STRATEGIC FORESIGHT FOR ASSISTED VOLUNTARY RETURN AND REINTEGRATION PROGRAMMING IN AFRICA (MEDITERRANEAN AND EASTERN MIGRATORY ROUTES)

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

RFP No. RFP RO21-05

Mission: IOM Nairobi - Regional Office for East and Horn of Africa

Project Name: EU-IOM Joint Initiative Programme for Migrant Protection and Reintegration

Title of Services:

STRATEGIC FORESIGHT FOR ASSISTED VOLUNTARY RETURN AND REINTEGRATION PROGRAMMING IN AFRICA (MEDITERRANEAN AND EASTERN MIGRATORY ROUTES)

Request for Proposals (RfP)

The International Organization for Migration (hereinafter called IOM) intends to hire Service Provider(s) for the conduction of a ‘Strategic Foresight’ study to inform current and future Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programming in Africa, covering both the Mediterranean and the Eastern migratory routes, for which this Request for Proposals (RFP) is issued.

IOM seeks for Service Provider(s) / Consulting Firm(s) to provide Technical and Financial Proposal. More details on the services are provided in the attached Terms of Reference (ToR).

The Service Provider(s) / Consulting Firm(s) will be selected under a Quality–Cost Based Selection procedures described in this RfP.

The RfP includes the following documents:

Section I. Instructions to Service Provider(s) / Consulting Firm(s)

Section II. Technical Proposal – Standard Forms

Section III. Financial Proposal – Standard Forms

Section IV. Terms of Reference

Section V. Standard Form of Contract

The Proposals must be submitted by email to RONairobiProcurement@iom.int on or before Friday the 17th of September 2021 at exactly 17:00 hours Kenya time. No late proposal shall be accepted.

IOM reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal and to annul the selection process and reject all Proposals at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to affected Service Provider(s) / Consulting Firm(s).

The Service Provider(s) / Consulting Firm(s) receiving this RfP shall treat the information herein contained as confidential. No part of this document nor any of its annexes and attachments shall be shared to parties not involved in the elaboration of Proposals or made publicly available without the explicit consent of IOM. Breaches to this confidentiality clause will result in the disqualification of the Service Provider(s) / Consulting Firm(s) involved.

Bids Evaluation and Awards Committee

IOM Nairobi - Regional Office for East and Horn of Africa

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Section I - Instructions to Bidders

1. Introduction

1.1 Only eligible Bidders may submit a Technical Proposal and Financial Proposal for the services required. The proposal shall be the basis for contract negotiations and ultimately for a signed contract with the selected Service Provider.

1.2 Bidders should familiarize themselves with local conditions and take them into account in preparing the proposal. Bidders are encouraged to request clarifications to IOM in this Instruction, whenever needed and by following the indications in article 4.2.

1.3 The Bidder’s costs of preparing the proposal and of negotiating the contract, including visit/s to the IOM, are not reimbursable as a direct cost of the assignment.

1.4 Bidders shall not be hired for any assignment that would be in conflict with their prior or current obligations to other procuring entities, or that may place them in a position of not being able to carry out the assignment in the best interest of the IOM.

1.5 IOM is not bound to accept any proposal and reserves the right to annul the selection process at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the Bidders.

1.6 IOM shall provide at no cost to the Bidders the necessary inputs and facilities, and assist the Firm in obtaining licenses and permits needed to carry out the services and make available relevant project data and report.

2. Corrupt, Fraudulent, and Coercive Practices

2.1 IOM Policy requires that all IOM Staff, Bidders, manufacturers, suppliers or distributors, observe the highest standard of ethics during the procurement and execution of all contracts. IOM shall reject any proposal put forward by Bidders, or where applicable, terminate their contract, if it is determined that they have engaged in corrupt, fraudulent, collusive or coercive practices. In pursuance of this policy, IOM defines for purposes of this paragraph the terms set forth below as follows:

• Corrupt practice means the offering, giving, receiving or soliciting, directly or indirectly, of anything of value to influence the action of the Procuring/Contracting Entity in the procurement process or in contract execution.

• Fraudulent practice is any act or omission, including a misrepresentation, that knowingly or recklessly misleads, or attempts to mislead, the Procuring/Contracting Entity in the procurement process or the execution of a contract, to obtain a financial gain or other benefit to avoid an obligation.

• Collusive practice is an undisclosed arrangement between two or more Bidders designed to artificially alter the results of the tender procedure to obtain a financial gain or other benefit.

• Coercive practice is impairing or harming, or threatening to impair or harm, directly or indirectly, any participant in the tender process to influence improperly its activities in a procurement process, or affect the execution of a contract.

3. Conflict of Interest

3.1 All Bidders found to have conflicting interests shall be disqualified to participate in the procurement at hand. A Bidder may be considered to have conflicting interest under any of the circumstances set forth below:

• A Bidder has controlling shareholders in common with another Bidder.

• A Bidder receives or has received any direct or indirect subsidy from another Bidder.

• A Bidder has the same representative as that of another Bidder for purposes of this bid.

• A Bidder has a relationship, directly or through third parties, that puts them in a position to have access to information about or influence on the Bid of another or influence the decisions of the Mission/procuring Entity regarding this bidding process.

• A Bidder submits more than one bid in this bidding process.

• A Bidder who participated as a consultant in the preparation of the design or technical specifications of the Goods and related services that are subject of the bid.

4. Clarifications and Amendments to RfP Documents

4.1 At any time before the submission of the proposals, IOM may, for any reason, whether at its own initiative or in response to a clarification amend the RfP. Any amendment made will be made available to all short-listed Service Provider(s) / Consulting Firm(s) who have acknowledged the Letter of Invitation.

4.2. Service Providers / Consulting Firms may request for clarification(s) on any part of the RfP. The request must be sent in writing or by standard electronic means and submitted to IOM at the address indicated in the invitation by Tuesday the 14th of September 2021 at exactly 17:00 hours Kenya time (five working days before the set deadline for the submission and receipt of Proposals). IOM will respond in writing or by standard electronic means to the said request and this will be made available to all those who acknowledged the Letter of Invitation without identifying the source of the inquiry.

5. Preparation of the Proposal

5.1 A Proposal shall have two (2) components: a) the Technical Proposal, and b) the Financial Proposal.

5.2 The Proposal, and all related correspondence exchanged by the Bidder and IOM, shall be in English. All reports prepared by the contracted Service Provider(s) / Consulting Firm(s) shall be in English.

5.3 The Bidders are expected to examine in detail the documents constituting this Request for Proposal (RFP). Material deficiencies in providing the information requested may result in rejection of a proposal.

6. Technical Proposal

6.1 When preparing the Technical Proposal, Bidders must give particular attention to the following:

a) If a Bidder deems that it does not have all the expertise for the assignment, it may obtain a full range of expertise by associating with individual consultant(s) and/or other consultants or entities in a joint venture or sub-consultancy, as appropriate. Bidders may associate with other consultants invited for this assignment or to enter into a joint venture with consultants not invited, only with the approval of IOM. In case of a joint venture, all partners shall be jointly and severally liable and shall indicate who will act as the leader of the joint venture.

b) For assignment of the staff, the proposal shall be based on the number of professional staff-months estimated by the firm, no alternative professional staff shall be proposed.

c) It is desirable that the majority of the key professional staff proposed is permanent employees of the firm or have an extended and stable working relationship with it.

d) Proposed professional staff must, at a minimum, have the experience of at least five (5) years, preferably working under conditions similar to those prevailing in the country of the assignment.

6.2 The Technical Proposal shall provide the following information using the attached Technical Proposal Standard Forms TPF 1 to TPF 6 (Section III).

a) A brief description of the Bidder’s organization and an outline of recent experience on assignments of a similar nature (TPF-2), if it is a joint venture, for each partner. For each assignment, the outline should indicate the profiles of the staff proposed, duration of the assignment, contract amount, and firm’s involvement.

b) A description of the approach, methodology and work plan for performing the assignment (TPF-3). This should normally consist of maximum of ten (10) pages including charts, diagrams, and comments and suggestions, if any, on Terms of Reference and counterpart staff and facilities. The work plan should be consistent with the work schedule (TPF-7) 8

c) The list of proposed Professional Staff team by area of expertise, the position and tasks that would be assigned to each staff team members (TPF-4).

d) Latest CVs signed by the proposed professional staff and the authorized representative submitting the proposal (TPF-5). Key information should include number of years working for the firm and degree of responsibility held in various assignments during the last five (5) years.

e) A time schedule estimates of the total staff input (Professional and Support Staff, staff time needed to carry out the assignment, supported by a bar chart diagram showing the time proposed for each Professional and Staff team members (TPF– 6). The schedule shall also indicate when experts are working in the project office and when they are working at locations away from the project office.

f) A time schedule (bar chart) showing the time proposed to undertake that the activities indicated in the work plan (TPF-7).

g) A detailed description of the proposed methodology and staffing for training if the RFP specifies training as specific component of the assignment.

6.3 The technical proposal shall not include any financial information.

7. Financial Proposal

7.1 In preparing the Financial Proposal, consultants are expected to take into account the requirements and conditions outlined in the RfP. The Financial Proposal shall follow the Financial Proposal Standard Forms FPF 1 to FPF 2 (Section IV).

7.2 The Financial proposal shall include all costs associated with the assignment. If appropriate, these costs should be broken down by activity. All items and activities described in the Technical proposal must be priced separately; activities and items in the Technical Proposal but not priced shall be assumed to be included in the prices of other activities or items.

7.3 The Bidder may be subject to local taxes on amounts payable under the Contract. Taxes shall not be included in the sum provided in the Financial Proposal as this will not be evaluated, but they will be discussed at contract negotiations, and applicable amounts will be included in the Contract.

7.4. Service Providers / Consulting Firms shall express the price of their services in Euros (EUR).

7.5 The Financial Proposal shall be valid for 30 calendar days. During this period, the Service Provider / Consulting Firm is expected to keep available the professional staff for the assignment. IOM will make its best effort to complete negotiations and determine the award within the validity period. If IOM wishes to extend the validity period of the proposals, the Bidder has the right not to extend the validity of the proposals.

8. Submission, Receipt, and Opening of Proposals

8.1 Bidders may only submit one proposal. If a Bidder submits or participates in more than one proposal such proposals shall be disqualified.

8.2 The original Proposal (both Technical and Financial Proposals) shall be prepared in indelible ink. It shall contain no overwriting, except as necessary to correct errors made by the Bidders themselves. Any such corrections or overwriting must be initialled by the person(s) who signed the Proposal.

8.3 The Bidder shall submit one original and one copy of the Proposal. Each Technical Proposal and Financial Proposal shall be marked “Original” or “Copy” as appropriate. If there are any discrepancies between the original and the copies of the Proposal, the original governs.

8.4 The original and all copies of the Technical Proposal shall be placed in a sealed envelope clearly marked “TECHNICAL PROPOSAL.” Similarly, the original Financial Proposal shall be placed in a sealed envelope clearly marked “FINANCIAL PROPOSAL” and with a warning “DO NOT OPEN WITH THE TECHNICAL PROPOSAL.” Both envelopes shall be placed into an outer envelope and sealed. The outer envelope shall be labelled with the submission address, reference number and title of the project and the name of the Bidder.

8.5 Proposals must be received by IOM at the place, date and time indicated in the invitation to submit proposal or any new place and date established by the IOM. Any Proposal submitted by the Bidder after the deadline for receipt of Proposals prescribed by IOM shall be declared “Late” and shall not be accepted by the IOM and returned to the consultant unopened.

8.6 After the deadline for the submission of Proposals, all the Technical Proposal shall be opened first by the BEAC. The Financial Proposal shall remain sealed until all submitted Technical Proposals are opened and evaluated. The BEAC has the option to open the proposals publicly or not.

9. Evaluation of Proposals

9.1 After the Proposals have been submitted to the BEAC and during the evaluation period, Bidders that have submitted their Proposals are prohibited from making any kind of communication with any BEAC member, as well as its Secretariat regarding matters connected to their Proposals. Any effort by the Bidder to influence IOM in the examination, evaluation, ranking of Proposal, and recommendation for the award of contract may result in the rejection of the Bidder’s Proposal.

10. Technical Evaluation

10.1 The entire evaluation process, including the submission of the results and approval by the approving authority, shall be completed in not more than twenty (20) calendar days after the deadline for receipt of proposals.

10.2 The BEAC shall evaluate the Proposals on the basis of their responsiveness to the Terms of Reference, compliance to the requirements of the RfP and by applying the evaluation criteria, sub criteria and point system. Each responsive proposal shall be given a technical score (St). The proposal with the highest score or rank shall be identified as the Highest Rated/Ranked Proposal.

10.3 A proposal shall be rejected at this stage if it does not respond to important aspects of the ToR or if it fails to achieve the minimum technical qualifying score which is fifty-five (55). 10.4 The Technical Proposal of any Bidder shall be evaluated based on the following criteria and sub-criteria.

10.5 Technical Proposal shall not be considered for evaluation in any of the following cases: a) Late submission, i.e., after the deadline set

b) Failure to submit any of the technical requirements and provisions provided under this Instruction;

11. Financial Evaluation

11.1 After completion of the Technical Proposal evaluation, IOM shall notify those Bidders whose proposal did not meet the minimum qualifying score or were considered non responsive based on the requirements in the RfP, indicating that their Financial Proposals shall be returned unopened after the completion of the selection process.

11.2 IOM shall simultaneously notify the Bidders that have passed the minimum qualifying score indicating the date and opening of the Financial Proposal. The BEAC has the option to open the Financial proposals publicly or not.

11.3 The BEAC shall determine the completeness of the Financial Proposal whether all the Forms are present and the required to be priced are so priced.

11.4 The BEAC will correct any computational errors. In case of a discrepancy between a partial amount and the total amount, or between words and figures, the former will prevail. In addition, activities and items described in the Technical proposal but not priced, shall be assumed to be included in the prices of other activities or items.

11.5 The Financial Proposal of Bidders who passed the qualifying score shall be opened, the lowest Financial Proposal (F1) shall be given a financial score (Sf) of 100 points. The financial scores (Sf) of the other Financial Proposals shall be computed based on the formula :

Sf = 100 x Fl / F

Where:

Sf - is the financial score of the Financial Proposal under consideration,

Fl - is the price of the lowest Financial Proposal, and

F - is the price of the Financial Proposal under consideration.

The proposals shall then be ranked according to their combined (Sc) technical (St) and financial (Sf) scores using the weights (T = the weight given to the Technical Proposal = 0.80; F = the weight given to the Financial Proposal = 0.20; T + F = 1)

Sc = St x T% + Sf x F%

The firm achieving the highest combined technical and financial score will be invited for negotiations.

12. Negotiations

12.1 The aim of the negotiation is to reach agreement on all points and sign a contract. The expected date and address for contract negotiation will be communicated to the successful Bidder.

12.2 Negotiation will include:

a) discussion and clarification of the Terms of Reference (ToR) and Scope of Services;

b) Discussion and finalization of the methodology and work program proposed by the Bidder;

c) Consideration of appropriateness of qualifications and pertinent compensation, number of man-months and the personnel to be assigned to the job, and schedule of activities (manning schedule);

d) Discussion on the services, facilities and data, if any, to be provided by IOM;

e) Discussion on the Financial Proposal submitted by the Bidder; and

f) Provisions of the contract. IOM shall prepare minutes of negotiation which will be signed both by IOM and the Service Provider / Consulting Firm.

12.3 The financial negotiations will include clarification on the tax liability and the manner in which it will be reflected in the contract and will reflect the agreed technical modifications (if any) in the cost of the services. Unless there are exceptional reasons, the financial negotiations will involve neither the remuneration rates for staff nor other proposed unit rates.

12.4 Having selected the successful Bidder on the basis of, among other things, an evaluation of proposed key professional staff, IOM expects to negotiate a contract on the basis of the experts named in the proposal. Before contract negotiations, IOM shall require assurances that the experts shall be actually available. IOM will not consider substitutions during contract negotiation unless both parties agree that the undue delay in the selection process makes such substitution unavoidable or for reasons such as death or medical incapacity. If this is not the case and if it is established that staff were referred in their proposal without confirming their availability the Bidder may be disqualified. Any proposed substitution shall have equivalent or better qualifications and experience than the original candidate.

12.5 All agreement in the negotiation will then be incorporated in the description of services and form part of the Contract.

12.6 The negotiations shall conclude with a review of the draft form of the Contract which forms part of this RfP (Section VI). To complete negotiations, IOM and the Bidder shall initial the agreed Contract. If negotiations fail, IOM shall invite the second ranked Bidder to negotiate a contract. If negotiations still fail, the IOM shall repeat the process for the next-in-rank Bidder until the negotiation is successfully completed.

13. Award of Contract

13.1 The contract shall be awarded, through a notice of award, following negotiations and subsequent post-qualification to the Bidder with the Highest Rated Responsive Proposal. Thereafter, the IOM shall promptly notify the other Bidders on the shortlist that they were unsuccessful and shall return their unopened Financial Proposals. Notification will also be sent to those Bidders who did not pass the technical evaluation.

13.2 The Service Provider is expected to commence the assignment on the 18th of October 2021.

14. Confidentiality

14.1.1 Information relating to the evaluation of proposals and recommendations concerning awards shall not be disclosed to the Bidders who submitted Proposals or to other persons not officially concerned with the process. The undue use by any Bidder of confidential information related to the process may result in the rejection of its Proposal and may be subject to the provisions of IOM’s anti-fraud and corruption policy. 

Please click here for more details about the Request for Proposals.