Provision of Production of the Rural Sector Performance Assessment (RSPA) for IFAD13

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Rome, Italy, hereby solicits proposals for the Provision of Production of the Rural Sector Performance Assessment (RSPA) for IFAD13.

Ahead of the start of every Replenishment and funding cycle, IFAD reviews and updates partner countries’ Rural Sector Performance Assessment (RSPA). The RSPA is a country-level composite indicator, which measures the quality of pro-poor rural development and rural transformation policies and institutions.

The RSPA score is used as one of the variables within the Performance-Based Allocation System (PBAS) formula, which IFAD uses to determine the amount of core financing IFAD can provide to low-income and lower-middle-income countries over a three-year cycle. It is also used as an input to policy engagement with low-income, lower-middle-income, and upper-middle-income countries lower.

In preparation for IFAD13 (2025-2027), two related RSPA updates are required: i) the revision of the overall structure and methodology of the RSPA 2021; and ii) update of the RSPA scores for about 80 countries that will access resources in IFAD13, consolidated, and all the relevant data-availability assessments conducted.

The objective of this bidding exercise is to select the services of a company to undertake the two following tasks:
a. RSPA methodological review: Review the current RSPA and the individual quantitative and qualitative indicators within it and identify areas in which improvements and simplifications can be made in terms of the selection and number of indicators used. This would depend on data quality and availability, as well as IFAD’s feedback. When possible, a proposal to substitute qualitative indicators with quantitative ones should be made, with the overarching goal of simplifying the current methodology.
b. Produce the RSPA for IFAD13: produce the RSPA scores for up to around 80 countries, including mostly low and lower-middle-income countries, and some upper-middle income countries.

The selected company will start working as soon as the results of the bidding exercise are available and for (approximately) 180 days, delivering the RSPA 2024 no later than August 31st 2024.