Terms of Reference 

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR THE RECRUITMENT OF A CONSULTANT TO DEVELOP THE CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE FOR THE AFRICAN NETWORK OF CYBERSECURITY AUTHORITIES (ANCA)

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL BACKGROUND... 3

1.1         About Smart Africa Alliance. 3

1.2         Project Background. 3

1.3         Objectives and Scope. 4

1.4         Project Specific Objectives. 4

2. STEMENT OF WORK... 5

2.1         The Scope and Objectives of the Consultancy. 5

2.2         The Main Outcomes and Deliverables for the Consultancy. 5

3. METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH... 6
4. DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT.. 7
5. MISSION EXECUTION... 7
6. PROFILE OF THE FIRM... 8
7. EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS. 9

7.1         Technical Criteria. 10

7.2         Financial criteria. 10

8. INFORMATION AND SUBMISSION... 11

8.1         Enquires. 11

8.2         Submission Requirements. 11

8.3         Submission Process. 12

8.4         Validity. 12

9. RIGHTS RESERVED... 12
10. ANTI-CORRUPTION... 13

1. INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL BACKGROUND

1.1 About Smart Africa Alliance 

The Smart Africa Alliance is a bold and innovative commitment from African Heads of State and Government to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the African continent with the vision to transform Africa into a Single Digital Market by 2030.  Its 5 points manifesto seeks; to put ICT at the centre of national socio-economic development agenda, to improve access to ICT especially Broadband, to improve accountability, efficiency and openness through ICT, to put the Private Sector First and to leverage ICT to promote sustainable development. 

As of October 2023, The Smart Africa Alliance membership includes 39 Member States that represent 1.1 billion people, international partner organizations including the Africa Union Commission (AUC) and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) among others, as well as International Private Sector Members. The Smart Africa Secretariat (SAS) is based in Kigali, Rwanda. 

1.2 Project Background 

Smart Africa’s vision is to transform Africa into single digital Market by 2030. Cybersecurity is one of the building blocks and vital cross cutting theme to all 36 ongoing Smart Africa initiatives. 

Smart Africa, under the leadership of Cote d’Ivoire, launched this project to develop continental cybersecurity blueprint and one of its key pillars is to build institutional capabilities necessary to protect and defend Africa’s cyberspace against threats related to disruption, distortion, deterioration of services and of critical infrastructure.

To achieve this, Smart Africa established the African Network of Cybersecurity Authorities (ANCA) with a purpose to oversee cybersecurity development on the continent.

The African Network of Cybersecurity Authorities (ANCA) comprises several African cybersecurity authorities and agencies from different geographical and linguistic areas, with the aim of setting up a platform for exchanges and cooperation between its members and making Africa's voice heard in its dealings with partners around the world on cybersecurity matters.   

To support this network to become operational, Smart Africa is seeking services from a highly experienced consultant that specializes in institutional establishment and operationalization to develop ANCA constitution and governance structure.

1.3 Objectives and Scope

The objective of developing a constitution and governance structure for the African Network of Cyber Security Authorities (ANCA) is to support this network to become fully established and operational.  This consultancy will consist of:

• Developing the ANCA’s constitution or statutes, and getting the network registered officially.
• Defining the governance structure - Organs of the ANCA (General assembly, board, and secretariat) and its modalities and responsibilities.
• Developing a website and the logo of the ANCA
• With the support of ANCA bureau, developing the ANCA 5 year strategy highlighting its vision, mission, activities, stakeholders, etc.

1.4 Project Specific Objectives

The specific objectives  are:

• defining clear objectives of the network and members of the network
• defining the network bodies (general assembly, board, secretariat) meetings frequency, powers, composition, assignments, responsibilities, etc.
• defining the network resources and operations.
• defining vision and mission of the network.
• developing the network’s website and its logo, etc.

2. STEMENT OF WORK

2.1 The Scope and Objectives of the Consultancy

The scope and objectives of the Consultancy is the following:

1. Engage Smart Africa Secretariat, the ANCA bureau and other selected stakeholders to discuss the roadmap for the consultancy services leading to the development of an approved inception report that clearly explains how the objectives will be achieved.
2. Review existing documents including the network concept note with specific emphasis on understanding the rationale of creating this network.
3. Develop the constitution of the network and define its governance structure
4. Conduct stakeholders’ consultations to gather their inputs and validate the constitution and website.
5. Incorporate the stakeholders’ comments from the consultative meetings as appropriate
6. Prepare a comprehensive report and present the constitution and other deliverables to Smart Africa team.
7. Provide a documentation including presentation materials (both English and French)

2.2 The Main Outcomes and Deliverables for the Consultancy

The main outcomes for the Consultancy are as follows:

1. Inception report
2. The network’s constitution
3. Elaboration of the governance structure
4. The network’s standard operating procedures.
5. The network’s website and logo
6. Registration of the network

3. METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH 

The development of the ANCA documents will be carried out by the consultant firm in collaboration with the Smart Africa Secretariat and the ANCA bureau as well as other key stakeholders. 

It is expected that the consultancy firm’s work will be in line with following methodology and rules:

1. The consultancy firm will assume primary responsibility for drafting the expected deliverables, in both French and English. The working languages will be English and French.
2. The consultancy firm will work closely with the designated staff of Smart Africa and the ANCA elected bureau to carry out the task.
3. The consulting firm will report to the Smart Africa Secretariat and the ANCA elected bureau, by participating in regular meetings (approximately once a week) and by preparing the necessary meeting reports, slideshows and summaries of documents.
4. The consultancy firm present the draft report and collect comments on each interim deliverable and make consequential revisions in the final version.
5. Support and facilitation will be provided from the Smart Africa Secretariat for exchanges with the network members
6. The consultancy firm will guarantee the confidentiality of information shared by the Smart Africa Secretariat, Smart Africa Member States and other stakeholders participating in process. Publication of content can only take place after validation by the network.
7. The consultancy firm shall submit each deliverable in five (5) printed copies and all working documents in soft copies, editable files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), in both French and English.
8. The consultancy firm shall ensure the design and layout of final reports using Smart Africa template
9. The consultancy firm shall submit an executive summary of all the deliverables in a Microsoft PowerPoint format, in both French and English.
10. The consultancy firm shall be able to communicate in both French and English and cover the costs for necessary translations of documents.

4. DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The selected consulting firm must carry out the project within four (4) weeks from the date of signing the contract. The indicative timetable is as follows: 

TO* = Time when contract is signed 

5. MISSION EXECUTION 

The activities and outcomes of the consultancy will be guided by Smart Africa secretariat, to give overall strategic guidance with the support of the ANCA elected bureau. The purpose of this document is to present the details of hiring a consulting firm to help achieve the stated objectives.

6. PROFILE OF THE FIRM 

The ideal consultancy firm must meet the following minimum requirements to be considered during the evaluation:

• Must have ten (10) years of technical experience in conducting research and developing official documents related to organizational establishment, operations or technological development.
• Have conducted similar studies relating to drafting constitutions and developing organizational statutes, strategies and standards.
• The lead consultant to have a strong background or experience in IT
• Demonstrate the ability to design user-friendly, intuitive deliverables and tools and toolkits.
• Familiarity with the African context and expertise in working with stakeholders in the region.
• Demonstrated ability to engage diverse stakeholders, including government agencies and industry representatives.
• Proven track record in delivering high-quality reports and presentations.
• Ability to work in French or English. 

The work shall be carried out by a consulting firm with a lead consultant highly qualified in the requested specialties, namely:

• To guide the selection of methodologies, assessment, approaches based on understanding of the work and methods to develop the constitution.
• To align the constitution with policy goals and strategies with a focus on policy development and strategy formulation.
• To draft the constitution and benchmarking its content with other standardized organizational statutes.
• The minimum requirements below are examined during the evaluation, the consultant should:
  • Hold a master’s degree level in administration, governance, political science, ICTs, law,public policy, strategies development or related fields.
  • Demonstrate experience and expertise in designing official documents and tools for establishing an organization.
  • Have seven (7) years of extensive experience in drafting laws, regulations, standards, guidelines.
  • Have five (5) years of extensive experience in leadership, policy development and strategies. Proven knowledge on policy frameworks, initiatives, and best practices related to organizational establishment.
  • Proficiency in constitution development, website designing, organizational establishment. Having participated successfully in at least two (2) reports of similar expected level of high-quality documents in the last 10 years
  • Demonstrated experience in project management at the continental or regional level. Demonstrate familiarity in working with regional and continental organizations
  • Proven ability to identify trends, patterns and insights from data and translating them into meaningful findings (sample reports could be an added advantage).
  • Proven ability to lead a team and present the reports to stakeholders
  • Having participated successfully in at least two (2) projects of similar level of complexity.
  • Experience working in Africa and fluent in French or English. 

One consultant is needed but the consultancy firm could propose additional staff as part of the consulting team as necessary with adequate justification towards the realization of study objectives with dedicated roles/positions for evaluation explicitly detailed. 

7. EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS

The following model will be used to evaluate all respondents and proposals submitted:

7.1 Technical Criteria 

7.2 Financial criteria 

The financial proposal of only those firms which secure a minimum score of 70/100 in the technical evaluation will be opened.

St= Score for the Technical Evaluation

Financial Criteria: Once the technical criteria have been evaluated, the costs of all bids will be listed from low to high. Computing the cost criteria score will be accomplished by use of the following formula: 

The Applicant getting maximum marks on 70-30 weightage (70% for technical and 30% for financial) will be selected as Consultants for the Client. The weights given to the Technical (T) and Financial Proposals (F) are T = 0.70 and F = 0.30

The Final Score (S) is calculated as follows: S = St*T + Sf*F

8. INFORMATION AND SUBMISSION

8.1 Enquires 

Any enquiries will only be received and addressed five (5) days or more prior to the bid submission deadline. Prospective respondents who may have questions regarding this RFP may submit their enquiries to tenderenquiries@smartafrica.org

8.2 Submission Requirements

All technical and financial proposals must be submitted in English

1) Administrative Documents

• Company registration certificates.
• Tax clearance certificates/equivalent if applicable.

2) Technical Requirements

• Firms corporate profile/Executive summary.
• Firm background, experience, and expertise related to organizational establishment
• Detailed proposed methodology and approach for developing the constitution
• Detailed work plan timeline for completing the assignment.
• Lead consultant and specific responsibilities per each party.
• Consultancy services performed with references and contacts.
• Detailed updated Curriculum Vitae for the proposed lead consultant.
• Recommendation letters or certificate of completion from previous similar assignments. Letters should be provided with the letterhead of the recommending client and must be signed and stamped. 

3) Financial Requirements

• Summarized Total Cost VAT Inclusive (Value of tax indicated on final cost)
• Breakdown of a remuneration package
• Breakdown of reimbursable expenses

Notes:

• Indicate your preferred payment terms under financial proposal
• A withholding tax of 15% will be applicable for Firms not VAT registered with Rwanda Tax Administration (RRA) and 18% VAT will be applicable for registered firms in Rwanda.
• All Financial Proposals/offers should be password protected and Smart Africa will request for it for bidders who have been qualified in the technical evaluation per Lot.
• All Financial Offers should be quoted and submitted in USD Currency.

8.3 Submission Process 

Soft copies of both Technical and Financial Offers must be sent to: procurement@smartafrica.org showing each the nature of the offer concerned (technical or financial offer) with mention 107/SA/RFP/01/2024, “Recruitment of a consultant firm to develop the constitution and governance structure for the African Network of Cybersecurity Authorities (ANCA)” not later than 22^nd January 2024 at 5:00 PM local time (Kigali). 

Kindly note that late submissions will be rejected.

8.4 Validity 

Proposals and quotes must remain valid for 120 days after the date of closing noted above. After the closing date and time, all proposals received by the Smart Africa Secretariat become its property.

9. RIGHTS RESERVED 

1. This RFP does not obligate the Smart Africa Secretariat (SAS) to complete the RFP process.
2. SAS reserves the right to amend any segment of the RFP prior to the announcement of a selected firm.
3. SAS also reserves the right to remove one or more of the services from consideration for this contract should the evaluation show that it is in SAS’s best interest to do so.
4. SAS also may, at its discretion, issue a separate contract for any service or groups of services included in this RFP. SAS may negotiate a compensation package and additional provisions to the contract awarded under this RFP.
5. Smart Africa reserves the right to debrief the applicants after the completion of the process due to the expected high volume of applications and avoiding the compromise of the process.

10. ANTI-CORRUPTION 

Smart Africa is committed to preventing and not tolerating any act of corruption and other malpractices and expects that all bidders will adhere to the same ethical principles.