Deadline

The Cities Investment Facility (CIF) invites organisations and enterprises around the world to submit an Expression of Interest to jointly run and operate an initiative to advise and incubate UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aligned, investable urban infrastructure projects.

 

CITIES INVESTMENT FACILITY OVERVIEW

CIF is a multi-stakeholder initiative centred around unlocking greater capital flows to urban impact projects, by supporting their processes of ideation, design, financing, and implementation, using a series of partnership-based instruments. For further information regarding CIF, please find the details in the Brochure attached and, in our website, - http://citiesinvestmentfacility.org/

 

Selected urban development projects in the CIF pipeline will actively participate in all 3 pillars of CIF in the following ways: 

  • Projects will be uploaded on the Cities Investment Portal (CI Portal), which allows city officials to showcase their projects to a global audience and stakeholders
  • Projects shall receive early project preparation support from the Cities Investment Advisory Platform (CIAP), an initiative providing advisory services on upstream project preparation, “investability”, and SDG-alignment.
  • Projects will access funding for mid to late-stage project preparation from the Cities Investment Vehicles (CI Vehicles). CI Vehicles are funded by diverse and blended sources of capital to enable cities to begin implementing their projects.

 

WHO IS CIF LOOKING TO PARTNER WITH?

Following this call for an additional Cities Investment Facility partner, the selected organisation(s) shall work with the UN-Habitat in running and operating the Cities Investment Advisory Platform. All organisations/entities in both the public and private sector which are officially registered in their country of origin are eligible to apply.

 

WHAT IS INVOLVED? 

Aforementioned, the Cities Investment Advisory Platform is the second rung of the Cities Investment Facility and aims to bridge the gap between the design/conceptualisation of urban infrastructure projects and investor requirements. The CIAP implementing partner is expected to work closely with the CI Vehicle partners to provide support and guidance to selected upstream (pre)feasibility project in the CIF pipeline to align better with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and become investor ready. UN-Habitat shall lead the advisory for project preparation to align with SDGs while the implementing partner will lead the project preparation to align with investor expectation. The roles and responsibilities of the implementing partner will comprise of but not limited to:

  • Conduct initial financial modelling and assessment of the selected projects to create a baseline
  • Understand financial markets and project structure to determine the financing structure and the asset class (Grant, Debt, Equity, etc) that best suits the project
  • Work with the CI Vehicle partners and third-party agencies to provide advice on project design and operation modification to de-risk projects and improve returns to investors
  • Advise, guide and/or connect project promoters with agency that can help perform Feasibility and Environmental, Social and Impact Assessment Studies
  • Support the development of improved project preparation and bankability assessment capacities
  • Understand and identify permits, legal requirements, licences and right of way for the project to be implemented
  • Support the Cities Investment Facility fundraising activities and mobilize financial resources for the “Feasibility Fund” which support the advisory services  

 

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS? 

If successful through the application process to become a Cities Investment Advisory Platform Partner, your team will be working alongside both UN-Habitat staff and private partners to provide urban infrastructure project preparation services. Some of the partnership benefits primarily include, but is not limited to the following:

  • Access to provide project preparation services for urban development projects which are UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) certified
  • Exposure to engage with urban development projects from multiple geographical regions throughout Asia  & the Pacific, Latin America, Africa, Arab States and Europe, and varying urban sectors such as transport, affordable housing, roads & bridges, informal settlements, waste management, water & sanitation, urban health, disability services, energy and many more
  • Enhanced capacity to provide risk mitigation services for urban development projects in politically unstable regions
  • Opportunities for personal business development through UN-Habitat event engagement and presentation prospects for sustainable finance, urban development, project promoter capacity-building and development bank financing seminars within the United Nations system
  • Adoption into the UN-Habitat partnership network
  • A ratified Memorandum of Understanding with UN-Habitat outlining roles and responsibilities in the bilateral relationship and signifying the strength of the partnership

 

WHAT IS EXPECTED? 

Once the project passes through CIF, the project should be able to demonstrate the following for the CIV to take the work forward:

  • Prepare and submit drafts and reports as shown in the process flow diagram attached
  • Financial Model showing a risk commensurate equity return and sufficient cash flow to service debt
  • Sufficient safeguards for the capital providers in the event of political risks like change of government, expropriation, etc.
  • Technical Feasibility of the project along with a detailed project plan and risk study carried out for the construction phase and implementation
  • The permits/rights of ways/legal requirements identified if not secured

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list and may require further coordination and consultation with CIV partners depending on the project and risks involved.

 

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST REQUIREMENTS

Interested entities and organisations need to submit an executive summary of no more than 1500 words (Maximum 3.5 Page) indicating:

  • Name and Location of the Organisation along with the name and contact information of the organisations focal point(s)
  • Brief overview of the organisation including the Vision, Business Scope, and areas of expertise (Geographical, Thematic, etc.)
  • A good understanding of the Cities Investment Facilities vision and the tasks entailed
  • Specific areas where the organisation sees collaboration opportunities – network, subject matter expertise, previous experience in the field, etc.
  • Past Experience of development projects that could differentiate you from other firms
  • Proposed Fundraising and Operations Plan to support CIAP and the advisory services to the projects

 

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED:

Please provide the following documents as an appendix to the executive summary:

  • Evidence of support of the Principles of UN Global Compact
  • Copies of Valid Legal Registration Documents which include:
    • Tax Clearance Certificate
    • Trader’s License
    • Certificate of Incorporation
  • List of Infrastructure Projects you have worked/consulted. Provide name of project, years of involvement, names of entities involved, brief description of the project, deliverables achieved and references (names and contacts) of top clients which demonstrate specific experience in this line of work
  • A proposed business model for how the company aims to sustain its involvement with the CIAP - Maximum 2 pages
  • Description of team and bios of the key staff members
  • Audited financial reports for the last three recent years

 

PLEASE NOTE:

To be eligible to apply and work with the UN, the organisation or any of its officials should not be

  • Associated with fraud, corruption, (in all forms including bribery, extortion), money laundering, terrorism, significant irresponsibility/litigation
  • On the UN Sanction List

Priority will be given to entities that:

  • Provide all the required documents to the utmost standards
  • Showcase a financially feasible and sustainable business model
  • Commit to the corporate activities of CIF (Fundraising, Administrative operations, Advocacy and Outreach) and actively support the fundraising activities for the CIAP “Feasibility Fund”
  • Showcase strong collaboration opportunities which can benefit CIF and the projects – Network, experience and expertise
  • Have regional/subject matter expertise but can work in a global context if required

 

WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?

  1. Submit your proposals as a single PDF document of no larger than 20MB to unhabitat-cip@un.org and cc: erastus.njuki@un.org, soham.punjabi@un.org and rebecca.johns@un.org by 25 November 2021, 11:59PM East African Time.
  2. Shortlisted organisations will be notified by end of the 2021 or sooner and shall be invited to submit a Statement of Commitment
  3. UN-Habitat shall conduct due diligence on shortlisted organisations
  4. Organisations that clear due diligence shall be invited to sign a Memorandum of Understanding

 

Please note that the deadline for submissions is 25 November, 2021 11:59 PM EAT.

 

If you have any questions regarding the process, please email us at unhabitat-cip@un.org.

Flow of Projects through the CIF Pipeline (See attached)