Short Term Technical Assistance – Tourism Advisor

Chemonics International – USAID Ecosystems/Protibesh Activity

Chemonics International – USAID Ecosystems/Protibesh Activity

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Summary

• Vacancy: —
• Location: Dhaka
• Published: 13 Jun 2024

Requirements

Additional Requirements

• Relevant academic background in economic valuation, tourism, social science, conservation, or a related field.
• Expertise and skills to conduct culturally sensitive and inclusive research and development work in the field with a diverse set of stakeholders.
• Deep understanding of the cultural and socioeconomic context of communities in and around KBAs, including the local practices, traditions, and economic use of and dependencies on natural resources and ecosystem services.
• Strong understanding of ethical considerations in tourism, particularly in the context of working with vulnerable or marginalized populations.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, particularly in working with local stakeholders and partners. This includes the ability to communicate study findings to diverse audiences in a clear and accessible manner.
• Capacity to deliver actionable insights and the ability to present findings, solutions, and approaches in an understandable and useful way to a broad range of stakeholders.
• Prior experience in creating tourism guidelines, implementation roadmaps, and/or tourism management frameworks is a plus.
• Fluency in English and Bangla.
• Women are encouraged to apply.

Responsibilities & Context

Background: The USAID Ecosystems/Protibesh Activity (Protibesh) focuses on three result areas including i) Strengthening environmental governance and management; ii) Mitigating biodiversity threats and iii) Advancement of market-based incentives that promote sustainable natural resources management under the Development Objective “Strengthened Resilience to Natural Hazards. The Activity goal of Protibesh is to improve ecosystem conservation in and around targeted key biodiversity areas (KBAs) of Bangladesh such as the northeastern haor and forest areas and the Sundarbans in the southwest. To enable improved conservation, economic opportunities for local communities need to align with conservation goals. A growing economic opportunity is tourism. In many KBAs, tourism has seen an expansion in recent years, much of which uncontrolled. As such, tourism is beginning to become a significant threat to KBAs and their biodiversity. To harmonize tourism with ecosystem conservation needs, Protibesh will work with co-managers of these KBAs (communities, government, and the private sector) to develop sustainable and inclusive management approaches that regulate tourism, while providing opportunities to local communities, and consider conservation needs.

Position Description: The Tourism Advisor will collaborate with the Economic Growth Team, the Policy and Governance Team, and the Biodiversity Conservation Team of Protibesh Activity and relevant regional and site teams and sub-awardees to advance sustainable tourism management in select KBAs (Ratargul Special Biodiversity Conservation Area, Lawachara National Park, Rema Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary, Satchari National Park, Tanguar Haor, Sundarbans, and others), taking stakeholders needs – particularly those of small ethnic communities and disadvantaged groups – and conservation goals for these KBAs into account. In particular, the management approaches will include preference of local communities in engaging in the sector, conservation finance approaches that can be derived from tourism, and responsible tourism behaviors that need to be enforced in the KBAs. The Tourism Advisor will advise the team on how to institutionalize management approaches within the context of existing policies, such as the Protected Area Management Rules, 2017, and the ECA Rules 2016.

Specific Tasks and Responsibilities: Under the supervision of the Chief of Party and working closely with relevant technical, regional, and site team members, the Tourism Advisor will:

• Review the relevant strategies, policies, laws and regulations and develop position paper for responsible tourism that benefits in increasing revenue sharing, local economic development, and conservation initiatives.
• Identify tourism management gaps including technical, financial, and/or behavioral gaps that hamper effective tourism management and develop solutions for addressing these gaps.
• Together with co-managers, develop sustainable and inclusive management concepts, guidelines, and/or frameworks for selected KBAs taking into account existing approaches and facilities, community and conservation needs and considering identified gaps.
• Define and develop implementation road maps of the guidelines that will engage the public and private sector, and communities for the economic and conservation benefits and sustainable tourism management in the areas.
• Define and articulate roles and responsibilities for the tourists, tourism service providers, tour guides, local small business, local community, small ethnic communities, government administrative and/or regulatory bodies.
• Work closely with Bangladesh Tourism Board and other government authorities to integrate Portibesh tourism activities in the country’s tourism master plan.
• Advise and train co-managers on best practices in sustainable tourism management and the implementation of developed guidelines/concepts and/or frameworks and related road maps.
• Foster integration of tourism management into co-management practices in accordance with pertaining policies.
• Advise Protibesh and the private sector on sustainable tourism promotion, informed by best local and international practices.

Timeframe and Level of Effort: The assignment will begin on July 15, 2024, and end on March 31, 2024. The proposed LOE for the STTA will be a maximum of 100 days.

Job Location: Dhaka and Protibesh sites in the Khulna and Sylhet Division as needed.

Supervision and Reporting: The Tourism Advisor will report directly to the Chief of Party of designee and will work closely with the site team and the regional team, as well as relevant technical leads and specialists.

Employment Status

Contractual

Job Location

Dhaka

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