Women's Economic Empowerment Rural Development Project

(Consulting Services – NGOs Selection)

Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation & Development (MRRD)

Name of the Program:  Women’s Economic Empowerment-Rural Development Program (WEE-RDP)

Assignment Title: Hiring the Services of facilitating partner to provide implementation support for community mobilization and institutions development

NPA Ref. No.: NPA/MRRD/97/CS-2355/FBS

Type of Contract: Lump sum

Duration: 36 Months

Duty Station: Kunduz Province

 

1.                Background:

 

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) has received financing from the World Bank toward the cost of the WEE-RDP, and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services for Facilitating Partner (FP) to Provide Implementation Support for Community Mobilization and Institutions Development for Kunduz Province.

 

(WEE-RDP) will be implemented in 76 districts covering all 34 provinces[1] following two implementation modalities: 1. By utilizing the services of Facilitating Partners (FPs), and 2.  Directly by MRRD personnel at national, provincial, and community level. Specific details of districts to be covered under the project have been provided in the following table. This TOR provides the details of the expected responsibilities for the FPs under the project. The list of provinces and districts covered as part of first implementation modalities i.e. through the support of FPs are given below:

No	Region	Name of the Province	Name of Districts	Total Villages/ CDCs	Number of Villages/CDCs to be covered 70%
9	NE	3. Kunduz	Ali Abad	74	52
			Kundoz	230	161
		Total		304	213

2.                Key Objectives and Scope of the Assignment:

 

WEE-RDP will promote women’s economic empowerment through strong financially sustainable and self-managed community institutions, improved income, sustainable enterprises, and developing increased access to finance and markets.  The specific project activities/priorities are to

a)      To promote self-help groups (SHGs) and their clusters/association  from poor or vulnerable households

b)     To promote women owned EGs/PAs showing increase in volume of sales and

c)      Promote income and employment enhancing opportunities by building capacities, improving access to financial services, and establishing partnerships with private sector for improving market access.

The specific objective of this assignment is to provide intensive, high quality implementation support to WEE-RDP towards achievement of its project development objective of increasing social and economic empowerment of poor rural women in selected communities.

The field based facilitating partners (FPs) will be responsible for supporting WEE-RDP in establishment of District Facilitation Team (DFT) structure at the grass-root level and make it functional in all aspects as an implementing unit of WEE-RDP. This DFT will be supported through the administrative staff at national, regional, and district level that MRRD will be deploying. The FPs will carry out its responsibilities under overall guidance of MRRD and WEE-RDP program authorities and as per instructions and guidelines issued by them.  Each DFT will be assigned to work in a specific district in which at least 70% of all the communities will be covered.  The FP will ensure high quality implementation with proper social accountability and transparency.

3.     For details of the services, the ToR is available at www.npa.gov.af

 

National Procurement Authority on behalf of Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), GoIRA, now invites eligible NGOs (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the aforesaid Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services.

 

            The short listing criteria are:

a)               The Consultant should be registered legal entity and should have been in business for the last 5 years in providing Consultancy Services of social aids and rural development activities. (The consultant is required to provide the Copy of the Certificate of Incorporation issued by relevant authority in country of establishment).

b)               The consultant shall demonstrate having sound financial situation by submitting audited financial reports or any other credible financial documents in which the consultant annual turnover for any of the last three years (2015, 2016 and 2017) shall be USD 520,000 (Five Hundred and Twenty Thousand US Dollars).

c)               The consultant should provide proven experience for a minimum of at least one contract with the value of US$ 448,000 (Four Hundred and Forty Eight Thousand US Dollar) having executed during any of the last five years of similar nature preferably in Afghanistan and/or other conflict/ immediate post conflict zones/ countries. Indicating the duration and value, which should showcase the expertise/strength of the consultant for the undertaking such assignments. The Consultant while describing the assignment(s) for similar experience should furnish the following details:   

§     Consultant should explain in what way the executed assignment(s) was/were similar in nature to the current assignment.

§     The Consultant should explain the exact role played by the Consultant in the assignment if the assignment was carried out in association with other NGOs as JV or in sub-consultancy for carrying out the assignment.

§     Copy of the implemented contract with client’s contact details (phone and email)

Note: the Consultant who intends to express interest for more than one assignment, should fulfill the shortlisting criteria of (b) and (c) as an aggregated base and they should submit their EOIs separately for each package.

The requirements for Consultants who intends to associate with other NGOsin the form of a Joint Venture (JV) or Consortium or a sub-consultancy to enhance their qualifications are indicated as under:

i.                 The lead partner is required to be identified clearly and the Consultant shall state the composition and nature of their association (JV/ sub-consultant) in their EOI.

ii.               In case of JV, all partners i.e. the lead and JV member/s shall meet 100% of the shortlisting criteria of (a) (b) and (c) above.

iii.              In case of Consultant who intends to associate with other NGOs in the form of a sub-consultancy, the lead partner shall meet the shortlisting criteria of (a), (b) & (c) above.

 

d. Eligibility requirements in compliance with paragraphs 3.21, 3.22, & 3.23 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers, Procurement In investment Projects Financing, Goods, Works, Non-Consulting and Consulting Services July 2016, revised November 2017.

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to paragraph 3.16 and 3.17 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers, Procurement In investment Projects Financing, Goods, Works, Non-Consulting and Consulting Services July 2016, revised November 2017, setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.  In addition, please refer to the following information on conflict of interest related to this assignment as per paragraph 3.16 and 3.17 of World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers available at www.worldbank.org/.

 

4.      Consultants may associate with other NGOs in the form of a joint venture or a sub-consultancy to enhance their qualifications. If consultants intend to associate with other NGOs, they are advised to clearly identify the lead partner and state the composition and nature of the association (JV/ sub-consultant) in their EOI.

 

5.      A consultant will be selected through Fixed Budget Selection (FBS) in accordance with the procedures set out in the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers, Procurement in investment Projects Financing, Goods, Works, Non-Consulting and Consulting Services July 2016, revised November 2017.

 

6.                Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form to the address below (in person, by mail, or by e-mail) by 12 January, 2019 by 16:00 Hours. (Kabul Local Time). For convenience, the EOIs submitted by the consultants should preferably not exceed 40 pages. Further information in respect to this REOI can be obtained at the address below by email or in person during office hours [08:00-16:00 Hours].

 

Attention: Aziz Ahmad Obaidi

Procurement Manager (Economy, Agriculture and Rural Development Sector Department)

National Procurement Authority

Administrative Office of the President

Pashtunestan Wat, Kabul, Afghanistan

Phone Number: +93(0)202147556

 

Email: aziz.obaidi@aop.gov.af

Copied to wais.rahimi@aop.gov.af, n.wahedi@aop.gov.af, hussain.ali@aop.gov.af,   and,   Fahim.ahmadi@mrrd.gov.af, ali.joyan@mrrd.gov.af,           

   Web site: www.npa.gov.af

 

 

Annexure 1: Format for Expression of Interest

 

The expression of interest must be submitted as per the following format:

{Note: In case documents submitted are in any language other than English, the consultant should submit a self-certified copy of the translated document in English (along with originals).}

 

SECTION 1: Organization Details (In case the EoI is being submitted as a Joint Venture, the information has to be submitted for the Lead Partner as well as other members of the Joint Venture separately.)

 

 

Part 1: Organisation Detail
I.	Name of the Organization
II.	Details of the Organization		Address of the Registered Office: Telephone: Facsimile: Website:
III.	Information about Organization		Year of Establishment: : (copy the incorporation certificate shall be provided) Status of the Organization: (Public Ltd./Private Ltd./LLP etc.)
IV.	Name and designation of the person authorized		Name Designation E-mail Contact Number
V.	Annual Turnover for the last three Financial Years		Financial Year Annual Turnover (Million USD) 2015   2016   2017
VI.	Number of Personnel
Part 2		EOI Respondent NGO needs to mention its core business areas and any other relevant details / experience in a descriptive format. EOI Respondent NGO needs to mention its Technical and managerial capability for executing the scope of services.
Please provide a response with details in not more than 2 pages

 

SECTION 2: Documents to be submitted

	Information to be provided	Documentary Evidence to be Provided	Page number as part of Annexure
a	The Consultant should be registered legal entity and should have been in business for the last 5 years in providing Consultancy Services of social aids and rural development activities. (The consultant is required to provide the Copy of the Certificate of Incorporation issued by relevant authority in country of establishment).	Copy Certificate of Incorporation issued by relevant authority in country of establishment
b	The consultant shall demonstrate having sound financial situation by submitting audited financial reports or any other credible financial documents in which the consultant annual turnover for any of the last three years (2015, 2016 and 2017) shall be USD 520,000 (Five Hundred and Twenty Thousand US Dollars).	Statutory Auditor’s certificate (i.e. FY 2015, FY 2016, FY 2017) that provides the information explicitly as per the specific requirement of the criterion. OR Financials statements duly certified by the Chartered Accountant OR Self-certification by the authorized signatory of the EoI mentioning the Annual Turnover for the last three years supported by financial statements or Annual Auditor Reports (for FY 2015, FY 2016, FY 2017) clearly indicating the annual turnover.   Please note: The annual turnover quoted must be the annual turnover of the EoI Respondent NGO/Lead Partner/JV and not its parent/child company. The contact detail for the auditors shall be provided for verification purposes.
c	The consultant should provide proven experience for a minimum of at least one contract with the value of US$ 448,000 (Four Hundred and Forty Eight Thousand USD Dollar) having executed during any of the last five years of similar nature indicating the duration and value.	Details of the experience should be submitted as per format in Section 3.             Please note: The credentials cited under this must have been executed by the EoI Respondent or the Lead/JV partner and not its parent/child company

 

SECTION 3: Format for furnishing details of Credentials / Past Experiences for projects in undertaking related or similar assignment as at Sl. No. 3 of Section 2. The information need to be furnished as per the Format below for each credential.

The project citation should be a maximum of 2 pages per credential/project along with documents as mentioned under Sl. No. 3 of Section 2 (above). The citation need to be furnished for each credential.

 

Assignment name:	Country: Location within the country
Name of Client:	Address:
Name of the Legal Entity in whose name the contract is:	Duration of assignment (months):
No. of man month of the assignment:	Start date (Month/year): Completion date (Month/year):
Approx. value of the overall contract                    (in USD):	Approx. value of the services provided by your NGO under the contract (in USD):
Name of associated organizations, if any:	Role of Consortium member:
Narrative description of the Project:
Detailed Scope of services, coverage of the project: Consultant should explain in what way the executed assignment(s) was/were similar in nature to the current assignment The Consultant should explain the exact role played by the Consultant in the assignment if the assignment was carried out in association with other NGOs as JV or in sub-consultancy for carrying out the assignment. Key-person inputs provided by the Consultant in executing the assignment giving particulars such as qualification and experience of Key staff provided for the assignment (CVs of such key staff are not required to be attached)
Relevance of Project to the current scope (i.e. relevant project components in detail)
Details of the impact of the project for the client:

 

 

[1] Overall, the number of districts to be covered under WEE-RDP may go up to 83 districts during the course of implementation depending upon the overall security situations in seven provinces.