The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said it intends to engage a consultancy firm to assist the authorities of the capital of Albania Tirana in development of a Green City action plan (GCAP) that will comprehensively assess the priorities for the city’s sustainable development in the short- and medium-term, encompassing all sectors under the institution’s Green Economy Transition approach.
The bank added it has launched the development of the Green Cities Initiative as a response to address multiple urban issues in a more systematic way in its countries of operation. As a core part of the project, EBRD worked with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives to prepare a methodology for the development of Green City action plans (GCAP). The methodology is designed to guide a city through five main steps of the development and implementation – from establishing a baseline, developing a vision, preparing the GCAP, implementing the actions and reviewing progress.
The selected consultant will assist the city in becoming familiar with the methodology and to establish the team for applying it. Tirana will be helped to identify key stakeholders, including main contact points of each entity responsible for contributing to the development of GCAP. The call for firms and groups of firms is open until September 16. The consultant will, among other responsibilities, assist the city in understanding external conditions, support it in gathering of data and calculation of indicators for a database, and prepare a technical analysis of indicators against established benchmarks, EBRD said.
The assignment is expected to start in the fourth quarter and have an estimated overall duration of 15 months. It is important that the consultant can start work as soon as possible after the appointment, the call said. Estimated cost is EUR 295,000 exclusive of value-added tax and subject to availability of funding. The consultant must determine whether any VAT would be chargeable on the services and the basis for that determination, without taking into consideration the special status of the bank as an international financing institution.
The funding source is a programme caled Delivering Resource Efficiency Investments in the Western Balkans and Turkey (Drive).
