Request for Proposals
RFP Number: / NBD-2018-03Issuance Date: / April 23, 2018
Deadline for Offers: / April 30, 2018
Description: / CNFA is seeking consultancy services for agribusiness development and facilitation of finance
For: / New Business Development
Application submission: / To: Michelle Small, Program Development Coordinator,
CC to: Lenoure Recanatini, Director, Program Development,
Section 1:Introduction, Technical Backgroundand Scope of Work
1.1 Introduction:CNFA (Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture) is dedicated to increasing the quality of life of rural households by empowering farmers and rural entrepreneurs worldwide. CNFA brings more than 30 years of experience promoting private-sector and agriculture development programs in Africa, Europe, and Asia, facilitating productive partnerships between smallholders, agribusinesses, financial institutions, investors, and other private-sector, civil society, and government stakeholders. CNFA is seeking consultancyservice for agribusiness development and facilitation of finance and investment between May 2018 and December 2018, with the option to extend the consultancy in January 2019, as mutually agreed.
Interested service providers or independent consultants should respond to this solicitation by submitting a proposal by the due date above in compliance with the Statement of Work and Instructions below.Offerors are responsible for ensuring that their offers are received by CNFA in accordance with the instructions, terms, and conditions described in this RFP. Failure to adhere with instructions described in this RFP may lead to disqualification of an offer from consideration.
1.2: Scope of Work: The selected offerorwill provide consulting services to CNFA for agribusiness development and the facilitation of finance and investment in line with CNFA agricultural development objectives. These services will, for the most part, be utilized in the capacity of new business development. It will entail international travel but also Washington DC-based work. Sometimes working remotely from a home base is acceptable. The selected offeror must be willing to work exclusively for CNFA during the period of performance. In exchange for exclusivity for CNFA during the contract period, the selected offerorwill be guaranteed a minimum number of paid days per year (TBD and mutually agreed upon between the parties).
1.3: Period of Performance: May 2018 through December 2018, with an option to renew the agreement in January 2019, as mutually agreed upon by both parties.
1.4: Anticipated Scope of Work: Illustrative tasks may include:
- Provide advisory services to CNFA including, but not limited to, agribusiness development and facilitation of finance and investment
- Participate in capture trips for upcoming new business opportunities
- Identify and set up meetings with private sector firms, consultants, government, and other key stakeholders for upcoming proposals
- Work with proposal teams to contribute to proposal design and provide inputs to the CNFA and pre-solicitation proposal development documents as requested
- Other assignments to be determined as mutually agreed.
Section 2: Instructions to Offerors
2.1Offer Deadline and Protocol:
Offers must be received no later than 5:00pmEST on April 30, 2018. Offers must be submitted by email to Michelle Small at , with a copy to Lenoure Recanatini at .
Each Offeror must submit a complete proposal including official quotation and responses to evaluation criteria. The email submission must be clearly marked with the following reference: RFP No: NBD-2018-03 Offeror Name.
The complete Proposal in MS Word or Adobe Acrobat PDF format must be submitted by email by the submission date indicated above. The Proposal should include the following:
oA cover letter with Offeror’s name, address, and telephone number along with the date and RFP number on the cover page of the application, signed by an authorized representative of the Offeror.
oA complete response to the Evaluation Criteria below in up to seven pages, exclusive of cover page. Proposal responses should be organized in the order of the Evaluation Criteria. Guidance is provided on page limitations within each evaluation criterion; it is up to Offerors to determine page allocations within these parameters.
oA list of the Offeror’s bill rates for foreseeable consultant categories plus any administrative or other fees the Offeror would charge.
oAnnex A: A copy of the Offeror’s business license, if applicable.
oAnnex B: Two references from organizations for which the Offeror has successfully performed similar work (not CNFA).
oAnnex C: Notification of potential real or perceived conflicts of interest.
Proposals must be written in English and typed on standard US Letter Size paper, single-spaced, 12-point font with each page numbered consecutively. The reasonable use of tables and graphs 10-point font of similar style to Times New Roman is permitted.
Include Offeror name, date, RFP number and title, and page numbers in the header and footer.
Please reference the RFP number in any response to this RFP.Offers received after the specified time and date will be considered late and will be considered only at the discretion of CNFA. The cover page of this solicitation summarizes the important dates of the solicitation process. Offerors must strictly follow the provided deadlines to be considered for award.
2.2 Evaluation and Award: The award will be made to a responsible offeror whose offer follows the RFP instructions, meets the eligibility requirements, andis determined via a trade-off analysis to be the best value based on application of the below evaluation criteria. Best value determination will consider both technical and financial proposals, i.e., the best approach and anticipated results in combination with a reasonable cost. Proposed costs must reflect and clearly match the degree of sophistication of the technical approach. The relative importance of each individual criterion is indicated by the number of points below:
Criteria and Instructions (total of five pages) / Scoring- Demonstrated capacity and successful past performance supporting agribusiness development and finance facilitation
Within the Technical proposal, Offerors are required to provide a list of consultancies for which the Offeror has provided agribusiness development, facilitation of finance and investment, and proposal and business development services during the past two years. Please note it is not necessary to provide the name of the proposal that the Offeror supported. For each consultancy:
- Provide the period of performance;
- Describe the services provided, including the number and types of consultants assigned to each work order; and
- Describe whether the support was provided remotely or in the office.
In Annex B, Offerors must include two references from clients for which they provided services of similar size and scope during the past year. Please include the name, title, and contact information of the point of contact. Please also briefly describe the scope of work of the services provided. / 10
- Quality of proposed consultants (up to 3 pages)
- Experience working on agribusiness finance and investment facilitation; private sector development and alliance building; organizational capacity development, agribusiness, enterprise, and value chain development;
- Experience in proposal development, particularly for USAID funding mechanisms;
- Educational attainment;
- Language skills;
- Realistic and competitive fee (up to 2 pages)
Total Points Possible / 30
Best-offer proposals are requested. It is anticipated that award will be made solely on the basis of these original proposals. However, CNFA reserves the right to conduct any of the following:
- CNFA may conduct negotiations with and/or request clarifications from any offeror prior to award;
- While preference will be given to offerors who can address the full technical requirements of this RFP, CNFA may issue a partial award or split the award among various suppliers, if in the best interest of CNFA;
- CNFA may cancel this RFP at any time.
CNFA anticipates awarding either a service agreement or consultant agreement to the successful offeror.
2.4 Cost Proposal: Pricing must be presented in US Dollar. Offers must remain valid for not less than sixty(60) calendar days after the offer deadline. Offerors are requested to provide offers on official letterhead in accordance with the format provided in Annex 3.
Annex 1 – Offer Checklist and Submission Instructions
To assist offerors in preparation of proposals, the following checklist summarizes the documentation to include an offer in response to this RFP:
□ Cover letter on company letterhead, signed by an authorized representative of the offeror (see Annex 2 for template)
□ Technical Proposal
□ Cost Proposal (See Annex 3 for template)
□ Copy of offeror’s registration or business license, or, for individuals, a copy of his/her identification card
□ Annex B: Two contacts for references from organizations/individuals for which the offeror has successfully performed similar work
□Annex C: Notification of potential real or perceived conflicts of interest (see Annex 4)
Annex 2 – Offeror Cover Letter
The following cover letter must be placed on letterhead and completed/signed/stamped by a representative authorized to sign on behalf of the offeror:
To:CNFA, New Business Development
1828 L St, Suite 710
Washington, DC 20036
Reference: RFP no. NBD-2018-03
To Whom It May Concern:
We, the undersigned, hereby provide the attached offer to perform all work required to complete the activities and requirements as described in the above-referenced RFP. Please find our offer attached.
We hereby acknowledge and agree to all terms, conditions, special provisions, and instructions included in the above-referenced RFP. We further certify that the below-named firm—as well as the firm’s principal officers and all commodities and services offered in response to this RFP—are eligible to participate in this procurement under the terms of this solicitation.
Furthermore, we hereby certify that, to the best of our knowledge and belief:
- We have no close, familial, or financial relationships with any CNFA or staff members;
- We have no close, familial, or financial relationships with any other offerors submitting proposals in response to the above-referenced RFP; and
- The prices in our offer have been arrived at independently, without any consultation, communication, or agreement with any other offeror or competitor for the purpose of restricting competition.
- All information in our proposal and all supporting documentation is authentic and accurate.
- We understand and agree to CNFA’s prohibitions against fraud, bribery, and kickbacks.
- We understand and agree to CNFA’s prohibitions against funding or associating with individuals or organizations engaged in terrorism or trafficking in persons activities.
We hereby certify that the enclosed representations, certifications, and other statements are accurate, current, and complete.
Authorized Signature:______/ Name & Title ofSignatory:______
Date:______/ Company Name:______
Company Address:______
______/ Telephone:______
Website:______
Company Registration or Taxpayer ID Number:______/ Does the company have an active bank account? (Y/N):______
Official name associated with the bank account (for payment): ______
Annex 3– Cost Proposal
The table below contains the technical requirements of the commodities/services. Offerors are requested to provide quotations containing the information below on official letterhead or official quotation format. In the event this is not possible, offerors may complete this Section 3 and submit a signed/stamped version to CNFA.
Cost Item / Unit / Quantity / Unit Price(BDT) / Total Price
(BDT) / Notes
- Personnel/labor
- Equipment
- Materials and supplies
- Transportation
- Communications
- Services
7. Other Direct Costs
TOTAL BUDGET
Annex 4 – Conflict of Interest Template
Conflict of Interest Certification Form
1. Overview
CNFA business shall be conducted in a manner above reproach with complete impartiality and preference for none. All procurement actions relating to the expenditure of funds requires the highest degree of public trust and standards of conduct. CNFA’s policy is to avoid any situations in which its employees’ personal interests may conflict with CNFA’s or give the appearance of impropriety.
Conflicts of Interest can be:
- A situation, relationship, or interest where the incentive, actual or potential, direct or indirect, financial or otherwise, to act or behave contrary to the interest and objectives of CNFA exists; or
- The ability of the employee to fulfill their obligation to support CNFA is compromised by that employee’s relationship to or interest in another organization or person:
- Whose interests or objectives are contrary to those of CNFA or are in competition with CNFA; or
- Who have a financial relationship, current or potential, with CNFA.
An Appearance of Impropriety is created when a situation, relationship, involvement or level of interest exists or appears to exist which, to an objective observer, can reasonably create the impression of a conflict of interest.
2. Certification
As an Offeror to the Monetization for the FY 2018 Food for Progress Notice of Funding Opportunity Request for Proposal, procurement number USDA-FFPr-2018-01, I hereby certify that I have no conflicts of interest or appearances of impropriety with any of the representatives of CNFA. Should this status change, I agree to disclose any situation which creates a conflict of interest or appearance of impropriety to CNFAin order to discuss the impact on this procurement and possible resolutions.
______
Printed NameTitle
______
SignatureDate
Annex 5 – CNFA Terms and Conditions
5.1 Ethical and Business Conduct Requirements: CNFA is committed to integrity in procurement, and only selects suppliers based on objective business criteria such as price and technical merit.
CNFA does not tolerate fraud, collusion among offerors, falsified proposals/bids, bribery, or kickbacks. Any firm or individual violating these standards will be disqualified from this procurement, barred from future procurement opportunities, and may be reported to the Office of the Inspector General.
Employees and agents of CNFA are strictly prohibited from asking for or accepting any money, fee, commission, credit, gift, gratuity, object of value or compensation from current or potential vendors or suppliers in exchange for or as a reward for business. Employees and agents engaging in this conduct are subject to termination and will be reported to the Office of the Inspector General. In addition, CNFA will inform the Office of the Inspector General of any supplier offers of money, fee, commission, credit, gift, gratuity, object of value or compensation to obtain business.
Offerors responding to this RFP must include the following as part of the proposal submission:
- Disclose any close, familial, or financial relationships with CNFA or project staff. For example, if an offeror’s cousin is employed by the project, the offeror must state this.
- Disclose any family or financial relationship with other offerors submitting proposals. For example, if the offeror’s father owns a company that is submitting another proposal, the offeror must state this.
- Certify that the prices in the offer have been arrived at independently, without any consultation, communication, or agreement with any other offeror or competitor for the purpose of restricting competition.
- Certify that all information in the proposal and all supporting documentation are authentic and accurate.
- Certify understanding and agreement to CNFA’s prohibitions against fraud, bribery and kickbacks.
Please contact Michelle Small, , with any questions or concerns regarding the above information or to report any potential violations. Potential violations may also be reported directly to CNFA at to .
5.2 Terms and Conditions: This solicitation is subject to CNFA’s standard terms and conditions. Any resultant award will be governed by these terms and conditions; a copy of the full terms and conditions is available upon request. Please note the following terms and conditions will apply:
(a)CNFA’s standard payment terms are net 30 days after receipt and acceptance of any commodities or deliverables. Payment will only be issued to the entity submitting the offer in response to this RFP and identified in the resulting award; payment will not be issued to a third party.
(b)No commodities or services may be supplied that are manufactured or assembled in, shipped from, transported through, or otherwise involving any of the following countries: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria.
(c)Any international air or ocean transportation or shipping carried out under any award resulting from this RFP must take place on U.S.-flag carriers/vessels.
(d)United States law prohibits transactions with, and the provision of resources and support to, individuals and organizations associated with terrorism. The supplier under any award resulting from this RFP must ensure compliance with these laws.
(e)United States law prohibits engaging in any activities related to Trafficking in Persons. The supplier under any award resulting from this RFP must ensure compliance with these laws.
(f)The title to any goods supplied under any award resulting from this RFP shall pass to CNFA following delivery and acceptance of the goods by CNFA. Risk of loss, injury, or destruction of the goods shall be borne by the offeror until title passes to CNFA.
5.3 Disclaimers: This is a Request for Proposals only. Issuance of this RFP does not in any way obligate CNFAto make an award or pay for costs incurred by potential offerors in the preparation and submission of an offer. In addition:
(a)CNFA may cancel RFP and not award;
(b)CNFA may reject any or all responses received;
(c)Issuance of RFP does not constitute award commitment by CNFA;