Expert support focused on stakeholder mobilisation in Umeå: Request for Proposals (Updated)

Through the NetZeroCities City Expert Support Facility, NetZeroCities / Climate-KIC are requesting quotations for expert support focused on stakeholder mobilisation – answering the question: How can Umeå municipality practically and effectively facilitate multi-actor climate action? Responding to this question entails the explicit intent to explore strategies that do not always involve the municipality as the driving force or contributing financial compensation to the organisational efforts.

About the request

The expert will support stakeholder mobilization related to:
1. Umeå’s North Star Pilot Activity; and
2. The implementation of the Climate City Contract and relatedly, the Climate Roadmap.

At the time of completing the Climate City Contract (CCC) in Spring 2024, Umeå’s Climate Roadmap, which forms the core of local climate partnerships, involved 55 signatories. The signatories commit to supporting the municipal goals focused on climate neutrality and consumption-based emissions. The signatories’ individual contribution is a 20% reduction in emissions per year, engagement in mutual learning and dialogue through the Climate Roadmap partnership model, and annual reporting on progress. The City has worked with a local consultant to develop some concepts for how to evolve the partnership model to implement the Climate Roadmap, and has begun speaking about and exploring these concepts with stakeholders. This work request intends to build off of that work.

The goal of “The North Star” Pilot Activity is to “enable transformative change. Umeå seeks to equip public and private stakeholders with the knowledge, methods, and prototypes necessary to drive systemic change. This project encourages organisations and private stakeholders to adjust their behaviour and decision-making.”

Key Components
The proposal should assist the City in implementing their Climate City Contract and advancing the Umeå Climate Roadmap by:

• Exploring potential approaches for facilitating and mobilizing leadership role(s) among the existing stakeholders in the Climate Roadmap partnership model, including the co-creation of measurable outcomes and clear milestones.
• Establishing a consensus with the City and the Climate Roadmap stakeholders on the strategy for multi-stakeholder, distributed leadership and ownership that ensures execution and scalability of climate actions. This should build on the ways of working in progress among Roadmap stakeholders in the partnership model.
• Working with the City and the Climate Roadmap governance structure to implement this strategy, developing an effective approach to anchor, communicate, and execute the partnership model.

The proposal should simultaneously align with and leverage the pilot activities, which include:

• Generating insights and recommendations from the contributions of stakeholders in the three prototypes to inform broader multi-actor climate actions in Umeå. The prototypes in the pilot focus on (i) grey water heat recovery in buildings, (ii) circular construction and renovation of schools, and (iii) engagement of citizens through civil society.
• Surfacing key takeaways from learning circles among stakeholders in year 2 of the Pilot Activity, with particular attention to potential broader impacts on leadership among stakeholders within the city.
• Contributing to the Deliverable focused on recommendations for sustainable finance and organizational change and assisting in the communication and execution of the recommendations for finance and organizational change, providing advice to the City representatives.

In addition to working with the City of Umeå and with the Climate Roadmap partnership, the selected supplier is expected to engage with experts from the Mission Platform/NetZeroCities consortium and its key stakeholders. NetZeroCities experts (who are resourced already and do not have to be represented in a financial offer) are to be engaged (together with the City) on baseline briefings and the overarching strategic approach within which this assignment takes place. This expert support should also draw on insights and learnings from other cities, while accounting for the current context and ongoing initiatives in Umeå.

The Mission Platform is performing similar support to at least one other city and is conducting some interviews with other cities to understand their multi-actor engagement. The Mission Platform would propose to coordinate with the selected supplier in some specific ways:
1. to help orient the supplier with relevant materials and resources already created by the Mission Platform;
2. to meet with the selected supplier at the beginning of the work to briefly share its experience with multi-actor engagement in the Cities Mission;
3. to meet with the supplier two more times during the work.

However, the selected supplier will be the clear lead in supporting Umeå and will be responsible for delivering all the work described in this assignment. The Mission Platform’s engagement with the selected supplier will serve to provide some strategic guidance.

The total estimated workload for supporting the Pilot and the Climate Roadmap activities is ~3 person months. These tasks are complex, and sufficient time will be needed to gain a deep understanding of the current climate work in Umeå.

The services must be delivered no later than by the end of May 2025.

Please find all further relevant information including full scope, out of scope, milestones, and all related information below.

Timeline and additional information

Interested parties are invited to submit their proposals by 22 January 2025 (23:59:59 CET) to Radka Reil & Mateusz Hoffmann, CESF Manager [CESF@netzerocities.eu]. Proposals should include and address all specific requirements related to the request which can be found below.