Consultant - ACWA Fund at World Resources Institute (WRI)

About WRI’s ACWA Fund

The World Resource Institute (WRI) founded the African Cities Water Adaptation Fund (ACWA Fund). The ACWA Fund uses an integrated approach to finance innovative urban water resilience solutions at scale. The Fund has the ambitious goal of deploying over $500 million in funding by 2032 to support scalable urban water resilience solutions across 100 African cities. The ACWA Fund offers full project lifecycle support to help local leaders understand their climate and water risks and socioeconomic impacts; identify, prioritise, and prepare projects; structure deals and mobilise capital; and scale delivery by standardising project development manuals, deals, and contracts. It achieves this through three core services: developing city-scale resilience investment plans, offering project preparation support, and providing finance for catalytic projects. The focus is on a low-cost, innovative approach to assessing needs at a city level and responding rapidly. The ACWA Funds complements other ongoing programmes including SUNCASA[1] ,Green-Grey Infrastructure (GGI) Accelerator[2] and the Arican Climate Resilient Cities (ACRC) Program[3]. To date, the ACWA Fund has made significant strides, securing $7 million in commitments, engaging with cities to develop action plans and identify projects, and developing pilot project portfolios. The Fund is now seeking an additional $8 million to begin its pilot phase, which includes delivery of projects in the two pilot cities and further fund design. 

SCOPE OF WORK AND OUTPUTS/DELIVERABLES

WRI is seeking an individual consultant based in Nairobi/Kigali/Addis Ababa/Johannesburg to support the implementation of the ACWA Fund pilot phase as well as other related programs and projects within WRI Africa Climate Resilience Cities Program for a period of 9 months. The bidders should be able to:

• Provide engagement, technical analysis, and advisory support to develop financing strategies, policy solutions, and institutional arrangements necessary to advance the ambitions of the ACWA Fund and its related mechanisms.
• Collaborate with investors, donors, government agencies, NGOs, and communities across multiple countries in Africa to advance the ACWA Fund’s ambitions including its financial resourcing. In the same vein, the person shall also support other programs within WRI.  
• Work under the Arican Climate Resilient Cities (ACRC) Program, directly reporting to the Environmental Finance Lead, WRI Africa. 

The tasks that the individual contractor will undertake shall include:

• Work with partners to (1) refine the identified pilot projects of the ACWA Fund and (2) oversee their initial implementation/roll-out. 
• Work with partners to co-create financing strategies and investment frameworks for the ACWA Fund and other programs. 
• Support pilot projects preparation by conducting or overseeing feasibility studies, financial analysis, policy analysis, or institutional analysis. 
• Work with partners to build policy actions, outline legal and regulatory frameworks, and standards to support development of bankable water and climate resilience projects. 
• Establish and grow existing partnerships with investors, donors, development and private sector banks, and funders. 
• Design and implement training and knowledge exchanges with key stakeholders with the support of local partners to advance ACWA Fund’s ambitions. 
• Conduct outreach and communications including developing relevant knowledge products reports and articles, presenting at meetings and conferences, etc.
• Collaborate across WRI programs and ensure linkages with WRI Africa’s New Climate Economy (NCE), AFR100, and Cities4Forests Initiatives.
• Work with senior staff on the strategic development and management of urban resilience and financing work in Africa. 
• Liaise with internal staff and project stakeholders to problem solve and generate solutions to project implementation issues. 

WRI will provide guidance on:

• The background information on the ACWA Fund among other programs and projects which includes the architecture, focus areas and priorities.

DELIVERABLES

The consultant is expected to deliver the following:

• An inception report outlining the proposed methodology and work plan within 2 weeks of signing the contract.
• Regular monthly reports on work undertaken (based on the agreed workplan) including on the refinement of the pilot projects and their implementation.
• PowerPoint slides for presentation to potential investors, donors and city stakeholders
• Participation on weekly team meetings

QUALIFICATIONS:

Education

• A master’s degree in finance, public policy, economics, environmental management, or similar

Experience:

• Minimum of 7 years of relevant, full-time work experience in the field of urban resilience, development finance, or sustainable infrastructure in Africa.
• Subject matter expertise in at least one of these topics: urban climate resilience or water resilience
• Demonstrated success in developing financing strategies and/or brokering deals for sustainable infrastructure projects (feasibility stage onwards)
• Experience leading early-stage project concepts to transaction
• Experience in assisting project financial structuring in the water sector, green infrastructure in particular
• Strong track record of engaging global funds and financial institutions such as the Global Climate Fund, Global Environmental Facility, World Bank, African Development Bank, or similar.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and partnership management skills, particularly with cities, sub-national governments and water utility companies.
• Proven ability to drive sustainability outcomes across multiple countries across Sub-Saharan Africa
• Strong written and oral communication skills, particularly when it comes to communicating technical concepts to non-technical audiences
• Experience consulting with public sector institutions, financial institutions, and/or private sector

Please note that WRI is an IRS-registered 501(c)3, tax-exempt organization. WRI is not VAT exempt. All prices or quotes should include VAT and tax, as applicable. 

GUIDELINES FOR PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

Requirements 

• The selected vendor should be able to demonstrate the required expertise to execute the task.
• The selected vendor should possess relevant work authorization where this position shall be based. WRI is unable to authorize visa work authorization 
• The selected vendor should be available for multiple in-person engagements with the WRI, and partner teams based in Nairobi/Kigali/Addis Ababa/Johannesburg during the period of this consultancy.

Proposal content 

Prospective candidates should submit: 

• A short statement of interest that demonstrates how they are suited for this project based on the requirements.
• Samples of and references for similar previous work.
• An up-to-date CV
• A well explaining strategy & approach of executing the highlighted tasks