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Consultancy: Climate Resilience Water Supply Project

Organization Name: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Location: Uzbekistan
Apply email: Not Specified
Start Date: 20-July-2019
Closing Date: 05-August-2019

Uzbekistan: Climate Resilience Water Supply Project

Location: Uzbekistan

Business sector: Municipal and environmental infrastructure

Project number: 79133

Funding source: Not Yet Determined

Contract type: Consultancy Services

Notice type: Invitation for expressions of interest (CSU)

Issue date: 01 Jul 2019

Closing date: 5 Aug 2019 at 18:00 London

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

15/07/19 Response to Clarification requests

The deadline to submit a Technical and Financial proposal has been extended until 5 August 2019.

Question 1.

Can you please inform us about the cost estimate for the assignment?

Response 1

The consultant is expected to prepare a financial proposal based on the estimated input of 400 – 600 man-days.

Question 2

We have been asked by more than one company to be a sub-contractor in bidding for this work. Do your rules allow one company to be a sub-contractor on more than one bid for the same piece of work?

Response 2

Yes, a sub-contractor can be part of more than one bid for the same assignment. Please refer to “Standard Instructions to Consultants for Consultancy Services Procured and Contracted by EBRD under Single Stage Open Competitive Selection Process”.

Single Stage Open Competitive Selection – Request for Proposals

Project Description:

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the “EBRD” or the “Bank”) is considering providing a sovereign loan to the Republic of Uzbekistan to finance modernisation of pumping stations used for irrigation water conveyance (“IWC”) across the country and ancillary IWC infrastructure (the “Project”).

Assignment Description:

EBRD wishes to commission a suitably qualified consultant (the “Consultant”) to prepare

a comprehensive feasibility study (“FS”) to assess the water resource management in RoU and to determine a priority investment programme worth approximately USD 400 million (the “PIP”), consisting of two phases, USD 200 million each. In parallel the Consultant will conduct Environmental and Social Audit and Assessment to evaluate the PIPs impacts and benefits, including assessing its environmental and social feasibility and sustainability. The Consultant will also identify inefficiencies in the sector regulation, where reforms are required.

The expected outcome of the Assignment is preparation of a bankable project that EBRD could appraise for prospective financing.

The selected Consultant is expected to provide the following services:

• Baseline Study
• Technical Assessment
• Identify priority upgrade measures and related PIP
• Financial
• Business Model for Recovering Investment Costs
• Environmental and Social Audit and Assessment
• Local Feasibility Study and designs

Full Terms of Reference (TOR) of the Assignment can be found under: http://www.ebrd.com/documents/procurement/uzbekistan-climate-resilience-water-supply-project-feasibility-study.pdf

Consultant Selection Procedure: Single stage open competitive selection. Interested firms or groups of firms are invited to submit a Technical and Financial Proposal.

Assignment Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in Q3 2019 and has an estimated overall duration of 4 months.

Input estimate for the Assignment: The estimated input of the key experts is expected to be between 400 and 600 man-days.

Funding Source: It is anticipated that the contract will be financed by EBRD Technical Co-operation Funds. Selection and contracting are subject to the availability of funding.

Eligibility: There are no eligibility restrictions based on the consultant's country of origin.

Consultant Profile: Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a firm or a group of firms preferably with previous project experience related to:

• preparation of feasibility studies in the infrastructure sector, in the field of irrigation water supply particularly;
• similar type of assignments in the Central Asia region;
• working with International Financial Institutions.
• Specialised expertise in Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIAs) and Environmental and Social ("E&S") due diligence

The Consultant's expert team is expected to include the following key experts (the 'Key Experts'):

Key Expert 1. Team Leader preferably with 15 years’ professional experience in the field of irrigation water supply, with comprehensive experience of similar assignments in the region. The expert should demonstrate management and administration experience, including experience with procedures of international financing agencies such as EBRD procedures. Working knowledge of Russian and/or Uzbek languages is preferred.

Key Expert 2. Financial Specialist preferably with 5 or more years’ professional experience in the relevant field with excellent financial modelling skills and first-hand experience with EIRR methodology.

Key Expert 3. Agriculture Economist preferably with 5 or more years’ professional experience in the relevant field with an in-depth understanding of the economics of farming in the region.

Key Expert 4. Tariff Expert preferably with 5 or more years’ professional experience in the relevant field with deep understanding of tariff setting methodologies in water and/or irrigation sectors and experience with international financing institutions (preferably EBRD) in the region.

Key Expert 5. Technical Specialists i.e. water/irrigation engineer(s), hydrologist(s) with relevant experience in the region. Working knowledge of Russian or Uzbek languages is preferred.

Key Expert 6. Climate Change Expert with relevant experience in climate change assessments.

Key Expert 7. Gender Specialist with extensive experience in social research methods working on gender and youth issues in the agriculture sector in the region, with a focus on irrigation.

Key Expert 8. Institutional and Legal Experts with knowledge and experience of similar assignments with international financial institutions. Relevant experience in Uzbekistan is preferred.

Key Expert 9. Procurement/Contract Management specialist with knowledge and experience of EBRD/IFI procurement procedures.

Environmental and Social (E&S) team of experts preferably with 5 or more years’ professional experience in the relevant field is expected to include:

• Project manager with strong knowledge of IFI requirements and more specifically EBRD E&S Performance Requirements
• Environmental specialist with experience in ESIAs and E&S due diligence audits;
• Health and safety specialist with experience in municipal infrastructure
• Specialist in sustainable water abstraction and use;
• Social specialist(s) with experience in Uzbekistan, including public consultation in the local context, gender expertise, resettlement expertise, and labour issues.

The Consultant is expected to include local consultants in the team and/or cooperate with local consulting companies, in order to benefit from local knowledge. The Consultant will engage local language speaking staff on their team or arrange for translation/interpreting when necessary.

The Consultant is encouraged to complement the team with local Young Professionals (“YP”) when appropriate. A YP should be a recently graduated Uzbek national, with at least a Master’s degree in a field relevant to the Project. The objective is for practical knowledge transfer to occur between experienced professional consultants and the YP. This will be an opportunity for the YP to gain real-world sector experience, acting as a junior member of an international consulting team.

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/single-stage-package.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 technical proposal should not exceed 35 pages excluding the Declaration Form and CVs (Form 1- TP 1 and Form 1 – TP 6).
• 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.

Bank Contact Person:

Aleksandra Lewandowska

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

One Exchange Square

London EC2A 2JN

e-mail: lewandoa@ebrd.com (submissions should be sent through eSelection and NOT to this email address)

Deadline to Submit Clarification Questions: Via e-mail to the Bank Contact Person by 12 July 2019.

Selection Method and Evaluation Criteria:

1. Technical Proposal Evaluation Criteria

• Firm's previous project experience in similar assignments (20%)
• Quality of the methodology proposed for the Assignment (20%)
• Quality of the methodology proposed for the Environmental and Social Audit and Assessment (10%)
• CVs of E&S experts and, in case of a specialised E&S Consulting firm, a description of previous project experience (10%)
• CV of other Key Experts 1-9 (40%)

The minimum technical score (St) required to pass is 75.

2. Opening of Financial Proposals

After the technical evaluation is completed, only the submissions which score 75 or above of the total marks available for the technical criteria will be eligible to have their financial proposals opened.

3. Combined 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 = 70; F = 30) T + F = 100 as follows: S = St x T% + Sf x F%.

Important Notes:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.