The Government of Republic of Moldova has received financing from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Adaptation Fund towards the cost of Talent Retention for Rural Transformation Project 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.
Project’s objectives and nature of the services to be procured:
CPIU IFAD will hire a capable Service Provide (SP) that will help reaching project’s objectives.
The consulting services (“the services”) include implementing a set of activities during the period 2022 – 2023 with a duration of approx. 15 months. These project’s objectives and the activities to be implemented by the SP include:
- conduct a nationwide survey on adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) practices by Moldovan farmers and, based on that, will develop a White Paper on the general picture of conservation agriculture in Moldova.
- organize a national conservation agriculture convention to review the findings of the white paper and set out to work towards a national consensus on conservation agriculture.
- organize workshops or expert panel of technical specialists to design a conservation agriculture curriculum and identify the appropriate international textbooks to use. Translate the textbooks in Romanian and Russian.
- recruit international conservation agriculture expert who will develop a CA Training of trainers program and will train CA trainers. These trainers in their turn will further train 40 CA professionals.
- assist selected by CPIU research institutions with preparing the grant application packages and conducting feasibility studies for the conservation agriculture machinery and demo plots.
- review the existing conservation agriculture master programs and propose a list of the most suitable ones for students’ scholarship grants that will be provided by CPIU IFAD.
Procurement details
This request for expressions of interest (REOI) follows the general procurement notice that appeared on the UN Development Business website on 1 Feb 2022, on CPIU IFAD website on 31 Jan 2022, pe MAFI website on 1 Feb 2022, in Logos Press no. 5 (1411) din 11 Feb 2022 and Facebook și Instagram on 31 Jan 2022.
The CPIU IFAD (“the client”) now invites eligible 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.
No companies shall be admitted to the competition if:
– they have not fulfilled their obligations and tasks in previous contractual relations with CPIU IFAD;
– they are or will be already involved in more than 3 ongoing simultaneous contractual relationships with CPIU IFAD: To be eligible to be included in the shortlist or sign a contract, the applicant/bidder should not have more than three ongoing contracts signed with CPIU IFAD at the time of issuing the shortlist or signing the contract whichever is applicable.
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.
QUALIFICATION AND EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR SHORT LIST
| No | Qualification criteria | Evaluation criteria | Points awarded |
| 1 | a. Experience in implementing agriculture related quantitative surveys
b. Experience in provision of extension services in the rural areas. c. Experience in implementing Conservation Agriculture related projects. d. Previous experience in organizing of ToT and development of trainings manuals, at least one contract.
|
projects | 20 points
10 points
10 points 10 points |
| 2 | a. The company/consortium have among their specialists in the fields of relevance to this assignment, minim 5 years’ experience (team leader, expert in quantitative surveys, local and international experts in Conservation Agriculture, expert in education, expert in agriculture finance); | Local staff and international experts | 50 points |
| Total | 100 points |
Only companies (maximum of 6) that will be selected in the Short List (passing score is 70%) will be invited to submit the technical offer and the financial offer.
Consultants can 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 22 October 2022, 17:00 (Moldova Time). The client will provide responses to all clarification requests by 28 October 2022, 17:00 (Moldova Time).
Expressions of 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 2 November 2022, 17:00 relaunched 22 November, 17:00 (Moldova Time).
CPIU IFAD Moldova
Attn: Cristian Taranu, Procurement technical operator
Ștefan cel Mare și Sfînt bd. 162, Chișinău, MD-2004
E-mail: procurement@ucipifad.md
Tel. (022) 22 – 18 – 80
[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.