| Overview : Dear Sir / Madam: We kindly request you to submit your Proposal for CONSULTING SERVICES FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UNDP RENEWED STRATEGIC OFFER IN AFRICA (RECRUITMENT OF A FIRM) Please be guided by the form attached hereto as Annex 2, in preparing your Proposal. Proposals (Technical and Financial) may be submitted on or before Thursday, May 06, 2021 and via email to the address below: Rcd.soumissions@undp.org , with the reference number 001/RFP/UNDPHQ/2021. Your Proposal must be expressed in the English language, and valid for a minimum period of 60 days. In the course of preparing your Proposal, it shall remain your responsibility to ensure that it reaches the address above on or before the deadline. Proposals that are received by UNDP after the deadline indicated above, for whatever reason, shall not be considered for evaluation. If you are submitting your Proposal by email, kindly ensure that they are signed and in the .pdf format, and free from any virus or corrupted files. Services proposed shall be reviewed and evaluated based on completeness and compliance of the Proposal and responsiveness with the requirements of the RFP and all other annexes providing details of UNDP requirements. The Proposal that complies with all of the requirements, meets all the evaluation criteria and offers the best value for money shall be selected and awarded the contract. Any offer that does not meet the requirements shall be rejected. Annex 1 Terms of Reference Background Information and Rationale, Project Description UNDP Africa officially launched the African Influencers for Development (AI4Dev) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on the 22nd of September 2019, on the margins of the 74th UN General Assembly. In keeping with the “Decade of Action”, and adhering to the core tenet of the “Next Generation UNDP”, the Influencers initiative reimagines UNDP’s relationships in Africa by harnessing Africa’s creative, intellectual and entrepreneurial energy through a powerful coalition of current and future African influencers in business, academia and the arts. The AI4D is a part of UNDP Africa’s Renewed Strategic Offer in Africa, which seeks to build partnerships and communications around people, products and platforms as a gateway to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. People predisposes UNDP’s duty to convene Africa’s entrepreneurial, intellectual and artistic energy with the aim of positioning Africans more centrally as the architects of Africa’s development narrative in partnership with UNDP and development partners. The Products pillar crafts and implements new innovative development products that can help to realise the new offer in Africa. And Platforms envision the creation and utilisation of bespoke events such as the annual Presidential Dialogue, the Renewable Energy Forum, the Fourth Industrial Revolution Forum and UNGA side events. These are selected for their catalytic impact on advancing, through both narrative and partnership, the goals of the transformative pillars in the Renewed Strategic Offer. Platforms also include the positioning UNDP at existing conventions such as the World Economic Forum, Mining Indaba, the AfDB’s Africa Investment Forum, among others. UNDP’s COVID 2.0 offer – is designed to help decision-makers look beyond recovery, towards 2030, making choices and managing complexity and uncertainty in four main areas: governance, social protection, green economy, and digital disruption. It encompasses UNDP’s role in technically leading the UN’s socio-economic response to COVID 19. The service provider is expected to support the roll out of key deliverables related to the Renewed Strategic Offer and the COVID 2.0 Offer. The services will support implementation of the six impact areas of the Renewed Strategic Offer which are: 1) Natural Resource Governance; 2) Youth Employment and Empowerment; 3) Structural Economic Transformation; 4) Sustainable Energy; 5) Climate Change; and 6) Peace and Security. Specific Objectives - Forge enduring partnerships with African business sector to inform, support and promote equitable economic transformation across the continent.
- Motivate transformational change by celebrating the accomplishments of African leaders and opportunities for sustained socioeconomic progress.
- Create an effective network of high-level African business leaders, scholars, and thought leaders to act as a sounding board for AI4Dev.
- Curate and communicate diverse perspectives on Africa’s post-COVID-19 development, to contribute to accelerating achievement of both the SDGs and Agenda 2063 – with a focus on recovery and resilience.
- Support UNDP’s thought leadership role by strengthening branding and dissemination of knowledge products and platforms.
Scope Under the supervision of the Head of the RBA Strategic Analysis and Research Team, working in close collaboration with the Partnerships and Communications Team, and the RBA Directorate, the provider will carry out the following tasks: - Establish partnerships with internationally renowned thought leaders to consider and promote strategic objectives in the UNDP Strategic Offer in Africa – using key platforms like AU, REC and other key Summits.
- Contribute to implementation of the AI4D initiative (The provider will propose a draft of methodology and potential ideas within his/her proposal).
- Organize the roll out of key platforms to implement the Renewed Strategic Offer in Africa The provider will propose a draft of methodology and potential ideas within his/her proposal – including the minimal technical support required).
- Develop innovative products that communicate the intent and accomplishment of UNDP programs and activities in Africa. – The provider will propose a draft of methodology and potential ideas within his/her proposal.
Approach and Methodology The AI4Dev Supergroup – a scalable and powerful group of 17 African influencers from business, academia and the arts in partnership with UNDP co-discovers, co-creates and co-implements innovative solutions for rapid and sustainable African development. It comprises of current and future leaders in African business, academia and the arts who collaborate with UNDP on a wide range of development areas such as building innovative products and platforms for sustainable development, encouraging infrastructure development and financing, supporting national development agendas, mobilizing resources, fostering regional integration and the connectivity of Africa, and exchanging knowledge and skills. The Hekima Series is a dialogue series bringing together Africa’s leading intellectuals from the worlds of academia, science and technology, medicine, business and the arts to explore responses to the impact of COVID-19 on Africa. The series, which launched in June, 2020 with Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka as its first guest, and has since hosted Nobel Laureate H.E Madame Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, explores new ideas and solutions that can influence more people-centric policies to alleviate the impact of COVID-19 on African societies and support sustainable development on the continent. The Hekima Series is a monthly webinar lasting approximately 60-90 minutes in duration. The global “Beat the Drum” communication strategy for the African Continental Free Trade Area is designed to encapsulate a narrative around the power of intra-African trade as a means of implementation for the Sustainable Development Goals. Scheduled to be launched at the July 2021 Summit, the strategy will edify the AfCFTA as a people’s movement – ensuring that it takes centre stage in how Africa can recover from the COVID 19 pandemic. It will be a celebration of African export capacity and a signal of what is to come if the AfCFTA is effectively utilized. | 
