CAFI Launches Call for Expressions of Interest for Regional Private Sector Facility

CAFI is launching a call for Expressions of Interest today to all relevant implementing organisations interested in investing in private sector companies in our partner countries (the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, the Gabonese Republic, the Republic of Cameroon, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and the Central African Republic) to address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the following sectors:

• Charcoal value chains and clean cooking solutions
• Agriculture (including palm oil, maize, rubber, cocoa, coffee, and timber)
• Forestry
• Ecotourism and other innovative approaches to Forest Conservation

The CAFI private sector facility will make 100 million USD available to implementing organisations in the form of:

• Project development grants to support early development of projects including to pilot new technology and approaches, and to remove the risks and information gaps to investment;
• Investment grants to deploy a blended finance approach: to share risks or provide below market interest rate loans and/or other concessional terms such as longer tenors and grace periods;
• Performance-based grants to price-in the externality by providing an explicit value on forest carbon and biodiversity and ex post verification of the environmental services provided by investments: all payments will be made only after the independent verification of results.

The implementing organisations chosen through this call for expressions of interest will be instrumental in building CAFI’s private sector portfolio.

A dedicated information session will be held on specific thematic areas, the date for which will be announced shortly. A link to the recordings of the information sessions will be available on this page after the session is held.

Answers to the questions received via the email address eoi.cafi@undp.org  will be published in a FAQ section, which will appear below. It is therefore strongly recommended that all interested parties consult this page regularly, as it will often be updated with relevant information.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1) Who can respond to this EoI?

This EoI is not intended for NGOs or research organizations. Two types of submissions will be accepted:

• Private companies are invited to submit an expression of interest. The CAFI Secretariat will communicate these submissions to CAFI implementing organizations to accelerate the development of a project portfolio.
• Implementing organisations already accredited or eligible for accreditation with CAFI are invited to respond.

2) What documents must be provided to respond to this EoI?

The elements of the file to be compiled can be found in the “Resources” section of this web page.

3) Is it possible to submit a project for just one of CAFI's partner countries, or must the proposal be regional in scope?

You can submit a proposal for just one country, however, it must be a Central African country where CAFI operates (see above).