Consultacy: Multi-Media Communications, UNCDF

Background

LoCAL is the UN Capital Development Fund’s global facility to promote climate change resilient communities and economies by increasing financing for and investment in Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) at the local level in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The LoCAL programme applies the principles of fiscal decentralisation, local investments, and effective local public financial management to climate change. It is a mechanism that enables: the mainstreaming of CCA into local government’s planning and budgeting systems; increased awareness and response to climate change at the local level; and increased amount of finance available to local governments (LGs) for CCA.

LoCAL provides a transparent, efficient and effective mechanism – performance-based climate resilience grants (PBCRG) – for local governments to access funds for climate change adaptation through existing financial and public expenditure management systems, while reinforcing incentives for good performance, building capacity and supporting policy development for climate change adaptation at local level.

LoCAL’s methodology channels funds directly to the local level while providing incentives for local governments to mainstream climate-adaptive thinking into everyday planning and investment, thereby encouraging systematic analysis of changing weather patterns and their impacts on local economies. The LoCAL facility is therefore globally the first climate financing mechanism, which exclusively targets local institutions and their adaptation capacities. Over time, the aim is for local governments to build their revenue generation and management capacities so that they can match external funding with own resources as part of their resilience building plans.

LoCAL operates primarily in LDCs and will be introduced in three-tiered intervention as follows:

Phase I: The first phase involves an initial scoping followed by a testing in a small number of LGs with a baseline defined by the scoping study. It introduces the PBCRG for one or two fiscal cycles; tests the relevance of the investment menu and fine tunes the methodology; and provides necessary information for the refinement of the baselines and the design of phase II together with concerned national authorities.

Phase II: This is a national pilot of LoCAL and is designed based on the lessons of the phase I. It scales up to around 5% to 10% of all LGs in a country. The purpose of this phase is to demonstrate the effectiveness of LoCAL and establish conditions for a full national rollout.

Phase III: LoCAL PBCRG will be gradually rolled out to all LGs based on the results and lessons of the phase II. The role of LoCAL project in this phase is threefold: provide quality assurance and support the PBCRG and the annual assessments; and provide independent and verifiable reports on the quality and impact of the resilient adaptive investments.

The LoCAL initiative is currently operational in Bhutan and Cambodia. In 2013 began with a summit meeting in Cotonou, Benin in February at which 9 African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mozambique, Niger and Uganda) signed up to the roadmap that leads to the signing of the LoCAL MoU and joining the initiative. By end 2013 Bangladesh and Benin had joined Bhutan and Cambodia as partners in LoCAL. A few more partner countries are expected to be on board in 2014 and 2015.

It is important to document the outcomes/ impact of the project in the pilot countries, particularly at community level, and publish the findings in a high-quality accessible format suitable for dissemination as background information on the project and for building understanding and sharing experiences to new participating countries. Therefore, the LoCAL Secretariat plans to build upon the findings of the participatory evaluations by carrying out and documenting, in accessible, multi-media formats, cases studies based on the project implementation in selected local government in all countries. This consultancy assignment will contribute to wider visibility of the donors and also the project’s future resource mobilization.

This solicitation is for a Long-Term Agreement (LTA) for one year and renewable up to three years linked to satisfactory performance of the consultant. “LTA” refers to a mutual arrangement whereby the Consultant will provide services as required, over a specific period of time. An LTA specifies the unit price (daily rate), allowing for a framework agreement to be used when the Consultant’s services are needed.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide professional support for LoCAL project, in line with UNCDF communication strategy using a broad range of media, including video, web pages, and social media;
• Design and develop the story line for the case studies for countries as assigned;
• Develop contents for publication of case studies in form of ready-for-printing materials, web-page, and short video segments suitable for download or for presentation in conference events;
• Produce content for LoCAL website, including story writing, video segment preparation, etc.;
• Supports social media initiatives;
• Review findings of participatory evaluation, monitoring, assessment carried out by implementing partner(s) and/or UNCDF and other related documents;
• Prepare draft publication materials and submit to LoCAL Secretariat for review;
• Finalize publication materials following comments from LoCAL Secretariat; 
• Provide video interview segments with English sub-titles;
• Identify climate change adaptation websites (in addition to UNCDF in-house websites) on which LoCAL material could be placed, and determine the format requirements for material to be posted on these sites;
• Assist UNCDF to place case study materials on suitable UNCDF and non-UNCDF websites;
• Revise overall promotional materials of LoCAL, i.e. brochure, with insertion of the findings from the case studies;
• Carry out fieldwork including video interviews with key stakeholders including local administrators at the village, district and provincial level, community leaders, citizens in the selected communities, representatives of key donors, and UNCDF officials;
• Observation on the project implementations;
  Depth interview with the beneficiaries (communities and LoCAL administrators) and other stakeholder; 
• Film the LoCAL events and undertake video interviews with key participants at the events for website.

Duration of Initial Contract: up to 100 days per year

Expected Duration of Assignment: up to 3 years

Application deadline: 18-Aug-14

Read more and apply here.