Germany - Foreign economic-aid-related services

Description

The initiative "Green People"s Energy" (GBE) is designed to support the achievement of SDG 7.1 - access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. It promotes decentralized renewable energy systems in rural regions in nine African countries.The focus of GBE is on rural regions and decentralised renewable energy technologies for productive use. Activities often target agricultural cooperatives, businesses and social institutions and aim to increase their productivity, services and the population's incomes through (productive) use of clean, reliable energy (productive use of energy, PuE). Activities contributing to the initiative"s objectives are currently being implemented in Ethiopia, Benin, Cote d"Ivoire, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Uganda and Zambia.The areas of intervention include (a) the promotion of local small-scale projects to improve energy supply, (b) strengthening the foundations for the development of sustainable energy sectors through education and training, (c) the promotion of small holder famer"s cooperatives, small businesses and social institutions to increase their productivity, services and the population's incomes through access and (productive) use of clean, reliable energy, (d) the improvement of the framework conditions for financial and political participation in decentralised energy projects, and (e) the promotion of partnerships and the dissemination of information on decentralised renewable energies.The target groups include the energy users reached by the project in the project regions of the partner countries of the project, especially in rural areas, as well as the groups of people who contribute to energy supply. These include small and medium-sized enterprises and financially weak social institutions that use energy productively to enable income-generating activities or to use energy technologies or services. Intermediaries are experts and managers from key actors in the energy sector. These include producers, traders' associations, ministries and government institutions for regulations, norms and standards, (rural) energy agencies, non-governmental organisations and consultancies that are directly or indirectly involved in the production, dissemination or maintenance of materials, equipment or components for energy efficiency or the use of renewable energies. As local citizens' initiatives are also to be promoted in this project, municipal and regional governments or associations, cooperatives and other citizens' associations play an important role.As an initiative, GBE aims to set impulses for German and international development cooperation within a short timeframe. Therefore, the GBE country teams pilot new approaches and promote promising business cases in order to enable up-scaling and replication. Activities range from the creation of results-based or other innovative financing mechanisms to promote the sale and use of RE-technologies like solar irrigation systems, solar cooling appliances or solar dryers amongst small holder farmers to piloting a fee-for-service approach to finance energy access for health centers to business development measures for tea factories to support their energy transformation.In order to understand the impact of the programme"s on-going skills development, electrification and especially PuE measures on jobs, incomes, productivity and turnover and to assess which approaches work best and why, GBE plans to collect additional data, analyse quantitative and qualitative impacts and develop knowledge products to feed into the sector discussion and support the design and up-scaling of approaches by political partners or other programmes. This data collection based on surveys and qualitative interviews, analysis and interpretation of results summarized in case study reports as well as the design of knowledge products and a project closing brochure is subject of this tender.
The initiative "Green People"s Energy" (GBE) is interested to learn and publicly state the impact of the programme"s on-going skills development, electrification and especially productive use of energy (PUE) measures on the beneficiary"s economic situation since the start of intervention (based on incomes, employment, productivity, service delivery and turnover). For training measures, GBE plans to survey participants to see in how far they are using the newly acquired skills and if the training has had an impact on their employment situation.In order to assess which approaches work best and why, GBE plans to collect additional data, analyse quantitative and qualitative impacts and develop knowledge products to feed into the sector discussion and support the design and up-scaling of approaches by political partners or other programmes. This data collection, analysis and the design of knowledge products is subject of this tender.The objective will be to develop these products:- 5 thematic knowledge products (in English language), each based on a group of case studies looking into the impact and learnings of selected interventions. By comparing the results of similar measures within and outside GBE, key success factors are to be identified on why and how which technologies and funding approaches work. Where possible, the knowledge products shall make aggregated impact statements in the respective thematic area.- 37 case studies including impact assessments. These individual case studies will also be used for dissemination at country level with political partners and key stakeholders to feed into national sector dialogues and enable up-scaling.- a synthesis report of the projects supported by the Small Projects Fund.- a final brochure summarising GBE"s impact and learnings to be developed for communications purposes, as an aggregated summary of all knowledge products and additional GBE outputs.The scope of the consultancy services is:Work package 1: Advice on and finalisation of research design and questionsThe contractor is expected to prepare the research design and questions in line with the objective. This will also require reviewing documents provided by GBE as well as a literature review to bring the study in the context of the current sector discussion and research and to ensure that it provides new insights and brings the discussion forward.In addition, the contractor shall conduct interviews with key stakeholders within GBE and GIZ to gain a better understanding of the tasks, understand expectations towards the study, collect further inputs/ideas regarding design and research questions, confirm selected projects to be assessed and discuss the potential timeline for data collection.Work package 2: Prepare 37 case studies incl. impact assessments based on data collection and analysisThe aim of the case study analysis is to assess the project"s impacts and contribute to knowledge generation in the specific thematic area. Data collection and analysis for the case studies will be done using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches, i.e. intermediate impact surveys as well as semi-structured interviews. Case studies should answer the research questions based on an analysis and interpretation of data collected. The studies shall be max. 4 pages long and can be used as stand-alone products, e.g. for local dissemination to political partners. They will also each contribute to the thematic knowledge products mentioned below.Work package 3: Design and preparation of up to 5 thematic knowledge productsBased on the evidence from the case studies as well as relevant research and knowledge products, the consultant shall develop knowledge products for 5 thematic research areas:- Community-based approaches in energy projects: Here the focus is on approaches to involve and strengthen communities in the management of mini-grids, energy infrastructure or communal/cooperative productive use of energy plants.- PUE in the agricultural sector: Focus solar irrigation, solar cooling and pilots for solar drying.- PuE in mini-grids: Measures to support the productive use of energy provided by mini-grids are being increasingly integrated into electrification projects to enable socio-economic impacts for the target group and economic viability of the mini-grid investment to be realised.- Innovative pilots of PuE technologies and financing approaches: Innovative as well as promising financing approaches will be selected and analysed through case studies (e.g. E-mobility with motorcycle taxis (Uganda), Revolving funds (Namibia, Senegal), Fee for service to electrify social infrastructure (Benin)).- Impact and sustainability of skills development initiatives for RE: GBE is interested in learning which impact selected GBE measures had a) on training participants and b) on the partnering institutes and their ability to provide more/better training offers in the long-term.Work package 4: Synthesis of the projects supported by the Small Projects FundHere the objective is to compile two interrelated products: i) A factsheet bundle that serves as an overview of the funded projects and ii) an analytical synthesis report (desk study) based on the project documentation. For this report the available project information will be analysed for elements worthy to be communicated to the wider sector such as methodological approaches, success factors or innovation potential. The synthesis shall showcase the results and learnings of the Small Projects Fund for public communications purposes.Work package 5: GBE final brochureFor communication purposes, a final brochure summarising GBE"s impact and learnings shall be developed, as a summary of the knowledge products, an additional knowledge product being developed as well as other and additional GBE outputs. Contract duration: 07/2022 - 09/2023Expected timeline for key milestones: data collection until 03/2023, knowledge products until07/2023

Opportunity closing date

28 January 2022

Value of contract

to be confirmed