Consultancy – Support for the Youth Conservation platform development.

Request for Proposals (RfP)

Support for the Youth Conservation platform development.

South Africa Office, PAPACO

RfP Reference: IUCN-2024-06-P04398-1

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. A detailed description of the services and/or goods to be provided can be found in Attachment 1.
2. CONTACT DETAILS
   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: Geoffroy Mauvais, IUCN-PAPACO Coordinator, [email protected]

1. PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE
   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

20 June 2024

Publication of the Request for Proposals

10 July 2024

Deadline for expressions of interest

26 June 2024

Deadline for submission of questions

28 June 2024

Planned publication of responses to questions

10 July 2024

Deadline for submission of Proposals to IUCN (“Submission Deadline”)

11 July 2024

Clarification of Proposals

1. 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.
2. COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL
   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)
  1. 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.

Proposals must be prepared in English.

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.

1. Pre-Qualification Criteria

IUCN 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 Criteria

1

One relevant reference for similar work

2

Confirm that you have all the necessary legal registrations to perform the work

1. 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 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:

Description

Information to provide

Relative weight

1

Track-record of effective Marketing campaign

State marketing campaign(s) that were carried out under your leadership including links to relevant end products and screenshots to support your results.

20%

2

Track-record of strong Partnership development

List partnerships that were developed under your leadership, with screenshots and links to end results.

20%

3

Track-record of effective social media programming

Share links of social media you managed with the timeframes you were in charge of said channels.

20%

4

Digital product creation (e.g. podcast, elearning tools etc.)

List digital products you created with links to products.

20%

5

Strong project management experience

CV

20%

TOTAL

100%

1. Financial Proposal
   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.
   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 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.

1. Applicable Goods and Services Taxes

Proposal rates and prices shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax.

1. Currency of proposed rates and prices

All rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in EURO.

1. Breakdown of rates and prices

For information only, the price needs to be broken down as follows:

Description

Quantity

Unit Price

Total Price

1

Co-development of 3 tutorials (online course)

2

Partnerships with 50 schools

3

Partnership with 30 NGOs

4

30 podcasts produced

5

Fundraising: 30 000 €

6

200 active tutors

TOTAL

1. Additional information not requested by IUCN should not be included in your Proposal and will not be considered in the evaluation.
2. Your Proposal must remain valid and capable of acceptance by IUCN for a period of 90 calendar days following the submission deadline.
3. 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.

1. EVALUATION of PROPOSALS
   1. Completeness

IUCN will firstly check your Proposal for completeness. Incomplete Proposals will not be considered further.

1. Pre-Qualification Criteria

Only Proposals that meet all of the pre-qualification criteria will be evaluated.

1. Technical Evaluation
   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.

1. Minimum Quality Thresholds

Proposals that receive a score of ‘0’ for any of the criteria will not be considered further.

1. Technical Score

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.

1. 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%

1. 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.

1. Explanation of procurement procedure
   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.
   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.
   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.
   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.
2. Conditions for participation in this procurement
   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.
      1. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted a complete and fully compliant Proposal.
      2. Any incomplete or incorrectly completed Proposal submission may be deemed non-compliant, and as a result you may be unable to proceed further in the procurement process.
      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.
   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.
  1. You must complete and sign the Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2).
  2. If you are participating in this procurement as a member of a joint venture, or are using sub-contractors, 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

1. Confidentiality and data protection
   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.
   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.
2. 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 [email protected]. Such complaints or concerns will be treated as confidential and are not considered in breach of the above restrictions on communication (Section 2.1).

1. 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.

1. 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/

1. ATTACHMENTS
   1. Increase school engagement

Attachment 1 Specification of Requirements / Terms of Reference

Title: Support for the Youth Conservation platform development

Objective of the Consultancy

This consultancy has the following objective(s): make Youth Conservation known among the French-speaking and the English-speaking public and to globally grow the audience:

1. Develop partnerships with local NGOs
2. Ensure community commitment
3. Develop Youth and MOOC Conservation content
4. Animate the mentorship programme
5. Find fundraising partners

Background

Project Reference: P04398

Donor reference: Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM)

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.

www.iucn.org

https://twitter.com/IUCN/

About the Project

Environmental education is instrumental to encourage nature conservation from the youngest age. The Youth-conservation.org website (YC) was launched in October 2022, and was then a simple online platform with six short interactive courses on specific topics related to nature conservation. These courses exist to help young people and their teachers i) understand the concept of nature (discover), ii) know why it matters to us (understand) and iii) identify what they can do to preserve it (act). Each course has a poster available for download and a handbook to help teachers use the online courses for their in-person presentations (in classroom, nature clubs, etc.).

The target is twofold: students (from primary to secondary, therefore around 7 – 17 years old) and their teachers. Usable everywhere and by everyone, this material is available in French and English, targeting all African youth and educators. It is always available, and always free.

Since the launch, additional resources were developed including a guide with in-nature activities, an online course on Nature conservation education (hosted on mooc-conservation.org, the professionals training platform managed by IUCN-Papaco), and audio recordings of the course contents. A rapidly growing network of 60+ YC tutors has been created to help promoting all the available resources all over Africa and mobilizing educators on environmental education.

Description of the Assignment

The goal is to keep making Youth Conservation known among the French-speaking public and the English-speaking public and to globally grow the audience. It is building on what has been done over the past couple of years, and the next step is to strengthen partnerships, to continue the brandification of Youth Conservation, but also to take the platform to another level, so that the ultimate goal of raising conservation awareness among the youth may be reached. The list of tasks is therefore not exhaustive and will be adapted and reviewed during the consultancy, based on the needs and the timelines. As there are strong bridges between MOOC-Conservation and Youth Conservation, the consultant will also provide support to the MOOC-conservation content development as requested.

Duration of the Assignment

The assignment starts on the 1st September 2024 and should be terminated at the latest on the 31st December 2026. This is a part-time consultancy with peaks of work depending on the evolution of the activities.

Deliverables and Activities

The consultant will provide the following deliverables and carry out the following activities:

Deliverable/Activity

Description

Deadline

1. At least 50 schools actively engaging with YC resources

This is a slow process as there are many formal procedures to meet but the use of the platform starts to be integrated to some classes in different countries. The consultant will develop them further to ensure that YC is known and used amongst the formal education system in all possible countries, all over Africa.

15 December 2026 and report annually on evolution:

30 June 2025 and

30 June 2026

1.a Reach out to teachers across Africa

Building on what has been done, develop communications strategies to reach teachers that do not know about Youth Conservation yet (social media and emailing).

30 June 2026

2. At least 30 NGOs actively using YC resources and sending frequent feedback of resource use

Develop partnerships with local NGOs working on environmental training among the youth: many partnerships have been established, and the consultant will identify others and will formalize and then strengthen them. Local NGOs are an instrumental relay to access schools, parents, and kids.

Report on state of partnerships:

15 September 2024 for baseline, then 30 June 2025, 30 June 2026 and 15 December 2026

3. Ensure 100% growth in engagement and following on different platforms

Ensure community commitment: to boost the engagement of the growing community. This deliverable extends to all the platforms YC is engaged on, as well as platforms it will be exploring.

15 September 2024 for baseline + 30 June 2025

And 30 June 2026

3.a Post regularly on different platforms (social media, emailing, blog articles, etc.)

Youth Conservation is currently on Facebook (one page and two groups), Instagram and Linkedin. The website has a blog.

n/a

3.b Plan and send mailing campaigns to the growing mailing list.

A Newsletter is sent out two or three times a year on Brevo.

Three times a year + emailing about new resources.

3.c Develop content on channels yet to be explored such as TikTok.

Launch TikTok channel and set up a posting strategy.

Strategy set up by 1 March 2025

3.d Build podcast platform with at least 30 episodes online

Hold interviews with YC users and edit to upload as podcast to “les RDV de la conservation” podcast channel.

10 episodes produced per year in 2024, 25 and 26

4. Help preparing new content for MOOC and Youth conservation

Participate to the development of new tutorials on the model of the Environmental Education One.

One tuto in 2024

One tuto in 2025

One tuto in 2026

5. Set up a strong and active group of + 200 tutors.

Animate the mentorship program with tutors who join the program:

• Monitor their activities and mobilize them by sharing resources and good practices on the Whatsapp group and other relevant communication channels.
• Give visibility on their activities on our various platforms (blog, social media and newsletter).
• Be the focal point to their needs and develop adapted resources if needed.

50 tutors by end of 2024

100 tutors by the end of 2025

200 tutors by the end of 2026

6. Raise + 30 000 € to support local projects led by schools and local NGPs

Find fundraising partners: many NGOs and schools are requesting financial support to implement educational programs with the communities and children. Therefore, the consultant will be requested to:

• Identify and contact financial partners to support the projects.
• Identify and select the adequate projects to be financed with the partners.
• Follow the implementation of the projects and report, with the Papaco team, on the use of the subventions

Raise15000€ by 15 December 2025

Raise 15000€ additional by 30 December 2026

Payment Schedule

The Timetable below summarises the chronological order of deliverables and indicates milestones at which IUCN will pay the Consultant.

Deliverable

Milestone payment

First tutorial + 10 schools active + 10 NGOs engaged + social medias regularly active

31st December 24: 15%

20 schools active + 20 NGOs engaged + 15,000€ raised + social medias regularly active

30th June 2025: 20%

Second tutorial + 30 schools actives + 30 NGOs engaged + social medias regularly active

31st December 25: 20%

40 schools active + 30 podcasts produced + 30,000€ raised + social medias regularly active

30th June 2026: 20%

Third tutorial + 50 schools active + 200 tutors active + social medias regularly active

31st December 2026: 25%

Skills and Experience

The consultant must have the following skills, education and experience as a minimum:

• The consultant is interested in nature conservation and passionate about environmental education.
• He/she works in close consultation with the Papaco team managing YC and MC. The mission requires a lot of autonomy, creativity, sense of organization and seriousness, therefore the candidate must be independent, a creative problem-solver, dynamic, and able to take initiative.
• Good knowledge of the use of social networks is essential, as well as strong experience in the field of promotion/marketing.
• The role involves the creation of content for the various social networks as well as educational content, therefore he/she must know how to use collaborative creating tools such as Canva, audio editing software, etc.
• He/she must be fluent in French and English.

Supervision and coordination

The consultant will report to and work under the supervision of Geoffroy Mauvais, IUCN-Papaco coordinator in close partnership with Madeleine Vosloo, IUCN-Papaco program officer.

How to apply

https://www.iucn.org/procurement/currently-running-tenders