INTRODUCTION
Introduction to the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA)
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an international organization that works as a solutions broker to catalyze 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 impacts of climate change provides a “win-win” for livelihoods, food security, water supply, health, security, and economic growth. The work of the GCA elevates the visibility and political importance of climate adaptation and facilitates solutions, such as smarter investments, new technologies and better planning to become more resilient to climate related threats. GCA is a rapidly growing organization with offices in Abidjan, Beijing, Dhaka, Groningen, and Rotterdam.

The GCA’s ambitious 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.

AFRICA ADAPTATION ACCELERATION PROGRAM (AAAP) 
In Africa, GCA implements its strategy through the flagship Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), launched in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to scale up adaptation efforts and mobilize finance for climate-resilient development across the continent. To date, GCA has integrated adaptation solutions into nearly $10 billion of investments funded by international financial institutions (IFIs) throughout Africa. The AAAP focuses on four key pillars where investments in adaptation and resilience yield high economic returns: Food Security, Infrastructure and Nature-based Solutions, Youth Entrepreneurship and Adaptation Jobs, and Adaptation Finance.  
 
The AAAP focuses on four areas:   

• Food Security: with a goal of influencing at least $10 billion in investments by 2025 to build climate-smart agriculture and resilient food systems supporting food security for at least 38 million farmers and herders in 26 African countries. 
• Infrastructure and Nature-based Solutions: with a goal of mainstreaming innovative climate resilience solutions, including nature-based solutions, into $12 billion worth of investments in infrastructure for water, transport, energy, and urban systems by 2025.  
• Youth Entrepreneurship and Adaptation Jobs: with a goal of supporting one million youth with entrepreneurship skills and create five million climate adaptation jobs through IFI investments worth over $2 billion by 2025. 
• Adaptation Finance: with a goal of unlocking access to $1 billion in climate adaptation finance by 2025 by designing innovative public and private financial instruments and solutions, including structuring resilience bonds and debt for-resilience swaps. This also includes influencing IFI investments for the financial sector and developing aggregation mechanisms for climate adaptation investment assets and monetization of adaptation benefits. 

As part of the Adaptation Finance program, GCA is launching a new initiative that strategically targets both the supply and demand sides of climate adaptation finance to accelerate private sector engagement in climate adaptation across Africa. On the supply side, the initiative aims to prepare domestic financial systems to effectively channel, absorb, and deploy funds from institutional and sovereign investors, ensuring climate-resilient economic development. This will involve developing and testing new mechanisms to help African banks understand and manage climate risks, with a focus on derisking portfolios, identifying adaptation market opportunities, and building capacity to scale investments. Through a ‘learning by doing’ approach, GCA will provide transaction-level support to strengthen banks’ capabilities, enabling them to play a larger role in climate adaptation. 
  
Simultaneously, on the demand side, GCA will focus on scaling local adaptation enterprises through the YouthAdapt Challenge. This initiative aims to identify innovative adaptation enterprises led by young entrepreneurs, providing them with grant finance and incubation support to help scale their businesses. The YouthAdapt Challenge is implemented in close coordination with GCA’s other programs working on evaluating adaptation investment needs and solutions that can be mainstreamed through International Financial Institution’s investments.  
 
Building on the technical support provided to individual banks and enterprises, GCA will also convene private sector actors to facilitate peer-to-peer learning exchanges and to jointly explore and articulate the drivers and barriers for private sector investment in adaptation in Africa. Through this effort, GCA seeks to build coalitions that can scale and grow new markets for adaptation goods and services. 
 
Objective of the Assignment  
Within this context, GCA aims to enter into a Framework Agreement with firms/organizations (hereby referred to as Service Provider, bidder or firm(s)) to provide targeted technical assistance through two distinct workstreams aimed at both increasing the supply of finance and expanding the pipeline of adaptation investments: 

• Workstream 1 – Enabling Adaptation Investments for Financial Institutions: This workstream focuses on enhancing the capacity of financial institutions, particularly banks, to understand and capitalize on climate risks and opportunities. By improving these institutions’ ability to manage climate risks within their portfolios and access international and local financing, GCA aims to increase the supply of funds available for climate adaptation projects. 
• Workstream 2 – Scaling Adaptation Enterprises: This workstream targets the demand side by identifying and incubating local enterprises that address climate adaptation and resilience needs in vulnerable sectors. Through technical assistance and capacity building, GCA will help these enterprises become more attractive to investors, enabling them to secure and effectively deploy financing towards adaptation and resilience initiatives as they grow. 

Service Providers must demonstrate the capability to conduct the general services required for at least one (1) of the two workstreams listed above. Service Providers may apply for both workstreams, in which case they will be evaluated for each workstream individually. Service Providers who choose to apply for both workstreams may be accepted for one workstream even if they fail to qualify for the other.  

Submission of the Proposal 
If you are interested in participating in this Request for Proposal, you are requested to submit your proposal to the submission link: GCA-PR-24-579 – Unlocking Climate Finance through Banks no later than 31 October 2024, 16:00:00 hours (04:00:00 p.m. o’clock), Central European Time (CET) (hereinafter referred to as “the closing date and time”). 

Bidders are cautioned that the timing of submission is based on when the proposal is received by the GCA, not when a proposal is submitted by a bidder. As transmission can be delayed due to file transfer size, transmission speed or other technical factors, bidders should plan to submit proposals well in advance of the Submission Deadline to avoid submitting late due to technical issues. Bidders submitting near the Submission Deadline do so at their own risk. 

Proposals received after the closing date and time will be rejected. GCA will confirm receipt of proposals within 24 hours from the closing date and time. Bidders that do not receive this confirmation must contact GCA within 48 hours from the closing date and time. After 48 hours from the closing date and time, GCA shall not respond to any queries related to whether a bidder’s proposal was received. 

Please download the RFP on this page for more information.