Consultant on Energy Transition in the Philippines and Southeast Asia

Our client, Forum for the future, is looking for a consultant knowledgeable on Energy Transition in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. The successful candidate will be hired within iScale Solutions.

Forum for the Future works to influence the shape of three transitions towards a just and regenerative future: the transition to renewable energy, to a sustainable food system and in the role of business. Forum for the Future is strengthening its capacity to deliver impact on enabling an ecologically safe and socially just energy transition in Southeast Asia. The consultant will have a critical role in supporting this effort by bringing technical expertise on the functioning of the energy system in the Southeast Asia region, the ability to build and maintain relationships with the relevant actors, and a deep understanding and commitment to achieving a systemically responsible energy system. This consultancy contract is an exciting opportunity for someone with deep knowledge and significant experience in understanding and influencing the energy transitions taking place in the SE Asia region and especially in the Philippines. The selected consultant will support Forum for the Future in establishing an impactful and credible portfolio of work that will deliver our strategy in relation to enabling a deep and urgent transition to just and regenerative energy systems in the region. You will be the only representative for Forum for the Future in the Philippines, so you need to be a self-starter, able to work with limited supervision and demonstrate and report on your impact and progress in a timely and credible way that drives impact in accordance with our strategy. The consultant will provide strategic guidance, establish and strengthen key stakeholder relationships, and handle vital project delivery tasks such as data collection, research, report writing, and contributing to project communications, to support the development and implementation of Forum’s program on the energy transition in Southeast Asia. A primary objective for the consultant will be to act as the Forum’s representative for the Responsible Energy Initiative program in the Philippines. The Responsible Energy Initiative is a non-profit-led initiative that engages renewable energy actors in identifying and taking steps to ensure ecologically safe and socially just production and deployment of utility-scale renewables. The aim is to equip participating RE actors to steward a deep transition to responsible, resilient clean energy systems in Asia. A multi-country, multi-year collaborative initiative, REI was first launched in India in 2020. In 2023, under the aegis of REI-Southeast Asia, the Philippines became the second focal country. REI was developed by Forum for the Future but is now run by a consortium of non-profit organizations in each of its focal countries. The consultant will report to Forum’s Singapore-based team but will also work with Forum staff working on the energy transition that are based in other Forum offices (India, US and UK).

The successful candidate will:

1. Review and provide edits to working drafts of the REI-PH Case for Action report (October 2023)
   
2. Support Forum’s communications team in preparing a dissemination plan for REI-PH Case for Action report and other materials. The dissemination plan must include a list of stakeholders, including from the government, to whom Forum and consortium partners will conduct outreach on the report. It must also identify the appropriate mode of outreach for each stakeholder. The consultant will also support implementation of the Dissemination plan, including taking the lead in obtaining in-person meetings and setting up calls with Philippines-based stakeholders (November 2023).
   
3. Prepare concept note, informed in large part by consultations with Forum staff, on the REI-PH action inquiry that articulates the rationale, design and timelines of the action inquiry, and a handout for sharing with prospective participants (December 2023).
   
4. Develop and execute an engagement plan to recruit renewable energy actors to the REI-PH action inquiry. The engagement plan will identify the list of actors and the priority order for Forum for the future to recruit participants, based on which the consultant will set up and hold necessary meetings/calls. The consultant will be primarily responsible, though assisted by Forum staff, for recruiting a minimum of 25 - 30 participating organizations to the action inquiry, with all relevant stakeholder groups being represented, i.e., project developers, investors, equipment manufacturers and researchers. (June 2024).
   
5. Contribute to the design and facilitation of a to-be-defined number of action inquiry workshops in collaboration with Forum staff, starting with the orientation workshop in June 2024. Prepare workshop materials, proceeding summaries and working drafts of action inquiry documents (June, July, August and September 2024).
   
6. Handle in-country logistics for all Philippines-based in-person meetings and events, with support from Forum SE Asia staff (ongoing).
   
7. Participate in regular planning calls with Forum staff and consortium partners (ongoing).
   
8. Contribute to development of funding proposals (ongoing).
   

The following skills are a plus:

The consultant will bill a daily rate of PHP 11,250 per day on a monthly basis but no more than a total of 18.5 days per month. The rate is a gross remuneration that reflects the significant expertise required for this role, and the consultant will be expected to bear his/her national contributions, including pension, medical and tax, under Philippine law. No additional benefits or provisions are provided.