Egyptian National Railways - Gender Technical Support (Phase II)

Country:Egypt

Business sector:Transport, Other

Project number:71007

Funding source:JPN - Japan-EBRD Cooperation Fund

Contract type:Consultancy Services

Notice type:Invitation for expressions of interest (CSU)

Issue date:12 Oct 2017

Closing date:01 Nov 2017   at  15:00   London

Project Description:

Safe transport is essential for women’s economic inclusion. For many women, safe transport can enable them to access education as well as essential economic opportunities. In Egypt, safety in public transport has been hampered by reports of sexual harassment when using public transport. In 2015, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the EBRD or the Bank) supported the Egyptian National Railways (ENR) in identifying ways in which to improve safety in its trains and platforms. The current assignment is a continuation of such technical support to ENR. As part of this assignment, the EBRD will assist ENR in the development of an awareness raising campaign and associated measures to prevent sexual harassment in ENR services.

Assignment Description

The EBRD now intends to engage a consulting company (the Consultant) to implement a public awareness campaign and provide support to ENR in developing institutional capabilities to identify, respond to and manage gender based violence (GBV) in its services.

The selected Consultant is expected to provide the following services:

1. Develop protocols and systems to respond to incidences of sexual harassment in ENR services; and train ENR staff in implementing those protocols and management systems;
2. Design and implement a campaign to prevent sexual harassment in trains and platforms on one to two main lines with the highest demonstration impact. This campaign should be easily replicated on the rest of the network at a later date. The key target of the campaign is to increase the percentage of women commuters (travelling for work or educational purpose) and this will be monitored and benchmarked.

• Develop and implement associated measures to enhance the impact of the campaign, and to help ENR prevent, adequately manage and respond to sexual harassment in its services;

1. Measure the impact of the technical support to ENR in increasing women’s access to economic opportunities in the area of influence of this assignment, pre and post awareness campaign;
2. Promote dissemination of good practices in the provision of gender responsive railway services in Egypt through policy dialogue with relevant government and non-government institutions.

Status of Selection Process: Interested firms or groups of firms are hereby invited to submit expressions of interest.

Assignment Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in January 2018 and has an estimated overall duration of twenty-four months.

Cost Estimate for the Assignment: EUR 275,000 (exclusive of VAT).

The Consultant must determine whether any VAT would be chargeable on the services and the basis for that determination, without taking into consideration the special status of the Bank as an IFI and state this to the Bank in their response to the Invitation for Expressions of Interest. To the extent that a Consultant incurs input VAT on goods and services purchased in connection with the provision of services (e.g. VAT on airline ticket) which is not otherwise recoverable by the consultant from the local tax authority, the gross cost to the consultant of such expenses shall be treated as a reimbursable expense.

Funding Source: It is expected that the Assignment will be funded by Japan-EBRD Cooperation Fund (JECF).

Eligibility: There are no eligibility restrictions

Consultant Profile: Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a firm or a group of firms with previous project experience related to:

• Working on communications and or social marketing campaigns that have a strong focus on social issues, preferably in the Middle East and North Africa region
• Working on gender based violence and women’s economic empowerment preferably in the Middle East and North Africa region
• Proven experience in organizing multi stakeholders events (for example: training, capacity building, workshops, seminars, meetings) in relation with social issues
• Proven experience carrying evaluations, including quantitative surveys

The Consultant’s expert team is expected to include key experts as follows-

Team Leader/Project Manager (Key Expert 1):

• Preferably more than 12 years of experience managing complex, donor-funded assignments on gender and/or transport in transition and/or developing countries;
  • Previous proven experience of working with various stakeholders, including government officials, business representatives, civil society, etc., ideally in Egypt;
  • Fluency in English and Arabic is essential including excellent report writing skills in English.
  • Proven track record working on social issues in the transport sector will be considered an advantage

Senior Gender Expert (Key Expert 2):

• Social scientist preferably with at least 7 years of experience working on gender issues in the Middle East and North Africa region, particularly in Egypt;

• Sound experience in women’s economic empowerment projects, experience conducting gender institutional assessments and delivering training on gender;
  • Proven record of working on GBV issues and delivering awareness trainings to different stakeholders;
  • Sound knowledge of the Egyptian social and cultural context norms;
  • Previous experience of working with various stakeholders, including government officials, business representatives, civil society, etc.;
  • Fluency in English and Arabic is essential.

Senior Communication / marketing expert (Key Expert 3):

• Communication / marketing expert with 7 years or more experience working on social issues in the Middle East and North Africa region, including Egypt
• Proven record of designing awareness campaign on different social issues, including gender and GBV for a wide range of audience and utilising different media forms;
• Proficiency in branding, public communications, advertisement and public marketing;
• Sound knowledge of the Egyptian social and cultural context norms;
• Previous experience of working with various stakeholders, including government officials, business representatives, civil society, etc.;
• Fluency in English and Arabic is essential.

Submission Requirements: In order to determine the capability and experience of Consultants seeking to be selected for this Assignment, the information submitted should include the following:

1. Company/group of firms’ profile, organisation and staffing (max 1 page).
2. Details of previous project experience or similar assignments particularly undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contract value, contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided (if different from duration) , main activities, objectives.
3. CVs of key experts who could carry out the Assignment should be focused on information relevant to the assignment, e.g. qualifications, experience in similar assignments, particularly assignments undertaken in the previous 10 years, including information on contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided, assignment budget, main activities, objectives.
4. Technical proposal explaining the proposed approach, methodology and work plan to undertake the assignment. Key experts 1-3 should be clearly identified in the proposal. The proposal should include a summary table showing how the Key experts meet the different requirements of the ToRs and what would be their role during implementation of the project.
5. Completed Consultant Declaration Form and Contact Sheet, the template for which is available from the following web-link:

http://www.ebrd.com/pages/workingwithus/procurement/notices/csu/contact_sheet.doc.

The above information should not exceed 30 pages excluding CVs, project references and contact sheet.

The complete expression of interest (including CVs, Technical Proposal, Project references and Consultant Declaration and Contact Sheet) should be submitted, in English electronically through e-Selection, to reach the Bank not later than the closing date. The expression of interest shall be one file (pdf). The EBRD reserves the right to reject applications of firms submitting more than one file. Only if the permissible file size is exceeded (4MB), the Consultant may split the expression of interest into further files.

Bank Contact Person:

Thomas Gale

Technical Co-operation

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

One Exchange Square

London EC2A 2JN

Tel: + 44 20 7338 6255

e-mail:GaleT@ebrd.com (submissions should be sent through eSelection and NOT to this email address)

Notes:

1. The selection will normally be made from responses to this notification only. Consultants will not be asked to submit a proposal. The highest-ranked Consultant will be selected from a shortlist and be invited to negotiate the contract, subject to availability of funding.
2. The shortlist criteria are:

1. Firm’s previous project experience (25)
2. Approach and methodology (25)
3. CV of key expert 1 (10)
4. CV of key expert 2 (20)
5. CV of key expert 3 (20)