Tajikistan: Gender-Responsive Investment Climate Reform

Item Description:

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the ‘EBRD’ or the ‘Bank’), in line with the priorities set out in the Country Strategy for Tajikistan, has an ongoing programme to support private sector development and strengthen the investment climate in Tajikistan through its support to the Tajikistan Investment Council. In addition, and in line with its Gender Strategy, the EBRD has also supported the Tajik Government to improve the gender impact of its economic policy and private sector development strategies through a number of activities including a Symposium on Central Asian Business Women, targeted analytical work, and technical assistance to the Taskforce to Support Women Entrepreneurs.

Women entrepreneurs in Tajikistan face multiple challenges in setting up and running their businesses and tend to be hit harder by the existing investment climate. While there is limited capacity among policy making bodies in Tajikistan to systematically identify opportunities to address the needs of women entrepreneurs and/or or to assess the impact of proposed reforms on women-led businesses, the Tajikistan Investment Council and the Taskforce to Support Women Entrepreneurship are well-placed to undertake an advisory role in this area. Improving the capacity of these institutions to undertake gender-responsive policy analysis can contribute to reforms that improve the investment climate for both, men and women entrepreneurs in Tajikistan.

Assignment Description:
The Bank wishes to engage a consulting company (the ‘Consultant’) to conduct a gender responsive investment climate assessment in Tajikistan; and use the findings to train strategic actors and policy makers and support the EBRD in conducting policy dialogue. ( the ‘Assignment’).

The expected outcome of the assignment is to increase the capacity for
gender responsive investment climate policy making in Tajikistan.

The contracting entity shall be the Bank.

The selected Consultant is expected to provide the following services:

(a) Gender responsive Investment Climate Assessment to identify the legal, regulatory and policy obstacles that female and male entrepreneurs face in establishing, formalising and operating their businesses. This information will be elicited through a legal and policy review; a survey of male and female-led MSMEs; focus group discussions with business women; interviews with key stakeholders and political economy analysis.

(b) Gender Responsive Investment Climate Capacity Building Toolkit and Training Materials to conduct ex-ante gender impact analysis of investment climate reforms, and other relevant operational tools to support policy makers in gender-responsive investment climate policy analysis and formulation. The Toolkit is meant to be used for the training of Tajik policy makers but also for capacity building events in other EBRD promoted Investment Councils in EBRD Countries of Operations.

(c) Training for Tajik policy-makers on gender responsive investment climate analysis. The Consultant shall design and deliver a one day training event on the topic of gender responsive investment climate analysis in Tajikistan for critical stakeholders in policy making in Tajikistan, as identified during the assessment. The training will build on the findings of the assessment, the toolkit and international best practices.

(d) Roadmap for Investment Climate Reforms. Consultants are expected to identify the top three highest impact reforms and detailed roadmaps to achieve them for EBRD’s follow up.

(e) Policy workshop. The consultant will organize a policy workshop on policies to promote and support women’s entrepreneurship in Tajikistan, targeting policy makers (MPs and members of the Government), donors, and the private sector.

(f) Lessons learned note and presentation at EBRD HQ. The consultant will produce a knowledge product documenting results and lessons from the project and will present this at EBRD HQ.

Additional information on the scope of services required is available from the attached Terms of Reference (“TOR”) http://www.ebrd.com/documents/procurement/dpdf-67298.pdf

Status of Selection Process:
Interested firms or groups of firms are hereby invited to submit expressions of interest.

Assignment Start Date and Duration:
The Assignment is expected to start in March 2017 and has an estimated overall duration of 24 months.

Cost Estimate for the Assignment:
EUR 149,600 (exclusive of VAT).
The Consultant must determine whether any VAT would be chargeable on the services and the basis for that determination, without taking into consideration the special status of the Bank as an IFI and state this to the Bank in their response to the Invitation for Expressions of Interest. To the extent that a Consultant incurs input VAT on goods and services purchased in connection with the provision of services (e.g. VAT on airline ticket) which is not otherwise recoverable by the consultant from the local tax authority, the gross cost to the consultant of such expenses shall be treated as a reimbursable expense.

Funding Source:
It is expected that the Assignment will be funded by the EBRD’s Special Shareholders Fund for Central Asia. Please note selection and contracting will be subject to the availability of funding.

Eligibility:
There are no eligibility restrictions.

Consultant Profile:
Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a firm or a group of firms preferably with previous project experience related to:

1. Conducting quantitative and qualitative research in the area of gender analysis of business regulations / investment climate reform and support to women entrepreneurship; and
2. Designing and delivering training to policy makers on gender analysis of business regulations / investment climate reform.

The Consultant’s expert team is expected to include key experts as follows:

• Team Leader (Key Expert 1)
o University degree (Masters or PhD level preferred);
o Preferably more than 7 years of experience in conducting gender analysis of investment climate reform, or policy formulation to support women entrepreneurship in transition and/or developing countries;
o Experience conducting political economy and institutional analysis at the country level;
o Experience designing and delivering training on gender;
o Strong qualitative skills and experience using gender analysis tools and research methods (focus group discussions, key informant interviews, surveys etc.);
o Previous experience of working with various stakeholders, including government officials, business representatives, civil society etc.
o Fluency in English is essential. Command of Russian or Tajik is desirable.

• Senior Social Scientist (Key Expert 2)
o Social scientist preferably with 7 years or more experience;
o Good understanding of Tajik business environment, legislation on entrepreneurship, gender issues and the justice system;
o Previous experience of working with various stakeholders, including government officials, business representatives, civil society etc.
o Fluency in English, and Russian and/or Tajik is essential.

• Pool of local survey experts (Key Expert 3)
o University degree holder in economics, statistics, mathematics or any other relevant discipline (ideally Masters or PhD level);
o Preferably 7 years professional experience in designing and carrying out surveys;
o Fluency in English, and Russian and/or Tajik is essential.

Submission Requirements:
In order to determine the capability and experience of Consultants seeking to be selected for this Assignment, the information submitted should include the following:

1. Company/group of firms’ profile, organisation and staffing (max. 2 pages).

2. Details of previous project experience or similar assignments particularly undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contract value, contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided (if different from duration) main activities, objectives.

3. CVs of key experts who could carry out the Assignment detailing qualifications, experience in similar assignments, particularly assignments undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided, assignment budget, main activities, objectives. Consultants shall identify in which capacity from the list of key experts each CV is presented.

4. Brief technical proposal explaining the proposed approach, methodology and work plan with milestones, and a number of working days allocated to the Assignment by each Key Expert.

5. Completed Consultant Declaration Form and Contact Sheet, the template for which is available from the following web-link:
http://www.ebrd.com/pages/workingwithus/procurement/notices/csu/contact_sheet.doc.

The above information should not exceed 20 pages excluding CVs, project references and contact sheet.

The complete expression of interest (including CVs, Consultant Declaration and Contact Sheet) should be submitted, in English electronically through e-Selection, to reach the Bank not later than the closing date. The expression of interest shall be one file (pdf). The EBRD reserves the right to reject applications of firms submitting more than one file. Only if the permissible file size is exceeded (4MB), the Consultant may split the expression of interest into further files.

Bank Contact Person:
Sevi Simavi
Technical Co-operation
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
One Exchange Square
London EC2A 2JN
Tel: + 44 20 73388409
e-mail: simavis@ebrd.com (submissions should be sent through eSelection and NOT to this email address)

Notes:
1. The selection will normally be made from responses to this notification only. The highest-ranked Consultant will be selected from a shortlist and be invited to negotiate the contract (including a financial proposal), subject to availability of funding.

2. The shortlist criteria and weightings are:

(a) Firm’s previous project experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative research in the area of gender analysis of business regulations / investment climate reform and designing and delivering training to policy makers (20%);
(b) Quality of the Consultant’s proposal, approach and methodology (30%);
(c) Qualifications and Competence of Team Leader (Key Expert No 1) (30%);
(d) Qualifications and Competence of Senior Social Scientist (Key Expert No 2) (10%); and
(e) Qualifications and competence of local survey experts (Key Expert No 3) (10%).

http://www.ebrd.com/work-with-us/procurement/pn-67298.html