Consultancy for Smoke Free Village programme in Cambodia

Company Description

SNV Netherlands Development Organization is a not-for-profit international development Organisation, founded in the Netherlands in 1965. SNV operates in more than 25 developing countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. For detailed information on SNV visit: www.snv.org.

Working in Cambodia since 2005, SNV implements projects in the agriculture, energy, and water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sectors. Using market-based approaches, we emphasize environmental sustainability and inclusive development. We lower the barriers to economic and social development and promote local ownership. SNV provides tailor-made and sustainable interventions that are effective at raising incomes, providing meaningful employment opportunities, and improving access to and coverage of basic services. Our interventions acknowledge the critical importance of improved climate change resilience and mitigation strategies to achieve sustainable change. Our work is aligned with the country’s national development priorities and strategies. We work in close collaboration with the royal government, civil society, and private sector. Our multi-national team of experts works from our national office in Phnom Penh.

Our work in the Energy Sector contributes to our Sector Strategy and Country Plan through projects that are financed and supported by a variety of donors and social investors. At a global level, our Energy programmes reached close to 2.7 million people in 18 countries in 2022, with people having new access to sustainable and affordable energy. We also reduced emissions by the equivalent of nearly 738,000 tonnes of CO2e that year. Our Energy team in Cambodia is headed up by an Energy Sector Leader who leads project managers, specialists and advisors as they work together with the public sector, private companies, and civil society actors in selected communes and provinces to stimulate market development and create an enabling environment for clean and advanced energy solutions.

Energy in Cambodia

70% of the total energy in Cambodia is used as cooking energy. In rural Cambodia, wood is still the dominant fuel for cooking. The use of biomass for cooking fuel and associated smoke exposure contributes to serious health problems. It is estimated that 15% of the country’s deaths are attributable to traditional cooking practises, similar to the toll of tobacco smokers. Many more lives, mainly women and children, are affected by severe health conditions that depress the quality and length of life.

Smoke Free Village

Since 2015 SNV has worked through EnDev (www.endev.info) on a programme to address the negative social, economic, environmental, and health impacts of traditional cooking in rural Cambodia. From mid 2020 the bulk of the work has been through the Smoke Free Village (SFV) approach. The Smoke-Free-Free (SFV) initiative started in Cambodia and has rolled out in multiple countries (including Laos, Mozambique, and Nepal) under various funding sources. https://www.snv.org/project/clean-and-improved-cooking-mekong-region; https://www.facebook.com/SmokeFreeVillage

SFV objectives are to change collectively the cooking behaviours of villagers with regards to cleaner cooking, to ignite demand for clean stoves and fuels, and to trigger suppliers to sell their products and services in these villages. Social and Behavior Change tools for facilitation are combinate with training activities, mainly to the commune councils for women and children and village chiefs to roll out the campaign. BCC activities involve community dialogue, door to door visits and cook fairs as well as drawing competitions among schools. Health centres and pagodas are also strongly engaged.

Over 100,000 households and 500 villages in provinces of Kampot, Kampong Speu, Battambang and Siem Reap are part of the programme. SFV will continue to pursue poverty alleviation by offering tailor made BCC services (for instance door to door visits), to get LNOB households (defined as registered poor households, women-led households, and households with people living with disabilities) exposed to information about clean cooking.

Job Description

Objective for the consultancy

The objective of this consultancy is to support the team with various tasks related to the implementation and analysis of activities and strategies, including the LNOB and restaurant pilots and support the programme to capture lessons of Smoke Free Village and make available for EnDev and product evidence based for advocacy for government.

1. Give follow up on the activities to implement approaches with cooking energy subsidies to enhance the access for LNOB households and restaurants holders for electric cooking solutions and helps to collect and evaluate data analysis and develop knowledge for these pilots.
2. Support SNV to develop and draft the How To Guide that will capture a step a by step approach on how to implement the Smoke Free Village approach. The knowledge product will be developed in collaboration with a wider team of advisors.
3. Assess the quality of BCC activities by evaluating the experience of villagers that participated in the different events (village meetings, SFV day, cooking fair and Door to door visits.)
4. Capture the energy usage of different household classification used under the SFV project (currently named a, b, c, d and e) by meter and measure the usage of fuel wood LPG and electricity.
5. Conduct desk study to list relevant publications (literature and grey literature) in relation to cooking energy in Cambodia, including a summary of main findings. 
6. Capture lesson learn and document the participation of GESI group (e.g., people with disabilities, IDPoor households, women-headed households, etc.) who participate in the BCC activities.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in relevant field (e.g., social and environmental science or energy)
• Experience in research and behaviour change communication theories and practises, in market development, and design of subsidy schemes.
• Demonstrable knowledge, skills and experience in sustainable development in the clean cooking energy sector
• In-country network / experience working in Cambodia
• Fluence in written and spoken English, command to Khmer is a plus
• Experience in research, knowledge development, publication and in reporting

Additional Information

Interested applicants are requested to submit CV, and cover letter detailing the position’s suitability and highlighting relevant experience via the SmartRecruiter through below link. The application should be submitted by Friday, 19 July 2024.

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