Location: Regional

Business sector: Other, Financial institutions

Project number: 80379

Funding source: Not Yet Determined

Contract type: Consultancy Services

Notice type: Invitation for expressions of interest (CSU)

Issue date: 03 Oct 2019

Closing date: 23 Oct 2019 at 23:59 London

Access eSelection (https://eselection.ebrd.com/suite/)

Single Stage Open Competitive Selection – Request for Proposals

Project Description:

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the ‘EBRD’ or the ‘Bank’) is committed to promote gender equality and improve the gender impact of its investments as stated in the Strategy for the Promotion of Gender Equality (‘SPGE’) approved by the Bank in December 2015. Promoting women’s access to finance and business support for women-led businesses is one of the three operational priorities of the EBRD’s Strategy. Specifically, the Bank has committed to support women’s access to finance and entrepreneurship through its investments, advisory products and policy engagements.

In Central Asia, in addition to persistent overall gap for SME development, there are still “large” gender “access to finance” gaps and “access to skills and employment” gaps, indicating persistent structural challenges that are holding back women-led businesses from reaching their economic potential as well as policy gaps limiting the enabling environment.

The financing gap, in particular, is a major obstacle in enabling the transition of women-led SMEs (the “Women SMEs”) from micro to small and medium-sized businesses. The lack of adequate finance in structures suitable for investment or tailored to address the specific needs of Women SMEs coupled with fewer opportunities to gain managerial experience, tend to constrain these businesses to low value-added and low productivity sectors on a relatively small scale.

In view of this, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the “EBRD” or the “Bank”) is now establishing the Central Asia Women in Business Programme (the “Programme”) whose overall objective is to promote and support women’s entrepreneurship in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and more broadly, women’s participation in business by assisting Women SMEs” in order to access finance, know-how and advice. This will in turn increase their economic opportunities at the same time as creating systemic shifts in how the financial sector serves women entrepreneurs.

Assignment Description:

In the context of the launch of the Programme, the Bank now intends to engage a consultant (the “Consultant” or the “Policy and Programme Coordinator”) to coordinate all policy activities undertaken in Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan (the “target countries”) to ensure the smooth and successful implementation of activities envisaged.

The Policy Coordinator shall also support the EBRD with donor reporting requirements including monitoring and reporting on policy activities with inputs from the EBRD Resident Offices in the Target countries.

The Consultant shall be based in the Kyrgyz Republic or Uzbekistan and work mainly from the respective EBRD Resident Office with necessary travel to other three countries where the Programme is implemented.

The detailed scope of work and services (the “Services”) are further described in the full Terms of Reference (the “ToRs”) available through this link: http://www.ebrd.com/documents/procurement/80379-tors.pdf .

Consultant Selection Procedure:

Single stage open competitive selection

Interested individuals are invited to submit a Technical and Financial Proposals.

Assignment Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in Q4 of 2019 and has an estimated overall duration of 36months.

Cost Estimate for the Assignment: Up to USD 350,000 (exclusive of VAT). Extension(s) will be awarded subject to the availability of other donor funding, the performance of the selected Consultant and business needs.

The Consultant must determine whether any VAT would be chargeable on the services and the basis for that determination, without taking into consideration the special status of the Bank as an IFI and state this to the Bank in their response to the Invitation for Expressions of Interest. To the extent that a Consultant incurs input VAT on goods and services purchased in connection with the provision of services (e.g. VAT on airline ticket) which is not otherwise recoverable by the consultant from the local tax authority, the gross cost to the consultant of such expenses shall be treated as a reimbursable expense.

Funding Source:

The Assignment will be supported by funds from the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (the “We-Fi”) – www.we-fi.org .

Eligibility:

There are no eligibility restrictions based on the consultant's nationality.

Consultant Profile:

The Consultant will be an individual or an individual proposed by a firm with the following expertise:

• University degree (Masters level preferred)
• At least 8 years’ of experience working on women’s access to finance issues and entrepreneurship development,
• Experience or knowledge of gender analyses of investment climate reform, or policy formulation to support women entrepreneurship in transition and/or developing countries;
• Experience of working in the EBRD's countries of operations and an understanding of the social impacts of transition.
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and writing;
• Excellent command of oral and written English, Russian and/or in any of languages spoken in Central Asia;
• Experience in the region required.

Submission Requirements: The consultants are now invited to submit a completed Technical and Financial Proposal as per the standard templates and instructions available at this link: http://www.ebrd.com/documents/procurement/rfp-package-individuals-full-financial.docx . Interested Consultants should make themselves familiar with these Standard Templates, Standard Instructions and Conditions of Contract in preparation of their proposals.

• The Technical Proposal shall be submitted in English electronically via eSelection not later than the Closing Date, as one single PDF file..
• The Financial Proposal (Form 2 – FP 1 and FP2) shall be submitted in English separately by email only to the Bank Contact Person. Consultants are reminded of the requirement to ensure the confidentiality of the Financial Proposals.

A Technical Proposal that contains elements of a financial proposal shall be declared non-responsive.

A Financial proposal submitted together with the technical proposals via e Selection shall be declared non-responsive.

Bank Contact Person:

Larissa Gosling
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
One Exchange Square
London EC2A 2JN
e-mail: goslingl@ebrd.com

For the avoidance of doubt, technical proposals should be sent through eSelection and NOT to this email address. Financial proposals should be sent to this email address and NOT through eSelection.

Deadline to Submit Clarification Questions: Via e-mail to the Bank Contact Person by 14 October 2019.

Selection Method and Evaluation Criteria:

1. Technical Proposal Evaluation Criteria:

• Expert's Education and Qualifications - 20%
• Experience working on women's access to finance issues and entrepreneurship development - 20%
• Experience and knowledge of gender analyses of investment climate reform and policy formulation to support women entrepreneurship in transition and / or developing countries - 20%
• Experience in the EBRD countries of operations and related social issues - 20%
• Approach to the assignment - 10%
• Language skills - 10%.

Interviews:

Following the evaluation of technical proposals received based on the criteria above, up to five Consultants who have scored 70% and above will be invited to attend an interview.

EBRD will advise the Consultant regarding the format (e.g. Webex or conference call etc.) and date of the interviews at the time of the invitation. Please note that all and any costs incurred by the Consultant in connection with attendance to interviews shall be borne by the Consultant.

In combining the scores for the written submission and performance in the interviews, the following formula will be used:

(Technical proposal 80% + Interviews 20%)= T

2. Opening of Financial Proposals

After the technical evaluation and interviews are completed, only Consultants which score 70 % or above of the total 100 % available for the technical evaluation, described as T above, will be eligible to have their financial proposals opened.

3.Technical and Financial Evaluation

The lowest evaluated Financial Proposal (Fm) is given the maximum financial score (Sf) of 100.

The formula for determining the financial scores (Sf) of all other Proposals is calculated as follows:

Sf = 100 x Fm/ F, in which “Sf” is the financial score, “Fm” is the lowest evaluated Financial Proposal, and “F” the price of the Proposal under consideration.

Proposals are then ranked according to their combined technical (St) and financial (Sf) scores using the weights (T = 80; F = 20) T + F = 100 as follows: S = St x T% + Sf x F%.

Important Notes:

• The proposal validity period is 120 days from the deadline date for the receipt of submissions. During this period, the Consultant shall maintain its original Proposal without any change, including the availability of the Experts, the proposed rates and the total price.
• The selection will be made from the Proposals received in response to this notification only, on the basis of the submission requirements and selection criteria set out in this Procurement Notice. The highest-ranked Consultant will be selected and invited to negotiate the contract, subject to availability of funding.
• Any updates of and clarifications on this procurement notice shall be announced as updates on this notice, without any other notification. In the event of changes consultants will need to download the updated versions. Consultants are required to periodically check the notice for updates. Failure to take the updates into account while preparing the Proposal may result in disqualification or penalties to the scores in the evaluation.