Closing date:

Firm for Consultancy Services for Technical Support to Implement TechEmerge Resilience India Pilot Projects

Organization:
Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

This job posting has closed

Section I: Introduction and Background

A. About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)

ADPC is an autonomous international organization with a vision to reduce disaster and climate risk impacts on communities and countries in Asia and the Pacific by working with governments, development partners, international organizations, NGOs, civil society, private sector, media, and other key stakeholders. Established in 1986 as a technical capacity building center, ADPC has grown and diversified its expertise across social and physical sciences to support sustainable solutions for risk reduction across a broad range of specialist areas. With over 100 staff from 19 different nationalities and a wide range of professional expertise from atmospheric scientists to social scientists with experiences from all levels of engagement typically required for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Resilience (CR) in an effective manner. ADPC is a competent regional resource center and has seven thematic departments: ADPC Academy, Risk Governance, Climate Resilience, Urban Resilience, Health Risk Management, Preparedness for Response and Recovery, Geospatial Information. These are supported by Finance, Human Resources and Administration, and Strategic Planning departments. In addition to the departments, ADPC works on three cross-cutting themes: Gender and Diversity, Poverty and Livelihoods, and Regional and Transboundary Cooperation through permanent working committees.

For details, please refer to ADPC website at http://www.adpc.net/.

B. About Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CARE) for South Asia project

The "Climate Adaptation and Resilience for South Asia" or CARE for South Asia project is a five-year (2020-2025) regional International Development Association (IDA) grant project supported by the World Bank, and jointly implemented by Asia Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and Regional Integrated Multi-hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES). The project is supporting the region in building resilience to climate change by improving the availability of regional data and knowledge, developing guidelines, tools and capacities, and promoting climate-resilient decisions, policies and investments across key sectors. The development objective is to contribute to an enabling environment for climate resilience policies and investments in select sectors and countries in South Asia. Key stakeholders include governments and technical agencies at the regional and national level.

The overall aim of the project is to build resilience to climate change risks by sharing regional data and knowledge, developing regional standards and guidelines for infrastructure, and promoting climate-resilient policies and investments. The key target sectors under this project such as agriculture, transport, water, planning, and finance will be piloted in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. ADPC is implementing the component 2 focusing on Enabling Climate Resilient Policies and Standards for Development with the following sub-components:

  1. Advisory services for policy and investment interventions
  2. Promoting Climate Resilient Design and Standards
  3. Implementation Support to Climate-Risk Management Solutions
  4. Innovation for Climate Adaptation and Resilience

C. Innovation for Climate Adaptation and Resilience

The sub-component “Innovation for Climate Adaptation and Resilience” is implemented as part of the World Bank’s Program for Asia Resilience to Climate Change Multi Donor Trust Fund (PARCC TF Grant) with funding support from the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Within the overall implementation mechanism of the CARE for South Asia project it will support crowd source innovative and disruptive technology solutions for resilience through grant awards, matchmaking and pilot-testing challenges across South Asia Region (SAR). This involves a number of actions (e.g. formulation of resilience innovation, call for proposal, judging, award, presentation of results, documentation, and outreach) in phases and is expected to stimulate innovators to explore more climate-smart approaches to development in the region. The resilience innovation is further divided into two categories:

  1. Climate Innovation Challenge (CIC): The objective of the CIC is to support innovators and developers of disruptive technological solutions by providing grants in developing climate resilience and adaptation in SAR countries. To achieve the above objective a challenge for innovators will be launched to identify and pilot solutions to address challenges related to reducing climate risk and build the resilience of states and communities in SAR countries those that are vulnerable to such risks and extremes
  2. TechEmerge Resilience India Challenge: It aims to crowd in private-sector expertise and market- based innovations for resilience through use of disruptive technologies to address climate and disaster resilience challenges in India. The Initiative is launched in partnership with TechEmerge, an award-winning matchmaking program from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) that brings together technology companies worldwide with leading organizations in emerging markets. The Initiative brings together technology innovators from around the world including home- grown Indian companies.

Section II: Scope of Work

The World Bank, in partnership with Consumer Electronic show (CES) and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), has announced the 10 winners of the TechEmerge Resilience India Challenge.

The ten innovators have been selected for a total of eleven solutions from across the world and out of over 300 entrants. The innovators will be piloting their cutting-edge technology solutions across India, to deal with the twin challenges of immediate disaster response in the time of COVID-19, and building long term disaster and climate resilience. The innovators will support and implement the solutions as agreed with State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) in Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Kerala, and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The chosen tech innovators and entrepreneurs offer solutions that leverage disruptive technologies such as AI, IoT, drones, 3D printing, digital platforms, and more. These solutions have stood out from among hundreds of others from across the world in a six-month-long process that involved rigorous evaluation by subject matter experts and independent jurors on specific criteria vis-à-vis the State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs), who are the end-users. The criteria include demonstrated technology, ability to execute, fit to needs, and innovation etc. As part of the implementation, ADPC is providing grants to the selected innovators as well as management and technical support to implement the pilots in the selected States in India. The details on the solutions and innovators are provided in Annex-1 of this ToR.

ADPC is seeking consultancy services of a firm or organization operating lawfully in India to provide technical support to the selected innovators in terms of engaging, monitoring and evaluating technical aspects of the solutions being implemented.

Key tasks are as follows:

Task 1: Engagement and Progress Monitoring

Work in consultation with the ADPC team and closely with the pilot solution providers and conduct regular consultations with end-users (NDMA and SDMAs) to ensure the solution provider is implementing the project in accordance with the needs of the end-user, and as per the signed grant agreement with ADPC. For this purpose, regularly organize online, face-to-face and on-site meetings with the stakeholders. Provide updates to ADPC at least once a month describing the progress, status of meeting the deadlines by innovators, feedback from SDMAs, and any challenges or issues that need to be addressed and resolved. A detailed engagement and monitoring plan will be required as part of the proposals by interested firms, which will be finalized with the selected firm before the contract signing stage.

Task 2: Technical Assessment and Quality Control

Review selected pilot projects, and provide recommendations, if any, on improvements that might be needed to achieve the outputs and key result metrics indicated by selected Innovators. Through engagement and in consultation with relevant technology experts, depending on the technology being applied in pilot solutions, the Consultant is expected to provide technical support and monitor the implementation of pilot projects together with the ADPC team. Details on technical assessment 

and quality control methodology is required as part of the proposals by interested firms, which will be finalized with the selected firm before the contract signing stage.

Task 3: Coordination and Communication

Efficient coordination and communication between users, solution providers and stakeholders are crucial, and the firm will assess progress regularly along with timely identification of risks, to be addressed by solution providers. Activities will include, among others, collecting the required documentation for pilot project approval/kick-off, tracking pilot progression including adhering to the technical work plan, working with innovators to receive and review monthly reporting per pilot, conducting onsite visits for each pilot project, periodically review the innovators and solution providers vis-à-vis integrity risks and reputational risk, and reviewing final reports. Interested firms will be required to outline the coordination and communication mechanism both with SDMA and innovators.

Task 4: Technical Evaluation

  1. Mid-term corrections: Organize regular technical review of pilot solutions to ensure the technical requirements are met in line with the agreed specifications and details of pilot solutions, information is documented, implementation issues (if any) are identified and addressed, and the clients and the innovators are supporting the pilot as expected.
  2. End of pilot review: Support the organization of a stakeholder review of outcomes and recommendations at the end of each pilot solution. Special attention to be paid to articulating all the lessons learned, technical and other resources, training etc., that will be needed for up-scaling.
  3. Provide ADPC with regular updates. The frequency of sharing updates with ADPC will be finalized with the selected firm before the contract signing stage.

Section III: Deliverables

The consulting firm will be required to submit the following deliverables as a result of the implementation of activities as outlined in Section II above:

  • Monitoring Plan within 15 days of the signing of the contract
  • Weekly/monthly reporting on the technical progress of pilot project implementation, including challenges and mitigation plan
  • Consultation and workshop reports
  • Final report on outcomes of all pilot projects (including development impact), lessons learned, and any recommendations for the future design of such a program.

The exact timeline for key deliverables will be discussed and finalized with the ADPC team with the acceptance of the Engagement Plan.

All final deliverables, unless otherwise agreed upon, shall be handed over to ADPC in a compatible electronic format.

Section IV: Key Qualification, Selection, Reporting and Others

A. Qualification:

  • Must have proven experience in designing, analyzing, and performing innovation solutions for disaster and climate resilience.
  • Demonstrated experience in providing technical advisory services on technology-based projects, oversight and monitoring of implementation.
  • Proven technical and managerial expertise and experience in guiding implementation of pilot projects leading to the scaling-up of technology.
  • Experienced human resources, including experts in technology, monitoring and evaluation required to deliver the outputs. The firm or organization will offer a combination of technical and management skills. The team will comprise at least one technology expert and one project management and monitoring specialist. The minimum requirements for the key position are:
Title Qualifications Experience

Technology Experts (at least 2 experts with experience in and understanding of the technologies involved in the solutions)

Advanced University Degree in Engineering, Information Technology or related field

5 Years

Project Management and Monitoring Specialist

University Degree in any field with Project Management experience

5 Years

Note: Applicants can propose additional expertise in view of the technical requirements of the assignment

  • The consulting firm must have a track record of operating in India. The team must have an excellent proficiency in communication and writing skill in English.
  • The consulting firm should have proven experience of undertaking assignment of similar nature and scope.
  • The consulting firm must provide a bill of quantity to outline payment schedule against expected deliverables.

B. Selection Method

  • The firm will be selected in accordance with ADPC’s procurement process and in compliance with the World Bank Procurement Regulations. Consulting Firm will be selected based on Consultant Qualification Selection (CQS).

C. Reporting Relationships

  • The firm/organisation will directly report to the Innovation Grant Management Team of ADPC. D. Contract Duration
  • The contract duration will be for twelve (12) months.

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