Consultancy - Measuring the impact and cost-effectiveness of the DRR interventions by DG ECHO funded disaster preparedness work in Bangladesh

Background

NARRI (a consortium of six international NGOs) is working for Disaster Risk Reduction in Bangladesh with the financial support of European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Directorate General (ECHO). NARRI intends to analyse the impact and cost effectiveness of DRR interventions that have been carried out over the years through various ECHO funded action plans by the partner organizations. The activity aims to uncover the evidence supporting the effectiveness of the disaster risk reduction in parallel with the disaster response work, and will also capture the contribution of the DG ECHO funded programmes towards achievement of Hyogo Framework of Action (2005-2012) in Bangladesh.

On behalf of NARRI consortium Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), a UK-registered international development agency established in 1984 and working in Bangladesh since 1991, is looking for a professional company/organization to complete the proposed study.

Job Description / Responsibility

The European Commission`s Humanitarian aid and Civil Protection Directorate General (ECHO) provides rapid and effective support to the victims of disasters beyond the European Union`s borders. On average, approximately 16% of ECHO humanitarian relief is a response to sudden-onset natural disasters (Source: CBHA). The importance of disaster preparedness is clearly recognised in ECHO`s mandate and in the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid adopted in 2007.
In 1996 ECHO launched a specific programme, DIPECHO (Disaster Preparedness ECHO) dedicated to improve the capacities of communities at risk to better prepare and protect themselves. DIPECHO projects are designed as pilot strategies for their region: their impact is multiplied when the strategies are systematically integrated into long-term development projects. Disaster preparedness also has a central place in the 23 principles for Good Humanitarian Donorship agreed in 2003 in Stockholm by leading humanitarian donors, including ECHO. Please refer http://ec.europa.eu/echo/aid/dipecho_en.htm) for further details on ECHO’s definition, objective and strategies.

National Alliance for Risk Reduction and Response Initiatives (NARRI) is a national level consortium consisting of six leading INGOs working in Bangladesh for increasing community capacity, awareness and skills to reduce disaster risks. The NARRI partners are ActionAid Bangladesh, Concern Universal, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief Worldwide, Oxfam GB and Plan International. Handicap International and HelpAge International are the two technical partners on issues related to persons with disabilities and aging. All these pioneers in the DRR sector are working in the most disaster-prone areas across the country with a multi-hazard approach covering both rural and urban areas. In Bangladesh, NARRI is implementing project titled ‘A Disaster Resilient Future: Mobilizing Communities and Institutions for Effective Risk Reduction’ funded by DG ECHO under the Sixth DIPECHO Action Plan. Please refer http://narri-bd.org/ for further details about NARRI consortium.
NARRI intends to analyse the impact and cost effectiveness of DRR interventions that have been carried out over the years through various ECHO funded action plans by the partner organizations. The activity aims to uncover the evidence supporting the effectiveness of the disaster risk reduction in parallel with the disaster response work, and will also capture the contribution of the DG ECHO funded programmes towards achievement of Hyogo Framework of Action (2005-2012) in Bangladesh.

The research is planned to use various tools and processes including cost benefit analysis, case studies etc to capture impact and cost effectiveness of these DRR interventions from an in-depth standpoint. There being an added emphasis from Government, donors and international organisations in DRR based programmes alongside a trend of mainstreaming DRR into other development programmes, but all these important stakeholders have always been requiring demonstrative measures and evidence. In Bangladesh programmes, this remained limited to project monitoring and evaluation, hence requires systematic impact analysis to provide a strong evidence base. The research is also expected to identify areas in which ECHO funded projects managed and/or failed to demonstrate the effectiveness and adequacy of the models piloted, promote them, including providing support to replication, and succeeded to create a supportive environment (institutional an technical) for these models to be effectively replicated.

NARRI partners are implementing project title ‘A Disaster Resilient Future: Mobilizing Communities and Institutions for Effective Risk Reduction’ funded by Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO – European Commission). The project is endeavoring to support and complement strategies that enable local communities to better prepare for, mitigate and respond adequately to natural disasters by enhancing their capacities to cope and respond, thereby increasing their resilience and reducing vulnerability. The project is being implemented in 10 districts of Bangladesh vulnerable to multiple hazards such as floods, cyclone and earthquake. Apart from capacity building of the community, the project aims at addressing the community through various awareness raising measures, assess risks of the communities and implement risk reduction action plans and enhance coordination, collaboration and information exchange for the sustainability of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) activities through consultative and participatory process at national and regional level.

European Commission has been extending its support to the people at risk of disaster through its humanitarian aid office (ECHO) under the different phases of the ECHO DRR Action Plans for South Asia. ECHO`s humanitarian mandate prescribes a focus on saving lives, providing relief and thus assisting the most vulnerable groups. ECHO acknowledges it is impossible to prevent hazards; the impact of the disasters can be limited through the preparedness of the populations and investing in effective response-mechanisms at local, regional and national level and therefore prioritizes `people-oriented` preparedness measures.

ECHO’s contribution to disaster preparedness goes well beyond the DIPECHO programme as many of ECHO’s major humanitarian financing decisions include disaster preparedness or mitigation of disaster impacts as an objective. Even post-disaster emergency responses often have a risk reduction element. The DIPECHO programme has been designed to demonstrate measures and initiatives at community-level and can serve as components of integrated disaster risk reduction strategies for a municipality, district or even at national level. However, Disaster Risk Reduction is a long-term development effort and ECHO therefore encourages other stakeholders that can provide longer-term financing to systematically integrate disaster risk reduction in their strategies.
Please refer http://narri-bd.org/ for further details about DIPECHO projects. Information pack on various DIPECHO interventions can also be collected from the NARRI secretariat.


Key Components and rationale

Component 1: Assess Cost Effectiveness of DIPECHO project interventions in Bangladesh

Investment in DRR by the stakeholders in Bangladesh including Government remains very much limited and a continuous challenge. There remains a debate and uncertainty to establish worth of disaster risk reduction in comparison to disaster response/humanitarian and development efforts. All stakeholders involved in the process in particular the donor agencies increasingly insisting having evidence on value and success of risk reduction efforts over disaster response.

Various organisations have been quoting that every 1 $ spent for DRR can save up to a total of 7 $, but it is not possible to generalise such findings or statements for every DRR project implemented. Important variables affecting achievement includes proper design, implementation and phase out of such planned interventions and projects. These savings are not necessarily always in the form of money and are also transformed as lives, livelihoods, infrastructure and assets. Evidence on the costs and benefits of DRR is presently very limited both in terms of location and hazards. It is also expected to identify and highlight through case studies various approaches on sound linkages and interactions with local authorities and other local/ national actors have allowed resource mobilisation on the basis of needs / risks assessments.

Component 2: Stocktaking of various DRR initiatives and measure contribution towards HFA

DIPECHO is now in its 6th cycle in Bangladesh working with communities, institutions and local authorities in combination to develop the resilience capacity at local and national level. The programme demonstrated context specific, collaborative and effective unique models and approaches in the country, which is a pre-requisite to effectively promote adoption, replication and scaling up of these DRR initiatives by the local population, institutions and the GoB. At national and local level, study team will be required to trace and evaluate LRRD in DRR through some examples in order to draw lessons from these scenarios.

On the other hand, the Hyogo Frame Work of Action has been initiated since 2005 and Bangladesh is a signatory country. HFA has set five priority areas of actions and it is important to assess the impact and contribution of DIPECHO intervention in progress of Bangladesh towards disaster risk reduction specifically with regards to HFA. The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) recent reporting on the implementation of HFA (2005-2015) shows a variety of interventions against the 5 indicators (Source: country report to AMCDRR 2010, Incheon). These include national government initiatives with range of stakeholders as well as initiatives by the civil society organization and the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society. These interventions will continue and would form a basis of the overall achievement towards the end of 2015.

Follow up activity - Rolling out of findings with the wider stakeholders

It is expected to create systematic ways to share the study findings with the wider stakeholders government, donors and I/NGOs. The proposal should include a section with recommendations on the roll out/ sharing strategy.

Key Outcomes Expected

• To indicate the impact level of the DRR interventions under DIPECHO action plans.
• To measure the contribution of DIPECHO projects towards comprehensive disaster risk reduction and achievement of HFA in Bangladesh.
• To conduct a cost benefit analysis (value for money) of these DRR interventions from the impact level.
• To develop policy brief to scale up (adopt and replicate) successful DRR practices across Bangladesh (for national government and other stakeholders).

Scope of the study

• Researches to geographical areas covered under major ECHO funded DRR actions implemented in Bangladesh including 6th DIPECHO Action Plan.
• Definition of impact indicators with parameters and tools to be proposed in the detailed proposal
• Identify areas in which ECHO funded projects demonstrated the effectiveness
• milTo identify the strengths and weaknesses of various implementation approaches and models promoted by individual NARRI partners.
• Assess adequacy and promotion of the pilot measures, including support to replication. It is required to propose and highlight important factors of success and key challenges faced and/ or existing limitations in the detailed proposal
• Consider both scientific methods and perception based methodology while conducting CBA
• Discussion with different partners implemented this program
• Discussion with other key institutions (some of the impacts will also be at the institutional level)
Recommended tools -
• Cost–benefit analysis (CBA) is one of the tools that can be used to evaluate savings of DRR projects at various levels individual, household. School, community, local government, national government and DIPECHO partners). It will also play a very important role in advocacy and decision-making on disaster risk reduction (DRR) by demonstrating the social and economic value of incorporating DRR initiatives into risk reduction planning.
• CBA will not be the only option and other important tools can be included into the design. This may include cost-efficiency analysis, multi-criteria analysis and simply improved project planning and monitoring etc.
• Parameters to evaluate impacts will be set in consultation with the DIPECHO team, and existing guidelines of ECHO and NARRI will be considered wherever required.

Deliverables

• The final report/ research paper, written in English and Bangla
• A brief synthesis of the report (not more than 10-15 pages), both Bangla and English
• A power point presentation highlighting the rationale, methodology, key findings, challenges, its utility as an advocacy tool
• Conducting a day workshop at the national level including NARRI partners and relevant govt. level stakeholders.
• Case studies. Proposal submitted will inform the number, type, scope, audience and format of the case studies required to carry out research

Potential Target Users

• DG ECHO and other donors
• NARRI member organizations
• DRR practitioners across different countries
• Other organizations and primary DRR stakeholders
• Relevant Govt. authorities.

Existing Literature

- Final reports of past DIPECHO Action Plans (for field level verification),
- Call for proposal by ECHO (expression of interest)
- Case Studies and Success Stories (for field level verification),
- Different DRR modules developed by NARRI partners (for judging field level impact and value for money)
- Field reports of different individuals/organizations associated with the program
- Evaluation reports of DIPECHO conducted by individual organizations
- CBA tool by IFRC
- Evaluation reports of DIPECHO programme at South Asian level by DG-ECHO
- Report of lessons learnt and sharing workshop at National Level and South Asia level by DG ECHO
- HFA
- DM Act
- National Plan for Disaster Management

Responsible organization

ActionAid Bangladesh and Islamic Relief Worldwide, on behalf of NARRI Consortium

Preparation of the Proposal

The bidder shall bear all cost associated with preparation and submission of the proposal. The bidder shall submit two (2) copies of technical and two (2) copies of financial proposal in a single envelope. The technical and financial proposals should be marked properly and should include the name and detail contact address of the bidder.

Validation of the Proposal

All cost should be quoted in BDT and will remain valid up to Forty Five Days (45) from the day of proposal submission.

Withdrawal/Termination

This agreement shall be effective between dates mentioned in agreement, unless otherwise earlier terminated.
IRW-B may terminate this agreement with immediate effect on occurrence of any irregularities, anomalies relating to project implementation and non-compliance of any terms and conditions as agreed upon in this agreement.
In the event of a major natural disaster, war or major civil or political unrest this agreement may be renegotiated and jointly revised between the two parties recognizing any consequent change in the environment for implementation.

Outline of the Technical Proposal

The proposal should not contain any publicity documents/brochure of the bidder. It is mandatory that the proposal should maintain the following format:

Topic Page Limit

• Understanding of the Task Maximum 2 pages
• Technical aspect of the proposal Maximum 8 pages
• Proposed team of the study with names and project designation Maximum 2 pages
• Total Pages 12 pages
• The detail CV of the team members should be included in the annexure of the technical proposal.

It is desirable that the proposal should contain the above mentioned sections only. No company informal/brochure/list of previous assignments should be included in either the body or the annex of the proposal.

Outline of the Financial Proposal

The budget of the task should be broken down in details as like the following format:

A. Literature Analysis and consultation with other stakeholders
B. Field Visit Cost (including all NARRI partners’ fields)
C. Facilitation cost of a day workshop for presentation on the research findings
D. Agency Commission (if applicable)

The bidder may include/exclude any necessary heads from the above mentioned format. All the pages of the financial proposal should be signed by the respective person of the bidder organization. All costs should be inclusive of VAT and TAX.

Competence Required

• Excellent technical knowledge experience on DRR and CBDRM.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience on conducting cost benefit analysis (CBA) or relevant research.
• Significant professional background in conducting qualitative evaluation (PRA methods) studies, CBA, impact analysis including data analysis.
• Previous experience in conducting similar work for international donors will be preferred.
• Relevant academic background.
• Excellent analytical, interpersonal, communication and reporting skills.
• Team should have combination of members fluent in various languages used in Bangladesh mainly Bengali and English.

Supervision

The external consultant shall be under the supervision of PM-DRR of Islamic Relief Worldwide, and in close consultation with NARRI Secretariat and Project Management Unit (PMU) of NARRI consortium.

Confidentiality

All the outputs e.g. reports, documents, information etc product by this assessment will be treated as ECHO and NARRI’s property. The above mentioned outputs or any part of it can’t be sold in any manner, but can be used or reproduced by the assigned organization / individual with proper acknowledgment of DG ECHO and NARRI member organisations.

Miscellaneous

• All the terms & conditions of this agreement are binding upon the parties and once executed this agreement no provision of this agreement can be questioned.
• After the termination of the project, all rights described in this agreement will automatically be transferred to an organization designated by NARRI.
• Any modification and amendment to the present agreement shall be made in writing with the consent of both the parties.
• Both parties assume that this assignment does not go against the rules and regulations of the Government of Bangladesh.
• This agreement shall be subject to Bangladeshi Law. Jurisdiction shall be Dhaka. Before undertaking legal steps the parties shall enter into discussion in order to find an acceptable settlement of such dispute by direct negotiation.
• Expected start date is January 25, 2011.