Request for Proposal: Finance Consultant - Biennial

Request for Proposal: Hiring of an Individual Consultant on Finance to support the development of the Second Biennial Report on Global Infrastructure Resilience and conduct a Scoping Study for CDRI’s Infrastructure Resilience Finance activities

Background

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is a multi-stakeholder global partnership of national governments, UN agencies and programmes, multilateral development banks and financing mechanisms, the private sector, and academic and knowledge institutions that aims to promote the resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks in support of sustainable development. The vision, mission, goal, and objectives of CDRI are explicitly linked to the post-2015 development agendas. CDRI promotes its Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (DRI) mandate through knowledge exchange and bolstering technical capacities among member countries and partners through the following key Strategic Priorities: 

• Advocacy and Partnerships 
• Research, Knowledge Management and Capacity Building
• Program Support and Technical Assistance

In line with the Strategic Priorities around Research, Knowledge Management, and Capacity Building, CDRI launched its inaugural Biennial Report, titled "Global Infrastructure Resilience: Capturing the Resilience Dividend" in October 2023. The Biennial Report serves as CDRI’s principal vehicle for engaging and focusing the attention of global leaders, policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in addressing the critical and multifaceted challenges posed by disaster and climate resilient infrastructure. 

CDRI’s technical support initiatives are aligned to a set of geographic and thematic programs with DRI financing as a key thematic area of focus. CDRI’s Finance for Resilient Infrastructure Programme (FRIP) aims to support member countries in developing & implementing coherent risk financing strategies for (re)building resilient infrastructure.

This Request for Proposal (RFP) is published to onboard an Individual Consultant to support the delivery of the DRI Financing component as part of the Second Biennial Report and conduct a larger scoping study for exploring CDRI’s role in infrastructure resilience finance with the objective to effectively support member countries in line with its mandate. 

Assignment –1: Second Biennial Report on Global Infrastructure Resilience

The inaugural edition of the Biennial Report presented a compelling case for investing in resilience, leveraging the Global Infrastructure Risk Model and Resilience Index (GIRI). The GIRI index provides a comprehensive probabilistic risk assessment covering seven hazards and nine infrastructure sectors, offering country-specific metrics to support investments in infrastructure resilience. The Biennial Report also highlighted pathways for scaling up finance, integrating Nature-based Infrastructure Solutions, and enhancing infrastructure governance. It further provided valuable insights on institutional and human capacities across nations in key infrastructure sectors such as water, energy, transport, and telecommunication, through its Global Infrastructure Resilience Survey (GIRS). The GIRS’ outputs revealed critical areas of institutional and human capacity that are crucial for successful infrastructure development, creating global geographic insights into where and how investments and upgrades in the enabling environment should take place. In tandem with improvements in engineering, higher-resolution satellite data, and stronger climate models, GIRS uniquely captured the human and institutional realities of infrastructure management through a global database. Due to constraints in outreach and the inability to generate a significant representative sample, the survey results were included as pilot findings with the commitment to run a more elaborate version in Edition 2 of the report.

The Biennial Report and its Executive Summary are now available for download at cdri.world/gir. The GIRI data platform, that facilitates visualization, interpretation, and analysis of data from the GIRI model, is accessible at cdri.world/giri.

CDRI now plans to publish the second edition of the Biennial Report by October 2025 (hereafter referred to as “the Report”). The Report will build on the comprehensive risk assessment methodology with global applicability developed for the first report. The Report aims to answer some of the questions raised during the preparation and dissemination of the first Biennial Report, expanding its remit and strengthening the connections between the risk analysis and the financial, institutional, and technological dimensions of resilient infrastructure.

The Report is organized along two main pillars (see below). The first pillar is based on a series of modeling and analytical pieces that deepen, downscale, and project the results of the first Biennial Report into the future. The second pillar advances the work of the first Biennial Report from the “what is the resilience dividend” to the “how to capture the resilience dividend.” 

Pillar 1: Deepening, Downscaling, Projecting - The Report expands the work of the first report along three lines of work:

• Deepening the understanding of resilient infrastructure by (i) incorporating additional risks and updating the model with new databases; (ii) undertaking specific assessments of economic and poverty impacts due to infrastructure services failures caused by disasters; and (iii) completing global surveys to understand better the underlying factors of insufficient resilience and the impacts on businesses and the economy.
• Downscaling the global analysis undertaken for the first Biennial Report to the country and sub-national level to provide higher-quality risk assessments using better data and understanding of local conditions through national partners. At the same time, these analyses will review options, costs, and benefits of resilience and adaptation measures to reduce the impacts of disasters on infrastructure assets, systems, and services.
• Projecting the modeling exercise to incorporate future expected trends, including investment trajectories to achieve the infrastructure-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets, the projected growth of urban centers, and related areas of analysis.

Objectives of the Assignment

Pillar 2: How to Capture the Resilience Dividend - The first Biennial Report provided a robust analysis of the magnitude of the “resilience dividend” at the global and national levels. The first report also took the first steps in analyzing ways in which more resilient and climate-adapted infrastructure can be built and maintained, including nature-based solutions and financial mechanisms. The Second Biennial Report will build on the foundation of the first report. It intends to move from the question of “What is the magnitude of the potential resilience dividend?” to “How can this resilience dividend be captured?”

Under this Pillar, the Report will review: (i) financial instruments for resilience and adaptation; (ii) institutional, governance, and capacity frameworks; and (iii) frontier tools, including disruptive technologies and nature-based solutions, among others.

As was the case for the first report, the Second Biennial Report will examine the resilience of infrastructure assets, network/system, services, and users. It will examine the capacity of infrastructure systems to (i) absorb disturbances (shocks caused by disasters), (ii) respond, and (iii) recover from such disturbances to an improved post-recovery state that incorporates lessons from previous disasters and adapts to changing risks due to climate change. The figure below shows the way in which the first report approached the GIRI Composite Index. The Second Report will work to update the system of proxy indicators used with more specific indicators reflecting the financial, institutional, governance, and capacity dimensions of the infrastructure sector

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework for GIRI

CDRI aims to onboard an Individual Consultant on Finance, who, while working under the supervision of the Coordinating Lead Author and Senior Advisor to the Report, and in close coordination with the Project Team at CDRI, will be responsible for the financial aspects of the Report. Specifically, the main objectives under this assignment will be as follows:

• To provide technical expertise, advice, authorship, and overarching support on the theme of financing for resilient infrastructure for the Report.
• To prepare a detailed background report and a summary chapter for the Report, as part of Pillar 2, focused on the financial mechanisms and instruments, sources of financing and their mobilization, and institutional arrangements to strengthen the capacity of infrastructure assets, systems, and users to absorb, respond, and recover from disasters. The background report and summary chapter need to focus on the “how to” capture the resilient infrastructure dividend from the financial perspective and provide practical “roadmaps” for countries to take steps to capture such dividend.
• To work with other consultants on the Report and provide advice on financial issues related to the Global Infrastructure Risk Model and Resilience Index (GIRI), the Global Infrastructure Resilience Survey (GIRS), and the national sub-national risk assessment and modeling (activities under Pillar 1 of the Report)
• To coordinate with the authors of the other chapters under Pillar 2 (institutions and frontier tools) in a manner that ensures consistent messages on institutions, governance and capacity of financial resilience, and instruments to finance new tools (such as disruptive technologies and nature-based solutions) for resilience. 
• The consultant is expected to ensure timely delivery of all services for a smooth launch of the Report in October 2025.

Scope of Work

The Individual Consultant on Finance will have the following responsibilities while working under the guidance of the Coordinating Lead Author and Senior Advisor on the second edition of the Biennial Report, and in close coordination with the Project Team at CDRI: 

• Provide technical expertise in the areas of Resilient Infrastructure Finance for all Report activities, including in the areas of Financial Risk Assessments, Disaster Risk Finance, Resilience Taxonomies, Risk Transfer, Climate Finance, and Sustainable Finance. 
• Undertake a thorough and exhaustive literature review to bring the latest practices, policies, and innovations in resilient infrastructure finance. 
• Author a background report and a summary chapter for the Report focusing on Financing for Resilient Infrastructure and in alignment with the thematic focus and other chapters of the Report. This will entail the preparation of an outline for the Finance chapter/ sections of the Report.
• Provide inputs on the financial issues related to the Global Infrastructure Risk Model and Resilience Index (GIRI) – specifically the indicators related to financial resilience, and the Global Infrastructure Resilience Survey (GIRS) – in respect to the questions related to financial aspects of the survey. In this area, the consultant will explore the possibility of developing an index that measures the ‘financial resilience” the infrastructure sector in a given country. The financial chapter of the Report should link to this index and provide practical steps for a roadmap that countries can use to improve their financial resilience by designing and implementing appropriate financial tools and instruments at the sovereign, sub-sovereign, and asset levels, as appropriate.
• Provide advice to the consultants preparing the national and sub-national risk assessment and modeling on financial aspects of GIRI applied in specific contexts.
• Collaboratively work with the Coalition member countries to identify good practices and country examples on financial tools and instruments for enhancing their resilience performance curves within GIRI.
• Identify mechanisms and pathways to mobilize international, global climate, national, and sub-national financing for resilience, including through case study review and analysis.
• Participate in meetings at designated intervals with the Coordinating Lead Author, Senior Advisor, Project Team and other consultants engaged on the Report (both in person and remotely, with in-person meetings expected to take (3 to 4) working days over the period of the assignment (plus travel time).
• Participate in dissemination and outreach activities for the Report.
• Prepare the following: 
  • An inception report.
  • An annotated outline of the background report.
  • Intermediate reports with: (i) the proposal for the financial resilience index, (ii) the proposed approach to country cases and good practices, (iii) a framework for the roadmap to strengthen the financial resilience of countries, and (iv) other small inputs as agreed with the Lead Author and Senior Advisor.
  • Draft and final versions of the background report and summary chapter.

Assignment 2: Scoping study on infrastructure resilience finance

Infrastructure resilience finance

CDRI’s Finance for Resilient Infrastructure Programme (FRIP) aims to support member countries in developing & implementing coherent risk financing strategies for (re)building resilient infrastructure through two key pillars – 

• Pillar 1 focuses on Financing for new and resilient infrastructure
• Pillar 2 is focused on Financing for build-back-resilient infrastructure

CDRI’s ongoing initiatives include national and sub-national studies on Fiscal Risk Assessment in India, Nepal, Fiji and Mauritius for critical infrastructure sectors and investments. CDRI is also engaging with the Finance Commission of India on integration of risk assessment and infrastructure resilience in the Commission's forthcoming report.

Building on these initiatives, CDRI aims to conduct a scoping study to explore its role in infrastructure resilience finance for member countries. The study will map the existing landscape of organizations that play a significant role in this field and focus on areas where CDRI can add value, through studying the effectiveness and gaps within the functioning of these organizations. This can be done through the dissemination of best practices, development of innovative financial instruments and tools etc.  Through such a premise, CDRI aspires to assist its member countries on optimally accessing infrastructure resilience finance and develop an overarching strategy and roadmap for infrastructure resilience finance activities which will also serve to a niche area of research and capacity building within its mandate.

Objectives of the Assignment

The consultant will conduct a scoping study on infrastructure resilience finance for CDRI by engaging with relevant actors to identify strategies that can be utilized by CDRI for accessing and providing optimal financing solutions for its members and partners. Specifically, the main objectives under this assignment will be as follows:

• Identify and map key actors in infrastructure resilience finance.
• Explore the finance-related activities that would complement CDRI’s role and functioning.
• Develop a strategic roadmap for CDRI's infrastructure resilience finance activities. 

Scope of Work

The Individual Consultant on Finance will have the following responsibilities under this assignment -

• Map and engage with key actors in infrastructure resilience finance such as Development Finance Institutions, international agencies, private sector financiers, labelling networks and standards setters, insurers to summarize their activities including the Disaster Risk Financing (DRF) instruments used by them, amount of funds disbursed by them, and their audience to assess their effectiveness and shortcomings.
• Identify complementary infrastructure resilience finance activities by funding institutions and CDRI’s activities for expanding CDRI’s role within this purview. This could be by means of disseminating best practices, developing financial instruments, and assisting its member countries in accessing resilience finance. 
• Develop a strategic roadmap for this study and the overarching role that CDRI can play within this realm that includes a methodology, workplan, timelines, stakeholders and activities associated with the same.
• Participate in regular meetings and discussions on various finance activities with the CDRI Program Team and provide support through presentations to CDRI senior management or external stakeholders as needed.

Key competencies and skills

• Excellent knowledge of the English language, both spoken and written, is essential. 
• More than 20 years of experience in international public finance, disaster risk financing, climate finance, and sustainable finance is essential. 
• Experience working on strengthening financial and infrastructure resilience is essential.
• Demonstrated skills in literature review, development of research problems, research approaches, research methods, quantitative or qualitative methods, and interpretation of results, is essential. 
• Demonstrated experience in drafting reports and other relevant publications pertaining to finance and infrastructure resilience, is essential for a global audience. 
• Excellent interpersonal teamwork and time management skills are essential.
• Strong track record and proven experience of working on global publications is desirable.
• Demonstrated work experience with International Organizations is desirable.
• Flexibility in remote working arrangements and experience of working with teams remotely is essential. 
• Familiarity with international frameworks like the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement is desirable. 

Expected deliverables

The consultant will undertake and complete the two assignments as outlined in Sections 2 and 3. The list of expected deliverables catering to both assignments has been mentioned below. The consultant must submit a detailed work plan and schedule of deliverables as part of the proposal, which shall be finalized in consultation with the CDRI Team at the time of onboarding.

Deliverables pertaining to Assignment 1

Comprehensively support the component on Financing for Resilient Infrastructure within the Report, by means of technical expertise, advice, and authorship. Also support the financial aspects of the work relating to components within GIRI, GIRS, and national and sub-national level studies and analysis. This would include the following deliverables-

1. Inception report including the final work plan and schedule of deliverables.
2. Submission of an annotated outline of the background report that will feed into the narrative of the second Biennial Report.
3. Submission of intermediate reports that cater to GIRI and GIRS including but not limited to:
4. Proposal for the financial resilience index.
5. Approach to country cases and good practices.
6. Framework for strengthening the financial resilience of countries. 
7. Support the development of questionnaires and indicators that pertain to financial aspects of the institutions, regulations and capacities under GIRS.
8. Draft and final versions of the background report and summary chapter that will be integrated into the Main Report. This will include:
9. Zero order draft 
10. First-order draft
11. Second-order draft
12. Final chapter/ sections for the Main Report and the Executive Summary

The consultant is expected to deliver all services in a timely manner and in accordance with the workplan and timelines, ensuring that the Report draft is ready for peer review, revisions, and launch by the last quarter of 2025. 

Deliverables pertaining to Assignment 2

The consultant will undertake and complete the following deliverables:

1. Inception Report including final work plan and schedule of deliverables.
2. Summary Report mapping key actors with their activities and resilience finance products and identifying potential.
3. Draft and Final Roadmap for CDRI’s finance activities.

The consultant is expected to deliver all services in a timely manner and in accordance with the workplan and timelines allotted for this assignment. 

Period of Engagement  

The Individual Consultant on resilient infrastructure financing will be hired for a period of 12 months. 

Qualification criteria for applicants 

• At least 20 years of professional experience in disaster risk management, disaster risk financing, risk assessment, climate change, climate finance, financial advisory, sustainable financing, infrastructure financing and international development. 
• Fluency in both written and spoken English. 
• A minimum of a master’s degree in disaster risk management, economics, public policy, administration, or other related disciplines. A master’s in business administration (MBA) would be preferred. 
• Strong and proven experience of working on global reports/strategic documents.
• Strong and proven track record of working with International Organizations or multicultural settings.  

Submission

Please share proposals in two separate PDF files:

1. Technical Proposal (Open PDF file) catering to both Assignment 1 & 2, that includes the following: 
2. Curriculum Vitae: Outlining relevant academic and professional experience and expertise that demonstrates alignment to the key objectives, scope of work, key competencies, and the overarching thematic focus of Financing for Resilient Infrastructure.
3. Technical Approach & Workplan: A detailed description of the proposed approach and workplan for the outlined deliverables for both assignments, based on the respective key objectives and scope of work. 
4. Timeline: An estimated timeline for outlined deliverables for both assignments, based on the respective key objectives and scope of work.  
5. Financial Proposal (Password-Protected PDF File): A detailed cost estimate for the proposed work based on consultancy rates per day and the number of man-days to be entailed for this work, catering to both assignments. Applicants shall quote an all-inclusive lump sum price based on their per-day consultancy charges. This proposal must cover all aspects mentioned in the scope of work for both assignments. All payments shall be subject to tax deduction at source per the tax laws of India.

Note: The Financial Proposal PDF should be password protected. The password for FINANCIAL PROPOSAL MUST NOT BE SHARED ALONG WITH PROPOSAL. The password for the financial proposal will be requested separately.

Evaluation

1. The consultant will be selected following a Quality Cum Cost Basis (QCBS) of selection.
2. Proposals shall be evaluated as follows: Evaluation Criteria for Technical Bids 100 points:

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Maximum Marks

Academic qualification: 20

Professional work experience: 20

Experience in working on reports/strategic documents on a global scale: 10

Technical approach and workplan for assignments 1 & 2: 40

Experience of working with International Organization(s) or in a multicultural setting: 10

Maximum Marks: 100

Rating Multiplier for Methodology, Approach

Level of Responsiveness - Rating 

Irrelevant: 0%

Poor: 25%

Satisfactory: 50%

Good: 75%

Excellent: 100%

The applicant scoring more than 70% in the technical evaluation shall be considered for financial evaluation. 75% weightage will be awarded for the Technical Proposal and 25% weightage will be awarded for the Financial Proposal. Technical Bid will be assigned a Technical score (Ts) out of a maximum of 100 points. 

The consultant’s Financial Scores (Fn) are normalized as per the formula below: 

Fn = Fmin/Fb * 100 (rounded off to 4 decimal places) Where,

Fn = Normalized commercial score for the consultant under consideration

Fb = Absolute financial quote for the consultant under consideration

Fmin = Minimum absolute financial quote

Formula for final evaluation: 

Composite Score (S) = Ts * 0.75 + Fn * 0.25 

The consultant with the highest Composite Score (S) would be considered for the award of the contract and will be called for negotiations if required. 

Terms of payment 

This would be a lump-sum contract with the following payment schedule (Payments will be made upon approval of the submissions by competent authorities at the end of each quarter). The payment schedule is based on a set of quarterly deliverables that ought to be decided in coordination with the Coordinating Lead Author, Senior Advisor, and the CDRI Project Team. It shall be based on the workplan and timelines for the project.  

S. No.

Deliverables across 12 months beginning from the date of onboarding

Payment Terms

(% of Contract Price)

Quarter 1: 20%

Quarter 2: 30%

Quarter 3: 30%

Quarter 4: 20%

Standards of quality 

Information and data created according to the Scope of Work should follow internationally accepted standards and practices.

Reporting Structure 

The Consultant will work in close coordination with the Coordinating Lead Author for the Report and report to the Director (RKM&CD) and Lead Specialist – Biennial Report providing regular updates on progress, challenges, and key decisions.

Other Terms & Conditions

1. The proposals should be valid for 90 days after the final submission date.
2. CDRI reserves the right to cancel this Request for proposal before or after the receipt of proposals or after opening the proposal and call for fresh proposals. CDRI also has the right to reject any proposal without assigning any reason.
3. Proposals incomplete in any respect will not be considered.
4. Please note that the consultant must clearly disclose the contractual and payment terms in its proposal.

The consultants are requested to submit their proposal through email to [email protected] by 23:59 hrs (IST) on 12 August 2024. Responses received after the stipulated time or not in accordance will be summarily rejected.

Please ensure that your proposal is sent ONLY to ABOVE MENTIONED email ID before the closing date & time. Proposals sent/copied to any other email ID (other than above) OR received after the bid closing date & time (mentioned above) will not be entertained.