Vacancy - Origination Consultant
Individual Consultant or specialised agency required to carry-out:
Feasibility study of appropriate modalities to generate resources for DFCD origination support.
The Dutch Fund for Climate and Development (DFCD)
Climate change and nature loss poses an unprecedented threat to humanity in the 21st century. With notable shortfalls in funding and a dominant focus on climate mitigation by global financing parties to date, Dutch development bank FMO has partnered with Climate Fund Managers (CFM), Worldwide Fund for Nature Netherlands (WWF) and SNV Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) to manage the Dutch Fund for Climate and Development (DFCD). Investments made by the consortium parties will seek to improve the wellbeing, economic prospects, and livelihoods of vulnerable groups – particularly women and children – and enhance the health of critical ecosystems – from water basins to rivers, tropical rainforests, marshland, and mangroves. The consortium’s activities will also help protect communities and cities from the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and benefit depleting biodiversity in areas that provide people with water, food, medicine, and economic opportunity. A substantial allocation of investments will be reserved for OECD DAC Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and other Netherlands development cooperation priority countries (collectively, ‘the focus countries’).
SNV and WWF are collectively managing the DFCD Origination Facility. The OF works with companies (sponsors) to turn initial ideas into bankable business cases. A lack of early-stage project preparation has been repeatedly recognised as a critical barrier to increasing investment flows. For private sector climate adaptation and biodiversity challenges are often particularly acute for their core business, as understanding of climate risks is limited and there is a need for working closely with potential project developers. The facility supports projects to the stage where they can then be picked up at low transaction cost by either of the DFCD Water or Land Use Investment Facilities or undertaken by external investors. This support consists of technical assistance accompanied with development funding up to EUR 350K. For more information, please refer to the website: www.thedfcd.com
The added value of the Origination Facility within the DFCD for identifying and supporting private investment propositions into bankability has been proven during the first phase (2019-2023). It has resulted in a pipeline of around 40 contracted projects of which 9 are currently investment ready.
The challenge is to ensure that a significant part of the costs of origination services can be retrieved or financed by the private sector itself or parties other than MoFA. Therefore, in the second phase (2024-2027), the OF will apply a two-pronged approach to ensure that 1) already during this 2nd phase, part of the OF costs will be (re)covered and that 2) at the end of the phase, sustainability modalities are in place which ensure future origination service delivery beyond 2027.
Modalities to be explored, developed and implemented during phase 2
The Origination Facility will develop a plan that prioritizes and operationalises different approaches for replenishment. This plan will be based on a research and assessment assignment where the pros and cons of different modalities will be compared. This ToR applies to this research and assessment.
The consultant is asked to perform a broad scan of options that can help replenish the Origination Facility. The long list of options should include the four approaches as mentioned in the current DFCD project proposal:
- Apply reimbursable grants. In this modality, (part of) the received funding will become part of the first investment made by the DFCD Investment Facilities for projects that have been successfully graduated from the Origination Facility. This way, the Investment Facilities will make these reimbursable grants available for new origination projects.
- Develop proposals to create a basket fund for project origination, with other public – private donors (a donor scoping assessment study in 2021 can used as an input).
- Develop a result-based success fee modality. The DFCD OF will pro-actively reach out to impact investors / (Dutch) companies who face risks in their supply chains related to climate change and degradation of nature (volatility of prices, reputation, disruption). The OF will work with some of the suppliers in the Global South to mitigate these risks. In return we will request “skin in the game” from the sourcing companies by topping up the OF or providing equity and off-take agreements to the suppliers. The two DFCD investment facilities, where relevant and possible, will award a result-based fee to the OF upon successful graduation.
- Develop other, more commercial oriented, modalities based on the bench marking exercise mentioned under 3.
Objectives/Context
The assignment will make an analysis, prioritization and subsequent operationalisation of the identified approaches including the four mentioned above, based on a benchmarking assessment, in terms of a) feasibility, b) opportunities and risks per option and c) minimal preconditions the are required for a successful implementation.
Activities
- Consultation of open sourced documentation
- Interview with relevant key stakeholders (internal and external to the DFCD consortium)
- Conduct a benchmarking assessment of existing revolving mechanisms for origination of climate relevant investment proposals, e.g., Accelerator 100, Aceli Africa and/or others. This action will already be initiated in 2023.
- More specific activities to proposed in the inception report.
Deliverables
The Consultant is expected to provide below mentioned reports as deliverables on top of the hands-on supports required and designed for the period.
- Deliverable 1: Inception report (digital copy) within one weeks after contract signing, including detailed workplan of the assignment,
- Deliverable 2: workshop with SNV and WWF to discuss findings of research phase, for example with longlist of options with pro’s and con’s per option
- Deliverable 3: Draft report with findings and recommendations on prioritization and operationalisation of the 4 approaches to be presented to the four DFCD consortium partners
- Deliverable 4: Final report including and responding to key issues raised by the DFCD Consortium partners:
Timeframe
The consultant is expected to work for a total of 30 working days. The total duration of the assignment will be for maximum 3 months after signing of the contract.
Qualifications/ Experiences
- At least 5 years of relevant working experience in Business Development and funding strategies of not-for-profit organisations.
- Experience in private sector finance and/or impact investment
- Good financial and budgeting experience
We are also open to work with a specialized agency instead of an individual consultant
Reporting Line
The consultant will report to the DFCD Project Managers from SNV and WWF for each of the deliverables.
Application
Interested individual consultants (directly or through a firm/organisation) are requested to submit their proposal and CV (max 3 pages) highlighting relevant experiences.
Electronic copy of the proposal duly signed should be submitted to dfcd@snv.org with the subject line: “ Feasibility study of appropriate modalities to generate resources for DFCD origination support ” latest by December 15th 2023.