Request for Proposal (RFP) for Empanelment of Resource Institution (RI) For Providing Capacity Building Support to Personnel of the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority and its associate agencies Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium 5th Floor, NCUI Auditorium Building, August Kranti Marg, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016 JANUARY 2015 1
Section 1: Invitation of Bids Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is a Society functioning under the administrative control of Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. SFAC is supporting the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA), Government of Meghalaya in implementing the Integrated Development and Livelihood Promotion programme (IBDLP). Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA), was set up by the Government of Meghalaya for implementing the Integrated Basin Development & Livelihood Promotion Program (IBDLP )which aims to achieve the integration of public programme and service delivery within the sustainability framework, so that value maximization takes place within the same natural and financial resources. To aid in the implementation of the IBDLP programme, the MBDA has set up certain pioneering institutes such as MIE (Meghalaya institute of Entrepreneurship), MIG (Meghalaya Institute of Governance) and MINR (Meghalaya Institute of Natural resources). The Mission of the program is To promote optimal and effective development and utilization of basin resources for ensuring livelihood security and inclusive growth within a sustainable framework. A significant feature of this programme is specific mission mode interventions in Agriculture, Horticulture, Forest and Plantation crops, Aquaculture, Livestock, Sericulture & weaving, Agriculture, Energy, Water, Tourism, Skills, and Knowledge Management. The core objective of each of these missions is to facilitate the promotion of sustainable livelihoods for the people of the state leveraging on the opportunities and strengths of the State s natural resources. The programme seeks to achieve this by strong entrepreneurship and capacity building of the individuals as also the communities, eventually to empower the common person to enable him or her to make their own choices and decisions within a rational and sustainable framework. Key interventions of the programme are Knowledge Management, Natural Resources Management, Enterprise/Livelihoods promotion, Institution Building and Governance aspects. The programme is managed by Basin Development Council (BDC), Basin Development Authority (MBDA), and Basin Development Units (BDU). The Enterprise Facilitation Centre (EFC) is a unique effort to create a single point of contact for the enterprising citizens of the community to meet their needs of information, selection of opportunities, technology and finance for setting up enterprises. EFCs through the BDU coordinate 2
with different agencies to facilitate the inception and growth of enterprises. The EFCs are being set up in all the 39 blocks of the state to act as a single window public interface agency under the programme at the grass root level. The EFC model is an attempt at making delivery of development demand driven. The EFCs are manned by two Enterprise Resource Persons (ERPs) and one Enterprise Support Person (ESP), (dedicated youth who have the passion to serve in rural areas who have been trained and deployed) who provide information and other facilitation support to the partners. What differentiates the EFC from the government department is the service delivery approach (as opposed to a scheme implementation approach) and the personal rapport that the ERPs build with the partners. The Basin Development Units (BDU) in each district are manned by Programme Associates (PA) who provide support to the EFCs in their respective blocks. Affiliate agencies of MBDA such as MIE, MIG, MINR are staffed by PA s who provide additional support to the EFCs. Since entrepreneurship building is a complex process that requires convergence of diversified services that include finance, technical, market and institutional support services, there is a need for equip these personnel with required knowhow to act as livelihood service providers and adopt a focused approach towards programme implementation. MBDA had decided to improve the efficiency of the EFCs by extending professional support from an expert agency in Livelihood and entrepreneurship promotion. Based on the outcome of the work achieved so far and the need build the knowledge and skill base of its personnel, SFAC seeks to empanel a suitably qualified Resource Institution (RI) to provide support to MBDA. The Broad responsibilities of the RI will be: o Curriculum Design o Training workshops o Accompaniment Support Curriculum Design: Develop a training curriculum for the personnel of MBDA including Enterprise Resource Persons (ERPs), Financial Business Advisors (FBAs), Programme Associates (Pas), Master trainers and any other personnel that may be indicated by MBDA. The total number of people to be covered under the program is around 100. The training curriculum should cover the following broad thematic areas: 3
o Assessment of Self o Concepts of Livelihood and Livelihood Promotion o Concepts of Entrepreneurship and rural micro entrepreneurship promotion o Assessment of Entrepreneurial competencies o Training Methodologies Training workshops: Deliver these training modules to the personnel in a phased manner within 18 months from the issue of the work order. Each training module should be of duration of 5 to 7 days with batch size not exceeding 25 participants. These workshops are to be conducted in either Shillong or Tura based on the participant profile. The training workshops must use a mix of training methods including case studies, lectures, group work, audio visual aids, field visits and other methods. Training reports after completion of each workshop. The reports shall include but not be limited to trainee s participation during the workshop, suitability of materials used during the training, suitability of training venue, adequacy of administrative support, recommendations on areas of improvement and other observation. An evaluation report ranking the participants according their ability to assimilate the learnings and use them in their respective roles. Exposure visits to similar micro enterprise visits outside the state. Exposure visit report to be submitted along with learning journals for each participant. Accompaniment Support: Provide accompaniment support to the trained personnel who are stationed in 39 EFCS of the state. The purpose of the accompaniment support is to mentor and assist the participants of these training programmes in utilizing the knowledge and skills gained during the workshops in their assigned field of work. The RIs must provide the total visits per EFC they propose to undertake during the duration of the assignment. 4
A. With this background, SFAC invites bids from experienced and technically qualified organizations fulfilling following eligibility criteria: 1. Any public or private sector institution that has demonstrated experience of working on integrated livelihood issues, especially natural resources management, agricultural development and directly related fields. 2. The institution can be registered either as a company, society or trust. Provided that: 1. The institution has completed at least 3 years of functioning (financial years) as on 1 st April 2014 2. The institution has substantial knowledge and experience in knowledge building (KB) and knowledge dissemination (KD) in livelihood related issues in India with regards to agriculture related livelihood issues, including technology, marketing, training etc. and has the necessary human resources to support these activities. 3. The institute has developed course curriculum on livelihood promotion aspects. 4. The institute has proven ability to provide training and capacity building support to large number of staff of Livelihood Promoting Organizations (LPOs). 5. The institute has documented and published case studies, success stories and other relevant material on Livelihoods. 6. The institution has previous demonstrated experience of working with State Governments/ NRLM other livelihood related programmes of the Central or State Governments. Previous experience of working in the North East is desirable. 7. The institution has in depth knowledge and practical experience about the livelihood challenges of NER in general and Meghalaya in particulars and must have a well-established local set up. 8. The institution is not black-listed by any Central or State agency. 9. The institution has managed training and capacity building programs by deploying funds of at least Rs 2 crores per annum. 10. It is in compliance of all necessary laws and statutes on the date of application. 11. Refundable Earnest Money of Rs. 10,000/- (Rupees Ten Thousand only) is submitted in the form of a demand draft payable to Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium at New Delhi. 5
Section 2: Submission of Proposal- Sealed offer under two-bid system(part-i Technical Bid and Part II Price Bid)for the above mentioned assignment may be forwarded to Managing Director, SFAC, NCUI Auditorium Building, 5 th Floor, 3, Siri Institutional Area, August Kranti Marg, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016. A. Technical Bid: Technical bid shall consist of following documents: Organization s capability ( As per A of Section 1 above); A brief approach note to the proposed project covering technical approach and methodology, work plan, organization and staffing Supporting documentso Registration Certificate o Last Audited Balance sheet o CVs of core team for the project o Supporting Documents of some of the KB and KD activities o Documentation demonstrating the Specific experience of the RI relevant to the assignment o Reports and other documentation detailing work done in (i) Meghalaya (ii) regarding training for livelihood promotion work (iii) Entrepreneurship and microenterprise development (iv) training for human resource development. o Testimonials and evidence of recognitions for any significant accomplishments or capacities relevant for this assignment. B. Price Bid: The Price bid must mention total cost for each activity proposed to be undertaken in the form of a summary. The summary must be in the following format: Sl. No. Particulars No. of units Rate/Unit 1 Curriculum Development 2 Cost of Trainings and Exposure Visit Total Amount (Rs.) 6
3 Accompaniment Support Cost 4 Agency Charges 5 Taxes as applicable Total The breakup of costs under each heading must be as under:- Module Development No. of Man days No. of resource persons Unit Rate (Rs.) Total Amount (Rs) Remarks Training Modules (Breakup for each Training module) Name of Training Module No. of Man days No. of resource persons Unit Rate (Rs.) Total Amount (Rs) Remarks Resource Persons- Fees Out of Pocket Expenses of Resource persons (Travel, Boarding, Lodging) 7
Exposure Visits for a batch of 20 participants per batch: Item No. of Man days No. of resource persons/ participants Unit Rate (Rs.) Total Amount (Rs) Remarks Resource Persons- Fees Out of Pocket Expenses (Travel, Boarding, Lodging) Resource Fee to host organization Accompaniment Support Item Cost/day Total (Rs.) Remarks Total No. of Visits in 18 months to 38 EFCs Agency Charges Item Units Unit Cost Total (Rs.) Remarks Manpower cost for Project Management Unit (Breakup of manpower) Office expenses (cost of equipment, office rent, supplies, travel for review meetings computer rental, vehicle rentals etc) Taxes will be paid extra as applicable. 8
Last date of submission of proposal is JANUARY 19, 2015 by close of office hours. The Bidders must submit one Original and one Duplicate of the \ Technical Proposal in one envelop, which must be sealed and clearly marked Technical Proposal. The Financial Proposal (Price Bid) must be kept in a separate envelope, which must be sealed and clearly marked Financial Proposal. Both these envelops must then be placed in a single outer envelope, which must be sealed and addressed to the Managing Director, Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), NCUI Auditorium Building,5 th Floor, 3 Siri Institutional Area, August Kranti Marg, Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110 016. Section 3: Evaluation and Procedure for Selection of the Bidder- An evaluation committee will be constituted by SFAC to evaluate the technical and financial proposals and recommend award of the consultancy assignment. A. Technical Proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria: i. Specific experience of the Consultants relevant to the assignment ii. Adequacy of the proposed methodology and work plan in responding to the Terms of Reference a) Technical approach and methodology b) Work plan c) Organization and staffing iii Key professional staff qualifications and competence for the assignment Team Leader a) [Insert position or discipline as appropriate] b) [Insert position or discipline as appropriate] c) [Insert position or discipline as appropriate] d) [Insert position or discipline as appropriate] The number of points to be assigned to each of the above positions or disciplines shall be determined considering the following three sub-criteria and relevant percentage weights- 1) General qualifications 9
2) Adequacy for the assignment 3) Experience in region and language (iv) Suitability of the transfer of knowledge (training) program: a) Relevance of training program b) Training approach and methodology c) Qualifications of experts and trainers B. Financial proposals will be opened only for those bidders who obtain more than 60 points on the technical proposal; C. 70% weightage will be assigned to Technical Bids and 30% to Price Bid; D. The combined score of the Technical and Price bid evaluate on will be used to recommend the award of the consultancy assignment; E. The decision of Managing Director, SFAC regarding acceptance or rejection of the committee s recommendation will be final and no reason for the same will be provided. Section 4: General Instructions- Bids that are incomplete in any respect, or those that are not consistent with the requirements as specified in the Request for Proposal (RFP) or those that do not adhere to formats, wherever specified, may be considered non-responsive and may be liable for rejection; All communication and information should be provided in writing; SFAC reserves the right to reject any or all the Bids submitted in response to this Request for Proposals at any stage without assigning any reasons whatsoever; SFAC reserves the right to change any or all of the provisions of the RFP document, such changes would be intimated to all the parties participated in the Bid process; The Authorized Signatory, as mentioned in the bid document, would be authorized to represent the Bidder in its dealing with the SFAC. In case the Bidder wish to change the Authorized Signatory from one identified at the RFP Stage, the Bidder would be required to furnish a fresh Power of Attorney in the name of new Signatory. 10