National Consultant-Develop Operational Manual for Climate Resilience Fund (CRF)

Background

LoGIC is a multi-donor collaborative initiative of GoB, UNDP, UNCDF, EU and SIDA, aims to enhance the capacity of vulnerable communities, Local Government Institutions (LGI) and civil society organisations for planning and financing climate change adaptation solutions in selected climate vulnerable areas. The Local Government Division (LGD) is the implementing lead of the project in partnership with UNDP and UNCDF (for technical and management support).

Vulnerable people living in disaster-prone areas of Bangladesh have developed strategies and practices to cope with these natural events; however, they have inadequate empowerment to influence over development planning in their communities.

In order to address the vulnerabilities of Bangladesh to climate change, the project envisages the following priority areas of action:

• Building capacities of individuals and households with information, knowledge, skills and technology to adapt to climate change as well as leadership skills to influence the local planning process.
• Build capacity of the local NGOs, CBOs, local institutions and LGIs in climate change integrated planning, budgeting and implementation with high degree of accountability and inclusive practice.
• Provide funds to LGIs and vulnerable households to plan and implement climate resilient activities and interventions at community and household level.
• Generate knowledge and mobilise opinion for shaping a Local Climate Fiscal Framework and enhance readiness of both LGIs and the Local Government Division to utilise national and international climate finance in an accountable way.

These priorities will be addressed through three sets of core actions: capacity building, providing access to climate change funds and policy advocacy. During the planned support period, the proposed project is expected to produce following three key results:

Firstly, the capacity of local governments, households and other local stakeholders will be increased enabling them to enhance existing and future local development plans by integrating climate change adaptation solutions.

Secondly, a financing mechanism for local governments to implement climate change adaptation solutions will be established; the Performance Based Climate Resilient Grants will be aligned with the current system of fiscal transfers to Local Government Institutions using and improving it. It also covers the design and implementation of a Community Resilience Fund that will provide resources for community and household level climate change adaptation solutions for vulnerable households.

Thirdly, it is of upmost importance that the pilot experience gained at the community and local level is informing wider policy and practice and ultimately aim at improving and reforming the planning and financing system of the GoB for CCA at local and community level, ensuring sustainability beyond the project.

The project is designed to support roughly 200,000 most vulnerable households in 72 (seventy-two) unions in 7 (seven) districts (Kurigram, Sunamganj, Khulna, Bagerhat, Barguna, Patuakhali, and Bhola). The benefits are expected to come out of climate change adaptation actions at various levels, scaled up through local government institutions incorporating high quality accountability and participation of the most vulnerable people. This concept evolved around six strands:

1. Building capacity, awareness and empowerment of the vulnerable people to generate plans;
2. Development of capacity of the local government to integrate climate change into their local development plans;
3. Building capacity and engagement of local actors and government extension workers at local level to work as driver for accountability of climate action;
4. Provide grants to local government as additional resource to climate-proof their investment on community based adaptation work;
5. Provide direct support to the vulnerable households to meet their adaptation needs; and
6. Promote a local climate financing mechanism through evidence based advocacy for delivering climate finance at scale.

The outcome of this Project is:  Improved and inclusive local level planning, and increased funding for community based CCA-DRR solutions, supported by a strengthened financing mechanism. By achieving objectives and results, the project will contribute to the reduction of vulnerability and poverty in Bangladesh. The project is expected to produce following results:

• Output 1: Strengthened capacity of vulnerable people and local stakeholders for accountable planning and financing on CCA/DRR actions for building resilience.
• Output 2: Enhanced access of LGIs and vulnerable households to climate funds have for climate resilient infrastructures and adaptive livelihoods.
• Output 3: Established evidence based advocacy for a mechanism for ‘financing local resilience’.

The proposed project will address gaps at a few levels based on which the results have been designed. At the local level, despite being a repository of local knowledge and information, the LGIs fall short of harnessing the potentials from the local community. The mechanism for formulation of the Local Development Plan (LDPs) has scope to engage the poor and vulnerable groups in a participatory way to reflect their climate-related needs and demands. Communities and households face difficulties in securing access to the planning and financing mechanism for sustainable development solutions. An in-depth analysis of potentials and gaps will be further detailed out in the baseline study and inception phase of the project. The overall sequential approach to implement the project strategy is presented in the figure

Community Resilience Fund (CRF):

To utilize the strengthened capacity and implement the climate-inclusive Local Development Plans the Project will establish two types of specific financing at the Union level: a Performance-Based Climate Grant (PBCG) and a Community Resilience Fund (CRF). Project approach will establish the Community Resilience Fund to channel grants directly to households are vulnerable to adverse climate change and disaster impacts. Two grant mechanisms are complementary, whereby the Community Resilience Fund is a medium-term measure to meet livelihood and food security needs of vulnerable households that are currently not effectively reached, while efforts increase to strengthen systems for sustainable public service delivery. The CRF will predominantly support the extreme poor households to enhance their adaptive livelihood portfolios.

The Project will establish a fund to directly channel micro-grants (not more than USD 400 per household) to vulnerable households for low-regret resilience actions that are not otherwise funded, and that yield immediate benefits to household-level absorptive and adaptive capacity. The main focus will be on livelihood resilience but other context-specific wellbeing actions may be considered, based on the Risk Reduction Action Plan (RRAP). In Inception phase of the project, an operation manual for CRF will be developed by the project, which will be the basis of the implementation of CRF.

Eligible Households can apply for the CRF grants directly by expressing interest to local government representatives. If the households are eligible as per CRF criteria, the sub-contracted NGO/institution will help the household to develop a Household Level Plan of adaptation. This household plan will be treated as a micro-proposal to the LGI for CRF. The LGI will form a local level committee to screen proposals against the RRAP for relevance and to ensure that overall household-level adaptation aligns with and complements the climate-inclusive LDP. The project will support the LGI to develop the necessary support mechanism by sub-contracted NGOs to assist households in developing the micro-grant proposals based on the RRAP, and to work with LGI staff to review and approve the micro-grant proposals. This process will build household and LGI capacity to apply for CRF funds independently after the project ends.

CRF grants will be provided directly to selected households using an electronic cash transfer mechanism based on the unique personal and mobile phone identity of the head of household (grant recipient). This mechanism has been widely used by humanitarian community work and by the UN agencies in Bangladesh with demonstrated improvements in cost efficiency and security compared to traditional transfer means. The project will use public procurement to identify the company that will manage the transfer system.

Objective:

To develop an operational manual for Community Resilience Fund (CRF) for the LoGIC project.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work: 

To develop the CRF Operational Manual the consultant will consider two key areas i.e. eligibility of Community Resilience Fund and conditionality of access to Community Resilience Fund (CRF). The outlined section of the operational manual may be as below:

• Concept and definition of CRF.
• Types of Climate Change adaptation or Disaster Risk reduction adaptation can be funded by CRF.
• Conditionality i.e. what are the conditions applicable to get the access to CRF. The conditions can include the plan of project, estimated budget, having bank account, market analysis etc.
• Beneficiary selection criteria to award the CRF.
• Type/menu list of climate change adaptation/disaster risk reduction at household, community and enterprise level.
• CRF Flow chart.
• Adaptation Tracking and Measuring (ATM)
• Fiduciary risk and management
• Internal control framework.
• Conclusion.

The National Consultant will work with International Consultant as a team member to develop the operational manual of Community Resilience Fund (CRF).

 Methodology:

The consultant will employ a range of participatory as well as analytical methodologies suitable for the purposes of the assignment.  The methodology may include focus groups discussions (FGD) with programme teams, Key Informant Interviews (KII) and In-depth Interviews with relevant stakeholders e.g. project team, UNDP, GoB etc

Deliverables:

1. Inception Report: Outline of the CRF Operational Manual (Including content, sub-content and short description)-03 working days after the signing of the contract.
2. Document review and develop interview guidelines- 03 working days
3. Interview and discussion with all stakeholders- 05 working days
4. Prepare draft CRF Operational Manual- 04 working days
5. Field test report on draft CRF Operational Manual- 02 working days
6. Facilitate the workshop on draft CRF Operational Manual and capture the comments and recommendations- 01 working day
7. Final CRF Operational Manual- 03 working days
8. Develop draft training manual on CRF Operational Manual- 05 working day
9. Facilitate TOT on CRF Operational Manual for project staff-02 working days
10. Develop final training manual on CRF Operational Manual- 02 working day

Supervision and Performance Evaluation:

The consultant will work under supervision of the LoGIC Project Coordinator and the guidance of the UNDP Climate Change Specialist.

Tentative payment schedule:

• 1st payment (20% of the total contract value) will be paid after submission & acceptance of the Outline of the CRF Operational Manual including methodology and workplan of the assignment by the contract administrator
• 2nd payment (50% of the total contract value) will be paid after submission & acceptance of completion of the workshop on draft CRF Operational Manual and final CRF Operational Manual by the contract administrator
• Final payment (30% of the total contract value) will be paid after submission & acceptance  the final training manual on CRF Operation Manual and successful completion of TOT on CRF Operational Manual for project staff by the contract administrator

 Duty Station

The duty station will be in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The consultant should, time to time, be present at the project office, as and when required, to share the work plan, methodology and progress of the assignment. The consultant must have his/her own laptop to work for the assignment.

All costs related to this assignment including logistics, office arrangements, accommodation, etc. shall be borne by the consultant. UNDP shall pay the lump sum amount quoted in the financial proposal and shall be paid after achievement of milestones as per the TOR.

Achieving the deliverables shall be the sole responsibility of the consultant. Any delay in achieving the deliverables shall be communicated to the LoGIC Project Coordinator along with a plan to remedy the delay.

Duration

The duration of the assignment will be 30 days over a period of 1.5 months.

Documents:

• Inception Report: Outline of the CRF Operational Manual (Including content, sub-content and short description)
• Final CRF Operational Manual
• Develop final training manual on CRF Operational Manual

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN's values and ethical standards (human rights, peace);
• understanding between peoples and nations, tolerance, integrity, respect, and impartiality;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications 

• Minimum Postgraduate degree in Environmental Science or Management, Climate Change, International Development, Public Administration, Economics or other related fields.

Experience:

• Experience of developing operation manual for grant management.
• Minimum 05 years of experience working with UN Agencies, Development Partners, Non-governmental Organizations related to community based climate change adaptation.
• At least 03 years working experience on local governance, public financial management/budgeting and/or climate finance

Language:

Fluency in English (written, oral and spoken)

Lump sum contracts:

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

In-country travel (if required) will be met by UNDP and DSA will be paid as per UNDP policy. If unforeseen travel outside the Duty Station not required by the Terms of Reference, is requested by UNDP, and upon prior written agreement, such travel be at the UNDP’s expense and the Individual Contractor shall receive a per diem not to exceed United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s).

 Evaluation of the Candidates:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation;

Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70% mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks):

• Experience of leading in development of at least 02 operation manuals for grant management.- Maximum 20 points
• Adequacy of the proposed methodology and approach in responding to the Terms of Reference - Maximum 20 points
• Experience related to community based climate change adaptation programme -Maximum 20 points
• Experience on local governance, public financial management/budgeting and/or climate finance- Maximum 10 points

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks)

All technical qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below.

The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:

p = y (µ/z)

Where:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation.

• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references; P11 can be downloaded from the link below: http://www.bd.undp.org/content/bangladesh/en/home/operations/jobs/
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment. a brief description of the assignment, detail break-down of the Work Plan and Methodology to carry out and complete the assignment.
• Financial Proposal: Financial Proposal has to be submitted through a standard interest and availability template which can be downloaded from the link below:

http://www.bd.undp.org/content/dam/bangladesh/docs/Jobs/Interest%20and%20Submission%20of%20Financial%20Proposal-Template%20for%20Confirmation.docx

Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Annex 1 

Community Resilience Fund (CRF): Programmatic and Operational Aspects 

Summary

One of the central issue is for what purpose and how the community resilience fund (CRF) will be channelled to the most vulnerable beneficiary HHs. In the project, CRF (small grants) will be primarily used for promoting resilient livelihoods of most vulnerable preferably to women and adolescent girls of the vulnerable households and channelled through electronic cash transfer mechanism (through Agent Banking) to the beneficiary households against their unique personal and mobile phone identity. This mechanism has been widely used by humanitarian community and the UN agencies in Bangladesh with significant cost efficiency and security. The company utilised for such transfer will be selected from market. This is also important to note that the households will be selected against established criteria by civil society organisations and local government under the supervision of project staff.

Another important issue is who will assess the efficacy of HH level adaptation activities and how. The strategy of the project is very critical in this respect. The project will set up a real-time monitoring and evaluation mechanism to assess its efficiency and effectiveness. An independent organisation to manage the function is the most important part of the process together with community managed social auditing. The project will maintain an MIS which will enable the management team to review various approach based on evidence of effectiveness and shortcomings.

Adaptive Livelihoods

In Bangladesh, poor households in rural areas typically have a “portfolio of work” rather than a “job”. Commonly, each member earns income from many sources, from agriculture to casual labor to petty trade and formal work, in part because it mitigates the risk and seasonality inherent in any one source, and because it is often not possible to sustain sufficient income from a single occupation.

In this context, one way to increase work and incomes is to improve portfolios of work rather than “create jobs”. The question we focus on is how to help poor people raise their productivity in their current occupations, and how to help them access new occupations that offer higher earnings facing the challenge of climate change, disasters and changes in ecosystem. Traditional job creation is still important since, ultimately, the end of poverty will come from having lots of small, medium, and large firms to sustain employment on a large scale. But this project is not about the policies or conditions that might bring about that kind of long term structural change. Rather we focus on programmes and policies that can be immediately implemented, and can show results, in the space of a few years.

The evidence shows that improving poor people’s portfolios of work can be done on a large scale, cost-effectively. For the most part, the tools available are a mix of safety net programmes, such as public workfare, and “supply-side” interventions that try to give people and firms something they need, such as capital or skills, to raise their incomes.

Across regions and districts within Bangladesh, challenges, and classes of people, the evidence sends a clear message: many of the poor have high returns to capital. The poor seem to be held back by too little capital and an absence of cheap credit. When programmes give capital to the poor—be it cash, tools or livestock, to small business owners, unemployed youth or ultra-poor women—we tend to see similar results: poor people expand the number and size of their businesses, and increase the profitability of work in their portfolio. This is true even in some fragile districts, especially in the aftermath of natural disasters.

“Capital-centric” interventions have the most promise, but tend to be the exception rather than the rule. Start-up grants, cash infusions, in-kind capital transfers, and other so called “hand-outs” have an impressive record of increasing poor people’s long run earning potential—the very opposite of the “dependency syndrome” some fear. The impacts may be especially high after natural disasters and political crises. Currently few of the studied programmes provide capital alone, so some of their success may be due in part to other programme components, from supervision to training. But being what we call capital-centric seems to be critical to these programmes’ success.

However important capital might be, the answer is probably not “more microfinance”. Most microfinance is still very expensive for the borrower and has short repayment periods. Because of this, it is a poor vehicle for investments in farming or business, which require longer incubation and less costly capital. Thus it should come as little surprise that field experiments in several countries finds almost no effect of microfinance on profits or poverty. Conditional or purposive grants for extreme poor, lower interest rates along with more flexible repayment terms for poor could improve matters.

Workfare and other social safety net programmes have promise in fragile conditions, but there is shamefully little evidence on their impacts. For all the money that is spent on these programmes, it is shocking how little they have been studied. These could be the best (perhaps only) option for creating work in unstable situations. In stable situations, there is also evidence they might raise wages for all. This gap in the evidence could easily be filled, and must.

The CRF is therefore confidently promote and finance households for adaptive livelihood approach as a key strategy for building adaptive capacity of most vulnerable people including women and girls in the climate vulnerable areas in Bangladesh. A list of Adaptive livelihoods is also attached at the end of the document.

Adaptive Livelihood Definition and Approaches:

There is no agreed definition of adaptive livelihoods. However, this become more difficult when we narrow down livelihood semantically as mere income or employment generation means. In lexicon, often livelihoods are treated as a mean to have income, which can be the principal transection to get other means of wellbeing: shelter, food, health, mobility, recreation, water and sanitation and social life. This connotation might not work in very traditional society, where other aspects of wellbeing might not necessarily need money only.

Generally, by the term “Adaptive Livelihoods”, we referred to a certain capacity that helps a person to make their livelihoods sustain despite changes in environment and shocks. Livelihoods in a changing environment experience varying degree of vulnerability due to climatic, economic and other social factors. Most forms of primary livelihoods are dependent on local resources which are getting scarce by the day, and are under threat from variations in climate that manifest as extreme weather events.

Rural Livelihoods have been suffering because of agriculture becoming less remunerative which is enhancing the vulnerabilities of the poor in the volatile economic environment further exacerbated by climate related risks. Therefore, now it is an urgent need to understand multi-dimensional – especially resource based – vulnerability, in order to develop bottom-up, climate adaptive livelihoods as a core aspect of “adaptive capacity” to climate change.

This project thus focuses on assessing climate related and other vulnerabilities that affect livelihoods in a village and guides activities that will be more resilient in the long run thus contributing towards sustainable livelihoods. In that regards, adaptive livelihoods have three core set of approaches and characteristics: (1) Reducing Exposure and underlying vulnerabilities, (2) Broadening choices to diversify portfolio of works, and (3) Sustaining human development through skill development for future employment markets.