Procurement Notices

1. BACKGROUND

At the request of the Government of Iraq (GoI), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been helping counterparts in the Government’s Security Sector Reform efforts and address broader Rule of Law (RoL) priorities in Iraq. UNDP -Iraq are currently supporting the Government of Iraq (GoI) to implement a Security Sector Reform Programme (SSRP) and establish cooperation and coordination mechanisms required for its implementation. In this regard UNDP is also supporting improved partnerships between civil society and security service providers ( e.g police)  at governorate level.

UNDP-Iraq therefore is inviting for call for proposals (CFP) from qualified civil society organizations (CSOs) in Iraq to implement quick impact projects that are aimed at building/ improving public-  police trusted partnerships at local level. The CFPs will focus on engagement in the following target governorates:  Baghdad and Ninawa.

1. OBJECTIVES AND EXPECTED OUTPUTS/ DELIVERABLES

The expected outputs of this Call for Proposals are:

1. Strengthened CSO institutional and technical capacity in appraising and raising awareness of local safety and security issues and ways to address them in joint collaboration with local security service providers ( i.e Police) to maintain a secure environment;
2. Strengthened CSO engagement through coordination and networking, and partnership building with the local Police at governorate level in the fight against corruption and human rights violation; and
3. Strengthened partnerships between local communities and the local police in order to ensure safer communities at provincial level.

This call for proposals (CFP) invites proposals from qualified Iraqi CSOs from the  above mentioned target governorates to engage in efforts to building effective public- local police partnerships with activities that will help to improve community safety at local level through joint collaboration/ partnerships.

1. ELIGIBILITY & QUALIFICATION CRITERIA

Applicants should meet the following Elegibility criteria:

• Registered National Iraqi civil society organizations (SCOs) registered legally under the NGOs Directorates of COMSEC (Required Documents: Certificate of Registration);

• Should have at least 5 years of proven relevant experience in one of the target locations in Baghdad, Karbala, Anbar, Salah- Al- Din and Ninawa (Required Documents: The CV / Profile)

• Should clearly demonstrate previous experience and performance in conducting similar activities in the target province including promoting human rights and anti-corruption (Required Documents: a performance evaluation or a certificate of good/satisfactory performance from previous clients or donors);
• Should prove the financial capability necessary to perform the Contract (Required Documents: Latest Audited Financial Statement).

Proposals should meet following Qualification criteria:

•  Include 1 -2 specific activities that will lead to improved community security through public - local police joint engagement;
• The proposal should have quick impact outputs;
• The overall engagement should align with government priorities in promoting and advocating for human rights and anti-corruption;
• Total cost of the proposal should not exceed USD 10,000;
• The total cost of the overhead should not exeed 20%.
• Total project period should cover 5 months with project completion by 30 September 2018;
• Only one submission per organization is allowed, each proposal should cover one of the following target areas: Baghdad, Karbala, Anbar, Salah- Al- Din or Ninawa.  

UNDP will select the  proposals  by CSOs that best correspond to proposal criteria mentioned above and covering the above mentioned target areas.  The selected CSOs will be invited to participate in a one-day startup workshop in Baghdad around end March - early April 2018.  The objective of the workshop will be as follows:

 1) To present CSO project action plans, review and finalize

 2) To outline/ inform UNDP monitoring and reporting modalities including narrative and budget reporting templates. 

1. EVALUATION CRITERIA & METHODOLOGY
2. Selection Process:
3. A selection panel comprised of staff from UNDP-Iraq will review the applications.  A member of a non-participating CSO will be invited to attend the selection panel as an observer to ensure transparency.
4. Step 1: Incomplete applications will be rejected (please refer to the list of documents to be submitted in the section above)
5. Step 2: The selection panel will evaluate the CSO application and proposal against the evaluation criteria (Please see below the Evaluation Criteria).
6. Step 3: The selection panel will select the top scoring CSOs for participation in the introductory workshop.  UNDP will select a maximum of 2 CSOs.  UNDP reserves the right to modify the number of selected CSOs depending on programme needs.
7. CSOs will be informed of the selection results approximately two weeks after the application deadline.

b)Evaluation Criteria

1. Budget size and duration

Proposals amounts should not exeed USD 10,000.00 for direct interventions in a single community or geographical area for target governorates: Baghdad and Ninawa.

Selected CSOs from the target locations should implement their projects between May - October 2018 within a 5 month project cycle.

1. SUBMISSION PROCESS

Applicants should be submitted to the following e-mail address bids.iraq@undp.org, no later than 12 April 2018, 4:00PM (Iraq local Time: +3 GMT).

The following documents must be submitted in order for the submission to be considered:

1. Fully completed application Form in the assigned format (Annex A);
2. Fully completed proposal form in the assigned format (Annex B);
3. Copy of the original NGO registration certificate;
4. CSO profile/company profile
5. CV of  applicant's project manager/ team leader who will be responsible for overall project implementation, reporting and monitoring;
6. Two recommendation/ reference letters from a two nominated referees/Performance evaluation or a certificate of good/satisfactory performance from 2 previous clients/donors;
7. Latest audited financial statement; and
8. Applications should be submitted in English Languages.

Only one submission per organization is allowed. Once the application is complete and submitted, revised versions of proposal documents will not be accepted.

Potential applicants should refer to the “Frequent Asked Questions” posted in UNDP’s website.

For additional questions about the Call for Proposals Guidelines or application forms, please e-mail [ dzhwar.qadir@undp.org and ammar.altaie@undp.org ] no later than 07 April 2018.

A response will be sent directly to the inquirer, via e-mail, and to the other Offerors that notified UNDP of their interest to participate (without identifying the source of the inquiry).

Note; UNDP reserves the right not to fund any proposals arising from this Call for Proposals

Estimate Competition Timeline

Below is an estimated timeline for this Call for Proposals.

29 March 2018: Call for Proposal opens and relevant documents are posted online.

12 April 2018: Deadline for organizations to submit proposals under this Call.

20 April 2018: Completion of assessment and selection process.

27 April 2018: Selected CSOs will be notified.

IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

UNDP implements a policy of zero tolerance on proscribed practices, including fraud, corruption, collusion, unethical practices, and obstruction. UNDP is committed to preventing, identifying and addressing all acts of fraud and corrupt practices against UNDP as well as third parties involved in UNDP activities. (See http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/Transparency/UNDP_Anti_Fraud_Policy_English_FINAL_june_2011.pdf and http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/operations/procurement/protestandsanctions/ for full description of the policies)

In responding to this Call for Proposals, UNDP requires all Proposers to conduct themselves in a professional, objective and impartial manner, and they must at all times hold UNDP’s interests paramount. Proposers must strictly avoid conflicts with other assignments or their own interests, and act without consideration for future work. All Proposers found to have a conflict of interest shall be disqualified. Without limitation on the generality of the above, Proposers, and any of their affiliates, shall be considered to have a conflict of interest with one or more parties in this solicitation process, if they:

* Are or have been associated in the past, with a firm or any of its affiliates which have been engaged UNDP to provide services for the preparation of the design, Terms of Reference, cost analysis/estimation, and other documents to be used in this competitive selection process;

* Were involved in the preparation and/or design of the programme/project related to the services requested under this Call for Proposals; or

* Are found to be in conflict for any other reason, as may be established by, or at the discretion of, UNDP.

In the event of any uncertainty in the interpretation of what is potentially a conflict of interest, proposers must disclose the condition to UNDP and seek UNDP’s confirmation on whether or not such conflict exists