REQUEST FOR QUOTATION (RFQ)

RFQ Reference: LR10-25-0001 Date: 26 March 2025

SECTION 1: REQUEST FOR QUOTATION (RFQ) for Baseline Survey: GOLA-REAP – Resilience, Empowerment, Access and Peacebuilding along Liberia and Sierra Leone border Project. International Organisation for Migration (IOM) kindly requests your quotation for the provision of goods, works and/or services as detailed in Annex 1 of this RFQ.

This Request for Quotation comprises the following documents:

Section 1: This request letter

Section 2: RFQ Instructions and Data

Annex 1: Schedule of Requirements (Terms of Reference)

Annex 2: Quotation Submission Form

Annex 3: Technical and Financial Offer

Annex 4: Activity Schedule

When preparing your quotation, please be guided by the RFQ Instructions and Data. Please note that quotations must be submitted using Annex 2: Quotation Submission Form and Annexes 3 Technical and Financial Offer, by the method and by the date and time indicated. It is your responsibility to ensure that your quotation is submitted on or before the deadline. Quotations received after the submission deadline, for whatever reason, will not be considered for evaluation.

Thank you and we look forward to receiving your quotations.

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SECTION 2: RFQ INSTRUCTIONS AND DATA

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ANNEX 1: SCHEDULE OF REQUIREMENTS

Quotation Documents:

The following shall constitute the Quotation Documents to be submitted by the Service Provider: 1.) Annex 2: Quotation Submission Form duly completed and signed

2.) Annex 3: Technical & Financial Offer duly completed and signed and in accordance with the Schedule of Requirements in Annex 1

3.) Annex 4: Activity Schedule

Award of Contract:

The Service Provider that has submitted the lowest evaluated Price, substantially responsive to the requirements of this General Instruction and who has been determined to be qualified to perform the contract shall be selected and awarded the contract.

IOM shall notify the selected Service Provider through a Notice of Award. IOM shall also notify in writing, the other Service Providers who were not selected without disclosing the reason for rejection.

Terms of Reference (ToR) Baseline Survey: GOLA-REAP – Resilience, Empowerment, Access and Peacebuilding along Liberia and Sierra Leone border Project

1. Introduction

Funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund (UN PBF), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the World Food Programme (WFP) are jointly implementing a 30-month cross-border peacebuilding project in the Gola Forest landscape along the Liberia-Sierra Leone border. The GOLA-REAP project—Resilience, Empowerment, Access and Peacebuilding— aims to strengthen relationships among local communities, forest rangers, and border authorities by fostering trust and collaboration. It seeks to prevent conflicts and promote peaceful resolution while ensuring sustainable natural resource management. Additionally, the project prioritizes the empowerment of young people—both men and women—while promoting economic resilience through climate-smart agriculture and inclusive local governance. By expanding sustainable livelihood opportunities, GOLA-REAP aims to reduce their vulnerability to illicit activities and strengthen their role in peacebuilding efforts.

The project has the following Outcomes:

– Outcome 1: Strengthened cross-border collaboration between communities, rangers, and border authorities leads to improved cross-border and Gola landscape management

– Outcome 2: Communities’ resilience is strengthened through inclusive forest management and youth driven climate-smart agriculture livelihood support.

To ensure that the project achieves its intended impact, a comprehensive baseline assessment will be conducted at the outset. This assessment will serve as a critical tool for understanding the existing conditions before implementation, refining intervention strategies, and ensuring that key indicators are accurately measured throughout the project lifecycle.

2. Target Locations

The baseline assessment will be conducted in selected counties and districts across Liberia and Sierra Leone, specifically: – Liberia: Tewor District & Porpka District in Grand Cape Mount County, Kongba District in Gbarpolu County. – Sierra Leone: Makpele Chiefdom in Pujehun District and Nomo Chiefdom in Kenema District.

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3. Purpose and Objectives

The baseline assessment aims to establish a comprehensive understanding of the socio-economic and environmental landscape within the target regions, serving as a foundation to guide project implementation, monitor progress, document lessons learnt and inform future decision-making. The survey is also designed to identify and fill the missing values across all indicators in the project’s result matrices, which will enable the recalibration of targets and the completion of both the logical framework and the Monitoring and Evaluation system. Specifically, the assessment will:

• Establish a pre-project benchmark against which changes and impacts will be measured. • Explore social cohesion and conflict resolution mechanisms within and between communities. • Assess the current state of border management and transboundary cooperation, identifying key challenges and opportunities.
• Examine livelihood conditions, focusing on youth engagement in climate-smart agriculture, increasing productivity, and other income-generating activities.
• Evaluate relationships between communities and border authorities, including perceptions of governance and law enforcement.
• Analyze gender dynamics in economic participation and peacebuilding, ensuring that women’s voices and needs are adequately captured.
• Offer practical recommendations to enhance project targeting, refine indicators, and support data-driven decision-making.

4. Scope of Work

The baseline survey will cover the Districts of Tewor and Porpka in Grand Cape Mount County, and Kongba District in Gbarpolu County, Liberia, as well as Makpele Chiefdom in Pujehun District and Nomo Chiefdom in Kenema District, Sierra Leone. It will encompass all project outcomes and establish baseline values for all indicators under the two outcomes. The consulting firm is responsible for preparing and executing the data collection and analysis, delivering the specified outputs, and providing regular progress updates and addressing any challenges encountered. They will also prepare an Inception Report detailing the methodologies, including a survey matrix, initial drafts of data collection tools, and a field visit schedule in coordination with IOM Liberia. The consulting firm must adhere to the IOM Data Protection Principles, United Nations Evaluation Group: Norms and standards for evaluation and relevant ethical guidelines.

5. Baseline Questions

The survey should answer all relevant questions that will provide all the missing baseline values for the project and specifically the indicators in Annex A.

6. Proposed Baseline Survey Methodology

The proposed methodologies will involve a combination of desk review and interviews to gather and triangulate data from possible sources, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Specifically, the following methodologies are proposed and may be revised by the Consultant as needed during the inception phase.

• Review of relevant project documents, IOM and WFP strategies and guidance, relevant national strategies and action plans,
• Individual interviews with potential beneficiaries, community leaders and available project staff, as appropriate, ensuring conflict sensitivity and adherence to ‘Do No Harm’ principles.
• Online focus group discussions with potential programme participants and staff, as appropriate • Key in-depth informant interviews with the donor (PBF Secretariat in Liberia), IOM and WFP staff, and appropriate state and non-state authorities in both countries.
• Collate and analyse key findings, make informed and analysis-based conclusions including identifying the missing values for all indicators
• Improve and refine the project design and its implementation plan based on any new evidence generated by the baseline survey
• Disseminate the preliminary findings for validation to IOM Liberia
• Produce final Baseline Survey deliverables.

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7. Baseline Survey Team

The baseline survey will be led by a contracted Consultancy in close coordination with IOM Liberia. At the country level, the Consultancy will collaborate with the project’s M&E teams and staff, and any recruited local researchers will be jointly monitored by both the Consultancy and IOM personnel.

8. Deliverables

The deliverables expected from the consultancy include the following:

▪ Inception report will be prepared by the Consultancy and shared with IOM Liberia. The report should include a detailed methodology, baseline survey matrix and workplan. The Baseline Matrix will demonstrate the Consultancy’s understanding of the ToR and outline data collection and analysis plans, to be completed and reviewed by IOM Liberia and country teams prior to the field visit.

▪ Study Protocol, to include all the data collection tools that will be used, the data collection schedule, and all areas that the Consultancy requires support.

▪ Baseline Survey Draft Report, using an agreed structure, summarizing all the findings of the primary and secondary data. All the key stakeholders will provide feedback to the report.

▪ Validation Workshop: Facilitate a workshop to present findings, validate recommendations ▪ Baseline Survey Final Report will be produced, incorporating feedback from the stakeholder validation workshop and comments from project staff.

▪ Review Brief (two pager) to facilitate sharing of the key findings, conclusions and recommendations.

All deliverables are to be written in English and meet good language standards. The final report should meet the standards laid out in the UNEG Quality Checklist for Evaluation Reports and comply with IOM internal guidelines on Housing and Styling.

9. Workplan

Based on the TOR, the Consultancy will have an online or in-person inception meeting and carry out a review of documents provided by IOM Liberia and draft the Inception Report for review.

1. Inception Phase

In the desk research Phase, the relevant project documents should be reviewed: The Project proposal, budget, the relevant guidelines, flash updates and reports with the annexes.

Deliverables: The Consultancy will prepare (i) an Inception Report with detailed methodology, Baseline survey matrix, workplan, indicative list of people to be interviewed, and (ii) A Study Protocol, with the tools and field visit schedule.

1. Data Collection Phase

The Consultancy will conduct the assessment within the 4 selected districts/ chiefdoms in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Data will be collected in accordance with the approved methodology and field visit schedule.

Deliverable: Complete datasets, and transcripts from the qualitative methods.

1. Analysis and Report Writing Phase.

This phase is devoted to the development and submission of the draft Baseline survey draft report, and two-page brief. The logical framework of the project should be updated in the report.

Deliverable: The Consultancy will submit a Draft Baseline Report. Based on comments to the draft report, the Consultancy will submit a PowerPoint Presentation, the final report along with the two-page brief

The estimated workload and responsibilities’ allocation read as follows:

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Duration

The consultancy will span 5 – 6 weeks, starting from the contract signing date.

10. Professional Qualifications

The Applicant/service provider will be required to have the following:

• More than 5 years’ experience working in the field of research, M&E and conducting large scale multi-country surveys.
• Proven technical capacity (data collection and analysis through R/STATA/SPSS) in surveys. • Experience working in migration policy, cooperation and partnerships issues in the listed countries would be an added advantage.
• Ability to submit a concise and well written report in English based on the field information/results of the survey • Ability to gather information in an objective appropriate and sensitive way by actively listening, paying full attention to the situation and information of participants.

11. List of Indicators

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ANNEX 2: QUOTATION SUBMISSION FORM

Bidders are requested to complete this form, including the Company Profile and Bidder’s Declaration, sign it and return it as part of their quotation along with Annex 3: Technical and Financial Offer. The Bidder shall fill in this form in accordance with the instructions indicated. No alterations to its format shall be permitted and no substitutions shall be accepted.

BIDDER’S DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY1

1This form is mandatory to fill in and sign by every vendor who submits quotation

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Signature:

Name: Click or tap here to enter text.

Title: Click or tap here to enter text.

Date: Click or tap to enter a date.

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ANNEX 3: TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL OFFER – SERVICES

Bidders are requested to complete this form, sign it and return it as part of their quotation along with Annex 2 Quotation Submission Form. The Bidder shall fill in this form in accordance with the instructions indicated. No alterations to its format shall be permitted and no substitutions shall be accepted.

Technical Offer

Provide the following:

– A brief description of your capacity and expertise that is relevant to the Terms of Reference and the proposed methodology and approach for this project (you may submit a Company Profile and/or please provide a separate short document of max two pages outlining the points above.

– Acknowledged copy of the TOR (signed and stamped)

Financial Offer

Provide a lump sum for the provision of the services stated in the Terms of Reference of your technical offer. The lump sum should include all costs of preparing and delivering the Services.

Currency of Quotation: US Dollar (USD)

Compliance with Requirements

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ANNEX 4: ACTIVITY SCHEDULE:

Duration in Weeks

The Bidder may use extra pages to furnish additional information or may use other acceptable format to illustrate the construction schedule.

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Bidder’s authorized signature over printed name

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