Background

UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and planet. UNDP has been working in Afghanistan for more than 50 years on climate change and resilience, gender, governance, health, livelihoods, and rule of law. Under the broader framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in close coordination with other UN agencies, UNDP is supporting Afghan people’s aspiration for peace, prosperity, and sustainability. UNDP is currently implementing its flagship crisis response programme, ABADEI (Area Based Approach to Development Emergency Initiatives), as part of the ongoing UN-led response to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and the breakdown of Afghanistan’s economy following the August 2021 shift in power.

UNDP is partnering with Asian Development Bank (ADB) through the recently launched USD 405 million grant for the “Sustaining Essential Services Delivery Project (Support for Afghan People) to alleviate the adverse effect of the crisis. The objective of the intervention is to sustain delivery of essential public services and food security to ease the adverse impact of economic disruptions on the welfare and livelihoods of the most vulnerable population groups in Afghanistan. The ADB grant will be implemented through separate projects delivered by UNDP, UNICEF, WFP, and FAO as executing agencies. The allocation to UNDP will focus on monitoring the overall support for Afghan people and conducting socio-economic assessments and on-demand research to support the possible Phase 2.

Energy Context:

Energy access gap has been significant and widening in Afghanistan for both clean cooking and electricity. Only a third of the population is connected to the grid and more than two -third rely on solid fuels for cooking. Approx. 80% of the current supply to meet the average demand of power at 864 MW is from imports from neighbouring Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. If suppressed demand is included, then the power demand would double. This poses significant energy security as well as risks to the intensification of extreme poverty, migratory crises, and conflict outbreaks.

Closing the gap in supply and demand for Afghan power sector is of utmost significance. However, the sector faces many challenges due to delayed infrastructure development, including major grid rehabilitation and expansion, limited development in new generation projects due to unattractive conditions for private investors, high perceived risk, and limited government resources for investment among many other factors.  There is no clear framework for cooking energy sources.

The situation, post 15th August 2021, prima facie, indicates, further deterioration impacting the basic services in health, education, and livelihoods sectors that are better served with energy access and reliability.  A more sustainable solution to the above can be found in renewable energy. Afghanistan’s total renewable energy (solar, wind, biomass and geothermal) potential is estimated at 319.5 GW.  There is an urgent need to capitalize renewable energy resources with a view to both increasing the delivery of electricity and energy services (including cooking energy source) to the population and developing domestic business opportunities both directly linked to RE technology and linked to improved access to reasonably priced electricity. This would enable effective and efficient humanitarian assistance and support sustainable development. It will further contribute towards achieving SDG7 goal: to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.  Achieving other SDGs also hinges on energy. 

The proposed study is aligned towards preparation of an energy programme framework for Afghanistan for potential assistance from ADB in subsequent phases in partnership with other donors and stakeholders.  

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the assignment

The objective of this assessment is to support efforts in generation of evidence for actions to transform energy sector of Afghanistan for its sustainable development. The study would gain insights into factors influencing energy sector development of Afghanistan, post 15th August 2021 for enabling community resilience with basic needs fuelled by energy access. It will identify appropriate solutions - technologies and delivery modalities to provide and invest in energy services using a community driven area-based development approach.

Key Tasks: (indicative)

1. Support the international consultant in analysis and review of energizing options as measured against social, environmental, technical, financial, economic, and operational factors. The assessment will derive these insights based on evidence and ongoing efforts by the international community in similar or other contexts and include micro-hydro power (MHP), stand-alone solar, renewable energy mini-grids, and on-grid sub-projects and clean cooking technologies and options. The assessment should also include an analysis of the situation with the generation, transmission and distribution projects, implementation of which has been suspended after 15 August 2021.

2. Prepare a detailed work plan for effective and smooth implementation of energy assessment.

3. Develop a comprehensive SOP/Guideline for engagement with the De Facto Administration for energy assessment.

4. Undertake disk review of the legal framework supporting the private sector to work in the energy sector.

5. Identify issues and challenges faced by private sector in power generation and distribution.

6. Develop framework for providing guidance on making service delivery choices.

7. Analysis of the potential regional and international cooperation for energy sector in Afghanistan

8. In close collaboration with the international consultant, support the development of framework for providing guidance on making energy services delivery choices; a) Economic cost-efficiency in delivering electricity and clean cooking options using various technologies through area based approach; b)Financial viability and long term sustainability; and c) Other attributes that affect sustainability of the energy interventions including, functionality and reliability, effectiveness in providing management and operations and maintenance (O&M), cost recovery, environmental (local and global) impacts, and social acceptance, among others.

9. Support the international consultant in the arrangement of meetings with different national and international stakeholders working in the energy sector.

10. Prepare minutes of meetings with clear action points and following up on the agreed action points.

11. Support the international consultant with the arrangement of field visits including arrangement of tickets, transport, accommodation, and meetings with relevant stakeholders at the field level.

12. Support the international consultant in the development of implementation road map for the above programme including financial mechanisms such as guarantees for private sector participation, and approaches to reduce time-to-delivery, to tap potential opportunities for innovations and community engagement and costs with infrastructure investments.

13. Support the international consultant in developing a roadmap on promoting clean alternatives for cooking in domestic households for enhanced penetration of energy efficient and renewable energy-based applications. The roadmap provides an implementation framework to address both demand and supply side interventions for cooking through an enabling environment for private sector engagement and feasibility.

14. Effectively support Stakeholder’s conference and finalise resource mobilization for UNDP supported interventions.

Payment Modality: 

Payments under the contract shall be delivery-based and the payment will be upon receipt, acceptance, and approval of deliverables as per ToR’s specific milestones indicated above and shall be deemed delivered upon the approval of the NFM Project Manager.

Deliverables:

Payment Modality: 

Payments under the contract shall be delivery-based and the payment will be upon receipt, acceptance, and approval of deliverables as per ToR’s specific milestones indicated above and shall be deemed delivered upon the approval of the NFM Project Manager.

Institutional Arrangements:

The national consultant (energy) will work under the overall supervision of the Senior Deputy Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Afghanistan, under the direct supervision of the NFM Project Manager, and under the technical guidance of Portfolio Specialist, Sustainability.

Duration of the Work:

The contract shall be delivered within the 30 working days spread over a period of four months.

Duty Station

The consultancy will be based in Kabul with travel to the provinces.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND PROPRIETARY INTERESTS:

The Individual Consultant shall not either during the term or after termination of the assignment, disclose any proprietary or confidential information related to the consultancy service without prior written consent. Proprietary interests on all materials and documents prepared by the consultants under the assignment shall become and remain properties of the concerned Bureaus and UNDP.

All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNDP Afghanistan.  UNDP Afghanistan will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Competencies

Core competencies:

• Builds staff competence and creates an environment of creativity and innovation.

• Builds and promotes effective teams;

• Creates and promotes environment for open communications;

• Leverages conflict in the interest of UNDP and sets standards;

• Shares knowledge across the organization and builds a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications:

The national consultant should have:

• A Master’s degree in energy, engineering, or other related fields

Required experience:   

The national consultant should have:

• At least 10 years relevant professional experience in the energy sector.

• experience in energy sector and deep knowledge and understanding of energy sector in Afghanistan.

Language:

Excellent written and verbal English skills is a necessary requirement.

PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS:

the individual consultant shall submit a price proposal as below:

• Daily Fee. The consultant shall propose a daily fee which should be inclusive of his/her professional fee, local communication cost, insurance (inclusive of medical health and medical evacuation), The number of working days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract is 30 working days.

• Payment. The total professional fee shall be converted into a lump sum contract and payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of deliverables under the contract in accordance with the above-mentioned schedule of payment.

Payment shall be made as a deliverables-based lump sum payment, to be paid in the following instalments. The schedule of payment will be distributed upon satisfactory submission of the deliverables listed in the table hereunder:

For each payment a certification of payment shall be signed and approved by the designated supervisor/ Programme Manager attached to it explaining the accomplishment of the deliverables corresponding to the respective quarterly progress report.

Evaluation Method and Criteria:

Individual consultant will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

1. Evaluation Method and Criteria:

The individual consultant will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated 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.

* Technical Criteria weight 70%

* Financial Criteria weight 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

1. Criteria 1: Level of proven experience in the energy sector; strong knowledge of Afghanistan’s energy sector– 20 points

2. Criteria 2: Experience working with the UN and with multi-stakeholders: governments, NGOs,ADB, the UN/ multilateral/bilateral institutions and donor entities; - 15 points

3. Education qualification: Minimum Master’s degree in energy, engineering, or other related fields- 10 point

4. Criteria 3:Interview 25 points.

Financial Evaluation (30%):

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

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 merged into one single PDF document:

1. 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.

• Annex 2 -  Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (to be completed at later stage upon request by UNDP);

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNDP Afghanistan.  UNDP Afghanistan will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

• Annex 1 - IC Contract Template (for information);
• Annex 2 -  Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (to be completed at later stage upon request by UNDP);
• Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions (for information);
• Annex 4 – RLA Template (if consultant wishes to be recruited through an employer) - (for information).