Independent Evaluator of GGGI's Thailand program: Energy Expert

Contract
Project	Independent Evaluation of GGGI’s Thailand Country Program: Energy Specialist – Evaluator Consultant
Expertise
Category	Advisory Support: level G
Location
Duty Station	Global
Contract Length
Start Date	30October 2017
End Date	31 January 2018
Part-time/Full-time	Part time consultant
Contract Value
Daily Rate	NA
Days Estimated	32 days estimated
Total Fees	Up to USD 22,500 (dependent on qualification)
Specifics of Recruitment

 

Introduction:

 

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) was established in 2012 to support countries to pursue a model of economic development known as “green growth”, which aims to simultaneously promote economic growth, poverty reduction, social inclusion and environmental sustainability. To achieve this, GGGI works with partner countries to design and deliver programs that demonstrate practical pathways to achieve green growth.

The Institute is overseen by an Assembly, comprising 27 members, a Council which serves as the executive organ of GGGI, and the Management and Program Sub-Committee (MPSC) which advises the Council on financial and programmatic matters. GGGI is headquartered in Seoul, Republic of Korea, with operations in over 25 countries.

In November 2014, the Council approved the GGGI Strategic Plan 2015-2020, which sets strategic priorities and directions for the organization over a 6-year period. Based on the theory of change, 3 strategic outcomes were identified for the organization:

• Outcome 1: Strengthened national, sub-national, local green growth policy planning, financing and institutional frameworks;
• Outcome 2: Increased green investment flows; and
• Outcome 3: Improved multi-directional knowledge sharing and learning between countries on green growth.

The Strategic Plan also prioritized the following 4 thematic areas considered key to enabling countries to pursue green growth: energy, water, land-use and green cities.

To implement the Strategic Plan, a biennial Work Program and Budget (WPB) is developed and approved by the Council. This outlines a portfolio of country and global programs, and supporting corporate reforms, to be implemented over a 2-year period. The first WPB period covered 2015-2016 and GGGI is currently implementing its second biennial WPB covering 2017-2018.

Implementation of country and global programs under the WPB is largely undertaken by two divisions who work in a complementary way:

• Green Growth Planning & Implementation division (GGPI), which leads the development and implementation of GGGI’s in-country green growth programs; and
• Investment & Policy Solutions[1] division (IPSD), which designs and delivers products and services to support the development and financing of green growth policies.

In addition, GGGI’s Office of the Director-General (ODG) and the Operations Enabling Division (OED)[2] manage a range of functions and initiatives in non-programmatic and corporate areas.

More information about GGGI is available at: www.gggi.org.

The Impact and Evaluation Unit (IEU) is responsible for commissioning country and thematic evaluations to assess the impacts of GGGI’s work and to inform improvements to program design and delivery. In 2017, an evaluation of GGGI’s Thailand country program was commissioned as part of IEU’s workplan.

 

Overview of the Thailand Country Program:

GGGI has been present in Thailand since August 2014, when it began supporting the Government of Thailand (GoT) in developing an Industry GHG Emissions Reduction Roadmap to aid the implementation of the Climate Change Master Plan. Since then, cooperation between GGGI and GoT has been growing with additional projects to support the GoT’s increasing international and domestic commitments related to climate change and green growth. Thailand officially became a member of GGGI in January 2016 and a Country Planning Framework, 5-year cooperation framework, was finalized in 2017.

The ultimate objective of GGGI’s Thailand program is to enable the GoT to achieve its GHG emissions reduction targets by greening the Thai industrial sector. More specifically, the focus is on creating a policy and investment environment promoting a greater uptake of energy efficiency and renewable energy in the industrial sector.

With this objective in mind, GGGI has been implementing the following projects:

1. Industry Greenhouse Gas Reduction Roadmap to support implementation of Thailand’s Climate Change Master Plan (2014-2016):

The GHG Emissions Reduction Roadmap provides technical and policy recommendations on how the GoT and industrial sectors[3] can jointly create the right policy and business environment to drive GHG emission abatement measures, particularly energy efficiency measures.

1. Accelerating implementation of Thailand Nationally Determinate Contribution (2016 - Ongoing):

GGGI is assisting the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP)[4] in mainstreaming the high-level emissions reduction targets set in the Thailand NDC roadmap into more specific industrial action plans. In this respect, the project is expected to develop an NDC Action Plan for Industrial Sector focusing on energy efficiency improvement (completed), to demonstrate the development of bankable green projects and to provide capacity building to both government and private sectors on relevant subjects towards achievement of NDC in industrial sector.

1. Thai auto parts supply chain development through energy efficiency (TAPEE) (2016 - Ongoing):

The TAPEE project aims to address barriers to, and mobilize, energy efficiency investment in the auto parts manufacturing sub-sector by setting up a risk-sharing facility and an on-bill repayment/financing mechanism.

1. Strengthening Thailand’s MRV system (2017 – Ongoing):

The MRV project’s main goal is to strengthen Thailand’s GHG MRV system by developing a National MRV Master Plan and Sector-specific MRV Guidelines. The project is still in the design phase.

 

Objectives/Purpose of the Assignment:

The objective of the assignment is to:

• Assess the performance of GGGI’s Thailand Country Program, including its impacts to date and the robustness of its theory of change; and
• Make actionable recommendations to further improve its current and future delivery approach and impact.

The main audience of the evaluation will be key Thai stakeholders, GGGI’s Management, Country Team and members of the Management and Program Sub-Committee (MPSC).

 

Scope of Work:

Based on GGGI’s evaluation policy,  an Evaluation Approach Paper, including detailed information on the program and the proposed evaluation approach/methodology, will be provided to the selected evaluator for discussion and finalization.

The Independent Evaluator is expected to evaluate Thailand Country Program with respect to the following three key evaluation questions (KEQs), along with a set of sub-questions to be considered as part of each question.[5]

 

A. How relevant and significant is GGGI program to GoT’s national and international green growth and climate change priorities?

The aim of this question is to investigate how GGGI interventions fit within the overall policy and institutional context and to what extent they fulfil GoT stakeholders’ needs.

 

B. How effectively and efficiently are the program and its related outputs being implemented by GGGI and its main counterparts?

This section seeks to better understand the program’s performance and the progress made to date. Specific issues to look into include: output delivery and outcome achievements, effective use by stakeholders of GGGI’s inputs, output quality and accessibility, GGGI’s relationship with main counterparts, innovative approaches used by the program, risk management, communication and awareness raising activities.

 

C. Is the program bringing about the desired policy, institutional and financial changes necessary to achieve the intermediate and strategic outcomes in the long-term?

This question will assess whether current or completed projects have produced any intended or unintended effects and also the robustness of the theory of change.

 

D. To what extend the benefits generated by the program are sustainable?

This KEQ is meant to assess if GGGI was successful in enabling the relevant stakeholders to use and replicate the provided knowledge. The question will also look at whether the program has been effective in setting up measures to mitigate the threats to long term sustainability of the generated benefits.

 

E. Have cross cutting issues such as safeguards and social inclusion been integrated into the program?

The aim is to assess if safeguards, poverty reduction and social inclusion aspects have been considered in the design of the program as well as in the delivered outputs.

 

The time period to be covered by the evaluation is 2014 – 2017.

 

Proposed Approach and Methodology:

The detailed approach and methodology will be proposed in the Evaluation Approach Paper and will be discussed and finalized with the selected evaluator. A combination of approaches and mixed methods (mainly non-experimental) are proposed to answer each of the key evaluation questions.

 

Timeframe and Deliverables:

The expected deliverables and corresponding timelines for this evaluation are elaborated below. The timelines are indicative and will be finalized in consultation with the selected evaluator.

Timeframe	Activity / Deliverable	Payment percentage
End of October, 2017 – Mid- November, 2017	Inception phase: includes an inception meeting and discussions to finalize the approach, methodology and workplan for the evaluation. A desk review of key program documents will be conducted. Following this, an inception report will be developed. Majority of the content of the inception report will build on the Evaluation Approach Paper. Deliverable 1 – Inception report with final evaluation methodology, workplan, primary data collection tools and an agreed outline for the evaluation report Site visit planning	20%
Mid-November, 2017 – Beginning of December, 2017	Data collection phase: includes a visit to Bangkok to meet with GGGI’s country team and key stakeholders in country. Phone interviews with relevant GGGI staff based in HQ. A list of stakeholders will be included in the Evaluation Approach Paper and the schedule for the visit will be developed beforehand in consultation with the country team. Analysis phase: appropriate data analysis will be conducted with the aim of triangulating to arrive at reliable and credible findings, conclusions and recommendations. Reporting phase: development of the draft report. Deliverable 2 – Draft evaluation report	50%
Mid-December 2017 – End of December 2017	Presentation to GGGI’s Thailand Program Team followed by presentation to GGGI’s Management Team. This can be done remotely from where the evaluator is based. Revise report based on feedback (if required) and incorporate management responses. Deliverable 3 – Final evaluation report submitted	30%

All reports must be in English, in accordance with GGGI’s formatting requirements, and submitted in a digital format.

The final report will be shared with relevant strategic partners in Thailand, GGGI’s members and staff, and published on GGGI’s website.

All air travel undertaken in relation to this assignment shall be undertaken at economy class.

 

Management arrangements:

This evaluation will be managed in accordance with GGGI’s evaluation policy. The key aspects are:

GGGI Evaluation manager

Within GGGI, the evaluation will be commissioned and managed by the Impact and Evaluation Unit (IEU). IEU’s roles and responsibilities include:

 

• Develop and finalize the evaluation TOR;
• Develop the Evaluation Approach Paper;
• Recruit, contract and manage contractual issues for the independent evaluator;
• Supervise the delivery of the evaluation deliverables by the independent evaluator;
• Support the independent evaluator with coordinating activities during the visit to Thailand;
• Accompany the independent evaluator to meetings with key stakeholders in Thailand; and
• Help facilitate the involvement of the Evaluation Advisory Group (see below) in this evaluation.

 

Evaluation Advisory Group (EAG)

GGGI will establish an Advisory Group for this evaluation. The Group will be coordinated by IEU and comprised of representatives from GGGI member countries who are interested to ‘opt in’ to participate in this evaluation. The EAG’s role is to assist in the oversight of the evaluation and review and comment on key evaluation deliverables. More specifically, the role of the EAG will include:

• Advise on the finalization of the Evaluation Approach Paper based on which the evaluation will be implemented;
• Identify and nominate any independent experts who may be suitably qualified to apply for this independent evaluator position; and
• Review and provide comments on the deliverables of the evaluation.

 

Required skills and competencies:

 

Based on the scope and objectives of the evaluation, the primary required expertise and skills for the independent evaluator are:

 

• An energy specialist with a Master’s Post-graduate degree in engineering, economics or a related discipline;
• Minimum of 15 years of experience in energy, particularly in policy and financing aspects of energy efficiency. Experience in Asia and particularly in Thailand would be an advantage;
• Experience in conducting evaluations of international development programs;
• Good understanding of international and national policies related to climate change and in particular to GHG emissions abatement measures in the industrial sector;
• Ability to communicate in local language would be an asset

 

Application process:

To apply for this position, candidates must submit a detailed CV outlining relevant experience and a cover letter (maximum 2 pages) describing the candidates’ suitability to conduct this evaluation.

Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed and requested to provide referees and a sample of writing.