Call for Applications: Value Chain & Sector Analysis Experts (Expert Roster)

Description of the Global Gateway Investment Climate Reform Facility (GG ICR Facility)

The GG ICR Facility contributes to the development of a conducive, inclusive and sustainable investment climate for the implementation of the European Union’s Global Gateway Strategy in INTPA partner countries. Through targeted advisory services, it enables partner countries to attract investments, while enabling local and European businesses to grow and invest with confidence.

The Global Gateway Investment Climate Reform (GG ICR) Facility is jointly co-financed by the European Union (EU), the Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ) and the Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires Étrangères (MEAE) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Expertise France (EF) and SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation).

The Global Gateway strategy of the European Union covers five areas: Digital, Climate and Energy, Transport, Health and Education and Research. It allows EU partners to develop their societies and economies and create opportunities for the EU Member States’ private sector to invest and remain competitive. The GG ICR Facility is part of the ‘soft’ measures to materialise the Global Gateway strategy. Through this programme and across all its results, the EU aims at supporting green investments and a transition towards low-carbon circular economies, in line with the ambition of the European Green Deal and with the Paris agreement objectives. It is integrated into the European Consensus on Development ‘our world, our dignity, our future’, specifically with its priorities of promoting inclusive and sustainable growth and jobs. Lastly, it reinforces the EU’s leadership in promoting gender equality and social inclusion, in full alignment with the transformative approach of the Gender Action Plan III, while contributing to the 2030 Agenda’s SDG 5 (gender equality).

Based on partner proposals, the GG ICR Facility flexibly supports public and private actors in optimising regulatory reforms, institutions and economic policy frameworks. Eligible requests must be part of a wider strategy or reform process contributing to the EU’s Global Gateway priorities as well as partners’ regional and national priorities. More information about who can request expertise can be found here: https://www.icr-facility.eu/partner-with-us/request-expertise/.

Partners who can request support from the GG ICR Facility include governments, professional associations, chambers of commerce, financial service providers, trade unions, development finance institutions, economic communities, and private sector representative organizations at national and regional levels in INTPA partner countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia and the Pacific.

Objectives of this Call

SNV is currently building an experts’ roster of experienced, specialized consulting firms to implement on-demand technical assistance (TA) projects for the GG ICR Facility.

The objective of this call is to ensure that SNV has a roster of relevant firms to allow for efficient selection of the right expertise as new requests for TA reach the Facility.

Area of technical expertise

The GG ICR Facility expects to receive several requests in the coming years related to value chain analysis and broader sectoral analysis. The GG ICR Facility has worked on various agricultural or agroforestry value chains such as mango, coffee and cacao, or natural rubber. Other relevant sectors where value chain analysis would be relevant are Global Gateway themes such as transport and logistics, renewable energy or critical raw materials (CRM), These analyses often have a strong focus on climate resilience as well as women’s economic empowerment to ensure inclusive value chains and closing gender gaps in specific sectors.  

The assignments may cover a wide range of activities, including ecosystem mapping, stakeholder consultations, diagnostics, desk research, market analysis, policy and strategy development, institutional gender mainstreaming, investment or trade opportunity identification, public-private dialogue, or practical reform recommendations.

Examples of potential future projects could include supporting a government to assess export opportunities in a specific value chain, helping a regional economic community identify barriers to investment in a priority sector, or facilitating dialogue between public and private actors to define practical reforms that strengthen market opportunities and competitiveness.

Two examples of TORs are included in the Annex (please note: one example is from the current project phase with Global Gateway focus and one from the previous phase before the Global Gateway focus).

Expected results

GG ICR Facility projects are intended to deliver a clear outcome (not just an output, but a concrete result), beyond the deliverables that are produced as part of the project. An outcome is a concrete change that occurs in practice as a direct result of the project intervention: something that would not have happened had the intervention not taken place. Examples of outcomes include a new regulation or law in force, improved services of a chamber of commerce to its members, or the implementation of a public private dialogue platform.

Experts should design the project methodology and activities in a way that maximizes the likelihood of concrete change taking place on the ground. This may include introducing practical change management tools and ensuring that implementing agencies have the authority, leadership, capacity, buy-in, and budget needed to move reforms forward. Reform recommendations should be actionable and anticipate the requirements for implementation, including the estimated budget, feasibility, expected impact, responsible entity or person, and whether actions are short-, medium-, or long-term.

Given the complexity and dynamic nature of GG ICR Facility projects, experience with iterative, agile approaches, and adaptive management is highly valuable. Project methodologies should allow for regular reflection, learning, and adjustment based on emerging evidence, stakeholder feedback, and changing circumstances.

Functioning of the Roster

The selected firms (max 10) will be part of a roster of experts which SNV will draw upon to select a firm for specific assignments. The roster will be valid for a period of two years.

For each relevant new project, and based on a Terms of Reference (TOR), SNV will ask 3 firms on the Roster for their interest, availability, and a short proposal related to the specific assignment (short approach, team composition of the experts you want to include, and relevant daily rates). Through a short evaluation process, 1 firm will then be selected for the project.

As the GG ICR Facility is on-demand, there is no certainty of the number of potential projects relevant to the roster nor is there guaranteed work for each firm on the roster. In this sense, being selected to be part of the roster does not mean necessarily that the firm will be engaged on a given project.

Level of effort for each project

The duration, level of effort, and country of work will vary depending on the needs of each specific project and will be defined in the corresponding Terms of Reference. Assignments may be maximum 100 expert days, with most projects expected to range between 40 and 90 expert days.

Assignments are typically expected to last between 4 and 12 months.

Depending on the scope of work, experts will work virtually, on-site, or may be required to travel to assigned project countries for technical assistance missions. In some cases, missions may cover more than one country and/or multiple locations within a country

During assignments, close contact and collaboration with the requesting entity will be expected. Experts will report to the SNV project manager, who will be responsible for the assignment’s deliverables and their approval. Experts may also be expected to engage with other GG ICR Facility team members as needed, including for communications and monitoring and evaluation purposes.

Evaluation criteria

The roster will be established by screening submitted applications based on the criteria defined below.

- Demonstrated experience in the technical area of value chain analysis (see chapter 3): Max score: 40

- Demonstrated experience in applying agile/adaptive approaches, coaching and change management to reach outcomes (see chapter 4): Max score: 20

- Demonstrated experience in women’s economic empowerment and gender mainstreaming: Max score: 10

- Level of expertise in the above topics, through the qualifications of specific key experts in the team: Max score: 20

- Key experts with specific language skills beyond English: French, Portuguese or Spanish: Max score: 10

Maximum Total Possible: 100

Firms will be required to achieve a minimum score of 80 out of 100 points to be considered for inclusion in the roster. Subject to meeting this threshold, up to a maximum of twelve (12) firms with the highest overall scores will be selected for the roster.

See full terms of References with annexes in the below attachment:

https://c.smartrecruiters.com/sr-company-attachments-prod-aws-dc5/58919688e4b0672cc03331a9/5a5f92c2-6f34-4c57-a022-d12710b0004a?r=s3-eu-central-1

How to apply? 

SNV is the contracting party for this assignment on behalf of the GG ICR Facility.

Interested firms are invited to submit:

1. A short proposal (max 10 pages) including explanations for each of the criteria above:
   1. Summary of demonstrated experience by highlighting relevant previous implemented work.
   2. Table with overview of the potential team of experts and their relevant expertise, language skills per expert (only native/working-level language is considered valuable), location of each expert, and average daily rate in Euro (or USD).
2. CVs for key experts you wish to include in your team.
3. Three past performance references
   1. with details of the contracting officer, so SNV can follow up on references if required.

Please submit your proposal via SmartRecruiters by November 9th 23:59 CET.  Please note that individual documents cannot exceed 10MB; you can upload various files in SmartRecruiters (beyond indicated CV).