Request for Proposals (RfP)

Policy Expert

IUCN ESARO Kenya Country Office, BIODEV2030 Phase 2

RfP Reference: IUCN-05-09- PA04570-1

Welcome to this Procurement by IUCN. You are hereby invited to submit a Proposal. Please read the information and instructions carefully because non-compliance with the instructions may result in disqualification of your Proposal from this Procurement.

1. REQUIREMENTS
   1. A detailed description of the services and/or goods to be provided can be found in Attachment 1.
2. CONTACT DETAILS
   1. During the course of this procurement, i.e. from the publication of this RfP to the award of a contract, you may not discuss this procurement with any IUCN employee or representative other than the following contact. You must address all correspondence and questions to the contact, including your Proposal.

IUCN Contact: Tenders Kenya, tenders.kenya@iucn.org

1. PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE
   1. This timetable is indicative and may be changed by IUCN at any time. If IUCN decides that changes to any of the deadlines are necessary, we will publish this on our website and contact you directly if you have indicated your interest in this procurement (see Section 3.2).

DATE

ACTIVITY

10th September

Publication of the Request for Proposals

30th September

Deadline for expressions of interest

15th September

Deadline for submission of questions

20th September

Planned publication of responses to questions

30th September

Deadline for submission of Proposals to IUCN (“Submission Deadline”)

1st October

Clarification of Proposals

8th October

Planned date for contract award

15th October

Expected contract start date

1. Please email the IUCN contact to express your interest in submitting a Proposal by the deadline stated above. This will help IUCN to keep you updated regarding the procurement.
2. COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL
   1. Your Proposal must consist of the following four separate documents:

• Signed Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2)
• Pre-Qualification Information (see Section 4.3 below)
• Technical Proposal (see Section 4.4 below)
• Financial Proposal (see Section 4.5 below)

Proposals must be prepared in English.

1. Your Proposal must be submitted by email to the IUCN Contact (see Section 2). The subject heading of the email shall be [RfP Reference – bidder name]. The bidder name is the name of the company/organisation on whose behalf you are submitting the Proposal, or your own surname if you are bidding as a self-employed consultant. Your Proposal must be submitted in PDF format. You may submit multiple emails suitably annotated, e.g. Email 1 of 3, if attached files are too large to suit a single email transmission. You may not submit your Proposal by uploading it to a file-sharing tool.

   IMPORTANT: Submitted documents must be password-protected so that they cannot be opened and read before the submission deadline. Please use the same password for all submitted documents. After the deadline has passed and within 12 hours, please send the password to the IUCN Contact. This will ensure a secure bid submission and opening process. Please DO NOT email the password before the deadline for Proposal submission.

   1. Pre-Qualification Criteria

   IUCN will use the following Pre-Qualification Criteria to determine whether you have the capacity to provide the required goods and/or services to IUCN. Please provide the necessary information in a single, separate document.

Pre-Qualification Criteria

1

3 relevant references of clients similar to IUCN / similar work

2

Confirm that you have all the necessary legal registrations to perform the work

3

State your annual turnover for each of the past 3 years

4

How many employees does your organisation have who are qualified for this work?

1. Technical Proposal

   The Technical Proposal must address each of the criteria stated below explicitly and separately, quoting the relevant criteria reference number (left-hand column).

   Proposals in any other format will significantly increase the time it takes to evaluate, and such Proposals may therefore be rejected at IUCN’s discretion.

   Where CVs are requested, these must be of the individuals who will actually carry out the work specified. The individuals you put forward may only be substituted with IUCN’s approval.

   IUCN will evaluate Technical Proposals with regards to each of the following criteria and their relative importance:

Description

Information to provide

Relative weight

1

Methodology and work plan

25%

1.1

• Clarity on the completeness of the tender (10%)

1.2

• Clarity on the proposed approach, method and workplan (15%)

2

Qualifications and expertise of proposed consultants:

[If applicable add separate sub-criteria of specialisms required]

40%

2.1

• Proven ability to engage with a variety of stakeholders and capture the diverse perspectives of Ministers, policy makers, business leaders, trade associations, NGOs, local communities, indigenous peoples, (15%)

2.2

• Good knowledge of the social and environmental responsibility of companies at the national and regional level (10%)

2.3

• Proven experience and capabilities in facilitating multi-stakeholder processes (15%)

3

Experts/Subject matter experts:

35%

3.1

• Postgraduate degree in public policy analysis particularly in the agricultural economics, including a focus on crops and livestock development and agroforestry. (15%)

3.2

• 10 years of experience in policy analysis in the targeted economic sectors and in designing recommendations to decision-makers. (10%)

3.3

• At least 5 years of experience in support and advice in integrating biodiversity conservation and sustainability into sectoral policies and/or business strategies and investments. (10%)

TOTAL

100%

1. Financial Proposal

   1. The Financial Proposal must be a fixed and firm price for the provision of the goods/services stated in the RfP in their entirety.

      1. Prices include all costs
      2. Applicable Goods and Services Taxes
      3. Currency of proposed rates and prices
      4. Breakdown of rates and prices

      Submitted rates and prices are deemed to include all costs, insurances, taxes (except VAT, see below), fees, expenses, liabilities, obligations, risk and other things necessary for the performance of the Terms of Reference or Specification of Requirements. IUCN will not accept charges beyond those clearly stated in the Financial Proposal. This includes applicable withholding taxes and similar. It is your responsibility to determine whether such taxes apply to your organisation and to include them in your Financial Proposal.

      Proposal rates and prices shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax.

      All rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in [MZN].

      For information only, the price needs to be broken down as follows:

Description

Quantity (days)

Unit Price

Total Price

1

Consultant daily fee

2

Logistic fee

TOTAL

1. Additional information not requested by IUCN should not be included in your Proposal and will not be considered in the evaluation.

   1. Your Proposal must remain valid and capable of acceptance by IUCN for a period of 90 calendar days following the submission deadline.
   2. Withdrawals and Changes

   You may freely withdraw or change your Proposal at any time prior to the submission deadline by written notice to the IUCN Contact. However, in order to reduce the risk of fraud, no changes or withdrawals will be accepted after the submission deadline.

2. EVALUATION of PROPOSALS

   1. Completeness
   2. Pre-Qualification Criteria
   3. Technical Evaluation
      1. Scoring Method

   IUCN will firstly check your Proposal for completeness. Incomplete Proposals will not be considered further.

   Only Proposals that meet all of the pre-qualification criteria will be evaluated.

Your Proposal will be assigned a score from 0 to 10 for each of the technical evaluation criteria, such that ‘0’ is low and ‘10’ is high.

1. Minimum Quality Thresholds

Proposals that receive a score of ‘0’ for any of the criteria will not be considered further.

1. Technical Score

Your score for each technical evaluation criterion will be multiplied with the respective relative weight (see Section 4.4) and these weighted scores added together to give your Proposal’s overall technical score.

1. Financial Evaluation and Financial Scores

   The financial evaluation will be based upon the full total price you submit. Your Financial Proposal will receive a score calculated by dividing the lowest Financial Proposal that has passed the minimum quality thresholds (see Section 5.3.2) by the total price of your Financial Proposal.

   Thus, for example, if your Financial Proposal is for a total of CHF 100 and the lowest Financial Proposal is CHF 80, you will receive a financial score of 80/100 = 80%

   1. Total Score

   Your Proposal’s total score will be calculated as the weighted sum of your technical score and your financial score.

   The relative weights will be:

   Technical: 70%

   Financial: 30%

   Thus, for example, if your technical score is 83% and your financial score is 77%, you will receive a total score of 83 * 70% + 77 * 30% = 58.1% + 23.1% = 81.2%.

   Subject to the requirements in Sections 4 and 7, IUCN will award the contract to the bidder whose Proposal achieves the highest total score.

2. Explanation of procurement procedure

   1. IUCN is using the Open Procedure for this procurement. This means that the contracting opportunity is published on IUCN’s website and open to all interested parties to take part, subject to the conditions in Section 7 below.
   2. You are welcome to ask questions or seek clarification regarding this procurement. Please email the IUCN Contact (see Section 2), taking note of the deadline for submission of questions in Section 3.1.
   3. All Proposals must be received by the submission deadline in Section 3.1 above. Late Proposals will not be considered. All Proposals received by the submission deadline will be evaluated by a team of three or more evaluators in accordance with the evaluation criteria stated in this RfP. No other criteria will be used to evaluate Proposals. The contract will be awarded to the bidder whose Proposal received the highest Total Score. IUCN does, however, reserve the right to cancel the procurement and not award a contract at all.
   4. IUCN will contact the bidder with the highest-scoring Proposal to finalise the contract. We will contact unsuccessful bidders after the contract has been awarded and provide detailed feedback. The timetable in Section 3.1 gives an estimate of when we expect to have completed the contract award, but this date may change depending on how long the evaluation of Proposals takes.

3. Conditions for participation in this procurement

   1. To participate in this procurement, you are required to submit a Proposal, which fully complies with the instructions in this RfP and the Attachments.
      1. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted a complete and fully compliant Proposal.
      2. Any incomplete or incorrectly completed Proposal submission may be deemed non-compliant, and as a result you may be unable to proceed further in the procurement process.
      3. IUCN will query any obvious clerical errors in your Proposal and may, at IUCN’s sole discretion, allow you to correct these, but only if doing so could not be perceived as giving you an unfair advantage.
   2. In order to participate in this procurement, you must meet the following conditions:

• Free of conflicts of interest
• Registered on the relevant professional or trade register of the country in which you are established (or resident, if self-employed)
• In full compliance with your obligations relating to payment of social security contributions and of all applicable taxes
• Not been convicted of failing to comply with environmental regulatory requirements or other legal requirements relating to sustainability and environmental protection
• Not bankrupt or being wound up
• Never been guilty of an offence concerning your professional conduct
• Not involved in fraud, corruption, a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism, or any other illegal activity.
  1. You must complete and sign the Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2).
  2. If you are participating in this procurement as a member of a joint venture, or are using sub-contractors, submit a separate Declaration of Undertaking for each member of the joint venture and sub-contractor, and be clear in your Proposal which parts of the goods/services are provided by each partner or sub-contractor.
  3. Each bidder shall submit only one Proposal, either individually or as a partner in a joint venture. In case of joint venture, one company shall not be allowed to participate in two different joint ventures in the same procurement nor shall a company be allowed to submit a Proposal both on its behalf and as part of a joint venture for the same procurement. A bidder who submits or participates in more than one Proposal (other than as a subcontractor or in cases of alternatives that have been permitted or requested) shall cause all the Proposals with the bidder’s participation to be disqualified.
  4. By taking part in this procurement, you accept the conditions set out in this RfP, including the following:
• It is unacceptable to give or offer any gift or consideration to an employee or other representative of IUCN as a reward or inducement in relation to the awarding of a contract. Such action will give IUCN the right to exclude you from this and any future procurements, and to terminate any contract that may have been signed with you.
• Any attempt to obtain information from an employee or other representative of IUCN concerning another bidder will result in disqualification.
• Any price fixing or collusion with other bidders in relation to this procurement shall give IUCN the right to exclude you and any other involved bidder(s) from this and any future procurements and may constitute a criminal offence.

1. Confidentiality and data protection
   1. IUCN follows the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The information you submit to IUCN as part of this procurement will be treated as confidential and shared only as required to evaluate your Proposal in line with the procedure explained in this RfP, and for the maintenance of a clear audit trail. For audit purposes, IUCN is required to retain your Proposal in its entirety for 10 years after then end of the resulting contract and make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when requested.
   2. In the Declaration of Undertaking (Attachment 2) you need to give IUCN express permission to use the information you submit in this way, including personal data that forms part of your Proposal. Where you include personal data of your employees (e.g. CVs) in your Proposal, you need to have written permission from those individuals to share this information with IUCN, and for IUCN to use this information as indicated in 8.1. Without these permissions, IUCN will not be able to consider your Proposal.
2. Complaints procedure

If you have a complaint or concern regarding the propriety of how a competitive process is or has been executed, then please contact procurement@iucn.org. Such complaints or concerns will be treated as confidential and are not considered in breach of the above restrictions on communication (Section 2.1).

1. Contract

The contract will be based on IUCN’s template in Attachment 3, the terms of which are not negotiable. They may, however, be amended by IUCN to reflect particular requirements from the donor funding this particular procurement.

1. About IUCN

IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.

Headquartered in Switzerland, IUCN Secretariat comprises around 1,000 staff with offices in more than 50 countries.

Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,300 Member organisations and some 10,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards.

IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development.

Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well-being.

www.iucn.org

https://twitter.com/IUCN/

1. ATTACHMENTS

Attachment 1 Specification of Requirements / Terms of Reference

Terms of Reference for IUCN Consultancy

Title: National Expert on Sectoral Policy Instruments of Biodiversity-Friendly Reforms for Agricultural Production (Crop & Livestock) and Forestry Management

Objective of the Consultancy

This consultancy has the following objective(s):

1. Facilitate national multistakeholder dialogue on enable conditions for change to sustainable production practices
2. Identify the main public policy instruments to support changes in production practices and produce recommendations for policy reforms

Background

Project Reference: PA04570

Donor reference: Donor project reference (not donor reporting code!), where applicable

About IUCN

IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.

Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,400 Member organisations and around 15,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards.

IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development.

Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well-being.

www.iucn.org

https://twitter.com/IUCN/

About the Project

1. Context

The foundation of Kenya’s economic wealth is driven primarily by economic sectors which rely heavily on natural resources, such as agriculture and tourism. The government has put in place a range of policy, institutional and legislative frameworks to address major causes of environmental degradation and negative impacts on ecosystems emanating from industrial and economic development programmes. However, despite existing regulatory frameworks, the large number of protected areas (PAs) in Kenya and the increase protected area coverage of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) -, species are continuing to decline, putting at risk Kenya’s sustainable development aspirations and people’s livelihoods. To effectively conserve Kenya’s diverse natural capital, understanding the conservation status and the root causes of the declining trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services is imperative. In this context and building on previous situation analyses (e.g. BIODEV Phase I), the productive sectors (e.g. mining, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, etc.) offer a great opportunity for Kenya to develop rapidly, but for this development to be sustainable much more effort is needed to mainstream biodiversity into these sectors. Creating a positive financial, political, and fiscal environment for conservation in Kenya raises an important question: What changes need to be made in key policies and strategies to incentivize the adoption of more sustainable practices in the productive sectors? In this context, issues ranging from the current tax and subsidies regime, legal and policy mechanisms, appropriate institutional approaches, and to fostering a favourable financing environment are among some of the important factors to consider. Sectoral policies for key productive sectors and economic, financial and trade policies could be better aligned with national conservation goals.

Phase II of BIODEV2030 was preceded by phase I, which took place from 2020 to 2022 and intended to advance the integration of biodiversity in the economic sectors, through the promotion of voluntary commitments in economic sectors that most threaten biodiversity. The first phase of BIODEV2030 was implemented in 16 countries, through three components: the first on the multistakeholder dialogue informed by a second component of scientific results on the state, trends, and threats to biodiversity in the country and the situational analysis on the opportunities and challenges for the implementation of voluntary commitments in agriculture, fishing, and extractive industry, followed by a third component of exchange of experiences and knowledge sharing between the 16 countries during the IUCN World Conservation Congress, the Africa Protected Areas Congress and the CBD CoP15. In Kenya, the project ended up identifying voluntary commitments for crop production (horticulture), livestock production and agroforestry (with a focus on wood energy).

BIODEV2030 phase II project is taking place in 15 countries, from 2024 to 2026, and intends to contribute to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal agreement in 15 countries by promoting changes in production practices that reconcile biodiversity and economic development. For this, the project has three specific objectives:

1. Support the national public authorities in identifying the sectoral public policy instruments (SPPIs) of the priority sectors and possible reforms to encourage this change in practices.
2. Develop an action plan in a pilot area / landscape that defines the necessary changes in practices needed to achieve positive impacts on target biodiversity values, and the clear actions that are needed to achieve such changes, further formulated into a bankable project proposal for implementation at the end of BIODEV2030 phase 2 (i.e. February 2026).
3. Develop the capacity of the key actors in mainstreaming and financing biodiversity projects.

Through Specific Objective 1, BIODEV2030 phase II will support the public authorities on analysing how well the existing SPPIs are aligned with the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Agreement and provide recommendations for strengthening their alignment.

In support of the objectives outlines above, the IUCN Kenya country office is hiring a national expert on policy analysis to facilitate the dialogue process on the identification of SPPIs and the associated reforms needed to incentivize the change of practices on the production process and the entire value chain for positive impact on biodiversity.

Description of the Assignment

With the objective of supporting the identification of priority economic and sectoral policy instruments and examples of possible biodiversity-friendly reforms to provide input for the stakeholders involved in phase II of the BIODEV2030 project, the IUCN Kenya country office is hiring an expert on policy analysis that will facilitate the dialogue process on the identification of SPPIs and the reforms to incentivize the change of practices on the production process and the entire value chain.

The selected individual consultant will work closely with the BIODEV2030 Senior Programme Officer on the preparation and facilitation of the multistakeholder dialogue workshops based on the results from the joint work with the international expertise on the identification of priority economic and sectoral policy instruments and examples of possible biodiversity-friendly reforms to provide food for thought for the stakeholders involved in phase 2 of the BIODEV2030 project (TORs in annex 1).

Main tasks for the national policy analyst expert

1. In consultation with the BIODEV Team and ALTAI Consulting, ensure full understanding of the project objectives and activities and how they relate to the broader recommendations on links between pressure on biodiversity – production practices – sectoral and economic policy instruments. Identification of literature to review and list of key person and institution to contact.
2. Conduct literature review and analysis.
3. Facilitate and produce a report in advance of 3 national multi-stakeholder dialogues and contribute to enriching the TORs for each workshop.
4. Elaborate a final report of the multistakeholder dialogue process.
5. Elaborate a policy brief showing the main “triplets” (pressures-practice-mix-of-instruments) and recommendation for policy reform to promote change of practices in the production process.

Duration of the Assignment

from 15th October 2024 to 31st August 2025.

Deliverables and Activities

The consultant will provide the following deliverables and carry out the following activities:

Deliverable/Activity

Description

Deadline/number of days

Activity 1 - Preparation and presentation of inception report

• The inception report

5

Activity 2- hold aLiterature review – for Identification of priority sectoral policy instruments

• List of SSPI to reviewed
• List of key informants and institution to interview
• Draft of the interview guide

10

Activity 3- InterviewKey Informant– focal points of key institutions and experts,

10

Activity 4 - Facilitate National 3

multistakeholder dialogue

• TORs of the each of the workshop
• Report of the each of the workshop

10

Activity 5 – prepare3 policy briefs

• 1 policy brief for agriculture
• 1 for policy brief for fishing
• 1 policy brief for extractive industry

9

Activity 6 Present together with the project SPO of final report/policy briefs to sectoral ministries

• PPT to be of the process and main results

3

Activity 7 Produce the final report

• Final report of the assignment

3

Payment Schedule

The Timetable below summarizes the chronological order of deliverables and indicates milestones at which IUCN will pay the Consultant.

Deliverable

Milestone payment

Delivery of the inception report 1st November 2024

20%

Submission and approval of the first draft of 3 sectoral policy briefs presentation with project SPO of final report/policy briefs to sectoral ministries

40%

Presentation of the policy briefs in the multistakeholder dialogue platforms and submission of approved final report

40%

Skills and Experience

The consultant must have the following skills, education and experience as a minimum:

1. Postgraduate degree in public policy analysis particularly in the agricultural economics, including a focus on crops and livestock development and agroforestry.
2. 10 years of experience in public policy analysis and feedback to government.
3. At least 5 years of experience in support and advice in integrating biodiversity conservation and sustainability into sectoral policies and/or business strategies and investments.
4. Proven ability to engage with a variety of stakeholders and capture the diverse perspectives of Ministers, policy makers, business leaders, trade associations, NGOs, indigenous peoples and local communities.
5. Good knowledge of the social and environmental responsibility of the private and financial sector at the national and county level.
6. Proven experience and capabilities in facilitating multi-stakeholder processes.
7. Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Supervision and coordination

The consultant will report to and work under the supervision of BIODEV2030 Senior Programme Officer.

https://iucn.org/procurement/currently-running-tenders