GROW-Proposal for Re-Analysis of the Renewable Energy Sector...

Generating Revenue Opportunities for Women and Youth in the West Bank (GROW)
Terms of Reference (ToR) – Request for Proposal
Analysis of the Renewable Energy sector and opportunities for women’s economic empowerment within the sector

Background:

With more than 30 years of experience, CowaterSogema is Canada’s global leader in management consulting services specializing in international development. We have managed the implementation of over 800 projects in more than 80 countries around the globe for clients such as DFID, DFAT Australia, the World Bank and Global Affairs Canada. We work with governments, partner organizations, communities and civil society to design and implement sustainable solutions that generate lasting social, economic and environmental impacts. Our adaptive approach to management has led to our award-winning work and recognition as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies in 2017 and 2018.
CowaterSogema International Inc. (lead), in collaboration with the Palestinian Businesswomen’s Association (Asala) and the Near East Foundation (NEF) Palestine, will implement a 4-year initiative that aims to enhance economic empowerment and increase prosperity for low-income women and youth in the West Bank.

Generating Revenue Opportunities for Women and Youth in the West Bank (GROW):
The goal of the GROW project is to enhance economic empowerment and increase prosperity for low-income women and youth, particularly female youth, in the West Bank. The project will seek to achieve this by adopting a gender transformative approach aimed at recognizing, formalizing, and amplifying women’s existing roles in key value chains whilst promoting women’s increased decision-making and control over income, assets, and productive resources. This project will focus specifically on value chains, where significant potential exists to empower women, including female youth, to move beyond their essential but largely unrecognized roles, ultimately contributing to their increased agency in both economic and social spheres.
One of the important challenges limiting women’s economic empowerment is the lack of access to reliable and affordable energy. In energy intensive activities, high electricity costs and the unreliability of the connection contributes to high production costs, thereby limiting overall productivity and competitiveness of women’s businesses and co-operatives. The project will seek to address these challenges by developing small scale photovoltaic (PV) generation projects to provide cost effective and reliable access to power where a potential exist to significantly enhance the productive capacity and competitiveness of selected women’s groups or SMEs.
Moreover, the growth of the RE sector in the West Bank may provide valuable opportunities for women employment and entrepreneurship, particularly female youth. The project will therefore seek to promote employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women in the RE sector. Specific attention will be given to both graduates and entry level technicians, with a focus on youth.

Objectives and expected results
As part of the inception phase, CowaterSogema is building a detailed, current and well informed knowledge base on relevant sectors and refining the activities to be carried out under the implementation phase. CowaterSogema is therefore commissioning a study that will provide an overview of the RE sector in the West Bank with a focus on identifying high impact opportunities to promote women’s economic empowerment in the sector.
The expected result is a study that will enable CowaterSogema to finalize the design of activities and interventions to be undertaken by the project, supported by a robust analysis of relevant issues. It is expected that the study will include (i) an accurate and up to date diagnosis of the RE sector with a focus on issues most relevant to women’s economic empowerment, (ii) an assessment of the labour market for women in the RE sector, and (iii) a framework to assess and structure small solar PV projects.

Scope of Work
The Scope of Work is organized into three tasks.
Task 1 – Situational Analysis of the Renewable Energy sector in the West Bank
The Consultant(s) will prepare a situational analysis of the renewable energy sector and highlight the most relevant issues in terms of addressing the project’s objectives and key entry/target points that would most benefit women and female youth. It is expected that the overview will include:
i.A snapshot of the situation in the power sector as a whole and the RE sector in particular, that will provide an overview of all the institutional, commercial and technical issues relevant to the project. This will include a review of:

- National plans, strategies and priorities
- Institutional arrangements within the sector
- Technical and commercial provisions regulating the sector, especially with regards to RE
- Current and planned investments and initiatives in the sector from both the government, the donor community and the private sector, with a focus on RE.

ii. A review of the opportunities and challenges in the RE sector.

- High level identification and analysis of the challenges associated with the provision of reliable and affordable power
- Analysis of the potential of RE to address these challenges
- Identification and analysis of the main challenges to RE development
- Key trends and opportunities to expand the development of RE and maximize the impact of RE on the economy. The Consultant will highlight value chains/industries that stand to benefit the most from RE technologies.

iii. A gender analysis of the RE sector in the West Bank. This component of the study will:

- Provide a snapshot of the situation in the West Bank regarding women’s access to power. The consultant will study how lack of access to power is affecting women, especially from an economic perspective. This study should include the collection and presentation of disaggregated quantitative data, for instance in terms of age, geography and location (ie A, B and C).
- Analyze the impact of access to power on economic activities most relevant to women’s economic empowerment. The consultant will in particular identify energy intensive value chains and activities with a high percentage of women participation or high potential for women participation and economic empowerment.

Task 2 - Conduct an assessment of the Renewable Energy employment market
The Consultant(s) will conduct an assessment of the labour market in the RE sector, with the goal of identifying employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women, particularly female youth. They will:
i. Identify, categorize and quantify employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women in the RE sector over the next ten years. The data provided will be disaggregated in a way to allow CowaterSogema to design support activities for specific target groups. In particular the Consultant will study the feasibility of initiating a program to train women with a low level of education to work as technicians in the solar PV industry, based on similar experience in other countries.

ii. Review unemployment data for women trained in relevant fields of power and RE and diagnose the barriers and challenges for these women to gain employment in the sector. Recommend initiatives to reduce unemployment of qualified women in the sector (eg internships, mentorships). Details should be provided on the feasibility of the recommended initiatives.

Task 3 – Develop a framework for assessing the feasibility of solar PV installations in support of women’s economic empowerment and structuring related projects
i. The consultant will analyze and recommend options for structuring PV systems installation projects to maximize the impact on women beneficiaries (women’s groups, SMEs). These may include various forms of onsite/off PV grid generation, grid connected power sale, and net metering (including virtual net metering). The consultant will present three PV installation project examples taken from value chains/industries that are both energy intensive and present a high impact potential on women’s economic empower to illustrate the application of the proposed structure. The cost-benefit model for PV installations developed by CowaterSogema will be shared with the consultant.

Deliverables

An Inception report, within one week of contract signature, that will include

- A revised workplan for carrying out the assignment
- A revised methodology for data collection
- The list of stakeholders to be consulted
- A summary of preliminary findings, highlighting any important issue or recommendation that would need to be considered by CowaterSogema.

A final report, to be submitted within seven weeks of contract signature, that will include:

- A situational analysis of the RE sector in the West Bank (including an overview of the power sector as a whole)
- A gender analysis of the RE sector in the West Bank, including identification of the value chains/industries which present a high potential of impact for RE solutions on women’s economic empowerment
- An analysis of women’s employment in the RE sector
- A framework for assessing the financial feasibility of solar PV systems and structuring projects
- Three PV installation project examples to illustrate the application of the model and project structuring options

Timeframe
The assignment will be completed in seven weeks. The assignment is expected to start June 28th , 2018.

Budget and Payment Terms
Fees will be paid up to a maximum number of days agreed upon under the contract. Eligible expenses will be paid based on actuals. Twenty five percent of the fees will be paid upon approval of the inception report and 75% paid upon approval of the final report.
Minimum Requirements
The Consultant should propose the team it considers appropriate to carry out the assignment. At a minimum, the team should include the following experts:
Renewable Energy Specialist / Team Leader

- Relevant university degree
- At least 10 years of experience, conducting sector diagnoses as well as market studies institutional, policy, regulatory and feasibility studies on renewable energy
- Advanced skills in quantitative and qualitative data collection, analysis and presentation
- Experience in the region
- Demonstrated ability to manage consulting assignments and consulting team to deliver written reports.
- Ability to oversee cost benefit analyses/models for renewable energy projects
- Excellent communication skills in English both verbally and in writing Fluent
- Knowledge of Arabic is considered an asset.

Labour Market Expert

- Relevant university degree
- At least 10 years of experience, conducting labour market analyses, projecting demand for specific employment sectors and categories and analyzing barriers to employment
- At least 10 years of experience recommending policy, communications and capacity/building training initiatives to improve employability of specific groups and ultimately increasing employment for these groups.
- Advanced skills in quantitative and qualitative data collection, analysis and presentation
- Experience in the region
- Excellent communication skills in English both verbally and in writing Fluent
- Knowledge of Arabic is considered an asset.

The team should also include adequate female representation as well as expertise on women’s economic empowerment, consistent with the purpose of the GROW project and the scope of the study.
Proposal content
i. Brief presentation of the firms/individuals highlighting experience on similar assignments
ii. Approach and methodology for carrying out the assignment
iii. CVs of the proposed key experts, highlighting past relevant assignments
iv. Financial proposal. The financial proposal should include:

The total fees for carrying out the assignment in Canadian dollars.
A breakdown of the fees showing the daily fee rate in Canadian dollars as well as the number of person-days for each expert.
An estimate of expenses (expenses will be reimbursed based on actuals).

Submission of proposals

To apply, please send your proposal consistent with the above content requirements to [email protected] no later than June 25th, 2018.

Please mention ‘GROW-Proposal for Re-Analysis of the Renewable Energy Sector in the West Bank’ in the title of the email. 

We thank all applicants, however only the successful bidder will be contacted