WFP Country Office THIRD PARTY MONITORING SERVICES Call for Proposals Ref No: CFP/TPM/CSP/2020/002 Closing Date and Time: 30 June 2021 at 23:59

Background

Under the nutrition response, WFP supports the full implementation of integrated management of acute malnutrition (IMAM) interventions, working with the Ministry of Health (MoH), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and NGOs to increase the number of woredas with IMAM in the , Afar, SNNP and Sidama regions. Where IMAM has been incorporated into the government health system, targeted supplementary feeding supports routine monthly nutrition screening to identify children under five and pregnant and lactating women and girls (PLWG) with moderate acute malnutrition and enrol them for treatment, complemented by community mobilization, audience-targeted SBCC and capacity strengthening of the MoH and its partners. WFP is committed to ensuring that its ability to collect and compile an evidence base that informs programming is not compromised. To carry out an effective and timely assessment, delivery, distribution and monitoring of food assistance, and to ensure the safety of its personnel, WFP Ethiopia outsources its monitoring activities to overcome monitoring access constraints as well as to improve efficiency due to the need for a large number of monitors beyond WFP’s current regular staffing capacity. Low monitoring coverage is an institutional and programmatic risk that compromises the ability of WFP to collect evidence-based data needed to inform operations. Under the current system in the Oromia, Afar, SNNP and Sidama regions, food is transported to distribution sites by commercial transporters organized by Regional Disaster Risk Management Bureaus and Regional Health Bureau. Food distributions are undertaken by WFP Cooperating Partners (CP) and government departments at the woreda level. Distribution monitoring and post-distribution monitoring have been mainly the responsibility of WFP staff and government counterparts. However, WFP’s operation in Ethiopia has limited and unstable access to certain project areas due to the vastness of the operation (more than 1,800 food distribution points (FDPs) /Health posts in the four the regions: Oromia-1,110; Afar-209; SNNP and Sidama-552), limited capacity by WFP Field Monitors who need to cover many sites, that is, 23 WFP regular field monitors inclusive of five nutrition focal points monitoring nutrition interventions in 1,871 food distribution centres (FDCs). The field monitors and Nutrition Sub Office focal points are sharing their time and resources with other conflictive agendas and priorities in the sub-offices. There is lack of access due to security in some of the selected woredas in the four regions. Therefore, the purpose of contracting a third party for monitoring and reporting activities is to ensure WFP-affiliated presence at the field level, serving as an extension of WFP to undertake rigorous monitoring activities while filling the information gap in inaccessible areas.

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WFP invites all local NGOs that have a strong presence and ability to provide the required services to submit technical and financial proposals. Local NGOs proposing the best and the most cost-effective services will be contracted, according to the evaluation criteria set out herein. WFP is planning to have in place agreements for its third-party monitoring activities for six months, with an estimated implementation duration starting from 1 August 2021 and ending on 31 January 2022. Based on the performance of the organisation as well as the needs and requirements of WFP, a further extension may be possible.

Scope of the Partnership

The eligible partner will carry out monitoring activities in the Oromia, Afar, SNNP and Sidama regions for nutrition activities in all the 39 woredas. The following monitoring activities will be outsourced: 1. access; 2. distribution output monitoring and beneficiary contact monitoring (DM and BCM); 3. partnership monitoring; 4. logistic monitoring. The contracted party will provide administrative and logistical management of the deployed monitors and/or enumerators in all locations where monitoring needs to take place. The contracted party is expected to manage staff contract, payment and insurance issues, to organise transport as per plan determined by WFP, ensure timely availability of field teams at agreed-upon locations, maintain contact with field teams to oversee routine wellbeing of the teams and to liaise with WFP in case of any challenges. The contracted party also ensures the availability of equipment to the teams to undertake their work (reporting booklets, stationery, cell phones, airtime, laptops, tablets, Last Mile Solution (LMS) gadgets, tables, etc.). The scope of works consists of monitoring activities but is not limited to the execution of the following services. Access: • Have a demonstrated ability to negotiate and successfully obtain access at the community level throughout the different zones and woredas where support is required. • Undertake field missions to all Final Distribution Points (FDPs –health units, or eventually community distribution points) as provided by WFP to establish contacts and allow monitoring to take place. • The Third-Party Monitoring (TPM) partner should map out all the food receipt points, capture the name and contact of responsible CP staff who receive Specialized Nutritious Food at the destination.

Distribution Output monitoring and Beneficiary Contact Monitoring: • Prepare a monthly monitoring plan in line with WFP requirements, and adapt the monitoring plan to WFP needs and priorities in close consultation with WFP sub-offices and Country Office. • Conduct quality monitoring, undertake distribution monitoring/site visits and beneficiary contact monitoring as per monthly monitoring plan, following WFP’s monitoring guidelines, procedures, and standard checklists using the real-time data platform, to

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regularly assess the physical progress of WFP activities in relation to original plans and identify progress and constraints in the implementation and make recommendations for improvement. The technical proposal should have an element where the TPM NGO suggests how quality will be maintained. • Establish and maintain a database containing all Food Distribution Centres, distribution monitoring and post-distribution monitoring information.

Logistic Monitoring • The TPM staff monitor and confirm receipts of Specialized Nutritious Food by the CP manually through visits and documentation review at receiving points. • The organisation staff at receiving points will be equipped with a mobile device with a web-based application and dedicated user credentials. Using these, they will be able to scan the waybills, retrieve the waybill information into the mobile platform and subsequently confirm the receipt quantity, which can be sent to WFP LESS system within 24 hours via the internet connection. • TPM staff will confirm that Specialized Nutritious Food has been delivered to allocated destinations and confirm receipts by CP; • TPM staff will collect initial baseline data on the availability of storage, pallets, warehouse staff at each receiving points; • TPM staff will train the CP staff on appropriate handling and storage of the commodities;

Key outputs and performance indicators of TPM NGO: 1. % of receiving points identified and documented; 2. % of food dispatched confirmed to be delivered; 3. % of receiving locations visited and assessed on the arrangement in terms of storage facility, food handling practices; 4. % of staff trained in food management practices;

Management of WFP assets including Motorcycle fleet:

• The CP will have to prepare and submit motorbicycles management budget reflecting the costs for fuel, maintenance , driving licenses in the agreement period

• WFP will provide the budget to CP to purchase tablets, motorcycles, and other assets that are required to implement required activities locally. This option will avoid the delay due to lengthy procurement process from suppliers located abroad.

Deliverables

The selected NGO will be expected to abide by the following reporting requirements and provide the WFP Sub-Office and the country office with the following deliverables: • TPM plan of operations at inception, which will be regularly updated. At the commencement of the agreement, a TPM operational plan will be drafted by the NGO in

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close consultation with WFP. It will specify the standard operation procedures of the monitoring activities. • Real-time updates. The NGO will keep WFP updated – via phone, email and/or in person – about the progress of TPM throughout the process, including planning, desk review, field visits and feedback. Updates will flag any observations that require immediate attention to the WFP Sub-Office management and the Country Office. • Progress-update meetings. Regular monthly or quarterly progress-update meetings via remote or face to face meetings at WFP Sub-office, if possible, will be conducted between the NGO and the WFP Sub-Office on monthly basis and, as deemed necessary. • TPM flash bi-weekly reports. An email notification will be sent to WFP specifying the woredas and FDPs visited, and activities monitored. A quick initial assessment (300- word maximum) should flag the most pressing issues that require immediate attention of WFP Sub-Office management. • TPM project reports (monthly). A comprehensive narrative report (as a follow-up to the flash reports) of all projects monitored in the month. • Ensure the collected data, collected digitally using the tablets, has been sent to the WFP server at the end of the month. • Provide risk management reports on a monthly basis as per the reporting templates provided.

Quality assurance of deliverables and payment

Deliverables will be used as the basis for invoice processing and payment. The NGO will be held responsible for the deliverables. The NGO is responsible for ensuring regular communication, coordination and technical support between Sub-offices and the Country Office. The NGO will ensure that all narrative reports are submitted to WFP on time. The reports should meet WFP content, technical and quality standards.

WFP will conduct quarterly performance evaluations on the quality of deliverables. Feedback and recommendations will be provided to the NGOs. NGOs are expected to maintain above- average quality standards for the services provided to WFP. Payments will be made on monthly basis upon submission of all supporting documents for the claim as well as submission of all reports as specified in the work plan for the period under consideration.

Work Flow

While the WFP M&E team will provide technical guidance and will act as counterpart for the contracted party at the Country Office level, WFP sub-offices will supervise and monitor the contracted party’s quality of work. For distribution monitoring (DM)/beneficiary contact monitoring (BCM), the sub-offices will act as the first point of contact for the contracted party, daily. The staff of the contracted organization, under their team leaders, will take day to day direction from the Head of WFP

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sub-offices or his/her designates for distribution monitoring and oversight, will set up the monitoring plan for the month in consultation with sub-offices, and will submit the initial field visit report to sub-offices. The sub-offices will validate the findings and refer it to the relevant programme unit for any issues to be solved or followed-up on. Therefore, the contracted party must have a sufficient presence in the areas covered by each WFP sub-office. In total, 39 woredas in the different sub-offices and zones will need to have WFP affiliated monitoring assistant on a full-time basis. The areas covered by each sub-office are presented in the tables below.

No. of Woredas Region WFP Sub Office (SO) (TSF) Oromia Adama 12 Oromia Dire Dawa 12 Afar 7 SNNP and Sidama Hawassa 8 Total No. of woredas covered by 39 the wFMAs

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Nutrition WFP Assigned WFP Sub Assigned Assigned WFP Sub Region Zone Region Zone Sub Region Zone Woreda Office Woreda Woreda Office Office Oromia Arsi Gololcha Adama Afar Zone 1 () Elidaar Semera SNNP Konso Kena Hawassa Oromia Arsi Shenen Kolu Adama Afar Zone 2 () Semera SNNP Gedio Gedeb Hawassa Oromia Arsi Merti Adama Afar Zone 2 (Kilbet Rasu) Kuneba Semera SNNP South Omo Desench Hawassa Oromia East Shoa Fentale Adama Afar Zone 2 (Kilbet Rasu) Semera SNNP South Omo Hamer Hawassa Adame J. Oromia East Shoa Adama Afar Zone 3 () Gelaalu Semera SNNP Gofa Zala Hawassa Kolmbolcha Oromia East Hararghe Babile Dire Dawa Afar Zone 4 (Fenti Rasu) Awra Semera SNNP Wolaita Abela Abaya Hawassa Oromia East Hararghe Bedeno Dire Dawa Afar Zone 5 () Semera SNNP South Omo Benatsemaye Hawassa Oromia East Hararghe Grawa Dire Dawa Sidama Sidama Bilate Zuria Hawassa Oromia East Hararghe Gollaodda Dire Dawa Oromia East Hararghe MelkaBelo Dire Dawa Oromia East Hararghe Goro Muti Dire Dawa Oromia West Hararghe Anchar Dire Dawa Oromia West Hararghe Burka Dimitu Dire Dawa Oromia West Hararghe Guba Koricha Dire Dawa Oromia West Hararghe Gumi Bordede Dire Dawa Oromia West Hararghe Chiro Dire Dawa Oromia West Hararghe Hawi Gudina Dire Dawa Oromia West Arsi Heben Arsi Adama Oromia Bale Dawe Kachen Adama Oromia Bale Medawelabu Adama Oromia Borena Guchi/Moyalle Adama Oromia Guji Sababoru Adama Oromia West Guji Gorodola Adama Oromia West Guji Bule Hora Adama

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Application process

Interested organisations are encouraged to read carefully all the information and annexes before submitting a proposal to WFP. Organizations that wish to participate in this call for proposals are requested to register their profiles on the UN Partner Portal (UNPP) https://www.unpartnerportal.org/registration. WFP will not process the application for NGOs with partial or no profiles on UNPP. Organizations who can provide part and not all outlined services below are still encouraged to send expressions of interest indicating areas of their strength. At a minimum, interested organisations are expected to apply for all the zones and woredas under two WFP sub-offices. Applications for a few selected zones or woredas within the same WFP sub-office will not be considered.

The proposal (maximum of 15 pages) should include: 1. Confirmation of the organisation qualifications for providing the service. 2. Information on organisation previous experience with similar work, preferably related to Humanitarian Assistance, Nutrition, Logistics, provision of monitoring services to UN or government agency and description of such experience. 3. Information on organisation staff and their qualifications. 4. Confirmation of preparedness to allocate a separate team of qualified employees for accomplishment of monitoring. 5. Technical Proposal on how to undertake the monitoring 6. Technical proposal on how to manage the motorbike (up to 100 for all the zones) (please use the attached budget template and guidance for preparing the budget-on the light vehicle section). 7. Estimated budget - Financial Proposal. (Using WFP’s corporate budget template available as part of the CfP annexes on the UNPP)

Submissions The information requested in this document should be submitted in English through the United Nations Partner Portal (https://www.unpartnerportal.org) not later than 23.59 hrs on 30 June 2021. All financial information shall be expressed in Ethiopian Birr as per the WFP budget template provided. Where project-specific financial information cannot be provided for reasons arising from contract confidentiality provisions, then this should be stated clearly. Organisations are requested not to provide any additional documentation or information other than that requested in this document. Failure to reply to this call for proposal or to provide the requested information in full may be grounds for exclusion from the engagement process.

Eligibility requirements

WFP requires the following general pre-conditions to be met by the interested organization. The organization should:

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• be formally registered for a minimum period of three years as a non-profit organisation (NGO); • be a local NGO, have expirience and presence in the proposed regions. • have all the necessary logistical and administrative as well as management structures and capacities to handle the project independently; • have its accounts audited by a reputable audit firm. Reports should be available as public documents that can also be shared with WFP, if requested; • have expertise in the activities being implemented; and • a reputation for honesty and integrity and generally be of good standing with the government authorities in its area of operation. The organisation will be automatically excluded from the process if any of the following apply to them: • The organisation is bankrupt or is being wound up, whose affairs are being administered by the court, who has entered into an arrangement with creditors, who has suspended business activities or who is in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure under national laws and regulations. • The organisation is the subject of proceedings for a declaration of bankruptcy, for an order for compulsory winding up or administration (or examinership or equivalent) by the court or of an arrangement with creditors or any similar proceedings under national laws or regulations. • The organisation has been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct; • The organisation has been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which WFP can justify. • The organisation has not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of social security contributions per the legal provisions of the country in which he is established or with those of the country of the employer. • The organisation has not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of the country in which he is established or those of the country in which WFP is operating. • The organisation is guilty of serious misrepresentation in supplying or failing to supply the information required by a client. • The organisation is being investigated by a UN or other international agency with regards to its activities. • The organisation or any related organization within a group of organizations has been convicted of engaging in any activities contrary to international law. • The organisation or any related organization within a group is on the Consolidated List established and maintained by the UN 1267 Committee.

Review Process and Timeline

WFP will assess and evaluate the documents listed above and shortlist the NGO by Friday 02 July 2021 based on desk review and assessment of the required documents. Applying NGOs

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will be informed of the outcome by 23 July 2021. The shortlisted applicant will then be invited for potential partnership negotiations with WFP for implementation of the activities, to start on 01 August 2021.

Approved:

Catherine Feeney

Deputy Country Director a.i.

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