Synopsis of the Request for Proposal
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1) Company profile.
b) Trading license or Certificate of incorporation or Certificate of Registration
c) Tax clearance certificate (Applicable to firms originating from Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania and Mozambique).
d) List of similar assignments and client contacts
e) CVs of key personnel.
Evaluation Criteria
a) Organizational Capacity ……………………………………………………….10%
b) Experience in similar assignments…………………………………….………25%
c) Proposed approach, methodology and workplan…………………….25%
d) Experience and qualifications of key personnel ………………………40%
Total: ………………………………………………………………………………..100%
NB.
1. Minimum technical pass mark is 75%
2. Selection CriteriaTechnical weight: 90%Financial weight: 10%
1. Background
Established in 2006, AGRA is an African-led and Africa-based institution that puts smallholder farmers at the center of the continent’s growing economy by transforming agriculture from a solitary struggle to survive into farming as a business that thrives. Together with our partners, we are working to sustainably grow Africa’s food systems.
AGRA strengthens seed systems, develops, and promotes sustainable farming practices, helps unlock trade and markets, and supports governments who lead their countries’ development. We work with farmers to adapt to climate change, increase soil health, and protect the environment. AGRA believes deeply in the urgency of reducing the inequality that women face in agriculture, and to unlocking the power and innovation of youth.
More information: https://agra.org/
AGRA is working closely with the Department of Agriculture Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment of the African Union Commission (AUC) is seeking to hire a team consisting of food safety data expertise and information technology (IT) expertise to develop data architecture and digital platform for a food safety data hub in Africa.
Food safety is an essential bedrock of food security, public health and economic development. Increasing the supply of safe food reduces the impact of food-borne diseases, which lead to illnesses and deaths, as well as detrimental economic consequences. Achieving food safety is a global challenge but data show that Africa is disproportionately affected by unsafe foods and held back from realizing the laudable positive trends related to improved livelihoods and economics. Food safety is an important contributor for the successful implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The complex nature of food safety challenges calls for the use of science-based and risk-based (evidence-based) approaches to manage food safety risks. For evidence-based approaches, credible data on the health impact of food-borne disease, the economic impact of mortality and morbidity, trade volumes and violations, risk related data on consumption patterns as well as demographic data are foundational. In general, African countries have capacity gaps to collect home-grown toxicological and exposure assessment data. Therefore, AU member states have to use risk assessments done elsewhere for their decision making. Moreover, laboratory-based monitoring and surveillance and data for risk assessment are generally lacking. Building expertise and infrastructure capacity for monitoring and surveillance in Africa will contribute meaningfully in assuring the safety of food chain. It is therefore high time that the AUC is spearheading an initiative to improve food safety data generation and use in the continent.
2. The Consultancy Assignment
The Africa Food Safety Index (AFSI) developed by the AUC in 2018 collects data on food safety systems capacity, foodborne disease outcomes and trade violations as part of the AU Biennial Review mechanism. The AFSI data are good to track progress in food safety systems but are not comprehensive enough to meet data needs for risk assessment and evidence-based food safety decision making. The AU Commission envisages to broaden the AFSI data base, improve overall data quality and develop an embryonic data hub to adequately support evidence-based food safety management in Africa.
Through such a data hub, the AU Commission intends to improve capacity in the collection of accurate, timely and comparable data, which are prerequisite for well-informed risk assessment and risk management decisions. This inevitably should be coupled with enhanced capacity for improved use of food safety data. There is also a need to utilize analytical tools as well as automated data collection and synthesis to make use of “big data” to prioritize and implement relevant actions on food safety especially in an era of limited resources. Beyond digitalization, consideration should be given to data generation capacity including manpower and infrastructure whilst recognizing the need for data proprietary and protection during information exchange. With the entry into force of the AfCFTA and heightened efforts at harmonized approaches for food safety management, the subject of improving continental data generation, collation and analytics is beginning to receive attention as this is critical for evidence-based decision-making. This initiative will contribute to the implementation of the Food Safety Strategy for Africa (FSSA) which has been approved by the Fourth Ordinary Session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment, held virtually on 11-14 December 2021 and endorsed by the 40th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council, held on 3-4 February 2022 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The FSSA aims at the establishment of science-based and efficient food regulatory environment, enhanced compliance leading to the delivery of safe and reliable agri-food supply chains across the continent, reduced foodborne disease burden in Africa, and improved competitiveness of Africa’s food commodities for increased intra-African and global trade.
It is in this context that the AUC, with the support of AGRA, is seeking to recruit consultants to develop a food safety data architecture to ensure improvement to the AFSI and food safety data in general.
3. Scope of services
The task will be undertaken to identify/develop key features of a food safety data hub for Africa as per the description of work below.
4. Description of Proposed Activities
The consultancy will specifically cover:
- Environment scanning: to review major food safety and related data systems that are currently in use in different parts of the world with the view of assessing their features which are of relevance to a food safety data hub in Africa.
- Data requirement priorities: identify data requirements for undertaking burden of disease estimates, risk assessment, participation in international standard setting (CODEX process), notification of food safety emergencies, as well as decision making, among others, and develop detailed report.
- Data sources: identify sources of data for identified priorities and with a proposal for quality assurance mechanisms as well as approaches for coordinating data collection and submission.
- Data set up: propose practical approaches for organizing the data in the form of systems that are easy to update and access (e.g., data sets, databases, etc.).
- Data sharing: define data sharing options to promote data use while safeguarding possible needs for data confidentiality.
- Digital platform: update the digital platform that has been developed for Africa Food Safety Index to serve the needs of the food safety data hub.
- Sustainability: propose approaches to make the food safety data hub sustainable (e.g. areas and approaches for mainstreaming into health and development initiatives; institutional approaches for continental coordination, among other examples)
- Convene, with an advisory group, PACA Secretariat and other focal persons, for review and/or pre-validation of the components of the food safety data hub.
5. Deliverables and Measurable outputs of the work assignment
The consultancy teams for Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Rwanda, and Zambia are required to deliver the following for the respective country:
- Detailed user requirement document with agreed deliverables and timelines.
- Environmental scanning report.
- Draft report with key elements of the food safety data hub (data priorities, data sources and data set up approaches)
- Full report of the food safety data hub (also including data sharing approaches, sustainability, and digital platform, in addition to those under “c”)
- Report of stakeholder validation of proposed food safety data hub.
6. Proposed Timetable and Duration of the Assignment
The following table summarizes the tentative timelines envisaged for the assignment:
7. Duration of the Assignment
The proposed assignment period is 2 months.
8. Copyright
All materials / documents arising out of this consultancy work shall remain the property of AGRA.
9. Management arrangements
The consultancy firm will report to the AGRA Contract Supervisor with dotted reporting to the designated AUC supervisor who will be provided with written reports on the progress of activities and the key challenges and opportunities in addition to the deliverables and be consulted on relevant stakeholders to be consulted and involved in the implementation.
The language of the materials and reports shall be English.
All deliverables submitted by the consultant shall be approved by AGRA Contract Supervisor before any payment is made.
10. Invoices and Payment
The Consultant will submit the corresponding invoice to AGRA. Payment of Consultant Fees will be made against deliverables, which will only be deemed accepted once AGRA comments have been effectively incorporated and approved by the Contract Supervisor.
11. Location and nature of the assignment
The consultants can execute the consultancy from any location. However, there could be travel to the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia when physical meetings are essential.
12. Key Qualifications and Experience Required
The firm should:
- Demonstrate experience in carrying out similar assignments.
- Propose a team composed of food safety expert(s) and IT expert(s) with extensive experience in carrying out similar assignments such as development or implementation of food safety data and information systems, food safety tracking systems, food safety surveillance and monitoring systems, food risk assessment, or research, among others. The key positions should include but not limited to; Lead Consultant/Project team leader (expert in food safety or related), Associate Consultant (IT expert)
- The Key personnel should have the following qualifications, experience and competencies:
- Lead Consultant/Team Leader: must have a minimum of master’s degree in food safety, public health, epidemiology, or related fields with a minimum of 10 years of experience relevant to this assignment.
- Associate Consultant (s): must have minimum of bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and related fields and have a minimum of 5 years of experience. The expert must have demonstrated experience in developing or administering digital platforms preferably for data management.
Proficiency in English will be required and proficiency in any of the African Union Official languages will be an added advantage.
The firm is expected to have enough key personnel in order to meet the specifications and timelines for this project. The firm will describe the size, qualifications, and experience of team members and how this aligns with the assignment needs.
13. Evaluation Criteria
Interested firms shall be evaluated against the following technical criteria:
- Organizational Capacity …………………………………………………………………………………………………….10%
Company profile, company accreditations and certifications.
- Firm’s Experience in similar assignments ……………………………………………………………………………..25%
- Have solid experience in similar assignments in data architecture and digital platform development.
- General management experience in related assignments or projects with proven results and sustainability approaches,
- Proposed approach, methodology and work plan…………………………………………………………………25%
Understanding of the project/assignment requirements, practicality of the proposed methodology relative to the context of the assignment, proposed work plan, staffing schedule, risk assessment and mitigation strategies integrated into the assignment, planning, appropriateness of the implementation schedule to the project timelines and project quality assurance measures. Demonstrate evidence to crowd in other stakeholders in the work for sustainability purposes.
- Experience and Qualification of key personnel……………………………………………………………………….40%
Total Score……………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………….100%
NB:
- Selection Method – Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS)
- Minimum technical pass mark is 75%
- Selection Criteria
Technical weight: 90%
Financial weight: 10%.
14. Application Submission Requirements
a) Technical Proposal
- Company profile, Certifications and accreditations.
- Proposed Methodology, approach and workplan with clear timelines.
- Detailed reference list indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments carried out including the client, dates and budget.
- Proposed key staff, their roles including their CVs, academic and professional certificates.
- The technical proposal shall not exceed 15 pages. CVs, copies of academic certificates and other supporting documents may be attached as annexes.
b) Financial Proposal
- The firm shall provide a financial proposal for carrying out the assignment. The breakdown of unit and total fees per person (for each proposed consultant) shall be provided. Use the templates provided under Annexes A, B and C for the financial proposal. You may modify them where necessary.
- Reimbursable costs if applicable shall be quoted separately. These will be reimbursed based on actual cost incurred.
- Professional fees shall include the applicable withholding tax.
- VAT shall be quoted separately and is only applicable to firms registered in the following countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Mozambique)
- If the financial proposal is silent on taxes, AGRA shall assume that these are inclusive.
- Prices must be quoted in USD ($). Contracting will be in USD, bidders are encouraged to have a USD bank account.
- The financial proposal shall be sent as a separate attachment and MUST be password protected.
15. Guidelines for Preparations and Submission of Proposals
- The Proposals shall be prepared in English Language.
- The proposals SHALL be submitted to procurement@agra.org by the deadline indicated in the synopsis.
- The technical proposal shall not exceed 15 pages.
- The proposal and ALL Attachments submitted via email SHALL NOT exceed 10MB.
- VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for a period of 90 days from the date of bid closure.
- Financial proposal shall be sent as a separate attachment and MUST be password protected. The password shall be requested from firms that meet the minimum technical score of 75%).
