Researchers and Other Experts to Carry out Studies of Relevance for Policymakers... Tender

Procurement Summary

Country : Sweden

Summary : Researchers and Other Experts to Carry out Studies of Relevance for Policymakers and Practitioners

Deadline : 04 Sep 2018

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 26191608

Document Ref. No. :

Competition : ICB

Financier : Nordic Development Fund (NDF)

Purchaser Ownership : -

Tender Value : Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Purchaser : THE EXPERT GROUP FOR AID STUDIES
Government Offices, Garnisonen Block Karlavägen 102, 7th floor SE-103 33 Stockholm
Sweden
Email :ud.eba@gov.se

Tender Details

Request for proposals are invited for Researchers and Other Experts to Carry out Studies of Relevance for Policymakers and Practitioners.


The Expert Group for Aid Studies (EBA) is a government committee mandated to study the direction, governance and implementation of Sweden-s official development assistance (ODA). The committee involves an Expert group of ten members, and a secretariat placed in Stockholm. The EBA engages researchers and other experts to carry out studies of relevance for policymakers and practitioners. Together with the Evaluation Departments at the Nordic Development Cooperation Agencies - Norad/MFA Norway; Danida/MFA Denmark; MFA Finland; and MFA Iceland - the EBA hereby invites proposals for an evaluation of the Nordic Development Fund (NDF).

The procurement procedure will be a two-stage selective procedure with possible negotiation. This invitation includes information on both the first stage expression of interest and the second stage invitation to selected suppliers to submit tenders.

Background, aim and questions

The Nordic Development Fund

The Nordic Development Fund (NDF) is an international financing institution established by the governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in 1988 as part of the Nordic countries- co-operation on development assistance. The original subscribed and paid-in capital by the Nordic countries is equivalent to approximately EUR 1 billion provided from the five countries' development cooperation budgets (Sweden 37%; Denmark 23%; Norway 21%; Finland 19%; Iceland 1%). The latest decision on replenishments took place in 2000. According to its mandate from 2009, the objective of NDF's operations is to facilitate climate change investments primarily in low-income countries reflecting the Nordic countries' priorities in the areas of climate change (adaptation and mitigation) and development (regional profile of approved financing as of 2017-12-31: Africa 48% of capital, Asia 21%; Latin America 25%)

NDF finances projects usually in cooperation with bilateral, multilateral and other development institutions. Since 2016, in addition to grants, the NDF has expanded on its portfolio of financial instruments to include equity and loans. NDF also operates a challenge fund that finances innovative climate change projects, the Nordic Climate Facility (NCF). NDF-s active portfolio is valued at over 300 million EUR.

Aim and main questions of the evaluation
The future strategic direction of the NDF will be determined by its Board of Directors in mid-2019. To
support its strategic deliberations, the Board has asked the government departments tasked with
evaluating development cooperation of each Nordic country to perform an independent evaluation
of the performance of NDF as an institution as well as of its value added in the international context,
including as a Nordic institution, and how it could be strengthened.
This evaluation has two connected aims. The first is to assess the performance of NDF in
accordance with its mandate. The second aim is to assess NDF-s potential future role as a joint
Nordic financing instrument for development.
The evaluation shall concern the mandate from 2009 and consider the financial base of the
institution, the priorities of the Nordic countries, and recent international agreements (the 2030
Agenda, the SDGs and the Paris Agreement) in assessing the NDF-s present role as a joint Nordic
instrument in the international climate architecture as well as its potential future role, within climate
change or other areas. Four main evaluation questions shall guide the evaluation:
(i) Assessing the performance of NDF in accordance with its mandate
1. Has the NDF delivered on its mandate?
2. What is the current value added of NDF in an international perspective?
(ii) Assessing NDF-s potential future role as a joint Nordic financing instrument for development
3. What should key priorities be to further strengthen NDF-s added value and comparative
advantage in the international climate financing architecture?
4. Should the NDF play a different or wider role on behalf of the Nordic administrations, either
through a broader climate change and development mandate or in other areas prioritised by
the Nordic countries?

The main objective of the evaluation is to provide grounded and elaborate responses to the
questions above. The four questions should address, but need not be limited to, the following subquestions:
1. Has the NDF delivered on its mandate?
• Has the NDF met expected results?
• Has the steering of NDF been effective?
• Are NDF contributions rooted in partners- priorities on a demand-needs basis?
2. What is the current value added of NDF in an international perspective?
• Are the NDF-s contributions additional/complementary to those of co-financing partners and
other actors (e.g. the MDBs and climate funds)?
• Does NDF create a “Nordic value added”, as defined in section 2 of the NDF Strategy (2016)?
• Does the NDF add to or reduce the potential problem of a rather fragmented and crowded
international climate architecture?
3. What should key priorities be to further strengthen NDF-s added value and comparative
advantage in the international climate financing architecture?
• Do the current results motivate new replenishments?
4. Should the NDF play a different or wider role on behalf of the Nordic administrations, either
through a broader climate change and development mandate or in other areas prioritised by the
Nordic countries?
• What are the strategic options for the NDF?Tenderers are given an open mandate regarding the design of the analytical framework,
methodological approach and delimitations to fulfil the objective and overall aim with the study.
In relation to the OECD/DAC evaluation criteria (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact,
sustainability), the focus under (i) may be on issues of relevance and effectiveness. However, based
on existing evaluations performed by NDF and its cooperation partners (to be provided by the EBA),
the evaluation should also aspire to address the investments- impact and sustainability. To assess the
second aim (ii), a scenario analysis may be considered.
However, tenderers are encouraged to let their expertise guide the choice of approach in answering
the evaluation questions. We hope that this open task will be attractive and encourage innovation in
submitted proposals.
Who is this evaluation for? Target group(s)
The main stakeholders are the NDF-s Board of Directors and the Managing Director, the Nordic
Council of Ministers, and the respective financing parties (the Nordic governments). Secondary target
groups are NDF-s cooperating partners (e.g. development cooperation agencies, DFIs, the private
sector).

Documents

 Tender Notice