IWPR - Request for Proposal - Advocacy and Communications

Request for Proposal (RFP)
RFP Number: PRF# 00139
Issuance Date: 11/01/2023
Deadline for Offers: November 17, 6:00 PM – local time
Description: IWPR is seeking the consultancy services of an expert in Moldova to support the development and implementation of advocacy and communications strategies and campaigns for up to 7 CSOs.
Funded By: UK FCDO
Implemented By: Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Point of Contact: Vonda Wolcott, vonda@iwpr.net

Instructions to Offerors:

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND: The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is an independent not-for profit organisation that works with media and civil society to promote positive change in conflict zones, closed societies, and countries in transition around the world. As part of its program activities managed by its Tbilisi office, IWPR, in partnership with the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), is implementing its initiative Building Resilience in the Eastern Neighbourhood (BREN), which is supported by the UK Government’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF).

IWPR’s BREN program seeks to strengthen the resilience of non-state actors, including marginalised communities, and enhance their ability to deliver transformative, inclusive, and sustainable contributions to peace, stability and security in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Moldova.

The BREN project contributes to enabling CSOs to build resilience and deliver transformative change in the peace and security area to increase human security for women and marginalised, vulnerable and socially excluded groups in the four target countries.

Developing CSO advocacy and communications capacity is the foundation to building CSO resilience to bring about societal change. Building on IWPR’s previous work on this subject, IWPR is seeking the consultancy services of an expert to support the development and implementation of advocacy and communications strategies and campaigns for up to 7 CSOs.

The objective is to build CSO capacity to use modern advocacy and communications tools and techniques to best help create the desired change by producing engaging content that effectively reaches and influences the target audience, including stakeholders and decisionmakers.

The purpose of this RFP is to solicit a proposal and quotation for this service. Therefore, IWPR invites your firm to participate in this competitive solicitation for pricing, delivery, and terms of potential sale on the following services for IWPR’s office in Tbilisi.

(Offerors are responsible for ensuring that their offers are received by IWPR in accordance with the instructions, terms, and conditions described in this RFP. Failure to adhere with instructions described in this RFP may lead to disqualification of an offer from consideration).

1. General Requirements
● Proposal deadline: Proposals must be received no later than 6:00PM local time on November 17, 2023 by email to vonda@iwpr.net. Any emailed offers must be emailed to the mentioned email.
● Please reference the RFP number in any response to this RFP. Offers received after the specified time and date will be considered late and will be considered only at the discretion of IWPR.
● Companies, organisations, whether non-profit or profit, must be legally registered under the laws of the country of presence of upon award of the contract and must have physical presence at the time the subcontract is signed.

2. Questions
●Questions regarding the technical or administrative requirements of this RFP must be submitted no later than 6:00PM local time on November 15, 2023 by email to vonda@iwpr.net.
●Questions must be submitted in writing; phone calls will not be accepted. Questions and requests for clarification—and the responses thereto—that IWPR believes may be of interest to other offerors will be circulated to all RFP recipients who have indicated an interest in bidding. 
●Only the written answers issued by IWPR will be considered official and carry weight in the RFP process and subsequent evaluation. Any verbal information received from employees of IWPR or any other entity should not be considered as an official response to any questions regarding this RFP.

3. Proposals
Proposals should include a work plan for the assessment/evaluation, training and mentoring activities and a sample training agenda.

Quotations in response to this RFP must be priced on a fixed-price, all-inclusive basis, including delivery and all other costs. Pricing must be presented in British Pound Sterling (GBP£). Offerors are requested to provide quotations on official letterhead or format.

The maximum budget is £4,000 per country. IWPR will fund the training event venue and catering costs and any travel and lodging for CSO participants.

In addition, offerors responding to this RFP are requested to submit the following:
- Organisations responding to this RFP are requested to submit a copy of their official registration
or business license.

4. Taxes and VAT
Projects are not exempt from cooperating country taxes, duties, and VAT.

5. Eligibility
By submitting an offer in response to this RFP, the offeror certifies that it and its principal officers are not debarred, suspended, or otherwise considered ineligible for an award by the U.K. Government. IWPR will not award a contract to any firm that is debarred, suspended, or considered to be ineligible by the donor.

6. Evaluation and Award
The award will be made to a responsible offeror whose offer follows the RFP instructions, meets the eligibility requirements, and is determined via a trade-off analysis to be the best value based on application of the following criteria. Proposals will be evaluated based on the criteria below.

●Organisational capacity and experience – 30 points
● Project Delivery – 40 points: Responsiveness to the technical specifications and requirements.
● Price – 30 points: The overall cost presented in the offer.

Please note that if there are significant deficiencies regarding responsiveness to the requirements of this RFP, an offer may be deemed “non-responsive” and thereby disqualified from consideration. IWPR reserves the right to waive immaterial deficiencies at its discretion.

Best-offer quotations are requested. It is anticipated that award will be made solely on the basis of these original quotations. However, IWPR reserves the right to conduct any of the following:
● IWPR may conduct negotiations with and/or request clarifications from any offeror prior to award.
● While preference will be given to offerors who can address the full technical requirements of this RFP, IWPR may issue a partial award or split the award among various suppliers, if in the best interest of the projects being implemented through our Tibilisi office.
● IWPR may cancel this RFP at any time.

Please note that in submitting a response to this RFP, the offeror understands that the donors are not a party to this solicitation and the offeror agrees that any protest hereunder must be presented—in writing with full explanations—to IWPR for consideration, as the donor will not consider protests regarding procurements carried out by implementing partners. IWPR, at its sole discretion, will make a final decision on the protest for this procurement.

PRICE SCHEDULE

Total price must include all taxes and fees, in British Pound Sterling (GBP£), and should be expressed in a per unit basis, based on the needs listed in Chart 1 below. The maximum budget is £4,000 per country.

CHART 1

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. The Request for Proposals is not and shall not be considered an offer by IWPR.
2. All responses must be received on or before the date and time indicated on the RFP. All late responses will be rejected unless IWPR decides to amend the submission deadline.
3. All unresponsive quotes will be rejected.
4. All quotes will be considered binding offers. Prices quoted must be valid for the entire period provided by the respondent.
5. All procurement will be subject to IWPR contractual terms and conditions and contingent on the availability of donor funding.
6. IWPR reserves the right to accept or reject any quotation or cancel the procurement process at any time, without assigning any reason, and shall have no liability to any vendors submitting RFPs for such rejection or cancellation of the procurement.
7. IWPR reserves the right to accept all or part of the quotation when awarding the purchase order/contract.
8. All information provided by IWPR in this RFP is offered in good faith. Individual items are subject to change at any time and all bidders will be provided with notification of any changes.
9. IWPR is not responsible or liable for any use of the information submitted by bidders or for any claims asserted therefrom.
10. IWPR reserves the right to require any bidder to enter into a non-disclosure agreement.
11. The bidders are solely obligated to pay for all costs, of any kind whatsoever, which may be incurred by bidder or any third parties, in connection with the Response. All responses and supporting documentation shall become the property of IWPR, subject to claims of confidentiality in respect of the Response and supporting documentation, which have been clearly marked confidential by the bidder.
12. IWPR standard payment terms are net 30 days after receipt and acceptance of any commodities or deliverables. Payment will only be issued to the entity submitting the offer in response to this RFP and identified in the resulting award; payment will not be issued to a third party.
13. IWPR doesn’t pay advances; payments are done after the delivery of goods or completion of services. A bank guarantee may be issued by the offeror at a later stage if an advance payment is required.
14. Any award resulting from this RFP will be a firm fixed price, in the form of a purchase order.
15. No commodities or services may be supplied that are manufactured or assembled in, shipped from, transported through, or otherwise involving any of the following countries: Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, Iran, North Korea, (North) Sudan, Syria.
16. Laws prohibit transactions with, and the provision of resources and support to, individuals and organisations associated with terrorism. The supplier under any award resulting from this RFP must ensure compliance with these laws.
17. The title to any goods supplied under any award resulting from this RFP shall pass to IWPR following delivery and acceptance of the goods by IWPR. Risk of loss, injury, or destruction of the goods shall be borne by the offeror until title passes to IWPR.

PROVISIONS:
1. Organisational Conflicts of Interest
It is understood and agreed that some of the work performed under this subcontract may place the Subcontractor or its personnel in the position of having an organisational conflict of interest. Such an organisational conflict of interest may impair the objectivity of the Subcontractor or its personnel in performing the work. To preclude or mitigate any potential conflicts of interest, Subcontractor agrees not to undertake any activity which may result in an organisational conflict of interest without first notifying IWPR of such potential conflict of interest and receiving IWPR written approval to undertake such activities.

2. Anti-Kickback (Corruption)
(a) Definitions.
Kickback, as used herein, means any money, fee, commission, credit, gift, gratuity, thing of value, or compensation of any kind, which is provided, directly or indirectly, to IWPR, the WEPS project office or any of its employees, the Subcontractor or Subcontractor employees, or vendors in any way related to the performance or subsequent activities of this subcontract, for the purpose of improperly obtaining or rewarding favorable treatment in connection with this subcontract.
Person, as used in this clause, means a corporation, partnership, business association of any kind, trust, joint-stock company, or individual.
Subcontractor employee, as used in this clause, means any officer, partner, employee, or agent of the Subcontractor.

(b) The Subcontractor and its employees, whether directly or indirectly engaged in the performance of this subcontract, agree to abide by the terms of The United States
Anti-Kickback Act of 1986, which prohibits any person from providing or attempting to provide any kickback; soliciting, accepting, or attempting to accept any kickback; or including, directly or indirectly, the amount of any kickback in the contract price charged by the Subcontractor to IWPR. IWPR may offset the amount of the kickback against any monies owed by IWPR under this fixed price subcontract or order the monies withheld from future payments due the Subcontractor.
The Subcontractor agrees to include the substance of this provision in any contract it may issue under this subcontract.

3. Subcontractor Performance Standards
(a) Subcontractor agrees to provide the services required hereunder in accordance with the requirements set forth in this Subcontract. Subcontractor undertakes to perform the services hereunder in accordance with the highest standards of professional and ethical competence and integrity in Subcontractor’s industry and to ensure that employees assigned to perform any services under this subcontract will conduct themselves in a manner consistent therewith. The services will be rendered by
Subcontractor: (1) in an efficient, safe, courteous, and businesslike manner; (2) in accordance with any specific instructions issued from time to time by IWPR; and (3) to the extent consistent with items (1) and (2), as economically as sound business judgment warrants. Subcontractor shall provide the services of qualified personnel through all stages of this subcontract. Subcontractor represents and warrants that it is in compliance with all the applicable laws of the United States and any other Jurisdiction in which the services shall be performed. Subcontractor shall perform the services as an independent Subcontractor with the general guidance of IWPR. The Subcontractor’s employees shall not act as agents or employees of IWPR.

(b) IWPR reserves the right to request the replacement of Subcontractor personnel and may terminate the subcontract due to nonperformance by the Subcontractor.

(c) IWPR will use a variety of mechanisms to stay abreast of the Subcontractor’s performance under the subcontract, and of general progress toward attainment of the subcontract objectives. These may include: (1) Business meetings between the subcontract team and/or IWPR (2) Feedback from key partners (3) Site visits by IWPR personnel (4) Meetings to review and assess periodic work plans and progress reports (5) Reports

4. Conflicts of Interest
It is understood and agreed that some of the work performed under this contract may place the contractor or its personnel in the position of having an organisational conflict of interest. Such an organisational conflict of interest may impair the objectivity of the contractor or its personnel in performing the work. To preclude or mitigate any potential conflicts of interest, contractor agrees not to undertake any activity which may result in an organisational conflict of interest without first notifying IWPR of such potential conflict of interest and receiving Dahlia Khoury’s written approval to undertake such activities.

FORM/CONTENT OF RESPONSE
All quotations shall include the following documents:

□ Proposal: work plan; sample training agenda; description of the organization (or individual) and its experience and capabilities related to subject matter of this RFQ. 
□ CVs of proposed trainer(s) and mentor(s)
□ Itemized budget for all costs; official quotations filled in Chart 1; (detailed costs in British Pound Sterling (GBP £), with applicable Tax/Charges clearly identified, and provided against each of the categories of services described in Chart 1.)
□ Contain detailed costs in British Pound Sterling (GBP), with applicable Tax/Charges clearly identified, and provided against each of the categories of services described in Annex 1 – Terms of Reference.
□ Provide requested payment terms and conditions.
□ Include a contact name, email address, and telephone number to facilitate communication between IWPR and the vendor.
□ Full legal name, jurisdiction of incorporation, and address of the company
□ Full legal name and country of citizenry of company’s President and/or Chief Executive Officer and/or all other officers and senior managers of the company
□ Year business was established