REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Project: Integration and Stabilization Support through Livelihoods

for IDPs and Conflict-affected Population in Ukraine

Provision of Trainings on Starting or Developing

Self-Employment or Micro-Enterprise to IOM Beneficiaries

Ref. No. UA-2016-487

Prepared by

IOM Ukraine

8 Mykhailivska Street, 01001 Kyiv, Ukraine

19October 2016

Request for Proposals from NGOs

UA-2016-487

Mission: Ukraine

The International Organization for Migration (hereinafter called IOM) intends to engage qualified non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to submit expression of interest as Implementing Partners for the project aimed at professional development, self-employment and micro-entrepreneurship among population affected by the conflict in the East of Ukraine and Crimea.

The project will be implemented given the availability of funding.

IOM now invites NGOs from Chernigiv, Lutsk, Uzhgorod, and Rivne regions to submit Project and Budget Proposal on self-employment among IDPs and local population, as well as post training follow up of such people in the process of business start-up, or business development.

Terms of reference include specific information on trainings and support of project beneficiaries. Budget should be submitted in GB Pounds. Current exchange rate can be found via following the link:

The Implementing Partners will be selected under the Quality/Cost-Based Selection procedures described in this RFP.

The RFP includes the following documents:

a. Invitation to Bid

b.Instruction to Proponents

c.Annex 1 – Terms of Reference

d.Annex 2 – Vendor Information Sheet

e. Annex 3 – Project Implementation Agreement

f.Annex 4 – Technical Proposal Template

g.Annex 5 – Budget Proposal Template

The Proposals must be delivered by hand or through mail on or before 12:00 on November 7, 2016, to the following address:

International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Mission in Ukraine

Procurement Office

8 Mykhailivska St.

Kyiv

01001

Be sure to send additionally a complete electronic version of the application (MS Word and MS Excel, e-mail size should not exceed 7 MB) to the address: .

Applications submitted after the deadline shall not be accepted.

Please, indicate clearly in the subject line of an e-mail and on the envelope with the project proposal the tender number UA1-2016 –487Professional Orientation, Development of Self-employment

Inquiries by e-mail: .

The subject of an email for inquiry should contain the following: UA1-2016 – 487-question on request for proposals to the attention of Iuliia Zavertana.

The selection process of the project implementing partners will be carried out during the period defined after confirmation of funding, and may include a personal meeting with the staff of the organization in the IOM mission.

IOM reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal and to annul the selection process and reject all Proposals at any time prior to agreement award, without thereby incurring any liability to affected selection participants and Implementing Partners.

Instructions to Proponents

This Request for Proposal and the corresponding contract that will be signed as a result of this exercise shall be governed by this Instruction to Proponents (hereinafter referred to as the “Instruction”) and its Annexes.

1. Content of the Bidding Documents

1.1The following documents shall comprise the Official Request for Proposal documents (hereinafter referred to as the “Documents”:

a.Invitation to Bid

b.Instruction to Proponents

c.Annex 1 –Terms of Reference

d.Annex 2 – Vendor Information Sheet

e. Annex 3 – Project Implementation Agreement

f.Annex 4 – Technical Proposal Template

g.Annex 5 – Budget Proposal Template

1.2Proponents are expected to fully read and examine the contents of all the Documents and must fully comply with all the requirements set forth in it. IOM reserves the right to reject any and or all bids that do not comply with any provision in the Document.

2. Scope & General Conditions of the Proposal

2.1 IOM is inviting interested and qualified parties to submit proposals to Provide Trainings on Self-Employment or Micro-Enterprise Development to IOM Beneficiaries, hereinafter referred to as the “Activities”.

2.2The selected proponent, hereinafter referred to as the “Implementing Partner” shall perform the Activities according to the Terms of Reference (Annex 1) of this Document. The engagement between IOM and the Implementing Partner shall be covered with a Project Implementation Agreementusing the Project Implementation Agreementtemplate (Annex 3).

2.3Proponents must ensure that they fully understand the terms and conditions set forth in Annexes 1 and3 and agree to accept them in case they will be selected to provide the Activities.

2.4IOM is not bound to accept any proposal and reserves the right to forego the selection process at any time prior to signing of the agreement, without incurring any liability to the proponent(s).

2.5In case the proponent has an existing agreement with IOM, the proponents shall not be asked to sign anagreement that would be in conflict with their prior or current obligations to other IOMprojects or that may place them in a position of not being able to carry out the responsibilities in the best interest of the IOM.

3. Eligible Proponents

3.1Proponents should be non-governmental organizations(NGO) registered with the appropriate government agencies. Proponents must submit copies of their government registration documents.

3.2As a minimum requirement, the proponents should have majority of their key professional staff have at least five years of relevant experience preferably gained in the location where the proponent intends to serve as IOM’s implementing partner. Preference will be given to proponents whose key professional staff are on permanent employment contracts or at least have a stable working relationship with the proponent.

3.3Proponents shallsubmit the following documents to prove that they meet the minimum qualification as an organization and must submit proof that they have staff with the necessary credentials to be deployed in the project in case they are selected:

  1. Vendor Information Sheet (Annex 2) – fully filled out, signed by authorized representative and stamped with the organization’s official stamp
  2. List of similar projects implemented or currently implementing. List should include the following information: client company/organization, title of the project, value of the project, implementation period, name/mobile number/email address of the contract person with the client company/organization
  3. Curriculum Vitae of staff who could potentially be deployed with the project
  4. Proponents shall not be involved in terrorist act/criminal activities or associated with individuals and/or entities associated with terrorist act/criminal activities. For this purpose, proponents shall not be included in the proscribed list of individuals and/or entities as contained in the 1267 Committee of the UN Security Council Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC).
  5. The documentary evidence of the proponent’s eligibility to bid shall establish to IOM’s satisfaction. IOM reserves the right to ask the proponents to submit additional documents to enable IOM to fully evaluate the eligibility of the proponents.

4. Corrupt, Fraudulent, Collusive and Coercive Practices

4.1IOM requires that all IOM staff, proponents, manufacturers, suppliers or distributors, observe the highest standard of ethics during procurement and execution of all agreements. IOM shall reject any proposals put forward by proponents or where applicable terminate their agreement, if it is determined that they have engaged in corrupt, fraudulent, collusive or coercive practices. In pursuance of this document, IOM defines, for the purposes of this provision, the terms set forth below as follows:

  1. “corrupt practice” means the offering, giving, receiving or soliciting directly or indirectly any thing of value to influence the action of the Procuring/Contracting Entity in the procurement process or in agreement execution;
  2. “fraudulent practice” is any acts or omission, including a misrepresentation, that knowingly or recklessly misleads, or attempts to mislead, the Procuring/Contracting Entity in the procurement process or the execution of anagreement, to obtain a financial gain or other benefit to avoid an obligation;
  3. “collusive practice” is an undisclosed arrangement between two or more Proponents designed to artificially alter the results of the tender procedure to obtain a financial gain or benefit;
  4. “coercive practice” is impairing or harming, or threatening to impair or harm, directly or indirectly, any participant in the tender process to influence improperly its activities in a procurement process, or after the execution of anagreement.
  5. IOM will reject a proposal for award if it determines that the Proponent recommended for award has engaged in corrupt, fraudulent, collusive or coercive practices in competing for the agreement in question.

5. Conflict of Interest

5.1 IOM requires that all its contracts and agreements shall be devoid of any form of conflict of interests. IOM staff are required to disclose their affiliation with any proponent before the evaluation of the proposals is conducted. Similarly, all proponents shall disclose any affiliation they or any of their staff may have with anyone working with IOM especially those who are affiliated with either the requesting program or the Procurement Unit of the mission. Failure on the part of the proponent to do such disclosure shall be construed as a violation to the ethical standards required from proponents for this Request for Proposal.

5.2 All proponents found to have conflict of interests shall be disqualified to participate in this Request for Proposal. Aside from the definition in 5.1 above, the following are considered form of conflict of interests:

  1. If any director, member(s) of the board or any other key personnel of aproponent is/are also connected in any capacity, with another proponent;
  2. If a proponent has direct access to information within IOM, whether through an IOM staff or any other source, that gives the proponent undue advantage over the other proponents;
  3. If a proponent has connection with key IOM staff who has significant influence on the outcome of the evaluation of the proposals in response to this Call for Proposal;
  4. If a proponent submits more than one proposal; and
  5. If a proponent who participated in the preparation of the terms of reference of this Request for Proposal submits their own proposal.

6. Clarification Pertaining to the Request for Proposal Documents

6.1 All clarification regarding any provision/item in the Request for Proposal document should be sent in writing through attention:Iuliia Zavertana, at least 3 working days before the deadline of submission of the proposal. The subject of such email shall be “Clarification Request for UA-2016-487”. IOM will respond in writing to requests for clarification received not later than 3 days before the deadline of the submission to proposals. IOM shall circulate to all proponents, the questions/clarification request and its answers.

7. Amendment of the Request for Proposal Documents

7.1At any time prior to the deadline for submission of proposals, IOM, for any reason, whether at its own initiative or in response to a clarification requested by a prospective proponent, may modify thisrequest for proposal documents by issuing amendment(s).

7.2All prospective proponents who received the initial Request for Proposal documents will be notified of the amendment in writing and will be binding on them.

7.3In order to allow prospective proponents reasonable time in which to take the amendment into account in preparing their proposals, IOM, at its discretion, may extend the deadline for the submission of proposals.

8. Cost of the Preparation of Proposals

8.1Proponents shall bear all costs associated with the preparation and submission of their proposals. IOM shall not bear any responsibility and shall not be held liability for any cost the proponents may incur while preparing their proposals, regardless of the final outcome of the bidding process.

9.Official Language of the Call for Proposal Process

9.1English and Ukrainian shall be the official languages for this Request for Proposal process. All Request for Proposal documents, proposals and correspondence shall be in English and/or Ukrainian.

9.2The agreement that will be signed between the implementing partner and IOM as a result of this Request for Proposal shall be in English and Ukrainian. All implementing partner reports shall be in English and/or Ukrainian.

10.Technical and Financial Proposal Presentationand Official Currency

10.1Proponents must submit both technical proposal and the corresponding financial proposals. Proponents shall use the official technical proposal template (Annex 5) when preparing their technical proposaland the official budget proposal template (Annex 6) when preparing the corresponding budget proposal. The technical proposal should not include financial information.

10.2The proponent shall fill out all the required information in the proposal template. Specifically, proponents are required to submit the following information about their organization:

  1. NGO Registration Date
  2. NGO Scope
  3. Number of Members
  4. Number of Employees (positions)
  5. Number of Invited Professional Staff (positions), including volunteers, trainers, etc.
  6. NGO Staff Schedule: indicate governing and controlling bodies of the organization and their staff (including the board)
  7. Number of Projects the NGO is currently implementing (specify the project, project donor and budget)
  8. NGO Budget (at least for 2015 and 2016)
  9. NGO Donors
  10. NGO Monitoring and Evaluation System
  11. NGO Current System of Financial Control and Authorized Signatories Matrix
  12. NGO Current Reporting System
  13. Resume of the Key Staff (Form PPF-3)

10.3When preparing the budget proposal, proponents shall consider and observe the following:

  1. Take into account the requirements and conditions outlined in this Request for Proposal. The Proposed budget of the project shall follow the Standard Form of the Project Proposal Budget (Form BPF-2).
  2. The budget shall be presented per one training and should include all NGO costs, from dissemination of information about the project to the transfer of equipment to beneficiaries and monitoring of their activities. The budget should include a separate item of expenditure for further support of beneficiaries of the project:
  1. assistance in purchasing equipment (sourcing, receiving invoices for equipment and coordinating the receipt and transfer of equipment to beneficiaries);
  2. provision of advice to beneficiaries in conducting their self-employment and business development; and
  3. monitoring and monthly reporting during the project.
  1. The above cost item shall be calculated based on the estimated number of beneficiaries who require support: 15 people per training.
  2. In addition, the budget shall include a cost item for one-day group consultation for beneficiaries, which should be conducted by the NGO or an expert involved by the NGO. The item should be calculated for 10 consultations (at least 7 people per consultation).
  3. The proposed budget shall be valid for 45 calendar days. During this period, the proponent is expected to keep available the professional staff for the assignment. IOM will make its best efforts to complete negotiations and finalize the decision on the award within 30 calendar days. IOM may request to extend the validity of the proposal. The proponent however shall decide whether to grant the request or not without jeopardizing their change to submit another proposal to IOM again in the future.
  4. The proposed budget and the corresponding agreement shall be in British Pounds (GBP). All payments however shall be in Ukrainian Hryvnia (UAH)by converting the invoice amount from GBP to UAH using the operational UN exchange rate at the time of payment.
  5. The proposed budget shall not include funds for the grants of the beneficiaries.
  6. The proposed budget shall be signed by the proponent’s official representative and shall to be stamped with the proponent’s official seal.

11.Period of Validity of the Proposals

11.1Proposals shall remain valid for a period of at least 30 days from the date of their opening prescribed in this document. IOM reserves the right to reject any or all bids that do not comply with this requirement.

11.2In exceptional circumstances, prior to expiry of the validity of the proposal, IOM may request the proponents to extend the period of validity of the proposal for another 15 days. The request and the proponents’ responses shall be made in writing.

12.Preparation and Submission of Proposal

12.1Proponents shall prepare their technical proposal and the corresponding budget proposal using the official templates provided by IOM.

12.2Each proponent shall submit only one (1) proposal on project implementation in one area. IOM reserves the right to reject any or all proposals from proponents who submitted more than 1 proposal.

12.3As much as possible, both the technical and budget proposals shall not have hand-written corrections. In case of inevitable situation that a correction has to be made manually, the correction shall be counter-signed by the officer of the proponent who signed the proposal.

12.4Proponent shall submit one original copy (i.e., printed, signed and stamped) and one electronic copy in pdf format of the technical proposal and the budget proposal.

12.5The original printed copy of the technical and budget proposalsalong with the filled out Vendor Information Sheet (signed and stamped), government registration documents/permits and resume or curriculum vitae of the key officers/staff who will be deployed in the project, shall be placed inside a sealed envelope clearly marked “Proposal in Response to UA-2016-487, Name of NGO” and submitted on or before 12.00, 07November 2016 to:

IOM Ukraine Office

Procurement Unit

8 Mykhailivska Street, 01001 Kyiv

Ukraine

IOM reserves the right to reject and or all of proposals received after the deadline.

12.6The electronic copy of the technical and budget proposals shall be submitted as an attachment to an email address to the Project Evaluation Committee and sent to . The subject of the email shall be: “Proposal in Response to UA-2016-487, Name of NGO”. The email has to be sent on or before 12.00, 07November 2016.

12.7In case of any discrepancy between the printed and electronic copies of the proposal, the printed copy shall prevail.

12.8The actual date and time of receipt of the hard copies of the technical and budget proposals shall be clearly written by the IOM staff who receive the proposal on the envelope containing the proposal. The date and time of receipt of the email containing the electronic copy of the proposal shall be the used as the actual date and time of receipt of the electronic copy of the proposal. In case of multiple emails containing the proposal, the date and time of receipt of the first email shall be the date and time of receipt of the proposal. IOM reserves the right to reject and or all of proposals received after the deadline.