RFP: Procurement of Consultancy services for RISERAP Regional Geospatial & Data Analytics (Remote Sensing, HydroInformatics & Dashboard Data Products)

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

(CONSULTING SERVICES – FIRMS SELECTION)

Country: Multinational

Name of Project: Resilient Irrigation for a Sustainable Economy Project

Grant No.: P514153

Assignment Title: Procurement of Consultancy services for RISERAP Regional Geospatial & Data Analytics (Remote Sensing, HydroInformatics & Dashboard Data Products)

Reference No: 656/AUDA/DITIR/GEN/QCBS/2026

Method: Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS)

1. Introduction

The African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for Africa Development (AUDA-NEPAD) has received financing from the World Bank toward the cost of the “Resilient Irrigation for a Sustainable Economy Project”, and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services. “ Procurement of Consultancy services for RISERAP Regional Geospatial & Data Analytics (Remote Sensing, HydroInformatics & Dashboard Data Products)”

1. Description of Services

The consulting services (“the Services”) include: Joint Inception, Institutional Readiness and Workplan Confirmation – Participate in a joint inception phase with the Africa RISE Gateway team to prepare a unified delivery schedule, shared data model, API architecture note, staging plan, approval pathway and milestone acceptance process. Where the same firm delivers both workstreams, separate teams, named leads, reporting lines and acceptance checkpoints shall be maintained. . Regional Geospatial Data Products and Benchmarking Inputs – Produce priority regional geospatial layers aligned with the Africa RISE Regional Benchmarking System, including crop and irrigated-area maps, evapotranspiration and water productivity datasets, vegetation and biomass indicators, surface-water extent, groundwater-stress proxies where feasible, drought/flood exposure and climate-variability composites; Analytics Workflows and Decision-Support Outputs – Develop and operationalize an analytics suite comprising: Irrigation Performance Assessment; Water Security analytics; Climate Risk analytics; Digital Field Monitoring Toolkit; Regional Benchmarking analytics; and Decision Dashboard publication package; Data Governance, Interoperability, QA/QC and Publication Controls – Prepare and operationalize a practical Data Governance, QA/QC and Interoperability Pack covering validation rules, uncertainty documentation, metadata standards, dataset lineage, version control, access controls, API/interface specifications and data privacy requirements; Capacity Building, Sustainability and Handover – Design and deliver a tiered capacity-building programme for AUDA-NEPAD technical staff, national data focal points, programme managers, policy users and field teams, including practical exercises and on-the-job support linked to actual analytics products and Gateway staging outputs.

1. Capacity Building Program

 A structured capacity-building programme shall be delivered to ensure sustainability beyond the assignment and to strengthen both regional-level users and national-level actors. Because data will be generated, validated and submitted at country level, the programme shall build national capacity so that the platform functions as a sustainable data production and validation system, rather than depending on repeated follow-up with country teams for routine submissions, validation and issue resolution.

1. Training Module 1 – Geospatial Products for Irrigation Planning and Benchmarking: interpreting crop and irrigation maps, evapotranspiration datasets, methods notes, uncertainty statements and limitations.
2. Training Module 2 – QA/QC and Metadata: applying SOPs, version control and minimum documentation requirements for publication, reuse and integration into the Africa RISE Gateway.
3. Training Module 3 – Dashboard Data Use for Regional and National Users: extracting insights for regional learning, TA targeting and reporting through the Africa RISE Gateway and dashboard, including role-based use of benchmarking views and approved country submissions.
4. Training Module 4 – National Data Focal Point Training: applying national data submission protocols, data quality validation workflows, the minimum interoperability pack and escalation procedures where data quality issues arise.
5. Training Module 5 – Strategic Training for Policymakers and Programme Managers: interpreting regional benchmarking indicators, irrigation performance diagnostics, climate-risk intelligence and water-security analytics to support investment decisions and adaptive management under Africa RISE.
6. Training Module 6 – Operational Training for Field Teams: using digital field monitoring toolkits, data collection standards and procedures for uploading field observations to the analytics platform. Training shall be delivered in-country in at least one participating country, such as Zambia or Ethiopia, and remotely for other participating countries. Lessons from the pilot shall be incorporated into the final training package and digital toolkit user guide.

Technical clinics and office hours: Periodic technical clinics shall be held with the AUDA-NEPAD PMU and nominated country focal points to resolve implementation issues, support adoption and refine training materials.

Capacity-building outputs shall include training slides, practical exercises, user guides and focal-point reference materials, with attendance records and post-training evaluations for regional and national participants.

1. Level of Effort for Key staff:

1. Duration of the assignment

Total duration: 12 Months + 4-6 Months of  structured transition and backstopping period from the date of contract signature

1. The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment can be found on the following website: https://www.nepad.org/corporate-procurement#tenders

1. Shortlisting criteria:

The African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for Africa Development (AUDA-NEPAD) now invites eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services. The shortlisting criteria are:

• The Firm must have a minimum of eight (8) years of demonstrated experience designing and delivering geospatial analytics and/or data systems for development programmes, including multi-country or regional initiatives.
• Proven experience producing and operationalizing remote sensing products relevant to irrigation and water monitoring (e.g., irrigated area mapping, cropping intensity proxies, ET/actual ET products, drought/flood exposure layers), including clear documentation of methods and limitations.
• The Firm should have successfully completed at least two (2) similar assignments in the last five (5) years involving (i) remote sensing/GIS analytics and (ii) production of dashboard ready datasets and documentation, evidenced by completion certificates and/or client references.
• The Firm must demonstrate experience working in African countries and ability to operate across multiple Member States/RECs and institutional counterparts, including remote delivery and targeted missions as required.
• Proven experience delivering secure, scalable web based dashboards/portals with role based access and structured data submission workflows (including secure upload, validation, and aggregation features).

1. Conflict of interest

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Section III, paragraphs, 3.15, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” February 2025  (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.  In addition, please refer to the following specific information on conflict of interest related to this assignment:

1. A firm that has been engaged by the Borrower to provide Goods, Works, or Non-consulting Services for a project (or an affiliate that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with that firm), shall be disqualified from providing Consulting Services resulting from, or directly related to, those Goods, Works, or Non-consulting Services. This provision does not apply to the various firms (Consultants, contractors, or suppliers), which together are performing the contractor’s obligations under a turnkey or design and build contract;

1. A firm that has been engaged by the Borrower to provide Consulting Services for the preparation or implementation of a project (or an affiliate that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with that Consulting firm), shall be disqualified from subsequently providing Goods, Works, or Non-consulting Services resulting from, or directly related to those Consulting Services. This provision does not apply to the various firms (Consultants, contractors, or suppliers), which together are performing the contractor’s obligations under a turnkey or design and build contract;

1. Neither a Consultant (including personnel and sub-consultants), nor an affiliate (that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with that Consultant), shall be hired for any assignment that, by its nature, creates a conflict of interest with another assignment of the Consultant;

1. Consultants (including their experts and other personnel, and sub-consultants), that have a close business or family relationship with a professional staff of the Borrower, or of the project implementing agency, or of a recipient of a part of the Bank’s financing, or any other party representing or acting on behalf of the Borrower, that is directly or indirectly involved in any part of: (i) the preparation of the TOR for the assignment; (iii) the selection process for the contract; or iii. the supervision of the contract, may not be awarded a contract, unless the conflict stemming from this relationship has been resolved in a manner acceptable to the Bank throughout the selection process and the execution of the contract.

Consultants may associate with other firms to enhance their qualifications, but should indicate clearly whether the association is in the form of a joint venture and/or a sub-consultancy. In the case of a joint venture, all the partners in the joint venture shall be jointly and severally liable for the entire contract, if selected.

A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) method set out in the Procurement Regulations.

Further information can be obtained at the address below during office.

Expressions of interest must be delivered to the address below by email on or before September 14th, 2026, 14:30 hours (South African Time). All EOI’s must be marked “656/AUDA/DITIR/GEN/QCBS/2026 – Procurement of Consultancy services for RISERAP Regional Geospatial & Data Analytics (Remote Sensing, HydroInformatics & Dashboard Data Products)” in the subject line of the email.

EOIs can also be sent by email, addressed to the address below. Interested Consultants may also obtain further information at the address below during office hours (09:00 – 17:00 South Africa time):

The Chairperson, Internal Procurement Committee (IPC)

African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD)

Eco Origin, Block F,

349 Witch Hazel Street,

Eco Park, Centurion.

Email: procurement@nepad.org ; and copy to manthatir@auda-nepad.org

Attention of: Procurement Division

annex 1

DECLARATION OF UNDERTAKING

{Location, Date}

To: The Chairperson Internal Procurement Committee (IPC)

AUDA-NEPAD

230, 15th Road, P. O. Box 218 Midrand,

1685 Johannesburg, South Africa

The Attention of: Head of Procurement Division

1. We, the undersigned, offer to provide the services for {Title and Procurement Number} in accordance with your Request for Expression of Interest (EOI) dated {Date}
2. We declare that:

1. All the information and statements made in this EOI are true and we accept that any misinterpretation or misrepresentation contained in the EOI may lead to our disqualification and/or may be sanctioned by AUDA-NEPAD;
2. We have no conflict of interest in relationship to performance of this assignment;
3. We confirm our understanding of our obligation to abide by the AU Ethics policy regarding corrupt and fraudulent practices;
4. We, along with any of our sub-consultants, subcontractors, suppliers, or service providers for any part of the contract, are not subject to, and not controlled by any entity or individual that is subject to, a temporary suspension or a debarment imposed by the African Union, World Bank or any other multilateral development bank and being listed on the website http://www.worldbank.org/debarr or respectively on the relevant list of any other multilateral development bank. Further, we are not ineligible under the South African laws or official regulations or pursuant to a decision of the United Nations Security Council; 
5. We have not been convicted by a final judgement or a final administrative decision or subject to financial sanctions by the African Union, United Nations or Country for involvement in a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorist-related offences, child labour or trafficking in human beings; this criterion of exclusion is also applicable to legal Persons, whose majority of shares are held or factually controlled by natural or legal Persons which themselves are subject to such convictions or sanctions;
6. We are not a shell company nor has our company been created specifically for this bid and confirm we are legally registered to operate a business under the Laws of {insert country of registration} since {insert year of registration}; and
7. We are not being bankrupt, wound up or ceasing our activities, having our activities administered by courts, having entered receivership, reorganisation or being in any analogous situation;
8. Are not involved in corruption: offering, giving, receiving or soliciting, directly or indirectly, anything of value to influence improperly the actions of another party;
9. We comply with our national tax and social security laws.

1. We commit ourselves to complying with and ensuring that our Subcontractors and major suppliers under the Contract comply with international environmental and labour standards, consistent with laws and regulations applicable in the country of implementation of the Contract and the fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and international environmental treaties. Moreover, we shall implement environmental and social risks mitigation measures when specified in the relevant environmental and social management plans or other similar documents provided by AUDA-NEPAD and, in any case, implement measures to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse and gender-based violence.
2. We undertake to bring to the attention of AUDA-NEPAD, any change in situation regarding points 2 and 3 here above.

We remain,

Yours sincerely,

Authorised Signature:

Name and Title of Signatory:

Name of Firm:

Address: