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To protect the Great Barrier Reef the Queensland Government has set ambitious targets of reducing nitrogen by up to 80 per cent and sediment by up to 50 per cent by 2025 in key catchments such as the Wet Tropics and Burdekin. The Queensland Government has committed to invest an additional $90 million over five years to secure progress towards the targets through water quality initiatives, scientific research and helping businesses to transition to better environmental practices in the primary production industries.

The Great Barrier Reef Water Science Taskforce has provided advice to the Queensland Government on recommendations for targeted investment outcomes for the $90m. The challenge is to lead and manage a much needed and significant practice and management change program across a vast scale (pg51 GBR Final report).

The Queensland Government’s response under Recommendation 3 included up to $18 million for behavioural change, education and extension (with up to $3.5 million of this allocated to support extension and practice change under the major integrated projects).  The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) and the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (EHP) will work with industry and private service providers and experts to shape and implement this investment.  A project plan has been agreed for the first year, with DAF to lead on the review of Extension and Education services and the development of an implementation strategy for government’s consideration.  

The first step will be to undertake an objective, independent assessment of the extension and education activity aligned to the Great Barrier Reef catchments in Queensland. This will inform an Implementation Strategy that the Queensland Government can use to guide the delivery of funding aligned to the Great Barrier Reef Water Quality Taskforce Recommendation 3: Extension and Education.   DAF will establish this consultancy arrangement as a one-off requirement, time bound to deliver the activities within the project’s scope.   

The approach will seek alignment and complementarities in investments in education, extension and behavioural programs, including but not limited to DAF’s Extension Program, industry Best Management Practice (BMP) programs in the cane, grazing, banana and other industries and investments under the Reef Trust.  It should also consider the outcomes of recent consultancies’ recommendations such as the RP150 Monitoring and Evaluation Review project.  The project delivery will be supported by a Project Team consisting of members from DAF and DEHP. Stakeholder engagement will be supported by a Steering Committee being formed to support implementation of Recommendation 3.  It is anticipated that the Response of the successful tenderer to this Request for Quote will incorporate elements of a consultancy based Expert Panel, as detailed in Section 4, Evaluation Criteria 5.

SCOPE

1. Review current public and private sector extension capacity, career development and related processes, gaps and opportunities in service delivery and information packages and identify innovations in extension delivery, advisory services and staff development to achieve large scale practice change and improvement. This should take into account the contemporary requirements of Reef 2050, the Great Barrier Reef Water Science Taskforce Recommendation 3: Extension and Education, the existing Reef Plan 2013 Extension and Education Strategy and wider cross-sector initiatives.
2. Articulate Stakeholder and Peer Review engagement processes into the response to this Request for Quote during Activity 1 above as well as consultation on the draft implementation strategy and feedback as part of the final report.
3. Develop an Implementation Strategy, with detailed local level recommendation appendices, that include a focus on innovative concepts in Extension and Education delivery at an industry and sub-regional level, reflecting the feedback provided by both providers and users of Extension and Education services, to ensure that extension delivery is tailored to the needs of each industry and are at an appropriate scale and can be prioritised on the basis of an audit of current extension providers (both public and private sectors), current and possible future services and extension capacity needs.
4. Provide a final report detailing outcomes of the analysis, consultation and review processes and make recommendations to the Queensland Government on what activities should be undertaken to meet the investment objectives set by the Taskforce Recommendation 3: Extension and Education.

Key Considerations:

• Alignment with BMP programs, primarily the effect of BMP programs on Education & Extension resource deployment, and vice versa.
• Long-term Capacity Building and Training: address options to develop new advisers and their on-going careers, and identify what skills development or qualification programs are currently available.
• Identify emerging decision support technologies and services that can maximise the use and improvement of decision-support technology within in the education, extension and behavioural change programs.
• Identify the priority gaps in the context of both public and private sectors for advisory service providers across reef-focused programs, projects and enterprises.
• Identify innovative models and partnerships for delivery.
• Identify how extension and advisory systems can better uptake emerging information on innovative practices, scientific evidence and use of localised data to link whole of farm information with individual advice.
• Training and accreditation requirements, including the identification of what is required to develop packages to support immediate training and accreditation in related programs under EHP funding programs (e.g. Major Integrated Projects).
• Integration of capacity and economic indicators as referenced in Key Recommendations RP150 Practice Change Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement Framework (2.3.3 Proposed Indicators).

Annexure A: The Great Barrier Reef Water Science Taskforce Final Report; Recommendation 3.

Definitions:

• Education and Extension Steering Committee – support implementation of Recommendation 3 likely to include DAF and EHP.
• Expert Panel – established under this consultancy to undertake the activities listed under the Scope.
• Stakeholder and peer review – includes stakeholder consultation during development of products as well as peer review and stakeholder consultation on draft products.