Consultancy on ‘Transformative’ Climate Adaptation/Resilience At Concern Worldwide

Background:

Concern is rethinking its ambition related to climate responsive interventions and programming. While we have a lot of experience in many climate change adaptation and resilience interventions such as Climate Smart Agriculture, Natural Resource Management, Watershed Management, livelihood diversification, support to social protection mechanisms and while we also use Disaster Risk Reduction approaches such as community risk analysis, community disaster management committees, building or strengthening of local disaster mitigation infrastructures, we are seeking to be more ambitious in addressing the impacts of climate change which appear to be accelerating.

We are currently working through a “climate refresh” process with internal stakeholders in order to develop our vision and ambition for our work around climate resilience particularly in fragile and conflict affected contexts and in protracted crises. The process will include:

• Agreeing how we more consistently and robustly analyse and factor in the impact of extreme weather events (and the slow steady erosion of the natural resource base) on already vulnerable communities, when we design strategies, programmes and interventions.
• Identifying a small suite of bankable programmes/project designs for climate resilience addressing issues of scale, durability, policy influence, institution building and underpinned by clear Theories of Change leading to increased resilience. These should include potential niche areas, projects and programmes for climate change adaptation in protected crises.
• Agreement on the internal changes and resources required to improve the analysis of climate change risk and the development of climate change adapted programmes.

In the move to design new and larger programmes that seek to be transformative and influential, recognising that this will entail working at scale and with a wide range of actors in each country, we feel a scan of the external landscape is vital. We are keen to understand the opportunities presented by climate funding and financing now and in the future and consider how these might influence our ambition. We are also aware of the need to invest in the internal capacities and process that would drive such ambitious programming and would be interested to find out what other agencies have done to work at this more ambitious level; to understand how they have invested and engaged with other key stakeholders to design the right level and scope of interventions that attract significant funding.

Objective of Consultancy:

To identify and gather intelligence from experts, agencies and donors who are involved in ‘transformative’ or large climate responsive programmes, particularly in fragile and conflict affected contexts and protracted crises about:

• The expected outcomes and impacts of their climate resilience work;
• The nature and scale of their programmes;
• Their programme design processes;
• Their capabilities and investments;
• The relationships they have used to get to that level.

Specific Tasks

• Identify and propose a range of agencies (think-tanks, UN agencies, academics, innovators) with significant climate expertise whose knowledge and relationships would be useful inputs into the process and conduct SSI with these. Consultations would include: a) key evidence (as foundation to programme design); b) case studies of similar programmes; c) key stakeholders in such programmes to hear their learning and advice. This engagement should include identification of potential strategic partners for Concern in this area.
• Identify the position and strategies of donor agencies and specific climate funds in terms of the climate responsive programming they intend to invest in for the short and medium term.
• Analysis (building on existing work including by the Concern fundraising teams) to understand the funding opportunities for climate related programmes and develop some options and parameters informed by this analysis for future programming opportunities.
• Consultation with other NGOs, identifying key investments and structures required to build and maintain internal capacity in relation to analysis of climate risk and key strategies for appropriate response, including processes such as climate vulnerability analysis, Disaster Risk Reduction, building both general and risk resilience, anticipatory action in different contexts and other climate change adaptation interventions.
• Production of a succinct report that sets out to two main themes; an overview of the programming scope and design and the funding opportunities that would underpin them and an overview of the institutional arrangements, investments and processes that are effective in driving this kind of programming.
• Acting as a resource person/adviser at an on-line workshop as part of the Concern Climate Programme Refresh Process (in September) to present the outcomes and facilitate a discussion around the same.

Timeframe:

August 2024 with a draft report and findings by early September and a one-day workshop in September

Days Required:

Up to 20 days are available for this work, including the workshop.