Preparatory work for city-level strategy and granting

Please see detailed Expression of interest on Clean Air Fund website here: https://www.cleanairfund.org/about-us/jobs/consultancy-rfps/

Project Summary

Clean Air Fund is seeking organisations or consortiums with global or regional reach and expertise in air quality and research/evaluation to conduct situation analyses, stakeholder mapping and project scoping across six cities globally.

Clean Air Fund’s approach to delivering Breathe Cities is to recruit local staff who will be responsible for identifying and funding approximately $1m in grants per city that build evidence and support for the implementation of an ambitious air quality policy, funding across the pillars of the Breathe Cities global theory of change.

In a select number of cities, our partners, C40 Cities, provides direct delivery of the technical policy assistance pillar. This work is informed and supported by a needs assessment which maps policy priorities and capacity and delivery gaps in the city.

Whilst Clean Air Fund is recruiting new staff in new geographies where we do not yet have a presence, we are looking for an organisation to conduct preparatory work that helps us to understand the current situation, and landscape of air quality activity in the city, map stakeholders we can support, and identify potential project needs to fund.

This work is intended to complement and build upon the aforementioned needs assessment conducted by C40, by going beyond city officials and engaging directly with non-government stakeholders from the civil society and private sector, and potential project partners, to understand where there are impactful grant-making opportunities.

What we’re looking for

We are looking for organisations or consortiums with the capacity to work through local staff or consultants in cities around the world, to lay the foundation for developing the city-level strategies and grant making for the cohort of cities joining Breathe Cities in 2023-2024.

The work will need to be conducted simultaneously in 5/6 cities. These cities are currently being finalised and can’t be publicly named while we work to secure official confirmation into the programme, but will likely be based in 5/6 out of the following geographies: Kenya, Morocco, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines.

We are ideally looking for proposers who have local presence (either directly or through partnerships/consortiums) across all of these geographies. However, where this isn’t possible, we also invite proposals from partners that can have a presence across at least one region (covering at least a third of the geographies outlined above).

The overall goal of this work is to develop a succinct document for each city that will include a situation analysis, a stakeholder mapping of potential grantees, suggested priority areas of work and short concept notes (one pagers) of possible projects to fund as a priority. The structure / template(s) should be standardised across cities and will be discussed with the successful organisations at the beginning of the assignment (for each city, the deliverable should fit in a maximum of 5 pages, with additional annexes for the stakeholder mapping and concept notes of one page each).

Ultimately, this document is to be handed over to Clean Air Fund city-level staff when they start working with us, and should help them assess quickly the situation and be able to prioritise and develop a full city strategy effectively.

The required work in will include the following:

1. Develop a short situation analysis following a standardised template, to be provided, in the city, including:
2. A summary air quality ‘state of play’ regarding data availability1, main sources, health impact, affected communities, and key air quality policies and other contextual information in the city
3. An overview of existing air quality initiatives underway in the city, which Breathe Cities could build on
4. Conduct a stakeholder mapping in the city and develop a list of potential grantees that Breathe Cities could support, including:
5. Technical stakeholders that can undertake data generation activities (low-cost sensor deployments, citizen science and awareness raising projects, source analysis, health impacts assessment, etc.). A detailed list of possible project areas Breathe Cities could support will be provided.
6. Stakeholders that can build public awareness, campaign on air quality and support community action and engagement, including grassroot organisations, community groups and CSOs with an air pollution or related focus.
7. In ~2 of the cities, organisations or stakeholders that can provide technical assistance and capacity building support to city governments
8. Conduct a literature review, interviews/focus group discussions with potential grantees and key air pollution actors beyond city officials, to assess capacity, existing initiatives, identify possible actions and priorities.
9. Based on the situation analysis and the interviews/focus groups, suggest some priority areas of work for Breathe Cities to support.
10. Develop several (~4 – 6 per city) short concept notes (template to be provided by Clean Air Fund) for possible projects to fund under each pillar and best actors to work with for those.

Expression of Interest requirements

• As outlined above, we are looking for organisations or consortiums that have the local staff or partnerships in the geography covered in this brief, given the importance of understanding the local context.
• We welcome consortia of organisations to bid where necessary
• Skills and experience expected:
• Analytical skills, ability to succinctly present complex data and information
• Deep experience in strategy development (including situation analysis), ideally for philanthropically funded programmes/international development and, ideally, in air pollution, climate or health related sectors
• Strong expertise, knowledge and a proven track record in the management of research and evaluation activities
• Comprehensive technical understanding of air pollution
• Demonstrated experience applying equity lens to project design/planning and development
• Cultural sensitivity and ability to engage diverse stakeholders including technical and particularly grassroots and civil society organisations
• Ability to work quickly and collaboratively with Clean Air Fund colleagues and our partner C40
• Participants should be prepared to hold regular project calls with the Breathe Cities team who are based in UK and USA time zones.