ToR for a service provider to undertake a project mid-term reflection and offer technical support

ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center, together with project partners SwedBio and the Stockholm Resilience Centre, have designed a cutting edge project – Urban Natural Assets for Africa – to support the local implementation of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets to conserve and protect nature in cities in sub-Sahara Africa.

The UNA Rivers component of this project is being implemented through generous funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), through SwedBio at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. UNA Rivers aims to mainstream nature-based solutions into land use planning and local government decision-making processes relating to urban river systems. The project is doing this through better coordination and community-based activation, with the aim of building sustainability and resilience at the local level, for the enhancement of human well-being, equity, human rights, democracy, gender equality and poverty alleviation.

The project has five main objectives:
1. Increased understanding of the socio-economic importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services and its role in strategic climate change adaptation plans, with a specific focus on enhanced human well-being;
2. Mainstreaming of biodiversity and ecosystem services into local land use and development policy and planning systems;
3. Enhanced coordination and engagement within the project cities (between departments and key stakeholders: Community-based organisations (CBOs), Non-profit organisations (NGOs), researchers, communities inter alia) as well as between cities (through city-to-city exchanges) for increased awareness, integrated biodiversity and ecosystem service management and enhanced networking at both regional and national levels;
4. Alignment of project-related activities and outputs with international policy and processes such as the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Conference of the Parties (COPs) to the CBD, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and
5. Locally appropriate, scalable project implementation, with a specific focus on community-based art and culture activation, connecting people/ urban communities with biodiversity and ecosystems within an urban river context in a holistic way enhancing overall human well-being.

Terms of Reference
ICLEI Africa together with SwedBio is seeking to appoint a service provider to undertake a reflection and offer technical support to the UNA Rivers Project. The scope of work is only to a lesser extent a standard review in which the projects’ activities and outputs to date are assessed, the lion part of the work should inform improved management of project and project team learnings as well as inform the project team on how to better design its project activities, method and outputs in the context of a transformative African city package.

SCOPE OF WORK
• Identification of gaps, barriers and opportunities to capturing and showcasing learning within the project;
• Development of a recommendation document which outlines the gaps, opportunities and barriers and provides guidance for improved management of project learnings as well as guides future project activities to capture and showcase learnings;
• Engage with all project outputs and develop a strategy that pulls together all the current outputs into a consolidated strategic package;
• Based on the review of project outputs reflect on project impact and relevance related to project objectives (the project objectives are described in more detail and put in context in ICLEI Africa’s main and amendment proposals to SwedBio).
• Based on the above, and through facilitating a workshop with the ICLEI Africa team, design and develop a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Strategy and management framework for the project.

STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT
• Key stakeholders include the project management team at ICLEI Africa, local partners in the project cities and SwedBio/Stockholm Resilience Centre.
• The service provider will involve the stakeholders through a variety of engagement processes (i.e. consultations, interviews etc.) to capture learnings and verify and triangulate findings.

DELIVERABLES
• A reflection report on project impact and relevance related to project objectives;
• Recommendation document that outlines a) gaps, barriers and opportunities to capturing and showcasing learning within the project; b) improved management of project learnings; c) guides future project activities to capture and showcase learnings; and d) advises on how learnings engaged with can be better communicated to inform the project;
• Consolidated strategy for the project outputs, within the context of transformation in and of African Cities;
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Strategy and management framework that has been designed and developed with the ICLEI Africa team;
• Travel with the UNA Rivers team to one of the project cities (Lilongwe, Malawi (11 – 15 June) or Entebbe, Uganda (3 – 8 June));
• A final hand-over of all deliverables, including a detail of methodology and approaches applied in the scope of work; and
• Accurate and comprehensive financial records of project-related expenses to be produced into a financial report.

REQUIREMENTS
• The service provider must be independent of the project and have no stake in the outcomes;
• The service provider must demonstrate experience working with African Cities;
• The service provider must be able to demonstrate previous experience undertaking project evaluations for multi-country, international development projects;
• The service provider will be required to submit a short CV with references to previous work or publications of relevance to the terms of reference. The service provider should be a dynamic and innovative thinker who is a leaders in their field;
• The service provider must be able to undertake one trip to one of the project cities (either Lilongwe or Entebbe) in June 2018;
• The service provider must be able to supply accurate and comprehensive financial records of project-related expenses (including but not limited to disbursements, accommodation, travel and subsistence costs), which contribute to a financial report that is submitted with other final deliverables to ICLEI Africa prior to receiving the final payment; and
• The service provider must demonstrate how project implementation and/ or use of funding supports and aligns with the objectives of the UNA Rivers project; see additional information below.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
In addition to the points raised under the requirements section, please include the following information when submitting a proposal:
• Work programme of activities, with timeframes and budget assigned to each activity;
• Method and approach to be used must be expanded (if there is a team then the name of the person, what proportion of time and the activity conducted by that person needs to be included);
• Eligible costs include: Candidate professional fees; travel costs including flights, accommodation, subsistence and travel allowance (in line with SARs guidelines); costs for internet and telephone communication may be considered as necessary (NB: for outside of South Africa only) and travel costs within South Africa for meetings with ICLEI Africa (for a minimum of 6 face to face meetings and a number of skype interviews with participants in Sweden). Costs must be all inclusive;
• For South African candidates all costs are to be indicated inclusive of VAT at 15% (as appropriate).

SUBMISSION PROCESS
Kindly submit your proposal to Jessica Kavonic at Jessica.kavonic@iclei.org by 16:00 (SAST) on 21 March 2018. For any queries related to submission please contact us via the email above. Please use the subject line: Service Provider: UNA project mid-term reflection and technical support when submitting your proposal.

TIMELINE

• 19 March 2018 Submission of proposals
• 22 March 2018 Review of proposals and appointment of a service provider
• 13 April 2018 First draft of the institutional landscape scoping report
• April/May 2018 Consultations with relevant stakeholders
• 20 April 2018 First draft of a framework on the development of the SDGs indicators
• 22 May 2018 Final institutional landscape scoping report
• 27 April 2018 First draft of a roadmap on the localisation of the SDGs.
• 16 May 2018 Final framework on the development of SDG indicators
• 23 May Final draft of a roadmap on the localisation of the SDGs.
• 28 May Close out report

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION AND REVIEW PROCESS
Proposals must be submitted to nachi.majoe@iclei.org by no later than close of business on 19 March 2018. Late and incomplete submissions will not be considered.

A Review Committee will evaluate the proposals, based on the points listed above. The decision of the Review Committee is final. Please include the following with your application submission:

• A letter of application motivating for the applicant(s) and outlining the proposed approach to the work; and the unique value that they can offer to the project. This should include a description of the consultant’s interpretation of the scope of work and include a work plan;
• Outline of what the intended end product will look like in terms of content, packaging and presentation. (Please note that the final layout and branding will be guided by ICLEI Africa);
• Details of the individuals on the project team, including relevant skills, experience and track record; detailed roles and responsibilities of each individual; 2 page CV of each individual (including whether the individual is a registered professional, years of registration and with which body);
• Relevant projects worked on in the last 5 years with references;
• Detailed budget breakdown;
• BBEEE certificate.
Key decision criteria include:
• The diversity and expertise of the project team
• Proposed approach and understanding of the scope of work
• The detail of the project budget breakdown and allocation of funds

CONTRACTUAL ARRANGEMENTS AND REPORTING
• The service provider will work closely with ICLEI Africa team, the relevant national departments and municipalities and are other relevant stakeholders where necessary;
• The contract will be drawn up between ICLEI Africa and the service provider;
• Invoices will be paid on time allocation basis, provided planned deliverables are produced in accordance with the contract;
• Invoices must indicate the time allocated as well as the associated deliverables produced;
• ICLEI Africa will pay for the satisfactory completion of work within 30 days of submission of invoices.

ICLEI AFRICA RESERVES THE RIGHT NOT TO APPOINT A SERVICE PROVIDER IN RELATION TO THIS TERMS OF REFERENCE
For more information on ICLEI Africa see: www.iclei.org and africa.iclei.org

All proposals and questions must be directed to:
Nachi Majoe
Senior Professional Officer
Email: nachi.majoe@iclei.org
Tel.: (021) 202 0392