Terms of Reference: Call for the 'Provision of Consultancy Services to Support the eCooking Readiness Assessment for Sierra Leone'

MECS Programme is pleased to announce the call for the ‘Provision of Consultancy Services to Support the eCooking Readiness Assessment for Sierra Leone’.

Under the Global Electric Cooking Coalition (GeCCo) banner, MECS Programme is currently working in partnership with the Government of Sierra Leone to assess the readiness for mass scale up of electric cooking (eCooking) with the following aims: 

• Drive the demand/usage of electricity for cooking – delivering both enhanced access to clean cooking and healthier power suppliers at all scales, thereby increasing their capacity to deliver access.
• Help bridge the gap in clean cooking access (an objective that is grossly off track from the 2030 SDG 7.1.2 target after a mere 12% increase over the past decade, a trend that will leave a quarter of the world’s people without access to clean cooking in 2030) by providing a powerful new aspirational choice for consumers of different types.
• Raise the level of political ambition (globally and nationally) for accelerating the rapid adoption of eCooking solutions via clear and consistent messaging about its advantages.
• Support accelerated improvement in households’ tiers of access – delivering affordable access to eCooking is also important to allow those already accessing improved cookstoves to transition to stoves that provide greater health, climate, and social benefits.
• Support decarbonisation of households and institutions by shifting them from biomass, with its associated contribution to deforestation and toxic emissions (CO2 and black carbon) whilst ensuring that electric cooking is promoted alongside power sector decarbonization, thereby avoiding problematic lock-in to fossil fuel-based cooking fuels.
  

Main tasks of the consultancy 

The expert will work (virtually) under the substantive guidance of the MECS leadership team in the UK and will be administratively reporting and accountable to the MECS leadership team. Key tasks will include the following activities:

• Provide a detailed account of the Sierra Leone eCooking context across designated topics.
• Identify barriers to scale which may be addressed and mitigated.
• Present findings in language appropriate for non-technical consumption by decision-makers and GeCCo partner organisations.
• Present clear indication of next steps towards implementation.  

Important information

• The tender exercise is managed by Loughborough University.
• Please send all responses to mecs@lboro.ac.uk with the subject ‘Sierra Leone Readiness Assessment Proposal’.  
• All proposals must be received by 19^th August 2024, 23:00 BST.  
  

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Featured Infographic: Copyright of MECS Programme. (Inserted photo copyright of Ekomobong Samuel, 2024)