Evaluation of the economic valuation activities of the Global Mechanism. Terms of reference for the evaluator

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1 UN Campus, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, Bonn, Germany Postal Address: PO Box , Bonn, Germany Tel. +49 (0) Fax: +49 (0) /99 Web-site: Evaluation of the economic valuation activities of the Global Mechanism Terms of reference for the evaluator Consultancy refenrece: CCD/16/EDM/45 Established in 1994, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification - UNCCD - is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. Its 10-Year Strategy states as the vision "to forge a global partnership to reverse and prevent desertification/land degradation and to mitigate the effects of drought in affected areas in order to support poverty reduction and environmental sustainability". The Convention s 195 Parties work together to improve the living conditions for people in areas affected by land degradation, to maintain and restore land and soil productivity, and to mitigate the effects of drought. The UNCCD is particularly committed to a bottom-up approach, encouraging the participation of local people in combating desertification and land degradation. The Convention is supported by two entities: the UNCCD secretariat that organizes the intergovernmental process and facilitates cooperation and information exchange among countries, development partners, the scientific community, the civil society and other key stakeholders; and the Global Mechanism (GM) that promotes the mobilization of resources for sustainable land management. Background Long-term effective action against desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) requires commitment and investments by the private sector. Governmental policy-making and public finance play crucial catalytic roles in enabling and attracting private investments in land, and in promoting land use and management in a manner that is economically viable while being environmentally and socially sustainable. The GM has supported countries affected by DLDD to build such an enabling environment by the identification of drivers and barriers for sustainable land management (SLM) and, on that basis, by planning approaches and sources for resource mobilization. One of the tools used for this support was country level assessments of the economic value of land, coordinated by the GM and undertaken in collaboration with national and international experts. These assessments were conducted in six countries: Cambodia, Costa Rica, Eritrea, Panama, Tanzania and Zambia. They were accompanied by capacity building workshops and partnership building initiatives for broader national and regional reach. Action to address DLDD entered into a new context in October 2015, as the UNCCD country Parties endorsed the concept of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) as a strong vehicle for

2 Page 2 driving the implementation of the UNCCD, which derives directly from target 15.3 of the sustainable development goal (SDG) 15. The global political recognition of LDN and the opportunities that it implies challenge the previous approaches under the UNCCD at global as well as country levels. Accordingly, the GM and the Convention secretariat are focusing their work on further clarifying the LDN conceptual framework and facilitating national LDN target-setting and implementation. The GM is developing approaches that could assist national decision makers in identifying and evaluating alternative scenarios to achieve LDN, with a special focus on the quantification of environmental and socio-economic co-benefits provided by land as an accelerator of other SDGs. Such approaches could also support the decision makers in estimating the investments associated to alternative LDN scenarios and identifying the right policy mix to establish a sound LDN enabling environment. The approaches that the GM is developing are conceptually linked with economic valuation, and their development will benefit from the identification and analysis of successes and challenges of the work carried out so far at country and regional/global levels. For this purpose, the UNCCD Evaluation Office (EO) is commissioning an independent evaluation of the economic valuation activities of the GM. The outcomes of the evaluation may be useful also for the GM partners that continue working on economic valuation of land. Intervention logic of the GM economic valuation The long-term objective (expected impact) of the GM on economic valuation was to create an enabling environment for increased, stable and predictable funding for sustainable land management. These activities were part of a broader setting to build national capacity on mobilization of financial resources and to establish integrated financing strategies (IFS) and investment frameworks (IIF) by (i) developing national approaches to SLM financing, (ii) generating knowledge and providing advisory services to countries, and (iii) increasing knowledge sharing and dialogue on financing for the UNCCD. Of these, the economic valuation activities were particularly contributing to point (ii). At the level of each participating country, the economic valuation activities were to demonstrate the contribution of SLM to economic development through a comprehensive assessment of land; at the regional and global levels, they were to result in an assessment of the inherent economic values of land and estimates of the cost of land degradation. The economic value assessments were conducted in the abovementioned six countries as part of the GM framework to establish the IFS. The activities were implemented between 2012 and 2015 and funded by voluntary contributions. At the global level, the GM founded the OSLO consortium as a global partnership to promote responsible land-use by demonstrating the economic value of terrestrial ecosystems and generating socio-economically viable and environmentally sustainable land use options. The OSLO and the GM contributed to the Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) initiative, which aims to elevate the debate on the responses to land degradation at the level of intergovernmental policy processes through a global awareness raising campaign based on the assessment of the costs of action as opposed to the costs of inaction.

3 Page 3 Specifically, the GM contributed to the ELD scientific working groups, which led to the adoption and refinement of ELD s analytical methodology. The methodology used for country-level EVL assessments was based on an adaptation of the 6-steps conceptual approach developed by the OSLO consortium, which included: - Assessment and quantification of the ecological characteristics and spatial distribution of land resources in the study area, based on the analysis of land cover types; - Identification of the types, quantities and values of ecosystems services from different land cover types and agro-ecosystems categories; - Analysis of the extent, severity and location of land degradation pressures and risks such as soil erosion, deforestation and forest degradation and land encroachments; - Assessment of trends over time in the distribution, values and utilization of ecosystems services derived from land resources; - Analysis of the contribution of land resources to local livelihoods and national economic development and assess trends over time in these relationships; and/or - Identification of suitable locations for and estimate the potential rates of return from alternative SLM interventions. Evaluation objectives and main users The evaluation is intended to provide an overall independent assessment of the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the GM work on economic valuation. As feasible, it will also look for an indication of progress toward the long-term objective of this work. The evaluation will identify and document lessons learned and make recommendations that will be used to advise the future approaches relating to economic valuation, including the upcoming country activities under the ELD initiative. The information provided through this evaluation will assist the GM and its partners in further developing global cooperation building on economic valuation and in replicating the successes and avoiding the problems that came up. It will also offer evidence-based information of the effectiveness and efficiency of the GM economic valuation activities to the involved donors and other interested stakeholders. Evaluation scope and key questions The evaluation will assess the overall level of achievement of the expected results of the GM work on economic valuation. It will reconstruct a theory of change for economic valuation as a tool for improving resource mobilization for SLM, which will be the conceptual starting point for considering the progress made and identifying the lessons learned. The evaluation will look at three out of the six involved countries (namely Cambodia, Panama and Zambia) with the aim to clarify the relevance, effectiveness and sustainability of the country level outputs and outcomes within the overall framework of the IFS establishment. It will also consider the efficiency of the activities carried out.

4 Page 4 At the global level, the evaluation will assess progress/developments, building on the OSLO and ELD work as well as the country level outcomes, with particular emphasis on possible influence in the decision-making at the UNCCD Conference of the Parties. The analysis will also reflect the GM work against other economic valuation initiatives such as the World Bank -geared Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services and the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Initiative. The evaluation will be built around specific evaluation questions, which will be finalized during the first phase of the evaluation. The indicative evaluation questions are the following: 1. Relevance: did the economic valuation concept respond to stated priorities and needs of the UNCCD? 2. Effectiveness: were the planned country level outcomes achieved? Were the delivered outputs necessary and adequate for achieving the outcomes? Were there unexpected outputs or outcomes? 3. What outcomes attributable to the GM economic valuation work were generated at global/regional levels? Have they led or contributed to further progress or developments in economic valuation of land resources? 4. Efficiency: was the budget realistic for achieving the planned results? How well was the operational work planning and implementation conducted? Did the activities benefit from partnerships? 5. Sustainability: is there an indication or evidence of use of the economic valuation products that were generated in the participating countries? To what extent were the country level stakeholders consulted on the outcomes/results? 6. Were the country level outcomes used for global or regional level work? 7. Is there an indication or evidence of influence of the GM economic valuation work in the UNCCD COP decision-making, which can be at least partially attributed to this project? METHODOLOGY, TOOLS AND MAIN DELIVERABLES The evaluation process will consist of three main phases, which will be for inception, data collection, and synthesis and dissemination of findings. The main deliverables of each phase are presented below. Evaluation phase Methodological focus Deliverables Inception Structuring the evaluation Inception report Data collection Desk studies Interviews Compilation of data, first analysis Data compilation

5 Page 5 Synthesis and dissemination Synthesis and analysis of the data Preparation of conclusions and recommendations Exchange with project staff and UNCCD staff Finalisation of the report Summary / presentation of main findings and recommended action Evaluation report The evaluation process will start by a briefing with the UNCCD evaluation office (EO) and the GM staff working on economic valuation. On this basis, the evaluator will prepare a brief inception report containing - (Re-)construction of the theory of change for GM economic valuation work and a related intervention logic - The final versions of the evaluation questions - The approach and methodology for the overall assessment and for answering each evaluation question - The work plan and schedule for completing the evaluation. The data collection will include a systematic analysis of relevant documents, further interviews of the GM staff and resource persons, and direct feedback from the country and global level stakeholders. Case studies will be prepared for three countries Cambodia, Panama and Zambia. The synthesis phase will be devoted to the preparation of the final report. On the basis of the first data analysis, the evaluator will prepare a summary of findings and emerging recommendations. This summary will be presented to, and discussed with, the EO and the GM staff working on economic valuation, with the aim to ensure factual correctness and have a first reaction of the involved UNCCD staff to the outcomes of the evaluation. For this purpose, the evaluator will travel to Bonn for 1-2 days. Following the discussions with the UNCCD staff, the evaluator will complete and submit the final report to the UNCCD Executive Secretary through the EO. The final report will be published through the regular UNCCD communication channels and the recommended action will be considered in internal UNCCD processes. All reports prepared during the evaluation will be in English and submitted in electronic version (Word document). SELECTION OF THE EVALUATOR The evaluator is recruited and managed by the EO. The GM staff working on economic valuation supports the evaluation process by facilitating access to all relevant information sources and documents related to the evaluation subject and providing feedback on the evaluation questions, notes and reports delivered by the evaluator. The candidate should meet the following qualifications:

6 Page 6 - Professional expertise in evaluating development cooperation projects. Experience in conducting evaluations for UN system organisations will be an asset. - Knowledge of intergovernmental processes and platforms concerning land degradation. - Knowledge of the UNCCD country level programming. - Experience in economic valuation. - Excellent written and verbal communication skills; experience in producing high quality written reports. - Fluency in English. The candidate to carry out the evaluation may not have prior involvement in the activities that are to be evaluated. INDICATIVE WORKPLAN AND TIMETABLE The assignment will start as soon as possible and the final report is expected by the end of September. Tentatively two travel days are planned for the evaluation mission to Bonn. The fee will be based on the UN standards for consultancy remuneration, taking into account the level of expertise of the evaluator, the workload and the travel required for completing the assignment. SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS Applications should be submitted by to staffing@unccd.int, together with a UN Personal History Form or CV, specifying the position: CCD/16/EDM/45- Evaluation of the economic valuation activities of the Global Mechanism. The deadline for applications is 28 July Only applications submitted by the deadline will be considered. Applications will not be acknowledged; only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Please address your application as indicated above and please do not address or copy your application to an individual at the Secretariat. Candidates who do not receive any feedback within two months of the deadline should consider their application as unsuccessful. Date of issuance: 22 July 2016