Establishment of the Pungwe Basin Pre-Investment Fund for the Pungwe Basin Trans-boundary Integrated Water Resources Management and Development Programme
The Pungwe Basin Trans-boundary Integrated Water Resources Management and Development Programme, funded by Sida, has as its overall objective to strengthen institutions and stakeholders for joint, integrated and sustainable management of water resources in the Pungwe River Basin in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and to stimulate and support environmentally sustainable development investments that contribute to poverty alleviation. The programme is for a five-year period and consists of a number of core components focused on institutional development, stakeholder participation, and information and communications systems, as well as seven critical development projects addressing key environmental, social and economic challenges in the basin, amongst others, the elaboration of a small and medium dam development strategy. The programme also includes a facility to identify and assess key development potentials and mobilise investment resources for pro-poor development in the basin (i.e., the establishment of small-scale Grants Fund, a Pre-investment Fund, and the Pungwe Initiative).
A Programme Support Unit (PSU), consisting of a Programme Manager, Assistant Programme Manager, Procurement Officer, Financial Officer and supporting personnel, has been established. Together with an Institutional Development Advisor (IDA) they are assisting the main basin IWRM institutions to plan, coordinate, implement, manage and monitor a range of activities together with basin, national and international partners. Long-, medium and short-term consultants will be engaged to carry out specific tasks under the various programme components. The PSU, together with the IDA, play an important role in capacity building of a range of institutions, but with an emphasis on building that of the Regional Water Authority for Mozambique’s central region, ARA-Centro (where it is located) and the equivalent institution on the Zimbabwean side of the basin, namely ZINWA-Save.
The programme components are divided into five general output areas:
- Institutional Development
- Stakeholder Participation
- Information and Communication Systems
- Pungwe Basin Investment Facility (consisting of the Pungwe Basin Pre-Investment Fund and Pungwe Basin Initiative)
- Critical Development Projects
Assignment Description:
ORGUT has been contracted to provide the following administrative services to the Programme: i) Administration of management of the staff of the Project Support Unit (PSU), including the Institutional Development Advisor, as well as contract requested short terms assignments; ii) Administration of the PSU office; iii) Administration of procurement and financial services pertaining to programme expenditures incurred in Zimbabwe; and In addition, the Consultant shall be prepared to provide optional additional administrative services in the Implementation Phase of the Programme under a contingency budget within the Contract. In line with the term of references, ORGUT facilitated a short term consultancy to establish a Pungwe Basin Pre-investment Fund under the Pungwe Basin Investment Facility for the immediate purpose of initiating water-related investments in the Basin. This fund will be used specifically to facilitate the preparation of pre-feasibility and feasibility studies and to support the early stages of project development, such as the drafting of investment proposals. Such an initial (but open-ended) portfolio of bankable development projects is to be compiled for presentation to interested donors and private sector investments in a follow-up activity called the Pungwe Initiative. Hence, the overall objective of this facility is to mobilise resources for sustainable, poverty-oriented, water-related development investments in the Pungwe Basin.