Consultancy Services to Conduct a Regulatory Impact Assessment on Forest Conservation and Management (Charcoal) Draft Regulations.

Request for Proposals (RfP) Consultancy Services to Conduct a Regulatory Impact Assessment on Forest Conservation and Management (Charcoal) Draft Regulations.IUCN ESARO Kenya Country Office, BIODEV2030 Phase 2 RfP Reference: IUCN-26-02- PA04570-1.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. REQUIREMENTS1.1. A detailed description of the services and/or goods to be provided can be found in Attachment 1.2. CONTACT DETAILS2.1. 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: [email protected]. PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE3.1. 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 - ACTIVITY06th February 2026- Publication of the Request for Proposals11th February 2026- Deadline for expressions of interest16th February 2026- Deadline for submission of questions18th February 2026- Planned publication of responses to questions22nd February 2026- Deadline for submission of Proposals to IUCN (“Submission Deadline”)3rd March 2026- Clarification of Proposals10th March 2026- Planned date for contract award16th March 2026 - Expected contract start date3.2. 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 PROPOSAL4.1. 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.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 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 CriteriaIUCN will use the following Pre-Qualification Criteria to determine whether you have the capacity to provide the required goods and/or services to IUCN. Please provide the necessary information in a single, separate document. Pre-Qualification Criteria1 3 relevant references of clients similar to IUCN / similar work2 Confirm that you have all the necessary legal registrations to perform the work3 State your annual turnover for each of the past 3 years4 How many employees does your organisation have who are qualified for this work?4.4. Technical ProposalThe 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 actually 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:S/N - Description Information to provide - Relative weight1 Methodology and work plan• Clarity on the completeness of the tender. (10%)• Clarity on the proposed approach, method and workplan. (15%)2 Qualifications and expertise of proposed consultants: [If applicable add separate sub-criteria of specialisms required]• At least ten (10) years of experience in designing and undertaking Regulatory Impact Assessments, baseline studies, and related data collection, collation, analysis, and evaluation assignments within Kenya or in comparable country contexts, particularly in natural resource, energy, or forestry-related sectors. (15%)• Strong understanding of Forestry conservation challenges in Kenya. (10%)• Proven track record of stakeholder engagement, coordination, and collaboration with multi-disciplinary technical and leadership teams across government institutions, county governments, private sector actors, civil society, and community groups involved in the forestry and charcoal value chain in Kenya (15%)3 Experts/Subject matter experts• Post-graduate degree in Forestry, Environmental Law, Climate Change Policy, Natural Resources Management, Environmental Studies, and/or other related subjects. (5%)• Certification in environmental impact assessments will be an advantage. (5%)• Strong analytical and writing skills, with proven ability to prepare high-quality RIA reports, policy briefs, and technical documents, and to communicate findings effectively to diverse audiences, including policymakers, technical experts, and community stakeholders. (10%)• Knowledge of and experience with Kenya’s policy, legal, and institutional frameworks relevant to forestry, charcoal production and trade, energy, environment, climate change, land use, and natural resource governance, including familiarity with the Statutory Instruments Act, 2013 and regulatory best practices. (10%)• Excellent communication and presentation skills. Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and Swahili. (5%) Total - 100%4.5. Financial Proposal4.5.1. 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 costsSubmitted 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 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 TaxesProposal rates and prices shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax.4.5.4. Currency of proposed rates and pricesAll rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in [EUR].4.5.5. Breakdown of rates and pricesFor information only, the price needs to be broken down as follows:Description - Quantity (days) - Unit Price - Total Price1 Consultant daily fee2 Logistic feeTOTAL4.6. 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 ChangesYou 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. CompletenessIUCN will firstly check your Proposal for completeness. Incomplete Proposals will not be considered further. 5.2. Pre-Qualification CriteriaOnly Proposals that meet all of the pre-qualification criteria will be evaluated.5.3. Technical Evaluation 5.3.1. Scoring MethodYour 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 ThresholdsProposals that receive a score of ‘0’ for any of the criteria will not be considered further.5.3.3. Technical ScoreYour 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 score5.4. Financial Evaluation and Financial ScoresThe 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 ScoreYour 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 PROCEDURE6.1. 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 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.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.7. CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION IN THIS PROCUREMENT7.1. 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: 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 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: 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.8. CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION8.1. 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 …