Request for Proposals (RfP)

SADC TFCA Financing Facility

Short-term Consultancy – Technical Advisory Group

RfP Reference: IUCN-25-06-P02979-01

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

1.1.A detailed description of the services to be provided can be found in Terms of Reference and Scope of Work in the Attachment.

2. CONTACT DETAILS

2.1.During 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: [email protected]

3.PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE

3.1.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 contact you.

DATE-ACTIVITY

29 June 2025-Publication of the Request for Proposals

01 July 2025-Deadline for expressions of interest

02 July 2025-Deadline for submission of questions

03 July 2025-Planned publication of responses to questions

11 July 2025-Deadline for submission of Proposals to IUCN (“Submission Deadline”)

14 July 2025-Clarification of Proposals

16 July 2025-Interviews / site visits / presentations

19 July 2025-Planned date for contract award

21 July 2025-Expected contract start date

3.2.Please email the IUCN contact to confirm whether you are intending to submit a proposal by the deadline stated below.

4.COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL

4.1.Your Proposal must consist of the following three documents:

Signed Declaration of Impartiality and Confidentiality (see Attachment 2)
Technical Proposal (see Section 4.4 below)
Financial Proposal (see Section 4.5 below)

Proposals must be prepared in English, and the training will be delivered in English.

4.2.Your Proposal must be submitted by email to the IUCN Contact (see Section 2). The subject heading of the email shall be IUCN-26-06-25- P02979 – bidder name]. The bidder’s 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.

4.3.Eligibility

Individuals with understanding and or familiar with protected areas/Law Enforcement and Human Rights-based approaches in conservation, are eligible to apply.

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 submitted, these must be of the individuals who will actually carry out the Assignment. Please note that 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.Understanding of the scope of work-25%

Level of detail and the method of execution

2.Demonstrated experience and expertise in similar assignments-25%

Portfolios, Previous assignments, reports, websites

3.Cost effectiveness/budget-30%

Detailed Budget

4.Comprehensiveness-10%

Level of detail including application of safeguarding standards and principles

5.Personnel assigned-10%

CV, biography, relevant Qualifications

TOTAL-100%

4.4.Financial Proposal

4.4.1.The financial proposal must be a fixed and firm price for the provision of the goods/services stated in the RfP attached Terms of Reference in their entirety.

4.4.2.Prices include all costs

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 offer.

4.4.3.Applicable Goods and Services Taxes

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

4.4.4.Currency of proposed rates and prices

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

4.4.5.Breakdown of rates and prices

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

Description-Quantity-Unit Price-Total Price (€)

1.Review of existing Human Rights Management tools; Standard Operating Procedures, Code of Conduct, Policy Documents, Management Plans, Grievance Mechanisms, Guidelines, etc

2.Preparation and packaging of Training Material (with input from the findings of the Rapid Risk Assessment)

3. Delivery of Training to Law Enforcement Officers for TAWA

4. Reporting and recommendations from the Training for possible follow ups

TOTAL

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

4.6.Your proposal must remain valid and capable of acceptance by IUCN for a period of 90 calendar days following the submission deadline.

4.7.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.

5. EVALUATION of PROPOSALS

5.1.Completeness

IUCN will firstly check your proposal for completeness. Incomplete proposals will not be considered further.

5.2.Technical Evaluation

5.2.1.Scoring Method

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.

5.2.2.Minimum Quality Thresholds

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

5.2.3.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.

5.3.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 5.2.2) by the total price of your financial proposal.

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

5.4.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.

6. Explanation of procurement procedure

6.1.IUCN is using the Open Call Consultancy for this procurement. This means that any eligible Candidate/Company/Organisation as per eligibility criteria may submit a proposal.

6.2.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.

6.3.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 two or more evaluators in accordance with the evaluation criteria stated in 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.

6.4.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 take.

7.Conditions for participation in this procurement

7.1.To participate in this procurement, you are required to submit a proposal, which fully complies with the instructions in this RfP and the Attachments.

7.1.1.It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted a complete and fully compliant proposal.

7.1.2.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.

7.1.3.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.

7.2.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 winded 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.

7.3.You must complete and sign the Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2)

7.4.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.

7.5.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.

7.6.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.

8.Confidentiality and data protection

8.1.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 the end of the resulting contract and make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when requested.

8.2.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.

9.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 [email protected]. Such complaints or concerns will be treated as confidential and are not considered in breach of the above restrictions on communication (Section 2.1).

10.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.

11.About IUCN

IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both Governments 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/

12. ATTACHMENT 1: TERMS OF REFERENCE AND SCOPE OF WORK

Terms of Reference for IUCN Consultancy

Title: Technical Advisory Group

Objective of the Consultancy

This consultancy has the following objective(s):

The SADC TFCA FF seeks to establish a Technical Advisory Group (TAGTAG) to support the PMU with the review of project proposals and to provide additional technical expertise on specialized fields as and when required.

Background

Project Reference: P02979

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 people’s organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development.

www.iucn.org

https://twitter.com/IUCN/

About the Project

The SADC Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCA) Financing Facility (FF) is a regional financing mechanism established to support conservation, development and management actions in SADC TFCAs. The TFCA FF was established by SADC Secretariat with initial funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in German (BMZ), through KfW, and recently, additional financial commitment from EU-NaturAfrica programme***.*** The TFCA FF is administered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) as the Project Executing Agency. It is part of the SADC TFCA Programme (2020- 2033), which aims to contribute towards sustainable financing mechanisms for transboundary natural resources management. Implemented through a grant-making mechanism, the initiative aims to invest in tangible measures that strengthen ecological, economic, cultural and institutional connectivity within SADC TFCAs for the management of shared natural resources and sustainable development.

The SADC TFCA FF is aligned with the objectives of the SADC TFCAs Programme and informed by a number for SADC Protocols and Regional Development Strategies. The programme has a focus on improving three main areas:

Improved habitat connectivity, especially for elephants and large carnivores as flagship species (“species” dimension);
Improved management effectiveness of TFCAs and PAs (“habitat” dimension); and
Improved livelihoods for communities affected by human-wildlife co-habitation (“people” dimension)

Description of the Assignment

The TAG will provide a peer-review of concept notes and/or proposals to assist PMU with the following:

Review shortlisted concepts and proposals, and provide comments, and recommendations on the technical strengths and weaknesses of each application.
Where applicable, draw attention to best practice standards, guidance and lessons from the region to help enhance the quality of the shortlisted applications.
Provide guidance and support on specific technical questions which may arise during project implementation, including during the review of technical reports.

The TAG members will receive the short-listed concepts and/ proposals after preliminary screening by the PMU. The concepts and/or proposals will be distributed amongst the TAG members. The PMU will provide the TAG members with the appraisal form and application guidelines for each call well in advance of the assignment to help members to plan their engagement. The TAG members will be required to be impartial in their review of each concept/proposal and will be required to declare any potential conflict of interest.

Duration of the Assignment

From 21 July 2025 to 22 July 2027

Deliverables and Activities

Deliverable/Activity-Description-Deadline

1.Technical Review Report-Every year

Prepare comprehensive review reports for each shortlisted concept note and full proposal, including detailed comments, scores, and recommendations on technical strengths and weaknesses, aligned with best practices and regional standards

2.Peer review summary Document-Every year

Summarize key findings and consensus points from TAG virtual meetings, highlighting major technical considerations, common issues, and agreed-upon recommendations to inform the PMU’s decision-making process.

3.Technical guidance and support notes-Every year

Develop and provide technical guidance notes or responses to specific questions from the PMU or applicants during project implementation, ensuring adherence to conservation best practices and enhancing project quality.

Payment Schedule

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

Deliverable-Milestone Payment

Upon commencement of review activities for each call– 21 July 2025-Euro 1,500

Upon completion of the review and submission of all appraisal reports for the call– 22 July 2027-EURO 1,500

Skills and Experience

The TAG is expected to have expertise and experience in the following areas:

Species conservation (especially elephants and large carnivores), including wildlife surveys and monitoring, population management, habitat management, connectivity conservation, wildlife translocation and reintroduction etc).
Human-wildlife conflict management and mitigation
Management and governance of protected and conserved areas
Law enforcement, anti-poaching and illegal wildlife trade
Community-led conservation and Community Based Natural Resource Management
Wildlife/Green Economy (e.g. consumptive and non-consumptive tourism, community conservancy and game ranch development/support, non-timber-forest products, fisheries, carbon financing, apiculture, processing facilities for biodiversity products value addition etc.)

Supervision and coordination

– The TAG will report to the SADC TFCA Team Leader.

Declaration of Undertaking in relation to RFP- SADC TFCA Financing Facility -Short-term Consultancy – Technical Advisory Group

I, the undersigned, hereby confirm that I am an authorised representative of the following organisation:

Registered Name of Organisation (the “Organisation”): _______________________

Registered Address (incl. country): _______________________________________

Year of Registration:__________________________________________________

I hereby authorise IUCN to store and use the information included in the attached Proposal for the purpose of evaluating Proposals and selecting the Proposal IUCN deems the most favourable. I acknowledge that IUCN is required to retain the 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 reasonably requested.

Where the Proposal includes Personal Data as defined by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), I confirm that the Organisation has been authorised by each Data Subject to share this Data with IUCN for the purposes stated above.

I further confirm that the following statements are correct:

The Organisation is duly registered in accordance with all applicable laws.
The Organisation is fully compliant with all its tax and social security obligations.
The Organisation and its staff and representatives are free of any real or perceived conflicts of interest with regards to IUCN and its Mission.
The Organisation agrees to declare to IUCN any real or perceived emerging conflicts of interests it or any of its staff and representatives may have concerning IUCN. The Organisation acknowledges that IUCN may terminate any contracts with the Organisation that would, in IUCN sole discretion, be negatively affected by such conflicts of interests.
None of the Organisation’s staff has ever been convicted of grave professional misconduct or any other offence concerning their professional conduct.
Neither the Organisation nor any of its staff and representatives have ever been convicted of fraud, corruption, money laundering, supporting terrorism or involvement in a criminal organisation.
The Organisation acknowledges that engagement by itself or any of its staff in fraud, corruption, money laundering, supporting terrorism or involvement in a criminal organisation will entitle IUCN to terminate any and all contracts with the Organisation with immediate effect.
The Organisation is a going concern and is not bankrupt or being wound up, is not having its affairs administered by the courts, has not suspended business activities, is not the subject of proceedings concerning those matters, or in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for in national legislation or regulations.
The Organisation complies with all applicable environmental regulatory requirements or other legal requirements relating to sustainability and environmental protection.
The Organisation is not included in the UN Security Council Sanctions List, EU Sanctions Map, US Office of Foreign Assets Control Sanctions List, or the World Bank listing of ineligible firms and individuals. The Organisation agrees that it will not provide direct or indirect support to firms and individuals included in these lists.
The Organisation has not been, is not, and will not be involved or implicated in any violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, or injustice or abuse of human rights related to other groups or individuals, including forced evictions, violation of fundamental rights of workers as defined by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Declaration on the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, child labour, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment.

______________________________________________________

< Name and position of authorised representative of the Proposer >

Declaration in relation to RFP- IUCN-25-06-P02979-01

I, the undersigned, hereby confirm that I am self-employed and able to provide the service independent of any organisation or other legal entity.

Full name (as in passport):

Home or Office (please delete as appropriate) Address (incl. country):

I hereby authorise IUCN to store and use the information included in the attached Proposal for the purpose of evaluating Proposals and selecting the Proposal IUCN deems the most favourable, including Personal Data as defined by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). I acknowledge that IUCN is required to retain my 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 reasonably requested.