Business Plan Development Expert (Consulting)

Description

• Feed the Future Mozambique Promoting Innovative and Resilient Agriculture Market Systems (FTF Premier) is a five-year, $25.5 million market systems activity that seeks to seize on opportunities to work with local market actors, increasing the resiliency of the agricultural market system in the Nacala Corridor to absorb, adapt, and respond to external climate, economic, and political shocks; to reduce poverty; and to improve food security. Through its facilitative approach, FTF Premier will facilitate support to primarily private sector actors through three main components, including exploit attractive market opportunities where the Nacala Corridor has a comparative advantage, catalyze and expand local agro-processing industries, and work with and through local third-party service providers as delivery partners
• The ultimate goal of FTF Premier is reach a more competitive, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agriculture market system though increased incomes of the smallholder farmers and profitability of agribusiness firms; strengthen and expand access to markets and trade for farmers and SMEs; increase access to financial services and investments to farmers and agribusiness firms and incentivize a positive youth development and women empowerment. To assure sustainability of FTF Premier’s activities and business development support, the project will invest in strengthening the capacity of Business Development Service providers in the Nacala corridor. Initially, during the coming 12 to 24 months, FTF Premier will invite local BDS providers to participate in a capacity building program. These local BDS providers will gradually take over the services provision to local Agro-businesses that FTF Premier is contracting out to non-local BDS providers through this request for proposals
• To achieve the goals of FTF Premier, the project has a grants facility to co-invest and buy down the investment risk of agro-businesses in the Nacala corridor that want to invest in innovative solutions and upscaling or expanding sustainable inclusive business models. In April 2023 FTF Premier launched requests for proposal for the Private Sector Investment Fund (PSIF): PSIF will engage agribusiness clients in core and supporting market system functions through sub-grants to test, pilot, and scale innovative, inclusive business models. Sub-grants will be segmented by agribusiness size and function and will require an in-kind matching contribution from the grantee. Under this investment fund, FTF Premier will introduce three types of grant windows including for women and youth-led Micro Businesses with a maximum of USD 25,000 grants, requiring matching contribution of 25% from the grantee; for Agricultural Small and Growing Businesses (Agri-SGBs) and transitioning Agri-SGBs maximum of USD 100,000 grants requiring a 50% contribution from the grantee; and for medium and large businesses maximum of USD 250,000 requiring a 100% matching contribution from the grantee
• FTF Premier is seeking the services of senior consultants and/or firms to transform the received and preselected grants proposals into full, realistic, bankable and economically viable and environmentally complaint business plans. The business plan will be used in the final stage of the grants award process to award the grants. Part of the grants process is a presentation of the business plan by the business owner/entrepreneurs to a committee of experts. The business plan development process will also be used to strengthen the capacities of local BDS providers and prepare them for and possibly mentor them during similar assignments in the future

Purpose of assignment

• The purpose of the assignment is to transform 40 grants proposals into 40 business plans with the objective to demonstrate their economic, operational and financial viability, assure compliance with USAID and Mozambican environmental laws, rules and regulations, and possibly awarding of the grants and to provide capacity building and on job training to local business service providers in business planning development including financial analysis and operational, market and economic viability of the proposal

FTF Premier requests applicants to include in their proposal

• The template including all elements of the business plan that the applicant proposes to use
• The integration of tools like USAID’s Environmental Review Report and Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plans or similar tools, to assure environmental compliance of the business plan
• The approach to develop the business plans
• Explain how the business owner/entrepreneurs will be involved in the process and prepared for the presentation
• Benchmarks and criteria to determine the feasibility of a business plan
• The approach in how to integrate local BDS providers in the process as part of their capacity strengthening process
• A cost proposal for the proposal
• A planning for the proposal
• CVs of and references for the proposed expert/experts
• Relevant Past Performance information + references

Post competition Procedures

• Following the successful conclusion of the application process and acquisition of any required donor approvals, FTF Premier will issue a service provider contract with details on the scale, scope, cost, and terms and conditions. FTF Premier will provide an orientation outlining the main requirements for performance and reporting. Throughout the duration of the contract, FTF Premier will monitor performance and has the right to cancel a contract if it is proven that the service is not performing as expected

Terms and Conditions

• The Request for Proposal is not and shall not be considered an offer by TechnoServe
• All responses must be received on or before the date and time indicated above. All late responses will be rejected
• All non-responsive answers will be rejected
• All proposals shall be considered binding offers. Proposed prices must be valid for the entire period provided by the respondent or required by the RFP
• All awards will be subject to TNS' contractual terms and conditions and dependent on the availability of donor funding
• TNS reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal or cancel the solicitation process at any time, and shall have no liability to organizations submitting proposals for such rejection or cancellation of the request for proposals
• TNS reserves the right to accept all or part of the tender when the award is made
• All information provided by TNS in this RFP is offered in good faith. Individual items are subject to change at any time, and all bidders will be notified of any changes. TNS is not responsible or liable for any use of the information submitted by bidders or for any claims arising therefrom
• TNS reserves the right to require any bidder to enter into a non-disclosure agreement
• Bidders are solely obliged to pay for any costs, of any kind, that may be incurred by the bidder or any third party in connection with the Response. All responses and supporting documentation shall become the property of TNS, subject to confidentiality claims in relation to the Response and supporting documentation that have been clearly marked as confidential by the bidder
• Competitors are required to identify and disclose any actual or potential Conflict of Interest
• We encourage all qualified individuals and organizations who share TechnoServe's vision of improving the lives of others through proven business solutions to apply Candidates based in the region are encouraged to apply With our commitment to diversity, we pride ourselves on being an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, colour, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, HIV/AIDS status, protected veteran status, disability, and all other protected classes

Requisites

• Proven and documented experience in agro-business plan development in a lusophone context grants with business plans up to 500,000 U$ investments
• Proven experience with capacity building, and environmental assessments and mitigation planning
• Ability to respond effectively to the most sensitive inquiries or complaints
• Experience to perform on job training
• An articulate individual who possesses excellent communications and personnel management skills and who can relate with a range of backgrounds in the project team
• An energetic, forward-thinking and creative individual with high ethical standards and appropriate professional image
• Verbal and written fluency in Portuguese and English is required

Selection criteria

• Scoring matrix
• Technical Criteria - Description Scores
• Price: Incluindo todas as taxas de entrega - 15% e impostos, justificação ou uma nota explicativa dos preços
• Technical: O concorrente que preencher todos - 30% Proposal requisitos terá a pontuação máxima a ser certificado através de requisitos solicitados acima
• Professional: Os concorrentes deverão comprovar experiência - 25%
• Experiência profissional de, no mínimo, 5 ou mais anos na prestação de serviços na área de agronegócio, a ser certificado através de documentos hábeis, tais como, contratos anteriores de prestação de serviços, cartas de recomendação, e alvará
• Interview: A Comissão Técnica atribuirá pontuação à entrevista - 20% de cada candidato, conforme requisitos e conceitos estabelecidos no guião de entrevista. A nota final da entrevista será a soma aritmética dos pontos obtidos pelo candidato em cada requisito
• Payment: Os concorrentes devem especificar as condições - 10% de pagamento tomando em consideração que os termos de pagamento padrão da Technoserv são 30 dias após o recebimento e a aceitação de quaisquer produtos ou serviço
• Total 100%

Deadline for Submitting Proposals

• Technical and financial proposals must be submitted by September 23, 2023 at buy+MZ+P0022925@tns.org
• Proposals can be submitted on all or one of the three areas requested
• Terms of reference and inquiries can be obtained free of charge by emailing procurement-mz@tns.org until August 29, 2023
• Responses for all applicants will be sent out on August 30, 2023
• Time frame: about 2 years of the project
• Place of execution: Nampula

Notes

• Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted
• Indicate the source of this vacancy in your application: Emprego.co.mz

How to Apply

1. Documentation

• Cover Letter
• Curriculum Vitae
• Technical Proposal
• Financial proposal

2. Application

• Send your Documentation to buy+MZ+P0022925@tns.org with the Subject line “Business Plan Development Expert (Consulting)”