Expression of Interest (EOI)

Seeking the support of a contractor to implement outreach activities, support the development of proposals by women-led enterprises, and technical support during the kick-off phase of the cooperations. 

Reference Number: 83461654

Date of Publication: 15.03.2024 

0. Introduction 

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federally owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. The GIZ Office in Kigali covers GIZ’s portfolio in Rwanda and Burundi. GIZ Rwanda/Burundi implements projects on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Union and other commissioning authorities in the following priority areas: Sustainable Economic Development, Good Governance, Climate, Energy and Sustainable Urban Development, Digital Transformation & Digital Economy, Great Lakes Region.

1. Context

The project “Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment in Rwanda” (WEE) was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and is being implemented by GIZ Rwanda in cooperation with the Rwanda Ministry of Trade and Industry. The WEE project, launched in January 2024, aims to enhance the economic participation of women in Rwanda. It focuses on two main areas of activity: (1) improving working conditions for female employees and (2) enhancing competitiveness, including the export capabilities, of women-led companies. The project’s key success indicators are the creation of good jobs for women, the improvement of working conditions for women, and improved performance of women-led businesses.

The project will provide support to women-led enterprises through capacity building, ranging from lower threshold training/coaching (businesses as beneficiaries) to tailored in-depth cooperation on joint goals (businesses as partners). Partnership will be offered in the form of "integrated development partnerships with the private sector" (iDPPs) for women-led enterprises (registered business entities not in the startup phase) with high potential to contribute to WEE project indicators. iDPP allows close partnerships on equal footing with businesses to achieve development goals, based on matching contributions by the business and by GIZ (no money flow between partners, partners co-implement).

The project plans to issue calls for expressions of interest (CEI) to identify ideas by interested women-led enterprises to contribute to WEE project indicators. Women-led enterprises in all sectors will be eligible to participate. Selected enterprises will be invited to submit detailed proposals to enter into iDPP partnership with GIZ. Enterprises that are not selected may receive lower threshold capacity building support from GIZ separately.

iDPP projects can last up to 18-months and will be supported with in-kind contributions by GIZ between 20.000 to 40.000 EUR (e.g. in the form of national and international technical experts, capacity building support, small-scale equipment/materials purchases, etc.), depending on contributions by the women-led enterprise (e.g. in the form of staff costs, depreciation of assets/materials, workshop/event costs, travel costs, etc.). The iDPPs will have to contribute to at least one of the key indicators of the WEE project, pertaining to the creation of good employment opportunities for women, improved working conditions for women (including people with disabilities), and improved competitiveness of women-led enterprises. The company’s commercial benefit should be a by-product to the achievement of one of these goals.

The WEE project is seeking the support of a contractor to implement outreach activities, support the development of proposals by women-led enterprises, and technical support during the kick-off phase of the cooperations.

2. Tasks to be performed by the contractor

The contractor is responsible for providing the following services:

1. Outreach to women-led enterprises
2. Proposal development
3. iDPP kick-off support

Details regarding Service Package 1: Outreach to women-led enterprises

Under Service Package 1, the contractor will perform the following tasks:

• Familiarization with iDPP instrument, WEE project indicators and other documentation (draft CEI templates, iDPP fund participation criteria and proposal templates).
• Provision of feedback to GIZ on the above documents and development of detailed iDPP fund concept note (4-5 pages).
• Creation of communication materials for the CEI (factsheet/flyer on formalities/requirements in Kinyarwanda and English) and online/digital distribution via identified channels/networks (e.g. own network, GIZ network, PSF specialized cluster, etc.).
• Preparation and implementation of up to three 1.5-hour online events for women-led businesses (in Kinyarwanda) to inform the target group about the CEI, including identification of relevant participants, invitation management, and delivery of inputs during the agenda (presentation on iDPP fund formalities/requirements and implementation of Q&A session).
• Preparation and implementation of up to three 1.5-hour on-site events (at least two of which should take place outside of Kigali) for up to 30 women, with the same contents as the online events.
• On-demand idea development support to max. 25 (but a min. of 10) women-led enterprises with the potential to enter into iDPP partnerships during CEI period.
• On-demand Q&A support to women-led enterprises during CEI period (clarifications on requirements/criteria by phone/email).

Notes: GIZ will publish the CEI online (Leverist) and ideas will be submitted directly to GIZ. GIZ will provide the platform to host the online events (MS Teams).

Details regarding Service Package 2: Proposal development

Under Service Package 2, the contractor will perform the following tasks:

• Evaluation of ideas (based on criteria defined by GIZ) submitted in the CEI to assist GIZ WEE in the selection of the women, who will be asked for detailed interviews.
• Facilitation of one-on-one interviews with max. 15 shortlisted candidates to select the group of women who will be asked to develop detailed iDPP proposals.
• Issuance of request for detailed proposals to group of max. 8 women-led enterprises.
• In-depth coaching and support for max. 8 (but a min. of 3) women-led enterprises in the development of a set of documents required for iDPP cooperation agreements (detailed concept note, including operational plan and budget), which meet iDPP standards, contribute to WEE project indicators, and which will be submitted to GIZ for evaluation and final selection.
• Facilitation/moderation of meetings during the contracting phase between GIZ and max. 5 selected women-led enterprises
• Announcement of CEI results.
• Provision of written recommendations (4-5 pages of text) to GIZ regarding support for women-led enterprises that participated in the CEI but were not selected for iDPP cooperation (i.e. identifying lower threshold support measures for the target group as beneficiaries as opposed to partners)

Details regarding Service Package 3: iDPP kickoff support

Under Service Package 3, the contractor will perform the following tasks for max. 5 iDPPs:

• Facilitation of meetings between GIZ and women-led enterprises for kickoff.
• Provision of technical inputs to GIZ for the development of Terms of Reference to contract service providers for GIZ’s contribution to the iDPPs.
• Monitoring progress during first quarter of iDPP implementation according to operational plan (progress report).
• Provision of backstopping support and technical advice to GIZ during first quarter of iDPP implementation.

Required travel

• If necessary and approved by GIZ in advance, travel to districts outside of Kigali is possible in all service packages mentioned above in order to ensure access to GIZ’s iDPP offer by women-led enterprises in other districts.
• The contractor should plan for up to 20 3-day and 2-night (joint) roundtrips for the two experts (see Chapter 5 below).

Timeline of main deliverables

The following main deliverables, as described in detail in the work packages above, are to be achieved by the contractor during the contract term:

Period of assignment: from 01.05.2024 until 13.12.2024.

3. Concept

In the tender, the tenderer is required to show how the objectives defined in Chapter 2 (Tasks to be performed) are to be achieved, if applicable under consideration of further method-related requirements (technical-methodological concept).

Note: The numbers in parentheses correspond to the lines of the technical assessment grid.

Technical-methodological concept

Strategy (1.1): The tenderer is required to consider the tasks to be performed with reference to the objectives of the services put out to tender (see Chapter 1 Context) (1.1.1). Following this, the tenderer presents and justifies the explicit strategy with which it intends to provide the services for which it is responsible (see Chapter 2 Tasks to be performed) (1.1.2).

The tenderer is required to describe the key processes for the services for which it is responsible and create an operational plan or schedule (1.4.1) that describes how the services according to Chapter 2 (Tasks to be performed by the contractor) are to be provided.

Project management of the contractor (1.6)

The tenderer is required to explain its approach for coordination with the GIZ project. In particular, the project management requirements specified in Chapter 2 (Tasks to be performed by the contractor) must be explained in detail (1.6.1).

The tenderer is required to draw up a personnel assignment plan with explanatory notes that lists all the experts proposed in the tender; the plan includes information on assignment dates (duration and expert months) and locations of the individual members of the team complete with the allocation of work steps as set out in the schedule (1.6.2).

4. Personnel concept

The tenderer is required to provide personnel who are suited to filling the positions described, on the basis of their CVs (see Chapter 6), the range of tasks involved and the required qualifications.

The below specified qualifications represent the requirements to reach the maximum number of points in the technical assessment.

Team leader

Tasks of the team leader

• Overall responsibility for the service packages of the contractor (quality and deadlines)
• Coordinating and ensuring communication with GIZ, network partners and others involved in the project

Qualifications of the team leader

• Education/training (2.1.1): University degree in Business Administration
• Language (2.1.2): C2-level language proficiency in English, a confirmation in CV, is enough
• General professional experience (2.1.3): 10 years of professional experience in the business development support sector
• Specific professional experience (2.1.4): 5 years of experience analysing, training and one-on-one coaching of SME;
• Leadership/management experience (2.1.5): 3 years of management/leadership experience as project team leader or manager in a company
• Development cooperation (DC) experience (2.1.7): 4 years of experience working in projects funded by international donors
• Other (2.2.8): 2 reference projects in organizing and implementing business competitions for funds/support (including calls for proposals).

Key expert 1

Tasks of key expert 1

• Providing technical insights to guarantee the timely and high-quality delivery of service packages.
• Day-to-day technical support to and communication with target group (women-led businesses)

Qualifications of key expert 1

• Education/training (2.2.1): University degree in Business Administration
• Language (2.2.2): C1-level language proficiency in English, C2-level language proficiency in Kinyarwanda, a confirmation in CV, is enough
• General professional experience (2.2.3): 8 years of professional experience in the business development support sector
• Specific professional experience (2.2.4): 4 years of experience analysing, training and one-on-one coaching of SME
• Development Cooperation (DC) experience (2.2.7): 2 years of experience working in projects funded by international donors
• Other (2.2.8): 2 reference projects providing in-depth support to SMEs in proposal writing for international donors, public benefit organizations, and/or banks

Soft skills of team members

In addition to their specialist qualifications, the following qualifications are required of team members:

• Flexibility and constructive attitude in face of changing circumstances
• Excellent communication skills
• Collaborative working style
• Efficient partner- and client-focused working methods

The tenderer must provide a clear overview of all proposed short-term experts and their individual qualifications.

5. Costing requirements

The bidder is required to include in the expert fee the costs for the provision of adequate working space, workstations, all required IT and telecommunication equipment. None of these costs shall be reimbursed under this contract.

All business travel must be approved in advance by GIZ staff in writing. The amounts below for travel expenses and other costs are compulsory and non-negotiable.

Specification of inputs

6. Requirements on the format of the tender

The structure of the tender must correspond to the structure of the ToRs. In particular, the detailed structure of the concept (Chapter 3) should be organised in accordance with the positively weighted criteria in the assessment grid (not with zero). The tender must be legible (font size 11 or larger) and clearly formulated. It must be drawn up in English.

The complete tender must not exceed 8 pages (excluding CVs). If one of the maximum page lengths is exceeded, the content appearing after the cut-off point will not be included in the assessment. External content (e.g. links to websites) will also not be considered.

The CVs of the personnel proposed in accordance with Chapter 4 of the ToRs must be submitted using the format specified in the terms and conditions for application. The CVs shall not exceed 4 pages each. They must clearly show the position and job the proposed person held in the reference project and for how long.

Please calculate your financial tender based exactly on the parameters specified in Chapter 5 Quantitative requirements. The contractor is not contractually entitled to use up the days, trips, workshops or budgets in full. The number of days, trips and workshops and the budgets will be contractually agreed as maximum limits. The specifications for pricing are defined in the price schedule.

7. Eligibility Criteria

Caveat: Self-declaration of eligibility form, must be completed and submitted with technical proposal

• Evidence of commercial register entry (i.e. Registration Certificate issued by RDB)
• Evidence of tax registration (i.e. VAT certificate by RRA)
• Evidence of valid tax clearance (issued by RRA)
• Average annual turnover for the last three financial years (last-but-four financial year can be included in case of tenders held within six months of end of last financial year). Worth 50,000,000RWF
• Average number of employees and managers for the past three calendar years: atleast 3 persons (evidence required)
• Atleast 2 reference projects in the technical field of Business Development Services
• Atleast 2 reference projects in Rwanda in the last 3 years (evidence required). 

9. Submission of offer: The Expression of Interest should contain the following:

A. Technical Proposal:

• A cover letter expressing your interest in this assignment
• Technical proposal with a brief description of why you would be considered as the most suitable for the assignment, relevant expertise, and a detailed, clear methodology, your approach to complete the assignment, template attached.
• CV of the Consultants proposed
• Proof of successful completion of related assignments.

B. Financial Proposal (Template attached): indicates the all-inclusive daily rate, supported by a breakdown of all costs. The costs must be in RWF and VAT

Please submit electronically your EoI (technical & Financial offer) in 2 separated emails and must be in PDF files to this email ONLY: RW_Quotation@giz.de until latest 31^st March 2024

Please you must write on each email subject this sentence:  

83461654 Technical/financial offer, without this sentence, your offer may not be considered

Only soft copies will be considered

GIZ reserves all rights