Increasing access to electricity and clean cooking solutions through innovations in service delivery for conflict and crisis affected communities are essential for enhancing community resilience, improving quality of life and decreasing dependency on humanitarian aid. Recent estimates show that over 80% of displaced communities residing in refugee camps rely on solid fuels (firewood and charcoal) for cooking meals, and over 90% lack access to reliable power for lighting, charging phones, and other daily needs.

 

In recent years, various innovation programmes have funded innovations in energy access in humanitarian settings providing seed funding to energy access innovation which have potential to scale, yet system issues such as short-term funding cycles, high staff turnover and limited technical energy expertise in humanitarian organizations, barriers between public/private and traditional procurement which stifle innovation and scale, and the classic humanitarian-development divide. In addition, despite some working business models delivered by private sector social enterprises, there remains a lack of information around the investment opportunities, and misconceptions around risk profiles of investment opportunities into clean energy in humanitarian contexts. These factors deter the scaling energy access solutions in conflict and crisis affected communities, and illuminate the need for research into the persisting issues limiting the pathway to scaling energy access in humanitarian contexts and systemic issues which perpetuate project ‘failures’, in order to learn from the current body of evidence and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of funding spent on the topic.

 

Recent research into ‘failures’ in energy access from Engineers without Borders, Acumen and SELCO Foundation have created space for open dialogue to learn key lessons from past energy projects and programmes. This research focused on energy access ‘failures’ and learnings within the fields of emergency humanitarian, refugee and disaster response, in order to document key learnings and support the sector on how to better use funding and expertise to reach more communities affected by conflict and crisis with quality energy access services, linked to wider protection, health and climate goals.

 

This consultancy is a collaboration between Innovation Norway’s Humanitarian Innovation Programme (HIP Norway) and The Global Platform for Action on Sustainable Energy in Displacement Settings (GPA). The GPA partnership platform will be used to collaborate with other key stakeholders for delivering the outputs, including NORCAP, Humanitarian Grand Challenges Innovation Programme, and other humanitarian partners.

 

 

About HIP Norway

 

HIP Norway grants funding and support to develop, test and scale new solutions that can contribute to better and more efficient humanitarian assistance. It supports innovation projects led by humanitarian organisations where the expertise and technical know-how from the private sector is applied to find solutions to humanitarian challenges. The programme seeks bold ideas that aim to improve resilience against natural disasters or improve humanitarian response in crises and conflict, specifically projects addressing issues related to green response, health and sanitation, food security, innovative financing, and protection. HIP Norway is fully financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by Innovation Norway.

 

The GPA is the global initiative to promote actions that enable sustainable energy access and use in displacement settings, as laid out in the Global Plan of Action Framework. The GPA strives to remove barriers to energy access in humanitarian settings by providing a collaborative agenda for energy, development, and humanitarian partners to deliver concrete actions of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) for displacement contexts. It promotes and contributes to the humanitarian sector's transition to renewable energy, which will increase efficiency and reduce costs and carbon emissions. Hosted by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the GPA Coordination Unit galvanises collective action towards the GPA's realization.

 

 

Objectives of the consultancy

 

• Support donors, funders and implementers with evidence on why energy access projects fail in humanitarian contexts, and how to invest or deliver energy based on good practices.
• Establish a ‘failures framework’ on root causes of why different types of clean energy projects/investments fail or are not able to scale in humanitarian contexts, and recommendations for stakeholders on how to break the failure cycle.
• Create spaces and processes for reflecting on previous implementation experiences and learn together, aiming to normalize discussions around learning from failures.
• Providing guiding recommendations for innovation programmes on most effective areas of investment/needs for funding to increase access to clean energy in humanitarian contexts.

 

Activities

 

• Conduct desk research on existing literature related to humanitarian energy projects, innovation.
• Hold interviews with innovation programmes, humanitarian partners, private sector companies with experience in humanitarian contexts, humanitarian donors/funders, refugee-led or community-led organisations, government stakeholders responsible for energy policies and refugee/emergency responses, development banks, energy companies, investors and micro-finance institutions.
• Provide a draft PowerPoint template for reflecting on failures and learnings from innovation projects.
• Write report and conduct peer review with key stakeholders.
• Prepare and deliver the session at SELCO Foundation Impact/Failures Forum.
• Deliver the Donor Roundtable.
• Deliver the webinar and blog to launch the report.

 

Deliverables

 

• Report on humanitarian energy failures and learnings, with a typology of common failures and concrete case studies with lessons learned.
• A template and suggested procedure for learning from innovation projects to document failure and success factors, strategies of adaptation/pivoting during the project implementation and lessons learned from the project.
• Attendance at the SELCO Foundation Impact/Failures Forum in February 2025 to deliver a dedicated sessions on humanitarian energy failures.
• Roundtable with innovation, energy and humanitarian donors and funders to share key insights and recommendations from the report.
• Report dissemination through an online webinar and blog to launch the report to an external audience

 

 

Timeline

 

The consultancy is planned to start January 2025 and will be comprised of 30 days of work over 3-4 months.

 

 

Award criteria

 

The contract will be awarded on the basis of which tender has the best ratio between price or cost and quality, based on the following criteria:

 

• Total cost of project - Please complete the price schedule in Appendix 1of the tender document.
• Experience in humanitarian innovation, energy access programming - The supplier must describe past experience working on humanitarian innovation, energy access programming
• Proficient research and writing skills (able to summarise complex ideas into actionable recommendations) - Please provide three examples of past research
• High level of qualitative data analysis skills - Please provide three examples of past research
• Experience with donor and funder engagement and advocacy - Please describe past donor engagement and advocacy experiences

How to apply

 

The tender must be submitted by e-mail to Dominica Eva Rosenlund at dominica.eva.rosenlund@innovasjonnorge.no by the deadline, COB Dec. 16th

 

All e-mails must include the title of the consultancy in the subject line of the e-mail: Humanitarian Energy Failures and Learnings Report.

 

Tenders must be submitted in English.

 

Please submit the requested information and documentation in accordance with the qualification requirements and award criteria in the tender document.

 

The tender document and all other information pertaining to this call is available here: Request for tender | Humanitarian Innovation Programme

 

All questions related to this call may be sent to Dominica Eva Rosenlund at dominica.eva.rosenlund@innovasjonnorge.no.