- Expression of interest
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- 23.09.2024
- 11.10.2024
Nefco as the facility manager of the Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa (BGFA) intends to to procure consulting services from a qualified consulting company or a consortium of companies (“Consultant”) to undertake a mid-term evaluation of the BGFA programme.
The BGFA Programme is an innovative financing programme managed by Nefco. The BGFA was established by Nefco in 2019 on Sida’s initiative and is now a EUR 126 million programme funded by Denmark, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. The ultimate aim of the programme is the creation of long-term self-sustainable markets that can and will continue and expand beyond the expected four-year country programme implementation and access to BGFA financing. BGFA provides results-based financing complemented with technical assistance to incentivise the investee companies to establish themselves or scale-up their services in Sub-Saharan markets and enable them to sell more affordable and sustainable off-grid energy services to customers in remote areas. Further information on the BGFA is available at beyondthegrid.africa.
The purpose of the mid-term evaluation is to ensure accountability by assessing the quality of the programme’s implementation and its success in achieving its expected outcomes and impacts. Additionally, the evaluation aims to provide valuable learning insights to inform necessary modifications to the remaining programme implementation, adapting to the evolving context since the programme’s inception. Furthermore, the evaluation seeks to take an anticipatory view of the future development of the off-grid energy sector, identifying the programme’s potential role in this dynamic context, including possible follow-up activities. All the components together allow documenting and communicating the results achieved – and challenges faced – by BGFA so far. Additionally, its purpose is to outline a roadmap for the remaining years of implementation. The learnings from this evaluation will contribute also to the broader development of the off-grid energy sector in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The objectives of the evaluation are to:
- Assess the quality of programme implementation, document the results achieved and challenges faced, and evaluate its success in achieving expected outcomes and impacts.
- Provide insights for necessary modifications to adapt the remaining implementation to the evolving context.
- Anticipate future developments in the off-grid energy sector and identify the programme’s potential role in the evolving context.
- Outline a roadmap for the remaining years of implementation.
- Contribute to the design of future off-grid energy programmes.
Assignment start date and duration: The Assignment is expected to start in January 2025 and be completed at the latest by October 2025.
Maximum budget available for the assignment: Up to EUR 400,000 (exclusive of VAT) which includes reimbursable costs (such as travel). The budget also includes a contingency reserve of 10% of the total budget.
Funding source: Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa via Nefco.
Eligibility: There are no eligibility restrictions on the nationality of the Consultant.
Consultant Profile: The Consultant will be a company or a consortium of companies with in-depth experience from independent evaluation of results-based financing programmes in the context of off-grid energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Questions and Answers:
Any questions on this Invitation for Expression of Interest shall be provided in writing to Nefco by e-mail: at procurement@nefco.int with copy to petra.mikkolainen@nefco.int no later than 30 September 2024 after which all questions will be compiled by Nefco without any editing in the form they are sent to Nefco. Answers to the questions will be published on this page. Kindly see beneath the published questions.
Timeline
The preliminary timeline is as follows: Nefco expects to distribute a Request for Proposal, including Terms of Reference with specific evaluation criteria among the shortlisted Consultants in October 2024. The expected submission deadline for Consultants’ proposals is mid/late November 2024 and the Assignment is expected to start in January 2025.
Expressions of Interest shall be submitted in English in one pdf file by email to Nefco at procurement@nefco.int with copy to petra.mikkolainen@nefco.int with subject: “BGFA Mid-Term Evaluation – Expression of Interest” to reach Nefco no later than 11 October 2024 at 12:00 (noon) local time in Helsinki (Eastern European time – EET). Please allow sufficient time for the submission taking into account the time differences and noting that Nefco will not accept any late submissions.