The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) is seeking a partner organisation to lead its new initiative to capture and synthesise learning from projects at the sub-national level.

CDKN’s overall purpose is to support developing countries to design and deliver climate compatible development. We provide a combination of advisory work, research and knowledge-sharing, tailored to countries' needs. We are partnering with progressive national and local governments to design and deliver policies for low carbon, climate resilient, and inclusive development. We are now working in 40 countries, disbursing £20 million a year.

CDKN began in 2010 with funding from the UK government's Department for International Development (DFID) and now also receives funds from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. It runs initially for a five year period to 2015.

CDKN’s projects to support climate compatible development span from the sub-continental to the city or local level. As CDKN enters its fourth year, we are embarking on a range of initiatives to share learning from our programme to date. One of these is a major initiative to capture and synthesise lessons learned from our work at the sub-national level in developing countries.

Reflecting our portfolio to date, the focus will be on our projects to mainstream climate adaptation and/or mitigation action into sub-national governmental policies and programmes in cities, states and provinces (as opposed to small, purely community-based initiatives, not yet closely aligned to government decision-making).  However, it is important to note that a key feature of our portfolio is the role of multi-stakeholder participation at the sub-national level.

We welcome tenders from international agencies and consortia that specialise in organisational learning to partner with us on this endeavour. The work will run initially to July 2014, with the possibility of an extension.

This initiative will involve:

• working closely with a core CDKN team to formulate key learning questions for our sub-national projects based on some pilot work that is already underway; liaising with individual project teams (including external suppliers) to write up a first round of analysis;
• convening a workshop of key project partners in June 2013 in Bonn, Germany during the UNFCCC intersessional meetings and ICLEI Resilient Cities Congress to share experiences and present selected findings to an international audience;
• driving forward the publication of a series of background papers and policy briefs on CDKN and its partners’ experiences with sub-national climate compatible development in the first half of 2014.

The project team must include the following skill sets:

• Specialism in organisational learning;
• Experience in comparative case study research for policy audiences;
• Established track record of engagement with policy audiences in a range of developing countries;
• Demonstrable expertise in climate compatible development, including a firm grasp of common climate adaptation and mitigation issues in developing countries;
• Highly honed editing and writing skills in English; Spanish fluency an asset but not essential;
• Demonstrated effectiveness in producing and disseminating policy briefing materials across a range of formats (eg powerpoint, policy briefs, background papers, multimedia);
• Experience in CDKN’s deep engagement countries desirable but not essential; these currently include Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Peru, Caribbean region.

Preference will be given to bidders that can offer a lead specialist for consistent engagement with the CDKN programme to July 2014; this person would be available as the day-to-day contact with the core CDKN team, available for twice-weekly phone meetings with the CDKN London team and in-person meetings in London approximately once a quarter. This lead specialist should be able to draw upon additional expertise in their organisation or consortium as necessary.

In order to express an interest in this opportunity, please complete the following 2 steps:

Step 1:
Send an email to the CDKN Procurement team including the following information:

• Subject line: Expression of interest: Sub-national climate compatible development:  learning from CDKN’s experience (AAGL-0030a)
• Organisation/company name
• A sentence confirming your interest in bidding for the work
• The name of any partner organisations you anticipate that you will work with
• A contact name(s), email address and telephone number for the most appropriate person(s) to send further information to regarding bidding

Step 2:
Your nominated contact(s) will receive an email from the CDKN Procurement team, including an Invitation to Tender document, a Non Disclosure Agreement, a copy of CDKN’s Expense Policy and the CDKN Terms and Conditions on 23 January 2013.  Complete the documents where relevant and submit these to the CDKN Procurement team before the deadline stated below.

You may express your interest, according to the steps above, any time up until the final deadline (14 February 2013); we will begin mailing the tender packs to interested bidders from 23 January 2013 onwards.

Both steps are to be completed and your documents [including the signed Non-Disclosure Agreement] submitted by the deadline of 17:00 UK time on 14 February 2013.

Read the responses to questions submitted to CDKN Procurement in respect to this opportunity.