Hiring Consultant Who Will Support The Launch Of A Digital Solution Tailored For Young Entrepreneurs In Rural Areas Through A Digital Landscape Assessment And Inform The Digital Product And The Program Design
Catholic Relief Services
United States Catholic Conference Of Bishops
Tender For Hiring Consultant
Tender Reference Number: CRS-Rwanda 011-FY23-TN/2023
Procurement Method: NATIONAL OPEN COMPETITIVE BIDDING
Date of Issue: February 9th, 2023
Date of Submission: February 24th, 2023
National Open Competitive Bidding
Consultant Services
No CRS-Rwanda 011-FY23-TN/2023
Call for tender for hiring consultant who will support the launch of a digital solution tailored for young entrepreneurs in rural areas through a digital landscape assessment and inform the digital product and the program design.
1. BACKGROUND
I.1. About Crs
Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work are accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), health, agriculture, education, microfinance, and peacebuilding.
I.2. Crs In Rwanda
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has worked in Rwanda since 1960 and works to strengthen vulnerable households with programming that includes agriculture and food security, health and nutrition, economic strengthening, and youth empowerment. More specifically, CRS’ current portfolio in the country includes a large USAID (United States Agency for International Development) funded nutrition and early childhood development project, USAID funded agriculture project, privately funded youth empowerment projects, and church support initiatives. CRS in Rwanda is in an exciting phase of consolidating its recent rapid increase in program size to ensure high quality programming over the years to come. The Country Program has over 83 staff and implements its projects, through local and international partners, with strong coordination/collaboration with Government of Rwanda structures.
Project Description
II.1. CONTEXT
As part of CRS’ longstanding strategy to invest in the potential of young Rwandan men and women, CRS has launched Youth for Youth, or Y4Y, a three year project aimed at improving the lives and livelihoods of young adults in Rwanda by strengthening youth digital entrepreneurship and the enabling environment around youth entrepreneurship. Y4Y’s project strategy aims to provide hybrid solutions in the form of digital and in person support to help solve some of the most pressing problems faced by youth entrepreneurs in rural Rwanda. Also, the project aims to strengthen the enabling environment around youth entrepreneurs so they can become more digitally literate and benefit fully from accessible and relevant business development and financial services.
II.2. Objectives
The aim of this consultancy is to support the launch of a digital solution tailored for young entrepreneurs in rural areas through a digital landscape assessment, which will then inform the digital product and the program design. The final product will support the final design of the existing digital solution through mapping and showing opportunities to leverage technology in the delivery and management of the Youth for Youth, as well as the enabling partners and stakeholders. The consultancy aims at ensuring that the final product responds as closely as possible to the needs of rural youth entrepreneurs and takes into account any barriers in the uptake of the digital solution being provided by the project.
The selected consultant will map digital services (providers, usage, and adoption), digital economy and government digital initiatives (infrastructure, govTech, Gov Digital Strategy), and barriers to uptake of digital services specifically in rural Rwanda and will evaluate Youth for Youth program participants’ levels of digital connectivity and usage across the potential target areas and populations. This will range from access to basic digital infrastructure, to digital literacy, to smart phone penetration and access to digital financial and government services.
II.3. Assignment Activities
This consultant will lead a digital landscape assessment study to:
• Assess digital literacy, connectivity, and digital usage and related barriers across potential target populations (rural youth entrepreneurs) to inform the program and the digital solution design and find opportunities to leverage technology.
• Map the key enablers from both government and non-government digital environment with the challenges and potential risks for the digital solution in response to the youth entrepreneurs' challenges in rural areas in Rwanda.
II.4. Deliverables
Upon completion of the digital landscape assessment study, the consultant will deliver a report that include:
• Evaluation report on the digital literacy, digital economy, and digital infrastructure readiness of our target areas (current and future) and populations to inform our Digital Product designs.
• Comprehensive national (gov) regulatory review (including upcoming regulations that are already known) in the digital field to identify levers CRS can rely on for its Digital solution for the Youth 4 Youth program.
• A Summary of digital opportunities in line with the Youth for Youth Strategy and any other potential challenges and relevant analysis and recommendations to inform the digital product design and delivery and the program planning.
Ii.5. Timeline
The anticipated length of this consultancy is 30 days (about 20-22 working days) plus seven additional calendar days for the submission of the first draft. The consultant is welcome to suggest a timeline. A final timeline will be developed in consultation with Catholic Relief Services at the beginning of the consultancy to set up deadlines for submission of the deliverables.
Ii.6. Required Expertise And Skills
• Degree in Information Technology / Systems Management / System Design or similar field
• Practical and proven experience in some of the following: Technology Management, Project / Product or Program Management, Business Analysis, Research & Evaluation, Strategy & Systems Analysis, etc. within the context of non-profit in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Proven understanding of ICT for Development, Technology 4 Development or Technology solutions in non-profit especially in last-mile settings
• Prior experience in conducting feasibility studies on digital solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Good understanding of the Digital landscape and ecosystem in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Excellent skills in (User Center and Product) Design, Research and Analysis Methods
• Excellent skills in report writing and results presentation
Ii.7. Work Details & Relationship
The hired consultant will work closely with the CRS Rwanda Head of Programming, The CRS Rwanda Y4Y project team, The CRS Regional ICT4D (Information and Communication Technology for Development) Advisor, as well as Partners (both Government and non-Government).
The consultant will report to Youth Program Manager and will be supported in this mission by the ICT4D Advisor and the CRS Rwanda Country Program Team.
This assignment will be caried in-country (Rwanda) and requires considerable travel time within Rwanda to meet the target participants of the program together with our Technology provider partner company and our colleagues from CRS Rwanda. CRS will supply necessary logistical support for the field trips and visits necessary for the successful completion of the study.
• Evaluation Criteria and Methodology
The consultant will be selected using the quality and cost-based selection and the evaluation will be conducted against the following criteria:
III.1. Technical evaluation
• Relevant Experience in similar work or a link to similar deliverables`40-50 points
• Quality of the proposed tools and methodology 20-30 points
• Qualifications of the consultant 10-20 points
N.B
– The minimum technical score for the consultant to pass the technical stage is 70%.
III.2. Financial evaluation
The financial score for each consultant will be calculated using the following formula: the financial weight is 30%.
Financial score (FS) = (LF x 100)/ Fi
LF = The lowest financial proposal.
Fi = The proposal to be evaluated.
The winning consultant will be determined by combining the technical score and financial score as per the following formula. The winning consultant will be the one who will have the highest combined score.
Final score (S): (TS x Tw%) + (FSxFw%) where:
S= Final score
TS = Technical score
FS = Financial score
Tw = % Weight of technical score (70%)
Fw = % Weight of financial score (30%)
N.B.
• If consultants obtain the same combined score, the contract shall be awarded to
consultant whose technical score is the highest.
III.4. Validity of Quotations
The quotation should be valid for the period of 90days
Submission Procedure
Qualified Consultants are requested to send their applications to
rwandaprocurement@crs.org
with the subject line CRS Rwanda-Digital Landscape Analysis not later than 23rd February 2023 at 11:59 pm CAT (GMT +2).
Applications should include:
• A cover letter including your (hourly/daily) fees and other foreseen expenses
• The prices should include all required taxes
• Any other related document
• A copy of registration certificate issued by RDB
• The consultant should provide a VC or Resume indicating Education/professional qualifications, relevant experience, contact details and 2 recent professional references and
• Technical proposal with details of tools and methodologies OR proof of similar and/or related work or experience (a link to a similar deliverable, or a part of 2 to 4 pages max of previous work in PDF).
Done at Kigali, February 9th, 2023
Chandra Kumud
Acting Country Representative
Attachment
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