Assessing Resilient Landscapes, Ecosystem Restoration and Adaptive Livelihoods in Afghanistan

SELECTION OF CONSULTING FIRMS BY THE WORLD BANK GROUP REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI) Electronic Submissions through WBGeProcure RFx Now ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW Assignment Title: Assessing Resilient Landscapes, Ecosystem Restoration and Adaptive Livelihoods in Afghanistan Assignment Countries: Afghanistan ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION Context Afghanistan is among the world's most shock-prone countries, with rural communities facing recurrent droughts, floods, land degradation, and declining ecosystem productivity that undermine natural resource-based livelihoods. To address these challenges, the World Bank is preparing the Resilience to Shocks (R2S) Program, the first phase of a Series of Projects (SOP) aimed at strengthening the resilience and livelihood opportunities of selected Afghan communities and the landscapes on which they depend. Objectives This assignment will generate the technical, market, and economic evidence needed to inform R2S design across three interlinked parts. Part A undertakes a technical assessment of resilient landscapes, including landscape targeting and resilience profiling, identification of ecosystem restoration, watershed rehabilitation, rangeland management, and natural capital investment opportunities, evaluation of adaptive livelihood options, and recommendations for strengthening Community Resilience Platforms and local institutions. Part B assesses resilience service ecosystems, market systems, and private sector engagement opportunities, covering value chain and market analysis for priority products, mapping of advisory, early warning, and climate information services, digital and telecom-enabled service delivery, partnership models, and identification of a scalable investment pipeline and sustainability framework. Part C provides economic analysis, financial appraisal, and investment prioritization, including cost-benefit analysis, enterprise-level financial viability, investment appraisal (EIRR, NPV, BCR), sensitivity and risk analysis, and program-level structuring of a prioritized, bankable investment portfolio for scale-up under future SOP phases. The selected consultant will work in close coordination with the World Bank Short-Term Consultant (STC) undertaking Part D on mapping the climate, water and environment programming landscape, coordination architecture, and resilience framework to ensure complementarity of findings and alignment of outputs across all parts of the assessment. Together, these assessments will provide the foundation for a prioritized portfolio of community, landscape, and livelihood resilience investments under the R2S Program. More information is provided in the draft Terms of Reference (TOR). FUNDING SOURCE The World Bank Group intends to finance the assignment / services described below under the following: BB: Bank Budget TF0D1078: CSF ELIGIBILITY Eligibility restrictions apply: [Please type list of restrictions] SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS The World Bank Group invites eligible firms to indicate their interest in providing the services. Interested firms must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services (brochures, description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions, availability of appropriate skills among staff, etc. for firms; CV and cover letter for individuals). Please note that the total size of all attachments should be less than 5MB. Firms may associate to enhance their qualifications unless otherwise stated in the solicitation documents. Where a group of firms associate to submit an EOI, they must indicate which is the lead firm. If shortlisted, the firm identified in the EOI as the lead firm will be invited to the request for proposal (RFP) phase. Expressions of Interest should be submitted, in English, electronically through WBGeProcure RFx Now NOTES Following this invitation for EOI, a shortlist of qualified firms will be formally invited to submit proposals. Shortlisting and selection will be subject to the availability of funding. Only those firms which have been shortlisted will be invited to participate in the RFP phase. No notification or debrief will be provided to firms which have not been shortlisted. If you encounter technical difficulties while uploading documents, please send an e-mail to the Help Desk at corporateprocurement@worldbank.org prior to the submission deadline.