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REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (AfDB) Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV)

Avenue Joseph Anoma, 01 BP 1387 01- Côte d'Ivoire

E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: 0022520263185

1. The Independent Development Evaluation Function (IDEV) of the (AfDB) hereby invites Consulting Firms to express their interest in the following Assignment: Evaluation of the Basin Fund (CBFF) (“the assignment”).

2. The services to be provided under the Assignment comprise the design, conduct and delivery of the evaluation of the CBFF.

Background: The Rainforest is of global, regional and national importance. It is the second largest tropical forested on the planet, and accounts for about 26% of the ’s remaining rainforest. It contributes a large part of the African continent’s rich biodiversity, and to capture and storage for reducing global greenhouse gases, as well as to livelihoods for the Basin countries and populations. The Congo Basin is also rich in and metal mineral resources, which are the main drivers of the economic growth in the region. Ten African countries share the Congo Basin Rainforest, and they comprise , the Central African , the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial , , , , and Sao Tome & Principe. These countries are estimated to account for 13.5% and 14% of ’s total population and GDP respectively. However, with the increasing population growth, and logging, agriculture, oil and mining activities, the Congo Basin Rainforest is challenged by the forest degradation, poverty level in the region, and global climate change. Fragility is also increasingly an issue of concern in the Congo Basin Region. To address the Congo Basin Forest loss and degradation, a number of national, regional and international development initiatives have been in place. These initiatives include the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF), Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) and Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC). The COMIFAC, established in 1999 by the Congo Basin countries1, is politically and technically mandated to orient, monitor, make decisions, harmonize and coordinate actions and initiatives for the preservation and sustainable development of forest ecosystems in . Consistent with its mandate, COMIFAC developed a 10-year Action Plan (“Plan de Convergence”) with 10 strategic areas, and has been providing institutional shelter to a number

1 These countries include Burundi, Cameroon, (CAR), Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), , Gabon, Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Sao Tome & Principe. of specialized regional collaborative bodies. The CBFP and CBFF were established in 2002 and 2008 respectively. The Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) was launched with the overall objective of alleviating poverty and mitigating climate change by reducing the rate of deforestation in the Congo Basin through the sustained management of the Congo Basin Forest resources for increased benefits accruing to the Congo Basin Governments and forest-dependent communities. Towards achieving these results, the CBFF focused on:  Developing the capacity of the people and institutions in the countries of the Congo Basin for effective management of their ;  Helping local communities find livelihoods that are consistent with sustainable conservation of forests;  Developing new financial mechanisms and appropriate models for reducing the rate of deforestation;

In support of the above focus areas, the CBFF was to:  Collaborate closely with Central African governments, regional institutions, COMIFAC, CBFP, non-governmental organizations, civil society, private sector, other development partners and other initiatives including the NEPAD Environmental Action Plan and the Global Environmental Fund;  Fund innovative transformational projects which: o Improve knowledge of the resource, baselines, and monitoring capability; o Develop alternative livelihoods compatible with conservation for poverty reduction; o Develop innovative funding mechanisms appropriate for the Congo Basin Region, increasing capacity to access global resources; o Increase capacity to access global resources and funds;  Mobilize additional resources in support of CBFF actions

The CBFF’s results-based logical framework was revised in 2013 leading to a refocus on 10 outputs in order to generate three main immediate outcomes:  Increased technical capacity of Congo Basin stakeholders for designing and implementing sustainable management of multiple forest landscape resources and REDD+  Increased capacity of Congo Basin institutions for quality design and implementation of landscape level sustainable management of forests and REDD+  More equitable benefit sharing among forest stakeholders including women and ethnics minorities from improved forest governance in the Congo Basin

The , Norway and provided the initial CBFF funding of about € 133 million for the design and delivery of projects up to the end of 2018. The CBFF is governed by a Governing Council (GC), and administered by the African Development Bank Group (Bank) with support from a secretariat. The secretariat managed the CBFF’s activities in 2011-2014 with the support of an external Fund Management Agent (FMA). The CBFF is ongoing, and has a project pipeline which was built from (i) Competitive calls for proposals, (ii) Projects initiated by the CBFF GC and (iii) up-scaling of high-performing projects with demonstrable impact. The CBFF has so far launched two calls for proposals; one in 2008 and the other in 2009, resulting in 39 projects, which have been endorsed by the Governing Council (GC). Most of these projects were originated by civil society organizations, and the rest of the projects by Governments. In addition, one regional project was initiated by the CBFF GC. However, six projects have either been canceled or removed from the portfolio. As a result, as at end of December 2015, the CBFF portfolio had 19 projects are closed or closing, 15 projects ongoing. Evaluation purpose and objectives: The CBFF work programme documents call for an independent evaluation of the current phase of the CBFF by 2018 in order to generate pertinent information on the results of and lessons from the CBFF design, management and implementation for the CBFF donors and other participants including the African Development Group (Bank), Governing Council, and Congo Basin Governments, Civil Society Organizations. This evaluation will fulfil three main reasons:  To learn lessons and deepen the understanding of how the CBFF was designed, set up, managed and delivered; the evaluation will generate useful lessons especially on the design, and sustainable management of forests, REDD in the Congo Basin for improving the quality of similar ongoing and future initiatives;  To account for the CBFF investment in terms of the intended and unintended results; the evaluation will also provide essential information on intended and unintended results to the CBFF Secretariat/OSAN and CBFF project grantees to account for the CBFF investments to the CBFF GC, Donors, AfDB Board of Directors and Management, and Congo Basin Governments and Civil Society Organizations;  To inform decisions on the way forward for the CBFF;

As two of the three CBFF donors have decided to pull out, the independent evaluation of the CBFF has to be done now instead of 2018 in order to fulfil the above reasons especially informing the discussions on the next steps for the CBFF. The key audiences of the CBFF evaluation comprise the donors (British Government, Norwegian Government; Canadian Government), the CBFF GC, COMIFAC member countries, AfDB Board of Directors and Management, and CBFF Secretariat. The evaluation will specifically: a) Assess the CBFF relevance, design, governance, management, implementation, and emerging results and their sustainability; b) Assess the factors that have influenced the emerging CBFF results and likely sustainability; c) Identify and assess the strengths, weaknesses, constraints and opportunities of the CBFF from design to results; d) Draw, on the basis of objective (a) - (e) above, lessons and recommendations for sustaining the CBFF project results, and providing guidance for the future strategic direction of the CBFF, and also for designing and implementing similar development initiatives;

Evaluation Scope and Questions: The evaluation, though focusing on generating learning for improving and adjusting the CBFF design, governance and operations and informing future CBFF- like interventions, will have a mix of formative and summative aspects. It will also be forward looking. It will cover the CBFF portfolio of 40 projects with a focus on the ongoing and completed, as well as the CBFF theme areas, activities and results at the community, national and regional levels during the period 2008-20152. The evaluation focus will also be on the standard OECD- DAC evaluation criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. It will also capture unintended CBFF results (if any), and other pertinent evaluation criteria such as equity, gender equality and coherence.

The main indicative evaluation questions, based on the standard OECD-DAC and other relevant criteria and to be validated and revised during the inception phase of the evaluation, will focus on the following:  Relevance and coherence of CBFF objectives and design (including its governance structure and delivery model) and activities towards realizing the desired strategic objectives;  Efficiency and effectiveness of the CBFF in achieving or likely achieving expected and unintended results;  Sustainability of the CBFF and its results:  Performance of the Bank (including CBFF Secretariat) in designing and delivering the CBFF:  Performance of CBFF project promoters/grantees (NGOs & CSO beneficiaries of the CBFF) in designing and delivering CBFF projects:  Forward looking aspects:  Conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations: Evaluation process, deliverables and period: The evaluation process will include the following phases:

 Inception phase to produce the inception report, which will include the full evaluation methodology, evaluation matrix, evaluation team composition and responsibilities for each of the individual team members;  Data collection and analyses, and drawing of conclusions for the generation of evidences

2 The CBFF themes including civil society participation, forest protection and REDD+, green innovation and entrepreneurship, knowledge and capacity development, sequestering carbon and sustainable financing mechanisms for forest protection.  Synthesis report writing and feedback, leading to the draft evaluation report and its presentation to the CBFF evaluation Reference Group and Governing Council for feedback on the draft evaluation findings;  Production and delivery of the final evaluation report in the appropriate format and languages (English and French) for dissemination and follow up;  Communication and dissemination of evaluation results.

The key deliveries of the consulting team will be the following outputs:  Inception report (in English and French);  Evidence set (analyzed data) used for writing the report and for the presentation – the analyzed data will be included in the technical annexes;  Draft report and its presentation to the CBFF evaluation reference group and Governing Council, and for peer review (draft in English and French); the evaluation report will include? the executive summary, evaluation purpose, objectives and questions, key aspects of the methodological approach and limitations, findings, conclusions, lessons and recommendations, and annexes;  Final report including an executive summary of up to two pages and essential annexes (in English & French);  Technical annexes including the methodology and its instruments and evidences.

The evaluation will be designed, conducted and delivered over an indicative period of six months, starting in May 2016.

Profile of the Evaluation Team (experiences, skills and qualifications)

The evaluation work will be undertaken by an evaluation team with the appropriate qualifications, competencies and experiences including:  Balanced and appropriate academic qualifications;  Extensive and proven experience in evaluating complex development programmes involving natural resources or similar programmes;  Extensive knowledge of development evaluation designs, and methods and techniques (qualitative and quantitative approaches incorporating poverty, gender and social aspects)  Understanding of international development issues especially within the context of Africa including the Central African countries;  Knowledge and experience of natural resources development and management issues in Africa particularly the Central African Region;  Expertise in natural resources (particularly ) and their technical planning, management, development and conservation issues, climate change and mitigation, institutional and systems development, sustainable livelihoods, and evaluation;  Extensive experience and knowledge of development/project management;  Experience with development operations of Multilateral Development Banks;  Strong report writing and verbal communication skills in English and French –an appropriate mix of English and skills;  Strong computer literacy in standard applications and analytical packages;  Knowledge of trust fund management will be considered an advantage.

The team leader should be experienced in development evaluation and development/natural/forest resource management.

The evaluation will be guided by Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) of the African Development Bank Group.

3. The Development Evaluation (IDEV) invites Consulting Firms to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested eligible Consulting Firms or associations of Consulting Firms shall provide information on their relevant capacity, experience and knowledge/qualifications, and any other information demonstrating their ability to provide the required services (documentation, references for similar services, experience in comparable Assignments, availability of qualified staff, etc.), and on approximate budget.

4. The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall be in conformity with the Bank’s Rules and Procedure for the Use of Consultants under projects financed by the Bank Group, May 2008 Edition, revised on July 2012available on the Bank Website at http://www.afdb.org. Please, note that interest expressed by a Consulting Firm does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank to include it in the shortlist and/or select.

5. The estimated duration of services for the entire assignment is six (6) months, and the estimated starting date is May 2016.

6. Interested Individual Consultants may obtain further information at the address below during the Bank’s working hours: 09:00 to 17:00 hours GMT.

7. Expressions of interest must be received at the address below no later than April 4, 2014 at 17:00 local (Abidjan) time and specifically mentioning “Evaluation of the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF)”. The expression of interest should be in English or French.

For the attention of:

Henda AYARI: [email protected]; +225 20 26 3185 Copied to: Foday TURAY: [email protected]; +225 20 26 3185 Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) African Development Bank Group Avenue Joseph Anoma, 01 BP 1387 Abidjan 01- Côte d'Ivoire