81270669-Strengthening Private Sector Engagement, Cooperative Management, Vocational Training and Access to Financing

Kurze Beschreibung

The project ‘Bioeconomy and Value Chains’ is a BMZ-financed technical cooperation project with the Secretariat of Family Farming and Cooperativism (Secretaria de Agricultura Familiar e Cooperativismo, SAF) of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento, MAPA). Its stated objective is: Cooperatives and associations of local communities have expanded the commercialization of their products in value chains that are a priority for the development of the sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy in the Amazon.
The relevance of this objective stems from the significance of the Amazon rainforest for the global climate. Amazon forests store large amounts of carbon, but since the early 1970s, nearly 20 % of the forest cover has been destroyed. Until 2012, there was great success in curbing deforestation (reduction of annual deforestation rate by 65 %), but since then it has been increasing again significantly. Large parts of the rural population in the region (approx. 30 % of the total 25 million inhabitants of the Amazon area) make their living on the basis of the use of natural resources.
The protection of the rainforest can only succeed in the long term if its economic benefit for the local population is also increased. This is what the project intends to do. There are several challenges that will be worked on in parallel. First of all, public policy does not always adequately consider the specific needs of (collective) enterprises of the sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy. This will be worked on in Output 1 which aims to develop bioeconomy approaches in policies and programs on all levels of government. Important partners will be existing governance structures such as the regional trade chambers that strengthen coordination between the federal and regional levels. In addition to private sales channels, this output focusses strongly on public procurement programs to strengthen revenue and income development in priority value chains.
Secondly, the private sector is interested in the sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy but faces challenges to create lasting business relationships, such as little knowledge about local conditions and little experience on the part of suppliers. These will be surmounted in Output 2 by using mechanisms such as the already tested develoPPP.de approaches, but also alliances with local communities that can involve regional or smaller companies. Furthermore, the expansion of multi-institutional dialogue processes on priority value chains shall improve the development of business areas and the inclusion of sustainability criteria.
Thirdly, cooperatives and associations in the Amazon lack management capacities to meet the growing demand for their products. Output 3 is intended to improve the management skills of the leadership staff in organizing entrepreneurial processes such as accounting, financial management, production planning or logistics. Corresponding procedures and processes for capacity building are to be developed and tested initially in selected cooperatives.
Next, apart from fulfilling the more immediate needs regarding the management of collective enterprises, the project aims to foster the formation of human capital in the region that can attend these needs more sustainably. For this, in Output 4, vocational training approaches are to be used to permanently anchor the training courses on sustainable bioeconomy in educational institutions.
Finally, cooperatives, associations and SMEs of the sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy lack the capacities to access financing. In order to obtain credit from public (e.g., PRONAF) and private sources (e.g., Impact investors), they need to perform market studies and cost modelling, detail technical specifications and convincingly frame expected socio-economic impacts and their monitoring. The project aims to support cooperatives and enterprises in these tasks in Outputs 5.

Beschreibung der Beschaffung

The tenderer is expected to execute activities divided into 4 work packages, contributing to all outputs of the project:
Work package 1: Engagement of the private sector
The project intends to strengthen the role of the private sector in the sustainable use of natural resources in the Amazon. Tentative activities included in this work package are:
— develop and implement mechanisms and formats to strengthen private sector engagement in priority value chains of the sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy that focus on the inclusion of smallholders' cooperatives and associations,
— support the establishment and continuation of sectorial dialogues, involving ministries and agencies and focusing on the promotion of strategies and measures to improve sustainability and inclusion in priority value chains (e.g., on sustainability standards, supply chain traceability, gender considerations),
— strengthen the capacity of traditional people and communities, and support them to participate in sectorial dialogue process and vindicate the consideration of their rights and demands.
Work package 2: Strengthening entrepreneurial and management capacities in cooperatives and associations
The aim of this work package is to enhance the capacity of cooperatives and associations to do business. Envisaged activities include:
— training and on-the-job coaching to improve management and expand the use of digital tools in production, management, logistics and marketing for four ‘anchor cooperatives’ with great potential to integrate further local producers into relevant bioeconomy value chains,
— promote the knowledge exchange between cooperatives on entrepreneurial activity, enable qualified participation in trade fairs (this does not include the organization of trips nor contributions to travel expenses), etc,
— translate relevant documents or media produced or used by the project into an appropriate language to be understood by traditional people and communities,
— organize and implement activities to increase the access of traditional people and communities to public procurement programs
Work package 3: Professional education for marketing and administration of cooperatives and associations in the bioeconomy of the Amazon.
This work package has the objective of including content on administration and management of cooperative enterprises in the Amazon into professional education offers. Activities are expected to include:
— identify topics, target audiences, and strategic partners for professional education in priority value chains of the bioeconomy,
— systematic review of previous experiences on cooperative management in the region and improved integration into training formats,
— further development and implementation of the training program on cooperative management (CapGestão),
— adapt existing training formats (e.g., CapGestão) to meet the requirements for formal training formats,
— training of lecturers and preparation of materials for professional education,
— anchoring regular vocational training offerings in relevant institutions (e.g., technical colleges focusing on vocational qualification (Institutos Federais), rural vocational schools (Casas Familiares Rurais), regional universities (e.g., Rainforest Business School),
— sensitization and qualification of actors implementing public procurement programs on products by cooperatives and associations of local communities (CapGestores),
— further development of the inclusion of gender aspects in training offerings (including expansion of the gender toolkit on female entrepreneurship, but also on sensitive topics such as violence against women and sexual harassment).
Work package 4: Financing for the sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy of the Amazon.
Work package 4 is intended to improve the financing opportunities of sustainable and inclusive enterprises in the Amazon. Provisional activities are:
— connect public and private investors and investment promotion programs and institutions with the sectoral dialogue processes
— contribute to dialogues and interact with initiatives (e.g., Plataforma Parceiros pela Amazonia, Amazon Investor Coalition, Impact Hub Manaus) that promote investments in sustainable business models in the Amazon, in order to develop aligned support strategies that improve the access to finance,
— consulting for companies, cooperatives and associations to obtain financing (for example on: market studies, business plans, technical specifications, financial modelling).

Beschreibung der Verlängerungen

GIZ may optionally commission contract amendments and/or increases based on the criteria in the tender documents to the successful bidder of this tender. For details, please see the terms of reference.

Beschreibung der Optionen

GIZ may optionally commission contract amendments and/or increases based on the criteria in the tender documents to the successful bidder of this tender. For details, please see the terms of reference.

Liste und kurze Beschreibung der Bedingungen

The offer must be made using the forms provided by GIZ:
1) Trading name and address, beneficial owner(s), commercial register number, bank account, tax number, VAT identification number, brief company profile and contact in event of queries.
2) Extract from the commercial register or equivalent evidence/proof. (not older than six months)
3) Self-declaration that no grounds for exclusion in Section 123, 124 of the German Act Against Restraints of Competition (GWB) apply.
4) Self-declaration that no fine of at least two thousand five hundred euros has been imposed for noncompliance as specified in Section 21 of the German Minimum Wage Act (MiLoG).
5) If a candidate/tenderer wishes to use the capacities of another company for the execution of the contract, he must prove by submitting a declaration of commitment that the corresponding capacities are available to him for the execution of the contract or are provided by this subcontractor.
6) In the case of participation as a bidding consortium: tenderers must appoint a leading member and authorise this member to represent the group and to receive payments with discharging effect also for the other members. A corresponding agreement, signed by all members, must be attached to the application for participation. For this purpose, the form provided by GIZ must be used.
7) Order form for registration of a creditor (in case of bidding consortium for all members of the consortium and the bidding consortium itself)

Liste und kurze Beschreibung der Auswahlkriterien

1) Declaration on the average annual turnover for the last 3 financial years (last-but-4 financial year can be included in case of invitation to tender held within 6 months of end of last financial year).
2) Declaration on the number of employees as at 31.12 of the previous year.
3) Evidence of creditworthiness may be requested from the bidder/bidding consortium who are to be awarded the contract after submission of the bid. The date of the evidence of creditworthiness should then not be older than 3 months.

1) Average annual turnover for the last three financial years: at least EUR 2 500 000 (two million fivehundred thousand Euro);
2) Number of employees as at 31.12 of the previous year: at least 15 persons.

Liste und kurze Beschreibung der Auswahlkriterien

It is necessary to provide three references in the technical field ‘agricultural value chain development’ in the last 3 years. Out of these three references at least one reference must be in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Bedingungen für die Teilnahme (technische und berufliche Fähigkeiten)

1) The technical assessment is only based on reference projects with a minimum commission value of EUR 200 000 (two hundred thousand Euro).
2) The minimum requirements forsee at least three reference projects in the technical field ‘agricultural value chain development’ in the last 3 years. Out of these three references at least one reference must be in Latin America and the Caribbean.