Background

AKADEMIYA2063, an international non-profit organization, headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda with a regional office in Dakar, Senegal, was established in January 2020. AKADEMIYA2063’s overall mission is to create across Africa state-of-the art technical capacities to support the efforts by the Member States of the African Union to achieve the key goals of the agenda 2063 of transforming national economies to boost growth and prosperity. The main goal of AKADEMIYA2063 is to help meet the needs of African countries in terms of data, analytics, and mutual learning for the effective implementation of Agenda 2063 and the realization of its outcomes by a critical mass of member states. It works to help deliver the expertise we need for the Africa we want.

Invitation

• AKADEMIYA2063 is seeking to engage a qualified, reputable, and experienced service provider to facilitate the open and transparent recruitment process for a Managing Director. The provider will be responsible for generating long lists, short lists, and a final list comprising at least five qualified applicants. Details of the assignment and expected deliverables are provided in Annex 1 – Terms of Reference
• Proposals must be submitted to AKADEMIYA2063 by August 14, 2024, at 17:30 East African time, via email to procurement.rw@akademiya2063.org.
• The Request for Proposal is not and shall not be considered an offer by AKADEMIYA2063.

This Request for Proposal (RFP) includes the following annexes:

Annex 1: Terms of Reference

Annex 2: Letter of submission

Annex 3: Job Description

• The terms and conditions outlined in this RFP, along with its annexes, will constitute integral components of any resulting contract, provided that AKADEMIYA2063 accepts your proposal. Any such contract will necessitate adherence to all factual statements and representations made in the proposal, with potential modifications subject to negotiation by AKADEMIYA2063.
• AKADEMIYA2063 reserves the right, at its discretion, to partially or completely cancel the requirement. It also retains the authority to accept or reject any proposal, annul the selection process, and reject all proposals at any time before selection, without incurring liability to proposers/firms.
• Offerors may withdraw their proposal after submission, provided that written notice of withdrawal is received by AKADEMIYA2063 before the submission deadline. No proposal may be modified after the submission deadline. Furthermore, no proposal may be withdrawn between the submission deadline and the expiration of the proposal validity period.
• All proposals shall remain valid and open for acceptance for 90 calendar days after the submission deadline. Proposals with shorter validity periods may be rejected. In exceptional circumstances, AKADEMIYA2063 may request the proposer's consent to extend the validity period, with all communications in writing.
• From the release of this solicitation onwards, all communications concerning this RFP must be exclusively directed to the Director of Finance & Administration via email at procurement.rw@akademiya2063.org. Offerors are prohibited from communicating with any other AKADEMIYA2063 personnel regarding this RFP.

Request for clarifications of RFP documents

If you have any questions or need clarification regarding the solicitation documents, please email your queries to procurement.rw@akademiya2063.org by July 26, 2024. Please ensure the subject line of your email includes the reference number and title of the RFP (e.g., RFP 2024/005–Recruitment Services for Managing Director). AKADEMIYA2063 will provide written responses to all clarification requests. Responses containing information relevant to all bidders will be posted on AKADEMIYA2063 website and/or communicated via email without identifying the source of the inquiry.

Amendments to RFP documents

• AKADEMIYA2063 reserves the right to modify the RFP documents by amendment prior to the proposal submission deadline, at its discretion or in response to clarifications requested by prospective offerors. All amendments will be published on AKADEMIYA2063’ website and/or communicated via email.
• AKADEMIYA2063 may, at its sole discretion, extend the deadline for proposal submission to allow prospective bidders reasonable time to incorporate the amendment into their proposals.

Submission of proposals

Proposals should be submitted via email to procurement.rw@akademiya2063.org following the guidelines below:

• Two separate files (technical and financial bids) should be attached to the email.
• The Technical file should contain the technical proposal and be named:

RFP 2024/005 – TECHNICAL PROPOSAL - (name of proposer)

• Please ensure the technical proposal does not include any financial information to avoid disqualification.
• The Financial file should contain the financial proposal and be named:

RFP 2024/005 – FINANCIAL PROPOSAL - (name of proposer)

• The subject line of the email should be:

RFP 2024/005 – Consultancy for Recruitment Services for Managing Director (name of proposer)

• The Financial Proposal MUST be submitted in a password-protected format. Upon meeting the qualifying technical score, the authorized procurement officer will contact bidders to provide the password for opening the Financial Proposal. Bidders must refrain from sending the password until requested by the procurement officer. Financial Proposals submitted without password protection may be rejected due to non-compliance.
• All prospective bidders are requested to return the completed submission letter with their proposal.

Late proposals

Any proposals received by AKADEMIYA2063 after the deadline for submission stated above may be rejected.

Corrupt, Fraudulent, Coercive, Collusive and other Prohibited Practices.

AKADEMIYA2063 requires that all AKADEMIYA2063 staff, proposers/bidders, suppliers, service providers and any other person or entity involved in AKADEMIYA2063-related activities observe the highest standard of ethics during the procurement and execution of all contracts. AKADEMIYA2063 may reject any proposal put forward by proposers, or where applicable, terminate their contract, if it is determined that they have engaged in corrupt, fraudulent, coercive, collusive or other prohibited practices.

Conflicts of Interest

In their proposal, bidders must (i) confirm that, based on their current best knowledge, there are no real or potential conflicts of interest involved in rendering Services for AKADEMIYA2063, and (ii) set out their policy on dealing with conflicts of interest should these arise.

Confidentiality

Information relating to the evaluation of proposals and recommendations concerning selection of Firms will not be disclosed to Firms that submitted proposals.