National Consultant-Legal and Regulatory

Consultancy Level: 1

Consultancy Type: Deliverable

Total Fee: 36,470

Application Deadline: 20 November 2026, 23:59PM (KST)

Project Background

In Zambia, GGGI is hosted by the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment (MGEE).

GGGI is the implementing partner for the four-year, EU-funded Enhancing Zambia’s Nationally Determined Contributions (EZ-NDC) project (2025–2029). Outcome 2 focuses on operationalizing an Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF)-aligned national integrated MRV system and strengthening national and subnational capacity to collect, manage, quality-assure and report climate and NDC-related information.

Legal and regulatory basis. The Green Economy and Climate Change Act No. 18 of 2024 establishes the Integrated Measuring Reporting and Verification System. Section 18(5), read together with the general regulation-making power in section 46, authorizes regulations setting out procedures for administering the system. This assignment will support MGEE, in coordination with the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) and other relevant stakeholders, to prepare a legally coherent and implementable regulatory package.

The National Consultant will lead the technical preparation of draft regulations, to be issued by statutory instrument, for the administration of Zambia’s national iMRV System. For this purpose, the consultant will:

• Conduct a consolidated legal, institutional and data-governance assessment; Contract

• review the approved institutional and technical design of the system;

• translate the approved regulatory option and technical arrangements into draft legal provisions and schedules;

• facilitate consultation and regulatory review;

• and finalize a submission-ready regulatory and adoption package.

Objective of the Assignment

Overall objective. The assignment aims to prepare a Statutory Instrument that establishes the legal framework for operating Zambia’s integrated MRV system, in line with the institutional and technical design developed under the EZ-NDC Project. Purpose of the Statutory Instrument. The Statutory Instrument will provide the legal and administrative basis needed to:

• Establish clear institutional mandates, roles and responsibilities for climate data collection, reporting and verification;

• Define reporting obligations for public institutions, state-owned enterprises, private sector entities and other relevant stakeholders;

• Set out requirements for data management, confidentiality, access, storage, quality control and data sharing;

• Enable coordination among ministries, agencies, academia, research institutions and civil society organizations;

• Support Zambia’s reporting obligations under the UNFCCC, the Paris Agreement and related mechanisms, including Article 6 where relevant;

• Ensure consistency with existing Zambian legislation, institutional mandates and administrative practices.

cope of Work

The consultant will deliver the assignment through five connected workstreams, moving from inception and legal diagnostics to drafting, consultation, revision and final handover.

A. Inception and regulatory pathway

• Confirm the methodology, 15-month work plan, stakeholder-engagement arrangements, deliverable review cycles and key legal or drafting risks.

• Prepare a preliminary inventory of relevant primary and subsidiary legislation, policies, institutional instruments and pending legal developments, including the commencement and amendment status of the enabling Act.

• Confirm the drafting, clearance, approval, gazetting and commencement pathway with MGEE and MOJ, including RIA (Regulatory Impact Assessment) requirements and the Business Regulatory Review Agency (BRRA) engagement where applicable.

B. Legal, institutional and data-governance diagnostic

• Review the enabling Act, relevant environmental, statistical, data, digital, public finance, energy, forestry, water, minerals and sector legislation, and applicable subsidiary legislation, as amended or replaced.

• Review approved EZ-NDC technical products, including institutional arrangements, data flows, sectoral MRV systems, GHG inventory arrangements, NDC tracking, QA/QC procedures, digital platforms and Article 6 interfaces where relevant.

• Assess legal gaps, overlaps, inconsistencies and implementation barriers, with attention to MGEE, ZEMA, ZamStats, sector ministries and agencies, local authorities, and public and private data providers.

• Map mandates and accountabilities for each iMRV component and each stage of the data cycle, from generation and collection through validation, approval, use, publication, revision and archiving.

• Determine how the regulations should address data ownership and custodianship, official-statistics standards, confidentiality, personal data, commercially sensitive information, access to information, interoperability, retention and evidentiary requirements.

• Develop and assess regulatory options, including designation or management of iMRV components under section 18(3), and recommend an administratively feasible option that avoids duplication.

C. Drafting instructions and first draft regulations

• Prepare drafting instructions and a diagnostic-to-clause matrix showing how approved recommendations will be reflected in regulations, schedules, forms, guidelines, inter-institutional agreements or the implementation roadmap.

• Draft the iMRV Regulations in the required Zambian legislative form and style, ensuring each provision is supported by the enabling Act and avoids duplication or conflict with existing law.

• Cover, as appropriate, the purpose and application of the regulations, definitions, iMRV components, coordination mechanisms, institutional roles and responsibilities of reporting entities.

• Specify, where legally appropriate, data and metadata requirements, submission procedures, reporting templates and calendars, QA/QC, verification, approval and revision processes, data governance, disclosure, electronic reporting, retention and archiving.

• Define compliance monitoring, corrective action and non-compliance referral mechanisms. Propose sanctions or enforcement measures only where expressly authorized by the enabling Act or other applicable law, and provide for phased implementation, periodic review and legislative amendment.

• Prepare the supporting package, including an explanatory memorandum or legal justification, clause-by-clause explanation, legal-concordance matrix, draft forms or schedules, and initial RIA documentation where applicable.

D. Consultation, RIA and revision

• Prepare consultation materials and facilitate targeted consultations with government institutions, regulators, reporting entities, academia, civil society, development partners and other relevant data providers or users.

• Support RIA and other regulatory-quality processes, including analysis of administrative burden, feasibility, enforcement implications, transition periods and implementation costs.

• Maintain submissions register and response-to-comments matrix, document agreed decisions and prepare clean and redline revised drafts.

E. Finalization, adoption support and handover

• Address consolidated technical and legal comments from GGGI, MGEE, MOJ and designated reviewers, and finalize the complete regulatory package.

• Prepare a sequenced roadmap for approval, gazetting, commencement, institutional designation, forms and system configuration, capacity development, communication, resourcing, compliance preparation and periodic review.

• Provide an editable handover file and brief the designated Government body.

Output/Reporting Requirements/Deliverables Reporting and coordination.

The consultant will report to the EZ-NDC Project Manager and work in close coordination with the GGGI Zambia Country team and policy leadership of MGEE. The consultant will also Contract coordinate closely with MOJ, ZEMA, the Principal ETF International Consultant, relevant sector consultants and other designated reviewers. For each submission, GGGI will consolidate and issue one set of comments to guide revisions.

Submission and acceptance requirements.

All deliverables must be submitted in English in editable Word format and PDF. Drafting deliverables must include clean red-line versions, a response-to-comments matrix and a clause-by-clause legal concordance. Contractual acceptance will be confirmed by the EZ-NDC Project Manager, following documented technical confirmation from MGEE and legal review by MOJ or its designated authority.

Qualifications/Experience/Expertise

• Advanced university degree (Master’s level or equivalent) in Law, Environmental Law, Public Law, Regulatory Law or a related field.

• Admitted to practice law in Zambia and in good professional standing.

• At least 5-8 years of professional experience in legal drafting, regulatory development or public law, including at least five years working with Zambian legislation, institutional law, environmental law or climate-change regulation.

• Demonstrated experience drafting or materially contributing to at least two regulations, statutory instruments or comparable subsidiary legislative instruments.

• Demonstrated experience in environmental governance, climate policy, emissions reporting or natural-resource regulation, and in supporting inter-institutional legal arrangements or data governance frameworks.

• Strong knowledge of Zambia’s public/administrative law, legislative process, regulatory impact assessment requirements, environmental and climate law, and data/official-statistics governance.

• Knowledge of the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, the Enhanced Transparency Framework, GHG inventories, MRV/iMRV systems, NDC implementation, Article 6 mechanisms and registries, data protection and confidentiality frameworks, and digital reporting systems is highly desirable.

• Excellent legal drafting, analytical, stakeholder facilitation and written and spoken English skills, with the ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams and produce legally precise documents in the format required by the competent Zambian authorities.

Administrative Information

Interested consultants shall submit following documentation:

• Availability during the project period
• No conflict of interest arises while taking this assignment
• Application, Cover Letter, and CV must be sent in English.
• Two relevant legislative or regulatory drafting samples, or verifiable references where confidentiality prevents submission.
• Contact details for at least two professional referees familiar with the candidate’s legislative drafting work. Shortlisted candidates may be invited for an interview and may be asked to explain their proposed regulatory-drafting approach.

GGGI reserves the right to request additional information or undertake due diligence. Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.