Climate Adaptation and Resilience for South Asia

ADPC Position: Firm

Functional Title: Firm for Final Evaluation of the Project

Reference No: TH-ADPC-432232-CS-CQS

Supporting Project: CARE for

South Asia (Component 2)

Duty Station: Home-based with team presence in Bangkok and project locations

Duration of Contract: 04 Months

Start Date: TBD
End Date: TBD

A. About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

ADPC is an autonomous international organization with a vision to reduce disaster and climate risk impacts on communities and countries in Asia and the Pacific by working with governments,

development partners, international organizations, NGOs, civil society, private sector, media, and other key stakeholders.

Established in 1986 as a technical capacity-building center, ADPC has grown and diversified its

expertise across social and physical sciences to support sustainable solutions for risk reduction across a broad range of specialist areas. With over 100 staff from 19 different nationalities and a wide range of professional expertise from atmospheric scientists to social scientists with experiences from all levels of engagement typically required for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Resilience (CR) in an effective manner. ADPC is a competent regional resource center and has seven thematic departments: ADPC Academy, Risk Governance, Climate Resilience, Urban Resilience, Health Risk Management, Preparedness for Response and Recovery, and Geospatial Information. These are supported by Finance, Human Resources and Administration, and Strategic Planning departments. In addition to the departments, ADPC works on three cross-cutting themes: Gender and Diversity, Poverty and Livelihoods, and Regional and Transboundary Cooperation through permanent working committees.

ADPC Strategy 2020 guides the organization in providing comprehensive risk reduction support to countries and communities in Asia and the Pacific. ADPC recognizes the importance of examining the linkages between disaster risk management, poverty reduction, gender equality, sustainability, rights-based approaches, climate change, and regional cooperation.

For details, please refer to ADPC website at http://www.adpc.net/.

B. Background

Disasters take a huge toll on the development agenda of SAR countries. Between 2000 and 2017,

disasters in South Asia incurred estimated damages of US$ 149.27 billion. Public expenditure is under stress by the repeated need to reallocate capital budgets away from long-term development planning and towards reconstruction activities in post-disaster environments. For example, since 2005, Pakistan has suffered losses on the order of US$ 16 billion due to natural disasters. In Bangladesh, 2007 Cyclone Sidr resulted in damages and losses of US$1.7 billion, or 2.6 percent of GDP.

To increase resilience and achieve climate commitments, there is a need for a transformational shift toward policies and institutions that enable climate-resilient investments. Investing in more resilient infrastructure is both profitable and urgent as disruptions are extremely costly for governments, households, and the private sector, and large ongoing investments in infrastructure assets will have long-lasting repercussions as poor maintenance and natural disasters result in a vulnerable stock.

C. About CARE for South Asia

ADPC is implementing a five-year project titled “Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CARE) Project for South Asia” with financial support from the World Bank Group. The project aims to create an enabling environment for climate resilience policies and investments across South Asia. This objective will be achieved through enhanced regional cooperation and knowledge exchange for climate resilience and adaptation and mainstreaming resilience and adaptation in national policies, plans, and investments.

Until now, a considerable amount of effort has been taken through the provision of advisory services for policy and investment interventions, promotion of Climate Resilient Design and Standards for the South Asia Region, and Implementation Support to Climate-Risk Management

Solutions for Participating Countries in the focus sectors of Climate-Smart Agriculture, Integrated Water Resources Management, Resilient Transport Infrastructure, and Climate Policy, planning and finance sectors in the three project countries of Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. This initiative was successful because of close engagement and collaboration with over 35 government stakeholders across the three project countries.

The evaluation firm will undertake the final evaluation of the CARE for South Asia project to assess how the project, its processes, outputs, and outcomes have contributed to an enabling environment for climate-resilient policies and investments in select sectors and countries in South Asia.

D. Statement of Intent

The final evaluation will assess the achievement of project results against what was expected to be achieved and draw lessons that can both improve the sustainability of benefits from this project. The evaluation will make recommendations that the ADPC, World Bank and other implementing partners may use in their upcoming activities.

The evaluation will provide the ADPC, World Bank as well as partner governments with:

• an overall independent assessment of the CARE for South Asia project, paying particular attention to the results achieved considering the intended indicators and their contribution to enabling environment for climate-resilient policies and investments in select sectors and countries in South Asia.
• an assessment in the areas of relevancy, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the project interventions.
• key lessons and recommendations in order to guide current and future action.

The evaluation will span the project period from May 2020 to March 2025. It will also include visits to project countries, namely Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. The evaluation will provide inputs to ADPC and World Banks’s consideration on:

• Progress of CARE for South Asia project and highlighting significant outputs in project countries;
• In-depth understanding of how the project was affected by formalization in Bangladesh and Nepal, changing contexts and conditions, especially under COVID-19, which poses extensive challenges in the early phases of project implementation.
• Potential for scaling up/out for the next phase of World Bank funding, especially the innovations component.

The primary audience of the evaluation includes:

• ADPC management and Project Implementation Unit, ADPC
• World Bank Task Team Lead, Co-Task Team Leads, and World Bank country teams in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan
• Sectoral ministries and departments – e.g. Ministries of Finance, Planning, Transport, Water, and Agriculture in project countries
• Innovation for Climate Adaptation and Resilience (iCARE) innovators

E. Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The evaluation firm will produce the following major outputs, all of which will be grounded in UNEG Norms and Standards and good evaluation practices, to be disseminated to the appropriate audiences.

• Overall Approach and Methodology: The firm will ensure that the OECD-DAC evaluation criteria are followed to provide findings and implementable recommendations to ADPC. In keeping with the emphasis on methodological rigor, the selected evaluation team will be expected to employ a mixed-method approach—i.e., triangulation of the most appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods and the most appropriate documentary and perceptual evidence—to answer each evaluation question at hand.
• An Inception Report (10-15 pages): Upon the review of available documents and stakeholders’ analysis and discussion with PIU, the firm will prepare an inception report to:
  • Rationality of the evaluation
  • elaborate on the proposed methodology.
  • evaluation matrix that includes evaluation questions, data sources by specific evaluation questions, data collection methods, sampling and selection criteria of respondents for Key Informant Interview (KII), and Focus Group Discussion (FGD).
  • work plan for the evaluation, indicating the phases in the evaluation, their key deliverables, and milestones.
  • list of key stakeholders to be interviewed and the tools to be used for data collection.
  • set out an outline for the final evaluation report.
• Preliminary Findings: Share the preliminary findings with the ADPC.
• Data sharing: Both quantitative and qualitative data will be shared with ADPC
• First draft of Evaluation Report (20-30 pages excluding Annexes): Prepare a draft evaluation report with key findings and recommendations for concrete action, underpinned by clear evidence (for review by the PIU for factual comment), and an Executive Summary of 3-5 pages that weaves together the evaluation findings and recommendations into a crisp, clear, compelling storyline. The report should also include a section on output and outcome level results against indicators and targets set by the CARE for South Asia project.  The draft review report will be shared with all relevant stakeholders and a request for comments will be made within a specified time.
• Final draft of evaluation report (20-30 pages excluding Annexes): The evaluation firm will incorporate comments received from ADPC and other key stakeholders. Based on these comments and input the firm will finalize the draft evaluation report. The Project Director holds the responsibility of approving this draft.

F. Duration of the Work

The total duration of the Final Evaluation will be approximately 60 working days starting from 1st March 2025 and shall not exceed four months from when the evaluation team is hired.

G. Evaluation Team Profile

Requirements for Team Leader

• At least Master's degree or equivalent post-graduate degree in a field of relevance for the evaluation assignment;
• At least 12 years of experience working with and carrying out evaluations and at least 5 years of experience leading evaluations. Experience of evaluating projects related to climate resilience implemented in Asia.
• Experience of leading teams to evaluate complex, multi-country projects or programs (minimum total evaluated project cost of USD 2,000,000);
• Prior understanding of, and professional experience with, gender-equality approaches to organizational change, sustainable development and/or disaster risk reduction;
• Fluency in English, including writing skills;
• Ability and willingness to undertake the assignment with tight deadlines.

Requirements of the Evaluation Team (not including the Team Leader)

• At least two members of the team have Master’s degrees or equivalent post-graduate degrees in a field relevant to the evaluation assignment;
• At least one team member with a minimum of 5 years of experience working with (or evaluating) disaster risk reduction in Asia;
• Team members with expertise in both qualitative and quantitative data collection
• The team as a whole has extensive knowledge and experience of working with climate resilience in Asia, preferably in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan.
• It is advantageous if team members have a physical presence in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan before the start of the evaluation.

H. Selection Method

The firm will be selected in accordance with ADPC’s procurement process and in compliance with the World Bank Procurement Regulations. Consulting Firm will be selected on Consultant’s Qualification based Selection (CQS) method.

I. Reporting Relationships:

The firm will report to the Project Director, CARE for South Asia Project. The technical oversight will be provided by the Project Implementation Unit (PIU).

J. Contract Duration:

The contract duration will be for four months starting 1st March – 30 June 2025.

K. How to apply:

Interested firms can submit the Expression of Interest to: Procurement.care@adpc.net