Reference number: PROJ10150

20200904_The Evidence Fund – Early Market Engagement

FCDO is pleased to share details of its upcoming programme The Evidence Fund and an online Early Market Engagement event that will be held on 17th September 2020 between 1000 and 1200 hours.

Introduction

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is seeking to appoint a Supplier to oversee and manage The Evidence Fund, a single coordinated, research and evidence programme that delivers urgent, mid- and longer-term knowledge generation, synthesis, translation and engagement. The Evidence Fund brings together several programmes previously delivered across FCDO’s Research & Evidence Division (RED) into a single coordinated platform programme.

The direct recipients of these evidence and knowledge services will be three FCDO Regional Research Hubs (for East Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa), and the Evaluation Unit, although during the contract duration there will be scope for this to expand where additional sources of demand emerge.

The primary responsibility of the awarded Supplier will be to manage delivery of the programme through procurement competitions for research and evaluation projects, conduct due diligence assessments on prospective sub-contracted Research Provider Pool organisations and programme manage research projects implemented by sub-contracted research organisations.

The Supplier will be required to deliver access to supply markets for high-quality research, evidence and evaluation products. To facilitate this, the Supplier will develop, enhance and maintain a dynamic Research Provider Pool, comprised of local and international research organisations, who can meet FCDOs’ research, evidence and evaluation needs. The Supplier and its Research Provider Pool will be required to deliver a deep understanding and knowledge of country and regional contexts, and a wide range of thematic expertise.

FCDO requires that the Research Provider Pool delivers a strong regional presence in East Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa. FCDO perceives that there is benefit to the quality of outputs that derives from local knowledge and expertise, and so requires the Supplier to deliver enhanced diversity of supply. The Supplier will ensure that its Research Provider Pool provides good access to local and regional supply markets and will promote equitable partnerships and strengthen the ability of local and regional research organisations to bid for and conduct FCDO research programmes. Encouraging the participation of small, niche suppliers - independently or in consortia - will be important.

The Supplier will also have responsibility for a number of cross-cutting activities in relation to the programme, including knowledge management and dissemination; monitoring and learning, and establishing a technical assistance facility for additional administrative and programme management support to FCDO and wider-RED activities in East Africa, South Asia, and Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Early Market Engagement Event (EME)

FCDO is planning an online Early Market Engagement event at which to share details and gather feedback on its proposed programming approach. To support this, FCDO has made available a draft Terms of Reference via the FCDO Supply Partner Portal. FCDO encourages market operators to monitor The Evidence Fund entry on the Supply Partner Portal by visiting “https://fcdo.proactiportal.com/” and searching “PROJ10150”. By clicking “Register your interest” you will receive notifications when new developments or materials related to this opportunity are made available. The Terms of Reference can be found under the “Documents” section of the Supply Partner Portal entry.

This EME will be held exclusively online. Resultantly, there will be predetermined methods of engaging with the event. The event will be held via Microsoft Teams. A registration survey is hosted at https://bit.ly/2PORIvn, where prospective attendees can register to attend. In advance of the event, FCDO will use contact email addresses gathered via the survey to share an attendance link to join the event. Participants do not need to own the MS Teams software and can join via their preferred web browser.

FCDO has included a number of pre-event questions in the registration survey, which we will be grateful for your engagement with. These are focussed on key areas of the Terms of Reference.

On the day of the event, FCDO will use a combination of MS Team and Slido to conduct engagement – to receive and respond to questions. If attendees would like to submit questions to FCDO in advance of the event, these can be submitted via the “Dialogues” function on the portal entry, and FCDO will endeavour to prepare a response for delivery at the event.

Details on how to join the event will be issued, alongside an agenda, in advance of the event.

Post EME

After the event, FCDO will publish a record of question and answers from the event, the event presentation and, subject to appropriate consents, a list of attendees. This can, where individual consent is given, include contact details to support networking in our new digital context.

FCDO will utilise learning from our EME event to continue preparations for tendering The Evidence Fund programme, and further updates will in time be published via the Supply Partner Portal.

We look forward to your engagement.

Kind regards,

Andrew West,
Contract Officer

Contract Start Date
-
Contract End Date
-

Delivery Address
FCDO
Abercrombie House
Eaglesham Road
East Kilbride
Glasgow
South Lanarkshire
G75 8EA
UNITED KINGDOM

Purchasing Contact
Andrew West
07469122048
[email protected]