Call for External Evaluation: Contributing to a just transition for a low-carbon society

TERMS OF REFERENCE

External evaluation of the project
“Contributing to a just transition for a low-carbon society”

1. Rationale

The Embassy of France in South Africa is inviting bids for the external evaluation of its project “Contributing to a just transition for a low-carbon society”.

The project started in 2023 and will be completed in March 2025. The evaluation will cover all activities undertaken until February 2024, and will be overseen by the Cooperation and Cultural Affairs Department of the Embassy of France (SCAC) based in Pretoria.

The evaluation will serve to assess the project design, its implementation and achievements. The evaluator will be expected to formulate recommendations to guide future interventions pertaining to the Embassy of France, including in the framework of its membership of Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P).

These Terms of Reference (ToR) spell out the requirements for the external evaluation.

2. Brief presentation of the project

Context and objectives

The ‘just’ dimension of the transition is central: since climate change exacerbates vulnerabilities and inequalities, South Africa recognises that its response must be firmly rooted in the need for social justice. This is especially so in light of the socio-economic challenges the country faces. Furthermore, the South African Constitution enshrines everyone’s right to ‘an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being’ (Section 24). Thus, the new low-carbon development trajectory must help reduce poverty and inequalities. Beyond mitigating the social impact on the coal sector, the transition should enable the development of new sectors and the creation of jobs.

France, along with many international donors united in the Just Energy Transition Partnership, is highly committed to supporting South Africa, particularly through the French Development Agency, which engages also in policy-based loans.

The project ‘Contributing to a Just Transition towards a Low-Carbon Society in South Africa,’ funded by a FEF grant (€594,000), is part of France’s contribution to the Just Energy Transition (JET) partnership in South Africa. The project addresses two central issues for South Africans.

Firstly, it supports interventions at a local level that contribute to the social (“just”) dimension of the transition, in line with the Investment Plan for a Just Energy Transition adopted by the South African government. The French Embassy’s bottom-up approach has been especially praised by our partners, the Climate Finance Task Team and the JET-P board, the latter of which consists of members from institutional partners, international funders and civil society organisations (CSOs).

Secondly, it supports the Environmental Justice Fund (EJF), an organisation that engages in grant-making to empower grassroots community-based organizations (CBOs). They provide not only financial support but also capacity-building interventions tailored to each small organisation. EJF aims to democratize access to support, irrespective of existing networks or funding. EJF’s strategy is deliberately designed to be inclusive and responsive.

Activities and state of advancement

1. 1. Activity 1.1. Community inclusion in Dipalaseng, Mpumalanga

The French Embassy teamed up with Indalo Inclusive to lead and facilitate an inclusive and participatory process for community members to co-design just energy transition interventions in the Dipalaseng Local Municipality in Mpumalanga.

This process, which ran from June to December 2023, included several co-design workshops with actors from the community and local as well as provincial government. This part of the project came to an end in February 2024, at a local symposium at which six projects were pitched by community members, with concomitant investments proposals.

1. Activity 1.2. Supporting alternative service delivery in Nomzamo, Mpumalanga

To initiate the implementation of a bottom-up and co-constructed JET intervention, the French Embassy is supporting GreenCape’s ASDU (alternative service delivery unit) project in Nomzamo, Ermelo (Mpumalanga), together with two other embassies.

The project involves providing alternative electrification to a community that cannot access conventional electricity, using an energy solution co-designed by the community itself. The project also includes a feasibility study of an alternative sanitation solution since the community currently uses pit latrines. Information about the project will be shared with a targeted group of stakeholders in the hope of replicating it in other vulnerable communities. The Embassy of France’s support will run from August 2024 to March 2025.

1. Activity 1.3. Establishing a ‘community of practice’ for a successful just energy transition

A meeting hosted by the French Embassy in march 2024 represented the first step toward creating a ‘community of practice’ (CoP). The aim of the CoP is to document best practice projects in the field of the just transition and to share these with relevant stakeholders.

In the meeting, diverse stakeholders were encouraged to share insights, experiences, concerns and recommendations. The attendees came from various organisations (research, development banks, NGOs, government departments, and consulting firms) working in the environmental, climate affairs, energy, and mining sectors. Until March 2025, there will be a formal write-up of best practice projects as well as a sharing of these with strategic stakeholders.

2. Activity 2.1. Supporting participatory grant-making to grassroots CBOs with the Environmental Justice Fund

The second part of the project consists in the financial support of participatory grant-making to grassroots CBOs through the Environmental Justice Fund (EJF), an organisation offering tailored to each specific CBO’s needs so they can design and implement their own responses to climate change and environmental injustice. The embassy’s support runs from 2023 to 2025.

EJF’s capacity-strengthening support includes assistance with budgeting and financial management, leadership development, legal registration, training on climate change and the just transition, and even security and psycho-social support for activists dealing with trauma.

EJF is currently supporting 20 CBOs, after running two open calls for proposals. From June 2023 to February 2024, In February 2024, EJF released a third call for proposals through which they intend to expand their grant-making to around 34 CBOs by late-2024.

3. Purpose of the evaluation

This evaluation seeks to enable accountability and learning. The evaluation should:

• Assess the project to date, particularly:
• take stock of the activities implemented and results achieved, taking into account the project plans;
• determine the relevance of the project’s logic and interventions, their efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability;

The level of detail to be examined will be agreed further down the line.

• Draw lessons from the project implementation:

• assess the need to further and/or expand this type of intervention;
• identify the conditions and good practices to inform the development of a new intervention strategy to continue impactful engagement withing the JET-P.

4. Services requested

• Stocktaking: The stocktaking exercise will include all aspects of the project, and consist of:

• a brief descriptive account of the activities implemented, the financial execution and the governance of the project.: The evaluator will document and explain any departure from the planned activities and expected results. Doing so, they will be mindful to identify all context-specific events and circumstances that may have had an effect on the project’s implementation and achievements;
• a report on the actual implementation strategy and the way this was carried out.
• Evaluation criteria and questions: The evaluation will apply the international OECD/DAC evaluation criteria of relevance, process/ implementation, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. In addition, the evaluation should consider the gender-sensitivity and responsiveness of the project.

• Conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations

Here the evaluator will present the main conclusions of the assessment conducted according to the evaluation questions, and draw the key lessons and strategic learnings from the evaluation, for instance (but not limited to):

• the added value of the project for South African stakeholders and the local communities;
• the added value of the project in contributing to bilateral cooperation priorities between France and South Africa;
• findings and lessons regarding the management of the project.

The evaluator will also formulate strategic and operational recommendations to be considered by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs with regards to:

• The improvement of  cooperation on JET-P engagements;
• The sectors / issues for which the Embassy of France could best leverage its funding and interventions;
• Potential target groups for future cooperation and funding opportunities;
• Types of activities that would maximize the effect of similar funding opportunities;
• How to build on the work to date, and strengthen the French Embassy’s interventions for more systemic impact;
• Complementarity with South African public interventions in the field;
• Complementarity with interventions from AFD and other donors from JET-P.

5. Management

This evaluation is commissioned by the Cooperation and Cultural Action Department (SCAC) of the Embassy of France. The SCAC will be the focal point for any planning, implementation and administrative matters pertaining to the evaluation.

The evaluator will present the final evaluation to the steering committee members of the project. The Committee will meet once with the evaluator at close-out stage.

The steering committee is composed by:

• Cecelia Kok, Development Cooperation Attaché for the French Embassy
• Ghousébashar Gaffar, Climate and Environment Councillor for the French Embassy
• Adeline Sang, Secretary-General of SCAC for the French Embassy
• Reshmi Wolves, lead Expert Analyst on ASDU project for GreenCape
• Lisa Chamberlain, Executive Director of the Environmental Justice Fund

6. Methodology

• Key principles:

The principles underpinning the approach to the evaluation are:

• Impartiality and independence of the evaluation process from the programming and implementation of the project;
• Credibility of the evaluation, through the use of appropriate skills and independent expertise and
• Transparency of the evaluation process, including dissemination of results to the relevant stakeholders;
• Participation of the relevant stakeholders in the evaluation process, to ensure different perspectives and views are taken into account; and
• Usefulness of the evaluation findings and recommendations, through timely presentation of relevant, clear and concise information to decision-makers.

• Methodology

The evaluation will be carried out using a desk review, interviews (phone / in-person) and field visits, where relevant and as permitted by the budget. The proposed methodology for the evaluation will be subject to the approval of the Embassy of France.

The desk review should cover the following documents:

• project plan and budget (including amendments if applicable);
• documents and materials produced throughout the project;
• evidence of activities and results collected throughout the project, including interim reports, minutes of project meetings, event signature lists, event programmes, travel reports, procurement documentation, quotations, invoices, proofs of payment, any other supporting document, etc.
• any other relevant documentation.

The evaluator is expected to engage with the relevant Embassy staff members and any project stakeholders when relevant. The evaluation should build on interviews with Embassy staff not only to collect information and insights, but also to make (collective) sense of and understand the following:

• the stakeholders’ engagement in the process;
• the difficulties faced (internal and external);
• their perspectives on the issues;
• the capacity, awareness, relationships and resources developed during the the project and how this has been used

Bidders are requested to explain how they propose to collect information from the various stakeholders.

There are diverse stakeholders and thus these should be addressed by using different methodologies (field visits, collective or individual interviews, videocalls etc):

• Staff members from Indalo (Johannesburg), GreenCape (Cape Town) and the Environmental Justice Fund (Johannesburg and Pretoria) ;
• Community members and leaders from Dipalaseng (activity 1.1) and from Nomzamo (activity 1.2);
• Grantees from the Environmental Justice Fund, across South Africa;
• Co-donors (embassies) and JET-P stakeholders

• Data availability

The evaluator will have access to the following information:

• Project description, budget, as amended if applicable;
• Contractual agreements between the Embassy of France and the project partners;
• Financial reports reflecting project spend;
• Project reports compiled by the Attaché for Cooperation Development and/or the Project Officer;
• Narrative and financial interim project reports from the project partners;
• Travel reports where relevant;
• Communication materials
• Financial documentation (e.g. procurement documentation, quotations, invoices, proofs of payment)

7. Process and deliverables

The evaluation will follow a 3-stage process, with deliverables as detailed below (see also the tentative timeline in section 8 below).

All deliverables will be submitted by email to the Embassy’s Attaché for Development Cooperation.

The evaluator shall consider the comments received from the Embassy of France without prejudice to their independence.

All deliverables will be approved by the Embassy by email.

• Inception

This stage will serve to:

1. clarify the expectations of the French Embassy and the scope of the evaluation;
2. finalise the methodology and the evaluation questions.

• Inception meeting between the evaluator and the Embassy of France

This meeting will serve to discuss the scope of the evaluation in more detail and share the documents and contact details needed for the evaluation.

• Inception report

In this report, the evaluator will recall the context and purpose of the evaluation; list the evaluation questions, and detail the methodology and tools / means to collect the data, specify the schedule for data collection (including field visits if any) and provide a list of stakeholders to be interviewed (where possible in-person,  otherwise through calls / online communication).

The evaluator will submit a draft inception report to the Embassy’s Attaché for Development Cooperation. The evaluator may be requested to submit a revised version, taking into account the comments received, for approval.

• Data collection and analysis

During this stage, the evaluator will collect the data needed for stocktaking and analysis according to the evaluation questions. This will be done through a desk review of project documents, interviews and field visits when appropriate.

• Field visits

Field visits to relevant projects and organisations should be carried out for data collection purposes where logistically and budgetarily feasible (they must be budgeted for by the evaluator). They will be carefully planned, taking into account the evaluation timeline and availability of the relevant people and organisations.

The evaluator will provide the Attaché with terms of reference for each visit, and submit concise field visit reports including factual information, data obtained and challenges met.

There should be at least one site visit at Dipalaseng, at Nomzamo and at the area of intervention of at least one of the EJF’s beneficiaries.

• Draft evaluation report (max. 30 pages, excluding annexures)

The draft report will include: stocktaking (see section 4.1 of the ToR), initial analysis according to the evaluation questions (see section 4.2), and an outline of the work remaining and timeline to complete the latter.

• Final reporting

This stage will allow the evaluator to finalise their analysis, draw conclusions and formulate recommendations.

• Final evaluation report (max. 50 pages, excluding annexures)

The final report will be structured as follows:

• Table of contents
• List of acronyms
• Executive summary (2 to 4 pages)
• Mapping of the sub-set of supported CSO projects
• Stocktaking
• Analysis according to the evaluation questions
• Conclusions
• Strategic and operational recommendations
• Annexures: list of stakeholders interviewed and field visits conducted; data collection instruments; list of documents used for the evaluation (including websites if applicable); field visit reports
• A summary of the validated final report (max 5 pages), using the template provided by the Embassy:
• Summary of the evaluation and analysis
• Main findings
• Strategic and operational recommendations

The report and the summary will be the sole property of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE). The evaluator shall not communicate, publish or use its content. The report may be shared, in full or in part, with the relevant South African stakeholders as discussed and agreed with the Embassy of France.

• Close-out meeting with the steering committee.

This meeting will allow the evaluator to present the findings of the evaluation to the steering committee, and provide an opportunity to discuss the conclusions and recommendations.

8. Tentative timeline

The evaluation will be carried out between 1^st November 2023 and 31 March 2024. Bidders are requested to indicate the proposed number of working days within this time period.

The tentative timeline is as follows:

The timeline will be reviewed and confirmed with the evaluator at inception phase, without changes to the completion deadline.

9. Budget

The maximum available budget for this work is EUR 15 000, all costs and taxes included.

Tenders should be market-related reasonable.

The contract will be in EUR, but can be paid out in ZAR at the exchange rate calculated by the French Economy Ministry at the time of payment.
EUR / ZAR : https://www.economie.gouv.fr/dgfip/taux_chancellerie_change_resultat/pays/ZA

• Additional information for bidders
• Further information about the project may be obtained from the SCAC. Requests should be addressed by email to Requests should be addressed by email to martin.deramond@diplomatie.gouv.fr.
• The evaluator should have knowledge and expertise/experience in the following areas:
• design and delivery of project evaluation; experience in M&E of social development and/or governance projects would be an asset;
• Using reviews and evaluation as a tool for learning;
• Demonstrated understanding of the governance structures in South Africa and of the energy transition sector;
• Excellent communication skills, both orally and in writing;
• Understanding of French is not required but an advantage since pivotal project documents are in French

• Bidding process and how to apply

Interested candidates must submit the following documents/ information:

• Narrative proposal (max. 20 pages)
• Explain their understanding of the work and deliverables,
• Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work, including a tentative schedule;

(ii) Explain why they are the most suitable to conduct the evaluation

• Financial proposal, based on the template in Annexure
• CV of relevant consultant(s) highlighting past experiences in similar projects/assignments
• At least 2 references

Interested candidates are requested to submit an electronic copy of their expression of interest/ proposal with the email subject REF: “Just Transition Project Evaluation – [name of Bidder]”.

Applications must be submitted latest by 26 August 2024, COB.

Please find the Full Call with Annexures here: TOR – Final evaluation – French Embassy – contributing to just energy transition