Back Consultant

Terms of reference for a consultant to support Nairobi Climate Resilience work package under the deep dive cycle 3 subgrant

March 2025

Organization: World Resources Institute

Project: African Cities Climate Resilience (ACCR) Program: Deep dive cycle 3 subgrant

Location: Kenya

About WRI

Founded in 1982, World Resources Institute (WRI) is an independent, nonprofit global research organization that turns big ideas into action at the nexus of environment, economic opportunity, and human well-being. WRI works to address seven critical challenges that the world must overcome this decade to secure a sustainable future for people and the planet: climate change, energy, food, forests, water, sustainable cities, and the ocean.

WRI has been working in Africa for more than 30 years, supporting local partners and Africa governments to advance forest protection, landscape restoration and sustainable cities. Our vision for Africa is inclusive transformation so Africa’s people and landscapes flourish. To realize this vision, WRI works with partners to generate actionable knowledge across three strategic pillars: vital landscapes, thriving and resilient cities, and institutional and economic transformation.

About the Nairobi Climate Resilience Work package.

WRI is spearheading the African Cities Climate Resilience (ACCR) Program, a major initiative aimed to build urban resilience in African cities by promoting nature-based solutions (NbS) and or Green Gray Infrastructure (GGI). The ACCR program is thus expected to contribute towards cost-effective reduction of climate induced heat and water risks and shocks, boost social equality, and protect biodiversity by improving the health and coverage of ecosystems that provide resilience benefits to communities. WRI currently partners with cities in Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Africa, DRC, ROC, Burundi, and Ghana. This initiative builds on the ongoing work of WRI's Urban Water Resilience Initiative[1] and Cities4Forests Initiative[2].

WRI climate resilience team in Nairobi, through the African Cities Climate resilience program, is supporting the Nairobi City County Government (NCCG) and Nairobi Rivers Commission (NRC) (through a deep dive initiative) to among others (1) identifying the City’s Gender, Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) sensitive climate risks and vulnerabilities (2) scale up investments in Nature Based Solutions (NbS)/ Green- Grey Infrastructure (GGI) (3) Enhance awareness and build capacity of different stakeholders on related matters.

Scope, activities and deliverables

With the foregoing, WRI is keen to hire a consultant with extensive experience and knowledge in policy analysis, GESI mainstreaming, projects design, projects finance sourcing, citywide urban and climate action planning, as well as development of citywide climate resilience strategic frameworks.

The specific activities to be executed by the consultant are:

1. Support the development of a GESI responsive Nairobi rivers NbS strategic framework[3] by August 2025, targeted to the NCCG, NRC and other climate actors, as a toolkit for providing practical guidance, tools, and resources to design, implement, and scale NbS projects. To achieve this, the consultant is expected to:-
   1. Build on existing and ongoing WRI and open-source data work to assess GESI sensitive climate vulnerabilities (urban flooding, extreme heat, air quality and biodiversity loss) within Nairobi County’s Riparian Landscape, with a detailed focus on Nairobi rivers riparian.
   2. Carry out an assessment of GESI responsive NbS opportunities, through analysis of the rivers riparian land uses, potential NbS interventions, typologies and sites, past and ongoing interventions by different actors, through a detailed opportunities matrix
   3. Develop a matrix of the compatibility of the proposed government led affordable housing along the Nairobi riparian with the developed GESI responsive Nairobi rivers NbS strategic framework- including the identified climate vulnerabilities and NbS typologies.
   4. Identify opportunities to integrate NbS and GGI interventions in the delivery of core urban services (mobility, storm water management, sanitation and solid waste management) to the proposed government led affordable housing along the riparian
   5. Facilitating continuous stakeholders' engagement to scope, design and validate the mapped needs and opportunities for potential NbS and affordable housing interventions.
   6. Facilitate at least 2 multistakeholder convenings: a) Draft stage convening (write shop) aimed at validating the WRI issue brief[4], scoping the needs and opportunities for potential NbS interventions; to review and enhance the situational analysis; and b) the validation stage convening, aimed at reviewing, enhancing and validating the GESI responsive Nairobi rivers NbS strategic framework
      1. Support in resource mobilization efforts targeting GESI responsive catalytic climate resilient (GGI and NbS) projects, targeting the Nairobi Rivers. In particular, the consultant is expected to:
         1. Support WRI in the scoping, prioritization, refinement and identification of 2 GESI responsive catalytic GGI/ NbS projects ideas working with multi-stakeholders
         2. Support in further developing the identified potential 2 projects to an investor/donor ready level, while working with all the identified stakeholders. This will include amo