Position: Indonesia Critical Minerals Expert Consultant
Projet: Integrated Natural Resources Management (INRM)
Location: Indonesia
Level of Effort: 50 days
Project Description: INRM is a five-year task order (July 30, 2020 – July 30, 2025) under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) STARR II IDIQ. INRM is managed by the USAID Land and Resource Governance (LRG) Division within the Center for Natural Environment (CNE) in the Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security (REFS). Activities under this contract may be identified and funded by USAID Washington-based offices and/or by Missions. INRM supports integrated analysis and programming across development sectors. By using a multi-sectoral lens, INRM seeks to strengthen the impacts of USAID’s core environmental programming by recognizing synergies, adopting best practices, and building broader constituencies for integrated programming. INRM is designed to help USAID operating units achieve higher impact environment programming and to support the uptake of principles and approaches outlined in the Agency’s Environmental and Natural Resource Management Framework.
Role’s Purpose: Indonesia possesses a wealth of critical minerals, particularly those essential for electric vehicle batteries such as nickel, cobalt, copper, bauxite, and others necessary for modern technology and to achieve global climate change mitigation goals. It is currently the world’s top producer of nickel. However, recent investments in nickel projects have caused significant damage to the environment, including deforestation and habitat destruction, water pollution to both rivers and the ocean (especially the use of sulfuric acid to leach nickel from laterite ores), air pollution, soil degradation and acidification, and widespread tailings deposition. Social impacts include community displacement (impacting livelihoods, cultural heritage, and indigenous traditions), health risks, worker safety, and labor issues (child labor and violations of workers’ rights have been reported). Aggravating the problem are governance issues such as weak regulatory frameworks and enforcement mechanisms, corruption and transparency issues, and disputes over land rights and access to resources which undermine social cohesion and community development.
USAID Indonesia has requested an assessment of nickel mining in Indonesia. INRM seeks an expert consultant to conduct an analysis of nickel mining and processing in Indonesia, including a mapping and assessment of stakeholders, government regulations, and international standards and best practices, including ESG standards. This work will build on existing literature as well as field work in Indonesia, including the results of a number of planned and ongoing USG assessments in the sector. Findings from the analysis will help expand USAID’s knowledge base on critical minerals in Indonesia and inform future programming.
Objectives and Duties:
● Develop a workplan and, in consultation with USAID and INRM, a design for the final report, or reports, that compiles the following information:
o Conduct a desk analysis of the existing literature including a number of ongoing US Government assessments that have been commissioned in the critical minerals sector and review the treatment of nickel as described in the literature. USAID/Indonesia will provide details on these assessments prior to the commencement of the work.
o Conduct field work in Indonesia to support the mapping and assessment of stakeholders, government regulations, and the potential impact of higher ESG standards. The stakeholder mapping will contribute to a better understanding of who the international, national, provincial, and local stakeholders are that operate in Indonesia and impact Indonesia’s nickel mining and processing across the value chain in the nickel industry.
o In consultation with USAID, identify key stakeholders in nickel mining for further evaluation to provide a broad yet detailed overview of each key stakeholder, including the stakeholders: vision and objectives, roles and responsibilities, relationship to other stakeholders, strengths and weaknesses, reputational risks, and opportunities to work with USAID.
o Identify, summarize, and evaluate key laws, rules, and regulations of the national, provincial, and local governments that relate to ESG concerns across the value chain for the nickel industry in Indonesia. Evaluate the efficacy of the letter of the law, its application and enforcement, identifying strengths and weaknesses. Evaluate the politics of different positions, especially as it relates to key stakeholders.
Deliverables and duration of assignment:
The assignment is expected to take 50 non-consecutive days, commencing in July 2024 and completed by October, 2024. In addition to the deliverables described below, USAID, the Indonesia Critical Minerals Expert Consultant, and INRM will develop a schedule of milestone meetings to brief the Mission on progress throughout the duration of the assignment.
● Work plan and report design
● Report outline (including annexes, i.e. annex for scenario modeling or planning)
● Presentation of preliminary results
● Report(s) draft version
● Final report(s)
Qualifications:
The Technical Consultant for this study should be credible, trustworthy and technically competent and meet the following criteria:
● Background in fields related to mining, natural resource governance, investigative journalism, economics, public policy or other related fields;
● At least ten (10) years of relevant work experience;
● Previous work experience in writing and research on critical minerals governance in Indonesia;
● Previous work experience in conducting interviews, and facilitating focus group discussions and stakeholder consultations in Indonesia;
● Knowledge of the legal and regulatory framework for the extractive industries in Indonesia;
● Proficiency in Bahasa Indonesia and written English, especially in technical writing.
Reporting: The Indonesia Critical Minerals Expert Consultant will report to the INRM Activity Manager
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