IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 1 of 8
Request for Proposals (RfP) to develop
and pilot the implementation of a
Conservation Community Leadership
Program in Moheli, Comoros.
Eastern and South African Regional Office, Accelerating ratification and implementation of
BBNJ Treaty in Western Indian Ocean, Costal and Ocean Resilience
Project reference: P04216
RfP Reference: IUCN-2025-07- P04216-1
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
1.1. A detailed description of the services and/or goods to be provided can be found in Attachment
2. CONTACT DETAILS
2.1. During the course of 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: daniel.lekuroito@ext.iucn.org
3. PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE
3.1. 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
23 July 2025 Publication of the Request for Proposals
8 August 2025 Deadline for expressions of interest
15 August 2025 Deadline for submission of questions
22 August 2025 Publication of responses to questions
31 August 2025 Deadline for submission of Proposals to IUCN
10 September 2025 Clarification of Proposals
15 September 2025 Interviews / presentations (if required)
25 September 2025 Planned date for contract award 1 October 2025 Expected contract start date
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 2 of 8
3.2. 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.
4. COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL
4.1. Your Proposal must consist of the following four separate documents:
ï‚· Signed Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2)
ï‚· Pre-Qualification Information (see Section 4.3 below)
ï‚· Technical Proposal (see Section 4.4 below)
ï‚· Financial Proposal (see Section 4.5 below)
Proposals must be prepared in English.
4.2. 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/organisation 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.
4.3. Pre-Qualification Criteria
IUCN will use the following Pre-Qualification Criteria to determine whether you can provide the
required goods and/or services to IUCN. Please provide the necessary information in a single,
separate document.
Pre-Qualification Criteria
1 3 relevant references of clients like IUCN / similar work
2 Confirm that you have all the necessary legal registrations to perform the work
3 State your annual turnover for each of the past 3 years
4 How many employees does your organization have who are qualified for this work?
4.4. Technical Proposal
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
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 3 of 8
specified. The individuals you put forward may only be substituted with IUCN’s approval.
IUCN will evaluate Technical Proposals with regard to each of the following criteria and
their relative importance:
No. Description Information to provide Relative weight %
1. Approach and Methodology 1. Technical understanding of what community conservation leadership entails, and a detailed description of the consultant’s understanding of the assignment context, goals and expected results. (10 pt.)
2. Detailed description of the methodology to be used, target population, and broader understanding of the seascape (20 pt.)
3. Working programme / working schedule for delivery of outputs (10pt.),
4. Staffing schedule and task assignment descriptions aligned with team members expertise/experience, and Quality control of deliverables (10pt.),
Relative weight % – 50
2. Consultants Competencies 1. Education: A master’s degree in marine ecology, environmental sciences, social sciences, or a discipline related to the assignment’s focus. (15 pt.);
2. Work experience: Proven experience in marine resources management including MPAs and LMMAs (15 pt.);
3. Industry knowledge: Familiarity with adult training and education, community engagement and sustainable development (10 pt.).
Relative weight % – 40
3 Track record 1. Quality and relevance of references provided(5pt.);
2. Related work sample (5 pt.).
Relative weight % – 10
4.5. 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. Prices include all costs
Submitted rates and prices are deemed to include all costs, insurances, taxes (except
VAT, see below), 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
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 4 of 8
Financial Proposal. This includes applicable withholding taxes and similar. It is your
responsibility to determine whether such taxes apply to your organisation and to
include them in your Financial Proposal.
4.5.3. Applicable Goods and Services Taxes
Proposal rates and prices shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax.
4.5.4. Currency of proposed rates and prices
All rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in USD.
4.5.5. Breakdown of rates and prices
For information only, the price needs to be broken down as follows:
Description Quantity Unit Price Total Price
1
2
3
4
5
6
TOTAL
4.6. Additional information not requested by IUCN should not be included in your Proposal and will
not be considered in the evaluation.
4.7. Your Proposal must remain valid and capable of acceptance by IUCN for a period of 90
calendar days following the submission deadline.
4.8. Withdrawals and Changes
You may freely withdraw or change your Proposal at any time prior to the submission deadline
by written notice to the IUCN Contact. However, in order to reduce the risk of fraud, no changes
or withdrawals will be accepted after the submission deadline.
5. EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS
5.1. Completeness
IUCN will firstly check your Proposal for completeness. Incomplete Proposals will not be
considered further.
5.2. Pre-Qualification Criteria
Only Proposals that meet all of the pre-qualification criteria will be evaluated.
5.3. 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.
5.3.2. Minimum Quality Thresholds
Proposals that receive a score of ‘0’ for any of the criteria will not be considered further.
5.3.3. Technical Score
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 5 of 8
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.
5.4. Financial Evaluation and Financial Scores
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%
5.5. 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.
6. EXPLANATION OF PROCUREMENT PROCEDURE
6.1. 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.
6.2. 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.
6.3. All Proposals must be received by the submission deadline in Section 3.1 above. Late
Proposals will not be considered. All Proposals received by the submission deadline will be
evaluated by a team of 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.
6.4. 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.
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 6 of 8
7. CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION IN THIS PROCUREMENT
7.1. To participate in this procurement, you are required to submit a Proposal, which fully complies
with the instructions in this RfP and the Attachments.
7.1.1. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted a complete and fully
compliant Proposal.
7.1.2. Any incomplete or incorrectly completed Proposal submission may be deemed noncompliant,
and as a result you may be unable to proceed further in the procurement
process.
7.1.3. 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.
7.2. In order to participate in this procurement, you must meet the following conditions:
ï‚· Free of conflicts of interest
ï‚· Registered on the relevant professional or trade register of the country in which you
are established (or resident, if self-employed)
ï‚· In full compliance with your obligations relating to payment of social security
contributions and of all applicable taxes
ï‚· Not been convicted of failing to comply with environmental regulatory requirements or
other legal requirements relating to sustainability and environmental protection
ï‚· Not bankrupt or being wound up
ï‚· Never been guilty of an offence concerning your professional conduct
ï‚· Not involved in fraud, corruption, a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism,
or any other illegal activity.
7.3. You must complete and sign the Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2).
7.4. If you are participating in this procurement as a member of a joint venture, or are using subcontractors,
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.
7.5. 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.
7.6. By taking part in this procurement, you accept the conditions set out in this Rfp, including the
following:
ï‚· 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.
ï‚· Any attempt to obtain information from an employee or other representative of IUCN
concerning another bidder will result in disqualification.
ï‚· 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.
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8. CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION
8.1. 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.
8.2. 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.
9. 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).
10. 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 particular requirements from
the donor funding this particular procurement.
11. ABOUT IUCN
IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society
organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations 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 organisations
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 peoples organisations 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/
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 8 of 8
12. ATTACHMENTS
Attachment 1 Specification of Requirements / Terms of Reference
Attachment 2 Declaration of Undertaking (select 2a for companies or 2b for self-employed as
applicable to you)
Attachment 3 Contract Template
Terms of Reference for Service
Terms of Reference for Service
Title: Developing Conservation Leadership Program
Activity: 1111.5 Design and pilot Community Conservation Leadership Program in
partnership with relevant training institutes and provide in-situ trainings to coastal
communities
The Objective of the Consultancy is to:
Enhance capacities of coastal communities in the establishment and management of MPA
and LMMA to address climate impacts through a training community conservation leadership
program.
Background
Project Reference: P04216
Donor reference: DR04216.38
About IUCN
IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society
organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the
knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature
conservation to take place together.
Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network,
harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,400 Member organisations
and around 15,000 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 peoples’ organisations 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.
Terms of Reference for Service
www.iucn.org
https://twitter.com/IUCN/
About the Project
Mission Inclusion, in partnership with IUCN and local partners, aims to implement the
“Regenerative Seascapes for People, Climate, and Nature” (ReSea) Program. This ReSea
Program is funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and seeks to strengthen the physical and
socio-economic resilience of populations living in coastal communities against the negative
impacts of climate change in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region. Anchored in the “Great
Blue Wall” (GBW) initiative, the goal is to establish a network of sustainable, resilient, and
inclusive seascapes to reduce the vulnerability to the negative impacts of climate change for
350,000 people, including women, men, and youth living in coastal communities in Kenya,
Tanzania, Mozambique, the Comoros, and Madagascar.
This ambitious 2.5-year Program is based on three fundamental pillars: Blue Planet
(conservation), Blue Nature (with a focus on Nature-based Solutions – NbS), and Blue People
(empowerment of women and youth leadership in the blue economy). These three pillars will
also be supported by a cross-cutting approach around Blue Partnerships, which aims to foster
innovative and unconventional collaborations to address the impacts of climate change,
promote sustainable development, and accelerate the achievement of the Program’s objectives.
For Moheli seascape in Comoros, the Blue Planet pillar aims to enhance capacities of coastal
communities in the establishment and management of MPA and LMMA to address climate
impacts. To reach this specific goal we judge that developing a conservation leadership
program for the coastal communities is necessary. Developing such a program requires a robust
approach and methodology in which drive us to form partnerships and develop collaboration
with an experienced institution and environment organization who has multi-disciplinary
expertise around marine conservation actions and community natural resource-based
management.
Description of the Service
Scope of Work
To ensure that the program is well developed with inclusive way, below are a key steps that
must be followed:
1. Needs Assessment
ï‚· Literature review including WIOMSA report on training need assessment, the
Booklet 1 on Developing a capacity development plan through Participatory Action
Research For facilitators and trainers working with MPAs, the booklet 2 on the
training compendium for MPAs and LMMAs Modules, methods and learning
resources and other relevant documents…
ï‚· Engage with key stakeholders, including LMMA network and the great blue wall
steering committee members to gather input and insights.
Terms of Reference for Service
2. Program Design (Cf Wiomsa report)
o Develop a detailed program structure, including objectives, outcomes, and key
components.
o Design a curriculum that covers leadership skills, environment advocacy, ocean
governance and management education, conflicts management, ecological monitoring
and data analysis, community engagement and gender inclusion, and nature based
solution and sustainable livelihood practices to address climate impact and increase
coastal community resilience …
3. Training Materials Development
o Create non complex training materials, including guidelines, manuals, presentations,
and handouts.
o Develop case studies and examples relevant to the local context to enhance learning.
4. Implementation Plan
o Develop a step-by-step implementation plan, including timelines, milestones, and
resource requirements.
o Propose a strategy for participant recruitment, selection, certification and intronization
5. Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
o Design a monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of the
program.
o Develop indicators to measure the impact of the program on leadership skills,
community engagement, and conservation outcomes.
o Present at a stakeholder meeting for the program validation
6. Capacity Building for Trainers
o Conduct training-of-trainers (ToT) sessions to prepare local trainers to deliver the
program.
o Provide ongoing support and mentorship to trainers to ensure successful program
delivery.
Terms of Reference for Service
Deliverables
Deliverables Deadlines
1.Inception report (context, methodology, work plan, and suggested outline of the final report) 15/10/2025
2. Validation meeting reports including in appendix the following: 15/12/2025
ï‚· Needs Assessment Report
ï‚· Program Design Document
ï‚· Training Materials
ï‚· Implementation Plan
ï‚· Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
3. Training and Workshop Report – 30/03/2026
4. Final Report – 30/04/2026
Payment Schedule
The Timetable below summarises the chronological order of deliverables and indicates
milestones at which IUCN will pay the Consultant.
Deliverable Milestones payments
Inception report with clear description of the context, methodology, work plan, and suggested outline of the final report (15/10/2025) – 20%
Approved Program validation report (15/12/2025) – 30%
Draft training report (30/03/2026) – 30%
Final validated report (10/05/2026) – 20%
Requirements
Essential Requirements for key expert/team leader
ï‚· Education: Postgraduate degree in marine ecology, environmental sciences, social sciences or equivalent
ï‚· Work experience
o 10 years professional experience in marine resources management including
MPA and LMMA management
o Skills in adult education and training
ï‚· Language
o Fluent in French
Non-Essential Requirements including with other experts
The team including other experts should also have:
o Experience in sustainable development and community engagement
 Knowledge in English
Duration and Location
This work is for 60 working days expected to last for 8 months, starting from October 2025 to
May 2026. The Moheli seascape is chosen as pilot zone for this work.
Supervision and coordination
The consultant will report to and work under the supervision of IUCN-ReSea Programme
Coordinator.
How to apply
Step 1: Acquire Tender Documents
Obtain the relevant tender documents.
Step 2: Review Requirements
Thoroughly read the tender specifications, terms, and conditions.
Step 3: Prepare Proposal
Prepare your proposal as guided, ensuring all the required information is included.
Step 4: Submission
Submit your completed proposal by 31 August 2025 via daniel.lekuroito@ext.iucn.org.
NB: The email to be used exclusively for this consultancy is daniel.lekuroito@ext.iucn.org.