Background

UNDP has more than 20 years of experience in the sustainable energy field. This experience substantiates the critical role of sustainable energy as an engine for poverty eradication, social progress, gender equality, enhanced resilience, economic growth and environmental sustainability and evidences the direct impacts on people, communities and countries. Unsustainable patterns of energy production and consumption threaten not only human health and quality of life but also affect ecosystems and contribute to increased anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, which accelerate climate change. Through its two-decades of experience, UNDP approaches sustainable energy across three key dimensions:

• The social dimension, focusing on equity, seeks to increase access to energy services, build resilience and address social inclusion.
• The economic dimension, focusing on efficiency and productivity, aims to increase economic growth through advancing the affordability and effectiveness of energy services; and
• The environmental dimension, focusing on sustainability, seeks to minimize greenhouse gas emissions, and other negative environmental impacts, while reducing disaster risks.

UNDP is monitoring the impact of its sustainable energy projects by reporting on indicators as agreed in the Project Document, which forms the basis of each project. By means of annual reporting, progress in realizing project indicators is monitored. A global UNDP Sustainable Energy Portfolio Database allows UNDP’s Global Environment Finance team to compile development results of all energy projects globally. The data in UNDP’s Sustainable Energy Portfolio Database would ideally allow for analyses of direct but also indirect benefits of UNDP’s energy projects. Looking at the Sustainable Development Goals, it is clear that Sustainable Development Goal 7 – Affordable and Clean energy – is directly and indirectly related to almost all other Sustainable Development Goals. Especially the ambitions of realizing access to modern energy for all has a clear correlation with several direct development benefits. The relation between electricity use and other benefits is illustrated in figure 1.

Fig 1: Relation between electricity use and energy services (Please refer to TOR via the web link as the end of this post)

The relation between energy access and development benefits may depend on several factors, e.g. the quality and extent of the energy service (solar lamps only or a mini-grid or on-grid electrification) and the economic activities or initial wealth in a village (Khandker , S. R. , D. F. Barnes , and H. A. Samad , 2009 : Welfare Impacts of Rural Electrification: A Case Study from Bangladesh . Policy Research Working Paper No. 4859. World Bank , Washington, DC).

Several studies have studied the impact of social and economic benefits of rural electrification. The approaches used in these studies may vary from using detailed household surveys to more aggregate “rule of thumb” methods. An example of the results of economic impact assessment of rural electrification in the Philippines is shown in Figure 2.

Fig 2: Quantifying electrification benefits for typical households in rural Philippines

(Source: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis’, 2012, Global Energy Assessment, Vienna / World Bank, Designing Sustainable Off-Grid Rural Electrification Projects: Principles, Washington DC)

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective

In order to further improve UNDP’s impact assessment of its energy access projects, a consultancy will be sourced to conduct an initial study on identifying approaches to assess the social and economic benefits of UNDP’s energy access projects on the basis of available monitoring data and possible additional (simple or extended) surveys. This analysis will make use of existing studies on this topic and use earlier identified approaches to evaluate their suitability for the purpose of this study.

The consultant is asked to analyse the available data of UNDP’s energy access projects in its Sustainable Energy Portfolio Database and Project Documents and to identify to what extent impact assessment of social and economic benefits of energy access projects may be possible on the basis of the existing data in the database, possibly complemented with desk research. In addition, the consultant is asked to analyse what additional impact assessments would be possible in case of a limited (e.g. household) survey on the ground. Finally, the consultant will be asked to identify the added value of conducting a detailed survey on the ground and to what extent it may be possible to conduct such survey as a one-off effort (per project) in order to inform the social and economic impact assessment of all future energy access projects. In a final step, the analysis should conclude with a discussion on the trade-off between more data and more detailed impact assessment and possible recommendations for UNDP. The study should include a number of case-studies from the Asia-Pacific region for which the UNDP Asia Pacific energy team will supply information.

The analysis should results in a report that can be shared for UNDP’s internal use on doing social economic impact assessment for energy access projects. The report may be used for further publication in dissemination efforts with a regional or global reach.

Scope of Work

The consultant will work with the Energy, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology (EITT) Team in the UNDP/GEF Regional Coordination Unit (RCU), under the supervision of the Regional Technical Advisers.

Summary of Key Research questions to be covered in the report:

1. What impact assessment (social and/or economic) is possible on the basis of available data in the UNDP Sustainable Energy Portfolio Database, complemented with data that can be found with desk research?
   - What are metrics to come to impact assessment?
   - How can impact assessment be measured: a) Order of magnitude (e.g. “traffic light system”) b) range of quantitative data (e.g. “between 1000 and 3000 / household”) c) quantitative data (e.g. “1600/household”)
   - How can this be illustrated with two case-studies in the Asia-Pacific region?
2. What impact assessment (social and/or economic) is possible on the basis of available data in UNDP Sustainable Energy Portfolio Database, complemented with desk research data and complemented with a limited and easy to conduct survey on the ground?
   - What are metrics to come to impact assessment?
   - How can impact assessment be measured: a) Order of magnitude (e.g. “traffic light system”) b) range of quantitative data (e.g. “between 1000 and 3000 / household”) c) quantitative data (e.g. “1600/household”)
   - How can this be illustrated with two case-studies in the Asia-Pacific region?
3. What impact assessment (social and/or economic) is possible on the basis of available data in UNDP Sustainable Energy Portfolio Database, complemented with desk research data and complemented with detailed survey on the ground?
   - What are metrics to come to impact assessment?
   - How can impact assessment be measured: a) Order of magnitude (e.g. “traffic light system”) b) range of quantitative data (e.g. “between 1000 and 3000 / household”) c) quantitative data (e.g. “1600/household”)
   - How can this be illustrated with two case-studies in the Asia-Pacific region (e.g. Philippines and Bangladesh for which detailed surveys have been done in earlier studies)?
4. To what extent is it possible to conduct a one-time (per project) detailed survey in order to develop (“rule of thumb” or detailed) metrics that quantify the economic benefits of electrification for a country that can be used for follow-up analysis?
5. What can be concluded in terms of effort for data collection versus quality of impact assessment for each of the three above listed approaches?

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The key deliverable is:

• The analysis results in a report, provisionally titled “Social and economic impact assessment for UNDP energy access projects”

Institutional Arrangement

The consultant will be reporting to and supervised by UNDP-GEF EITT Senior Technical Advisor, and Regional Technical Advisor.

Duration of the Work: 1 October 2017- 31 January 2018 (up to 30 working days).

Duty Station: Home based with no travel.

Competencies

• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities skills;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Outstanding communication, project management and organizational skills;
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
• Positive, constructive attitude to work;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Qualifications

• Advanced degree (Masters level or higher) in environmental management, climate change mitigation, clean energy, engineering, environmental sciences, evaluation, or a related subject

Experience

• Minimum 10 years of relevant professional experience working on climate change mitigation and energy projects;
• Previous experience with social economic impact assessment and/or quantifying co-benefits and/or econometric analysis of non-energy benefits of climate change mitigation efforts;
• Previous experience on monitoring & evaluations (with UNDP and/or GEF-financed projects is an advantage);
• Technical knowledge in the targeted focal area(s)

Language

• English proficiency, both oral and written

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The contract will be based on Lump Sum

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

• Deliverable 1, 2, and 3: 30% of total contract amount (upon a completion of 3 deliverables);
• Deliverable 4 and 5: 30 % of total contract amount (upon a completion of 2 deliverables);
• Deliverable 6, 7, 8?and 9: 40%? of total contract amount (upon a completion of 3 deliverables.

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology;

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%). and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

• Criteria 1: Relevance in education- Max 10 points;
• Criteria 2: A minimum of 10 years of relevant work experience in impact assessment, quantifying co-benefits and/or econometric analysis of energy policy and/or energy project implementation (in an international context is an advantage)- Max 15 points;
• Criteria 3: Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of social economic impact assessment and/or quantifying co-benefits and/or econometric analysis of non-energy benefits of climate change mitigation efforts as shown in the proposal - Max 20 points;
• Criteria 4: Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of monitoring & evaluations of energy projects as shown in the proposal - Max 15 points;
• Criteria 5: Excellent English communication skills- Max 10 points.

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

Documentation required

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
• A proposal in which the approach and methodology to conduct the above assignment is presented
• 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.
• Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: National consultants must quote prices in Indian Rupees.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered.

For required document template, please click the link as follow:

http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=41126