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Request for Proposal (RFP)

for

Empanelment of Resource Institution (RI)

For Providing Capacity Building Support to Personnel of the Meghalaya Basin

Development Authority and its associate agencies

Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium

5th Floor, NCUI Auditorium Building,

August Kranti Marg, Hauz Khas,

New Delhi – 110016

JANUARY 2015

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Section 1: Invitation of Bids

Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is a Society functioning under the administrative

control of Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India.

SFAC is supporting the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA), Government of Meghalaya

in implementing the Integrated Development and Livelihood Promotion programme (IBDLP).

Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA), was set up by the Government of Meghalaya for

implementing the Integrated Basin Development & Livelihood Promotion Program (IBDLP )which

aims to achieve the integration of public programme and service delivery within the sustainability

framework, so that value maximization takes place within the same natural and financial resources.

To aid in the implementation of the IBDLP programme, the MBDA has set up certain pioneering

institutes such as MIE (Meghalaya institute of Entrepreneurship), MIG (Meghalaya Institute of

Governance) and MINR (Meghalaya Institute of Natural resources). The Mission of the program is

“To promote optimal and effective development and utilization of basin resources for ensuring

livelihood security and inclusive growth within a sustainable framework.”

A significant feature of this programme is specific mission mode interventions in Agriculture,

Horticulture, Forest and Plantation crops, Aquaculture, Livestock, Sericulture & weaving,

Agriculture, Energy, Water, Tourism, Skills, and Knowledge Management. The core objective of each

of these missions is to facilitate the promotion of sustainable livelihoods for the people of the state

leveraging on the opportunities and strengths of the State’s natural resources. The programme seeks

to achieve this by strong entrepreneurship and capacity building of the individuals as also the

communities, eventually to empower the common person to enable him or her to make their own

choices and decisions within a rational and sustainable framework.

Key interventions of the programme are Knowledge Management, Natural Resources Management,

Enterprise/Livelihoods promotion, Institution Building and Governance aspects. The programme is

managed by Basin Development Council (BDC), Basin Development Authority (MBDA), and Basin

Development Units (BDU).

The Enterprise Facilitation Centre (EFC) is a unique effort to create a single point of contact for the

enterprising citizens of the community to meet their needs of information, selection of

opportunities, technology and finance for setting up enterprises. EFCs through the BDU coordinate

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with different agencies to facilitate the inception and growth of enterprises. The EFCs are being set

up in all the 39 blocks of the state to act as a single window public interface agency under the

programme at the grass root level.

The EFC model is an attempt at making delivery of development demand driven. The EFCs are

manned by two Enterprise Resource Persons (ERPs) and one Enterprise Support Person (ESP),

(dedicated youth who have the passion to serve in rural areas who have been trained and deployed)

who provide information and other facilitation support to the partners. What differentiates’ the EFC

from the government department is the service delivery approach (as opposed to a scheme

implementation approach) and the personal rapport that the ERPs build with the partners. The

Basin Development Units (BDU) in each district are manned by Programme Associates (PA) who

provide support to the EFCs in their respective blocks. Affiliate agencies of MBDA such as MIE, MIG,

MINR are staffed by PA’s who provide additional support to the EFCs.

Since entrepreneurship building is a complex process that requires convergence of diversified

services that include finance, technical, market and institutional support services, there is a need for

equip these personnel with required knowhow to act as livelihood service providers and adopt a

focused approach towards programme implementation. MBDA had decided to improve the

efficiency of the EFCs by extending professional support from an expert agency in Livelihood and

entrepreneurship promotion.

Based on the outcome of the work achieved so far and the need build the knowledge and skill base of

its personnel, SFAC seeks to empanel a suitably qualified Resource Institution (RI) to provide

support to MBDA.

The Broad responsibilities of the RI will be:

o Curriculum Design

o Training workshops

o Accompaniment Support

Curriculum Design:

• Develop a training curriculum for the personnel of MBDA including Enterprise Resource

Persons (ERPs), Financial Business Advisors (FBAs), Programme Associates (Pas), Master

trainers and any other personnel that may be indicated by MBDA. The total number of

people to be covered under the program is around 100.

• The training curriculum should cover the following broad thematic areas:

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o Assessment of Self

o Concepts of Livelihood and Livelihood Promotion

o Concepts of Entrepreneurship and rural micro entrepreneurship promotion

o Assessment of Entrepreneurial competencies

o Training Methodologies

Training workshops:

• Deliver these training modules to the personnel in a phased manner within 18 months from

the issue of the work order. Each training module should be of duration of 5 to 7 days with

batch size not exceeding 25 participants. These workshops are to be conducted in either

Shillong or Tura based on the participant profile.

• The training workshops must use a mix of training methods including case studies, lectures,

group work, audio visual aids, field visits and other methods.

• Training reports after completion of each workshop. The reports shall include but not be

limited to trainee’s participation during the workshop, suitability of materials used during

the training, suitability of training venue, adequacy of administrative support,

recommendations on areas of improvement and other observation.

• An evaluation report ranking the participants according their ability to assimilate the

learnings and use them in their respective roles.

• Exposure visits to similar micro enterprise visits outside the state. Exposure visit report to

be submitted along with learning journals for each participant.

Accompaniment Support:

• Provide accompaniment support to the trained personnel who are stationed in 39 EFCS of

the state.

• The purpose of the accompaniment support is to mentor and assist the participants of these

training programmes in utilizing the knowledge and skills gained during the workshops in

their assigned field of work.

• The RIs must provide the total visits per EFC they propose to undertake during the duration

of the assignment.

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A. With this background, SFAC invites bids from experienced and technically qualified organizations

fulfilling following eligibility criteria:

1. Any public or private sector institution that has demonstrated experience of working on

integrated livelihood issues, especially natural resources management, agricultural

development and directly related fields.

2. The institution can be registered either as a company, society or trust.

Provided that:

1. The institution has completed at least 3 years of functioning (financial years) as on 1st April

2014

2. The institution has substantial knowledge and experience in knowledge building (KB) and

knowledge dissemination (KD) in livelihood related issues in India with regards to

agriculture related livelihood issues, including technology, marketing, training etc. and has

the necessary human resources to support these activities.

3. The institute has developed course curriculum on livelihood promotion aspects.

4. The institute has proven ability to provide training and capacity building support to large

number of staff of Livelihood Promoting Organizations (LPOs).

5. The institute has documented and published case studies, success stories and other relevant

material on Livelihoods.

6. The institution has previous demonstrated experience of working with State Governments/

NRLM other livelihood related programmes of the Central or State Governments. Previous

experience of working in the North East is desirable.

7. The institution has in depth knowledge and practical experience about the livelihood

challenges of NER in general and Meghalaya in particulars and must have a well-established

local set up.

8. The institution is not black-listed by any Central or State agency.

9. The institution has managed training and capacity building programs by deploying funds of

at least Rs 2 crores per annum.

10. It is in compliance of all necessary laws and statutes on the date of application.

11. Refundable Earnest Money of Rs. 10,000/- (Rupees Ten Thousand only) is submitted in the

form of a demand draft payable to “Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium” at New Delhi.

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Section 2: Submission of Proposal-

Sealed offer under two-bid system(Part-I Technical Bid and Part II Price Bid)for the above

mentioned assignment may be forwarded to Managing Director, SFAC, NCUI Auditorium Building, 5th

Floor, 3, Siri Institutional Area, August Kranti Marg, Hauz Khas, New Delhi –110016.

A. Technical Bid:

Technical bid shall consist of following documents:

• Organization’s capability ( As per A of Section 1 above);

• A brief approach note to the proposed project covering technical approach and

methodology, work plan, organization and staffing

• Supporting documents-

o Registration Certificate

o Last Audited Balance sheet

o CVs of core team for the project

o Supporting Documents of some of the KB and KD activities

o Documentation demonstrating the Specific experience of the RI relevant to the

assignment

o Reports and other documentation detailing work done in (i) Meghalaya (ii)

regarding training for livelihood promotion work (iii) Entrepreneurship and

microenterprise development (iv) training for human resource development.

o Testimonials and evidence of recognitions for any significant accomplishments or

capacities relevant for this assignment.

B. Price Bid:

The Price bid must mention total cost for each activity proposed to be undertaken in the form of a

summary. The summary must be in the following format:

Sl. No. Particulars No. of units Rate/Unit Total Amount

(Rs.)

1 Curriculum Development

2 Cost of Trainings and

Exposure Visit

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3 Accompaniment Support

Cost

4 Agency Charges

5 Taxes as applicable

Total

The breakup of costs under each heading must be as under:-

Module

Development

No. of Man

days

No. of

resource

persons

Unit Rate

(Rs.)

Total Amount

(Rs) Remarks

Training Modules (Breakup for each Training module)

Name of Training

Module

No. of

Man days

No. of

resource

persons

Unit

Rate

(Rs.)

Total Amount

(Rs)

Remarks

Resource Persons- Fees

Out of Pocket Expenses

of Resource persons

(Travel, Boarding,

Lodging)

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Exposure Visits for a batch of 20 participants per batch:

Item No. of

Man days

No. of

resource

persons/

participants

Unit Rate

(Rs.)

Total Amount

(Rs) Remarks

Resource Persons- Fees

Out of Pocket Expenses

(Travel, Boarding,

Lodging)

Resource Fee to host

organization

Accompaniment Support

Item Cost/day Total (Rs.) Remarks

Total No. of Visits in 18

months to 38 EFCs

Agency Charges

Item Units Unit Cost Total (Rs.) Remarks

Manpower cost for Project

Management Unit

(Breakup of manpower)

Office expenses (cost of

equipment, office rent, supplies,

travel for review meetings

computer rental, vehicle rentals

etc)

Taxes will be paid extra as applicable.

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Last date of submission of proposal is JANUARY 19, 2015 by close of office hours.

The Bidders must submit one ‘Original’ and one ‘Duplicate’ of the \ Technical Proposal in one

envelop, which must be sealed and clearly marked “Technical Proposal”. The Financial Proposal

(Price Bid) must be kept in a separate envelope, which must be sealed and clearly marked “Financial

Proposal”. Both these envelops must then be placed in a single outer envelope, which must be sealed

and addressed to the Managing Director, Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), NCUI

Auditorium Building,5th Floor, 3 Siri Institutional Area, August Kranti Marg, Hauz Khas, New

Delhi-110 016.

Section 3: Evaluation and Procedure for Selection of the Bidder-

An evaluation committee will be constituted by SFAC to evaluate the technical and financial

proposals and recommend award of the consultancy assignment.

A. Technical Proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:

i. Specific experience of the Consultants relevant to the assignment

ii. Adequacy of the proposed methodology and work plan in responding to the Terms of

Reference

a) Technical approach and methodology

b) Work plan

c) Organization and staffing

iii Key professional staff qualifications and competence for the assignment

Team Leader

a) [Insert position or discipline as appropriate]

b) [Insert position or discipline as appropriate]

c) [Insert position or discipline as appropriate]

d) [Insert position or discipline as appropriate]

The number of points to be assigned to each of the above positions or disciplines shall be

determined considering the following three sub-criteria and relevant percentage weights-

1) General qualifications

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2) Adequacy for the assignment

3) Experience in region and language

(iv) Suitability of the transfer of knowledge (training) program:

a) Relevance of training program

b) Training approach and methodology

c) Qualifications of experts and trainers

B. Financial proposals will be opened only for those bidders who obtain more than 60 points on the

technical proposal;

C. 70% weightage will be assigned to Technical Bids and 30% to Price Bid;

D. The combined score of the Technical and Price bid evaluate on will be used to recommend the

award of the consultancy assignment;

E. The decision of Managing Director, SFAC regarding acceptance or rejection of the committee’s

recommendation will be final and no reason for the same will be provided.

Section 4: General Instructions-

• Bids that are incomplete in any respect, or those that are not consistent with the

requirements as specified in the Request for Proposal (RFP) or those that do not adhere to

formats, wherever specified, may be considered non-responsive and may be liable for rejection;

• All communication and information should be provided in writing;

• SFAC reserves the right to reject any or all the Bids submitted in response to this Request for

Proposals at any stage without assigning any reasons whatsoever;

• SFAC reserves the right to change any or all of the provisions of the RFP document, such changes

would be intimated to all the parties participated in the Bid process;

The Authorized Signatory, as mentioned in the bid document, would be authorized to represent the

Bidder in its dealing with the SFAC. In case the Bidder wish to change the Authorized Signatory from

one identified at the RFP Stage, the Bidder would be required to furnish a fresh Power of Attorney in

the name of new Signatory.