UNOPS
Expansion and Improvement of the ICAT Agriculture Policy Assessment Guide: CFP-11875-2021-11 [Deadline extended until 31 October 2021, 23.59 GMT +2] Grant support-call for proposal

Reference: CFP-11875-2021-11
Beneficiary countries: Multiple destinations (see 'Countries' tab below)
Registration level: Basic
Published on: 01-Oct-2021
Deadline on: 31-Oct-2021 23:59 (GMT 2.00)

Description

The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) aims to help countries better assess the impacts of their climate policies and actions, and fulfil their transparency commitments. It does this by increasing the overall transparency capacities of countries, including the capacity to assess the contribution of climate policies and actions on countries’ development objectives, and providing appropriate methodological information and tools to support evidence-based policy-making. ICAT’s innovative approach is to integrate these two aspects.

ICAT focuses on countries that can highlight the benefits of increased transparency to demonstrate policy impact and evidence-based action. ICAT’s work is country-driven, efforts build on existing Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) systems and knowledge in countries and complement previous or on-going activities by other initiatives, where applicable.

Agriculture drives our societies and economies, but agricultural practices are also important factors in driving in-country GHG emissions. The agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector contributes to approximately one quarter of anthropogenic GHG emissions, thus climate-conscious agricultural policies represent a large opportunity for countries to reduce their emissions. In order to reach the aim of the Paris Agreement to limit the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C, preferably 1.5°C, above pre-industrial levels, governments around the world are increasingly focused on implementing policies and actions that achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation objectives.

From this context, a significant need has emerged to assess and communicate the impacts of policies and actions related to agriculture, to ensure they are effective in delivering GHG mitigation and helping countries meet their targets and commitments. Methodologies such as the ICAT Agriculture Policy Assessment Guide (https://climateactiontransparency.org/icat-toolbox/policy-assessment-guides/agriculture-sector/) have been developed to meet part of this need, by providing methodological guidance for assessing the GHG impacts of agriculture policies that enable or incentivise mitigation practices or technologies that reduce emissions. Since its launch in 2019, the guide has been met with interest by governments, institutions and programmes. However, despite the popularity and  interest in the guide, there is still a lot of potential to be gained from broadening its coverage across emission sources and options for mitigation action, and enhancing its usability through better alignment with relevant guidelines and tools.

ICAT seeks to identify a grantee(s) to expand and improve ICAT’s Agriculture Policy Assessment Guide to increase the coverage of the guide across emission sources and options for mitigation action, improve its alignment to the needs of developing countries, and ensure better usability and clarity.

Scope of work:

To expand and improve ICAT’s Agriculture Policy Assessment Guide to increase the coverage of the guide across emission sources and options for mitigation action, improve its alignment to the needs of developing countries, and ensure better usability and clarity. The improved guide will allow users to conduct more thorough assessments of climate actions through the inclusion of more sources of emissions and mitigation potential. It will also include added guidance on conducting cost estimations for policy development and implementation, which will enhance the guide’s relevance and potential to be adopted by countries, since it assists with the estimation of finance (and support) needed for implementation.

Entities interested in submitting proposals in response to this CFP are hereby invited to prepare proposals in accordance with the requirements and procedure set out in this CFP by 31 October 2021, 23.59 CEST.

Returnable forms (Annex A, Annex B and Annex E attached) are to be completed and submitted to icat@unops.org by the deadline indicated above.