Job Description
Consultancy – ImpactSF 2.0
Market Analysis
The Organization
The Alliance of
Bioversity International and CIAT delivers research-based solutions that
harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to
improve people’s lives. Alliance solutions address the global crises of
malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.
The Alliance works with local, national and multinational partners
across Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa, and with the public
and private sectors. The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research
partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing
food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem
services.
Background on ImpactSF
A USD 2.5
trillion annual funding gap exists in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals
by 2030, with a USD 300–350 billion annual shortfall specific to food and land
use system transformation. The CGIAR Hub for Sustainable Finance (ImpactSF) has
been a key technical partner for sustainable finance actors, integrating
science-based solutions in all areas of the investment lifecycle. This includes
investment design, pipeline development, investment screening, due diligence,
implementation, post-investment monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV).
Building off CGIAR evidence, ImpactSF offers an array of data-driven solutions
empowering financial institutions and investors to de-risk investments by
quantifying climate and environmental risks and impacts
As of April
2026, ImpactSF has provided technical guidance to eight investment vehicles
targeting over USD 1 billion in combined capital deployment, has co-designed
climate-smart loan products with 15+ financial institutions across Africa,
Asia, and Latin America, and has deployed its flagship digital tools,the
ImpactSF Analyzer and Reporting Platform — across Rwanda, Ethiopia, Pakistan,
Cambodia, and the Philippines. In 2025, ImpactSF was formally embedded within
CGIAR Science Program 9 (Scaling for Impact), securing its long-term role in
CGIAR's research architecture.
About the consultancy
The shift in the global funding landscape reinforces the urgency of
developing a robust, diversified, and self-reinforcing business model for what
we term ImpactSF 2.0. This next phase must be grounded in a rigorous market analysis,
positioning options, viable funding models, partnership
mapping and engagement.
To this end, ImpactSF is seeking a qualified consultant to conduct a
market study that will provide the strategic foundation for ImpactSF 2.0. In
addition, the consultant will develop the launch roadmap of high potential
ImpactSF products, through testing the user interface, modeling market demand,
advising on positioning strategy and business model. Finally, the consultant
will be providing ad hoc advisory in relation to ImpactSF’s next stage of
institutional development.
Objectives
The consultancy has the following specific
objectives:
·Market Landscape and Trends: Provide a rigorous, evidence-based analysis
of the sustainable agricultural finance market landscape, including trends,
regulatory drivers, and demand dynamics relevant to ImpactSF’s core functions.
·Partner Profiles, Positioning, and Product Benchmarking: Define and prioritise
ImpactSF’s partner profiles based on needs assessed and fit with ImpactSF’s
capabilities, explicitly assessing the viability of engaging new segments. Map
the landscape to identify existing service offerings and positioning gaps, and
evaluate ImpactSF’s current and potential product/service portfolio against
comparable market actors, with benchmarking by service line and recommended
strategies for ImpactSF 2.0.
·Business Model Scenarios: Develop and assess 2–3 viable business
model scenarios for ImpactSF 2.0, recommending a preferred model with a phased
implementation roadmap for 2026–2028. Scenarios must span the full ambition
range: from broadened advisory services to commercial clients, to
technology-enabled platform models, and structured financial product
facilitation designed to mobilize commercial capital at scale.
·Financial Model Inputs and Actionable Outputs: Produce a structured set of quantified assumptions
and evidence-based inputs that can directly inform a sustainable financial
model for ImpactSF 2.0 — including, at minimum: market size estimates by
segment, price points by service line, cost-to-deliver benchmarks, realistic
client acquisition assumptions, revenue ramp timelines..
·Launch Roadmap of ImpactSF Platform: Test and validate the user interface and
underlying logic, develop market positioning, target user segments, onboarding
strategy, partnership opportunities, pricing considerations, and a phased
implementation plan to support the adoption of the platform for impact
measurement, reporting, and portfolio analytics across Agri-SMEs, financial
institutions, and development partners.
·Ad hoc advisory: Provide
strategic advisory support on ImpactSF’s next stage of institutional
development, including business model refinement, growth opportunities,
partnership strategy, service portfolio development, and organizational
positioning.
Scope of Work
The
consultancy covers five interconnected analytical pillars:
Pillar 1 Market Landscape and
Trends
·Map the current and
emerging landscape of sustainable agricultural finance, climate finance, and
blended finance
·Identify key trends
driving demand for science-based advisory and tools, including among
corporates, pension funds, commercial banks, and MFIs increasingly subject to
ESG disclosure, deforestation, and nature-related regulatory requirements and
requiring update in their risk management and reporting practices.
·Assess the evolving
role of data, AI, and digital platforms in sustainable finance decision-making.
Pillar 2 Profiling and
Needs Analysis
·Define and profile
ImpactSF's current partners:
impact fund and asset managers; commercial banks and microfinance institutions
(MFIs); pension funds and institutional investors; philanthropic actors;
agri-SME accelerators; CGIAR’s research programmes; and government/policy
actors.
·Identify emerging
and under-engaged partner segments (e.g corporations with sustainability
mandates (agri-food, consumer goods, textiles, extractives) and development
finance institutions (DFIs)) that have not been a primary focus to date but
show potential alignment with ImpactSF’s capabilities and mission.
·Assess the specific
needs, pain points, capital allocation, and decision-making criteria of each profile.
Pillar 3Landscape Analysis
and Positioning
·Map key actors
providing similar or overlapping services to ImpactSF's target partner profiles
(e.g., ESG rating firms, impact measurement advisory firms, agricultural
finance consultancies, data providers, academic institutions, DFI technical
assistance facilities).
·Examine ImpactSF’s
potential role in structuring and certifying sustainable financial instruments,
including green bonds, blue bonds, and sustainability-linked bonds, as a
pathway to attracting commercial capital at scale and engaging institutional
investors
·Assess the
potential for technology-enabled service delivery, including AI-assisted
analytics, automated MRV platforms, and SaaS-based tools.
·Analyze ImpactSF's
competitive advantages and identify gaps or risks in its current positioning.
Pillar 4 — Benchmarking
·Review
and assess ImpactSF’s current offering and delivery modalities against evolving
market needs and comparable approaches within the sustainable finance
ecosystem.
·Assess
current pricing structures and cost-to-deliver across ImpactSF’s core functions
(e.g. impact due diligence, climate risk analysis, MRV/reporting, advisory
support, digital tools). This should include indicative cost per engagement and
an understanding of resource intensity across delivery modalities.
·Benchmark
market pricing by service category, including typical fee structures (e.g.
daily rates, project-based fees, retainers, subscriptions) across comparable actors. Position ImpactSF against these
benchmarks and identify areas of alignment or divergence.
·Conduct
a willingness-to-pay assessment across key partner segments (e.g. fund
managers, financial institutions, corporates), distinguishing between
activities that are typically grant-supported and those where cost-recovery or
co-financing is feasible.
Pillar 5 — Sustainable Business Model Options
·Develop
business model scenarios for ImpactSF 2.0, spanning advisory-led engagement
models (with expanded partner segments), platform-enabled delivery, and
potential roles in supporting capital market instruments (e.g. analytics,
scoring, or structuring support).
·Estimate
Total Addressable Market (TAM) and Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) for
each scenario and target segment and ealistic share of this demand that
ImpactSF could engage with, given its mandate and capacity
·Define
market penetration assumptions (conservative, base, optimistic) over a 3–5 year
horizon and translate these into indicative revenue ranges per scenario,
distinguishing between grant funding, co-funded engagements, and cost-recovery
mechanisms.