Deadline: 15-Jul-2025
The United Nations Development Programme is requesting proposals for its project titled “Developing Green, Resilient and Inclusive Gender Responsive Business Plan for Value Chain for Livelihood options in selected landscapes in Maharashtra”.
The objective of the assignment is to support UNDP and MoEFCC in Outcome Focused Planning and Implementation of the project including improving the status of the degraded lands in the project landscapes, policy, institutional, capacity, social, economic, ecological and environmental aspects.
The Service Provider will conduct the comprehensive mapping and profiling existing community-based institutions (FPOs, VSS, EDCs, SHGs) within the project landscape to assess their involvement in value chains and identify capacity needs.
Under the GoI-GEF-UNDP project titled ‘Sustainable management and restoration of degraded landscapes for achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) in India’, UNDP is supporting the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). The project aims to achieve land degradation neutrality by creating additional carbon sinks through an ecosystem-based approach for restoring degraded agricultural, forest, pastoral lands, and surface water bodies. It involves enabling institutional frameworks and policies for integrated sustainable land management practices and up-scaling landscape-wide practices.
The project will be executed by MoEFCC, the Government of India with the State Governments of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. It contributes to the national target of restoring 26 Mha of degraded lands by 2030.
Objectives
- UNDP seeks to engage an agency for developing green resilient and inclusive recovery strategies developed and demonstrated through sustainable and gender responsive Livelihood options in selected landscapes of Maharashtra (Nandurbar and Chatrapati Sambhaji Nagar). This will include following:
- Mapping of existing FPOs and Feasibility Study in consultation with relevant line departments:
- Undertake preliminary consultations with MoEFCC, State Forest Department and relevant line departments, and UNDP for understanding scope of work and finalizing the workplan.
- Undertake a mapping of existing FPOs, VSS, EDC, SHGs existing in the project landscape that are already engaged in value chains.
- Business Plan for Selected Value Chains (2-3), as appropriate:
- Through FPOs, VSS/FPCs, EDC and SHGs linkages, assist producers to develop business plans for 3–5-year for each FPO.
- These business plans should be viable and environmentally sustainable, tailored to the specific value chains of agriculture, livestock, forestry, and minor forest produce (MFPs).
- Development of Capacity Building & Training Toolkit:
- Undertake training need assessment of the existing FPOs, VSS/FPCs, EDC and SHGs
- Develop training programs to formalise/or strengthen producer groups in terms of management structures, roles as per existing by-laws, and benefit distribution mechanisms.
- Market Linkages and Value Chain Strengthening:
- Identify potential buyers, processors, and service providers.
- Facilitate market linkages through exposure visits of 10-15 Farmers (01 visit within the state and 01 visit to a best practice site in India) and organize 01 buyer-seller meet within the state.
- Monitoring, Learning and Documentation:
- Develop a monitoring framework to track FPO performance against business plan objectives.
- Document best practices, success stories (especially of women leaders), and lessons learned.
- Mapping of existing FPOs and Feasibility Study in consultation with relevant line departments:
Expected Outcomes
- The project is being implemented over a period of five years in the selected landscapes and has the following outcomes:
- Enhanced national, state and district-level enabling frameworks incentivizing SLM practices and supporting participatory multi-sector platforms to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation, biodiversity loss and climate mitigation;
- Integrated participatory landscape design and financing models established in support of avoidance, reduction and reversal of land degradation, desertification, biodiversity loss and negative impacts of climate change to generates multiple sustained environmental and economic benefits;
- Improved capacity for LDN monitoring, assessment and reporting to UNCCD in support of LDN target setting and evaluation of capacities of partners.
Eligibility Criteria
- The Service Provider must have a minimum of five years of Proven records of similar completed/ongoing assignments relating to livelihoods assessment, development of livelihood strategy/ plan, development programme formulation, and assessing/managing LDN projects in India.
- Team leader should have at least 10-years of experience in leading a team in conducting similar livelihood assessments/livelihood implementation/managing projects.
- The Bidder (including the Lead Entity on behalf of the individual members of any Joint Venture, Consortium or Association) shall submit only one Bid, either in its own name or, if a joint venture, Consortium or Association, as the lead entity of such Joint Venture, Consortium or Association.
- A vendor who will be engaged by UNDP may not be suspended, debarred, or otherwise identified as ineligible by any UN Organization or the World Bank Group or any other international Organization.
- Vendors are therefore required to disclose to UNDP whether they are subject to any sanction or temporary suspension imposed by these organizations. Failure to do so may result in termination of any contract or PO subsequently issued to the vendor by UNDP.
- Proposers must have the legal capacity to enter a binding contract with UNDP and to deliver in the country, or through an authorized representative.
Ineligibility Criteria
- Proposals submitted by two or more Proposers shall all be rejected if they are found to have any of the following:
- they have at least one controlling partner, director or shareholder in common; or
- any one of them receive or have received any direct or indirect subsidy from the other/s; or they have the same legal representative for purposes of this RFP; or
- they have a relationship with each other, directly or through common third parties, that puts them in a position to have access to information about, or influence on the Bid of, another Bidder regarding this RFP process;
- they are subcontractors to each other’s Bid, or a subcontractor to one Bid also submits another Bid under its name as lead Bidder; or
- some key personnel proposed to be in the team of one Bidder participates in more than one Bid received for this RFP process. This condition relating to the personnel, does not apply to subcontractors being included in more than one Bid.
Application Requirements
- Proposers shall include the following documents in their proposal:
- Proposal Submission Form duly completed and signed
- Technical and Financial Offer duly completed and signed and in accordance with the instructions provided for proposal submission.
- Company Profile.
- Registration certificate;
- List and value of projects performed for the last 03 years plus client’s contact details who may be contacted for further information on those contracts;
- List and value of ongoing Projects with UNDP and other national/multinational organization with contact details of clients and current completion ratio of each ongoing project.
For more information, visit UNDP.