Deadline: 10-Sep-21
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) Secretariat intends to conduct an evaluation of the regional implementation team (RIT) of the East Melanesian Islands Biodiversity Hotspot to inform future involvement in the region. The RIT provides strategic leadership for the program, which is implemented in three countries: Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Objectives
The objective of the evaluation is to inform decisions around CEPF’s future involvement in the East Melanesian Islands Biodiversity Hotspot in the event that future funding becomes available. This may include decisions by CEPF donors regarding selection of a RIT for a future phase of investment, and the optimum programmatic and management approaches for coordinating any future investment.
Duration: The evaluation will be conducted between 1 October 2021, and 15 December 2021. Draft deliverables will be prepared no later than 30 November 2021, and submitted to the CEPF Secretariat for review. Final deliverables, incorporating comments from the CEPF Secretariat, will be completed by 15 December 2021.
Criteria
- The evaluation will look closely at the components and functions of the East Melanesian Islands RIT, as set out in the terms of reference, and evaluate the performance of each member against the following criteria:
- Relevance: Were the activities undertaken relevant to the ecosystem profile, RIT terms of reference, the geography of the hotspot, the capacity of civil society there, and the global monitoring framework of CEPF?
- Efficiency: How efficiently was the budget allocated to the RIT converted into results?
- Effectiveness: What were the strengths and weakness of the RIT structure and capacities regarding effective delivery of results?
- In addition to directly evaluating the performance of the RIT, lessons learned from the CEPF grants portfolio regarding the RIT role will be compiled and reviewed in the context of the following themes:
- Coverage: To what extent does the portfolio of grants awarded to date cover the strategic directions and investment priorities set out in the investment strategy for the hotspot?
- Impact: To what extent have the targets set in the hotspot ecosystem profile for impacts on biodiversity conservation, human wellbeing, civil society capacity and enabling conditions been met?
- Accessibility: Does the grant portfolio involve an appropriate balance of international and local grantees, considering the relative strengths of different organizations regarding delivery of the investment strategy and considering the priority given by CEPF to building the capacity of local civil society?
- Adaptive management: In what ways has the development of the grant portfolio been constrained by risks (political/institutional/security/health) or taken advantage of unanticipated opportunities?
For more information, visit https://www.cepf.net/grants/open-calls-for-proposals-2021/evaluation-lessons-learned-rit-east-melanesian-islands