Call for Proposals: Institutional Strengthening support to South Africa

Deadline: 24-Jul-23

The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) is inviting proposals for institutional strengthening support to South Africa on the institutionalisation of the climate change mitigation system tools to support the implementation of its NDC.

ICAT provides countries with tailored support and practical tools and methodologies to build robust transparency frameworks needed for effective climate action in sync with national development priorities. The projects ICAT supports relate to: building or enhancing transparency frameworks for mitigation; building a monitoring and evaluation approach for adaptation; building or enhancing frameworks to track progress in implementing nationally determined contributions; assessing the impacts of climate policies; estimating or enhancing projections of greenhouse gases; integrating and/or aggregating climate actions at the subnational level and for non-State actors; building a tracking system for just transition processes; establishing or enhancing a climate data system; and putting in place a framework to track climate finance.

To support these areas, ICAT offers a suite of practical, open-source tools and methodologies to provide effective support to the transparency efforts of countries around the world.

ICAT is an unincorporated multi-stakeholder partnership steered by the Donor Steering Committee (DSC), conformed by its donors, Austria; Canada; Germany; Italy; the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF); and ClimateWorks Foundation (CWF), and includes the UNFCCC Secretariat as the dedicated UN body with a climate change policy mandate, and UNOPS as an ex-officio member. The Initiative is managed by UNOPS on behalf of the DSC. Within UNOPS, the ICAT Secretariat manages ICAT day-to-day activities, coordinating and guiding the work of the implementing partners.

Cities, regions and businesses are key drivers of climate change mitigation and fundamental players in the implementation and achievement of national climate goals. A better understanding of climate actions at different scales and by different actors can support the development of realistic and comprehensive targets, support effective policy planning to achieve the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement, and help countries identify key subnational and non-state approaches that can be scaled up.

South Africa signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the World Resources Institute (WRI) cooperation in the field of climate change in March 2023. The overarching purpose of the MoU is to support the South African National Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) and provincial governments to develop and institutionalize MRV tools for the successful implementation of the country’s NDC and to improve transparency of action. The MoU has identified priority activities for implementation for the DFFE/WRI 2023/2024 collaboration cycle, which include an ICAT supported project titled “Implementation of ICAT supported project: Analysis of the GHG impacts of committed/ pledged non-state or sub-national actions”. The key priorities outlined in the above ICAT supported project include the supporting South African government in the development of sub-national (provincial) climate change monitoring and evaluation system (PCCIS), capacity support on sub-national GHG inventory compilation, provincial target setting to enhance sub-national contribution to NDC commitment and the tracking of aggregated GHG emissions at national level.

Scope of the Grant/funding

• The technical support provided to the country is expected to contribute in implementing key policy instruments of the national climate change mitigation system; these include capacitating provincial governments on target setting and the development of provincial monitoring and evaluation frameworks, which entails sub-national GHG Inventory compilation, and the institutionalization of the provincial monitoring and evaluation systems. The core project outcome will be the provincial contribution towards the achievement of the national NDC commitment.
• The scope of the ICAT/WRI NSA project includes supporting national governments in gaining an enhanced understanding of the variety of non-state and subnational mitigation action occurring in the country. The project will support the South African government to enhance technical capacity to assess and integrate non-state and subnational climate actions into national climate policy response and decision-making process. Non-state and subnational action refers to climate action by businesses, cities and provinces/states – either individually or in partnership with national government or other networks/initiatives. While the emphasis is on assessing existing actions, it can also include working with the national government to encourage subnational and non-state action at scale. Within this overall scope, there is considerable flexibility to define the assessment objective(s) that would be in line with the country’s priorities and areas of work in alignment of the country’s NDC needs, Climate Change Bill provisions and national development priorities. Furthermore, the project will address existing constraints and gaps in meeting South Africa’s enhanced transparency requirements and tracking progress towards achievement of its NDC.
• South Africa needs support tools to build institutional and technical capacity to implement its NDC and to comply with the new transparency framework under the Paris Agreement as well as to inform national policy and decision making processes. The project will assist in enhancing the role of sub-national governments in the climate change mitigation system and to enhance the implementation and the tracking of the Climate Change Bill. Additionally, the project will allow for the bottom-up implementation of SETs in line with the National Climate Policy mandate.

Funding Information

• The grant funding available under this Call for Proposals is USD 170,000.
• Duration: The expected duration of the grant/funding is twelve (12) months.

Activities & Outputs

• Activity 0: Inception Phase
  • Undertake a stocktaking exercise to determine progress made by provinces in terms of emissions MRV and GHG inventories, climate actions articulation and target setting. Consultations will be made with provinces to assess the status quo on current tools and systems and their current plans for target setting as well as any existing climate actions by provincial and local governments.
  • Select a set of provinces that are at a similar place in terms of their progress towards M&E systems or target setting so that some workshops could be aimed at these specifically under the ICAT project. On the basis of the status quo report above, develop a selection criteria/rationale and select provinces for customized training workshops under the ICAT project.
  • Develop a SharePoint system to manage implementation of project activities, peer to peer exchange and lessons learnt.
  • Organize an inception workshop to present and facilitate a discussion on the scoping report and objectives of the project.
• Outputs
  • A situational analysis/scoping report on the adoption of target setting by provinces, including a landscape analysis of climate actions in provinces
  • A set of provinces for the ICAT project selected
  • A share-point system to help provinces administer project implementation
  • Report from the inception workshop

• Activity 1: Capacity building on provincial GHG inventory (all provinces) & addressing constraints and challenges in developing MRV framework for the provincial GHG inventory (selected provinces)
  • Outputs:
    • Capacity building workshop for provinces on the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories
    • Selected provinces capacitated on institutional, legal and procedural arrangements
    • Selected provinces capacitated on QA/QC framework
• Activity 2: Training on climate action impact assessment
  • Outputs:
    • Stakeholder training report on the application of the CAAT tool for impact assessment training.
• Activity 3: Capacity building on developing and reporting of provincial and local emission targets as per the national sectoral guidelines
  • Outputs:
    • Stakeholder training report
    • Report on the capacity building sessions of provinces on target setting
• Activity 4: Sharing of knowledge and lessons learnt
  • Outputs:
    • Lessons learnt report
    • Project validation report

Target Beneficiaries

• South Africa’s sub-national government is constituted of nine provinces. Each province has a legislature made up of 30 to 90 members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs). Some provincial laws are approved by Legislatures. The Legislature also passes a provincial budget every year. Legislatures are elected in provincial elections that are held with national elections every five years. The Climate Change Bill, under Chapter 3, mandates the establishment of provincial and municipal forums on climate change to coordinate the sub-national climate change response, and to report to local authorities and to the President Coordinating Council on climate change issues. The project provides capacity support to provinces on the monitoring and evaluation tools necessary to comply with the provisions of the Bill.

Eligibility Criteria

• The following categories of applicants are eligible to apply under this Call for Proposals:
  • Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
  • Foundations
  • Indigenous peoples organizations (IPOs)
  • Civil society organizations (CSO)
  • Grass-roots organizations
  • Institutions or federations
  • Ethnic organizations
  • Academic and research institutions
  • For-profit entities (registered companies)
  • Individuals
• Applicants eligible to apply under this Call for Proposals with regard to country of registration and nationality (for individuals) are as follows: South Africa

For more information, visit Call for Proposals.