Background

The project is designed to enable community organizations in Egypt to take collective action for adaptive landscape management for socio-ecological resilience, through design, implementation and evaluation of grant projects for global environmental benefits and sustainable development. The SGP Programme intends to invest in strategic projects to catalyze and connect local projects to each other and to other large-scale initiatives to bring about sustainable impacts over a broader area over the long run. While the SGP cannot bring about landscape changes by itself, it is geared to advance tactical projects in given geographic areas, which will synergize with various levels of local action to bring about measurable progress in landscape resilience. The project will be implemented in strategic landscapes in the Delta, Fayoum and Upper Egypt governorates. Low-emission technologies will also be demonstrated and/or tested and implemented in the urban centres of Greater Cairo and Fayoum City.

Local organizations and communities will be the main vehicles of this project as they will be the agents who identify needs, design approaches for collective action, implement interventions and reap the sustainable development benefits. The key feature of the SGP will be for community- based organizations to pilot, test, innovate and analyze new initiatives through a process of learning-by doing. Successful initiatives will be replicated and up-scaled in other locations within the governorate and landscapes. However, concentrating the majority of the interventions in defined geographic areas (landscapes) will allow results to accrue and produce a critical mass of experience and lessons.  By employing a landscape approach, the SGP will enable local actors to better understand the complex relationship they have with a given environment and how best to effect sustainable impacts on the landscape through their individual and combined efforts. 

Beyond the activities piloted in the landscape area, there will be contributions to the national level as well. Lessons learned in the landscapes will be cross-referenced, and shared, and best practices and lessons learned will be used to inform the policy context at the national level.

The 4-year project (expected operational closure April 24th, 2021) is implemented by UNDP and executed by UNOPS, under the existing mechanism of the GEF Small Grants Programme including the approval of each initiative by the National Steering Committee CDN, as well as the due monitoring which will be provided, under the leadership of the National Program Coordinator. The overall total project cost is $ 2,843,241.00 (grant amount without fee), with an expected co-financing of $ 4,073,461.

Duties and Responsibilities

OBJECTIVES OF THE MTR

The MTR will assess progress towards the achievement of the project objectives and outcomes as specified in the Project Document and assess early signs of project success or failure with the goal of identifying the necessary changes to be made in order to set the project on-track to achieve its intended results. The MTR will also review the project’s strategy and its risks to sustainability.

MTR APPROACH & METHODOLOGY 

The MTR must provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable and useful. The MTR team will review all relevant sources of information including documents prepared during the preparation phase (i.e. PIF, UNDP Initiation Plan, UNDP Environmental & Social Safeguard Policy, the Project Document, project reports including Annual Project Review/PIRs, project budget revisions, lesson learned reports, national strategic and legal documents, and any other materials that the team considers useful for this evidence-based review). The MTR team will review the baseline GEF focal area Tracking Tool submitted to the GEF at CEO endorsement, and the midterm GEF focal area Tracking Tool that must be completed before the MTR field mission begins.  

The MTR team is expected to follow a collaborative and participatory approach[1] ensuring close engagement with the Project Team, government counterparts (the GEF Operational Focal Point), the UNDP Country Office(s), UNDP-GEF Regional Technical Advisers, and other key stakeholders.

Engagement of stakeholders is vital to a successful MTR.[2] Stakeholder involvement should include interviews with stakeholders who have project responsibilities, including but not limited to; executing agencies, senior officials and task team/ component leaders, key experts and consultants in the subject area, Project Board, project stakeholders, academia, local government and CSOs, etc. Additionally, the MTR team is expected to conduct field mission to (Egypt), including the following project sites based on the agreed schedule (Wadi Degla Protected area in Greater Cairo and Fayoum Landscape).

The final MTR report should describe the full MTR approach taken and the rationale for the approach making explicit the underlying assumptions, challenges, strengths and weaknesses about the methods and approach of the review.

DETAILED SCOPE OF THE MTR

The MTR team will assess the following four categories of project progress. See the Guidance for Conducting Midterm Reviews of UNDP-Supported, GEF-Financed Projects for extended descriptions.

i.    Project Strategy

Project design:

• Review the problem addressed by the project and the underlying assumptions.  Review the effect of any incorrect assumptions or changes to the context to achieving the project results as outlined in the Project Document.
• Review the relevance of the project strategy and assess whether it provides the most effective route towards expected/intended results.  Were lessons from other relevant projects properly incorporated into the project design?
• Review how the project addresses country priorities. Review country ownership. Was the project concept in line with the national sector development priorities and plans of the country (or of participating countries in the case of multi-country projects)?
• Review decision-making processes: were perspectives of those who would be affected by project decisions, those who could affect the outcomes, and those who could contribute information or other resources to the process, taken into account during project design processes?
• Review the extent to which relevant gender issues were raised in the project design. See Annex 9 of Guidance for Conducting Midterm Reviews of UNDP-Supported, GEF-Financed Projects for further guidelines.
• If there are major areas of concern, recommend areas for improvement.

Results Framework/Logframe:

• Undertake a critical analysis of the project’s logframe indicators and targets, assess how “SMART” the midterm and end-of-project targets are (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound), and suggest specific amendments/revisions to the targets and indicators as necessary.
• Are the project’s objectives and outcomes or components clear, practical, and feasible within its time frame?
• Examine if progress so far has led to or could in the future catalyse beneficial development effects (i.e. income generation, gender equality and women’s empowerment, improved governance etc...) that should be included in the project results framework and monitored on an annual basis.
• Ensure broader development and gender aspects of the project are being monitored effectively.  Develop and recommend SMART ‘development’ indicators, including sex-disaggregated indicators and indicators that capture development benefits.

TIMEFRAME

The total duration of the MTR will be approximately 24 working days over a time period of 8 weeks and shall not exceed five months from when the consultant(s) is hired. 

Competencies

• Professionalism: Strong expertise in the development of web-based applications and on-line services with good analytical skills and ability to solve problems.
• User Orientation: ability to understand user needs in order to provide user-friendly and ergonomic solutions that effectively meet user requirements.
• Planning and Organizing: Ability to plan projects and organize activities, work to tight deadlines, handle concurrent requests, and manage conflicting priorities.
• Communication: Good spoken and written communication skills, including the ability to explain technical information and prepare written documentation in a clear, concise style.
• Teamwork: Good interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective working relations in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.

Required Skills and Experience

A team of one independent consultants will conduct the MTR - with experience and exposure to projects and evaluations in other regions globally) and from the country of the project.  The consultants cannot have participated in the project preparation, formulation, and/or implementation (including the writing of the Project Document) and should not have a conflict of interest with project’s related activities. 

The selection of consultants will be aimed at maximizing the overall “team” qualities in the following areas: (give a weight to all these qualifications so applicants know what the max amount of points is they can earn for the technical evaluation)

• Recent experience with result-based management evaluation methodologies;
• Experience applying SMART indicators and reconstructing or validating baseline scenarios;
• Competence in adaptive management, as applied to Biodiversity Conservation, Climate Change and Land Degradation;
• Experience working with the GEF or GEF-evaluations; especially with SGP - Small Grants Programme;
• Experience working in the Latin America and the Caribbean region;
• Work experience in relevant technical areas for at least 10 years;
• Demonstrated understanding of issues related to gender and Biodiversity Conservation, Climate Change and Land Degradation; experience in gender sensitive evaluation and analysis.
• Excellent communication skills;
• Demonstrable analytical skills;
• Project evaluation/review experiences within United Nations system will be considered an asset;
• A Master’s degree in areas of environment and sustainable development, or other closely related field.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Recommended Presentation of Proposal: 

1. Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. CV and a Personal History Form P11 form
3. Brief description of approach to work/technical proposal of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a proposed methodology on how they will approach and complete the assignment; (max 1 page)
4. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price and all other travel related costs (such as flight ticket, per diem, etc), supported by a breakdown of costs.
5. Application deadline: 29 November 2018