Assessing Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) for a Commercial Company and Farmer Organization (FO) At International Union for Conservation of Nature

Assessing Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) for a Commercial Company and Farmer Organization (FO)

IUCN Tanzania – RESET Project

RfP Reference: IUCN-2025-02-P05042-01

Welcome to this Procurement by IUCN. You are hereby invited to submit a Proposal. Please read the information and instructions carefully because non-compliance with the instructions may result in disqualification of your Proposal from this Procurement.

1. REQUIREMENTS

   1. A detailed description of the services and/or goods to be provided can be found in Attachment 1

2. CONTACT DETAILS

   1. During this procurement, i.e., from the publication of this RfP to the award of a contract, you may not discuss this procurement with any IUCN employee or representative other than the following contact. You must address all correspondence and questions to the contact, including your proposal.

IUCN Contact: geoffrey.munene@iucn.org

1. PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE

   1. This timetable is indicative and may be changed by IUCN at any time. If IUCN decides that changes to any of the deadlines are necessary, we will publish this on our website and contact you directly if you have indicated your interest in this procurement (see Section 3.2).

DATE ACTIVITY

10/02/2025 – Publication of the Request for Proposals

21/02/2025 – Deadline for submission of proposals to IUCN (“Submission Deadline”)

25/02/2025 – Planned date for contract award

25/02/2025 – Expected contract start date

1. Please email the IUCN contact to express your interest in submitting a proposal by the deadline stated above. This will help IUCN to keep you updated regarding the procurement.

2. COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL

   1. Your Proposal must consist of the following four separate documents:

• Signed Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2)

• Pre-Qualification Information (see Section 4.3 below)

• Technical Proposal (see Section 4.4 below)

• Financial Proposal (see Section 4.5 below)

Proposals must be prepared in English.

1. Your Proposal must be submitted by email to the IUCN Contact (see Section 2). The subject heading of the email shall be [RfP Reference – bidder name]. The bidder’s name is the name of the company/organization on whose behalf you are submitting the proposal, or your own surname if you are bidding as a self-employed consultant. Your proposal must be submitted in PDF format. You may submit multiple emails suitably annotated, e.g., Email 1 of 3, if attached files are too large to suit a single email transmission. You may not submit your Proposal by uploading it to a file-sharing tool.

   IMPORTANT: Submitted documents must be password-protected so that they cannot be opened and read before the submission deadline. Please use the same password for all submitted documents. After the deadline has passed and within 12 hours, please send the password to the IUCN Contact. This will ensure a secure bid submission and opening process. Please DO NOT email the password before the deadline for Proposal submission.

   1. Eligibility

   2. Technical Proposal

   Contracts shall not be awarded to applicants which during the procurement procedure are subject to a conflict of interest

   The technical proposal must address each of the criteria stated below explicitly and separately, quoting the relevant criteria reference number (left-hand column).

   Proposals in any other format will significantly increase the time it takes to evaluate, and such Proposals may therefore be rejected at IUCN’s discretion.

   Where CVs are requested, these must be of the individuals who will carry out the work specified. The individuals you put forward may only be substituted with IUCN’s approval.

   IUCN will evaluate technical proposals with regards to each of the following criteria and their relative importance:

Description Information to provide Relative weight

1.The conceptual and methodological approach – Description of the conceptual and methodological approach to be used. 60

2. Relevant competencies and experience – Team profile

• University education in social sciences, business, economics, law or related fields.
• Technical knowledge of responsible business conduct in supply chains, business and human rights.
• Minimum 2 years of experience in conducting research, preferably in the field of responsible business conduct, business and human rights, supply chains and/or international trade.
• Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing in Malay and English, including the ability to write structured reports.
• Self-motivated and able to work independently with minimal supervision in an outcome-based work culture.
• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office (such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams) 40

TOTAL 100%

1. Financial Proposal

4.5.1 The financial proposal must be a fixed and firm price for the provision of the goods/services stated in the RfP in their entirety.

4.5.2 Include all costs.

Submitted rates and prices are deemed to include all costs, insurances, taxes, fees, expenses, liabilities, obligations, risk, and other things necessary for the performance of the Terms of Reference or Specification of Requirements. IUCN will not accept charges beyond those clearly stated in the Financial Proposal.

IUCN withhold 5% of the professional fee charged as withholding tax payment.

4.5.3 Applicable Goods and Services Taxes

4.5.4 Proposal rates and prices shall be inclusive of Value Added Tax.

4.5.5 Currency of proposed rates and prices

All rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in USD.

Description Quantity Unit Price Total Price

1. Daily subsistence costs (meals and accommodation)

2. Transportation costs

3. Professional fees

TOTAL

1. Additional information not requested by IUCN should not be included in your Proposal and will not be considered in the evaluation.

   1. Your proposal must remain valid and capable of acceptance by IUCN for 90 calendar days following the submission deadline.

   2. Withdrawals and Changes

You may freely withdraw or change your proposal at any time before the submission deadline by written notice to the IUCN Contact. However, to reduce the risk of fraud, no changes or withdrawals will be accepted after the submission deadline.

1. EVALUATION of PROPOSALS

   1. Completeness

      IUCN will first check your proposal for completeness. Incomplete proposals will not be considered further.

   2. Pre-Qualification Criteria

      Only proposals that meet all the pre-qualification criteria will be evaluated.

   3. Technical Evaluation

5.3.1 Scoring Method

Your proposal will be assigned a score from 0 to 10 for each of the technical evaluation criteria, such that ‘0’ is low and ‘10’ is high.

1. Minimum Quality Thresholds

   Proposals that receive a score of ‘0’ for any of the criteria will not be considered further.

   1. Technical Score

   2. Financial Evaluation and Financial Scores

   Your score for each technical evaluation criterion will be multiplied with the respective relative weight (see Section 4.4) and these weighted scores added together to give your proposal’s overall technical score.

The financial evaluation will be based upon the full total price you submit. Your financial proposal will receive a score calculated by dividing the lowest financial proposal that has passed the minimum quality thresholds (see Section 5.3.2) by the total price of your financial proposal.

Thus, for example, if your financial proposal is for a total of CHF 100 and the lowest financial proposal is CHF 80, you will receive a financial score of 80/100 = 80%

1. Total Score

   Your proposal’s total score will be calculated as the weighted sum of your technical score and your financial score.

   The relative weights will be:

   Technical: 70%

   Financial: 30%

   Thus, for example, if your technical score is 83% and your financial score is 77%, you will receive a total score of 83 * 70% + 77 * 30% = 58.1% + 23.1% = 81.2%.

   Subject to the requirements in Sections 4 and 7, IUCN will award the contract to the bidder whose proposal achieves the highest total score.

2. Explanation of procurement procedure

   1. IUCN is using the Open Procedure for this procurement. This means that the contracting opportunity is published on IUCN’s website and open to all interested parties to take part, subject to the conditions in Section 7 below.

   2. You are welcome to ask questions or seek clarification regarding this procurement. Please email the IUCN Contact (see Section 2), taking note of the deadline for submission of questions in Section 3.1.

   3. All proposals must be received by the submission deadline in Section 3.2 above. Late proposals will not be considered. All proposals received by the submission deadline will be evaluated by a team of three or more evaluators in accordance with the evaluation criteria stated in this RfP. No other criteria will be used to evaluate proposals. The contract will be awarded to the bidder whose proposal received the highest Total Score. IUCN does, however, reserve the right to cancel the procurement and not award a contract at all.

   4. IUCN will contact the bidder with the highest-scoring proposal to finalise the contract. We will contact unsuccessful bidders after the contract has been awarded and provide detailed feedback. The timetable in Section 3.1 gives an estimate of when we expect to have completed the contract award, but this date may change depending on how long the evaluation of proposals takes.

3. Conditions for participation in this procurement

   1. To participate in this procurement, you are required to submit a proposal, which fully complies with the instructions in this RfP and the Attachments.

      1. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted a complete and fully compliant proposal.

      2. Any incomplete or incorrectly completed proposal submission may be deemed non-compliant, and as a result you may be unable to proceed further in the procurement process.

      3. IUCN will query any obvious clerical errors in your proposal and may, at IUCN’s sole discretion, allow you to correct these, but only if doing so could not be perceived as giving you an unfair advantage.

   2. In order to participate in this procurement, you must meet the following conditions:

• Free of conflicts of interest
• Registered on the relevant professional or trade register of the country in which you are established (or resident, if self-employed)
• In full compliance with your obligations relating to payment of social security contributions and of all applicable taxes
• Not been convicted of failing to comply with environmental regulatory requirements or other legal requirements relating to sustainability and environmental protection.
• Not bankrupt or being wound up
• Never been guilty of an offence concerning your professional conduct.
• Not involved in fraud, corruption, a criminal organization, money laundering, terrorism, or any other illegal activity.

  1. You must complete and sign the Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2).

  2. If you are participating in this procurement as a member of a joint venture, or are using sub-contractors, submit a separate Declaration of Undertaking for each member of the joint venture and sub-contractor, and be clear in your proposal which parts of the goods/services are provided by each partner or sub-contractor.

  3. Each bidder shall submit only one proposal, either individually or as a partner in a joint venture. In case of joint venture, one company shall not be allowed to participate in two different joint ventures in the same procurement nor shall a company be allowed to submit a proposal both on its behalf and as part of a joint venture for the same procurement. A bidder who submits or participates in more than one proposal (other than as a subcontractor or in cases of alternatives that have been permitted or requested) shall cause all the proposals with the bidder’s participation to be disqualified.

  4. By taking part in this procurement, you accept the conditions set out in this RfP, including the following:

• It is unacceptable to give or offer any gift or consideration to an employee or other representative of IUCN as a reward or inducement in relation to the awarding of a contract. Such action will give IUCN the right to exclude you from this and any future procurements, and to terminate any contract that may have been signed with you.
• Any attempt to obtain information from an employee or other representative of IUCN concerning another bidder will result in disqualification.
• Any price fixing or collusion with other bidders in relation to this procurement shall give IUCN the right to exclude you and any other involved bidder(s) from this and any future procurements and may constitute a criminal offence.

1. Confidentiality and data protection

   1. IUCN follows the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The information you submit to IUCN as part of this procurement will be treated as confidential and shared only as required to evaluate your proposal in line with the procedure explained in this RfP, and for the maintenance of a clear audit trail. For audit purposes, IUCN is required to retain your proposal in its entirety for 10 years after then end of the resulting contract and make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when requested.

   2. In the Declaration of Undertaking (Attachment 2) you need to give IUCN express permission to use the information you submit in this way, including personal data that forms part of your proposal. Where you include personal data of your employees (e.g. CVs) in your proposal, you need to have written permission from those individuals to share this information with IUCN, and for IUCN to use this information as indicated in 8.1. Without these permissions, IUCN will not be able to consider your proposal.

2. Complaints procedure

If you have a complaint or concern regarding the propriety of how a competitive process is or has been executed, then please contact procurement@iucn.org. Such complaints or concerns will be treated as confidential and are not considered in breach of the above restrictions on communication (Section 2.1).

1. Contract

The contract will be based on IUCN’s template in Attachment 3, the terms of which are not negotiable. They may, however, be amended by IUCN to reflect requirements from the donor funding this procurement.

1. About IUCN

IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organizations. It provides public, private, and non-governmental organizations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.

Headquartered in Switzerland, IUCN Secretariat comprises around 1,000 staff with offices in more than 50 countries.

Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,300 Member organizations and some 10,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards.

IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous people’s organizations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development.

Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well-being.

www.iucn.org

https://twitter.com/IUCN/

1. ATTACHMENTS

Attachment 1 Specification of Requirements / Terms of Reference

Terms of Reference for Assessing Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) for a Commercial Company and Farmer Organization (FO)

1. Introduction

IUCN is currently developing a project with expected support from the Danida Green Business Partnerships (DGBP). DGBP promotes commercially oriented partnerships that contribute to market development and promote local economic growth and employment in developing countries. Moreover, the project will contribute towards fulfilling the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The proposed project, Resilient Soybeans for Empowerment in Tanzania (RESET), targets transforming the agrifood systems for higher productivity, better nutrition, market access and improved income and climate resilience for poor rural people. The project envisions achieving this through developing a vibrant deforestation-free soy value chain that will attract more private and commercial investments, promotion of scalable climate smart agriculture solutions, human capital development and inclusive business to boosting employment and agency for smallholder farmers, women, and youth. In turn this is expected drive market system aggregation to reduce inefficiency and costs.

The key commercial partner, TANFEEDS, based in Morogoro, is among the few local processing companies in Tanzania within the soybeans sub-sector. The current local production is not sufficient to meet the processing requirements and thus making the company incur high cost to source from far regions i.e. Ruvuma and sometimes import soy concentrate from abroad. This partnership forms a strategic opportunity to TANFEEDs as they gear up towards increasing sourcing of locally produced sustainable soybeans, reduce transportation costs as well as stability in soybeans availability. It is intended that the company’s collaboration with farmers could develop into an out-grower scheme but more importantly as an effort and process to ensure backward integration to support smallholder farmers produce high quality soybeans and consistent volumes.

1. Project goal

The overall project objective is to develop and implement sustainable, climate-adaptive smallholder farmers practices across soybean value chain, enhancing the resilience of production systems and market access while promoting the commercialization with the private sector and MSMEs to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

This will be achieved through development of a vibrant deforestation-free soy value chain that will attract more investments and promotion of scalable climate smart agriculture solutions, human capital development and inclusive business that boost employment and agency for smallholder farmers, women, and youth. In turn this is expected drive market system aggregation to reduce inefficiency and costs.

1. Background information on Responsible Business Conduct (RBC)

IUCN has done a preliminary assessment of Responsible Business Conduct. The main challenge is limited awareness on wider RBC and perception of it being a burden and not a way of doing business especially at farmer enterprise level. IUCN will lead in supporting partners for integration of RBC in supply chain and contribute to address the most significant environmental and social risks associated with supply chains. RESET project will foster application of RBC and Inclusive Green Growth (IGG) Principles within the partnership to enhance its compliance. Conduct annual supply chain due-diligence on RBC and IGG, these processes will help turn risks into development results, including increased productivity, enhanced benefit-sharing models and better environmental protection.

In addition to an initial plan on Responsible Business Conduct the project will set up a grievance management mechanism through ESMS that lays out transparent mechanism to review, address, and monitor any concerns as they are raised in relation to compliance with responsible business practices at different levels.

Initial assessment indicates the need to tailor RBC from commercial partner level to farmer organization level. Areas of focus include waste management (agricultural waste) and the need to observe proper use of inputs that have a bearing on health and safety of the communities and environment and adherence of labour standards. The project is planning to conduct an in-depth due diligence to enable commercial partner and farmer organization identify, assess, and prioritize how some of these RBC issues can be addressed so that they do not affect project and their activities.

1. Objective of the Assignment

RESET project aims to conduct an assessment among the commercial partner (TANFEEDS) and Farmer Organizations (FO) to identify the current level of knowledge and awareness, current practices related to Responsible Business Conduct. The assessment will also identify the gaps and opportunities wherein the RESET project can provide supportive measures to the partners to comply and align their practices with RBC principles.

1. Scope of Work

Herewith are the details of the specific tasks and activities to be undertaken in this assessment of RBC for TANFEEDS and Farmer Organization.

1. Conduct desk research on the general overview of the target sector.
2. Conduct a preliminary survey of the farmer organizations and TANFEEDS to;

• Assess the level of knowledge and awareness on the framework and trends on Responsible Business Conduct
• Assess existing initiatives or practices on RBC
• Understand the challenges and opportunities to better align their practices with principles as well as implement responsible business conduct

1. Assess opportunities and modalities to conduct awareness and capacity building activities within the enterprises and sectors.
2. Existing good practices conducted by the enterprises in compliance with national laws and demonstrating the alignment with RBC referring to Guidance Note on Responsible Business Conduct[1].
3. Deliverables

• Deliverable 1: An inception report with work plan, desk research organization and proposed methodology.
• Deliverable 2: Complete the preliminary survey and the interviews with TANFEEDS and the Farmer Organization.
• Deliverable 3: Draft report and present it to the IUCN which includes the executive summary, results from the desk review and interviews, recommendations based on challenges and opportunities observed, and documentation of good practices and proposed areas of RBC improvement and capacity building needs and a draft RBC action plan.
• Deliverable 4: Final report.

1. Timeline and Deliverables

It is expected that the Consultant will work and produce final report based on the review of the key elements above within 10 working days after signing the service contract.

1. Payment Schedule

The Timetable below summarizes the chronological order of deliverables and indicates milestones at which IUCN will pay the Consultant.

Deliverable Milestone payment

1. Submission of the Inception Report and signing of the agreement. 40%
2. Draft assessment report and Final Report 60%
3. Submission of Proposals

Interested and qualified consultants should submit a proposal with details on the following:

1. Inception report including proposed methodology and work plan for performing the assignment
2. Financial proposal including fees and any reimbursable expenses
3. Curriculum vitae (CV) of the involved personnel and their role in the assignment
4. Provide an indicative date of availability to commence work if selected

Guidance-Note-on-Responsible-Business-Conduct_FINAL_B.pdf