Introduction

CLASP’s Clean Energy Access program focuses on using energy efficiency to drive and accelerate the affordability, and social and environmental benefits, of access to clean energy throughout the Global South. CLASP, in collaboration with Nithio, is launching a Productive Use Appliance Financing Facility (the Facility) to provide procurement subsidies, consumer financing support, capacity building small grants, and advisory services. The facility will improve appliance affordability for consumers, unlock private investment in PUA markets at scale, and rapidly accelerate PUA market growth globally. The facility will also generate a foundational data set on PUA market activity and the developmental impacts of PUA usage, helping to address the longstanding dearth of high-quality data and knowledge gaps across PUA technologies and national markets. Much of this data will be derived through numerous phone interviews with end users, as part of the verification process.

The facility is currently operating across the off-grid, mini-grid, and grid-connected (utility) sectors in the following target countries: Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, and Uganda.

Background

The monitoring and evaluation (M&E) component of the Facility will provide a wealth of quality learnings for a data-hungry sector. Consumer impact research is critical to the program’s success and influence. M&E for the program will investigate how increased access to consumer financing and procurement subsidies can impact and improve development outcomes for SMEs and individuals. Development outcome indicators include, but are not limited to, changes in income, reduction of drudgery, time-savings, access to financial and banking services, and business expansion.

Timeline

Activities will begin in early 2023 and run through the end of 2024. CLASP hopes to engage a team for the life of the program.

CLASP anticipates that customer verification activities will commence in the spring of 2023 and will take place on a rolling basis. Teams responding to this RFP should anticipate finalizing the M&E Design no more than one month after contracting.

Deadline for Application: 19:00 ET on 3 February 2023

Application includes registering as a Consulting Partner and submitting the technical and financial proposals per the instructions below.

Scope of Work

CLASP seeks to hire an M&E contractor or contractors to design the verification process required by the Facility and design and conduct impact surveys. The contractor(s) will be expected to work closely with CLASP and other program partners to develop, implement and deliver the following:

• A thorough, scalable protocol for M&E activities that supports high-level analyses and assessment of the program’s developmental impact.
• An impact survey design and implementation strategy that leverages all required reporting activities.
• A consistent reporting template that clearly conveys both aggregate and customer level M&E results.

Indicative Contractor(s) Activities ((finalized in collaboration with the contractor(s))

• Align on the goals and objectives of the research, refine workplan
• Familiarize themselves with the companies, technologies, and consumer demographics within the scope of the Facility
• Conduct desk research on additional, relevant consumer impact research methods to ensure that this MEL work is aligned with related efforts in the sector and follows best practices
• Design appropriate research plans to measure development impacts
• Directly administer or coordinate administration of survey tool with end users impacted by the Facility
• Consolidate and clean consumer impact survey response data
• Make raw data available to CLASP on a timely basis as requested and/or determined prior to project kick-off
• Refine development impact analysis with CLASP

Reporting and Deliverables

The M&E contractor or contractors will be expected to work closely with CLASP and other program partners to develop the following:

• M&E strategy document, which also outlines the justification for the M&E approach presented
• Questionnaires for SMS and phone surveys
• Data collection method and cleaned data
• Development impact analysis

The contractor can also expect to provide occasional support to CLASP’s program reporting efforts.

Key Qualifications

The contractor(s) should have experience using sophisticated, sound statistical mechanism to ensure the data collected is robust and minimizes implementation costs. This includes:

• Significant sample sizing for each participating company;
• Strata identification and segmentation;
• Randomization mechanism.

The monitoring and survey design and implementation plan must be easily scalable to match the quantity of appliance sales that occur in each participating country over the life of the program.

CLASP encourages firms or teams with deep experience related to M&E for development, results-based financing, and/or energy access to submit proposals. Experience with and access to modern M&E software and technology (i.e., tablet-based software with photography and geo-coding functionality) is preferred. Experience with M&E in East Africa’s off-grid solar market is preferred.

Submittal

Register as a Consulting Partner

Interested parties must register as a CLASP Consulting Partner.

Submit Technical and Financial Proposals

Interested parties should submit separate technical and financial proposals as electronic files through this form. The file should be named as per the following example: “Contractor Name: Financing Facility RFP.” The project proposal is limited to 15 pages. Proposals longer than 15 pages will not be considered.

The Project Proposal must include the following elements:

• Biography or organizational profile
• Examples of relevant, related work and associated references
• Evidence of organizational ethics and anti-corruption policies and practices
• CVs and related summaries of experience and qualifications of applicable staff
• Detailed proposed timeline of deliverables and milestones for the M&E activities listed in the Scope of Work section above (i.e., items 1 and 2)
• Proposed approach for the Scope of Work

The Financial Proposal must include the following elements:

• Detailed budget that includes a breakdown of costs for staff time, expenses, and incidentals for the M&E activities listed in the Scope of Work section above (i.e., items 1 and 2)

PAUFF: For the purposes of budgeting, timelines, deliverables, and milestones, please assume that there are roughly 500,000 end users. Financial proposals should account for the program’s multi-year timeline and should account for the possibility of staff pay raises, promotion, and turnover. Budget proposals should be capped at $250,000.

Submissions are due by 19:00 ET on 3 February 2023. If necessary for the selection process, CLASP may request additional information from any applicant. All questions may be addressed to Siena Hacker at shacker@clasp.ngo.

Optional At This Stage – Fill Out Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ)

All contractors must fill out the PQQ before working with CLASP. This can be voluntarily completed at the RFP stage but will be mandatory if a contract is awarded.

The PQQ is a thorough due diligence screening aimed at gathering legal and financial information on prospective partners/vendors. Contract awards are conditional upon passing the due diligence screening. Organizations that have already completed the PQQ do not need to complete it again unless the structure of the business has changed. If you are unsure, please email Andrea Testa (atesta@clasp.ngo) to determine next steps.