Municipal Creditworthiness Technical Assistance for Secondary Cities in South Africa

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: Municipal Creditworthiness Technical Assistance for Secondary Cities in South Africa

Assignment Countries:

- South Africa ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION The World Bank's City Creditworthiness Initiative is a global program designed to help cities and municipalities strengthen their financial standing and improve access to private and commercial financing. The Initiative works with sub-national governments to address demand-side constraints to creditworthiness, improve the quality and transparency of financial management systems, and position municipalities to engage with capital markets for infrastructure investment. In South Africa, the Initiative, delivered in close partnership with the National Treasury, recently concluded a Municipal Creditworthiness Learning Program that engaged 14 secondary cities across the country. The Academy provided structured, cohort-based learning to help participating municipalities understand the fundamentals of creditworthiness, municipal finance, and the requirements for accessing commercial and blended finance. It built a shared foundation of knowledge across the 14 secondary cities and generated important diagnostic insights into the constraints and opportunities facing them in accessing private capital. Building on the Academy, the Initiative is now moving to a deeper, hands-on phase of engagement with 2 selected secondary cities. The overarching purpose of this phase is to enable each participating municipality to successfully raise commercial finance for priority infrastructure investment. The firm will work directly with each municipality's technical and financial teams, operating in close coordination with the World Bank and National Treasury, who will provide oversight, technical guidance, and strategic direction throughout. The firm's role is to provide technical assistance to the municipality, building the municipality's capacity, preparing the necessary analysis and documentation, and actively supporting the municipality through each step of the process required to bring it to a position where it can credibly approach and secure commercial financing. The World Bank is seeking to engage a specialized consulting firm with demonstrated expertise in South African municipal finance, capital markets, and infrastructure project preparation to deliver this assignment. 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 [contact details removed] prior to the submission deadline.

Procurement number: 0002023552. Expressions of interest are submitted through the World Bank Group's eProcure (RFx Now) portal, which requires vendor registration.