National and international agreements on biodiversity conservation and climate change have ambitious and relevant targets, but the gap in funding at the global scale still prevents them from being achieved. Debate at the international forums, such as the IUCN World Parks Congress, the COP of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), highlights the huge challenges in terms of scaling up and diversifying funding for conservation and climate change mitigation.

In this context, Environmental Funds (EFs) provide short to long-term financing derived from a variety of sources. Most EFs are legally independent private institutions and have become efficient conservation supporters, providing resources mobilization mechanisms, funds management and grant making mechanisms. EFs deploy several types of financing mechanisms and provide funding for a variety of activities, including biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable production, community development, etc.

To improve their performances, 40 EFs have joined forces in two networks: RedLAC (a network of EFs from Latin America and the Caribbean) founded in 1999, and the more recently created CAFÉ (the Consortium of African Funds for the Environment), in 2011. The objective of the two networks is to strengthen EFs operation, by helping them to achieve excellence in their operations and practices, promoting innovative financing mechanisms and impact monitoring. Like other networks, they focus on capacity building, exchanging lessons learned, information sharing, knowledge development and innovation. The two networks and their members have matured to different extents and their synergies and exchanges are rewarding.

The “Knowledge for Action project – Project K” aims to enhance Funds’ portfolio of innovation, to diversify sources of funding to address conservation challenges and to promote knowledge and best practice transfer through peer-to-peer learning and online tools. Project K is co-financed by the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM), Mava Foundation and the Global Environment Facility (GEF through UNEP) and Funbio – The Brazilian Biodiversity Fund is responsible for its management.

This consultancy aims at developing a common financial strategy for both the RedLAC and CAFÉ networks as a way to ensure their long-term sustainability by strengthening the network members’ financing skills. This consultancy shall be carried out by one consultant with a balanced knowledge and experience regarding the development of financing and marketing strategies for EFs (or environmental organizations, biodiversity conservation initiatives), so that all requirements mentioned in this Term of Reference can be fulfilled.

Consultants interested in this call are asked to send the resume (CV) and a cover letter showing previous similar professional experiences related to the activities, products and required competences. The cover letter should have a maximum of 2 pages. All CVs and cover letters shall be written in English and sent to [email protected] by May 25^th, 2018.

The selection process of the CVs will be carried out between May 25^th and June 3^rd and the selected consultant will be asked to develop a technical and financial proposal in the following week (as part of the selection process).