Legal Research Consultant

Term of Reference 

Legal Research Consultant 

Supervisor: Program Director and Project Manager

Supervisees: N/A

Contract Type: Short-Term Contract 

• Background

The Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Organization (CIPO) was established on June 30, 2014, and registered with the Ministry of Interior (SOR CHOR NOR No. 1352). It was initially known as the Indigenous Peoples (IP)-led and managed organization that combines the most advanced knowledge regarding IPs (both locally and globally) and Cambodian society with the ability to respond and creatively address the needs of the IPs in Cambodia. Our vision aims for IPs to have self-determination on development and conservation within the multi-cultural society of Cambodia

In its five-year SP 2021-2025, CIPO re-focuses its strategies for influencing and advocacy, strengthening the collective leadership of the ICs, consolidating the representational role of IPs, strengthening the livelihood of the ICs, and building the credibility of the organization. 

Therefore, we received a project from DanchurchAid Cambodia on Land Access and Protection of Indigenous and Natural Resources (LAPNIR). The project goal is to contribute to the protection of land rights and continued access and availability of natural resources for target populations. Consequently, we are looking for a legal research consultant to provide research on Indigenous peoples’ rights to land and natural resources use and management, with the following objectives, roles, and responsibilities:

• The objective of this position as: 

Objective 1: To conduct comprehensive legal research and legal policy analysis brief of the challenges that Indigenous communities face on their land and natural resource management.

Objective 2: To produce a video documentary and song on indigenous land rights, natural resource use, and management knowledge (rotational farming/shifting cultivation) and challenges that have been violated while they used/managed and protected their collective land and natural resources (based on the finding from legal research).

• Role and Responsibility:

The Consultant will be responsible for conducting legal research & analysis and/or producing policy briefs, video, and song on the recommendations of indigenous peoples’ rights to land management, natural resources use, and management:

• Main responsibilities and tasks of Monitoring and Evaluation:

1. Meeting with CIPO before signing the contract to present the proposal of the research including the outline/format, questionnaire with quantitative and quality methodology, clarify the target community, key interviewer, and research team as well as role and responsibility. (the consultant needs to be prepared and present their plan) 
2. Desk review or collect the secondary data related to land and natural resources used and management practice and challenges including national law/policies/customary law and practice/cases study including review of the documents of IPs community inside of CPA, CF, CFi, Legal Identity, Self-Identification, CLT, other…)
3. Produce and submission and present the final outline/format of the report, scrip/storyboard (video and song), and questionnaire with quantitative and quality, methodology (research tool/Kobo Toolbox/ Survey 123, Google Form, etc.), clarify the target community, list of key interviewers, and research team to CIPO and CIPA team (CIWA/CIYA/…) for comment and feedback,
4. Coordinate with the Ministry of Justice or provincial court (administrator of the court) to collect the existing data on IPs issues from the six provinces that they have
5. Field data collection of target villages assigned by the LAPNIR project based on proposed target communities and provinces provided for data collection, data entry, data analysis, and drafting of the report and script, through 
   1. Meet with IPs Lawyer team/ Non-IPs Lawyer from R & L, Licado, Adhoc, CCHR and Head of Lawyer in 6 different provinces to get all the documents 
   2. Meet with the key elders/youth/women/ Indigenous peoples with disability for interview of their knowledge and compile the case documents that they may have
   3. Meet with the local NGOs, partners, local authorities, and stakeholders that linkage to the objectives. 
   4. Ensure the photo and video production of the data collection with high quality and matching to the objectives. 
   5. Visited the community farming/affected target to documents/filming 
6. Presentation on the draft finding result of research to CIPO team and CIPA members (CIYA/CIWA/CIPA…) for comment and feedback to consolidate into the final report/video/scrip 
7. Final submission of legal research, policy brief, videos and song with full consultation and consent from CIPO based on the deadline in both Khmer and English of the report.

• Methodology (legal research consultant is available to use their methods for researching the field)

Step1. Need to Produce the legal research and the video while undertaking the research by follow the methodology

1. Pre-meeting between CIPO organization and consultant to understand the objective, expectation, and the process of research.
2. Collective/compile related to documents from Ministries, courts, community, and lawyers for desk review and produce the outline of the report
3. Develop or design a questionnaire/research tool for researching with quantitative and qualitative data collection can be used the tool of (Kobo Toolbox, Survey 123, Google Form, etc.) 
4. Set up expert team to produce the script/storyboard for video and song 
5. Produce the list of key interviewers, and target and team for comment and feedback and schedule or timetable for field data collective includes individual and focus group discussion. 
6. Field research in community target based on the provided schedule with the Indigenous community, local NGOs, partners, local authorities, and stakeholders at their farm/affected/office/house, etc. for documentation/filming/photo taking,
7. Data entry and data analyses drafting the visual report and also producing the draft video including the storing telling/quote/cases). 
8. Organize the meeting/workshop to present the draft finding results and draft of the video to (CIPO and CIPA).
9. Consolidate all the input and comments from the meeting and workshop into the final draft report and Video
10. Submit the second draft research report and final report to the CIPO organization based on the 

deadline in both Khmer and English.

Step2. After finalizing the legal research, the consultant will produce the scrip for the song and work with the signer team to produce the song in Khmer language/and IPs languages ( Bunong/Kui/Jarai/Tompoun) with prior and consent form CIPO.

• Service fee and term of payment:

The total cost of the service fee for the consultant is USD  13,565.00 including withholding tax. This cost covers the consultant fee, travel, and associated costs to be paid as a lump sum in the whole process of producing the documentation, policy brief, video, and song.

The payment methods of the service fee are made in four stages:

No.	Description	Percent	Amount	Timeline
1	The first payment service fee will be made upon signing the contract with attached the submission of the outline of the legal research, questionnaire, timetable of the research, and the consultant team.	30%
2	The second payment will be made upon the submission of the final draft of the legal research report from 6 provinces with the sanctification of CIPO.	30%
3	The third payment will be made after submission of the final draft policy brief, video documentary, and song with sanctification of CIPO.	20%
4	The last payment will be made after the final report, video documentary, and song is submitted.	20%

• Key Target Focus for the interview 

• Indigenous Peoples (IPs) include: 
  • Indigenous Elders
  • Indigenous Youth 
  • Indigenous Women (IW), 
  • Indigenous LGBTIQ, 
  • Indigenous Peoples with disability
  • Local authority, Police Posts, 
  • community councils,
  • NGOs partners
  • IPs Lawyer 
  • Non-IPs Lawyer from L & R, Lichdo, Adhoc, CCHR and others 
  • Provincial Court 
  • Ministry of Justice 
  • Community Forest (CF), Community Fisheries (CFi), Community Protected Area (CPA), Collective Land Title (CLT), Self-Identification (SI), and Legal Identity (LI).

• Target Village:

No	Provinces	District	Commune	Village	Other
1	Mondulkiri	Koh Nhek	Rayor	Rayor
2	Kampong Thom	Sandan	Ngon	Ngon
3	Stung Treng	Sesan	Kbalromeas	Kbalromeas
4	Ratanakiri	Ochum	Pouy	Kres
5	Kratie	Sambor	Sre Chis	Sre Chis
6	Preah Vihear	Chhaeb	Chhaeb2	Dang Plet

 

• Requirements

1. Holding a bachelor’s degree/or master’s degree in law, or another related field.
2. Have a good background of understanding, knowledge, culture, social, and economic IPs and especially experience of at least 2-3 years working with indigenous communities and general situations.
3. At least 5 years of working experience in legal research, legal analysis, producing the policy brief, and advocacy, particularly regarding IPs rights to Land and NRM. 
4. Have experience in script writing, and leading to produce the documentation, video documentary, and song
5. Priority is given to women, indigenous peoples, and peoples with disabilities with qualifications.
6. Knowledgeable on indigenous legal frameworks and customary rules. 
7. Be flexible and open-minded. 
8. Have a good relationship and be friendly. 
9. Be able to communicate in Khmer, English, or an Indigenous language

Interested individual consultants are invited to submit their application (expression of interest) along with an updated CV, Cover letter, attached Research documents, and expected daily rate of consultancy to info@cipocambodia.org no later than 17:00hrs, on 13th December 2024. Please indicate “Application Legal Research Consultant” in your email subject line.