Document Summary

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

If interested, please submit electronically through World Bank Group eConsultant2
https://wbgeconsult2.worldbank.org/wbgec/index.html

ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW

Assignment Title: First Phase of the Adaptation Fund Evaluation

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION
The objective of the assignment is to conduct the First Phase of the Adaptation Fund Evaluation.

Background, rationale and focus of the evaluation:
During its twenty-third meeting, the Adaptation Fund Board approved a two – phase evaluation with the aim of completing Phase I in time for discussion at the twenty-fourth Board meeting (October 2014) (AFB B.23/7; AFB/EFC.14/10).

Phase I is a process evaluation intended to inform discussions and decisions on the Fund’s operational aspects. It will communicate how well the Fund’s implicit or assumed logic and the design are working in relation to key processes (see below), identify early challenges in reaching beneficiaries and allow early adjustments to its working modalities as required.

The evaluation will focus on main processes of the Adaptation Fund and will cover the first four years of the Fund’s operations, from 2010 until the launch of the evaluation. It should cover ongoing and completed processes and, to understand its evolution, briefly examine aspects and events towards its establishment and operationalization.

The objective of the evaluation is to examine and assess the Fund’s design and implicit logic against its implementation to identify and strengthen good practices, to indicate processes that require improvement, and to recommend how these can be carried out.

The main question to be asked by the evaluation include: What have been the overall relevance, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability (technical, institutional, and financial) of the Fund’s intended and actual operations and what are the main lessons and recommendations that can be drawn for its future operation?

Main sub-questions of the evaluation:

Relevance of Fund’s processes
• How relevant are the Fund’s intended and actual operations to the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) guidance, national sustainable development strategies, national development plans, poverty reduction strategies, national communications and national adaptation programmes of action and other relevant instruments? What are the identified gaps between the relevance of intended and actual operations?
• What is the relevance of the Fund’s intended and actual operations within the context of adaptation to climate change at the global and national levels?

Efficiency of the Fund’s processes
• To what extent have the Fund’s operations been efficient in achieving desired and actual outputs and short-term results and objectives?
• What has been the level of cooperation among Fund’s stakeholders and with other financial mechanisms to address adaptation to climate change?
Effectiveness of the Fund’s processes
• What is the effectiveness of the Fund’s intended and actual operations? Is the Fund operating as designed and on track to meet and deliver its intended institutional objectives and short-term results?
• What are the major factors enabling or hindering the effectiveness of operations?

Sustainability/ including among others, technical, institutional and financial viability
• What has been the progress made to date towards the sustainability of the Fund’s operations?
• To what extent has the institution provided relevant, efficient, effective, and sustainable grants to developing country Parties to the Kyoto Protocol?
• What does the technical, financial, and institutional sustainability of the Fund depend upon? What are the options for a sustainable Fund?

Short-term Results/Outcomes
• To what extent have the Fund’s processes and operations been showing and/or supporting the achievement of short-term results?
The main tasks for the assignment include:
• Through the inception report, to revise and expand the draft/generic TOR for the evaluation and specifically the evaluation framework, and include additional overall and specific questions.
• To develop the implicit theory of change that is guiding the Fund.
• To select and apply a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, tools and approaches to conduct the evaluation.
• To collect primary and secondary data and information through personal and/or telephone interviews with Fund’s key stakeholders (for example, the CMP, country beneficiaries, Implementing and executing entities, etc.) and literature review, including contextual and background information on adaptation, Fund, CMP and UNFCCC related policy documents, project and programme desk reviews of documents and reports as needed.
• To develop and use data compilation instruments (for example, protocols for questionnaires) that consider available resources and evaluation questions.
• To analyse quantitatively and qualitatively the data compiled and triangulate data and qualitative information for cross verification and validation of data and information collected, and analysis.

For the assignment, the following deliverables have been identified:
• Inception report with final/refined TOR for Phase 1, the Fund’s draft implicit theory of change, evaluation framework, work plan, methodology, including tool selection, etc.
• Report with preliminary conclusions and recommendations. It is planned that an update on evaluation progress will be presented to the AFB for discussion at the twenty-fourth Board meeting (October 2014) (Recommendation EFC.14/2 AFB/EFC.14/10).
• Draft evaluation report, which will be drafted based on feedback received from the review of the preliminary results report.
• Final evaluation report. This report will consider and integrate, as relevant, comments received, and it will be translated in the Fund’s languages.
• Originals of any other sub product used during the analysis for the evaluation (survey results reports, graphs, maps, tables).

A period of five to six months has been estimated for the implementation of the Phase 1 of the evaluation, starting on August 18, 2014.

See further information (ToR)

ELIGIBILITY

INDIVIDUAL / FIRM PROFILE
The consultant will be a firm or group of consultants

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
The World Bank now invites eligible consultants/firms to indicate their interest in providing the services. Interested qualified consulting firms must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services (brochures, description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions, availability of appropriate skills among staff, etc. for firms). Please note that the total size of all attachments should be less than 5MB. The EOI submission shall be in the form of a single attached PDF proposal, including any annexes. Consultants should limit their EOI to a focused and tailored submission.

Interested consultants are hereby invited to submit expressions of interest.

Expressions of Interest should be submitted, in English, electronically through World Bank Group eConsultant2 (https://wbgeconsult2.worldbank.org/wbgec/index.html) by July 29, 2014, no later than 17:00 hours local time (Eastern Standard Time – USA).

NOTES
Following this invitation for Expression of Interest, a shortlist of qualified firms will be formally invited to submit proposals. Shortlisting and selection will be subject to the availability of funding.

Criteria
Provide information showing that the Consultant/Firm is qualified in the fields of the assignment – adaptation to climate change/ evaluation (sub criteria include: list, at least three, previous experience in evaluating environmental funds or programs at international and national level and on adaptation to climate change).

Provide information on the technical and managerial capabilities of the Consultant/Firm to conduct the assignment (sub-criteria include: independent and applied evaluation capacity; administrative and managerial capacity to conduct an international evaluation; knowledge management and research capacity of the firm; demonstrated ability and access to potentially hire local experts in developing countries).

Provide a short description conveying understanding of the assignment’s purpose, objectives, and development context

Provide information on the Consultant/Firm’s core business and years in business.

Provide information on the qualifications and competence of key staff.

Sub criteria concerning key Experts’ qualifications and competence for the Assignment
a) Team Leader:
1) Formal studies -at least Master’s degree or higher- in international relations, environment, social, development economics, or any other relevant degree). PhD and seniority are a plus.
2) Adequacy for the assignment (at least 15 years of evaluative experience and at least five in adaptation to climate change in developing countries). Evaluative experience should include: knowledge of, and experience in applying, qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods; a strong record in designing and leading institutional level and formative evaluations; technical competence in the area of evaluation (theory and practice), a strong methodological background, particularly around developing effective and innovative ways to measure processes and results of adaptation projects and programs.
b) At least another team member with:
1) At least Master’s degree in international relations, environment, social, development economics, or any other relevant degree
2) Adequacy for the assignment (at least five years of evaluative experience (knowledge of, and experience in applying, qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods; technical competence in the area of evaluation (theory and practice) and at least two years of experience in implementing and evaluating adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries)
Other relevant qualifications identified by the Client:
a. Fluent in English (by all team members) and overall languages capacity of at least one member of the team in at least two other of the six official languages of the UN (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish)
b. Experience on national/regional work
c. Experience in least developed countries or those most vulnerable to climate change impacts
d. Extended knowledge on operational aspects of institutions (governance, accounting, etc.)
e. Extended knowledge of the Adaptation Fund and of UNFCCC, Kyoto protocol and climate change and other environmental international regimes and policies
f. Strong communication skills and outreach culture: previous experience (at least three cases) communicating evaluation results, presenting information through presentations and documents to decision makers, at international conferences, and to different and multiple stakeholders

Attachments

Attachment	Type	Size
TOR-AF-OverallEval-PhaseI-07July14	PDF	526 KB