NEIRF Evaluation Execution CCN

Concepts

• forest monitoring or evaluation
• natural environment investment readiness fund
• policy evaluation
• neirf evaluation execution ccn
• role of evaluation
• independent evaluation of the neirf
• money of neirf grant-funded projects
• first year of the neirf scheme
• neirf aims
• evaluation of the defra

Location

United Kingdom:

Description

Defra is designing a Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (hereafter referred to as the NEIRF); a grant programme to address market failures, develop capacity and support investment in natural environment projects which enable the outcomes contained in Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan (25 YEP) and the Green Finance Strategy. Initially, this commission is for a policy evaluation across the first year of the NEIRF scheme but will continue for a further two years subject to annual review. The role of evaluation is to assess evidence on the process, impact and value for money of NEIRF grant-funded projects. Through the evaluation we will want to know the extent to which NEIRF aims and objectives have been achieved, to recommend adjustments to ongoing and future projects, capture and disseminate policy learning and evidence on developing private sector investment to deliver environmental outcomes and make recommendations on, and arrangements for, long term achievement of scheme outcomes. The change to the contract is to include the HIVE initiative and case studies that were not in existence or applicable at original formulation of the project.

Total Quantity or Scope

Ecorys is carrying out an independent evaluation of the NEIRF as set out in Specification 1 of this contract. … Through the evaluation we will establish the extent to which NEIRF aims and objectives have been achieved, to recommend adjustments to ongoing and future projects, capture and disseminate policy learning and evidence on developing private sector investment to deliver environmental outcomes and make recommendations on, and arrangements for, long term achievement of scheme outcomes. a) Evaluation of the Defra funded elements of GFI HIVE3 initiative, which will continue the provision of support for nature projects that are seeking private sector funding, and the facilitation of those relationships; and b) The production of standalone case studies of NEIRF projects, which can be disseminated to a wide audience, developed to the specification of the Coalition for Private Investment into Conservation.

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 77231500 - Forest monitoring or evaluation services

Legal Justification

The justification for using Ecory’s is for the work to build upon what they have already undertaken as part of the original contract. Justification: this will be a straightforward extension to the NEIRF evaluation which looks at the NEIRF community of practice. Therefore, we expect this extension to present the most Value for Money as data collection procedures are already being designed which can apply to the Hive initiative. Therefore, there are overwhelming efficiency gains to be secured by using Ecorys for this work, in particular: • Interviews will be merged with those carried out for NEIRF stakeholder interviews, and so the resources needed to design and conduct this exercise are reduced; • The NEIRF survey will be the basis for the additional survey work carried out for the Hive, and so a large degree of the preparation works, and execution methods already undertaken will benefit the Hive survey Ecory’s will have built up necessary knowledge of the Green Finance Institute’s initiatives, for example they have attended a number of the NEIRF events already as observers and will have the capability to discharge this additional ask without any significant onboarding or induction. a) Expanding case study work: create stand alone and public facing case studies of the projects supported by the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF), developed to the specification of the Coalition for Private Investment into Conservation. Justification: Ecory’s will already be producing case studies by way of box texts in their annual reports, and they have also produced project profiles as an annex of their reports, which are being developed using information collected through their existing data collection and analysis processes, however as the contract has progressed, we have identified a need to produce stand-alone case studies for public consumption which follow the blueprint guidance offered by the Coalition of Private Investment into Conservation. This guidance was not in existence at the inception of the existing contract. The extension involves: • developing set templates of various levels of detail from a short (bronze) three-page study to a seven-page case study (silver plus) including more in depth information; • fact checking on the outcomes of NEIRF funded projects and, for the more in-depth studies (silver plus), visiting projects to interview teams and collect additional data and reflections on project work – not otherwise available from other data collection methods; • working with a graphic designer to produce 64 accessible public facing and standalone case studies, which are visually stimulating and impactful; • developing, with a graphic designer, a half page summary infographic for 71 projects funded by the NEIRF, which will increase accessibility, for a wider audience, to the outputs and outcomes projects are seeking to deliver. Delivery of the above can be achieved through building on the existing supplier’s workplan and utilising the contract resource that has been put in place during the existing contract.

Other Information

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