UN Capital Development Fund Improving the Selection Criteria for Climate Resilience Projects September 2013

Communes propose projects for financing under PBCR grants Based on the range of projects selected, probably the Communes do not understand well which projects will have a strong chance of being selected. Instead, it is a bit like a lottery where the Communes prepare and submit proposals: sometimes they are lucky and the proposal is accepted.

Preparation of the District Climate Resilience Strategy

Identification of Projects by Local Communities

Linking the Strategy to the Projects

Selection Criteria are used when: Communes choose proposal from CIP District selects projects for funding NCDDS evaluates project

Purpose of this Presentation The purpose of this presentation is to:  Improve understanding of how to choose project selection criteria  Improve understanding of how to use project selection criteria  Agree a work plan to review the District Climate Resilience Strategy and in particular, the project selection criteria

What is the Climate Resilience Strategy? The District Climate Resilience Strategy is based on Vulnerability Reduction Analysis in a sample of local communities The District Climate Resilience Strategy Identifies the negative impacts of climate change on local communities Identifies the most vulnerable people and the most vulnerable places Identifies actions that can build resilience to climate change Sets criteria for allocating funds to projects that build climate resilience

Purpose of the Selection Criteria The Project Selection Criteria should help the District Planning Committee and the Commune representatives to identify:  Which proposals relate to priority actions in the Climate Resilience Strategy  Which proposals assist beneficiaries identified as vulnerable in the Climate Resilience Strategy  Which proposals are located in areas identified as vulnerable in the Climate Resilience Strategy

What is a good selection criterion?  SIMPLE: the Communes should be able to understand easily  MEASURABLE: Based on the project proposal, we should know whether a project fits the criterion  APPROPRIATE: the criterion should help identify the best way to spend the Climate Resilience grants  RANGE OF VALUES: the criterion should be chosen so some projects will score high and some projects will score low  TARGETED: ensure that the Climate Resilience grants go to help the most vulnerable communities S IMPLE M EASURABLE A PPROPRIATE R ANGE T ARGETED

What is NOT a SMART Criterion? Criteria that only say the same a the basic eligibility rules.  Example: “Project in the CIP” is NOT a useful criterion because ALL project funded by PBCR grants must be in the CIP Criteria that are too general  Example: “Project that fits the Climate Change Strategy” is NOT a very good criterion because it is very vague. Criteria should show HOW the project fits the Climate Change Strategy.

Analysis of the Climate Resilience Strategies ActivityIn StrategyIn Proposals #%#% Roads 155%2818% Irrigation 3310%2818% Water Supplies 3712%85% Drainage 83%106% Flood Refuge 103%21% Agriculture 7724%1811% Other Infrastructure 3110%21% Water and Hygiene 165%2918% CC Awareness 309%1912% Other Services 6019%1610%

Analysis of Selection Criteria CriterionAverage Weight Highly vulnerable area27% In CIP26% Responds to District CCA Strategy14% Many beneficiaries13% Benefits vulnerable groups 4% Can be implemented before end of year4% Uses budget effectively4% Strengthens climate resilience4% Has co-financing3% Multi-sector benefits1% Inter-Commune benefits1%

Are the Criteria SMART? CriterionSimple ? Meas- urable? Appro- priate? Highly vulnerable area ( ) In CIP Responds to District CCA Strategy ( ) ( ) Many beneficiaries Benefits vulnerable groups ( )

Are the Criteria SMART? CriterionRange?Targ- eted? Comment Highly vulnerable area SMART In CIP Not useful Responds to District CCA Strategy Too general Many beneficiaries Need to compare cost and size of benefit as well as number of beneficiaries Benefits vulnerable groups SMART

Examples of SMART Criteria  Project activity is mentioned as a priority in the Climate Resilience strategy  Project beneficiaries are identified as a vulnerable group in the Climate Resilience Strategy  Project is located in an area identified as vulnerable in the Climate resilience strategy

Criteria can be very specific… For example, if the District and the Communes agree that the highest priority investments should be for irrigation and agriculture extension, the criteria could include  Irrigation Project … 15%  Agriculture Extension Project … 10% OR  Irrigation or Agriculture Extension Project … 25%

… but some general criteria can be included Common examples of general criteria might be:  Many beneficiaries  High value for money  High Sustainability  High Commitment from the beneficiaries  Provides highest benefits to women, poor families or other vulnerable groups

How Can We Measure Value For Money? We should try to select the projects that have the highest value for money. However it can be very difficult to say which project gives highest value for money. Consider the following examples: Project TypeCostBenefits# HH benefit Irrigation$15,000Farmers can grow two rice crops instead of one 50 Road$10,000Can travel to and from village even in the flood season 250 Water Education$ 2,000Women understand better how to prevent children from getting sick 1,000

Elements of Value for Money Value for Money can be considered to consist of:  The COST of the project  The NUMBER of beneficiaries  The size of the benefit each household gets from the project  SO, if we only think about the number of beneficiaries, but not the cost or the size of the benefit, our criterion is not very useful

Examples of Value for Money Criteria The simplest Value for Money criterion might be:  Cost per beneficiary household The District Planning Committee can easily calculate the cost per beneficiary for each proposal and then group them as High / Medium / Low. We could try adding a second criterion:  Size of benefits per household We cannot calculate this as a number so this would depend on the District Planning Committee using their judgement as to which project have high / medium / low benefits per household.

Remember that “low benefits per household” does NOT mean that the project is bad. A project with low benefits per household, and low costs per household, may be just as good as a project with high benefits and high costs for each household.

Next Steps 1.The PBCR Grant Allocations for 2014 will be announced in November or December 2013 (at the same time as the C/S Fund and D/M Fund allocations). 2.As soon as the PBCR Grant allocations are announced, the Districts should organise a workshop to review the Climate Resilience Strategy and instruct the Communes to identify proposals 3.At this workshop, the District and Commune representatives should review whether any changes are needed to the Climate Resilience Strategy.

We expect that in most Districts there will be no need to make big changes to the strategy. However, each District should review the Project Selection Criteria and try to improve them based on the training today. Then, the Communes should understand clearly about the criteria and should choose projects from their CIP that match the selection criteria so they have the best chance of being selected.

UN Capital Development Fund THANK YOU Julian Abrams LoCAL Technical Coordinator / LGCC Implementation Adviser