Consulting service to conduct an external mid-term evaluation of SACREEE

Project summary and objectives

Since 2013, UNIDO is supporting the establishment of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (SACREEE) as a subsidiary organization of SADC. In 2015, SACREEE was established by the Ministers responsible for Energy and endorsed by the 35th SADC Council of Ministers. SACREEE is hosted by the Government of Namibia through its Ministry of Mines and Energy in Windhoek. Initial seed funding was provided by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA). UNIDO has provided technical support for institutional building and the establishment of the technical program of the centre.

Today, SACREEE finds itself at the fulcrum of sustainable energy development in Southern Africa. It was established to contribute towards increased access to modern energy services and improved energy security across the SADC Region through the promotion of market-based uptake of renewable energy (RE) and energy efficient (EE) technologies and energy services.  

SACREEE is one of the three specialized agencies of the SADC Secretariat with a mandate on modern energy services, together with the Southern African Power Pool and the Regional Electricity Regulators Association of Southern Africa. It is intended to support the Region’s economic and social development, guided by the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP 2015-2020) and the Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan (RIDMP 2012), in an environmentally benign manner.

At the global level, SACREEE works within the framework of, and is an active member of the Global Network of Regional Sustainable Energy Centres (GN-SEC), an innovative south-south, and triangular multi-stakeholder partnership to accelerate the energy and climate transformation. GN-SEC provides the benefit of collaboration and cross-learning of Centres amongst each other.

SACREEE is currently entering into a new phase of operation in line with its Business Plan 2019 to 2023. To evaluate the achieved progress so far and to proposed needed for readjustment, UNIDO and SACREEE are seeking consulting support to conduct an external mid-term evaluation of SACREEE. The purpose of the evaluation is to collect inputs for the first operational phase of implementation and the upscaling of achieved results through new programmatic approaches in the upcoming years and continuous review of its Business Plan.

Objectives and key deliverables of this assignment

The independent mid-term evaluation will (...):

• Evaluate SACREEE in terms of its relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and ability to generate impact;
• Identify challenges in operationalizing SACREEE, taking into account its organizational structure, SADC principles of establishing organisations, its positioning and relevance;
• Provide recommendations for the SACREEE’s operations and the provided support of UNIDO and donors;
• Provide lessons learned for other centres under the Global Network of Regional Sustainable Energy Centres (GN-SEC)