About WWF 

WWF is the world’s leading independent conservation organisation with a mission to create a world where people and wildlife can coexist harmoniously. To achieve our mission, we’re finding ways to help transform the future for the world’s wildlife, rivers, forests, and seas. We strive for a reduction in carbon emissions to mitigate catastrophic climate change and advocate for sustainable living within the ecological limits of our planet.

WWF North Africa (WWF NA) was established in Tunisia in 1994 with a vision of a Nature Positive North Africa region, where natural threats are minimized, and ecosystems regain their full potential to support biodiversity and human well-being. In collaboration with individuals, civil society members, businesses, local communities, and institutions, WWF NA works to identify and implement conservation solutions through research, fieldwork, policy advocacy, education, and awareness campaigns.

Context

The Challenge – widening global funding gap for sustainability 

The scale and ambition of the SDGs require massive financial and technical resources, with an annual financing gap for developing countries to achieve the SDGs estimated having increased to US$ 4.2 trillion since 2020. 

Most climate and nature driven initiatives for the Global South have been conceived and funded by the Global North, while initiatives from the Global South have been limited in size and impact and lack sophisticated financial structuring. North-driven climate finance initiatives are structured conventionally and therefore not inclusive for Islamic capital.   

WWF possesses a deep expertise in identifying, developing and monitoring solutions for people and nature. Our core role in bankable nature solutions evolves around: 

• Originating investable projects and developing investment pipelines 
• Providing technical assistance and project development
• Stewarding safeguards and ensuring project impacts
• Advancing investment-enabling environments in landscapes (Greening Finance)
• Convening and accelerating investments through stakeholder engagement and match-making

The Opportunity – Islamic finance can help fill part of the gap 

Islamic finance has thrived since its inception in the 1970s and amounted to almost US$3.4 trillion globally as of 2023. Given Islamic Finance’s focus on positive impact, equity, human welfare and development there is a strong alignment with the sustainability agenda.Despite this, Sustainable Islamic Finance accounts for just a tiny fraction of total Islamic Finance, estimated at only US$100 billion between 2010 and 2020. This underlines the opportunity that exists for Islamic Finance to significantly scale up investment in sustainability and help close the funding gap for climate-nature-development goals. 

Global Islamic Finance Program for Climate, Nature & Development (GIFP) is a global Islamic initiative for investments in solutions to our climate-nature-development challenges that has been developed to ensure inclusivity.Tunisia is selected for the planned pilot phase, and to serve also as a regional office for GIFP. Other countries targeted for the GIFP’s pilot launch are – Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkiye.

The GIFP team is currently engaging with various stakeholders in Tunisia to get their input on GIFP’s plans – both globally and country-specific – and to determine and define their potential role in GIFP’s pilot launch in Tunisia.

Through this work, WWF North Africa aims to support the coordination and alignment of various blended finance workstreams, ensuring complementarity across GIFP, Biodev 2030 and the blended finance playbook. The expert will enhance the mechanisms to ensure synergies between WWF’s sustainable finance initiatives in North Africa, optimizing resource allocation and impact.

Biodev2030 project which was launched at the end of 2019 to contribute to biodiversity mainstreaming within the economic development strategies of 15 pilot countries including Tunisia. GIFP could potentially contribute to technical assistance and funding towards the project identified as part of Biodev2030. 

Sustainable finance for conservation playbook, an initiative led by the Finance practice in WWF to diversify finance in key landscapes. the playbook operated following the 4 main phases of: I. Mapping of solutions and finance needs, greening finance and financing green and proposal development.

Objectives of the consultancy 

The main objective is to support the WWF North Africa and GIFP team to launch the fund in Tunisia. 

Tasks to be undertaken 

The consultant will be expected to:

1. Co-develop Tunisia’s GIFP implementation plan 
2. Ensure partners’ engagement in accordance with the GIFP implementation plan
3. Actively look for opportunities to widen / deepen partner and investor network
4. Support the identification of pipeline opportunities in Tunisia for GIFP’s return-first as well as impact-first investment strategy and assess pipeline against investment and impact criteria of GIFP as well as aligning the pipeline with Tunisia’s national strategy and governmental orientations 
5. Support the Consolidation of North Africa finance plan/strategy, integrating insights from GIFP, BioDev, and other relevant initiatives to create a cohesive roadmap for sustainable finance in the region.

Delivrables

The consultant(s) will provide the following deliverables: 

1. A comprehensive implementation plan in collaboration with implementation partners 
2. A stakeholder map of engaged partners and their specific roles and responsibilities
3. An ongoing data base / list of pipeline opportunities, incl. preliminary feasibility assessments 

COORDINATION 

The consultant(s) will work closely with the WWF NA and GIFP teams. The consultant(s) is expected to participate in online meetings within the GIFP work streams as well as in meetings with relevant local implementation partners and stakeholders.

Timeline 

The duration of the consultancy is 24 person days spread over 6 months from the date of contract signing, with specific milestones and deadlines outlined in a detailed work plan to be agreed upon at the start of the consultancy. 

Consultant Qualifications    

The consultant must meet the following qualification criteria:

• Advanced degree in economics, climate finance, environmental science.
• At least 10 years of experience in similar projects; 
• Experience in stakeholder engagement and implementation of leading environmental initiatives with international and national institutions  ;
• Familiarity with the Tunisian and north African context, particularly the climate finance and environmental priorities 
• Good communication skills in English.

Application Process

Applicants should submit:

Technical offer

• CV(s) of consultant(s) detailing the experiences similar to this assignment including the references and supporting documents for the work carried out;
• A methodological note with a timetable detailing the approach to be followed to carry out the tasks assigned and to achieve the expected results of this consultancy;
• Valid registration certificate, VAT number registration.

Financial offer 

• Financial offer specifying the remuneration detailing the number of days per deliverable requested. 

Submission of Offers

The application file containing the technical and financial offers must be sent to the following e-mail address: procurment@wwfna.org . The deadline for receiving applications is 24/03/2025 at 23h59 (Tunis Time). The following subject line should be included in the application e-mail: (Applicant’s name_ Expert climate finance). Applications that do not comply with the submission procedure or reach WWF NA after the deadline will not be considered.

Evaluation process

Technical evaluation 

A technical score is assigned to each proposal with a maximum score of 100 points, based on the following criteria:

• Profile (experience and qualifications) of the consultant(s) in relation to the subject of this mission;
• Proposed methodological approach;
• Detailed schedule and timeline.  

The technical evaluation will be made following the evaluation grid : 

Any proposal that does not achieve the minimum score of 70 points will be eliminated. If no proposal reaches 70 points, the consultation process is declared unsuccessful.

Financial evaluation 

After the technical evaluation, the committee will proceed with the verification and analysis of the amounts of technically valid financial offers. 

The financial offer will be scored based on 100 points as follows: 

Sf = 100 x Fm/F

Sf is the financial score, Fm is the amount of the lowest bid, and F is the amount of the bid under consideration.

Overall Evaluation

The proposals will be ranked in descending order of the combined value of both the technical and financial scores. 

The technical score (St) will be weighted at a rate of 80%, while the financial score (Sf) will be weighted at a rate of 20%. The total score (ST) will be evaluated as follows:

ST = 0.8 St + 0.2 Sf = 0.8x… + 0.2x…

PS:

In compliance with the relevant regulations, a consultant may only be engaged upon submission of the following documents:

1. The business registration certificate (patent) or the consultant’s registration certificate; or
2. Prior authorization from the relevant authorities in their home country, confirming that their engagement complies with all applicable local regulations.