Expression of Interest (EOI) Consultancy Services for Landscape analysis for the Smart City Ecosystem and development of a strategy for the Smart City Lab.
Reference Number: 83432383
1. Context
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federally owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. GIZ has worked in Rwanda for over 30 years. The primary objectives between the Government of Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region and the Federal Republic of Germany are poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable development. To achieve these objectives, GIZ Rwanda is active in the sectors of Decentralization and Good Governance, Economic Development and Employment Promotion, Energy and ICT (Information and Communications Technology), Natural Resources, Peace and Security and Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
Rwanda champions the Smart Cities concept under the Smart Africa Alliance, a goal also aligned with the country’s national digital transformation agenda that aims to transform the nation into an upper middle-income country by 2035. Rwanda, like most countries across the world is experiencing rapid urbanisation, the capital city ‘Kigali’ currently has a population of 1.6 million, projected to increase to 3.8 million by 2050, and city infrastructures and functions are already strained at current capacity, hence the urgency to create smart and resilient cities across the country that can cope with this upward trend.

In order to streamline all smart city activities in Rwanda, a consortium consisting of the Ministry of ICT and Innovation (MINICT), Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA) and Rwanda ICT Chamber was formed to establish the Rwanda Smart City Lab. The Smart City Lab is currently in the design and planning phase where concrete deliverables and services will be further defined, and partners and beneficiaries identified. The three institutions are bringing in technical details from other similar programs they implemented in the past such as kLab and FabLab. In addition to that, the consortium has an opportunity to leverage their existing partnerships with other institutions and industry experts who would complement their work at the Smart City Lab.
The idea for the Smart City Lab stems from a competition which was launched by AEDIBNET in November 2021, an initiative funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme and implemented by GIZ, to promote African–European collaboration on digitalisation and innovation. As part of this structure, initial funding will be provided by GIZ’ Make-IT in Africa project.

GIZ implements the project "Make-IT in Africa II" on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The main focus of the project is to support national and pan-African entrepreneurial ecosystems to become resilient and sustainable.
1. Rationale of the assignment
The vision of the ‘Smart City Lab’ is to become a one stop shop where actors in the smart city ecosystem (public, private, academia, etc.) can collaborate to co-design solutions that address urbanisation challenges, create impact and improve the lives of citizens in Rwandan cities and communities through technology and innovation.
The Smart City lab will be focused on providing value-adding services to ecosystem actors through;
• Local and international linkages that can accelerate and foster strong collaboration for the development of smart, resilient and sustainable cities in Rwanda and the region,
• Provide a co-working space and capacity building for digital entrepreneurs through existing hubs and facilities,
• Access to financing opportunities and instruments including VCs, Innovation funds, etc.
• Access to markets through existing networks such as other digital innovation hubs in Africa and Europe, the Smart Africa Alliance, among others
• Access to real use cases in the form of problem statements, pilot areas, among others.
To support setting up the Smart City Lab in Rwanda, Make-IT in Africa is looking for a consultant to conduct a mapping of the Rwandan Smart City landscape and ecosystem to get a better understanding of the innovators’ needs and challenges.
2. Scope of work
In order to further support the setup of the Smart City Lab, the contractor is expected to provide the following services:

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Baseline Assessment
The contractor shall conduct a baseline diagnosis of the ecosystem by;
• Assessing already existing definitions from the National Smart City Master Plan on what smart cities are and propose an update accordingly (if there were any changes over time).
• A special attention shall be paid to a concrete definition of what smart city solutions are, particularly in Rwanda’s and the region’s context.
• Getting a clear understanding of the demand & supply side challenges faced in the Rwandan smart city context that need to be solved, including;
• Assessment of the current needs of startups and SMEs, and ultimately derive meaningful recommendations to those needs
• Assessing the skills, capacity and other gaps in the local smart city ecosystem
• Assess the policy environment around the industry, benchmarking on global best practices.
• Document lessons learned from existing solutions and best practices to provide in-depth understanding of key achievements and challenges in delivering Smart-City related innovations/solutions.
Ecosystem and Landscape Mapping
In order to assess which companies have the capacity to implement Smart City solutions, the consultant is requested to;
• Conduct a mapping of the current Smart City ecosystem and landscape identifying key players, stakeholders particularly; innovators, startups, hubs, SMEs, training providers and large corporations and create a catalogue/database of the ecosystem.
The idea is to understand who has been in the smart cities sector and for how long, and hence inform the impact measurement analysis work. The ecosystem is here defined as both tech-companies and tech-enabled companies.
• The consultant shall also look at potential enablers and investors, define partner categories and respective areas of expertise.
• The contractor is expected to look at potential regional integration and scale up opportunities. At the same time, the consultant is requested to conduct a readiness assessment of Rwanda as a launchpad for scalable Smart City solutions.

Strategy for Smart City Lab
• The contractor shall create a strategy for the Smart City Lab including a clear vision, objectives and personnel structure based on the previous work done by the consortium, and the unique value that the lab will offer (establish the relevance of the lab in the ecosystem). The strategy shall incorporate the midterm- and long-term sustainability of the Smart City Lab.
• Based on the findings, the consultant shall develop a service catalogue addressing the identified needs and pain points of smart city innovators and companies. This task should include the validation of the existing service catalogue.
• Develop criteria for measuring success of the Smart City Lab.
• Develop criteria for teams (particularly in the ideation stage), startups and companies to qualify as a smart city company and candidate for the lab
• Develop an entry and exit strategy for users of the lab; user-journey process of how one is identified, onboarded, served and exits the program.
• The contractor shall also look at the possibility of engaging other development partners and companies to join the Smart City Lab
Reporting and sustainability concept
An important aspect is the monitoring and evaluation of results in order to ensure that the targets have been achieved. This lies in the consultants’ responsibility to find a mechanism to track the results and update GIZ and the consortium regularly.
The contractor shall coordinate regular check-ins with the consortium, GIZ and other partners to steer the project, provide regular updates on the project’s progress and to mitigate challenges quickly.
3. Milestones and Duration of the Assignment
Certain milestones, as laid out in the table below, are to be achieved by certain dates during the contract term (T0 = start of contract)
Milestone Deadline Place Person responsible
Project kick-off T0 Rwanda Team leader
Detailed Inception Report including implementation plan, methodology, etc. T0 + 1 week Rwanda Team leader
Baseline Assessment, Ecosystem and Landscape Mapping T0 + 8 weeks Rwanda Team leader, Pool of experts
Strategy for Smart City Lab & Service Catalogue T0 + 12 weeks Rwanda Team leader, Pool of experts
Submission of final report T0 + 15 weeks Rwanda Team leader
Period of assignment: The work should be concluded within 4 months, effective from the start of the contract, between 15.03.2023 - 15.07.2023.

4. Expected Deliverables
The following deliverables should be submitted to the consortium and GIZ:
1. An inception report that entails the methodology, approach and work plan to be applied in order to conduct this assignment
2. A baseline assessment report benchmarking on global best practices of smart cities
3. A landscape analysis report showing the in-depth analysis of the ecosystem players/actors, initiatives, enablers, strengths, weaknesses, among others.
4. A strategy for the Smart City Lab showing the Lab’s relevance and how it will strengthen this ecosystem
5. A service catalogue indicating the service offerings and beneficiary/partner categories that the Lab will cater to.
6. A Final report that consolidates the outputs of the assignment.
The consultant shall submit each report and all working documents in editable files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) in English.
5. Concept (Approach and Methodology)
In the bid, the bidder is required to show how the objectives defined in Chapter 3 are to be achieved, if applicable under consideration of further specific method-related requirements (technical-methodological concept). In addition, the bidder must describe the project management system for service provision.
Technical-methodological concept
Strategy: The bidder is required to consider the tasks to be performed with reference to the objectives of the services put out to tender (see Chapter 3). Following this, the bidder presents and justifies the strategy with which it intends to provide the services for which it is responsible (see Chapter 3).
The bidder is required to describe the key processes for the services for which it is responsible and create a schedule that describes how the services according to Chapter 3 are to be provided. In particular, the bidder is required to describe the necessary work steps and, if applicable, take account of the milestones and contributions of other actors in accordance with Chapter 3.
The bidder is required to describe its contribution to knowledge management for the partner and GIZ and promote scaling-up effects (learning and innovation).

6. Personnel concept
The bidder is required to provide personnel who are suited to filling the positions described, on the basis of their CVs (see Chapter 7), the range of tasks involved and the required qualifications.
The below specified qualifications represent the requirements to reach the maximum number of points.
Team leader
Tasks of the team leader
• Project Management and coordination of the overall assignment
• Liaison/focal person for the consortium, GIZ and other partners
• Producing & presenting project reports and documents
• Submitting regular updates
• Organising stakeholder engagement & validation workshops
• Develop the Smart City Lab strategy and service catalogue
Qualifications of the team leader
• Education/training (2.1.1): Masters in Business Administration, Project Management, Research or related fields
• Language (2.1.2): Excellent business language skills in English
• General professional experience (2.1.3): 10 years of professional experience in strategy development, business development, project management or similar
• Specific professional experience (2.1.4): 5 years of experience working with the tech-ecosystem, startups and alike
• Leadership/management experience (2.1.5): 6 years of management/leadership experience as project team leader or manager in a company.
• Regional experience (2.1.6): 5 years of experience in projects in Rwanda
Expert 1: Monitoring and Evaluation Expert
Tasks
• Lead the baseline analysis for the smart city ecosystem
• Conduct a lessons-learned and needs/gaps assessment in the Rwanda smart city ecosystem
• Assist in the ecosystem mapping exercise
• Design a Performance Monitoring Plan as part of the Smart City Lab strategy

Qualifications
• Education/training (2.2.1): Masters in Business Administration, Monitoring and Evaluation, Research or related fields
• Language (2.2.2): Excellent business language skills in English
• General professional experience (2.2.3): 7 Years of experience in Monitoring and Evaluation, ICT and STEM or other sectors that are linked to Smart Cities as a whole
• Specific professional experience (2.2.4): 3 Years of experience working with the tech-ecosystem in Rwanda
• Regional experience (2.2.5): 3 Years experience in Rwanda
Expert 2: Smart Cities and/or Urban Planning/Innovation Expert
Tasks
• Lead the ecosystem mapping exercise
• Provide technical and expert support in the design and preparation of the smart city lab strategy
• Offer innovative approaches to future city actions and processes in partner cities, based on global trends but considering local contexts
• Design the Smart City Lab service catalogue

Qualifications
• Education/training (2.3.1): Masters in Business Administration or Public Sector Innovation, Urban Planning & Management, sustainable development or similar.
• Language (2.3.2): Excellent business language skills in English
• General professional experience (2.3.3): 10 Years of professional experience, experience in conceptualization and execution of smart city initiatives
• Specific professional experience (2.3.4): 5 Years of experience working with the tech-ecosystem in Rwanda and/or support organisations or innovators in the tech-ecosystem in Rwanda
• Specific professional experience (2.3.8): Worked on at least 3 projects in relevant sectors such as smart mobility, open data, green tech or similar
• Regional experience (2.3.7): 3 Years experience in Rwanda
Soft skills of team members
In addition to their specialist qualifications, the following qualifications are required of team members:
• Team skills
• Initiative
• Communication skills
• Sociocultural competence
• Efficient, partner- and client-focused working methods
• Interdisciplinary thinking

7. Costing requirements
Assignment of personnel
Team leader: 35 expert days
M&E Experts: 35 expert days
Smart city Expert: 45 expert days

8. Inputs of GIZ and the consortium
GIZ and/or other actors are expected to make the following available:
• Introductions to relevant stakeholders
• Logistics for onsite workshops
• Draft business plan of the Smart City Lab
• Draft service catalogue of the Smart City Lab
9. Requirements on the format of the bid
The structure of the bid must correspond to the structure of the ToRs. In particular, the detailed structure of the concept (Chapter 3) is to be organised in accordance with the positively weighted criteria in the assessment grid (not with zero). It must be legible (font size 11 or larger) and clearly formulated. The bid is drawn up in English.
The complete bid shall not exceed 10 pages (excluding CVs).
The CVs of the personnel proposed in accordance with Chapter 7 of the ToRs must be submitted using the format specified in the terms and conditions for application. The CVs shall not exceed 4 pages. The CVs must clearly show the position and job the proposed person held in the reference project and for how long. The CVs can also be submitted in German.
If one of the maximum page lengths is exceeded, the content appearing after the cut-off point will not be included in the assessment.
Please calculate your price bid based exactly on the aforementioned costing requirements. In the contract the contractor has no claim to fully exhaust the days/travel/workshops/ budgets. The number of days/travel/workshops and the budget amount shall be agreed in the contract as ‘up to’ amounts. The specifications for pricing are defined in the price schedule.

10. Intellectual Property
The bidder shall grant to GIZ an irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free and transferable right of use to the reports and studies and other documents prepared in accordance with this contract, which GIZ may use for non-commercial purposes, including processing and translation and for use in electronic media, without limitation as to time and content. Upon request of GIZ, the bidder shall immediately hand over a copy of the materials to GIZ. GIZ shall be entitled to grant simple sub-use rights to third parties.
Caveat: The assessment grid is attached to this EOI

11. Submission of offer
The Expression of Interest should contain the following:
• Technical Proposal:
o A cover letter expressing your interest in this assignment
o Technical proposal with a brief description of why you would be considered as the most suitable for the assignment, relevant expertise, and a detailed, clear methodology, on how will be your approach to complete the assignment
o CVs of the expert proposed
o Company registration certificate (RDB)
o VAT registration certificate
o Latest tax clearance certificate
o Proof of successful completion of related assignments.
• Financial Proposal: indicates the all-inclusive total contract price, supported by a breakdown of all costs. The costs must be in RWF and VAT
Please submit electronically your EoI (technical & Financial offer) in 2 separated emails and should be in PDF files to this email ONLY: RW_Quotation@giz.de until latest 3rd March 2023
Please you must write on each email subject this sentence: 83432383 Technical/financial offer, without this sentence, your offer may not be considered
Hard copies are not allowed this time
GIZ reserves all rights
List of abbreviations
ICT Information and Communication Technology
MINICT Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and Innovation
RISA Rwanda Information Society Authority
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