Opportunity: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consultant

The Land Portal Foundation is looking for a Short-Term Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consultant

The Land Portal is committed to ensuring inclusion and diversity at all levels of our organization. We support an inclusive working culture for all our employees and stakeholders. We would therefore like to review our current adherence to sound approaches that ensure diversity, equity, and Inclusion in our work, addressing differences by gender, race, ethnicity, sex, age, class, dis/ability, and marital status, among many others.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a term used to describe policies and programs that promote the representation, decision-making and meaningful participation of different groups of individuals, including differently positioned people by age, races, ethnicity, class, life-cycle, marital status, abilities and disabilities, genders, religions, cultures, and sexual orientations. This also covers diverse backgrounds, experiences, skills, and expertise.

Diversity pertains to the way that people are different, including the different characteristics that make up different groups of people or individuals – our uniqueness. Diversity includes race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, gender identity, religion, language, age, marital status, veteran status, mental ability, physical ability, differently-abled people, and socio-cultural differences. Diversity may also include a range of ideas, perspectives, and values.

Equity aims to ensure the fair treatment, access, equal opportunity, and advancement for everyone. Equity promotes justice, fairness and impartiality within the processes, procedures, and distribution of resources by systems or institutions. 

Inclusion builds a culture where everyone feels welcomed by actively inviting every relevant stakeholder (person or group) to contribute, participate and be involved in decision-making about matters that affect them. An inclusive work environment endeavors to remove all barriers, discrimination, and intolerance, and support those that are disadvantaged.

The scope of the assignment would cover:

Understanding where we stand on diversity and inclusion 

• Mapping: Staffing, Board, Consultants, and Advisors – Assessing and auditing diversity in our current teams, providing recommendations on how to ensure recruitment is unbiased, and proposing how to monitor and ensure progress in this area.

• Reviewing organizational culture in terms of motivation, indicators and performance around DEI. 

Integrating diversity, equity and inclusion in our HR, Ethics, theory of change and operational guidance 

• Our existing theory of change includes an emphasis on inclusion but our ethics, HR policy and others would benefit from suggestions to support and ensure diversity, equity and inclusion.

Drawing up a suggested action plan to address DEI issues arising from the previous points.

Developing a monitoring and evaluation system to support implementation

• It will be important to demonstrate progress against any Board-approved suggested improvements and to have a straightforward monitoring and evaluation system which could communicate our approach to this issue and highlight this in our theory of change.

Specific deliverables:

• Mapping of the status of the Land Portal in relation to DEI is assessed in terms of staffing, policies, partners, recruitments, and organizational culture. 

• Recommendations for amendments to operational guidance are produced – including any suggested amendments to code of conduct or current policies as needed.

• Action plan produced with the Land Portal team (for Board approval) for implementing recommended changes.

• Monitoring and performance indicators proposed.

​The consultant will be expected to:

• Meet with the LPF Board of Directors to review the terms of reference and clarify any questions.

• Establish through the carrying out of a study or gender and diversity audit, the current Land Portal operations, procedures and approaches, particularly on staffing, composition of the Board, recruitment of consultants and use of advisors against DEI criteria.

• Propose amendments to the LPF policies and procedures to address identified needs for change, including on:

  • Recruitment procedure – Important to review inclusion statement and approach to recruitment to ensure no persons or groups of people are excluded.

  • Human Resources policy – To examine and propose any needed changes to the HR policy; 

  • Ethics policy – To establish any needs for rewording in the current ethics policy

  • Advise on the need for a specific DEI and/or a specific Gender policy; 

  • Advise on changes that may be required to strengthen organizational culture, capacity and practices around DEI; 

  • Any other suggested policy changes; 

  • Recommend approaches and models on how progress on DEI can be shared and reported to the general public and stakeholders of the Foundation. 

• Develop an action plan together with the Land Portal team (for approval by the Board) to implement any suggested changes. Including any required training

• Propose monitoring and evaluation approaches to ensure the DEI approach progresses 

• Work with the LPF Board of Directors on all recommendations and identify any revisions needed in related LPF policies and /or institutional documents.

Expertise Required:

• Proven analytical expertise in DEI issues and practical experience in carrying out diversity, equity and inclusion audits and studies in development organizations, including those that include staff who work remotely in offices across the world; 

• Samples of past DEI studies or audits, with explanation in cover letter of how the work led to positive organizational and policy change; 

• Minimum MA (PhD preferred) on subject related to DEI issues in the development context;

• Experience in land governance or natural resource issues a bonus.  

Terms of the contract

The consultant will work remotely. The services outlined above will commence as soon as possible after 31 August 2022 and be completed with recommendations delivered by 30 September 2022. Final recommendations after review and revision, as needed, together with proposed text for any approved changes to policies or procedures to be delivered not later than 31 October 2022. Compensation will be agreed upon in advance. 

Interested?

Interested candidates are expected to submit:

• Cover letter (one-page);
• CV;
• Two references for similar work who can be contacted. University references are also accepted.

Send materials to  jobs@landportal.info  with the subject line Job Application: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consultant. Applications must be received by 23:59 PM CEST on August 31st.

Organizational Profile

At the Land Portal, a global public benefit organization registered in the Netherlands, we believe that data and information are powerful tools for achieving our vision of a land governance system that benefits those with the most insecure land rights and the greatest vulnerability to landlessness. However, information sources remain highly fragmented, unstructured, poorly curated and represent a narrow range of perspectives; they continue to be published in ways that do not facilitate maximum discovery, engagement and reuse. Until policy and decision-makers, intermediaries and grassroots groups have access to the data and information they need to make sound decisions, their initiatives will fail to achieve maximum impact.

The Land Portal exists to fill in these gaps, and to nurture a vibrant online platform to inform and engage with partners.  We do this by promoting open data and the sharing of best practices and stimulating debate and collaboration both on and offline. We provide a vital bridge for those grappling with complex land governance issues, from researchers and NGOs through to governments and grassroots communities, by connecting people, facilitating dialogue and by mending fragmented information.

Raising awareness of “open data” and the critical role it plays in realizing tenure security for individuals and communities around the world continues to be a great challenge. To this end, we make use of every possible conference, meeting and speaking engagement to promote the concept of “going open,” while recognizing that, given the highly sensitive nature of land data (particularly for vulnerable communities), not everything can or should be made entirely open.

We set out an ambitious new strategy in 2019 to improve the documentation, mapping, and monitoring of land governance issues; enrich and inform the global debate on land rights; and democratize access to the land governance “information ecosystem” and improve the flow of data between diverse actors.

To implement this strategy, the Land Portal Foundation has a core team of 10 staff, 9 local knowledge facilitators based around the globe, and an operational budget of around €800,000 per year. The theory of change for the new strategy is included below.

Theory of Change