Consultancy to Conduct Outcome Harvesting

Consultancy to Conduct Outcome Harvesting

Consultancy overview

The Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA) is seeking a national research consultant to work with International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) to conduct research to identify, substantiate, verify and analyse changes in governance, wellbeing and conservation policy and practice at conservancies that have used the Site-level Assessment of Governance and Equity (SAGE) tool.

This assignment forms part of Activity 3.1 of the Scaling up equitable governance in area-based conservation (SEGA) project and may also generate evidence for SEGA Outcome Indicator 0.1. It contributes to a wider outcome-harvesting study across Bolivia, Kenya, Madagascar, Nepal and Tanzania and offers an early-career researcher an opportunity to contribute to applied research and strengthen practical evaluation skills.

Background

Protected and conserved areas are governed by a range of actors, including government agencies, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, non-governmental organisations and private actors. Their conservation effectiveness and social legitimacy depend not only on ecological management, but also on the quality and equity of governance: who participates in decisions, whose rights and knowledge are recognised, how costs and benefits are shared, and whether duty-bearers are accountable.

SAGE is a multistakeholder assessment process that enables actors at a conservation site to assess governance and equity, agree practical actions and monitor progress. Under the Darwin-funded SEGA project, partner organisations and site-level actors are using SAGE to strengthen governance and equity at protected and conserved areas. Several sites are now implementing action plans and reviewing progress, creating an opportunity to examine what has changed since SAGE was applied and how the process may have contributed to those changes.

The study will use outcome harvesting, a participatory evaluation method that starts from evidence of an observed change and works backwards to establish what contributed to it, how significant it is and what can be learned from it.

For this assignment, an outcome is a change in governance, wellbeing or conservation policy or practice. It may be an immediate action or a more transformative change, at any scale, and may be intended or unintended, positive or negative. It may follow from a specific SAGE action or from the SAGE process as a whole. What counts as an outcome, and how significant it is, will be judged with research informants. An outcome lead is a reported but not yet substantiated outcome.

The Kenya study will contribute site-level and national learning while using a common protocol that allows comparison across the five SEGA countries. Findings will inform the ongoing use and refinement of SAGE, support learning among participating sites and partners, and provide evidence for conservation policy and practice.

Purpose and objectives

The overall purpose is to assess SAGE’s contribution to significant changes in governance, wellbeing and conservation policy and practice at selected conservation sites in Kenya, and to generate practical learning for site-level actors, KWCA, IIED and the wider conservation sector.

The specific objectives are to:

• Identify and describe changes in governance, wellbeing and conservation policy or practice that have occurred after the use of SAGE at selected sites.
• Verify the evidence for identified outcomes and the significance of those changes from research informants’ perspectives.
• Assess what contributed to each change and how, including the contribution of specific SAGE actions and the overall SAGE process.
• Analyse patterns in outcomes within and across the selected sites and examine relationships among governance, wellbeing and conservation outcomes.
• Identify relevant learning for participating sites, the SEGA project and the wider conservation sector.

Scope and site selection

The research will cover two to four eligible conservancies in Kenya. Final sites will be selected jointly with IIED and KWCA using agreed criteria, including completion of the SAGE process, implementation or monitoring of action plans, availability of evidence, feasibility of access and the value of diversity across governance and site contexts. The number of sites confirmed during the scoping phase of the researchdetermines the level of effort and the contract value.

Approach, methodology and consultant tasks

Working under KWCA’s coordination and IIED’s technical guidance, the consultant will apply the common outcome-harvesting protocol and tools provided by IIED, adapting their language and facilitation to the Kenyan context while maintaining sufficient consistency for cross-country analysis. The process will be participatory, evidence-based, attentive to power differences and proportionate to the available time and budget.

Five iterative outcome-harvesting steps

1. Participate in online induction meetings and workshops; refine the evaluation questions and users; agree site-selection criteria, sampling, workplan, ethics and quality standards; and adapt the research tools.
2. Desk review of SAGE assessment, planning and prioritisation, progress-monitoring, training and other relevant reports, together with available social or biodiversity data. Conduct two to three initial key-informant interviews per eligible site to identify outcome leads using a standardised interview protocol.
3. Conduct fieldwork, coordinated with KWCA, at two to four selected sites for up to 15 days per site, including approximately 12 days based at the site. Verify outcome leads using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and other appropriate participatory methods with key stakeholders. Keep research records organised and secure. Develop clear outcome statements describing the change, the evidence, its significance and SAGE’s contribution.
4. Analyses and reporting. Use the Excel tool provided by IIED to organise outcomes and analyse patterns within and across sites. Participate in an online cross-country analysis workshop and draft the country-level research report.
5. Share preliminary findings at a community or multistakeholder meeting at each site and contribute to agreed practitioner or academic outputs.

Key deliverables

All deliverables will be produced in English, with accessible summaries or presentations adapted to site-level audiences where appropriate. Templates will be provided for selected outputs.

Duration, level of effort and budget

The assignment will require 52 to 98 consultancy days between September 2026 and November 2027, depending on the number of sites selected.

Applicants should submit a realistic financial proposal showing the day rate and the number of days, with fieldwork costs such as travel, accommodation and subsistence listed separately from professional fees. Payment milestones will be agreed during contracting and linked to satisfactory delivery of agreed outputs.

Required qualifications and experience

The assignment is suited to an early-career researcher based in Kenya with a qualitative social-science background and a strong interest in conservation governance and applied evaluation.

Essential

• A minimum of a Master’s degree in social sciences, development studies, environmental governance, gender studies, political ecology, conservation social science or a related field.
• Independence from SEGA implementation: the consultant must not be an employee of a SEGA partner and must not have facilitated or supported SAGE at the sites included in the research.
• Demonstrated experience in qualitative research, including semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions in rural or community settings.
• Experience in qualitative data management, coding, synthesis and report writing.
• Ability to analyse power, rights, gender and social-inclusion dynamics sensitively and ethically.
• Strong facilitation, presentation and written communication skills, with demonstrated experience engaging diverse rights-holders and stakeholders and effectively communicating findings back to participating communities.
• Fluency in English and Kiswahili;
• Availability to travel within Kenya and to participate reliably in remote meetings.

Desirable

• Knowledge of protected and conserved areas, community conservancies or natural-resource governance in Kenya.
• Experience with outcome harvesting, contribution analysis, developmental evaluation or another complexity-aware evaluation method.
• Familiarity with SAGE, equitable governance, human-rights-based approaches or conservation social safeguards.

How to apply

Interested individuals are invited to submit both technical and financial proposals. The application package should include:

• a short cover letter (maximum one page) confirming interest and availability and a technical proposal outlining understanding of the assignment, proposed workplan and timeline;
• professional CV(s) of the proposed consultant(s) not exceeding four pages;
• contact details of at least two referees for similar assignments;
• copies of tax compliance and other statutory documents, where applicable.

Applications should be sent to ceo@kwcakenya.com with the subject line ‘Outcome Harvesting Research Consultant – Kenya’ no later than 5^th October 2026. Shortlisted applicants may be invited to a virtual interview.