CPIU IFAD intends to select of Service Provider to Support Conservation Agriculture Activities within Talent Retention for Rural Transformation Project

Moldova is a small lower-middle-income economy. Although it is among the poorest countries in Europe, it has made significant progress in reducing poverty and promoting inclusive growth since the early 2000s. Agriculture is a central pillar of the Moldovan national economy and the main source of livelihood in rural areas. The last years are marked by drought, which highlighted another major vulnerability of the country - increased exposure to climate shocks. Climate change and its consequences on agriculture and forestry in Moldova are the key topics discussed at Government level.

General Objectivs
Shortcomings in Moldova ‘s investment climate has limited the profitability of businesses, and the prospects of attracting new investments in technologies aiming to overcome climate change negative impact on agriculture.
In this context, IFAD has designed and launched in Moldova the TRTP Project that is fully aligned with IFAD’s Climate Change Strategy aiming to maximize the impact on rural poverty in a changing climate through: (i) access to productive infrastructure; (ii) the availability of incentives, funding and training for smallholder farmers to shift to climate-resilient water efficient systems; and (iii) building in-country capacity for climate resilient and conservation agriculture through scholarships, research, consultations and dissemination of key lessons with a strong focus on smallholder farmers.

Background on the assignment
Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a concept for resource-saving agricultural crop production that aims to achieve acceptable profits, high and sustained production levels and is based on the principles of on-farm water conservation and enhancing natural biological processes above and below the ground. Mechanical soil tillage is reduced to an absolute minimum, and the use of external inputs such as agrochemicals, nutrients of mineral or organic origin are applied at an optimum level and in a way and quantity that does not interfere with or disrupt the biological processes. CA is characterized by three principles, which are linked to each other, that are:

• Minimum mechanical soil disturbance throughout the entire crop rotation.
  • Permanent organic soil cover.
  • Diversified crop rotations in case of annual crops or plant associations in case of perennial crops.

CA is reportedly increasingly being adopted by farmers in Moldova mainly because of its low input costs but it also provides many benefits in terms of water conservation and improving soil structure and resilience to climate events. At present however, the Government of Moldova (GoM) does not have an overview of the extent of CA adoption across the country and a national consensus on the definition of CA and what this means in technical and practical terms among educational and research circles is still lacking.

The Subcomponent 1.1. (Enhancing Climate Resilience) of the TRTP project will support activities related to development of Conservation Agriculture in Moldova, namely developing of the CA curriculum and incorporation it in the national educational program, training of CA professionals and students.

These activities will be financed under the TRTP project, from Adaptation Fund funds and will be implemented in tight collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI), education institutions and other relevant organizations.

These planned activities are continuation of the activities accomplished by CPIU IFAD in 2023 and 2024, which included the nationwide survey on adoption of the Conservation Agriculture practices in Moldova, developing of a White Book with recommendations on the further steps to develop AC in Moldova and organizing the dedicated national CA convention.

Objectives of the assignment

CPIU IFAD will hire a Service Provider (SP) who will have the following specific tasks:
• Design a CA curriculum for universities and colleges, identify the appropriate international textbooks to use and (if requested by CPIU IFAD) translate these textbooks in Romanian and Russian languages.
• Recruit international CA 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.
For more details, please refer to the Terms of Reference attached to this document.

Reports and schedule of deliverables

Activity Task Deliverables Maximum period of delivery (calendar days)

The work is planned to be carried out within a maximum of 9 months from the date of contract signing, in accordance with the activities described in this ToR.

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 [include website 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 and the Revised IFAD Policy on Preventing Fraud and Corruption its Activities and Operations. 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.

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.

A consultant will be selected in accordance with the CQS procurement method set out in IFAD’ project procurement handbook that can be accessed via the IFAD website at www.ifad.org/project-procurement.reasonably perceived conflict of interest will be disqualified unless the Fund has explicitly approved otherwise. A consultant, including staff and affiliates, is considered to have a conflict of interest if a) they have a relationship that provides them with undue or undisclosed information about or influences the selection and performance of the contract, b) participates in more than an EOI in connection with this acquisition, c) have a business or family relationship with a member of the Buyer's Board of Directors or its staff, the Fund or its staff, or any other person who has been, has been or may reasonably be directly or indirectly involved in any part of (i) the preparation of this REOI, (ii) the selection process or shortlist for this procurement, or (iii) the performance of the contract. The Consultant has a continuing obligation to disclose any real, potential or reasonably perceived conflict of interest during the preparation of the EOI, the selection process or the performance of the contract. Failure to properly disclose any of these situations may result in appropriate action, including disqualification of the consultant, termination of the contract and any other action as appropriate, in accordance with IFAD's Fraud and Corruption Prevention Policy in its projects and operations.

The consultant (company) will be selected in accordance with the CQS procurement method set out in the IFAD Procurement Manual, which can be accessed via the IFAD website at www.ifad.org/project-procurement.

QUALIFICATION CRITERIA AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE SHORTLIST

The CPIU will select and contract a Service Provider to perform the activities described in these ToR. For the short-listing stage, the selected SP shall correspond to the following criteria:
Qualification criteria Maximum score
1. Legal entity or consortium of legal entities with at least 5 years of experience in provision of agriculture related extension or education services in Moldova: at least 2 contracts (or activities) substantially and successfully executed in the last 5 years in agriculture, training, capacity building, coaching, and/or mentoring 10

2. Previous experience in organizing Training of Trainers activities and development of trainings manuals (at least one contract substantially and successfully executed in the last 5 years) 20

3. Strong capacity and experience in providing services for Conservation Agriculture (at least 1 contract substantially and successfully executed in the last 5 years) 30

4. Strong capacity and experience of developing curriculum for agriculture related subjects preferably for universities and/or colleges (at least one curriculum developed in the last 5 years) 20

5. Previous experience working for public sector or international/donor organizations (IFAD, WB, UNDP, FAO etc.) will be an advantage 10

6. Possess staff and network of individual experts with strong experience in education including local and international experts in Conservative Agriculture 10

TOTAL 100

The passing score is 70%; as per the CQS procedure, only the top qualified (highest scoring) applicant will be invited to submit the technical offer and the financial offer.

Any request for clarification regarding this REOI must be sent by e-mail to: procurement@ucipifad.md / scurtu.alexandru@ucipifad.md by March 14th, 2025, at 17:00 (Moldovan time). The client will provide answers to all requests for clarification by March 19th, 2025, at 17:00 (Moldovan time).

Expressions of interest must be submitted in writing or by email using the forms provided for this purpose. EOIs will be sent by email to the address below until March 21st, 2025, at 13:00 (Moldovan time).

Attn: Alexandru Scurtu, Procurement Manager
Ștefan cel Mare și Sfînt bd. 162, Chișinău, MD-2004
E-mail: procurement@ucipifad.md / scurtu.alexandru@ucipifad.md
Tel. (022) 22 - 18 – 80 / 0780 77 185

For ToR and other materials, please click link https://www.ucipifad.md/achizitii/selection-of-service-provider-to-support-conservation-agriculture-activities-within-trtp-project/?preview_id=10113&preview_nonce=9b5b44fb37&post_format=standard&_thumbnail_id