**Relaunched**Request for expressions of interest (Consulting Firms): Baseline Survey for Talent Retention for Rural Transformation Project (TRTP)

Republic of Moldova

Talent Retention for Rural Transformation Project (TRTP)

Assignment Title: Baseline Survey for Talent Retention for Rural Transformation Project (TRTP)

Reference No. (as per procurement plan): C7/3.1.3.5/3.1.3.6

Tender no. 49/21 TRTP

The Government of Republic of Moldova has received financing from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) towards the cost of Talent Retention for Rural Transformation Project (TRTP) and intends to apply part of the proceeds for the recruitment of consulting services.

The use of any IFAD financing shall be subject to IFAD’s approval, pursuant to the terms and conditions of the financing agreement, as well as IFAD’s rules, policies and procedures. IFAD and its officials, agents and employees shall be held harmless from and against all suits, proceedings, claims, demands, losses and liability of any kind or nature brought by any party in connection with TRTP.

The consulting services (“the services”) include Baseline Survey for Talent Retention for Rural Transformation Project.

The main goal of the survey is to assess the baseline physical and socio-economic status of the targeted beneficiaries where the TRTP will be implemented. The purpose is to establish baseline in order to facilitate subsequent monitoring and evaluation of the TRTP’s progress towards achieving its defined outcomes and impacts.

The selected service Provider will accomplish this survey will measure the baseline values of project outcomes indicators and individual/household characteristics at project start. The baseline survey will be conducted on a sample of 750 potential beneficiaries. Baseline data provide information on potential beneficiaries before the programme is implemented and are important for measuring pre-intervention outcomes and establish benchmark information for selected indicators. The analysis of baseline data will also be used to assess targeting effectiveness, that is, whether or not the TRTP is going to reach its intended beneficiaries.

The survey should:

• focus on key indicators required to measure the outcomes and impact of the planned activities as it was mentioned in the Project’s Logical Framework;
• not duplicate existing available data;
• not require an excessive amount of interviewees time;
• generate accurate and reliable results based on sound statistical best practice, and;
• allow disaggregation by gender and age.

This request for expressions of interest (REOI) follows the general procurement notice that appeared on UNDB page on 05 August 2021, on the CPIU IFAD website on 16 June 2021, on MARDE website on 16 June 2021 and on Economic magazine Logos Press no. 25 (1383) from 2 July 2021.

The CPIU IFAD (“the client”) now invites eligible local consulting firms (“consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the services. Interested consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the services. Interested firms should fill the template for expressions of interest and submit found at the following LINK and send it to the address indicated below.

The attention of interested consultants is drawn to IFAD’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Policy[1] and the Revised IFAD Policy on Preventing Fraud and Corruption its Activities and Operations[2]. The latter sets forth IFAD’s provisions on prohibited practices. IFAD further strives to ensure a safe working environment free of harassment, including sexual harassment, and free of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in its activities and operations as detailed in its IFAD Policy to Preventing and Responding to Sexual Harassment, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.[3]

The consultant shall not have any actual, potential or reasonably perceived conflict of interest. A consultant with an actual, potential or reasonably perceived conflict of interest shall be disqualified unless otherwise explicitly approved by the Fund. A consultant including their respective personnel and affiliates are considered to have a conflict of interest if they a) have a relationship that provides them with undue or undisclosed information about or influence over the selection process and the execution of the contract, b) participate in more than one EOI under this procurement action, c) have a business or family relationship with a member of the Purchaser’s board of directors or its personnel, the Fund or its personnel, or any other individual that was, has been or might reasonably be directly or indirectly involved in any part of (i) the preparation of this REOI, (ii) the shortlisting or selection process for this procurement, or (iii) execution of the contract. The consultant has an ongoing obligation to disclose any situation of actual, potential or reasonably perceived conflict of interest during preparation of the EOI, the selection process or the contract execution. Failure to properly disclose any of said situations may lead to appropriate actions, including the disqualification of the consultant, the termination of the contract and any other as appropriate under the IFAD Policy on Preventing Fraud and Corruption in its Projects and Operations.

A consultant will be selected in accordance with the QCBS procurement method set out in IFAD’ project procurement handbook that can be accessed via the IFAD website at www.ifad.org/project-procurement.

The Service Provider shall possess the following qualifications as a company, which will serve as a basis for the shortlisting criteria:

• Service provider has at least 5 years of experience in conducting surveys;
• Service provider has conducted minimum 5 data collection surveys in the past 5 years;
• Previous experience in carrying out evaluation surveys is a compulsory requirement, including demonstrated experience in designing and conducting evaluations and of organizing surveys on the scale of this project (including survey and sampling design);
• Strong capacity and experience in planning and organizing survey logistics;
• Strong capacity in data management and statistics;
• Strong capacity in survey analysis and reporting of results;
• Experience doing household survey work and carrying out evaluations in Republic of Moldova;
• Strong background in statistics and econometrics;
• Seven key professional staff positions: Team Leader, Expert in survey implementation and field supervision, Socio-economic researcher, Computer specialist in data entry and data bases, two survey enumerators;

Note: (individual experts’ bio data is not required at this stage);

The Service Provider shall possess the following qualifications as a company, which will serve as a basis for the shortlisting criteria:

1. Strong capacity and experience in conducting surveys – 20 points;
2. Previous experience in carrying out evaluation surveys (including survey and sampling design) – 20 points;
3. Have at least 5 years in conducting of data collection surveys (minimum 5 surveys conducted during the last 5 years) – 20 points;
4. Strong capacity in statistics and econometrics – 10 points;
5. Availability of five key professional staff positions: Team Leader, Expert in survey implementation and field supervision, Socio-economic researcher, Computer specialist in data entry and data bases, two survey enumerators; Note: (individual experts’ bio data is not required at this stage and evaluation is done based on company’s capacity to provide a full team of experts with the required background) – 20 points;
6. Experience doing household survey work and carrying out evaluations for international financing projects (World Bank, EU, CPIU IFAD, UNDP, UN, etc.) in Republic of Moldova – 10 points.

Only companies that will be selected in the Short List will be invited to submit the technical offer and the financial offer.

Consultants cannot associate with other firms in the form of a joint venture or a sub-consultancy to enhance their qualifications.

Any request for clarification on this REOI should be sent via e-mail to the address below procurement@ucipifad.md no later than 18 August, 01 September,  13 September 2021, 17:00 (Moldova Time). The client will provide responses to all clarification requests by 20 August, 03 September  15 September 2021, 17:00 (Moldova Time).

Interest must be delivered in written form using the forms provided for this purpose. EOIs shall be submitted to the address below no later than 23 August 2021, 17:00 , 06 September 2021, 16 September 2021 17:00 (Moldova Time).

 CPIU IFAD Moldova

Attn: Nadejda Russu, Senior procurement specialist

E-mail: procurement@ucipifad.md

[1] The policy is accessible at https://www.ifad.org/en/document-detail/asset/41942012.

[2] The policy is accessible at www.ifad.org/anticorruption_policy.

[3] The policy is accessible at https://www.ifad.org/en/document-detail/asset/40738506.