TENDER [ Initial assessment of business associations in agriculture ]

GIZ Office Baku |Winter Park Plaza|75, Rasul Rza Street, Office Nr. 202 • AZ 1014, Baku • Azerbaijan To all tender participants From: GIZ Baku Office Project number: 16.2179.6-003.00 Project name: Private Sector Development and Technical Vocational Education and Training in the South Caucasus Country: Azerbaijan German Development Cooperation             GIZ Office Baku Winter Park Plaza 75, Rasul Rza Street, Office Nr. 202 AZ 1014, Baku, Aserbaijan T 99412 5999120-25 F 99412 5999126 giz-aserbaidschan@giz.de Your reference       Our reference       25 August 2020 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Registered offices Bonn and Eschborn, Germany Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 36 + 40 53113 Bonn, Germany T +49 228 44 60-0 F +49 228 44 60-17 66 Dag-Hammarskjöld-Weg 1 - 5 65760 Eschborn, Germany T +49 61 96 79-0 F +49 61 96 79-11 15 E info@giz.de I www.giz.de Registered at Local court (Amtsgericht) Bonn, Germany Registration no. HRB 18384 Local court (Amtsgericht) Frankfurt am Main, Germany Registration no. HRB 12394 Chairman of the Supervisory Board Martin Jäger, State Secretary Management Board Tanja Gönner (Chair) Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel Subject of tender: Initial assessment of business associations in agriculture Dear Tender Participant, GIZ-Baku Office would like to announce a tender on initial assessment of business associations in agriculture. Should you be interested in implementing the tasks according to the task description (Annex 1), we request you to submit us your bids in the following way: Submitting of the technical offer and financial offers: Due to the COVID 19 we kindly ask you to submit separately! the technical and financial offers via email on following email address: AZ_Quotation@giz.de latest by 14th of September 2020. The email with technical offer should include CV (CVs in case several experts will be involved); proven references from former assignments, a concept; a detailed workplan/ -schedule. Please mark the subject of the email as follow: “Technical offer/ “Initial assessment of business associations in agriculture PSD TVET”. The email with financial offer should include remuneration as per the indicated workdays. Please mark the subject of the email as follow: “Financial offer / “Initial assessment of business associations in agriculture PSD TVET”. Please note that there should not be any financial information mentioned in the technical bid. The tender documents will be accepted both in Azerbaijani and English languages. You can email your further questions (but no bids!!!!) latest by 9th of September to Sabina Hadjiyeva – sabina.hajiyeva@giz.de. Please, consider that for ensuring the equal circumstances for all parties the answers to your questions will be sent to all tender participants. The bids not complying with these rules will not be considered by us. Unfortunately, any questions submitted after 9.09.2020 will not be answered. The bids received will be evaluated by the GIZ office Baku (see the Annex 2). Only financial bids of companies/individuals fulfilling the technical requirements will be opened and evaluated by an authorized person. The evaluation rate is 70% for technical and 30% for the financial bid. Based on the evaluation results a ranking list of candidates will be prepared. Contractual negotiations are generally commenced with the first bidder on the list. Should these negotiations not be successful, the second bidder on the list shall be invited to commence negotiations. If you do not receive an order in writing within two weeks of expiry of the deadline for the submission of offers, your bid has not been accepted. You shall not receive separate notice to this effect. Annexes Annex 1 TOR associations Annex 2 TAG PSDTVET initial assessment of business associations Best regards, Sabina Hajiyeva Contracting and Procurement Officer | | Programme: Private Sector Development and TVET in South Caucasus (PSDTVET SC) AV/TL: Hans-Juergen Cassens/ Yulia Bazhenova PN: 16.21796-003.00 Activity: Assessment of business associations in agricultural sector of Azerbaijan Period: September 20- October 20, 2020 Brief information about the project The Private Sector Development and Technical Vocational Education and Training programme which has been developed jointly with the Public partners and private sector in the South Caucasus Countries, aims at promoting the private sector development with a high attention to employment impacts and a close integration of vocational education and training. Due to the small domestic markets with limited purchasing power, the South Caucasus Countries have focused so far on expanding foreign trade to promote economic development. The export-dedicated strategy achieved only limited success in improving the employment situation and living conditions. Employment growth in sectors that afford the greatest potential for pro-poor growth and employment promotion in comparable economies and in South Caucasus, such as tourism and agricultural, cannot be sustained, because businesses lack well-trained skilled labor. The core challenge consists thus in the difficult framework conditions for sustainable economic development in the sectors relevant for employment. The capacities available are not yet sufficient to generate the envisaged employment and growth momentum. Therefore, the programme module objective is: The conditions for sustainable economic development have improved in selected sectors relevant for employment. The programme will adopt the integrated approach of German development cooperation in employment promotion. It will address both the supply and demand side of the labour market to lay a better foundation for employment. Development assistance will focus primarily on involving the private sector in vocational training. To do this, the programme will operate in three intervention fields: Intervention field 1 will aim to strengthen capacities for improving competitiveness in the sectors relevant for employment. In the case of Azerbaijan, it was decided to be the tourism and agriculture sectors. In intervention field 2, private and public actors will cooperate to improve the labour-market relevance of selected training courses for these sectors. Intervention field 3 will seek to strengthen the regional and international exchange of experience in sustainable private sector development and dual-oriented vocational training. Improving the promotion of economic development will contribute to raising demand for labour. At the same time, supporting vocational training and qualification will increase the supply of qualified labour, i.e. trainees that have successfully completed initial and continuing education and training will be better prepared to cope with the requirements and their tasks in enterprises. In the medium and long term, this will contribute to reducing structural unemployment and underemployment and to social and sustainable economic development. The programme is scheduled for a term of 6 years (from April 2017 to April 2023). Context and current situation in the field of assignment Azerbaijan is a middle income country with dominant oil and gas sector that generates almost 70% of countries GDP. Government’s major goal is to achieve diversification in economy and strengthening various selected sectors including agriculture. Farming provides 6% of country’s GDP and smallholders dominate in the general structure of agriculture in Azerbaijan. Addittionally, links between agricultural producers and processing industries are weak. In this regard, underdevelopment of variuos mechanisms such as, cooperatives, sectoral associations and different unions is an obstacle. Business associations as one the types of Business Membership Organizations (BMOs) can be a tool for small and medium enterprise (SME) promotion in developing countries like Azerbaijan. The most important actors, which can influence the SMEs’ environment, are on the one hand government and public institutions, and on the other hand private service providers, with business membership organizations (BMOs) in between. Therefore, building capacities of BMOs as professional advocates and as demand-driven service providers is important. From a donor perspective, BMOs can be a channel and a sustainable institution through which many enterprises could be reached. They can be also effective providers or facilitators of selected enterprise support services. Currently, in Azerbaijan BMO sector is in its early stage of development and has substantial room for growth. There are up to 30 sectoral business associations in agriculture. They differ from each other based on various factors such as level of institutional capacity and development, history, resources, leadership, membership etc. Based on the discussion with Ministry of Agriculture it was decided to develop the capacities of selected associations within the project. Thus, aim of this assignment is conducting a feasibility analysis and assessment of selected sectoral business associations, identifying up to three project partners and developing a strategy for cooperation of selected associations and the project. Conditions of the assignment Objective and tasks General objective The project is considering to offer a package for strengthening capacities of business associations in the agricultural sector of Azerbaijan to enhance the quality of service provision to members. The package will be implemented in two stages: Identification of partner associations and assessment of needs; Implementation of capacity development activities. The objective of this assignment is realizing and completing the first stage of the package. Thus, the assignment of this TOR is identification of partner associations and assessment of training needs. Scope of work (Tasks) Contractor will be responsible for below mentioned tasks: Evaluating and assessing operations of ten business associations based on the following criteria and standards. In developing countries like Azerbaijan, few BMOs respond ideally to standards. Therefore, it is necessary for the consultant to remain open-minded and flexible. From a GIZ perspective below mentioned principles are of major interest in selection of partners. However, these criteria can be modified by the consultant based on the circumstances and business environment in the country: As a result of this assessment selecting up to three business associations that are performing better in relation to the above-mentioned criteria and are interested in participating in capacity development activities of the project; Preparing and conducting a survey for trainings needs assessment of selected business associations; Introducing a report that encompasses the results of survey with clear recommendations for training package; Deliverables and resources Conditions and payment terms All the meetings and interviews within this activity must take place in online format without face to face meetings to prevent possible risks related to the spread of COVID-19 virus. The designated timeframe for this assignment is August 2020. The contractor is expected to deliver a detailed and structured final report that comprises the results of interviews, recommendation on selection of partner business associations, surveys with selected associations, and recommendations for training package. Reports must be provided in English language. Coordination and communication Coordination with the GIZ contact person Aytan Suleymanova in Baku, will take place on a needs basis, and can be performed in person or online, dependent on the specific tasks at hand. Ayten Suleymanova Program Expert  Private Sector Development and Technical Vocational Education and Training in South Caucasus  Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH Winter Park Plaza 75, Rasul Rza Street, 2nd floor, office nr. 201 AZ 1014, Baku-Azerbaijan T  +994 12 599 91 20 (32) M +994 51 250 54 33 F  +994 12 599 91 26 E  ayten.suleymanova@giz.de Criteria for Partner Selection Privately-driven association with active membership and elected steering structure Number of SME members Commitment and vision of leadership Propensity to take up SME issues Financial sustainability Number and quality of staff Office, equipment Advocacy and services for SME Tasks – Deliverables | Timeline | Man days (max) / location Qualitative in-depth interviews with BMOs to identify partner business associations | September | 9 days/ home office / online interviews Preparing and conducting a survey for training needs assessment | September-October | 8 days / home office Writing a report | October | 2 days/ home office Total | | 19 days