Consultant for Climate Change Mitigation Policy

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Introduction

Avanzar2030 is an initiative founded by IFPRI, IICA, and the Juno Evidence Alliance to identify promising innovations in agrifood systems across Latin America, to adapt to climate change, improve diets, and protect food security. Building on its first phase—which synthesized research on policies, technologies, and institutions across Latin America and the Caribbean—the second phase focuses on generating national-level evidence to address the food security and sustainability challenges of governments and local partners. As part of this second phase, Avanzar2030 is supporting two scoping reviews in collaboration with partners from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, aimed at synthesizing evidence on public policies and private initiatives that influence carbon stocks in the agricultural and livestock sector.

Agricultural and livestock systems in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and southern Brazil play a fundamental role in both regional economies—where agriculture contributes between 6% and 10% of GDP—and global food supply. These countries face a dual challenge: improving productive efficiency to ensure nutritious, high-quality food while substantially strengthening environmental sustainability. Practices such as conservation tillage, cover crops, crop rotation, and agroforestry can maintain and enhance carbon stocks in soils and biomass, while also improving resilience to climate variability and aligning with emerging carbon markets and international climate commitments. A structured synthesis of the available academic and gray literature on the policies and incentive mechanisms that support these practices can provide decision-makers with actionable, context-specific guidance for designing effective programs to maintain and enhance carbon stocks across diverse production systems in the region.

Scope of Work

To support a scoping review of the evidence on how public policies and private initiatives influence carbon stocks in agricultural and livestock production systems, and the associated environmental, social, and economic outcomes, covering both tropical and temperate agricultural contexts within the framework of the Avanzar2030 initiative, with an emphasis on temperate agriculture in Argentina and Uruguay.

• To develop and implement a systematic search strategy to identify and select studies examining the effect of public policies and private initiatives on carbon stocks in agricultural and livestock systems, covering both tropical and temperate contexts, with a focus on temperate agriculture.
• To extract and synthesize evidence on the types of interventions, mechanisms of action, and enabling conditions and barriers that shape their effectiveness, as well as the associated environmental, social, and economic outcomes reported in the literature.
• To produce an evidence synthesis document for decision-makers summarizing the state of knowledge and remaining gaps in the literature on carbon stocks in temperate agricultural systems, as a contribution to the Avanzar2030 initiative.

Required Qualifications of the Consultant / Survey Team Leader

Education & Experience

• Master’s degree plus 2 years of relevant professional experience in agricultural economics, international development, or other relevant discipline.
• Experienced in conducting literature reviews of academic publications, research reports, etc.
• Familiarity with Latin America and the Caribbean.

Technical Competencies

• Excellent econometric skills for cross-section and panel data analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to perform in-depth statistical analysis and report the results.
• Familiarity with popular software packages and internet-based systems.

Core Competencies

• Excellent drafting skills and analytical mind.
• Demonstrated professional level of attention to detail and accuracy of work.
• Excellent interpersonal skills for work in a team-oriented, multi-cultural environment.
• Demonstrated ability to multi-task as needed, consistently meet deadlines, and manage time well.
• Ability to work independently, with initiative and minimal supervision.
• Ability to travel.

Languages

• Demonstrated fluency in written and spoken English.
• Proficiency in Spanish.

Preferred Qualifications

• Skilled in programming in STATA and/or R and in managing household databases.
• Strong background in microeconomics.

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