Post of Duty: Washington D.C – USA

The IDB Group is a community of diverse, versatile, and passionate people who come together on a journey to improve lives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our people find purpose and do what they love in an inclusive, collaborative, agile, and rewarding environment.

About this position

1.1 The Bahamas is one of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region that has historically experienced a significant number of climate-related disasters. According to the international disaster database, EM-DAT (2022), the country has reported 14 disasters in the past 20 years, mostly related to hurricanes. These disasters have caused more than 400 deaths, affected about 50,000 people, and caused direct economic losses of about US$6.7 billion. These include hurricanes Joaquin (2015), Matthew (2016), Irma (2017), and Dorian (2019) with total damages of US$104.8 million, US$438.6 million, US$200 million, and US$ 3.4 billion, respectively.

1.2 Adopting a robust disaster risk management (DRM) governance framework is essential to ensure that a nation is resilient to disasters. This was acknowledged by the United Nations’ Sendai Framework Agreement for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, signed by The Bahamas, which included as 2nd Priority for Action “Strengthening DRM Governance for resilience”.

1.3 Having a robust DRM governance framework requires the existence of legal, institutional and budgetary conditions that facilitate the implementation of an effective DRM policy. Acknowledging that the current governance arrangements in the Bahamas were not optimal for the effective implementation of the DRM policy, the Government of the Bahamas, through the Cabinet, authorized in February 2022 the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, in collaboration with the Disaster Management Unit (DMU) and the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs (OAG) to draft legislation aimed at developing, promoting and implementing an approach to disaster risk management that is holistic, comprehensive, integrated and proactive in lessening the socio-economic and environmental impacts of disasters including climate change. Following this decision by the Cabinet, the Office of the Prime Minister, through the DMU, requested the IDB´s technical support to draft said legislation. Subsequently, in June 2022, the Ministry of Finance requested a policy-based loan (PBL) series to support this legal reform.

1.4 The new Disaster Risk Management Act (DRM Act) was enacted in December 2022. It provides a modern legal, institutional, and budgetary framework for the implementation of a comprehensive DRM policy.

1.5 The new DRM Act mandates in its sections 19 - Disaster Emergency Fund “The Authority shall maintain the Disaster Emergency Fund, which shall be used to fund – (a) disaster response; (b) rehabilitation (c) recovery; and (d) the adoption of financial protection instruments", and in its section 20 – Disaster Prevention Fund “The Authority shall maintain the Disaster Prevention Fund, which shall be used to fund risk analysis, disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness activities”. 

1.6 The Government of the Bahamas (GoBH) is in the process of establishing the "Disaster Emergency Fund" and the "Disaster Prevention Fund" and the IDB will be providing consultancy support to the GoBH in the formulation of the regulations and operating procedures for these funds. 

1.7IDB’s Rural Development and Disaster Risk Management Division (CSD/RND) will be technically responsible for the execution of this contract, as well as for the approval of the products prepared by the consultant.

What you’ll do

The purpose of this consultancy is (i) to provide technical support to the IDB in drafting the Terms of Reference of the consultancy (or consultancies) that will develop the regulations and operating procedures of the Disaster Emergency Fund and Disaster Prevention Fund, and (ii) peer reviewing the intermediate and final products of said consultancy (or consultancies).

2.1 The subject of this consultancy, including context, concepts, definitions, institutional arrangements, procedures, and practices of funding mechanisms, among others, must be referenced to and be in accordance with the DRM Act enacted in 2022 (subsequently, DRM Act 2022).

2.2 This consultancy shall review regulations and operating procedures from other funds (active and expired) in The Bahamas, not exclusively related to disaster emergency and prevention, to ensure that the advice provided is in accordance with the Bahamian legislation for similar funds. 

2.3 This consultancy shall review literature, as well as regulations and operating procedures from similar emergency and prevention funds, preferably from the Caribbean and Latin America, and identify the best practices and the lessons learned that shall inform or be part of the regulations and operating procedures of both funds.

2.4 A non-exhaustive list of aspects that the consultant shall consider when drafting the terms of reference for the development of the regulations and operating procedures of the two funds is the following:

• The architecture of each fund.
• The articulation of their respective investment policies and governance structures.
• The funding strategy, including potential contributions, capital base, investment guidelines, financial instruments, mechanisms for administration, human resources requirements and considerations for fund sustainability.
• The fund-raising strategy, period of accumulation for each fund, institutional location of each fund and investment portfolio
• Specifically for the operational guidelines of each fund: (1) Templates for the formulation of proposals and the applications; (2) Technical and administrative requirements to apply to each fund; (3) Procedures to submit, process and approve the proposals; (4) Criteria for prioritization, assessment and qualification of proposals; (5) Eligible expenditures, including operation/administration and supervision of projects; (6) Co-financing criteria; (7) Triggers that activate each fund; and any other element that is essential for each fund to start operating.
• The framework of expected results (indicators) for each fund, and the mechanism to monitor on a regular basis the achievement of these results/indicators.

The purpose of this consultancy is (i) to provide technical support to the IDB in drafting the Terms of Reference of the consultancy (or consultancies) that will develop the regulations and operating procedures of the Disaster Emergency Fund and Disaster Prevention Fund, and (ii) peer reviewing the intermediate and final products of said consultancy (or consultancies).

2.1 The subject of this consultancy, including context, concepts, definitions, institutional arrangements, procedures, and practices of funding mechanisms, among others, must be referenced to and be in accordance with the DRM Act enacted in 2022 (subsequently, DRM Act 2022).

2.2 This consultancy shall review regulations and operating procedures from other funds (active and expired) in The Bahamas, not exclusively related to disaster emergency and prevention, to ensure that the advice provided is in accordance with the Bahamian legislation for similar funds. 

2.3 This consultancy shall review literature, as well as regulations and operating procedures from similar emergency and prevention funds, preferably from the Caribbean and Latin America, and identify the best practices and the lessons learned that shall inform or be part of the regulations and operating procedures of both funds.

2.4 A non-exhaustive list of aspects that the consultant shall consider when drafting the terms of reference for the development of the regulations and operating procedures of the two funds is the following:

· The architecture of each fund.

· The articulation of their respective investment policies and governance structures.

· The funding strategy, including potential contributions, capital base, investment guidelines, financial instruments, mechanisms for administration, human resources requirements and considerations for fund sustainability.

· The fund-raising strategy, period of accumulation for each fund, institutional location of each fund and investment portfolio.

· Specifically for the operational guidelines of each fund: (1) Templates for the formulation of proposals and the applications; (2) Technical and administrative requirements to apply to each fund; (3) Procedures to submit, process and approve the proposals; (4) Criteria for prioritization, assessment and qualification of proposals; (5) Eligible expenditures, including operation/administration and supervision of projects; (6) Co-financing criteria; (7) Triggers that activate each fund; and any other element that is essential for each fund to start operating. 

· The framework of expected results (indicators) for each fund, and the mechanism to monitor on a regular basis the achievement of these results/indicators.

2.5 The consultant shall ensure that the scope of the terms of reference that he/she will draft considers the aspects listed above, as well as any other that is crucial for the smooth operation of such funds, based on his/her own experience and expertise, and on the results of the review of national and international funds referred in the previous paragraphs. 

2.6 The consultant shall provide advice on the selection of consultant firms or individual consultants that are more apt to successfully implement the consultancy (or consultancies) for the development of regulations and operating procedures of the two funds.

2.7 The consultant shall review the inception report, intermediate and final products of said consultancy (or consultancies) and provide advice to the IDB during its (their) implementation.

3 Key Activities

3.1 The consultant will prepare an inception report outlining the conceptual and methodological approach for this consultancy, as well as the planned activities and schedule. 

3.2 The consultant will collect and review literature necessary to accomplish this work. This includes, among other relevant documents, the DRM Act 2022 and The Bahamas Climate Spending Report 2021-2022. The consultant will also collect and review regulations and operating procedures of other funds in The Bahamas, and of similar funds in other countries. 

3.3 Based on this reading, the Consultant will prepare the Terms of Reference (TOR), using the template that the IDB shall provide, for the consultancy (or consultancies) for the development of the regulations and operating procedures of the two funds. The consultant will justify the selected approach regarding the preparation of a single TOR or two separate TOR, one for each fund.

3.4 The consultant will advise the IDB during the selection process of the consultant firm (or individual) that will be implementing the consultancy related to the elaboration of the regulations and operating procedures of the two funds.

3.5 The consultant will review the inception report, intermediate and final products of the said consultancy(ies), providing specific recommendations to adjust the draft regulations and operating procedures to ensure their consistency with best national and international practices and with the DRM Act 2022.

3.6 The consultant shall participate as an advisor to the IDB in the virtual meetings that will be arranged with the consultant firm(s) and the Bahamian authorities during the implementation of the aforementioned consultancy(ies). 

Deliverables and Payments Timeline