Colombia-UK PACT Call for Proposals: Green Finance

Applicants will be notified of project selection in late April - early May, 2025.

Colombia is prioritising Green Finance to contribute meeting its climate and biodiversity goals. The country needs significant financial investments, primarily from the private sector, to achieve its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Colombia is working to increase the share of green finance within its financial sector and has updated its climate finance strategies, although specific strategies to achieve this objective are still lacking.  

Lack of adoption of green and climate practices and standards within the financial sector and lack of a robust pipeline of well-structured and financed climate and nature projects are some of the key barriers for green finance implementation.

This call for proposals aims to contribute to closing the financial gap needed to achieve Colombia’s NDC goals. It seeks to accelerate the adoption of sustainable strategies in the financial sector that promote green and climate financing, while increasing public and private investments into green and nature projects. 

What are we looking for?
Following bespoke engagement with Government of Colombia counterparts, non-government organisations (NGOs), civil society, and the private sector, it is expected that projects under UK PACT can support Colombia’s Green Finance development by addressing some of its key market barriers through two areas of intervention: 

Area of intervention 1: support the adoption of green and climate-related practices and standards in the financial sector to accelerate the flow of green finance into the market.
Area of intervention 2: enhance structuring capacity for green projects to achieve financial closure, unlock green finance flows and contribute to climate change mitigation and Colombia’s NDC.

Please note:

Applicants can submit only one application per area of intervention.
Applicants can submit more than one proposal, as long as there is no more than one application that includes the same area of intervention. Each proposal will be assessed independently.
Applicants can address multiple intervention areas under a single proposal.

Application specifications

How much should each project cost?
Successful projects will receive grants of up to £500,000 per financial year (1st April – 31st March), with a maximum of £1,000,000 total budget over 23 months in duration. Projects will be selected through a two-stages open and competitive call for proposals.

How long can each project be?
All projects should aim to last from 12 to 23 months. All projects are expected to start in May 2025 and can end no later than 31 March 2027. The proposals must have a clear indication of the outcomes and impacts expected to be achieved in the first year of implementation, as well as in the second year of implementation.

Can a consortium apply?
Yes, we welcome applications from consortia. For-profit and non-for-profit organisations can apply either as lead organisations or as consortium partners, but all projects must be delivered on a not-for-profit basis.

All consortia must have at least one local partner. The local organisation does not need to be the consortium lead. A local organisation is defined as an organisation that operates in Colombia under a National Register of Legal Entities, and includes NGOs, companies of different size (large or SMEs), grass-root organisations, community associations, among others

What type of organisations can apply?
All organisations with relevant experience in the areas of intervention may submit proposals, considering aspects such as cost-effectiveness, project management, impacts on GEDSI (Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion), and technical capacity of the organisation or consortium. Applicants must demonstrate capacities to successfully deliver at least one of the areas of interventions and must provide clear references of having successfully delivered a similar project over the last 5 years.

Both for-profit and not-for-profit organisations can apply, but all projects must be delivered on a not-for-profit basis.

Both local and international organisations are eligible to apply individually for this Call for Proposals. However, international organisations are strongly encouraged to form consortiums with local organisations.

Government agencies, departments and public entities are not eligible to apply either as a lead organisation, or as a partner organisation within consortium. However, government agencies/ departments are expected to be involved in the projects as direct counterparts and recipients (beneficiaries) of the project’s outputs.

What types of costs are eligible?
All projects must be delivered on a not-for-profit basis. Eligible costs will include: 

Consultancy and/or staff time required to deliver activities;
Reasonable travel and subsistence costs;
Other costs directly related to activities and outputs (workshop, seminars, production of reports, translation etc.).

We cannot award funding for tangible assets e.g. computer and furniture. However, if such inputs are necessary for a project, then applications could include a co-founder to cover these elements.

Application timeline

The steps and indicative timeline for each stage of the Call for Proposals in the Green Finance sector are outlined below:

Timeline UK PACT CfPs-2-UK PACT COL JET and GF updated April 2025

How to apply

Projects will be selected through an open call to prospective applicants following two stages:

Stage one: Expression of Interest (EoI) to outline the eligibility and capacity of applicants to respond to the call; and
Stage two: A request for detailed proposals for those shortlisted from the EoI stage.

Stage one is now closed. Please note that only applicants shortlisted after the EoI stage will be invited to submit a full proposal, along with the required annexes.

Amazon fund steps

All the guidance you will need can be found here:

Market engagement event

Click here to watch our Colombia-UK PACT Fund market engagement webinar for Green Finance. This webinar was held on 8 October 2024.

Eligibility checker

Want to check if your project is eligible before applying? Use the quick check list below. You can find more about eligibility for this call, and for UK PACT funding by reading our Applicant Handbook and Terms of Reference.

Q. Is your project aligned to at least one of the areas of interventions of the call?

Yes No

This indicates that your project may be eligible. Please proceed to the next question.

Unfortunately, this makes your project ineligible.

Q. Is the value of your project up to £500,000 per financial year and up to 23 months?

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Q. Is your organisation eligible to apply for UK PACT funding and on a not-for-profit-basis? Note that public entities, government agencies and/or departments are not eligible.

Yes No

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Q. Are your project activities and costs eligible? Please note: we cannot award funding for infrastructure projects or for tangible assets and profit is not eligible cost in UK PACT budgets, either as a direct cost or within overheads.

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Answering yes to all the questions above indicates that your project is eligible to apply for funding. Apply via the EoI link above.

Answering no to any question above indicates that your organisation or project is not eligible for funding at this time. Please re-visit our guidance documents carefully to find out how to design a UK PACT project.

Colombia-UK PACT Call for Proposals: Green Finance

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