Invitation to Tender for Delivery Partner Reviews for projects in the International Climate Fund

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) wishes to appoint a contractor to complete reviews of up-to two potential International Climate Fund (ICF) delivery partners, to provide confidence that the UK’s Climate Finance investment is being well invested.

Description:

The UK is providing £3.87 billion through the ICF from 2011 to 2016 to reduce poverty by helping developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change, to take up low carbon growth and address deforestation. DECC has an objective to drive ambitious action on climate change at home and abroad. The UK government has set up the ICF to help developing countries tackle climate change and reduce poverty.

As one aspect of the due diligence each department responsible for spending UK climate finance must ensure it conducts a thorough and appropriate review of its intended ICF delivery partners to be confident of their ability to deliver the project effectively. Delivery partner reviews inform the decision on whether to spend on projects, by determining the appropriateness of the organisation to be partnered with, their expected effectiveness, the risk of failure to deliver and, if necessary, mitigating actions that can be taken.

DECC invests primarily through Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), who have a proven track record in spending UK climate finance. However, we have two bilateral projects in development which have recently received internal approval for which there is no record of DECC having previously worked with our preferred partners. Our internal approvals process considers a number of areas, including the projects’: alignment to ICF strategy, value for money, monitoring and evaluation, etc. As the partners are new to DECC this approval is dependent on a positive outcome of an in-depth review that provides evidence that our preferred partners are appropriate.

The objective of each review is to provide confidence that DECC’s ICF money will be well used, decrease the risk of fraud, malpractice, and corruption, and to learn more about the partner’s safeguards and ability to deliver. This will go on to inform our final funding decision, management arrangements, and risk management. The delivery partner review will consider the management structures, policies and procedures, skills and resources and examples of past projects of the organisation to ensure they are equipped to facilitate effective and appropriate delivery of the activities and objectives.

The process will provide an evidence based assessment of the risks involved in working with the potential partner and will inform DECC on:

• whether funding should proceed, and • if so, whether, and if so the extent to which any capacity and capability building is required and what safeguards are needed and by when.