REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
Climate Change and Green Growth Department
Gender and Civil Society Department
African Development Bank
Rue Jean Paul II, Plateau, CCIA, 01 BP 1387 Abidjan 01, Côte d’Ivoire
RECRUITMENT OF INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT
Introduction :
The African Development Bank hereby invites individual consultants to indicate their interest in the following Assignment : Development of Operational Manual for the “Program on Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) : Financing Climate Resilient Agricultural Practices in Ghana (the Program).
The African Development Bank (AfDB), as the premier multilateral development finance institution in Africa is scaling up the implementation of the Ten-Year Strategy (TYS 2013-2022) with the Hi-5s (1. Light up and Power Africa, 2. Integrate Africa, 3. Industrialize Africa, 4. Feed Africa and 5. Improve the quality of life for Africans). The operationalization of the Hi-5s include mainstreaming low carbon and climate resilient measures in the relevant policies, programs, projects and operational activities and are captured adequately in the Second Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) from 2016-2022.
The AfDB, through its Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) Initiative, aims to reduce the USD 42 billion access to finance gap for Women Empowered Businesses in Africa in the next 5-6 years working with partner financial institutions through innovative financing instruments throughout the continent, providing capacity building to Women Empowered Businesses as well as Policy dialogue to reform the legal and regulatory frameworks affecting Women Empowered Businesses.
As an Accredited Entity of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the AfDB is supporting Regional Member Countries (RMCs) to mobilize GCF resources at scale towards the implementation of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). To date, AfDB has mobilized over $180 million from GCF for 5 funding proposals covering 13 RMCs in Africa. The AfDB is the Accredited Entity for the GCF approved Program intended to empower women-led Farmer Based Associations (FBAs) and Micro, Small- and Medium enterprises (MSMEs) involved in the agricultural value chain in Ghana. This is being pursued through financial products and activities that consists of (i) Loan Facility – line of credit for providing access to credit to enable women-led FBAs/MSMEs adopt low-carbon and climate resilient measures in the agriculture value chain; (ii) Climate Technology Grant Facility – to support the most vulnerable FBAs adopt climate technologies and (iii) Technical Assistance Facility – to empower women-led FBAs/MSMEs and Ecobank Ghana to acquire the necessary skills for climate and gender finance and for implementing the funded activities.
The main objective of this assignment is to develop an operational manual for the implementation of the Program activities to consider among others i) the procurement of climate technologies for the most vulnerable FBAs, ii) the operations and alignment of the LOC with GIRSAL financial products and services to enable women-led FBAs/MSMEs gain access to credit for their activities and iii) technical assistance activities to enhance the capacity of the beneficiaries to implement the activities and to maximize the expected outputs and impacts.
Tasks and Deliverables :
Major Duties and responsibilities will involve the development of operations manual focusing on the three major components of the Program funded activities :
- Climate Technology Grant Facility : This will include (1) eligibility and selection criteria of the beneficiaries, (2) minimum technical standards and expected impacts (including methodologies for calculation of GHG emission reductions for implementation and monitoring of the eligible climate technologies), (3) needs of final beneficiaries in respect of climate technology, (4) assessment of providers/vendors, (5) procurement procedures for the eligible climate technologies (6) arrangements for the 5% co-payments by the FBA beneficiaries, (7) measures for transfer of ownership of the climate technologies to FBA beneficiaries after completing the 5% co-payment for the assets. It will also include the (8) institutional and implementation arrangements with relevant stakeholders in Ghana ;
- Loan Facility : This will include the (1) eligibility and selection criteria of the MSMEs/FBAs and (2) for the sub loans, (3) loan origination and analysis with the gender and climate screening criteria, (4) credit terms and conditions, disbursements and repayment modalities for the LOC tranche with GCF proceeds and working capital tranche with EGH capital, (5) the operations and alignment of the LOC with GIRSAL financial products and services. This will also include (6) expected impacts (including methodologies for calculation of GHG emission reductions for implementation and monitoring of the eligible sub loans) as well as (7) institutional and implementation arrangements with relevant stakeholders in Ghana ;
- Technical Assistance Facility : This will include arrangements for capacity enhancement, visibility and communication activities for (1) CRA adoption practices and technologies uptake by the FBAs/MSMEs; (2) EGH and FBAs/MSMEs to support implementation of programme; (3) Strengthening the regulatory framework for private sector investment in climate resilient agriculture; and (4) Advocacy, knowledge Management and Outputs Dissemination. It will also focus on (5) conditions, selection, and eligibility of beneficiaries, (6) approval procedures, procurement of goods and services for the activities (7) institutional arrangements and implementation of the activities.
The consultant will also assist with addressing comments from the GCF on the operational manual and provide any additional task that may be required by the AfDB management.
The Climate Change and Green Growth Department together with the Gender and Civil Society Department invites individual consultants to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested eligible consultants shall provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to provide the services (documentation, references for similar services, experience in comparable assignments, availability, etc.).
The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall be in conformity with the AfDB’s Rules and Procedure for the Use of Consultants under projects financed by the AfDB, May 2008 Edition, revised on July 2012 available on the AfDB Website at http://www.afdb.org. Please, note that interest expressed does not imply any obligation on the part of the AfDB to include it in the shortlist.
The estimated duration of services is 40 working days over 6 months from November 2 2020.
Interested individual consultants may obtain further information at the address below during the AfDB’s working hours : 8h00 to 17h00.
Expressions of interest must be received at the address below no later than Friday, October 16, 2020 at 17h00 local time and specifically mentioning Development of Operational Manual for the “Program on Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) : Financing Climate Resilient Agricultural Practices in Ghana.
For the attention of :
Dr. Timothy Afful-Koomson,
Chief Climate Finance Officer.
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 ; Cell: +225 7730 5006
Email : t.afful-koomson@AFDB.ORG