Administration services

Tender description

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has a requirement to procure the Provision of an administrative, monitoring and project management service commencing at the beginning of June 2016 (with a hand-over period of 1 month from 1.5.2016 if required or subject to change). This service will provide a range of administrative tasks including: — To manage the administration of the Darwin Initiative and Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) application process and project award processes for all current schemes; — To manage the administration relating to Darwin and IWT projects throughout the lifetime of the projects; — To oversee the financial management of Darwin and IWT projects; — To provide support to the Darwin Expert Committee(DEC), the Darwin Plus Advisory Group; (DPAG) and the IWT Advisory Group (IWTAG); — To facilitate Official Development Assistance (ODA) assessments of applications which could attract DFID funding; — To provide effective monitoring and evaluation of Darwin and IWT projects and the Initiative and Challenge Fund as a whole; — To promote the Darwin and IWT Initiatives through an effective communications plan; — To plan, organise and facilitate Darwin and IWT workshops as required; — To liaise with the Authority to monitor the contract requirements and performance. Background information — The Darwin Initiative (‘the Initiative’) was announced by the United Kingdom at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. Funding for the Initiative is currently around 8 000 000 GBP per annum. The Initiative was originally launched to support the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources. The Initiative funds projects in developing countries and UK Overseas Territories. It is intended to complement existing programmes and build lasting capacity in host countries to carry out work related to the key biodiversity conventions; the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). Since 2010 the Darwin Initiative has been co-funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for International Development (DfID). Their funding can only be spent on projects with outcomes which benefit development and/or poverty alleviation in the host countries. Since 2009 the Initiative has also supported projects in the UK's Overseas Territories (UKOTs) and in October 2012 a new cross Government fund called the Overseas Territories Environment and Climate Fund (also known as ‘Darwin Plus’) was created under the Darwin banner co-funded by Defra, FCO and DFID. There are currently 5 grant schemes within the Darwin Initiative: — Main round projects (in developing countries); — Post projects (follow up work to main projects); — Scoping projects (to prepare for a main round application); — Darwin Fellowships (grants to individuals to undertake a period of study in the UK); — Darwin Plus (for environmental projects in the UKOTs). More information on these grants is available on the Darwin website at http://www.darwin.gov.uk The Darwin Expert Committee (DEC) assesses applications from developing countries received under main Darwin, post projects, scoping projects and Darwin Fellowships. The Darwin Plus Advisory Group (DPAG) assesses applications received from UK Overseas Territories under Darwin Plus. Both are formed from independent advisers who are supported by a Secretariat made up of staff from within the Authority. In 19 rounds of funding since its inception in 1992 the Darwin Initiative has invested in 843 projects in approximately 159 countries and committed over 113 000 000 GBP of funding. The Illegal Wildlife Challenge Fund was established in 2014 and funds projects in developing countries which tackle illegal wildlife trade tackling the following 3 priority themes: — reducing demand for IWT products, such as ivory and rhino horn; — strengthening law enforcement and the role of the criminal justice system; — developing sustainable livelihoods for communities affected by IWT. Around 5 000 000 GBP has so far been allocated to 19 projects under the IWT Challenge Fund.