Recruitment of Most Significant Change

SOLICITATION OF OFFER

The SECURING NIGERIAN COMMUNITIES (SNC) project, funded by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor (DRL) and implemented by Equal Access International (EAI), invites all eligible providers to submit quotes in response to this RFQ.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS TO BIDDERS

The offeror must submit its quote in accordance with the instructions set out in these offer specifications. The failure to comply with these requirements may lead to the rejection of a quote.

1. Questions

Questions relating to the technical or administrative requirements of this RFQ may be submitted no later than the date and time and to the emails indicated on the first page. Questions must be submitted in writing; phone calls will not be accepted. Questions, requests for clarification, and related responses deemed relevant to other bidders will be sent to all other bidders who have expressed an interest in the bid.

2. Deadline and Submission Protocol

Bids must be received by the date and time indicated on the first page by e-mail only to:

Please include the following in the subject line of the email:

EAI-RFQ-NG-00022- Recruitment of MSC Facilitators

If you send a paper copy of your offer, each envelope must contain two separate, sealed envelopes. The only inscription on the inner envelopes shall be the Request for Bid number, as well as the words Financial Offer or Technical Offer, as applicable.

If you send your offer by email, please attach to your email two separate password-locked documents to be shared for the technical, financial, and reference offer. The documents must be named: Technical Offer and Financial Offer

Failure to comply with this bidding protocol may result in the disqualification of the bidder.

Bids received after the specified deadline and date will be considered late and may only be considered at the discretion of Equal Access International.

3. Tax and VAT

Equal Access International, a non-governmental organization and partner of the US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor (DRL) in the Securing Nigerian Communities (SNC) project, benefits from the exemption from value added tax (VAT) for all acquisitions of goods and services in Nigeria. Therefore, we kindly ask you to submit your offer in Naira, excluding VAT, and highlight the amount of VAT separately, if applicable.

4. Evaluation and contract award

The contract will be awarded to a bidder whose bid follows the instructions of this call for quotes, meets the eligibility criteria, and meets or exceeds the minimum required technical specifications, and is judged by the best value based on the lowest price, with a technically acceptable basis.

Award may be made with or without negotiations between Equal Access International and the selected vendor.  Award may be made to a vendor that provided the lowest priced technically acceptable quotation, or to a vendor other than the one that provided the lowest priced quotation, should that vendor be determined to have provided the best value quotation to Equal Access International taking technical and cost factors into account.

Please note that if there are significant gaps in the requirements of this consultation, an offer may be considered "inadmissible" and thus disqualified. Equal Access International reserves the right to grant, at its discretion, the course of action to be taken in response to such deficiencies.

It is expected that the order will be based solely on these initial proposals. However, the SNC project reserves the right to do any of the following:

· May conduct negotiations with and/or seek clarification from any bidder prior to award.

·    While preference is given to bidders who can meet the full technical requirements of these specifications, Equal Access International may issue a partial award or distribute the award among different bidders, if this is in the best interest of the SNC project.

· May cancel this Solicitation of Offers at any time.

5. Inspection and Acceptance of the Product or Service Delivered

Equal Access International will review the services or products rendered to determine whether they have been satisfactorily completed or fulfilled and whether the qualities and standards are acceptable. The selected provider will be responsible for any countermeasures or remedies in connection with this solicitation.

6. Source/Nationality/Manufacturing

All goods and services offered in response to this RFP must satisfy USAID Geographic Code 937 in accordance with the United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), 22 CFR §228.

Bidders may not offer or supply products or services that are manufactured or assembled in, shipped from, transported by, or under any other circumstance, involving any of the following countries: Burma, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria.

7. Warranty

There are no warranty requirements necessary for these requested bids.

8. Eligibility of the Bidder

By submitting a bid in response to this RFQ, the bidder certifies that its business is not privately held, suspended, or otherwise considered ineligible to receive an order from the U.S. Government.

Equal Access International will not award a contract to a company that is excluded, suspended, or considered ineligible by the U.S. government. If the company (or its manager) becomes ineligible after obtaining a vendor contract from Equal Access International, the project has the right to cancel this order without any legal consequences for Equal Access International.

9. General Terms and Conditions

This solicitation is subject to the following terms and conditions which will apply:

(a) Any decision resulting from such Solicitation of Bids shall be binding at a fixed price, in the form of a vendor contract.

(b) Only the following persons (or his/her delegate in possession of a valid Delegation of Authority Memo) may sign an Equal Access International Vendor Contract or Agreement:

· For orders below 3 million Naira – Peterx, Maji, Country Director

· For orders below 15 million Naira – Peterx, Maji, Country Director and Assetou Barry, Technical Director HQ

· For orders over 15 million Naira – Headquarters only

(c) No commission shall be paid to any member of staff of Equal Access International or any of its partners for the fulfilment of this engagement.

(d) Services will be delivered to the place of delivery indicated on the first page. The bidder is responsible for the satisfactory delivery of services, per the signed vendor contract.

(e) Services that are not performed satisfactorily per the agreed upon vendor contract will be borne at the vendor’s expense.

(f) Equal Access International's standard payment terms are net 30 days after receipt of the invoice, a copy of the Vendor Contract, and a certificate of completion of services or deliverables duly signed by an authorized employee of Equal Access International. Payment will only be made in the name of the entity submitting the bid in response to such request for quotation and identified in the resulting Vendor Contract; Payment will not be attributed to a third party.

(g) Once the Vendor Contract is made, you have the right to request information about the bidders, the chosen vendors, and the reasons for this choice. Your request should be sent in writing to the Senior Finance and Operations Officer at the following address: . Any verbal request will not be honored.

(h) U.S. law prohibits transactions with, and the provision of, resources and support to individuals and organizations associated with terrorism. The supplier, by virtue of an award resulting from this call for quotes, must ensure compliance with these laws.

10. Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)

An organization or supplier receiving funding from Equal Access International starting at $25,000 must obtain a UEI number prior to signing a contract or purchase order. The following link provides one number free of charge.

SCOPE OF WORK

SECURING NIGERIAN COMMUNITIES PROJECT

PROGRAM DECSRIPTION

Equal Access International (EAI) is implementing the Securing Nigerian Communities (SNC) project in Nigeria, funded by The United States Department of State. SNC aims to increase community resilience to crime and violence through a holistic approach that strengthens Early Warning Early Response (EWER), prioritizes community-driven trauma healing and response, and increases the meaningful participation of marginalized community members, especially women and youth. SNC is implemented in the Northwest in Kaduna and Kano States, and the Northcentral in Benue and Plateau States and targets three Local Government Areas (LGAs) in each state. The project is currently in its third phase, a 15-month Costed Extension (CE II) and seeks to enhance information access, equip critical stakeholders with tools to mitigate violence, and foster new social bonds among opposing groups.

SNC CE II prioritizes community-driven trauma healing and response while strengthening its focus on EWER. Through the proactive involvement of underrepresented groups such as women and youth, the project seeks to reduce the amount of violence related to crimes and conflicts. CE II establishes a partnership between civil society, the government, local communities, and security institutions, providing the groundwork for regional prevention and response initiatives. This all-encompassing strategy will result in safer, more secure, and resilient communities and provides the possibility of scaling these efforts beyond the targeted states and LGAs. The goal of this intervention is to reduce conflict- and crime-related violence in assisted communities, enabling the government, civil society, and security sector to work together to strengthen localized prevention and response efforts

BACKGROUND

SNC CE II is a comprehensive 15-month intervention aimed at increasing community resilience to crime and violence through a holistic approach that strengthens EWER, prioritizes community-driven trauma healing and response, and increases the meaningful participation of marginalized community members, especially women and youth. Nigeria continues to face persistent insecurity and unrest that affects everyone in the country, leading to tensions between ethnic, regional, and religious groups. As a result, people have lost faith in the ability of government security forces to provide adequate protection. Clashes in the country are often fueled by disinformation, resulting in further social fragmentation and mistrust.

Phase I and II of the project contributed to reversing these trends by training and creating opportunities for women and youth to contribute to peace and security. EAI strengthened community-level EWER mechanisms by training members of the Civilian Security Platforms (CSPs) and Community Accountability Forums (CAFs). The project trained a total of 228 community leaders (123 women and 105 youth) on EWER, trauma, non-violent conflict resolution, inclusive security practices, and social cohesion. EAI’s program team also produced radio programming on EWER, trauma, non-violent conflict resolution, inclusive security practices, and social cohesion.

Phase III of the project continues to strengthen women’s and youth’s skills to advocate for the implementation of Local Action Plans (LAPs) and State Action Plans (SAPs). The project is institutionalizing and strengthening the CSPs and CAFs to generate more efficient EWER systems in Nigeria through capacity-building workshops for women and youth groups. Finally, the SNC project builds upon existing efforts to increase awareness of community-based trauma healing and response resources and destigmatize trauma in communities

OBJECTIVE

In 2021, Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, Neem Foundation, EAI launched a collaborative effort on Most Significant Change stories (MSC) to demonstrate changes that took place due to each organization’s project implementation within their focal states. EAI, in partnership with the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding and Neem Foundation, uses the MSC methodology to gauge changes and impact of the project at the community level around non-violent conflict resolution, trust and relationship building, and trauma resilience.

The objective of MSC data collection for the SNC project is for data collectors to take a participatory approach centered around collecting stories directly from project participants, community members, and stakeholders to explore the real-life impacts they have experienced and to get a rich picture of the most significant changes (processes and causal mechanisms) that have taken place within a pre-defined period during the project intervention.

SPECIFIC TASKS

1. The Contractor will attend and successfully complete a two-day facilitator training prior to commencing the data collection exercise.
2. The Contractor will facilitate data collection from three groups across three LGAs in one of the SNC states of Benue, Kaduna, Kano, and Plateau States, making up a total of nine sessions of data collection.
3. The Contractor will provide comprehensive transcripts of data collected from the nine sessions they facilitate.
4. The Contractor will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the data collected and provide a preliminary draft report of the analyzed data.
5. The Contractor will provide a comprehensive final report.

DELIVERABLES

The consultant is responsible for delivering the following:

SUPERVISION

The Contractor will report to the Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and will coordinate closely with other Contractors working within the same location

LOCATION

The work for this consultancy will be completed in the three LGAs of the SNC States. The consultant will be assigned to one state and the corresponding LGAs of Benue: Agatu, Guma Gwer West LGAs; Kaduna: Chikun, Jema’a, Kajuru LGAs; Kano: Nasarawa, Ungoggo, Gezawa LGAs; and Plateau: Riyom, Barkin Ladi, Jos South LGAs.

COMPOSITION OF THE TECHNICAL OFFER

1. Experience working with NGOs (working with INGOs is an added advantage).
2. At least 5 years’ experience conducting field research.
3. At least 3 previous reference letters from NGOs relating to this call for quotes.
4. Experience in Most Significant Change (MSC) survey approach.
5. Familiarity with quantitative and qualitative data analysis tools.
6. Resident in either Benue, Kaduna, Kano, or Plateau State. Knowledge of the following local government areas will be an added advantage (Benue: Agatu, Guma Gwer West; Kaduna: Chikun, Jema’a, Kajuru; Kano: Nasarawa, Ungoggo, Gezawa; Plateau: Riyom, Barkin Ladi, Jos South).
7. Fluency in oral and written English.
8. Fluency in the local languages spoken in the target LGAs.
9. Possessing a graduate degree is an added advantage.
10. At least 3 years’ experience in community engagement and community consultative research.
11. The contractor shall abide by all rules, regulations, procedures, cultures, and practices of Equal Access International at all times; this includes but is not limited to punctuality, conduct, and quality of service.
12. All serious complaints and misconducts during the contract period shall be reported immediately and in writing to the Human Resources/Admin Manager, through the Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer.
13. Aside from verbal and face-to-face communication, electronic communication (email) will be a major tool for communicating with the Contractor throughout the duration of this service. 

COMPOSITION OF THE FINANCIAL OFFER

The offeror is invited to draw up its financial offer on letterhead, taking into account the services and deliverables described in the table below: