Request for Proposals (RFP) for the provision of Consultancy Services to support the Nationally Determined Contributions Partnership End-of-Work Program Evaluation.

New clarification added: Dear Bidder,Thank you for your interest in this Request for Proposal (RFP).Here are below the clarification responses placed under each question.7.  How do you foresee the selection of countries for field visits? Are there any pre-defined priorities or will the Support Unit/Steering Committee provide a shortlist or specific guidance? Decision on the countries is part of this evaluation and the vendor should make recommendations on the criteria to apply in deciding. Decisions should factor in regional variation and variation in engagement through the NDC Partnership. Finally, country buy-in (ownership) is also required to ensure the success of the country visits. 8.    How many locations and surveys are expected for each of the five countries to be visited? The number of countries to be visited is detailed in the call for proposals. Visits will be to capital cities only (i.e. one city per country). Additional surveys can be conducted if the vendor chooses, however care should be taken to now overload these case study countries. Governance9. How do you see the role of the Steering Committee, Co‑Chairs, and wider membership in shaping, challenging, and ultimately owning the evaluation findings? The Support Unit Management Team will guide the overall shaping of this evaluation, taking these multiple user groups into account. The Co-Chairs will also review key drafts and provide comments. The Steering Committee will be invited to comment on the complete draft and its findings, comments should then be incorporated into the final draft. The final draft should be owned by the Steering Committee to ensure they adopt the recommendations. The wider membership will not be engaged in reviewing any drafts of the evaluation.10. Who do you foresee as critical reviewers and associated timelines for key interim deliverables, e.g., interim validation of findings?The Support Unit will be the main reviewer. The Co-Chairs will review the first draft once available. The Steering Committee will also be invited to review a complete draft (whether that is in document or presentation form is TBD). The vendor should put together a timeline to account for these reviews, leaving a minimum of 1 week for any MT review, and 2 weeks for any Co-Chair or Steering Committee review.   Budget and logistics11. Could you please confirm that UN DSA rates should be used for budgeting field visits?The Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) should be set at a reasonable rate to cover daily travel costs and should align with the bidder’s company policy and procedures. To be reasonable, the DSA shall not exceed the UN DSA rates.Offerors must provide cost estimates for international and national travel, as well as Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) for country visits. The overall travel scope requires visits to five countries, ensuring coverage of at least one country per region within the following areas: Anglophone and Lusophone Africa; Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific; The Middle East and North Africa (MENA); and Latin America and the Caribbean. All cost submissions must reflect these requirements.For costing, assume each country visit lasts five days and involves a team of three persons. Flights must be costed using basic, affordable economy class options. 12. Do you foresee other language requirements than French, English or Spanish that require a budget in language translations?Language translations are not needed for this evaluation. The evaluation will be produced in English only. Because a sizable number of NDC Partnership countries are French or Spanish speaking, the vendor should expect that one of the country visits or some of the virtual interviews will be conducted in this language. Other languages that are common among NDC Partnership member countries are: Russian and Portuguese. The vendor  is not expected to bring these language skills, though they can be helpful. If a virtual interview in Russian or Portuguese is needed, the NDC Partnership in-country facilitator can serve as interpreter. 13. Is there a range of budget estimated for the complete assignment incl. travel and consulting fees?Requested by:UNOPS/NDC Partnership has allocated a budget for the requirement specified in the Request for Proposal. However, UNOPS/NDC Partnership cannot disclose the estimated budget amount. Please rest assured that UNOPS is committed to meeting its payment obligations under the contract’s terms and conditions if you are selected for this RFP. Bidders are responsible for estimating the total effort required for this assignment. The RFP provides clear requirements, expectations, contract duration, and deliverables. Use this information to assess the required effort and craft competitive proposals, including the pricing proposal. Bidders must submit their financial proposal based on the tender documents, including travel, DSA, and other costs. Please adhere firmly to the financial offer template and the information stated therein when submitting your financial proposal.Best regards,

New clarification added: Dear Bidder,Thank you for your interest in this Request for Proposal (RFP).Here are below the clarification responses placed under each question.1.  To what degree will the findings of this end‑of‑work‑program evaluation impact the upcoming 2026‑2030 Work Program?The 2026-2030 Work Program was adopted in November 2025. The findings of this 2021-2025 work program evaluation will help inform its implementation.2.      What are your hypotheses for upcoming change to the current ToC and impact pathways, especially with the move from four to three pathways in the next Work Program?The TOC and impact pathways are finalized and will not be changed. They can be found in the 2026-2030 Work Program published on the NDC Partnership website. The main change made from the previous TOC and impact pathways was to embed Impact Pathway 4 across the other three Impact Pathways (as opposed to treating it as a standalone pathway). Methodology3.      Given the vast number of programmatic strategies and initiatives under NDCP, where do you foresee the largest challenges and opportunities?The Country Engagement Strategy continues to the Partnership's core strategy, as such the main challenges and opportunities will stem from here. Identifying these is a core deliverable of this evaluation. Over the course of the 2021-2025 Work Program, the NDC Partnership developed and followed several strategies including 1) country engagement, 2) knowledge and learning, 3) gender, 4) youth engagement plan, 5) finance and 6) major emerging economies. Going forward, the Partnership will consolidate these efforts under the country's engagement and knowledge and learning strategies, reducing the number of standalone strategies the Partnership deploys to only two.4.      Looking at the sequence of previous evaluations (2018‑2020 mid‑term and final, 2021‑2025 mid‑term), what do you feel has and has not changed in response to prior recommendations, and what does that imply for how this evaluation should be framed? All adjustments have been summarized in the Management Team response to the evaluations. Where previous recommendations were helpful was where they clearly identified the challenge to address and stakeholders needed to implement changes. Where previous recommendations were less helpful was where they were overly prescriptive, too vague to action or unclear on which stakeholder they apply to. Recommendations stemming from the final evaluation need to be structured with the understanding that the 2026-2030 Work Program has already been adopted, and as such they should focus on how best to implement the new work program and potential changes to the Country Engagement and Knowledge and Learning Strategies. 5.      Are there specific stakeholders whose confidence or buy‑in you particularly want this evaluation to strengthen?Membership categories where confidence and buy-in is needed include: Developing country members, Developed country members (development partners), and institutional /associate members. In addition, the Co-Chairs and Steering Committee's confidence and buy-in is also critical. The Support Unit Management Team will be the primary contact within the Support Unit. Stakeholder engagement6.      Will the evaluation team have access to the full set of internal reviews, monitoring data, and raw datasets from previous evaluations, or will access be limited to published summaries? Yes, full access will be provided. Best regards,

New clarification added: Dear Bidder,Thank you for your interest in this Request for Proposal (RFP).Here is below the clarification response for your clarification question.Can you please confirm whether my understanding is correct regarding the requirement for audited financial statements? Specifically, if any firm participating at the consortium or JV level (whether as lead firm or junior partner) is unable to provide audited financials, are they effectively barred from participating in this tender.Yes, your understanding is correct. Any firm participating at the consortium or JV level (whether as lead firm or junior partner) shall provide audited financial statements as specified and required in this tender.Best regards, 

New amendment added #1: To include additional information in the financial offer template and to extend the clarification deadline including extending the tender deadline by two days.

New clarification added: Dear Bidder,Thank you for your interest in this Request for Proposal (RFP).In response to your clarification query of For costing, assume each country visit lasts five days and involves a team of three persons." Could you please indicate whether/ why a team of 3 is required to travel, and how many of those are expected to be of our evaluation team, and how many will be project staff? For now, we assume 2 of those 3 will be of the evaluation team (Team lead / thematic expert + local consultant), meaning we would budget international travel for 1 person, fee days for 2 people, and pay local travel and DSA for all 3 people. Could you please confirm whether our assumptions are correct?Please note that we are providing explicit cost information to prevent later confusion and to ensure consistency among all potential bidders. Accordingly, please use a proper budget costing, assuming each country visit lasts five days with a team of three people. Flights should be priced using basic, affordable economy class options. The Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) should be set at a reasonable rate that covers daily traveler costs as specified in the tender.Best regards,

New clarification added: Dear Bidder,Thank you for your interest in this Request for Proposal (RFP).In response to your clarification query:1. We are a small Swiss-based company that is not mandated to conduct financial audits. Is it possible for us to submit unaudited financial information and still participate in this tender? We are certain that we qualify on the basis of the finaical requirements.Please be advised that bidders are required to provide audited financial statements.2. We intend to apply for this project as part of a consortium with another firm. Are all consortium members required to provide the same information regarding financial statements, codes of ethics, and internal company policies?Yes, all consortium members are required to provide the same information regarding financial statements, codes of ethics, and internal company policies.3. I noted the following sentence in the Section II Schedule of Requirements document: “A brief outline (up to five pages) of the proposed methodology and work plan, including key questions to help guide the work.” I would like to confirm that Section 2 of the Technical Offer (as presented in the scoring table) is indeed limited to five pages. Since this section accounts for more than one third of the scoring rubric, and this requirement isn't listed on other documentation I want to be absolutely sure that I understand the requirement correctly.Please note that the brief outline (up to five pages) of the proposed methodology and work plan, including key guiding questions, is only a summary of your submission for this requirement. You must also respond to each criterion in the Technical Proposal Form (Technical Offer) for the three criteria 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3, as specified.Best regards,

New clarification added: Dear Bidder,Thank you for your interest in this Request for Proposal (RFP).In response to your clarification query, we strongly advise adhering to the tender documents' criteria, which specify a single team lead role.Best regards,

New clarification added: Dear Bidder,Thank you for your interest in this Request for Proposal (RFP).Regarding your first clarification query on the Financial Capability Requirement (Criteria 2), please be advised that strict adherence to this requirement is mandatory, with no flexibility.Regarding your second clarification query on the Past Experience Requirement (Criteria 3), please be advised that strict adherence is also mandatory, and we confirm that the 10-year requirement applies strictly to the date of the organization’s incorporation.We hope this clarifies your queries.Best regards, 

New clarification added: Dear Bidder,Thank you for your interest in this Request for Proposal (RFP).Regarding your clarification query, we can confirm that the UNOPS/NDC partnership has allocated a budget for the requirement specified in the RFP. Payments to the selected bidder will be made in accordance with the contract and the agreed payment terms as depicted in the particular section. While UNOPS cannot disclose the estimated budget amount, please rest assured that UNOPS is committed to meeting its payment obligations under the contract’s terms and conditions.Bidders are responsible for estimating the total effort required for this assignment. The RFP provides clear requirements, expectations, contract duration, and deliverables. Use this information to assess the effort needed and to craft competitive proposals, including the pricing proposal.Best regards,