Deadline: 12-Jul-23
The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is seeking to engage and invest in companies or projects with potential to scale-up and replicate nature-positive solutions that enable resilience and adaptation to climate change.
UNCDF builds partnerships with other UN organizations, as well as private and public sector actors, to achieve greater impact in development; specifically, by unlocking additional resources and strengthening financing mechanisms and systems contributing to transformation pathways, focusing on such development themes as green economy, digitalization, urbanization, inclusive economies, gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.
Within the scope of UNCDF NAT’s portfolio of Africa-based programmes, this RfA seeks to identify and pool pipelines of viable nature-positive investment opportunities. By leveraging grant funding to provide seed capital for a select number of MSMEs and SMEs, UNCDF NAT will aim to scale-up solutions with the potential for transformative impact in emerging and developing markets in Africa. Specifically, UNCDF will engage and invest in companies contributing and/or aiming to contribute to long-term conservation of land-based natural assets and resilient food systems in high-priority jurisdictions across Central Africa.
Funding Information
- From USD 250,000 up to 5,000,000 for each selected company.
Target Beneficiaries
- The target beneficiaries of the investments are low-income households, farmers, farming communities, women, and marginalized populations including indigenous communities that live and work in and around areas experiencing the adverse effects of climate change and biodiversity loss.
- UNCDF will ensure that selected applicants apply a gender lens and gender-sensitive methodologies in their interventions. A baseline assessment of environmental and social safeguards will be required as a pre-condition for engagement with selected applicants. Applicants will be further encouraged to analyze and propose ways to resolve the differentiated experiences of women and men using their interventions. Every effort will be made to ensure that women and men can benefit equally from solutions proposed by applicants.
- Inclusion of minority, marginalized, and indigenous communities will be a core requirement. Applicants will have to highlight concrete policies (both existing and planned) to promote inclusion within their organization and in their interventions.
Geographic Focus
- Eligible companies will be headquartered in or otherwise have substantive operations in the following countries:
- Central Africa: Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Central Africa Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, Rwanda.
- Given the focus on sustainable food production, smart-agriculture, and targeting of marginalized populations experiencing poverty, UNCDF expects eligible companies to serve remote rural areas and high value ecosystems.
Eligibility Criteria
- Only applicants that meet the eligibility requirements and minimum criteria for the submission will be scored:
- Entity registration: The applicant or lead applicant must be a registered business (for profit or non-profit).
- Consortia: Applicants may apply independently or as part of a consortium, provided the consortium partnership was established prior to issuance of this request for applications.
- Joint applications between market players in the target country or countries are encouraged if the solution proposed expands delivery networks and promotes rural and/or other last-mile access to nature positive business models.
- Applications from consortiums of organizations must show that the partnership was established prior to this RFA.
- The lead applicant and their institution must be a registered entity as per applicable laws and must have statutory accounts and audited financial statements for at least two operating years.
- Country of operation: Eligible organizations will be duly registered, headquartered in or otherwise have substantive operations.
- Relevant operation licenses: The lead applicant must be legally authorized to provide services required to perform the RFA activities.
- Revenue generation: Applicants must have a clear business model with clearly identified revenue streams and demonstrable SDG-positive impact.
For more information, visit UNCDF.