| Overview : RFP FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY CHALLENGE FUND (RECF) MID-TERM REVIEW - Overview of current implementation status in RECF Uganda
In 2017, UNCDF launched the RECF: Clean Cooking Window and Solar window aiming to co-invest in commercially driven business ideas that can achieve breakthroughs in the uptake of clean, affordable and high-quality clean cooking and solar PV solutions for households, businesses and communities across Uganda. UNCDF has invested in 11 partners selling a range of clean cooking solutions to households, schools and other institutions, and refugees under the clean cooking window. The solar window has investments in 11 partners deploying decentralised solar energy solutions such as off-grid solar PV and solar mini-grids in Uganda. Most of the projects supported incorporate an element of consumer finance through PayGo or other instruments, and one partner provides receivables financing for solar companies. The RECF portfolio now consists of 22 diverse partners in terms of the renewable energy solutions and the maturity of the companies. The portfolio now includes: - Clean cooking solutions (including improved cookstoves for households and institutions such as schools, biogas, briquettes)
- Solar home systems for home lighting, phone charging, and home entertainment such as radio and TV (pico lanterns, large and small solar home systems)
- Solar-powered productive use technology such as water pump solutions, refrigerators, milling and drying machines
- Solar-powered mini-grid
- Special purpose vehicle financier for solar PayGo receivables
- SCOPE OF SERVICES, OBJECTIVES OF THE MID-TERM REVIEW AND TARGET COMPLETION
The mid-term review of the CleanStart Renewable Energy Challenge Fund in Uganda should follow the broader evaluation policy guiding principles, norms and criteria. Amongst the norms that the mid-term review seeks to uphold, the most important is that review exercises should be independent, impartial and of appropriate quality but also that they should be intentional and designed with utility in mind; in other words, that reviews should generate relevant and useful information to support evidence-based decision making. With this in mind, the review has been designed with the following overall objectives: - to allow UNCDF and the donors to meet their accountability and learning objectives, but also
- to ensure that the review can support the ongoing attempts by the programme and its funders to capture good practice and lessons to date in a sector which is still relatively new and innovative;
The mid-Term review is expected to assess both the results to date (direct and indirect, whether intended or not) from the first years of implementation as well as the likelihood of the programme/ Renewable energy challenge fund meeting, its end goals on the basis of current design, human resource structure, broad implementation strategy, etc. It will seek to build – where appropriate – on the lessons learnt and recommendations generated from the Mid-Term Evaluation conducted in the first half of 2017. It is expected that the review will follow a forward-looking approach and provide useful and actionable recommendations to increase the likelihood of success by the end of the programme. Submission deadline: 11 May 2020 EST New York time. Proposals must be submitted to email: uncdf.procurement@uncdf.org |
