18 August 2025

Terms of Reference: Ecuador – sustainability transition pathway analysis for reduced deforestation commodity production

Introduction

The &Green Fund was launched in 2017 to support the transformation of global supply chains by delinking them from deforestation and exploitation and producing a positive social and climate change impact. The Fund aims to invest in countries with significant tropical forests under threat from agricultural expansion and where the largest opportunities for transformational change exist.

Stichting IDH (“IDH”) accelerates and up-scales sustainable trade by building impact-oriented coalitions of front running companies, civil society, governments, knowledge institutions and other stakeholders in several commodity sectors. We convene the interests, strengths and knowledge of public and private partners in sustainability commodity programs that aim to mainstream international and domestic commodity markets. We jointly formulate strategic intervention plans with public and private partners, and we co-invest with partners in activities that generate public goods.

Recognizing the complexity of the land use sector and the specific requirements of &Green, many prospective and current investees require technical assistance (TA) to curb deforestation within their sourcing regions and achieve environmental and social impact goals. To address this need, &Green and IDH jointly established the &Green Technical Assistance Facility (TAF). The TAF aims to support an enabling environment for forest protection and climate resilient commodity production for &Green’s current and prospective investees.

Assignment objectives

IDH seeks a qualified service provider to deliver a business-aligned sustainability transition pathway analysis for deforestation-linked commodity production in Ecuador. The goal is to unlock investable, scalable, and socially inclusive land-use models, in line with &Green Fund’s strategy.

This analysis will inform &Green’s investment pipeline and technical assistance design by offering data-driven insights into opportunities and barriers to sustainable commodity production that integrates climate resilience, social inclusion, and private sector engagement.

The consultant will deliver a desk-based country analysis that enables &Green to:

Understand key environmental, social, and economic conditions influencing land use
Identify commodity supply chains with highest deforestation and investment relevance
Map out with key stakeholders and market participants in respective supply chains
Outline practical transition pathways for sustainable production models
Offer a screening framework for companies and jurisdictions from an ESG risk perspective

Proposal requirements and submissions

IDH is requesting the service providers to hand in a proposal of maximum 5 pages (excluding company biographies, CVs, sample work and references). The proposal must be handed in a MS Word or PowerPoint version next to a PDF submission to facilitate any copy-and-pasting of content that we may need during evaluation.

The proposal must be submitted to Isha Chauhan at chauhan@idhtrade.org and Jessenia Angulo at angulo@idhtrade.org before 5th September at 6pm CET.

Consult the below ToR for more information about the assignment and the selection procedure. 