TERMS OF REFERENCE

Feasibility Assessment and Development of Business Plan for Community – Centred Energy Enterprise

1. WWF Overview

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is an independent conservation organization, with over 30 million followers and a global network active in nearly 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the Earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

WWF’s targeted impacts also depend upon our ability to influence sustainable investments into high biodiversity landscapes and catalyze the mobilization of capital for developments with quantifiable social and environmental outcomes. Reducing the capital costs and risks of investment projects that improve livelihoods and preserve natural resources is a key objective of sustainable landscape investment project portfolio development. We, therefore, seek a creative and entrepreneurial finance team to assess financial opportunities and investments that can help bring our solutions to scale.

Bankable Nature Solutions

WWF’s Bankable Nature Solutions Initiative aims to transform the investment landscape, redirecting substantial financial flows into sustainable water and environment projects in priority landscapes. However, available funding far exceeds the pipeline of available projects. Investments in these landscapes are inevitable and essential. We have a chance to ensure that the much-needed investments have a positive impact on nature, people and the economy. WWF Zambia aims to use our landscape knowledge, project expertise, and key partners to drive outcomes that are more desirable. WWF can help to bridge the investment gap by catalyzing a stream of bankable projects, which will improve freshwater ecosystems in our river basins, help protect sensitive ecosystems and support livelihood development and diversification while providing investors with an acceptable return on their investment.

2. Consultancy Overview

This consultancy aims to advance and harmonize WWF’s approach to bankable water and natural solutions in its key landscapes.  WWF’s ambition through this work is four-fold:

1. To develop an enabling environment to support bankable projects and positive private sector participation;

2. To further harmonize its approach to identifying and developing bankable project blueprints across priority landscapes;

3. To develop and test this methodology in a particularly underdeveloped and underserved environment – Upper Zambezi Basin – in an effort to support and advance WWF’s growing portfolio of integrated conservation and community development in Zambia; and

4. To apply, build upon and refine the lessons derived from the assessment in the Upper Zambezi basin to other WWF priority basins/landscapes.

3. Scope of Work

While it is WWF’s expectation that the primary focus of work is associated with making initiative by our local partners – Easy General Dealers – invest ready, we recognize the dynamic nature of the region and the potential for unanticipated changes throughout the proposed duration of the assignment. The Easy General Dealers is an agribusiness in Mongu and has been in existence for 5 years. The company operates on a business model of utilizing rice husks and other agricultural waste to produce energy briquettes as an alternative to conventional charcoal. The energy briquettes are a vital source of sustainable energy for cooking and heating for both households and industries. To that end, and where feasible, the consultant will aim to explore opportunities for scaling up this initiative.

Organizational Due Diligence

The consultant will undertake organizational due diligence of Easy General Dealers by undertaking the following tasks:

• An analysis of the reasonableness of managements’ forecasts, by assessing the sustainable earnings of the company;

• Future capital expenditure requirements, including any required plant refurbishments and expansions;

• An analysis of the funding options available to the company and the impact of these on the future earnings; Including local and national capital availability

• Market dynamics such as prevailing prices, competition and potential growth; review of key customers and relevant market dynamics;

• Assessment of the supply chain associated with the production of energy briquettes from agricultural waste

• A review of the current management structure and the requirements for the company;

Technical Assistance

Based on the gaps identified by organizational due diligence, the consultant will:

• Recommend how to de-risk the projects/enterprises

• Prepare the Information Memorandum that will be used to access finance.

• Work closely with the WWF landscape-based finance specialists.

Investment Linkages

WWF Zambia has identified a universe of “finance sector stakeholders” (e.g. potential investors), ranging from large-scale development banks, to national finance institutions and influence investors. The Consultant will:

• Be part of the road show and together with the project owners and WWF finance team make presentations to the providers of finance.

• The presentation will include invest teasers, information memoranda and any other documents that will be used to attract investment in the projects.

4. Period of Performance and Deliverables

The period of performance for this work is expected to be four months (4 months) from inception. Ultimately, this work is expected to assist WWF in the identification of where these enterprises and/or projects are in terms of investment readiness, and to help characterize the associated risks and opportunities for the enterprises themselves and for investors.  While investment-ready opportunities are the desired outcome of this work, WWF recognizes that any number of risks may make that outcome unattainable.  As such, the focus of this work will be on providing thorough and unbiased information (in the form of detailed due diligence, risks profiles and environmental and social screenings), business plan development and investment landscaping for WWF’s consideration.

5. Qualifications and Experience

The consultants will be selected based on the following criteria:

1. The team lead should hold a higher university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in business administration, business management, financial management, economics, ACCA, CIMA or any other similar field.

2. Technical expertise and understanding of business plan development and investment landscaping

3. At least 7- years experience in similar work

4. Fluency in English, knowledge of other local languages an advantage

5. Demonstrated analytical and assessment skills

6. Exceptional verbal and written communication skills

Application Procedure

Suitably qualified consultants are hereby invited to read the attached TOR and respond by return email to wwfcareers@wwfzam.org by no later than 15^th July 2022.