Terms of Reference
Position Title: Consultant, 2025 World Congress on Agroforestry Technical Coordinator
Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Contract Duration: 7 Months Maximum
Congress Dates: May 19-23, 2025
I. Background
The Government of Rwanda, through the Ministry of Environment (MOE), will host the World Congress on Agroforestry (WCA 2025) in Kigali from May 19-23, 2025. This global gathering expects over 1,500 researchers, practitioners, development partners, and corporate and public delegates to discuss advancements, practices, and technologies in agroforestry. For additional information, please refer to the WCA 2025 website: https://agroforestry2025.org/. In support of this effort, the World Resources Institute (WRI) will provide technical assistance by engaging a Congress Technical Coordinator Consultant to oversee essential preparatory activities to ensure a successful event.
II. Objectives of the Assignment
The consultant will achieve the following key objectives:
- Collaborate with the technical and steering committees to design the congress's technical scope.
- Develop detailed plans for congress implementation, ensuring smooth operations and technical reliability.
- Coordinate all technical stakeholders involved in planning and executing the congress.
III. Scope of Work
1. Congress Planning, Coordination, and Execution
- Lead the creation of a comprehensive congress plan, offering technical guidance on organization and logistics.
- Prepare a detailed checklist outlining all tasks, timelines, and responsibilities.
- Develop an execution plan, identifying key decision points, responsible parties, and mitigation strategies for potential risks (e.g., IT issues, logistical delays).
- Support liaising between the scientific committee, communications team, and event management company.
- Ensure clear and consistent communication among MoE, RFA, the International Union for Agroforestry, and other key stakeholders.
- Provide regular updates to stakeholders on progress, challenges, and accomplishments.
- Attend planning meetings and on-site visits as needed.
2. Content Development
- Program Design: Advise on themes and structure, propose session topics, formats, and recommend website improvements for optimal user experience.
- Speaker Coordination: Assist in identifying and inviting relevant speakers, tracking confirmations, and ensuring timely responses.
- Content Review: Oversee the review and approval of presentations, ensuring alignment with the congress theme and quality standards.
- Final Content Publication: Work with web designers to publish accepted content online, providing feedback to presenters on required revisions.
- Schedule Coordination: Develop a detailed congress schedule, working with web designers to make it accessible on the event website. Work with the logistics team to schedule and allocate meeting rooms according to the congress schedule.
3. Technical Scope Management
- Technical Requirements: Identify and coordinate all audio-visual, internet, and software needs for each presentation.
- Platform Selection: Arrange hybrid sessions or pre-recorded content for high-profile speakers unable to attend in person, selecting suitable platforms to ensure smooth communication and interaction.
- Technical Support: Provide timely requests to the logistics team to ensure quality on-site technical assistance.
- Testing: Participate in pre-event testing of all equipment and software to resolve potential issues.
4. Participant Engagement, Management and Feedback
- Management Strategy: Prepare a list of all participants according to their categories i.e. sponsored, sponsors, speakers, session coordinators, secretariate, all others and associated management strategy.
- Support participants travel planning: Draft participant invitation letters clarifying visa requirements as needed. Work with the WCA Steering Committee to get signed letters to participants.
- Engagement Strategy: plan for interactive opportunities, such as Q&A sessions, live polls, and networking activities, to encourage attendee participation during WCA.
- Feedback Mechanism: Implement systems to collect participant feedback on session quality and overall experience to inform future improvements.
5. Communications and Reporting
- WCA Communications: Collaborate with the communications team to shape key messages for the congress, draft press releases, and ensure effective outreach.
- WCA Announcement, follow up and Information package: Ensure the WCA Programme is prepared and distributed to participants in a user-friendly format including publicizing official content on the WCA website and/or phone application, audience tailored booklets, or other ways to package the information
- Primary Contact: Serve as the main point of contact for technical aspects, providing transparent communication with committees and stakeholders.
- Documentation: Plan and coordinate documentation for all sessions, including recordings and written summaries, and publish congress proceedings for attendees post-event.
- Guidance Documentation: Develop a "How to Report" guide to support the organization of future congresses.
6. Additional Responsibilities
- Support other tasks related to the technical scope of the congress as required to facilitate seamless congress operations.
- Ensure full-time availability and timely response during the preparation period and throughout the congress. If consultant is based outside of Rwanda, plan travels to Rwanda before the Congress and on-the site presence during the WCA.
IV. Deliverables
- Inception Report: A concise report covering the congress plan, execution strategy, technical workplan, milestones, progress to date, pending tasks, and an overall risk mitigation strategy.
- Bi-weekly Milestone Reports: short reports detailing achieved milestones in alignment with the congress's technical workplan. The format of these reports will be established at the start of the consultancy.
- Finalized 2025 WCA Program: The complete congress agenda uploaded and accessible on the congress website.
- 2025 WCA Completion Documents: A comprehensive final report and a "How-to Guide" for congress organization and execution.
V. Duration of the assignment
The contract will be effective for a maximum duration of 7 months
VI. Required Skills and Competencies
The ideal consultant will possess:
- Proven experience engaging high-level stakeholders in agroforestry and related sectors in Rwanda, Africa, and globally.
- Strong communication skills for liaising with diverse stakeholders, including government and regional bodies.
- Project management skills with an ability to meet tight deadlines.
- Leadership and organizational capabilities to manage diverse teams.
- Problem-solving skills for quick, effective decision-making.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office and conference management software is desirable.
- Language proficiency in French or English.
VII. Required Qualifications
- Educational Background: Master’s degree in a relevant field with a minimum of 2 years' experience in coordinating large-scale or international conferences/summits; or a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field with at least 3 years' experience in coordinating similar events.
- Conference Coordination Experience: Proven track record of organizing and coordinating at least two successful conferences with a minimum of 1,000 international attendees, either independently or as part of an organization.
- Sector Expertise: Demonstrated experience and established networks within the agroforestry sector.
- Language Proficiency: Proficiency in both French and English is preferred.
VIII. Expression of Interest
We invite qualified individuals to submit their resume, cover letter, financial proposal and technical proposal (approach and workplan) by November 5th 2024 to Jeanpierre.kalimunda@wri.org for the attention of Jean Pierre Kalimunda; with a subject Line: “Application for Consultant, 2025 World Agroforestry Congress Technical Coordinator” Evaluation Criteria
Criteria | Points |
Education level | 10 |
Conference coordination experience | 15 |
Sector expertise | 15 |
Language proficiency | 5 |
Skills assessment through interview | 15 |
Approach and Work Plan | 20 |
Financial proposal aligned with the scope of the assignment, deliverables required and applicant’s experience | 20 |
Total | 100 |
