Request for Proposal for the supply of Knowledge Product on “Smart technologies for more equitable city economies”

New clarification added: Q17: Does UNOPS have a preference for appointing service providers from the Global South? Or do you prefer to contract with European service providers?A17: This tender is open to all nationalities. You can see the Evaluation Criteria, Tender Particulars or General Information under the Tender Information tab in the e-Sourcing.

New clarification added: Q15: Our company intends to submit a proposal with a subcontracted company. However, as a company we will assume 100% of liability, so there will only be one partner. We understand that, as we are not a Joint Venture, Consortium nor Association, we should not fill in Form A, but we do have to include our subcontractor’s experience in Form F and the type of work being subcontracted in Form C.Could you please indicate us whether our understanding is correct? If it is not, how should we proceed?A15: The offeror must identify the names of all subcontractors/suppliers who will be providing good/services under this contract and the type of work being subcontracted in Form C. If the sub-contractor is part of the Joint Venture/Consortium/Association, the sub-contractors' experience can be included in Form F. If the sub-contractor is not part of the Joint Venture/Consortium/Association, we will not count their continuous business years toward experience as specified in the Schedule of requirements.Q16: Form D, Section 3.2 refers to Form L: Statement of Exclusivity and Availability. The template provided by UNOPS does not include Form L. Please advise what i should do in this instance. A16: Form L: Statement of Exclusivity and Availability is not required.

New clarification added: Q14: In the evaluation criterion it says that the offeror should be in continuous business of supplying similar services as specified in the Schedule of requirements during the last 5 (five) years prior to Proposal opening. If the consultants for the assignment can show to relevant work experience for the given period, does that suffice to meet the criterion if the consultancy company applying has been established within the last five years?A14: The firm needs to be in continuous business of supplying similar services during the last 5 (five) years prior to Proposal opening. 

New clarification added: Q12: We are unclear form the UNOPS standard form if a subconsultant is required to be included in Form A (or only listed in Form C?) If only listed in Form C, can sub-contractors' experience be included in Form F?A12: From A should be completed and signed, if the proposal is submitted as a Joint Venture/Consortium/Association. The sub-contractors' experience can be included in Form F if the sub-contractors are part of the Joint Venture/Consortium/Association. The offeror must identify the names of all subcontractors/suppliers who will be providing good/services under this contract and the type of work being subcontracted in Form C.  Q13: Is it necessary to preselect case study cities in the proposal?A13: Please refer to the Schedule of Requirements

New clarification added: Q1: Please confirm the length of the projectA1: The duration of the contract is 10 monthsQ2: Please advise if bidders must be a level 1 or 2 supplierA2: Level 1 or aboveQ3: Given the tight deadline, would it be possible to extend the deadline to submit the proposal?A3: There is no intention to extend the deadline at this moment. Q4: In several documents (such as RFP_Section_i_Instructions to Offerors, or RFP_Section_III_Retrurnable Bidding Forms) there is a constant reference to a document called 'Tender Particulars'. Could you please specify where could we find this document, or direct me where to find it?A4: You can see the Tender Particulars in the e-sourcing. Once you have logged in to the e-Sourcing, please click the Tender Information tab. Then, you will see the Tender Particulars.Q5: We understand that some documents still have to be uploaded, such as the Evaluation Criteria, Tender Particulars or General Information. Could you please indicate us whether this is right?A5: All the documents and information have been uploaded in the system. You can see the Evaluation Criteria, Tender Particulars or General Information under the Tender Information tab in the e-Sourcing.Q6: We are trying to establish a rough pricing ballpark for our proposal. To assist us with this, can UNOPS Cities Alliance please give us an indication of the winning price in the 2018 RFP on “Pathways to Pricing Municipal Services in the Global South”.A6: We are unable to disclose the value of previously awarded and currently active contracts.  Q7: Because the Joint Work Programme (JWP) is funded by DFID, do the DFID preferred rates apply to the financial proposal? Or does UNOPS have fee caps that it applies to bids such as these?A:7 No such preferred rates, or fee caps, apply.Q8: Given that the Senior and Junior Expert levels are only required to have 7 and 3 years’ experience, respectively,  are we correct to deduce that the JWP is primarily seeking early-career researchers for this work?A8: Please note that the indicated years of experience are required minimums. The relevant experience and expertise of the proposed team is evaluated as part of the technical evaluation. The technical evaluation criteria can be viewed through the tabs in the sSourcing system.    Q9: The prescribed requirements for the Senior Expert are somewhat unclear to us. Does the Senior Expert need experience in, firstly,  smart cities technology and data driven urban planning, as well as one of: urban economics, urban public service delivery or another related field? Or is the requirement that s/he has experience in smart cities technology and one of the other listed fields, including data driven urban planning?A9: The Senior Expert should have experience in smart cities technology and one of the other listed fields.Q10: In terms of the required field trip to two cities to take place during week 9, how much time in the field is expected for each city?A10: Please note that as specified in the Schedule of Requirements “the purpose of the field visits is to research, collect data and fact-check the selected cases. The selection of cases, consequently, should be done prior to the field visits.” Given these objectives, it is not foreseen that field visits will require more than 1 week per city. Ultimately, however, the time required in the field should be determined by the data collection needs.Q11: On the front page of the schedule of requirements (II), the following link doesn’t work: http://www.citiesalliance.org/equitable-econ-growth.  Please could you email the material that would otherwise be available through that link.A11: We apologise for the broken link, which is due to ongoing updates to the Cities Alliance website. Please access all information on the Joint Work Programme for Equitable Economic Growth by navigating to the programme site at citiesalliance.org, either using the website search function or the website menus.

New clarification added: Q1: Please confirm the length of the projectA1: The duration of the contract is 10 monthsQ2: Please advise if bidders must be a level 1 or 2 supplierA2: Level 1 or aboveQ3: Given the tight deadline, would it be possible to extend the deadline to submit the proposal?A3: There is no intention to extend the deadline at this moment. Q4: In several documents (such as RFP_Section_i_Instructions to Offerors, or RFP_Section_III_Retrurnable Bidding Forms) there is a constant reference to a document called 'Tender Particulars'. Could you please specify where could we find this document, or direct me where to find it?A4: You can see the Tender Particulars in the e-sourcing. Once you have logged in to the e-Sourcing, please click the Tender Information tab. Then, you will see the Tender Particulars.Q5: We understand that some documents still have to be uploaded, such as the Evaluation Criteria, Tender Particulars or General Information. Could you please indicate us whether this is right?A5: All the documents and information have been uploaded in the system. You can see the Evaluation Criteria, Tender Particulars or General Information under the Tender Information tab in the e-Sourcing.