solomons Islands.

• Fluency in Pijin required; fluency in English and one or more local languages preferred.

To be considered for these opportunities, qualified applicants must submit the following to IERG@abtassoc.com :

• Required: Updated résumé or CV

Please include the job title in the email subject line.