Call for Partnership: Gender Module for Climate Resilient Infrastructure
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an international organisation that works as a solutions broker to catalyse action and support for adaptation solutions, from the international to the local, in partnership with the public and private sector, to ensure we learn from each other and work together for a climate-resilient future. Adapting to the impacts of climate change provides a “win-win” for health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security, and economic growth. The work of the GCA elevates the visibility and political importance of climate adaptation. It facilitates solutions, such as more innovative investments, new technologies and better planning to become more resilient to climate-related threats. GCA is a rapidly growing organisation with offices in Abidjan, Beijing, Dhaka, Groningen, and Rotterdam.
Guiding GCA’s program in Africa is the Africa-owned and Africa-led Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), co-created with the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) to implement the vision of the Africa Adaptation Initiative to support African countries on key adaptation initiatives. The AAAP is contributing to closing Africa’s adaptation gap and helping African countries to make a transformational shift in their development pathways by putting climate adaptation and resilience at the centre of their critical growth-oriented and inclusive policies, programs, and institutions. It is scaling up successful initiatives fundamental to African nations’ economic development and prosperity for women and men. The four pillars of the AAAP are Climate Smart Digital Technologies for Agriculture and Food Security, the Africa Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator, Empowering Youth through Jobs and Entrepreneurship, and Innovative Financial Initiatives for Africa.
Gender Module for Climate Resilient Infrastructure
GCA is seeking a partner to develop a guide on infrastructure climate stress testing with integrated gender considerations. This guide will serve as a practical resource for stakeholders involved in climate adaptation projects across various sectors, which includes transport, energy, and social infrastructure. The selected partner will work closely with GCA to ensure the guide addresses key vulnerabilities, incorporates gender-specific impacts, and provides actionable recommendations for resilient infrastructure development. The final product should be accessible to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Project Context & Overview
Climate change poses unique challenges to infrastructure systems worldwide, with disproportionate impacts on women and marginalized communities. This project aims to develop practical tools and guidelines that help infrastructure planners and developers incorporate gender-responsive approaches in climate resilience assessments. The module will address gaps in existing methodologies, focusing on how climate risks intersect with gender inequalities and providing concrete steps for more inclusive infrastructure planning and adaptation strategies.
The work will heavily focus on Bangladesh infrastructure sector covering transport, energy, and social infrastructure sectors. The module will not only provide guidance but also incorporate case studies and best practices from successful gender-responsive infrastructure projects, particularly highlighting examples from Bangladesh, and South Asia. Special attention will be given to local contexts, cultural sensitivities, and socio-economic factors that influence infrastructure vulnerability and adaptation capacity. The guide will also include practical assessment tools, checklists, and monitoring frameworks to ensure effective implementation of gender-responsive climate resilience measures.
Project Outcomes and Outputs
This project aims to achieve the following outcome:
Outcome 1: A gender-sensitive infrastructure planning module is developed and disseminated, enabling the integration of gender considerations into infrastructure stress testing1 and the design of gender-responsive climate resilient infrastructure assets and services, leading to more inclusive and equitable infrastructure and adaptation strategies. The report will build on GCA’s climate resilience infrastructure handbook to integrate gender considerations in every step of the project lifecycle.
Output 1.1: Comprehensive guide on integrating gender considerations infrastructure climate stress testing. This will cover the steps to integrate gender related analysis in the national level and asset level stress test of climate resilient infrastructure2, and infrastructure for resilience3 at every stage of the project life cycle to identify the gender related vulnerabilities. The output will include (but is not limited to) the following:
- Step by step process to integrate gender analysis into infrastructure stress testing methodology. Setting the gender-specific goals and objectives of the project from a climate change angle during project preparation, as well as map out key stakeholders for implementation.
- Guidelines on how to conduct a detailed quantitative and qualitative gender impact assessment of a project in relation to climate change during the project appraisal stage.
- Step-by-step guidelines for stakeholder engagement to identify and quantify gender related vulnerabilities.
- Policy level recommendations for policy makers and government agencies.
- 1 to 2 Case studies (template to be provided by GCA) from Bangladesh and South Asia highlighting how gender was integrated in the infrastructure stress testing.
The output will be in a word file and a slide deck in English, and additionally in Bangla if the need is identified.
Output 1.2: Comprehensive guide on designing gender-responsive infrastructure in the context of climate change adaptation: This output will provide guidance on gender-responsive infrastructure in the context of climate change adaptation. It will provide guidance on both preparation and operational phase of the infrastructure project. This component will serve as the steps to find and integrate the gender considerations that were identified in output 1.1 through a comprehensive gender analysis. This output will serve as a practical guide for infrastructure practitioners and will include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Detailed methodologies, practical tools and templates for gender-responsive climate resilient infrastructure, and infrastructure for resilience at every stage of the infrastructure projects, which includes: a) Project identification phase: How to prioritize climate resilient infrastructure projects assessing the needs, socioeconomic backgrounds, and preferences of different orientation to ensure gender responsive climate resilient infrastructure and infrastructure for resilience. b) Project appraisal phase: Address the gender related vulnerabilities through appropriate gender-responsive action plan that features project design changes, operational targets, and activities. c) Project procurement and transaction phase: How to integrate requirements and specifications that results in gender-sensitive infrastructure assets and services based on climate risks identified during the project appraisal phase. This phase will provide guidance on the gender-related qualification and evaluation criteria and providing comprehensive information on the gender sensitive adaptive measures in the tender documents. d) Design and Operations phase: How to integrate gender-related adaptation measures during the detailed design, construction, and operations phase. This phase will provide guidance on ensuring well-maintained infrastructure assets provide equitable services to both women and men in the long term.
- 2 to 3 Case studies (template to be provided by GCA) from Bangladesh and South Asia highlighting successful implementations.
- Step-by-step guidelines for stakeholder engagement throughout the asset lifecycle to ensure gender responsive climate resilient infrastructure.
- Monitoring and evaluation frameworks to monitor infrastructure gender-responsiveness for the asset owners, operators, and financiers.
- Recommendations for policy makers and government agencies that can be implemented at portfolio, planning, policy etc level.
- Best practices for gender-inclusive infrastructure adaptation strategies from other regions of the world.
The output will be in a word file and a slide deck in English, and additionally in Bangla if the need is identified during the implementation phase.
Output 1.3: Contribute to the GCA Masterclasses on Climate Resilient Infrastructure PPPs:
- Review and provide feedback on the gender contents developed for the GCA masterclass on Climate Resilient Infrastructure PPPs during Q1 2025.
- Attend the first of the two in-person masterclasses held in Bangladesh during Q1/Q2 2025.
- Review the delivery and use the lessons learned to create stronger gender content based on the module to strengthen the gender contents for Q3/Q4 2025 masterclasses.
- Participate as a guest speaker in relevant session(s) of the Q3/Q4 masterclasses.
The output will be revised gender slides for the masterclass.
The indicative duration to complete the project below is 6 months. GCA expects partner(s) to engage with local stakeholders during project implementation, ensuring government and community buy-in and long-term sustainability. This engagement should include consultation, awareness-raising, and capacity building activities as needed.
How to apply
Only registered non-profit organizations (such as INGO, NGO, CBO, Universities, Company Limited by Guarantee) are eligible to receive a sub-grant from GCA.
The organizations responding to this call must meet the minimum eligibility criteria and demonstrate their capacity to implement all the technical criteria.
Proposals and all supporting documents must be submitted as a PDF, no later than 21 February 2025 4pm, Central European Time (CET) to infrastructure@gca.org and cc’d to subgrants@gca.org, with subject line “Proposal Submission for Gender Module for Climate Resilient Infrastructure”.
Proposals must include:
- Annex 1: Proposal outlining the organizational experience and approach to deliver the work described in this proposal: a) Section 3: Organizational Profile and Experience – Maximum of 3 pages. 4) Section 4: Sub-Grant Project Approach/Methodology – Maximum of 7 pages.
- Annex 2: Completed Partner Information Document & minimum required documents.
- Annex 2a: Budget and Financial Report Template.
Interested organizations interested in applying can submit questions to GCA regarding this call for proposal before 14 February 2025 4pm, Central European Time (CET) to infrastructure@gca.org and cc’d to subgrants@gca.org, with subject line “Clarification Questions for Gender Module for Climate Resilient Infrastructure”.
If an interested organization has concerns about completing the template, please reach out.