Background

India’s disaster profile has undergone some change in recent years in response to growing urbanization, congestion of natural drainage and climate change. Though the annual mortality in disaster events has reduced over the years, the magnitude of damage and loss has increased considerably due to growing risk exposure. Out of 40 million hectare of the flood prone area in the country, on an average, floods affect around 7.5 million hectare per year. What has changed over the years is the period of inundation of crop lands, extending almost to three months.  The period of inundation, which has a serious impact on soil and productivity, is caused by shrinking natural drainage in rural areas. The 2015 Global Assessment Report (GAR) produced by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), estimates average annual economic loss due to disasters at $9.8 billion. This includes over $7 billion in flood losses.

Increasingly, the impact of climate change is being felt through highly erratic weather and extreme events. While both urban and rural areas are vulnerable, the impact on cities and towns is particularly concerning due to the high concentration of people and infrastructure. Cities face multiple climate hazards depending on their location and conditions, ranging from increased flooding and water logging to heat and cold waves, rise in sea level, and storm surges. Several coastal cities are severely affected by cyclonic storms. As cities have grown in an unregulated manner, more people are now living in slums, and the stress on the available natural resources increases exposure to risks.  Many of the cities in India are in medium to high risk seismic zones. The housing stock and other physical infrastructure in these cities would be exposed to shocks during earthquakes, and have the potential to result in massive destructions. 

Rapid urbanization in India will be one of the most dominant trends in the coming years. As population expands and incomes grow, this shift will be realized alongside demographic changes that will exponentially increase the demand for urban amenities like housing, energy, transport, water, waste disposal. There is now a universal recognition of how development can be derailed by risks and vulnerabilities, and how building resilience at the level of communities and households is extremely important for preserving and consolidating development gains. It is noted that India plans to invest $1 trillion in infrastructure in the next five years, and unless adequate steps are taken to make it resilient to natural calamities, the investment runs the risk of going waste. Therefore, global and national commitments through various policy instruments articulate the need address Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) as part of all sectoral developments in urban and rural areas. 

The Project

One of the outcomes of the GOI-UNDP Country Programme Action Plan (2013-2017) is on Sustainable Development. The main objective is “Government, industry and other relevant stakeholders actively promote environmental sustainability and enhanced resilience of communities in the face of challenges of climate change, disaster risk and natural resource depletion”. The project on “Strengthening Institutional and Community Resilience to Disasters and Climate Change” was formulated under this framework to provide technical support to strengthen capacities of government, communities and institutions in fast-tracking implementation of the planning frameworks on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA).

The components of the project are: (1) Mainstreaming DRR and CCA in Development Planning; (2) Urban Risk Reduction; (3) Technical Assistance and Capacity Building; (4) Support for Knowledge Management; and (5) Enhancing resilience of vulnerable communities to cope with disasters and climate variability by implementing scalable demonstrative pilot initiatives. States selected for implementation of the project are: Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Sikkim Tripura and Uttarakhand. The target set was in total, 25 districts, 10 cities and 10,000 villages.

Duties and Responsibilities

Key project components:

1. Mainstreaming DRR and CCA in Development Planning

The process of mainstreaming DRR and CCA into development planning is impeded due to a lack of appropriate tools and methodologies. With a view to address risk reduction concerns and to facilitate mainstreaming of DRR/CCA in various developmental sectors, the project will target at-least four key National Flagship Development Programmes. Appropriate entry points, programme-specific guidelines for mainstreaming as well as capacity building of government and non-governmental functionaries involved in implementation of such programmes will be developed.

2. Urban Risk Reduction

The support in urban risk reduction would follow an institutional approach by providing technical assistance to strengthen the governance structure for disaster risk management in select municipal councils and corporations, train municipal government officials, and emphasize inclusion of risk reduction in development projects. Technical assistance will be provided in the following areas:

a. Hazard Risk and Vulnerability Assessment

b. Strengthening of Early Warning Systems

c. Capacity building at the community level on disaster preparedness           

d. Development of sectoral plans to integrate DRR and CCA

e. Preparation of multi hazard City Disaster Management Plans

3. Technical Assistance and Capacity Building

a. Provision of Technical Assistance through a Pool of Experts: UNDP would provide technical assistance in risk assessment, mitigation planning, adaptation-risk reduction linkages, urban risk reduction and communications network to the Government of India or State Governments on a need basis, from a pre-selected pool of national and international experts.

b. Strengthening of select Training Institutions across programme states and organising sector specific Training of Trainer’s Programme: UNDP will support strengthening of the capacity of a few Training Institutions (pertaining to training on DM) by upgrading the training facilities which will include conduct of training needs assessment; and review and development of training modules, course curriculum, and training materials; and support to design and conduct Training of Trainer’s Programme on  areas such as mainstreaming DRR, CCA-DRR linkages, post disaster recovery, Post Disaster Damage and Need Assessment (PDNA), urban risk reduction, etc.

4. Support for Knowledge Management

a. Knowledge Management Centre: UNDP will support establishment of a state-of-the-art Knowledge Management Centre at the national level which will facilitate systematic collection, storage and analysis of disaster data and also serve as the platform for sharing of knowledge and experiences among the DM practitioners. In addition, it would also provide learning facilities and function as a repository of various knowledge products in the field of Disaster Management developed by various stakeholders including state governments.

b. Research Studies: Specific studies in relation to disaster risk reduction and disaster resilience in India will be conducted to build the existing knowledge base on disaster risk reduction. Emphasis will be laid on assessment of the capacities and strengths that exist in relation to risk assessment, early warning systems, disaster financing, recovery, preparedness and response.

c. Knowledge Events: At least one knowledge event will be organized every year to showcase the achievements made in relation to DRR.

d. South-South Cooperation: The programme will promote South-South cooperation through collaborative studies, exchange visits, and workshops involving practitioners from countries in the South Asian region and beyond.

5. Enhancing resilience of vulnerable communities to cope with disasters and climate variability by implementing scalable demonstrative pilot initiatives.

Under the programme, efforts will be made to enhance the resilience of select vulnerable communities living in coastal, rainfed area, deltas and wetlands, inland water bodies, river plains, and hilly regions to cope with disasters and climate variability by implementing scalable demonstrative pilot initiatives.  Measures for mitigating the impacts of disasters and climate change will be implemented by designing community led pilot initiatives.

Objectives of the evaluation

This evaluation follows UNDP guidelines that call for an assessment of the results of UNDP’s development cooperation activities in a thematic area. The Programme Management Committee in its meeting held in July 2017 recommended an audit of the outcomes vis-à-vis targets in respect of various activities under the project by an independent agency. Accordingly, proposed evaluation of the project will undertake:

• Outcome analysis - what and how much progress has been made towards the achievement of the outcome (including contributing factors and constraints);
• Output analysis - the relevance of and progress made in terms of the UNDP outputs (including analysis of both project and non-project activities);
• Listing of success stories with respect to the outputs of the project:
• Review of the effectiveness of state intervention towards sustainability of the capacities developed.

Description of Responsibilities and Methodology:

Although the Evaluation team should feel free to discuss with the authorities concerning anything relevant to its assignment, it is not authorized to make any commitment on behalf of the Government and UNDP. During the evaluation, the evaluators are expected to apply the following approaches for data collection and analysis:

• Desk review of relevant documents (project document with amendments made, review reports -midterm/final/TPR, donor-specific, etc.);
• Discussions with the Management in the Government and in UNDP;
• Regular consultations with the project focal point in MHA and UNDP;
• Interviews with and participation of partners and stakeholders;
• Field visits to selected project sites;
• Consultation meetings;
• Review the allocation of resources by the states to sustain the capacities
• Measures taken to utilise the outputs of the project at the city and state levels. Review of component 2 of the project on Urban Risk Reduction will be a mid term evaluation as this component will continue till 2020. A list of points to be addressed for this would be provided later in consultation with USAID.  

The evaluation tasks will be assigned to an independent institution. The evaluation should be conducted through a team of experts with experience in monitoring and evaluation of programmes aimed at disaster management, expertise in the development of institutional and legal systems, capacity building initiatives with focus on community based interventions. Knowledge of management systems in this context is preferable.

The team will have responsibility to review strategies that will contribute to policy formulation, institutional strengthening, capacity building, awareness generation, community based disaster preparedness approach, partnership building, knowledge networking, management effectiveness etc.

The profile of the expected experts along with their Terms of Reference [ToR] under the scope of the evaluation should be shared by evaluation institution with the UNDP while submitting the proposal.

The Evaluating Institution would be responsible for the overall coordination of the evaluation to be carried out as detailed in the preceded paras of the Terms of Reference of the evaluation as well as ensuring the quality, consistency and appropriate contents of the reports and documents to be delivered in the set timeline of the evaluation.  The Evaluating Institution would also design a detailed evaluation approach and methodology, including the methodology for data collection and analysis.

Key Deliverables and Timeline:

• Submit an Inception report containing the evaluation design and work plan, preliminary approach to the study, the study tools to be utilized and the outline of the final report within five days of signing the contract;

• A short report on the desk review of existing documents: within two weeks of signing the contract;
• Report on field visits, interviews with partners and key stakeholders to be done within four weeks of signing the contract;
• Draft evaluation report: within six weeks of signing the contract;

• Finalization of the evaluation report (incorporating comments received on first draft): within 8 weeks of signing the contract (not to exceed 20 pages)
• PowerPoint presentation on the salient features of the evaluation to be presented to the key stakeholders
• Separate document on the identified good practices & lesson learnt (not to exceed 20 pages)

Competencies

Knowledge Management and Learning:

• Professional expertise in development, disaster management, specifically significant understanding of policies, guidelines and national strategies to Disaster Risk Management and climate change;
• An ability to analyse, legal framework, policies, strategies related to DRR and find out the gaps, suggest solutions, and recommendations that can be applied by concerned stakeholders at different levels;
• Good knowledge of India disaster management context;
• Good communications and organizational & interpersonal skills;
• Ability to coordinate and facilitate consultations;
• Ability to work independently to fulfil assigned tasks;
• Excellent analytical and writing skills;
• Promotes a knowledge sharing and learning culture;
• Working knowledge of computers including MS Office package is essential.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

• Strong Computer and IT skills;

Corporate Competencies:

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards.

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Qualification:

• Master's Degree in Management, Disaster Management, Development studies, Social science or related subjects.

Work Experience:

• Minimum 15 years of working experience in Evaluation of Humanitarian, Disaster Risk Reduction and Development works;
• Proven experience in consulting, research and critical assessment;
• Proven experience of supervising or conducting studies and producing analytical reports;
• Experience in working with Government/ UN organizations will be preferred.

Language:

• Fluency of Hindi & English language is required.

Schedule of Payments:

Payment Schedule: 

• On submission of Evaluation design and work plan: 20%;
• On completion of Field visits, interviews with partners and key stakeholders: 30%;
• On Drafting of the evaluation report: 20%;
• Finalization of the evaluation report: 30%;

Documents to be submitted:

• A one page write-up highlighting proposed structure of the evaluation report;
• Detailed CV with contact details of three references.

Cumulative analysis:

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive;

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%.

Evaluation Criteria:

• A one page write-up highlighting proposed structure of the evaluation – 25 marks.
• Relevant Experience – 25 marks.

A preliminary shortlisting would be done based on above evaluation criteria and whosoever gets minimum 70% will be called for interview. Interview will carry 20 marks.  After interview, shortlisted consultants will be asked to submit financial proposal separately. 

Notes:

• Any kind of miscellaneous charges i.e. internet, phone etc. would not be reimbursed; Tickets will be issued considering the most direct and economical option and Consultants are not eligible for DSA;
• Individuals working with institutions may also apply, contract would be issued in the name of institution for the specific services of individual;
• CV and proposed work methodology must be clubbed in one file for uploading. Complete Proposal must be sent online only.
• The consultants must bring his/her own computing equipment.

For any clarification please write to ranjan.sinha@undp.org