Request for Proposals (RfP) to Copy-Edit the Eastern and Southern Africa State of Protected and Conserved Areas (SoPACA) Report

How to apply

IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 1 of 12
Request for Proposals (RfP) to
Copy-Edit the Eastern and
Southern Africa State of Protected
and Conserved Areas (SoPACA)
Report
South Africa Office, BIOPAMA Project
RfP Reference: IUCN-2024-01-P02204-2
Welcome to this Procurement by IUCN. You are hereby invited to submit a Proposal. Please read the
information and instructions carefully because non-compliance with the instructions may result in
disqualification of your Proposal from this Procurement.
1. REQUIREMENTS
1.1. A detailed description of the services and/or goods to be provided can be found in Attachment
1.
2. CONTACT DETAILS
2.1. During the course of this procurement, i.e., from the publication of this RfP to the award of a
contract, you may not discuss this procurement with any IUCN employee or representative
other than the following contact. You must address all correspondence and questions to the
contact, including your Proposal.
IUCN Contact: [email protected]
3. PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE
3.1. This timetable is indicative and may be changed by IUCN at any time. If IUCN decides that
changes to any of the deadlines are necessary, we will publish this on our website and contact
you directly if you have indicated your interest in this procurement (see Section 3.2).
DATE ACTIVITY
30th January 2024 Publication of the Request for Proposals
5th February 2024 Deadline for submission of questions
12th February 2024 Planned publication of responses to questions
23rd February 2024
Deadline for submission of Proposals to IUCN (“Submission
Deadline”)
1st March 2024 Clarification of Proposals (if relevant)
8th March 2024 Planned date for contract award
18th March 2024 Expected contract start date
3.2. Please email the IUCN contact to express your interest in submitting a proposal by the deadline
stated above. This will help IUCN to keep you updated regarding the procurement.
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 2 of 12
4. COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL
4.1. Your Proposal must consist of the following four separate documents:
 Signed Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2)
 Pre-Qualification Information (see Section 4.3 below)
 Technical Proposal (see Section 4.4 below)
 Financial Proposal (see Section 4.5 below)
Proposals must be prepared in English.
4.2. Your Proposal must be submitted by email to the IUCN Contact (see Section 2). The subject
heading of the email shall be [RfP Reference – bidder name]. The bidder’s name is the name
of the company/organisation on whose behalf you are submitting the Proposal, or your own
surname if you are bidding as a self-employed consultant. Your Proposal must be submitted
in PDF format. You may submit multiple emails suitably annotated, e.g., Email 1 of 3, if
attached files are too large to suit a single email transmission. You may not submit your
Proposal by uploading it to a file-sharing tool.
IMPORTANT: Submitted documents must be password-protected so that they cannot be
opened and read before the submission deadline. Please use the same password for all
submitted documents. After the deadline has passed and within 12 hours, please send the
password to the IUCN Contact. This will ensure a secure bid submission and opening process.
Please DO NOT email the password before the deadline for Proposal submission.
4.3. Pre-Qualification Criteria
IUCN will use the following Pre-Qualification Criteria to determine whether you have the
capacity to provide the required goods and/or services to IUCN. Please provide the necessary
information in a single, separate document.
Pre-Qualification Criteria
1 Contractors established in non-EU OECD Member States, such as Australia, Canada,
Chile, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Switzerland, United States of
America, are not eligible to be awarded contracts for the programme funded by the 11th
EDF.
2 3 relevant references of clients similar to IUCN / similar work
3 Confirm that you have all the necessary legal registrations to perform the work
4 State your annual turnover for each of the past 3 years
5 How many employees does your organisation have who are qualified for this work?
4.4. Technical Proposal
The Technical Proposal must address each of the criteria stated below explicitly and
separately, quoting the relevant criteria reference number (left-hand column).
Proposals in any other format will significantly increase the time it takes to evaluate, and such
Proposals may therefore be rejected at IUCN’s discretion.
Where CVs are requested, these must be of the individuals who will actually carry out the work
specified. The individuals you put forward may only be substituted with IUCN’s approval.
IUCN will evaluate Technical Proposals with regards to each of the following criteria and their
relative importance:
Description Information to provide Relative
weight
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 3 of 12
1 Relevant experience in copyediting
and proofreading large
reports
Attach a summary of key competencies
relevant to this work as well as references
to similar past work
25
2 Relevant past conservation
experience/understanding of
the Eastern and Southern
Africa region
Attach a summary portfolio of experience
related to conservation in the Eastern and
Southern African region, references as
relevant
25
3 Ability to deliver within
timeframe required
Attach the workplan detailing the overall
approach and timelines on how the work
will be carried out
25
4 General education and work
experience
CV of the consultant conducting this work,
references as relevant
If applying as a team, the CV of the lead
consultant as well as CVs of each team
member.
25
TOTAL 100%
4.5. Financial Proposal
4.5.1. The Financial Proposal must be a fixed and firm price for the provision of the
goods/services stated in the RfP in their entirety.
4.5.2. Prices include all costs
Submitted rates and prices are deemed to include all costs, insurances, taxes (except
VAT, see below), fees, expenses, liabilities, obligations, risk and other things
necessary for the performance of the Terms of Reference or Specification of
Requirements. IUCN will not accept charges beyond those clearly stated in the
Financial Proposal. This includes applicable withholding taxes and similar. It is your
responsibility to determine whether such taxes apply to your organisation and to
include them in your Financial Proposal.
4.5.3. Applicable Goods and Services Taxes
Proposal rates and prices shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax.
4.5.4. Currency of proposed rates and prices
All rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in EUR.
4.6. Additional information not requested by IUCN should not be included in your Proposal and will
not be considered in the evaluation.
4.7. Your Proposal must remain valid and capable of acceptance by IUCN for a period of 90
calendar days following the submission deadline.
4.8. Withdrawals and Changes
You may freely withdraw or change your Proposal at any time prior to the submission deadline
by written notice to the IUCN Contact. However, in order to reduce the risk of fraud, no changes
or withdrawals will be accepted after the submission deadline.
5. EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS
5.1. Completeness
IUCN will firstly check your Proposal for completeness. Incomplete Proposals will not be
considered further.
5.2. Pre-Qualification Criteria
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Only Proposals that meet all of the pre-qualification criteria will be evaluated.
5.3. Technical Evaluation
5.3.1. Scoring Method
Your Proposal will be assigned a score from 0 to 10 for each of the technical evaluation
criteria, such that ‘0’ is low and ‘10’ is high.
5.3.2. Minimum Quality Thresholds
Proposals that receive a score of ‘0’ for any of the criteria will not be considered further.
5.3.3. Technical Score
Your score for each technical evaluation criterion will be multiplied with the respective
relative weight (see Section 4.4) and these weighted scores added together to give
your Proposal’s overall technical score.
5.4. Financial Evaluation and Financial Scores
The financial evaluation will be based upon the full total price you submit. Your Financial
Proposal will receive a score calculated by dividing the lowest Financial Proposal that has
passed the minimum quality thresholds (see Section 5.3.2) by the total price of your Financial
Proposal.
Thus, for example, if your Financial Proposal is for a total of CHF 100 and the lowest Financial
Proposal is CHF 80, you will receive a financial score of 80/100 = 80%
5.5. Total Score
Your Proposal’s total score will be calculated as the weighted sum of your technical score and
your financial score.
The relative weights will be:
Technical: 70%
Financial: 30%
Thus, for example, if your technical score is 83% and your financial score is 77%, you will
receive a total score of 83 * 70% + 77 * 30% = 58.1% + 23.1% = 81.2%.
Subject to the requirements in Sections 4 and 7, IUCN will award the contract to the bidder
whose Proposal achieves the highest total score.
6. EXPLANATION OF PROCUREMENT PROCEDURE
6.1. IUCN is using the Open Procedure for this procurement. This means that the contracting
opportunity is published on IUCN’s website and open to all interested parties to take part,
subject to the conditions in Section 7 below.
6.2. You are welcome to ask questions or seek clarification regarding this procurement. Please
email the IUCN Contact (see Section 2), taking note of the deadline for submission of questions
in Section 3.1.
6.3. All Proposals must be received by the submission deadline in Section 3.1 above. Late
Proposals will not be considered. All Proposals received by the submission deadline will be
evaluated by a team of three or more evaluators in accordance with the evaluation criteria
stated in this RfP. No other criteria will be used to evaluate Proposals. The contract will be
awarded to the bidder whose Proposal received the highest Total Score. IUCN does, however,
reserve the right to cancel the procurement and not award a contract at all.
6.4. IUCN will contact the bidder with the highest-scoring Proposal to finalise the contract. We will
contact unsuccessful bidders after the contract has been awarded and provide detailed
feedback. The timetable in Section 3.1 gives an estimate of when we expect to have completed
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 5 of 12
the contract award, but this date may change depending on how long the evaluation of
Proposals takes.
7. CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION IN THIS PROCUREMENT
7.1. To participate in this procurement, you are required to submit a Proposal, which fully complies
with the instructions in this RfP and the Attachments.
7.1.1. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted a complete and fully
compliant Proposal.
7.1.2. Any incomplete or incorrectly completed Proposal submission may be deemed noncompliant,
and as a result you may be unable to proceed further in the procurement
process.
7.1.3. IUCN will query any obvious clerical errors in your Proposal and may, at IUCN’s sole
discretion, allow you to correct these, but only if doing so could not be perceived as
giving you an unfair advantage.
7.2. In order to participate in this procurement, you must meet the following conditions:
 Free of conflicts of interest
 Registered on the relevant professional or trade register of the country in which you
are established (or resident, if self-employed)
 In full compliance with your obligations relating to payment of social security
contributions and of all applicable taxes
 Not been convicted of failing to comply with environmental regulatory requirements or
other legal requirements relating to sustainability and environmental protection
 Not bankrupt or being wound up
 Never been guilty of an offence concerning your professional conduct
 Not involved in fraud, corruption, a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism,
or any other illegal activity.
7.3. You must complete and sign the Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2).
7.4. If you are participating in this procurement as a member of a joint venture, or are using subcontractors,
submit a separate Declaration of Undertaking for each member of the joint venture
and sub-contractor, and be clear in your Proposal which parts of the goods/services are
provided by each partner or sub-contractor.
7.5. Each bidder shall submit only one Proposal, either individually or as a partner in a joint venture.
In case of joint venture, one company shall not be allowed to participate in two different joint
ventures in the same procurement nor shall a company be allowed to submit a Proposal both
on its behalf and as part of a joint venture for the same procurement. A bidder who submits or
participates in more than one Proposal (other than as a subcontractor or in cases of
alternatives that have been permitted or requested) shall cause all the Proposals with the
bidder’s participation to be disqualified.
7.6. By taking part in this procurement, you accept the conditions set out in this RfP, including the
following:
 It is unacceptable to give or offer any gift or consideration to an employee or other
representative of IUCN as a reward or inducement in relation to the awarding of a contract.
Such action will give IUCN the right to exclude you from this and any future procurements,
and to terminate any contract that may have been signed with you.
 Any attempt to obtain information from an employee or other representative of IUCN
concerning another bidder will result in disqualification.
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 6 of 12
 Any price fixing or collusion with other bidders in relation to this procurement shall give
IUCN the right to exclude you and any other involved bidder(s) from this and any future
procurements and may constitute a criminal offence.
8. CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION
8.1. IUCN follows the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The
information you submit to IUCN as part of this procurement will be treated as confidential and
shared only as required to evaluate your Proposal in line with the procedure explained in this
RfP, and for the maintenance of a clear audit trail. For audit purposes, IUCN is required to
retain your Proposal in its entirety for 10 years after then end of the resulting contract and
make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when requested.
8.2. In the Declaration of Undertaking (Attachment 2) you need to give IUCN express permission
to use the information you submit in this way, including personal data that forms part of your
Proposal. Where you include personal data of your employees (e.g. CVs) in your Proposal,
you need to have written permission from those individuals to share this information with IUCN,
and for IUCN to use this information as indicated in 8.1. Without these permissions, IUCN will
not be able to consider your Proposal.
9. COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
If you have a complaint or concern regarding the propriety of how a competitive process is or
has been executed, then please contact [email protected]. Such complaints or
concerns will be treated as confidential and are not considered in breach of the above
restrictions on communication (Section 2.1).
10. CONTRACT
The contract will be based on IUCN’s template in Attachment 3, the terms of which are not
negotiable. They may, however, be amended by IUCN to reflect particular requirements from
the donor funding this particular procurement.
11. ABOUT IUCN
IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society
organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the
knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature
conservation to take place together.
Headquartered in Switzerland, IUCN Secretariat comprises around 1,000 staff with offices in
more than 50 countries.
Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network,
harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,300 Member organisations
and some 10,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and
analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository
of best practices, tools and international standards.
IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs,
scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples’ organisations and others can
work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve
sustainable development.
Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of
conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge
of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and
improve people’s well-being.
www.iucn.org
https://twitter.com/IUCN/
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12. ATTACHMENTS
Attachment 1 Specification of Requirements / Terms of Reference
Attachment 2 Declaration of Undertaking (select 2a for companies or 2b for self-employed as
applicable to you)
Attachment 3 Contract Template
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 8 of 12
IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office
Terms of Reference: Consultant, Copy Editing of the Second Edition of the Eastern and
Southern Africa State of Protected and Conserved Areas (SoPACA) Report
1. BACKGROUND
The Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) programme aims to assist the African,
Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries in developing a framework for improving technical and
institutional approaches to conserve biodiversity, particularly in protected areas, through regional
cooperation and capacity building activities. BIOPAMA is jointly implemented by the IUCN and the
European Union’s (EU) Joint Research Centre (JRC). In line with these BIOPAMA programme
objectives, a Regional Resource Hub (RRH) for Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management will
be established at the Regional Centre for Mapping Resources for Development (RCMRD) in 2019.
The RRH hosts the Regional Reference Information System (RRIS), which works as a platform to
facilitate exchange of data/information among decision makers and managers of protected areas and
supports regional priorities for decision support products. One such product is a regional “State of
Protected and Conserved Areas” report, the first edition of which was published in 2020. This first
report provided a baseline for the region on progress against key indicators of the global biodiversity
targets and also focusing on the state of protected area governance and equity (PAGE) and protected
area management effectiveness (PAME) across the region. The SOPACA draws on existing
information from countries and works closely with relevant experts in the region and in the countries
to draft the content for the report. The second edition is being developed, with the same overall
structure as the first/baseline edition, and this consultancy will lead the process and liaise with all
relevant stakeholders.
2. OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY
Working under the supervision of the Regional Programme Development Manager, the key role of the
consultant/s will be to copy-edit the Eastern and Southern African (ESA)1 State of Protected and
Conserved Areas (SoPACA) Report, in line with IUCN publishing guidelines. The report is envisaged
to be approximately 300 pages in total, including images, maps, infographics, acknowledgements,
annexes, etc. The aim is to ensure that BIOPAMA produces a quality publication that is visually
appealing, easy to read and consistent with the BIOPAMA and IUCN brands.
3. SPECIFIC TASKS
The consultant will work in close collaboration with the Regional Programme Development Manager
1 Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, eSwatini, Ethiopia,
Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South
Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 9 of 12
and Regional Resource Hub Policy Officer (TO) and the JRC team, in the carrying out of this work. The
following tasks are envisaged in order to achieve this:
(i) Engage with the BIOPAMA team:
a. Inception meeting (skype) with BIOPAMA team to discuss the workplan; and
b. Participate in weekly update meetings (calls) with the BIOPAMA team, as needed during
the copy-editing phase.
(ii) Proofread as well as revise the text to improve its flow and structure (for e.g., consistency in
spelling of a word throughout the document, check for factually incorrect statements,
incoherent narrative of facts or arguments etc.). The editing process will include a revision of
the text within tables, figures and maps to achieve an optimal flow of information and
presentation of the findings.
(iii) The editing process might entail substantive re‐drafting and synthesizing of parts of the existing
text in order to make the report more readable and understandable to non‐expert audiences.
(iv) Deliver a final version of the edited text, ready for design and publication.
4. EXPECTED OUTPUTS
The expected outputs from this project relate directly to the tasks outlined above and include the
following:
(i) First copy‐edited version of the of the Report in line with IUCN publishing guidelines, in
a maximum of 10 days from receipt;
(ii) Final edited and proofread version completed within 10 days after receiving feedback
of first version.
5. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
The assignment should be carried out by a consultant with the following minimum qualifications:
• Copy-editing qualification;
• Minimum of 5 year’s post-qualification experience in copy-editing, preferably in the conservation
or similar sector;
• Minimum of 3 years demonstrated experience with similar projects;
• Proven excellent copy-editing skills for formal reports;
• Demonstrated ability to establish priorities and to plan, organize the work elements in a complex
and dynamic environment;
• Strong coordination skills;
• Good interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to work as part of a team;
• Excellent command of the English language; and
• The ability to see and articulate the bigger picture from fine scale detail.
6. TIMEFRAME AND LOGISTICS
The consultancy shall be conducted over a period of 20 days, starting in March 2024. Timeframes
are aligned with the draft road map (see Annex 1). There will be periods of work on the consultancy,
with periods in between when the report is being reviewed and awaiting comments/edits for
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incorporation into the final report, which will be launched at the Regional Conservation Forum in June
2024.
7. PROPOSAL
A comprehensive proposal for these terms of reference should be submitted and include the
following:
• CV of key personnel;
• List of other similar projects completed to date;
• Budget and timelines (align with roadmap in Annex 1);
• Please include in your budget and timelines any suggested changes or additions to the specific
tasks under 3 above or the roadmap in Annex 1 to ensure a quality product.
8. EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR THE OFFER
The selection will be done based on previous expertise, the ability to work within the estimated
timelines as indicated in Annex 2.
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Annex 1: Development Roadmap
Action Outputs Deadline Percentage
of pay
Inception call/meeting Brief inception report Week of 25th March 2024
Delivery of the first copy-edited
version of the report
First copy-edited
version
By 12th April 2024 60%
Delivery of the final edited and
proofread version of the report
Final edited and 40%
proofread report
By 26th April 2024
IUCN: Request for Proposals Page 12 of 12
Annex 2: Evaluation criteria
See above.