Implementation of measures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of local councils dealing with climate change – Consultant At Oxfam GB

Introduction

Oxfam in Iraq envisions climate justice in a way that is feminist, equal, and free from conflict, promoting human rights, and expanding civic space. Oxfam supports equitable socio-economic transformation, inclusive and accountable climate governance, and climate adaptation and resilience measures which protect those who are highly vulnerable and most exposed to the climate consequences. One of the key measures to apply Oxfam’s green vision, is to involve, on the sub-national level, all the possible stakeholders and diverse actors from the local community, hereby referred to as “local councils”.

Background

Iraq is among the countries most affected by and most vulnerable to climate change globally and is the fifth most vulnerable to reduced water and food availability, extreme temperatures, and associated health problems[1]. It is one of four countries that depend on the Euphrates–Tigris River basin for its water supply, which over recent years has experienced high levels of water stress and environmental degradation, resulting in increased water scarcity for countries dependent on it, including Iraq[2]. With the impacts of climate change, drought in the area continues to increase in duration and intensity, together with growing desertification and more frequent sandstorms and flash floods, all of which affect agricultural yields[3].

As the public narrative on conflict in Iraq is receding; more attention is being directed towards topics including education, economy, and corruption, as well as the growing public interest in issues related to climate change, especially with the immediate impacts that are notably increasing year after year, such as water scarcity and sandstorms. There is a belief amongst the Iraqi public that the government and local authorities have mismanaged environmental issues and crisis related to climate change[4].

Funded by GIZ, Oxfam is implementing a project in Ninewa and Al Anbar governorates of Federal Iraq to promote public awareness on the potential and negative effects of climate change on local natural resources and livelihoods, and to assess the current capacities, leadership, institutional context and planning agendas of local councils dealing with climate change.

Al-Anbar Governorate

Anbar is the largest of Iraq’s governorates and one of its most sparsely populated. The governorate is made up of seven districts: Ana, Fallujah, Haditha, Heet, al-Qaim, Ramadi, and al-Rutba, and borders three neighboring countries, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The capital city of Anbar is Ramadi. As of 2019, the estimated population of Anbar is 1,818,318 people. The governorate is predominately inhabited by Sunni Arabs[5]. Anbar leads the unemployment rate for youth aged 15-24 in Iraq at 33.3%[6]following the ISIS occupation, which led to the widespread destruction of infrastructure, markets, and factories, and minimal support to businesses that might create job opportunities for young people.

Ninewa Governorate

Ninewa hosts 1.77 million returnees out of the 4.60 million returnees in Iraq (38% of the total), making it the governorate with the highest number of returnees in the country. Ten percent of these returnees live in locations ranked as having high severity conditions, whilst 32 percent live in medium severity locations and 58 percent live in low severity locations. The districts of Sinjar and Telafar host the largest number of individuals who have returned to high severity conditions. In Sinjar in particular, nearly all locations with returnees are categorised as high severity, with no returnees found to be living in low severity conditions. Given the large presence of non-camp based IDPs, one out of every four locations in Ninewa hosts both IDPs and returnees, increasing the pressure on meeting basic needs and resources for recovery. Multiple locations in Mosul and Sinjar, for instance, currently host more IDPs than returnees.

Assignment

1. Objectives:

Following the completion of the assessment on the capacities of local councils dealing with climate change in the targeted governorates of Ninewa and Al-Anbar, and following the development and validation of the actions plans to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of those councils, Oxfam is seeking a firm or a team of external experts to implement the following set of action measures:

1. CREATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE UNIT WITHIN THE COUNCILS:

The objective of this measure is to create a climate change unit (CCU) within each of the councils of Anbar and Ninewa.

Function and purpose:

The CCU will function as platform for the provincial council (members and staff) to effectively deliver its mandate with regards to climate change. It will do so through the following functions:

• Act as repository of research and knowledge on climate change and make it accessible and usable for the council members and staff.
• Organize training programs and workshops to enhance the capacity of council members and officials.
• Review and input to provincial laws and policies on climate change
• Coordination and collaboration platform with government department, communities, and NGOs.
• Establish and maintain system to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of climate initiatives, ensuring accountability and continuous improvement.

Structure and resources:

The CCU will be hosted in the provincial council building. The council will allocate space for the unit and shall be managed by the current officials of the council. As its contribution Oxfam will provide suitable infrastructure (hardware and software) to establish and make the unit functional. Additionally, Oxfam will provide technical assistance for capacity building and environmental decree/policy formulation by the CCU (described in point B. and C. below).

1. CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME:

• Consisting of Curriculum development, training delivery, monitoring of knowledge improvement; and
• Targeting council members and relevant departments, committees, advisors, and employees.
• Training of Trainers for council staff to act as resource person for future training under the CCU

Trainings (topic, curriculum, and delivery)

Governorates

Participants

(+/- 20 persons/training)

No. of training days per governorate

Total number of days

1

Climate change, global situation, national situation, and ways for mitigation, and adaptation

Ninewa & Anbar

Local council members, head of departments, relevant council committees, councils’ advisors, and employees

1. DRAFTING LOCAL DECREES, SECTOR ORIENTED, TARGETTING CLIMATE CHANGE CRISIS:
   • Reviewing Existing Frameworks: Analyze current climate change policies, decrees, and strategies at the national and local levels in Iraq.

The objective is to draft comprehensive and actionable decree suggestions for local councils in Ninewa and Anbar, aiming at addressing the climate change crisis locally. These decrees should be sectoral, practical, culturally sensitive, politically sensitive, and aligned with the Iraqi national environmental law, and international climate goals.

The expert consultant will be responsible for:

• Stakeholder Consultation: Engage with key stakeholders, including local council members, advisors, and employees.
• Drafting Decree Suggestions: Develop detailed decree suggestions that address specific climate change issues in both governorates, relevant to local councils’ mandate, including but not limited to waste management, energy efficiency, water conservation, disaster preparedness, sustainable agriculture, education and awareness, etc. Ensure that the decrees incorporate best practices and are adaptable to various local contexts within Iraq.
• Integration with Existing Policies: Ensure that the proposed decrees are harmonized with existing national climate laws, policies, and international climate agreements.

1. Key Requirements for the expression of interest

• The interested applicant must submit an outline of the proposed climate change unit with suggestions/recommendations about the role of the unit, its HR composition, physical space and furnishing, and equipment and technologies requirements (considering the broad guidelines described in above section, A. CREATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE UNIT WITHIN THE COUNCILS).
• Interested firms/experts must provide a detailed plan for the trainings along with an outline of the training content as well as profiles of the trainers.
• Applicants must also provide profiles of law/policy experts along with the process that would employ to draft the environmental decrees.
• All deliverables will only be accepted if they meet highest quality standards. Documents must be well structured and written. Curricula, presentations, decrees, and any documentation are expected to meet highest standards. All final documents must be proofread and professionally edited before submission.

Note:

• Oxfam will directly procure equipment (suggested by the consultant and considering the available budget) for the CCU and handover to the CCU. The “Coordinator” (budgeted above by the applicant team) will do liaison between Oxfam and the Local Council to establish and make the CCU functional.
• Training arrangements (venue, food, stationary etc.) will be the responsibility of CCU and/or Oxfam. The applicant will only be responsible for training content and training delivery.
• The applicant will be responsible for only drafting the law/decree and not getting it approved by the council.
• The applicant shall include admin cost (travel to the training locations, hotel stay or food etc) as part of the daily rate. Separate cost head is not required.

TOR LINK: https://oxfam.box.com/s/nvgpyhm1kcda2hms66lqi36gdthq3330

1. Deliverables

• Report narrating the establishment of the climate change unit.
• Training content and training delivery reports including pre and post training tests.
• Draft version of the climate decree(s) submitted to the council and shared with Oxfam.

1. Timeline for implementation

This consultancy consists of a total of 30 working days for the implementation of the 3 measures, to be ended on the 30th of September 2024.

1. Education and Experience:

• The successful bidder will comprise of a team of experts with advanced degree, master’s and/or PHD in law, policy/environmental policy, advanced sustainable development studies, communications and IT or any other relevant field. Academic training or degree combining social studies and climate science and climate change related matters is highly preferable.
• The consultant must have more than 5 years of experience and collaboration with provincial councils in Iraq (preferably with Ninewa and/or Anbar councils).
• The consultant should have significant knowledge of experience in institutional capacity building.
• The consultant must have authorized access to local councils (people and premises).
• Experience in Iraq is a must.
• Iraqi visa or nationality is a must for immediate access to Anbar and Ninewa.
• Proficiency in English and in Arabic.

1. Selection process:

Step 1: Technical Criteria

Evaluation scores will be awarded for each of the components. Combined Scoring method – where the academic background, qualifications and experiences will be weighted a max of 70% and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%. The proposal will be assessed based on the following selection criteria:

Step 2 – Financial Criteria

The criterion of assessment is “the best price for the proposed level of quality” with a maximum grading of 5.

Step 3 – Weighting

The assignment will be awarded to the service provider with the most economically advantageous tender. The most economically advantageous tender is determined based on the evaluation criteria of price and quality. The final score will be weighted 70% on Technical and 30% on Price. If scores of service providers are equal, priority will be based on the total scores that were given for the technical criterion.

1. Timeframe

The assignment will be starting the 25th of August until the end of September 2024, inclusive of the submission of the final deliverables defined within. Weekly meetings will be held to discuss findings and direction of work.

Disclaimer

Oxfam is not obliged in this tender procedure to make a contract award decision or to conclude a contract with a participant. Participants in the tender procedure cannot claim compensation from Oxfam, any affiliated persons, or entities, in any way, in case any of the afore-mentioned situations occur. By handing in a proposal, participants accept all terms and reservations made in this ToR, and subsequent information and documentation in this tender procedure.

Required minimum mandatory documents (in addition to the proposal requirements) which must be submitted to the email below:

1. Technical proposal, including workplan.

2. Signed stamped detailed financial proposal, including the payment terms and payment methods.

3. Consultant CV.

4. Proof of accessibility to the field and councils in Ninewa and Anbar.

[1]https://www.unep.org/resources/global-environment-outlook-6?_ga=2.118495561.1336518399.1641386645-2043264144.1641103432

[2]https://www.stimson.org/2021/joint-working-group-on-international-and-eu-water-diplomacy-in-focus-the-euphrates-tigris-river-basin/

[3]https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/mitigating-conflict-over-water-in-the-euphrates-tigris-basin/

[4] https://ecfr.eu/publication/early-warning-how-iraq-can-adapt-to-climate-change/

[5]https://easo.europa.eu/country-guidance-iraq-2021/anbar

[6]As per Ministry of Planning