Technical Expert/s - Advising Frontier Tech Hub on the Technical requirements for supporting community access to renewable energy in Colombia

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Terms of Reference

Position: Expert in advancing off-grid community access to renewable energy.

Scope: Market and landscape analysis

Focus: Frontier Technologies in Low-Resource Settings

Location of study: Colombia

Application Deadline: 8am, 13 January 2025

Duration: Phase 1 (1-2 months), additional opportunities after phase 1 may follow for a period of up to 5 months

Budget: Max £8000-15,000

About the Frontier Tech Hub

The Frontier Tech Hub works with the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) at the intersection of tech, innovation, and international development. 

We work across three main areas:

·       We work with FCDO colleagues and key stakeholders to fund, test and scale frontier technologies worldwide. Since 2016, we’ve worked with 70+ FCDO staff on 58 pilots across 32 countries.

·       We connect FCDO colleagues with one another and the world of tech, helping them to explore the future, being critically curious about what radical technological transformation means for the future, and consequently, FCDO.

·       We gather and share learnings from across our portfolio of pilot projects, sharing thought leadership from the frontier of tech for impact within the FCDO’s work.

The Hub is managed by three partners: Results for Development (R4D), DT Global (fka IMC Worldwide), and Brink. It’s funded by UK Aid from the UK Government

About the FT Hub Demand-Led Workstream

The FT Hub Demand-Led Workstream is currently piloting a demand-led approach for collaborating with country ecosystems to identify and explore truly local and demand-driven challenges in low/middle-income contexts which can be addressed through the application of frontier technology solutions. We define ‘demand’ as the request / articulation of interest for a particular product or service (the innovation) by potential adopters of the innovation (which could include governments, civil society and/or target users in the general population).

FT Hub, with key ecosystem actors, has scoped key challenges across a variety of development sectors including the lack of sustainable access to renewable energies by off-grid communities across Colombia. The next phase will include deeper market and landscape research and analysis, and demand articulation to further narrow down refining the priority problem statements, their root causes and identify opportunities for intervention.

Background

In Colombia, the FT Hub has been engaging with the FCDO and key stakeholders to identify key sectoral challenges in the development sector. One key challenge that has been highlighted is the lack of sustainable access to renewable energy by off-grid communities. Many of these communities have been identified as being at the axis of intersecting inequalities whether based on demographic identity, location in a geographically hard-to-reach area, experience of conflict, poverty, limited access to capital along with a variety of other challenges.

To support the exploration of this wide challenge area of renewable energy access particularly within the context of the current widespread demand for advancing energy communities as a solution to addressing lack of community access to renewable energy, FT Hub will engage a local expert specifically on community renewable energy access to, among other activities:

·       Conduct a market and landscape analysis that narrows down and prioritises specific problem statements and their root causes, as well as key ecosystem actors and current approaches

·       Surfaces potential use cases where frontier technologies could potentially make a difference to the challenges faced by off-grid communities in gaining sustainable access to renewable energy

·       Co-facilitate a validation workshop leading to the verification of specific use cases. 

Scope of Work

We anticipate that there may be various scopes of work available throughout the FT Demand-Led innovation process exploring technologies for supporting sustainable access to renewable energies by off-grid communities. We would therefore, ideally invite applications from technical consultants who can potentially commit to a longer-term engagement with FT Hub demand-led innovation exploration in Colombia.

This ToR outlines the first phase of work only, representing the first phase of our innovation process.

Phase 1 – Scope of work

Already, preliminary desk research has been conducted to identify key ecosystem actors, surface high-level challenges, and conduct a problem analysis. The selected consultant will build on this preliminary research, validating findings and engaging in an iterative process of market and landscape analysis and identifying use cases for a collaborative verification process with stakeholders.

Starting with tools that have been developed as a guide to support this scope of work, the selected consultant will expand explorations, bringing their rigorous research and   implementation experience to identify specific opportunities for frontier exploration.

The Consultant will employ a combination of desk-based research and interviews with relevant key stakeholders and sector leads to deliver the following activities: 

1.      Conduct a landscape and market analysis on sustainable access to renewable energy by off-grid communities.

The goal of this activity is to use demand-led signals in the ecosystem to decide on specific potential problem statements and understand their root causes and identify potential use cases. This may include answering questions such as:

·       What are the local contextual challenges with access to energy by off-grid communities in Colombia? What are the root causes underpinning this challenge? Which of these would be the highest priority to address?

·       What are some key insights from key stakeholders and potential beneficiaries (e.g. community members, energy providers, private and public sector etc) about the key challenges surfaced the priority areas of intervention?

·       Ecosystem Mapping: Who is typically responsible for addressing these challenges and what roles do the various key stakeholders play? Who is accountable for what? What roles do government agencies play? What roles do development actors play? What are the respective needs, priorities and interests of different ecosystem actors? Who is most affected, what regions are of particular concern for these challenges? Where (geographically) are there opportunities for impact? What are the priorities of government, development sectors and humanitarian sector and where are there intersections?

·       Market Analysis: What are the current approaches to addressing these challenges? What are promising practices for securing sustainable access to renewable energies for off-grid communities? Please indicate the scope of use (e.g. pilot, widespread roll out, standard practice), access, affordability and current impact. Where are the gaps or opportunities for intervention? What technology solutions are being trialled or used in Colombia for addressing the challenge?

2. As a result of the landscape and market analysis, make a recommendation of 3-4 specific problem statements and their root causes.

·       Demand Verification- Articulate and analyse ‘demand’ for these problem statements using the demand-led Excel template which will be provided to you.  Please ensure demand articulation is evidence-led, and sources are referenced.

3. Suggest 2-3 particular use cases for addressing the identified key problems. Please consider gender equity and social inclusion as you make your recommendations. For each use cases, you will need to focus on the specific situation in which a product or service could potentially be used:

·       What specific aspect of the stated challenge and problem statement will be addressed?

·       Which location and context would you propose for each use case? Rural or urban? Where in Colombia and why?

·       Which stakeholders might be directly involved in the use case. (e.g. community members, private sector, specific development partners)?

At a high-level it would be useful to consider how the use cases proposed fit within the current approaches to addressing limited access to energy by off-grid communities in Colombia. 

4.      Design and deliver a workshop for our stakeholders in Colombia with the objective of  validating, reframing and enhancing specific problem statements and use cases urfaced in the analysis and identifying target outcomes. This workshop can be online if the consultant is not based in Colombia.

A Phase 2 scope of work will be decided upon immediately after phase 1 and will focus on research landscaping promising frontier technologies related to the identified use cases, from across the globe and assessing their compatibility with the Colombian context in terms of the opportunities and risks.

Deliverables and timelines

1. Evidence-led market and landscape report and analysis (as per scope of work above) - January 31st

2. Demand-led analysis/articulation template filled in (excel template is provided), or alternative documentation to Excel - January 31st

3. Design of the workshop shared with FT Hub - January 31st  

4. 2–3-hour presentation of key findings of market/landscape and tech research to key stakeholders - February 7th

5. Delivery of workshop with key stakeholders in Colombia - February 7th

Type of Consultant, Skills & Experience

The consultant or partner may be an individual consultant who brings in additional expertise at relevant times throughout the process and/or a team of consultants or an organization. 

FT Hub is keen to recruit local consultant(s) to support on this Phase 1 scope of work and to continue with subsequent opportunities to work with FT Hub on this innovation opportunity in possible subsequent phases. This could potentially be a longer-term piece of work with FT Hub. FT Hub will prioritise local or regional consultants who have extensive experience in working on sustainable access to renewable energy for off-grid communities in Colombia  or Latin America, but international consultants are welcomed.

Essential:

·       10+ years’ experience working on renewable energy access for off-grid communities in Colombia or Latin America, with particular expertise and knowledge around solutions involving energy communities.

·       Demonstrated experience within tech and innovation for either for INGOs, private sector consultancies, innovation agencies and/or government

·       Significant demonstratable experience of producing market analysis and formative research reports for key sectors in international development

·       Strong ability to analyse information and data, distil complex concepts into clear messaging and synthesis information in a logical and coherent way

·       Strong written and verbal communication skills, including demonstrated ability to develop and deliver compelling presentations

·       Demonstratable experience of delivering workshops to stakeholders. Excellent facilitation skills and an ability to identify consensus with a diverse range of stakeholders.

Desirable

·       Knowledge of working in early-stage innovation with start-ups, innovators, accelerators, incubators or other forms of start-up architecture, or early-stage innovation, and emerging technologies. 

·       An understanding of innovation processes, tools and resources

Budget:

The range of the budget available is £8,000 to £15,000 (inclusive of tax).

Application Process

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis with the application deadline being January 13, 2025 by 8:00 GMT. Interested applicants should be available to start work immediately. Applicants should submit:

·       CV(s) of consultants demonstrating relevant experience.

·       A 1 page cover letter explaining the experience of the consultant(s) relevant to this scope of work.

·       A high-level technical and financial proposal outlining the approach to the work, timeline, and budget and day rates of consultant(s) and number of days to deliver the scope of work.

Applications should be sent to Frontiertechhub@dt-global.com (with “Demand-Led Energy Access Tech & Innovation Expert Colombia” in the subject line)

Evaluation Criteria:

Technical expertise: Demonstrated strength of applicant/s technical expertise and experience outlined in the CV and covering letter (80)

Strength of commercial proposal: (20)

Enquiries:

Please contact frontiertechhub@dt-global.com for further enquiries regarding this Terms of Reference or for further information on the Frontier Tech Programme. Title your enquiry ‘Advising Frontier Tech Hub on the Technical requirements for supporting community access to renewable energy in Colombia’.

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