Climate finance Consultant – Project development or implementation specialist

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

Assisting 86.7 million people in around 83 countries each year, the World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience.

WFP is fully aware of the impact that the climate emergency is currently having on achieving Zero Hunger by 2030 (SDG 2). Findings from the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate that climate change could increase the risk of hunger and malnutrition by up to 20 percent by 2050, and its impacts will be felt disproportionately on the most food insecure and vulnerable.

WFP is committed to step up the number and scale of its climate-related interventions to support adaptation efforts of vulnerable people and governments globally, focusing on food and nutrition security.

WFP is supporting governments to access climate finance from various bilateral and multilateral sources such as the Adaptation Fund (AF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The processes to design climate adaptation projects, draft the proposals and related documentation, review the proposals with the respective funds’ secretariats and submit them to the funds’ Boards need extra efforts, time and specific capacities. WFP Country Offices (COs) also require support to implement these projects.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Under the supervision of relevant WFP COs, with the support of WFP Regional Bureaux (RBx), and the oversight of the WFP Climate Finance Team in HQ, the consultant, depending on the context, could be responsible for one or more of the following: conduct assessments; design projects; draft related concept notes (CN), funding proposals (FP) and relevant annexes to be submitted either to the AF or to the GCF; support the coordination of implementation of AF- or GCF-funded projects in the field These projects will focus on improving food security while at the same time enhancing adaptive capacities of communities, systems and governments.
2. The specific tasks of each assignment will differ for each project, depending on local context, background documentation and assessments available, WFP CO and government existing capacities and needs, availability of local consultants to support with specific in-country tasks, and requirements of the fund. A list of the key tasks is provided below. A separate assignment-specific TOR will be prepared in coordination with the relevant Country Office each time a project is assigned to the consultant.
3. Pre-feasibility/feasibility assessments: perform a pre-feasibility and/or a feasibility assessment in a format and template previously agreed with WFP and acceptable to the fund, which includes: i. context analysis, including climate analysis, climate change related problem and impacts, key factors of vulnerability and barriers to adaptation, national policies and priorities, existing initiatives; ii. design the project theory of change and structure, defining project components, outcomes and outputs in coordination with the Country Office and relevant stakeholders; iii. justification for the proposed project, including an analysis of factors such as sustainability, alignment with national priorities, cost-effectiveness, coordination with other relevant initiatives, additionality as required. A summary of the content will then be included in the proposal. [estimated days needed: AF 15 days; GCF 20 days for each (pre-feasibility and feasibility)]
4. Coordination with in-house and external specialists, including drafting or fine-tuning TORs for external specialists. [estimated days needed: 3 days]
5. Participate in stakeholder consultations at national/sub-national/local level to gather the information needed to the design of the project and the drafting of the proposal. [estimated days needed: [estimated days needed: 10 days in-country at each stage (CN and FP)]
6. Participate in community consultations [at concept note stage] to assess communities’ vulnerabilities, capacities and needs in terms of climate change adaptation, discuss activities’ ideas, collect information on gender roles and specific vulnerabilities/needs, collect information on environmental and social risks – in collaboration with gender and Environmental and Social Safeguards (ESS) experts. [estimated days needed: 5 days in-country (field)]
7. Participate in community consultations [at funding proposal stage] to confirm/finalize project activities, receive feedback/concerns/approval from communities on the proposed activities, collect more information (if needed) on gender and ESS – in collaboration with the relevant experts. [estimated days needed: 10 days in-country (field)]
8. Lead the design of the project and subsequent drafting of the concept note and funding proposal, drafting all of the sections using the results from the pre-feasibility assessment, the consultations, and coordinating inputs from technical experts, gender and ESS experts when available, and CO. [estimated days needed: AF-CN 15 days; AF-FP 25 days; GCF-CN 15 days; GCF-FP 40 days]
9. Together with main stakeholders, and with support from CO/RB/HQ staff, clarify project implementation and management structure and mechanisms; [estimated days needed: 2 days in-country]
10. Lead the drafting of the proposal annexes, including the feasibility study and technical annexes as needed, with inputs from CO/RB/HQ staff. [estimated days needed depend on the involvement of CO/RB/HQ staff and support provided. AF 5-10 days; GCF 15-20 days]
11. Ensure the concept note/funding proposal and its annexes are of high quality and comply with the AF/GCF policies and guidelines
12. Provide responses to AF/GCF Secretariats’ comments and amend the proposal and annexes accordingly, in coordination with CO/RB/HQ staff. [estimated days needed: AF-CN 5 days; AF-FP 5 days; GCF-CN (when necessary) 10 days; GCF-FP 10-20 days]
13. Support the coordination of project inception or implementation in the field [number of days to be defined depending on needs]

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

Specific deliverables will be defined for each project the consultant will work on. However, this is an indicative list of possible deliverables:

• Pre-Feasibility Assessment.
• Project concept note.
• Full funding proposal based on AF/GCF templates.
• Annexes to the AF/GCF proposal, which include:
  • Feasibility study
  • Project Theory of Change and logical framework
  • Economic and/or financial analyses
  • Detailed project budget
  • Implementation timetable
  • Environmental and social risk assessment and management plan
  • Summary of stakeholder consultations at national and local level
  • Gender assessment and action plan
  • Operations and maintenance plan
  • Procurement plan
  • Monitoring and evaluation plan
• Project inception report.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

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