Design and deliver West Africa Evidence Helpdesk service
Closed: The FCDO’s Evidence Fund invited tenders by 6 December 2024 to design and deliver a West Africa Evidence Helpdesk.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) and Integrity invite tenders to design and deliver a West Africa Evidence Helpdesk service, referred to as ‘The West Africa Research and Innovation Hub (WARIH) Helpdesk’.
This opportunity closed on 6 December 2024.
Information session
The FCDO will hold an online (Microsoft Teams) information session at 3pm to 4:30pm UK time on 25 November 2024, for organisations to ask questions about this tender.
To register your interest in attending this information session, email [email protected] by 2pm UK time on 24 November 2024.
What the fund will achieve
This tender is to co-design and deliver a demand-responsive Evidence Helpdesk service for Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) staff in West Africa.
The service is intended to increase access to robust evidence to inform decision-making across FCDO offices in West Africa, filling a gap on FCDO’s country-level demand-responsive evidence offer to staff.
The service will respond to requests across West Africa by employing appropriate research methods. The supplier will be expected to propose a tailored approach to each request – including the approach to refining research questions, delivering reviews and supporting uptake. They will deliver a set of rapid outputs within the timelines and budget set out in this statement of need.
Requirements for organisations wishing to apply
Skill requirements and expertise needed:
1. Legal entity
The supplier should be:
- legally-registered not-for-profit, think-tank, or multilateral development organisation. Research or academic associations are also welcome
- registered in Nigeria or Ghana or have institutional members in these countries, if an association
- operational for at least 7 years
2. Regional research capacity
- research capacity should be readily available across West Africa (Francophone and Anglophone)
- supplier should have successfully implemented public policy and thematic area research projects across West Africa as a region and specifically in Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal in the last 5 years
- evidence of research-based engagements across different strata of stakeholders and research output communication across a wide spectrum of up-takers in West Africa
- there should be evidence of research to policy uptake and impact in West Africa (particularly in the selected countries) by the applying organisation across several thematic areas within the last 5 years
3. Staff specification
- the team lead or Principal Investigator (PI) must have a mix of research expertise: Senior Lecturer equivalent and above if in the academia, or equivalent from the industry with strong research methodology, education, public policy and evidence uptake technical expertise and training
- the team lead or PI should have strong relationships with strategic partners, institutions, and stakeholders in the science, technology and research communities within West Africa
- it would be desirable for the team lead or PI to be bilingual (English and French). There should be high capacity for bilingual policy and thematic area research within the organisation
- research staff should cut across academia, multiple thematic professional areas, and management consulting. Senior-level staff should have at least 10 years’ experience while junior level at least 5 years’ experience.
- project/grant management, as well as monitoring, evaluation, research and learning staff should have at least 5 years of experience in research and international development sectors
- senior-level staff should have at least Master’s degrees while junior-level staff should have at least Bachelor’s degrees across both research, project management and monitoring, evaluation, research and learning responsibilities. These should be complemented with relevant professional certifications on research management, research quality assessment, project/grant management, finance and administration, and monitoring, evaluation, research and learning
- the supplier must have research methodologists as part of the team implementing this grant, at both senior and junior levels
- thematic research areas of deep dive should have junior and senior-level expertise on the research teams domiciled in the selected countries of study
How to apply
Email your completed tender to [email protected] by 5pm UK time on 6 December 2024.
Read more information in the for further details on how to apply.
The covering email should include:
- invitation to tender title
- due date of tender
- name of applicant
Your tender must be submitted in English.
It should be set out in 3 main parts (A, B, and C), along with the letter and declaration to accompany tenders (volume 8):
- Letter and declaration to accompany tenders (volume 8)
- Part A: Application (to include forms A, B, C, D and E from volume 3)
- Part B: Technical (to include form F from volume 3 and long form CVs)
- Part C: Using the commercial pro formas (in volume 4) in both Excel and PDF formats
Electronic file size per submission must not exceed 10 MB.
If you have questions about this tender, email [email protected] by 5pm UK time on 27 November 2024. We shall respond by 5pm UK time on 29 November 2024.
Contact
Evidence Fund Manager: Integrity Global [email protected]