GCA is an international organization that works as a solutions broker to catalyze action and support for climate adaptation solutions, from the international to the local, in partnership with the public and private sector. This is to ensure that 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 livelihoods, food security, water supply, health, security, and economic growth. GCA’s work elevates the visibility and political importance of climate adaptation and facilitates solutions, such as smarter investments, new technologies and better planning for more resilience to climate related threats. GCA is a rapidly growing organization with offices in Abidjan, Beijing, Dhaka, Groningen, and Rotterdam and a planned new office in Nairobi in 2025. 

GCA’s 2020-2025 business plan and strategy have three pillars:  

• Programs: Food Security; Using Nature for more resilient infrastructure; Water for Urban Growth and Resilience; Climate Finance; Youth Leadership.
• Knowledge: Building adaptation knowledge globally through cutting edge products such as the State and Trends in Adaptation Report and the Adaptation Knowledge Portal.
• Advocacy and Awareness: Formulating policy messages to move the global, regional, and local adaptation agendas forward.

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 Infrastructure and Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) is a major component of the Africa Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator Pillar of AAAP. 

GCA’s support on infrastructure and Nature-Based solutions aims to mainstream adaptation and resilience into investments at both the national infrastructure system and infrastructure project levels. GCA is working with IFI and institutional partners to influence large-scale public and public-private investments, identifying and analyzing technically and financially viable options that reduce the impacts of infrastructure disruptions caused by climate hazards and mitigate climate risks to infrastructure assets, services and served communities. 

In 2023, GCA launched or completed technical work on investment projects across infrastructure sectors including roads, railways, and energy production and transmission lines. The portfolio of projects will keep growing with a continuous effort to diversify and balance projects across sectors , as well as with a particular focus on PPPs. GCA’s technical support at the national and investment project levels is complemented with capacity building initiatives such as the Masterclass on Climate Resilient Infrastructure PPPs, co-developed with PPIAF and other partners, to help infrastructure practitioners in the preparation of innovative and climate-informed investment projects. 

Poor infrastructure continues to hinder economic growth in most African countries. Increasing impacts of climate change means that already unreliable infrastructure services will be greatly affected and that the existing financing gap of $100 billion per year by 2025 in the continent is likely to increase. Only 10% of priority infrastructure projects in Africa make it to financing close, with 80% of the projects falling at the feasibility and business-plan stage alone. Therefore, mobilizing public and private investments is as important as developing more infrastructure projects to ensure success of the infrastructure projects. 

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are a key entry point to integrate climate adaptation and resilience into infrastructure projects. Governments, including in Africa, are increasingly turning to PPPs to attract private capital for infrastructure projects and bridge the existing investment gap. The Infrastructure Consortium for Africa highlighted that one of the of key parameters and criteria public and private investors use to assess investment attractiveness is the level of perceived risks and ways to mitigate them. The investors focus on risk assessment and mitigation is crucial in the context of Africa’s climate-vulnerable infrastructure. 

To address these gaps, GCA has been working to build the capacity of PPPs practitioners in integrating climate adaptation and resilience in the infrastructure lifecycle and supporting investment in infrastructure resilience through the development of the Knowledge Module on PPPs for Climate Resilient Infrastructure. It aims to build the upstream capacity of practitioners to integrate climate resilience into infrastructure PPPs and build a community of Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Officers (CRIOs) to facilitate knowledge sharing. 

In 2025-2026, the content and delivery method of the Masterclass will be reviewed to ensure it capitalizes on results from the program across business lines and builds synergies with initiatives from IFIs and other partners. Especially, the delivery method will be reviewed with the objective to strategically attract a wider range of participants linked to investments projects and allows for scaled-up implementation. 

GCA intends to professionalize and standardize the delivery of the Knowledge Module by building a training delivery capability. Specifically, the components of the Knowledge Module, i.e. the Online Course, Handbook, Masterclass and Certification, will be delivered as an integrated training curriculum. That said, the Masterclass is the centerpiece of the Knowledge Module, and GCA endeavors to improve and structure the Masterclass training delivery capability. The roll out of the integrated training curriculum will follow a regional approach (Northern, Central, Western, Eastern, and Southern regions), seeking to build the capability to deliver courses in the languages most spoken in African countries (Anglophone, Francophone, Lusophone). The goal is to deliver a world-class Knowledge Module combining cutting-edge technical content, insights from top global experts, and an exclusive network of leaders driving climate-resilient infrastructure.

Within this context, GCA is looking for partners to support the delivery of the Masterclass and the successful rollout in 2025-2026. The activities under this Call for Partnership are expected to be implemented in 2025-2026 (Q2 2025 -Q1 2026). A second phase for further outputs will be considered for Q2-Q4 2026, which will be contingent upon the availability of appropriated funds from which payment for agreement purposes can be made. 

Please download the full CFP on this page for more information.

• Demonstrated support of GCA’s core values and commitment to climate action and adaptation.
• Active engagement in partnerships and initiatives with, inter alia, United Nations, intergovernmental, national, subnational, industry or sectoral, non-governmental and other related organizations in support of climate, environmental and/or social causes.
• Demonstrated support of the principles of sustainable development, including inclusion and social and environmental corporate responsibility.

• Only registered non-profit organizations (INGO, NGO, CBO, 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 16 April 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”. 
• The proposal must include:

• Interested organizations interested in applying can submit questions to GCA regarding this call for proposal before 9 April 2025 4pm, Central European Time (CET) to infrastructure@gca.org and cc’d to subgrants@gca.org, with subject line “Clarification Questions for Integrated Delivery of the GCA Knowledge Module for Climate Resilient PPPs”. 
• Important to note:

• Proposals received after the closing date and time will not be considered. Organizations will be notified once a decision about the Sub-Grant is made. 
• Proposals and all supporting documents must be drafted in English. 
• GCA reserves the right to decline disclosure of the specificity of decision derived by GCA mission due to reasons related to confidentiality.
• GCA reserves the right to accept or reject any submissions, and to annul the selection process and reject all submissions at any time, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected Implementing Partners.