UNDP Jobs - 16596- Consultant: Caribbean Renewable energy Development

Consultant: Caribbean Renewable energy Development Programme(CREDP) Terminal Evaluation

Location :

Georgetown, GUYANA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

07-Jun-2010

Application Deadline :

19-May-10 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

26 (twenty six) days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

UNDP/GEF Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) policy

The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) policy at the project level in UNDP/GEF has four objectives:

to monitor and evaluate results and impacts;
to provide a basis for decision making on necessary amendments and improvements;
to promote accountability for resource use;
to document, provide feedback on, and disseminate lessons learned.

A mix of tools is used to ensure effective project M&E. These might be applied continuously throughout the lifetime of the project – e.g. periodic monitoring of indicators -, or as specific time-bound exercises such as mid-term reviews, audit reports and final evaluations.

In accordance with UNDP/GEF M&E policies and procedures, all full and medium-sized projects supported by the GEF should undergo a final evaluation upon completion of implementation. A final evaluation of a GEF-funded project (or previous phase) is required before a concept proposal for additional funding (or subsequent phases of the same project) can be considered for inclusion in a GEF work program. However, a final evaluation is not an appraisal of the follow-up phase.

Final evaluations are intended to assess the relevance, performance and success of the project. It looks at early signs of potential impact and sustainability of results, including the contribution to capacity development and the achievement of global environmental goals. It will also identify/document lessons learned and make recommendations that might improve design and implementation of other UNDP/GEF projects.

The project objectives and its context

In 1998, 14 Caribbean countries and 2 British dependencies agreed to work together to prepare a regional project to remove barriers to the use of renewable energy (RE) and thereby foster its development and commercialisation. The following countries were involved:

Antigua and Barbuda
The Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
British Virgin Islands
The Republic of Cuba
Dominica
Grenada Guyana
Jamaica
St Kitts and Nevis
St Lucia
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Suriname
Trinidad and Tobago
Turks and Caicos Islands

The population of the countries in the region is small compared to the rest of the world. There is therefore a benefit for regional cooperation and regional delivery of some energy related activities. According to the 1998 census, the group of 16 Caribbean countries participating in the Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP) has a total population of 18.5 million people, ranging from extremes like Cuba that accounts for 65% of this population (12 million people) to the small islands of Turks and Caicos with only 12,000 people.

The Caribbean region is currently heavily dependent on fossil fuel combustion, with petroleum products accounting for an estimated 93 percent of commercial energy consumption. Conventional methods of electricity production through fossil fuel plants are among the most significant contributors to air, land and water pollution. They are the primary source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and a major cause of a balance of payments problem. At the same time, the expansion of electricity generation is a key aspect to economic development in the Caribbean countries. Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago possess the largest installed capacities, 4300 and 1253 MW, respectively. Since the Caribbean region has relatively high electricity coverage, off-grid RE systems for rural electrification would apply only for a small group of countries such as Guyana, parts of Belize, and Suriname.

Caribbean countries are relatively small and insular which often indicates their vulnerability. Most Caribbean countries are net importers of energy which is almost entirely in the form of petroleum. Income elasticities of energy demand are high which results in a faster growth of energy imports than Gross Domestic Product. This makes balance-of-payments management progressively difficult as the national economy expands. Energy imports have, therefore, become a critical element in the countries’ of the Region balance of payments management. Generally, in the Region, the patterns of energy demand in the countries are largely influenced by the structure and stages of economic development.
In the business-as-usual scenario, renewable energy technologies (RETs) are likely to provide less than 2 percent of the region’s commercial electricity by 2015. The baseline scenario showed that in 1997 the total commercial electricity generation in the 16 Caribbean countries was about 23,000 GWh of which 93% came from fossil fuels, resulting in emissions of approximately 21 million tons of CO2. Despite the Caribbean’s substantial RE resources, exploitation lags far below their potential, due to policy, financing, capacity and awareness barriers.

The Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP) was initially a four-year project, financed by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) with additional support provided by the Government of Germany through its aid agency the GTZ. UNDP is the GEF Implementing Agency and the CARICOM Secretariat is the Executing Agency.

RET considered in CREDP include grid-connected renewable power (e.g. wind farm, bagasse cogeneration, and small hydro), renewable rural electrification (e.g. photovoltaics), and solar water heating. RET is particularly pertinent to developing countries, where climatic conditions, such as sunlight, and infrastructure arrangements favour its expanded use. Thus, some would argue that Caribbean countries could leapfrog across the entire stage of energy sources to a RET development path. The irony, however, is that while the more significant opportunities for utilizing RET now lie heavily in the developing countries, it is the developed countries that have access to the technology and financial resources to utilize RE sources. Few of the governments in the Caribbean region have developed policies to promote the use of RET, or have even assessed their inventories of renewable resources. Thus it is the aim of the project to provide the means of doing so. There were two evaluations conducted during the life of the project – a mid term evaluation and an evaluation aimed at reformulating the project during the (original) final year of the project.

The project budget is $ US 3.72 M funded from the Global Environment Facility.

Caribbean countries participating in the Project are: The Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; The Republic of Cuba; Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Jamaica; St. Kitts and Nevis; St. Lucia; St Vincent and the Grenadines; Suriname; Trinidad and Tobago; and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Objectives of CREDP
The Project focused on the removal of the barriers to renewable energy in the Caribbean Region. Among the main barriers highlighted were policy, finance, human and institutional capacities, awareness and information. These barriers were recognized to be interrelated and cannot be removed as independent components. The project was expected to contribute to the reduction of use of fossil fuels by allowing utilities and private investors to economically develop renewable energy projects in areas such as wind, hydropower, geothermal, biomass and to some extent solar options for power generation with significant impact on the national energy balance, thus reducing GHG emissions.

The main objectives of the Project were:

Supporting the implementation of policies, legislation and regulations that create an enabling environment for renewable energy development;
Demonstrating innovative financing mechanisms for renewable energy products and projects;
Building the capacity of selected players in the renewable energy field;
Putting in place an improved regional renewable energy information network.

CREDP’s design in the financial area was to establish CREF (Caribbean Renewable Energy Facility) to provide loans to RE projects. CREF’s funding was initially envisaged to come from the Caribbean Development Bank. Later on, when CDB decided to finance RE projects on a case-by-case basis, rather than setting up a dedicated facility, The funding for CREF was expected to come from the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) through a “private regional development bank.” Also, CREDP was to work on facilitating the completion of a partial guarantee facility for commercial loans to RE projects The Team will comprise one international and a national (regional) consultant in order to cover technical expertise, expertise with project implementation, development experience, and have a political/contextual sensitivity.
which would be funded by USAID/DCA scheme.

Duties and Responsibilities

Evaluate the project design, the defined objectives and the achieved results
Evaluate aspects related to sustainability, ownership, M&E and efficiency
Evaluate project strategy and development
Evaluate relationship between the various actors involved and their specific roles
Evaluate the achievement of project results, objectives and impact
Evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy developed by the project
Evaluate management aspects and financial planning (in line with attachment 3 and 4)
Evaluate the executing capacity of the various parties involved, verifying the capacity is in line with their specific responsibilities
Evaluate the intersectoral relations and the institutional and social context that have facilitated or hindered the success of the project
Compile findings of the evaluation team and edit and prepare the final report

PRODUCTS EXPECTED FROM THE EVALUATION

The evaluation team is expected to deliver the following products:

i) An Evaluation Workplan (see Annex 1)

The evaluator should review the TORs with UNDP in order to clarify the requirements. Additionally, the evaluator will be provided with basic information on the project by the IP and UNDP country office. The workplan will be submitted to UNDP for approval. The approved workplan will then direct the evaluation process. Slight departures from the workplan might become necessary as the evaluation develops. Approval for such deviations should be discussed with and agreed to by UNDP

Oral presentation of main findings of the evaluation: This should be presented to UNDP CO before the mission is concluded in order to allow for clarification and validation of evaluation findings.
A Draft Evaluation report
Stakeholders workshop to review report
An Evaluation briefing
A final evaluation written report incorporating comments.

Evaluation written report: This report will be submitted to the UNDP Country Office, the UNDP-GEF regional Coordination Unit (RCU) and project team electronically within 2 weeks after the evaluation mission has been concluded. These parties will review the document and provide feedback to the evaluation team within 1 month after the evaluation report draft has been submitted. The evaluator will address these comments and provide a final report within a period of 1 week. In case of discrepancy between parties and the evaluation team an annex should be included at the end of the document explaining the discrepancies. The RCU and CO will sign a formal clearance form to be submitted with the final evaluation report (see Annex 5). The evaluation report outline should be structured using the report outline provided in section 7.

Competencies

Vast Monitoring &Evaluation experience with similar projects
Knowledge of Logical Frameworks

Required Skills and Experience

Academic:

Masters degree in the relevant field.

Profile:

Experience with evaluation of regional projects, preferably in the Caribbean
Experience with evaluation of GEF and/or UNDP project will be a strong asset
Knowledge of government, non-government and private sectors actors that are key in similar projects