Consulting Firm / Group of Consultants to develop a Climate-Smart Green Growth Strategy for the GCF project in Sri Lanka

ABOUT GLOBAL WATER PARTNERSHIP

Global Water Partnership (GWP) is an international non-profit action network created in 1996 to foster the implementation of integrated water resources management (IWRM): the coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources by maximising economic and social welfare without compromising the sustainability of ecosystems and the environment. The GWP Network currently comprises 13 Regional Water Partnerships and more than 70 Country Water Partnerships and includes 3,000+ Partners in 150 countries. Our vision is to create a water secure world. Our mission is to support the sustainable development and management of water resources at all levels.

THE CONTEXT FOR CLIMATE-SMART GREEN GROWTH IN SRI LANKA

The Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) by Germanwatch ranks Sri Lanka among the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change-induced hazards every year. The CRI measures quantified impacts of extreme meteorological, hydrological, and climatological events in terms of fatalities as well as economic losses.

As an island nation that is dependent on monsoon-driven rainfall, water is the main driver of climate risk in Sri Lanka. Major impacts include floods, droughts, landslides and erosion-related impacts and sea level rise. Such extreme events are on the rise – where climatic extremes occurred once a decade in the past, they have been occurring almost annually in recent history. In some cases, multiple extreme events have occurred within a single year, with significant adverse social and economic impacts. Indeed, the high water-related climate risk is captured by the CRI, which analyzes impacts of tropical and winter storms, severe weather, hail, storm surges, river floods, flash floods, landslide, drought, and others – all of which are water-related. Projected climate change impacts in Sri Lanka include increasing temperatures, changing and less predictable precipitation patterns, increased frequency and severity of extreme events and sea level rise. These changes are expected to affect water security through increased evapotranspiration, elevated water demand for agriculture, reduced groundwater recharge, decreasing availability of drinking water (through inter alia evaporative losses and saline intrusion) as well as increasing incidences of flooding and erosion. Cross-sectoral impacts of the above will include inter alia reduced agricultural yield, decreasing hydropower generation and increases in vector-borne diseases.

With a high rural population of over 60% and with over 25% of the population involved in agriculture, the impacts of climate change on livelihoods and social and economic consequences are immense. Relief response in Sri Lanka averages around US$350M annually; increasing donor fatigue to support relief has significant implications on the recovery of affected communities and on sustaining economic growth. The country sees a climate-risk response less as a relief response issue, and increasingly as a development issue to be internalized within the national development agenda.

Sri Lanka is a low carbon emitting country with per capita emissions of around 1.02 tons/per person, and its development pathway has remained low-carbon-intensive. A recent analysis of the interplay between per capita emissions and human development, picks out Sri Lanka as a rare example of a country that has achieved both high human development and managed to keep CO2 emissions well below the long-term average needed to contain global warming targets of the Paris Agreement. In this 2021 NDC, Sri Lanka commits to achieve 70% of its electricity generation to come from renewable resources by 2030, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and to not add capacity to its coal power plants. Already experiencing adverse impacts of climate change, the country focuses on building the resilience of agriculture, fisheries, livestock, health, water, biodiversity, coastal and marine, tourism, urban planning and human settlement sectors.

These mitigation and adaptation commitments are made in the context of its ambition to achieve upper-middle-income status in five years and further improve its human development outcomes. Demand for energy, clean water, efficient transportation, better connectivity, and waste management is growing among both rural and urban populations. The government has pledged accelerated rural development and provision of better infrastructure in burgeoning cities, suburbs, and villages, alongside committing to a development approach that is culturally sensitive and environmentally sustainable.

In this context, as part of its Green Climate Fund (GCF) Readiness & Preparatory Support, Sri Lanka has prioritized development of a Climate-Smart Green Growth Strategy. The OECD has defined green growth as fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services upon which out well-being relies. The OECD notes that to do this, we must catalyze investment and innovation which will underpin sustained growth and give rise to new economic opportunities. “Business as usual” would be unwise and ultimately unsustainable, involving risks that would impost human costs and constraints on economic growth and development. It could result in water scarcity, resource bottlenecks, air and water pollution, irreversible biodiversity loss – thus the need for strategies to achieve greener growth. With climate change a glaring reality that has introduced variability and unpredictability into our systems, any green growth strategy must address climate change in an integrated manner, in terms of both mitigation and adaptation.

SRI LANKA GCF READINESS PROJECT, WITH GWPO AS DELIVERY PARTNER

In November 2021, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved a proposal for Sri Lanka under the Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme to, among other objectives, enhance strategic frameworks for strengthening the country’s project pipeline.The Global Water Partnership Organization (GWPO) is supporting Sri Lanka as a Delivery Partner for this Readiness project and is responsible for overall supervision of its implementation. The Readiness project activities are executed under the technical advisory & guidance and financial management of GWP South Asia Regional Water Partnership (GWP SAS RWP), based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Activities on the ground are executed by a dedicated Project Management Unit (PMU) hosted at GWP SAS. The PMU is comprised of three national experts – a national project coordinator, a policy expert, and a gender and social inclusion expert.

It is in the context of this Readiness project that GWPO is seeking a qualified and experienced consulting firm or consortium for an assignment to develop a climate-smart green growth strategy for Sri Lanka.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this assignment is twofold:

1. To develop a strategic framework for Sri Lanka – in terms of a climate-smart green growth strategy – for addressing priorities of the country’s central highlands and lower watersheds, including the coastal regions, specifically taking integrated approaches to water management –

• that comprehensively addresses the opportunities for building resilience in Sri Lanka’s economy, populations, livelihoods, and ecosystems;
• that catalyzes investment and innovation needed to foster and sustain economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide resources and environmental services;
• that enables translation of Sri Lanka’s water-related NDCs into bankable climate investments that can attract climate and non-climate finance, including from private sector sources, via
  1. an integrated, systems level analysis of climate change impacts, economic development, and environmental sustainability, which considers synergies and trade-offs across sectors, in the context of Sri Lanka’s policy and institutional environment
  2. identification of the most critical, integrated responses – including investments and innovation across the 3I’s: Infrastructure, Institutions, and Information Systems – that can advance climate-smart green growth, including costing of these proposed responses
  3. analysis of financial sources and structuring to optimize bankable projects and use of GCF resources, as described in the Climate Investment Planning Framework described in the GCF Readiness Guidebook
  4. consideration of human, technical, and institutional capacities needed for all of the above
  5. coordination with Sri Lanka’s National Adaptation Planning process, other Readiness initiatives including finalization of its first GCF Country Programme, as well as other development planning and sustainability processes

1. Develop training material on GCF project financial structuring, and deliver training to relevant national stakeholders in Sri Lanka, in order to hone understanding of fit-for-purpose financing sources for the integrated investments identified by the climate-smart green growth strategy

CONSULTANCY FIRM OR CONSORTIUM TO DEVELOP A CLIMATE-SMART GREEN GROWTH STRATEGY FOR SRI LANKA

GWPO seeks a qualified consultancy firm or consortium to develop a climate-smart green growth strategy for Sri Lanka, as described in the objective of this assignment.

The consultancy firm or consortium will have to develop this country-wide strategic framework for sustainable, climate resilient development – particularly considering ongoing NAP process and need for developing integrated, transformative, paradigm-shifting projects in the GCF country pipeline. As part of acknowledging the institutional environment in which needed investments and innovation will be implemented, this strategy will also propose necessary policy and legal changes that would be required to achieve the objective of a climate-resilient Sri Lanka.

In order to ensure that the development of the strategy is country-driven, and that major government and non-governmental stakeholders have the necessary knowledge and capacity to mobilise finance, both from climate and non-climate finance sources, to implement the strategy, these stakeholders will be trained on financial structuring of GCF projects. The same stakeholders will guide the development of this strategy through a national vision setting workshop, where stakeholders will develop a shared vision for establishing and implementing a Climate-Smart Green Growth Strategy.

SPECIFICATION OF REQUIREMENTS

Task 1. Inception

1. Participate in a kickoff meeting with the Sri Lanka NDA, the Readiness project PMU, GWP SAS, and GWPO
2. Define and propose a process to consult with country stakeholders across sectors and vertical levels in the development of the Climate-Smart Green Growth Strategy
3. Undertake a rapid review of climate mitigation and adaptation, development, and sustainability priorities, targets, initiatives, processes in Sri Lanka, to identify the added value of a Climate-Smart Green Growth Strategy towards achieving the objectives outlined in Section 3 of this Request for Tenders
4. Undertake a rapid desktop study to identify existing methods and tools employed by countries around the work to develop green growth strategies that build climate resilience, to inform a fit-for-purpose methodology to develop a Climate-Smart Green Growth Strategy
5. Undertake rapid capacity assessment to identify training needs on GCF project financial structuring – with the goal of increasing capacity of country stakeholders to engage with the GCF as a strategic climate financer for future implementation of the Strategy, in conjunction with mobilizing other needed sources of private and public finance
6. Pay particular attention to gender equity and social inclusion issues throughout the delivery of the assignment to ensure that: (i) the assignment is undertaken in an inclusive manner, and (ii) the developed Strategy and in particular, the bankable climate investments identified are gender-transformative in nature.
7. Identification and analysis of potential risks involved in developing the Strategy, and in the country implementing it in a way that achieves its intended objectives – to inform the process of developing and implementing the Strategy.
8. Prepare an inception report outlining a clear approach and methodology for the assignment, activities and timelines, modalities to execute the work, roles, and responsibilities (including for communications around the process and product, to be driven by the PMU), and a list of stakeholders to be consulted.

Deliverable: 1. Inception Report covering the aspects of Item 1 to 8.

Task 2. Develop training material on GCF project financial structuring and deliver training to Sri Lanka’s GCF project development stakeholders.

1. Develop training material on GCF project financial structuring – with the aim of enabling participants to understand the links between implementation of Sri Lanka’s Climate-Smart Green Growth Strategy and its advancement of its GCF pipeline, for example, by highlighting the need to establish a strong climate rationale (training material to be translated to Sinhalese and Tamil)
2. Deliver GCF investment project financial structuring training to Sri Lanka’s GCF project development stakeholders. Submit workshop report (brief summaries translated to Sinhalese and Tamil), including pre – and – post workshop capacity assessment surveys.

Deliverables:

1. Training material

1. Training workshop report, including pre – and – post workshop capacity assessment surveys

Task 3. Undertake a consultative process to develop a Climate-Smart Green Growth Strategy for Sri Lanka

1. With support from the Readiness project PMU in Colombo, prepare and deliver an opening workshop to engage relevant stakeholders in Sri Lanka in a nation-level vision setting exercise to align stakeholders and to allow for participatory design inputs into the Strategy development process. Submit workshop report (brief summaries to be translated to Sinhalese and Tamil).
2. Compile secondary and any needed primary analysis to prepare a report on possible future climate change impacts and a scenario-based potential climate-resilient and sustainable green growth pathways for Sri Lanka, for addressing priorities of the country’s central highlands and lower watersheds, including the coastal regions, specifically taking integrated approaches to water management.
3. Prepare and deliver 3 successive Strategy development workshops and submit workshop reports.
4. Prepare Climate-Smart Green Growth Strategy for Sri Lanka and validated by NDA (final versions translated to Sinhalese and Tamil).
5. Prepare a 4-page policy brief of the Climate-Smart Green Growth Strategy for Sri Lanka (translated to Sinhalese and Tamil).

Deliverables:

1. Climate-smart green growth strategy vision setting workshop report.
2. Report on possible future climate change impacts and potential climate resilience and sustainable green growth pathways for Sri Lanka
3. 3 successive climate-smart green growth strategy development workshop reports
4. Climate smart green growth strategy for Sri Lanka
5. Synthesis climate smart green growth strategy brief for Sri Lanka
6. Four-page policy brief on climate smart green growth strategy for Sri Lanka

DURATION AND TIMELINES

It is estimated that this consultancy will perform the work and deliver outputs over a period of eight (8) calendar months.The firm/consortium is expected to propose detailed timelines for each output in its tender.

LOCATION & TRAVEL

The firm/consortium team members may be based remotely; availability of in-Sri Lanka team members is a strong plus, but not required. Team lead and selected team members will need to travel to Colombo for key activities requiring their presence.

BUDGET & RESOURCES

The budget ceiling for this assignment is USD 83,000. This is inclusive of all taxes, VAT, and also travel for the firm/consortium team members to travel to Colombo for all necessary meetings, consultations, and deliverable validation. A detailed breakdown of the proposed budget, including proposed travel, is required.

The firm/consortium will work closely with the GCF Readiness Project’s full-time PMU in Colombo for completion of in-country tasks needed for this assignment. The PMU is already under contract with IWMI (host institution of GWP SAS) and is based at the offices of GWP SAS. The PMU is comprised of three national experts, with the indicated number of days available to support this assignment in collaboration with the firm/consortium – a National Project Coordinator (50 days), a policy expert (90 days), and a GESI expert (30 days).

REPORTING & WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

The consulting firm or consortium will:

• Report and be accountable for activity deliverables to the GCF Readiness National Project Coordinator (NPC) and to the Project Steering Committee on project deliverables and on compliance with terms of the contract.
• Work closely with the PMU team.
• Work closely with the GWP South Asia team, including on finance and communications.
• Maintain good working relationships with other programme teams at GWP South Asia RWP, with GWPO Network Officer for GWP South Asia, and with the GWPO Climate Team which quality assures all intermediate and final deliverables on behalf of the GCF Readiness Delivery Partner.

CONSULTANCY REQUIREMENTS

The consultancy assignment defined in this Request for Tender requires a high level of technical and professional expertise. Interested bidders (consultancy firms or consortium of organizations) are required to meet the following requirements:

• • A team of experts with advanced academic degrees (postgraduate) in disciplines relevant to the assignment. Please provide the academic background of each assigned expert who will constitute the agency profile submitted together with the technical proposal. – Demonstrated expertise and experience in research preferably in multiple countries using mixed methods (quantitative-qualitative) in fields relevant to the assignment. – Advanced knowledge and demonstrated experience in the development of climate resilience-building green growth strategies. – Demonstrated knowledge of project finance structuring involving GCF financing. – Demonstrated training delivered to country stakeholders on GCF project development and financial structuring. – Experience working with governments. – Ability to facilitate discussion with government officials and wider national stakeholders with tact, diplomacy, and cultural sensitivity. – Ability to meet deadlines and deliver quality outputs. – An understanding of the Sri Lankan national, sub national context on water resources management, climate change, development (SDGs), gender and related issues. – Working experience in Sri Lanka, with established networks highly advantageous. In-country presence/networks would be highly desirable given the time frame of the assignment. – Excellent analytical and report writing skills. – Videoconference connectivity and facilitation skills to engage in online meetings and workshops.

Teams with female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.