CONSULTANT FOR LUSAKA NATIONAL PARK FEASIBILITY STUDY

Job Description

Context of the Assignment

There are numerous benefits to national parks, such as a profound effect on our physical and emotional health and wellbeing to the economic value that contribute to boosting the Zambian economy. In particular, communities benefit from the people who visit the park each year, through job creation and money spent on accommodation, fuel and food.

Lusaka National Park is located roughly 30kms from Zambia’s capital city and opened to the public in June 2015, making it Zambia’s newest and most accessible park. There are more than 1,000 species found inside the park, including white rhino, giraffe, eland, hartebeest, zebra, sable, kudu, blue wildebeest, waterbuck, black lechwe, impala, puku, bushbuck, reedbuck, warthog, pangolin, and axis deers. This small park spans 6,715 hectares or 67.15 km². The park offers activities such as camping, walking safaris and bicycle trails.

The park has the potential to develop into a popular tourist attraction that is sustained by commercial principles and integrating the local community with the park. Lusaka National park could be established as the “anchor” around which complementary business entities, education facilities and wildlife conservation activities are operate attracting many local and international visitors each year.

PEPZ would therefore like to commission a consultant to conduct a feasibility study on the viability of a model national park in Zambia. This study will serve as tool for a long-term vision that creates a model national park in Lusaka by creating an attraction for the park that is sustainable but also creates a business eco-system around the park that hugely benefits the local communities. PEPZ would be working in close collaboration with the Department for National Parks and Wildlife and Game Rangers International on the feasibility study.

Depending on the outcome of the feasibility study PEPZ plans to go forward with implementation of the study’s recommendation that will hopefully lead to creation of a model national park from which best practice can be replicated in other Zambian national parks.

Other secondary locations may be included as part of the assignment subject to contract negotiations with the selected consult/s.

Overall responsibilities for the position

The primary objective of the consultant is to increase understanding on whether a park such a Lusaka National Park can become a park from which best practices can be replicated by other parks in Zambia in a way that ensures commercial sustainability. Specifically, the consultant will:

Conduct an overall assessment to determine commercial feasibility of a model national park within the PEPZ vision and Zambian context. The feasibility study will cover the following components:

1. Identify any constraints to the design or implementation of a commercial strategy for the Lusaka National Park arising from the policy, legal, organization and financial environment within which the park operates
2. Design a blueprint for a model national park in Lusaka and define realist short and long-term goals for the development of a well-rounded national park

Please view the attached focument for more details on deliverables, qualifications and requirements for this role. The application deadline is the 13th August 2018.

About the Organization

PEPZ background:

The Private Enterprise Programme Zambia (PEPZ), funded by UKaid, works with and through the Zambian private sector at the intersection of profitable business growth and inclusive economic growth. The core of the PEPZ value offer to potential partners is formulated under three headings:

Capital: Our cost-sharing financial intervention mechanisms designed to incentivise business innovation that will benefit Zambian SMEs and micro-enterprises;

Capacity: Our internal expertise and our network of external specialist consultants who can help intervention partners design and implement solutions; and

Connections: Our networks and contacts that allow us to facilitate business connections and transactions.

PEPZ focuses on three target sectors important to the Zambian economy: food and agriculture, mining and mining services and tourism and hospitality.

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