REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Climate Finance Division

Climate Change and Green Growth Department African Development Bank Rue Jean Paul II, Plateau, Imm. CCIA, 01 BP 1387 Abidjan 01, Côte d’Ivoire

1. Introduction :

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was established by the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in 2010 as the principal financing instrument to help nations cut carbon emissions from particularly development activities and protect themselves against the impacts of climate change. It is widely recognized that direct access to the GCF funds will require a level of capacity by governments and other actors involved, in order to prepare national mechanisms to access, allocate, disburse, and report on climate finance. These mechanisms must be compatible not only with the Green Climate Fund requirements, but also with the country’s planning, budgeting, programming and monitoring procedures and as well as Multilateral Bank programming systems. In addition, countries’ institutional mechanisms related to the GCF funds will need to be compatible with their existing and future planning and budgeting systems, and be fully integrated with the countries’ national plans, policies, and sustainable development priorities. In other words, developing countries will need to “get ready” for GCF financing.

The GCF’s access modalities, whereby any eligible institution can apply for accreditation to access the Fund, allow for a greater diversity of institutions to partner with the GCF in delivering interventions that promote climate change adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. The GCF encourages direct access of developing country institutions to the Fund, an approach that has the dual benefit of broadening the GCF’s network of partner institutions in its beneficiary countries, while incentivizing and promoting developing country institutions to achieve and maintain international best practice in fiduciary standards, environmental and social safeguards and project management approaches.

2. Context :

The African Development Bank (AfDB, or the Bank) has established itself as a key development partner in supporting its regional member countries (RMCs) to transition towards climate resilient, low carbon development and growth through technical assistance and project financing. The Bank’s 10-year strategy focuses on the twin objectives of enabling inclusive growth and a transition to green growth in Africa. In 2015, the Bank identified five key priority areas in which it will focus its investments: light up and power Africa, feed Africa, industrialize Africa, integrate Africa, and improve the quality of life for the people of Africa (referred to as the “high fives”). These five priority areas have component activities that are vulnerable to climate change impacts, and present important opportunities for investing in development solutions that are low-emissions, green and climate resilient. The Bank has made the ambitious commitment in its Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) to scale up its climate financing to reach 40% of new approvals through its main lending windows by 2020. In addition to its own resources, the Bank also mobilizes climate finance as an implementing agency for various international climate funds, including the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and more recently the GCF. The Bank has been actively engaging with the GCF since its inception. As an accredited entity of the GCF since 2016, the Bank may access finance in the form of grants, loans, equity and guarantees to advance climate resilient and low-carbon development in its regional member countries (RMCs). To date the Bank has mobilized over 180 million USD from the GCF resources. As an international accredited entity, the Bank has undertaken, as part of its commitment to the goals of the GCF, to provide capacity building support to national institutions to enable them to get direct access to the GCF resources.

3. GCF Readiness Preparatory Support

The majority of African countries aspire to have a national institution accredited to the GCF, and many have already initiated the process with institutions that have already submitted applications. However, one of the major challenges to achieve this is the limited capacity of African countries to absorb climate finance at scale, including limited institutional capacity to meet the rigorous accreditation requirements to access GCF funding, as well as limited capacities to develop and implement high quality bankable projects. In order to address this challenge, several institutions have established funding programmes to support preparatory or “readiness” activities aimed at strengthening institutional capacities of developing country entities to access the GCF resources.

4. Objective of the Assignment :

The African Development Bank hereby invites Individual Consultants to indicate their interest in the following Assignment: Climate Finance Readiness Support Specialist (Consultant). Within the context of the objectives, expected outcome and contents of the assignment, the Consultant will perform the following tasks :

• Provide professional and technical guidance to support the Bank Task Teams, Departments, Divisions and Regional Hubs to develop GCF Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme designed to support countries’ engagement in partnership with the GCF to build a pipeline of climate change projects and enhance country ownership ;
• Engage with Bank Regional Member countries (RMCs) in partnership with GCF National Designated Authorities (NDAs) / Focal Point (FP) to prepare and develop Readiness request proposal, budget and procurement plans for their respective countries ;
• Coordinate with the Bank’s Legal Team and follow up on the Accredited Entity’s Legal framework and first disbursement plan agreement and the letter of authorization that will be obtained from the GCF Secretariat for the Readiness Implementation programme by the AfDB as Delivery Partner ;
• Develop the Readiness support budget plan, procurement plan and disbursement timeline in collaboration with the GCF and the country’s NDA/FP and provide Monitoring and Reporting of Readiness Grants under the supervision of the Bank GCF Coordinator for onward submission to the GCF secretariat ;
• Organize Readiness training workshops for RMCs, develop the training modules in collaboration with the GCF readiness support team, AfDB green growth department and the NDC Hub on how to structure financial instruments, design the activities consistent with GCF investment criteria as well as the expected outputs, outcomes and indicators relevant to specific area of focus for GCF funding proposals.. ;
• Be part of the AfDB GCF Coordination Team, to respond to comments and requests for additional information on funding proposals by the GCF, monitor GCF requirements and outstanding issues for GCF funding proposals, approved funding activities, Funding Activity Agreements (FAA) and facilitating country ownerships and No-objection processes and national implementation of funded activities ;
• Provide technical guidance and operational input to Bank task managers during the project cycle of operations focusing on mitigation and adaptation and integrate GCF Investment Criteria, Results Management Framework in GCF funding proposals ;
• The Consultant may work independently and in a team environment and must be able to communicate effectively in a professional manner with all levels of management. The assignment requires some level of travel within the RMCs ;
• The Climate Change and Green Growth Department invites Individual Consultants to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested Consultants shall provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to undertake this Assignment (documents, reference to similar services, experience in similar assignments, etc.) ;
• The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedures shall be in conformity with the Bank’s procedures for the acquisition of consulting services funded by the administrative or capital expenditure budget. Please, note that interest expressed by a Consultant does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank to include him/her in the shortlist ;
• The estimated duration of services is 12 months and the estimated starting date is 7^th October, 2019 Interested Individual Consultants may obtain further information at the address below during the Bank’s working hours: 8h00 to 17h00. Expressions of interest must be received at the address below no later than September 20^th, 2019 at 17h00 local time and specifically mentioning Climate Finance Readiness Support Specialist (Consultant) on the subject line.

For the attention of:      Timothy Afful-Koomson Ph.D

Chief Climate Finance Officer and GCF Coordinator

Environment and Climate Finance Division

Climate Change and Green Growth Department

African Development Bank

Rue Jean Paul II, Plateau, Imm. CCIA, 01 BP 1387

Abidjan 01, Côte d’Ivoire Tel: +225 20 26 4622

Email: t.afful-koomson@afdb.org

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SHORT LIST

A shortlist of three to six individual consultants will be established at the end the request of expressions of interest. The consultants on the shortlist will be judged on the following criteria on the basis of their updated resume