TENDER ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE FEASIBILITY STUDY ON EXISTING INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL GREEN CERTIFICATION PLATFORM
Background
Although Mongolia emits 0.1% of the total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) caused by human activities, it ranks above the world average in terms of GHG per capita. Therefore, according to the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Mongolia is working to determine its national contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 22.7% compared to the base level by 2030.
Food and beverage production are a major sector that emits one-third of human-caused GHG emissions. Mongolia is in a similar situation, but it has its own characteristics: it fully meets its domestic consumption of products such as meat, flour, and potatoes, but the supply of other types of food, and beverages, and their additives, packaging, and production-related equipment are highly dependent on import of the two neighboring countries including their customs, quarantine, energy, transportation conditions, etc.
People in Need (PIN) INGO, Mongolian Sustainable Finance Association (MSFA), Development Solutions NGO, and Caritas Czech NGOs are working together to implement the "Switching on the Green Economy" project funded by the European Union's Switch Asia program, in Mongolia for the period of 2022-2025. Within the framework of this project, the EU’s "farm-to-fork" strategy’s best practices in the form of eco-labeling, and green certification will be introduced in some sub-sectors of food, and beverages. In doing so, 10,000 local micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and service providers (MSMEs) and 750 retailers will be supported to introduce circular economy practices, providing them with the necessary knowledge, capabilities, and opportunities, as well as connecting them with green financing, making their operations more environmentally friendly, safe to natural resources. Another major objective of this initiative is to use the system of trade incentives to change the behavior of end consumers to be more responsible and environmentally friendly, which will have a positive impact on the population's healthy, safe, and sustainable food supply.
Purpose of the Service
PIN Mongolia is looking for a consultancy service to conduct a feasibility study on existing international and national green certification platforms to identify best practices, gaps, and lessons learnt to inform PIN’s decision-making processes for creating an eco-labelling platform. The consultant shall bring recommendations on possibilities to reduce transaction costs and improve the operational efficiency of the eco-labelling processes.
Findings from the study will serve as a basis for the development of a new online platform and its business model and will specifically focus on EU best practices, while also considering examples from other Asian countries as well as past SWITCH-Asia projects in the eco-labelling area.
The study will also be complemented by a workshop to share with key stakeholders the results of the assessment, with clear recommendations that will guide the implementation of the development of a new online platform and its business model. The study will also investigate the sustainability and financial model associated with Circular Business Verifiers (CBV), who will be responsible for auditing MSMEs and retailers.
Scope of Work
The consultant is expected to conduct a comprehensive review of the benchmarks on existing national and international eco-labeling digital certification platforms and present a final report containing the pros and cons by developing the recommended design for the digital certification platform in Mongolia’s context. The specific outputs and activities expected are outlined below:
Output: Development of the final report with best practices in the eco labeling/ green labelling platforms
Deliverables and Deadlines
42 working days. The final schedule will be agreed upon in the beginning of the consultancy agreement. All deliverables must be submitted to PIN (in English) in soft copies.
Expected Deliverables:
Although Mongolia emits 0.1% of the total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) caused by human activities, it ranks above the world average in terms of GHG per capita. Therefore, according to the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Mongolia is working to determine its national contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 22.7% compared to the base level by 2030.
Food and beverage production are a major sector that emits one-third of human-caused GHG emissions. Mongolia is in a similar situation, but it has its own characteristics: it fully meets its domestic consumption of products such as meat, flour, and potatoes, but the supply of other types of food, and beverages, and their additives, packaging, and production-related equipment are highly dependent on import of the two neighboring countries including their customs, quarantine, energy, transportation conditions, etc.
People in Need (PIN) INGO, Mongolian Sustainable Finance Association (MSFA), Development Solutions NGO, and Caritas Czech NGOs are working together to implement the "Switching on the Green Economy" project funded by the European Union's Switch Asia program, in Mongolia for the period of 2022-2025. Within the framework of this project, the EU’s "farm-to-fork" strategy’s best practices in the form of eco-labeling, and green certification will be introduced in some sub-sectors of food, and beverages. In doing so, 10,000 local micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and service providers (MSMEs) and 750 retailers will be supported to introduce circular economy practices, providing them with the necessary knowledge, capabilities, and opportunities, as well as connecting them with green financing, making their operations more environmentally friendly, safe to natural resources. Another major objective of this initiative is to use the system of trade incentives to change the behavior of end consumers to be more responsible and environmentally friendly, which will have a positive impact on the population's healthy, safe, and sustainable food supply.
Purpose of the Service
PIN Mongolia is looking for a consultancy service to conduct a feasibility study on existing international and national green certification platforms to identify best practices, gaps, and lessons learnt to inform PIN’s decision-making processes for creating an eco-labelling platform. The consultant shall bring recommendations on possibilities to reduce transaction costs and improve the operational efficiency of the eco-labelling processes.
Findings from the study will serve as a basis for the development of a new online platform and its business model and will specifically focus on EU best practices, while also considering examples from other Asian countries as well as past SWITCH-Asia projects in the eco-labelling area.
The study will also be complemented by a workshop to share with key stakeholders the results of the assessment, with clear recommendations that will guide the implementation of the development of a new online platform and its business model. The study will also investigate the sustainability and financial model associated with Circular Business Verifiers (CBV), who will be responsible for auditing MSMEs and retailers.
Scope of Work
The consultant is expected to conduct a comprehensive review of the benchmarks on existing national and international eco-labeling digital certification platforms and present a final report containing the pros and cons by developing the recommended design for the digital certification platform in Mongolia’s context. The specific outputs and activities expected are outlined below:
Output: Development of the final report with best practices in the eco labeling/ green labelling platforms
- Review and map currently operating international (EU and other country/regional) eco-labelling digital certification platforms, their IT developments, how those platforms function in business, assess user-friendliness, and IT programming.
- Develop a map of various approaches to business model for eco-labelling certification platforms internationally, which have incentive system; and describe each approach, the method including the pros and cons, how they interface with another platform, their functions, detailed processes for all users like Circular Business Verifiers (CBV), certifying body, administrators, producers (MSMEs, retailers) and consumers. In addition, if any AI exists and how it assists or supports other functions, define comprehensive customer journey capabilities, broad integrative functionality, and how the frameworks built encompass future innovation, etc. Suggest a few feasible models applicable to the Mongolian ecosystem.
- Research what method, technologies, or resources like the national electricity database they use to get measurable information (water, electricity usage, waste amount, and any data collected on GH emission via the platform before labeling).
- Compare the process flows of the eco-labeling platforms, their features, frontends and backends, technical functions under research, and the detailed steps in how the system generates the data and what algorithm is used. Explain and identify the specific process for personnel involved in the operations and the platforms' fully or semi-automated processes/areas. In addition, compare the payment system, verification system, integration with other software such as excel, word, SAP, cloud system etc. Review and compare the data securities of existing platform, how those platforms protect users’ data.
- Provide comprehensible recommendations on innovative eco-labelling certification platform design and the roadmap for its business model, and flow based on the benchmark findings and IT development.
Deliverables and Deadlines
42 working days. The final schedule will be agreed upon in the beginning of the consultancy agreement. All deliverables must be submitted to PIN (in English) in soft copies.
Expected Deliverables:
- Comprehensive research/study on existing international and national green certification platforms
- Final report and clear recommendations on the new online certification platform and the roadmap for its business model
- Final dissemination workshop
Evaluation Method and Criteria
The consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology
Cumulative analysis
The award of the contract shall be made to the team of consultants whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%) and financial criteria (30%). Financial proposal shall be evaluated as a ratio of the Proposal’s offer to the lowest price among the proposals received by PIN .
Technical criteria 1: Academic qualification- 20 scores
At least Master’s degree in related fields-20
Technical criteria 2: Professional experience-50 scores
Work experience in relative fields-20
Previous experience in carrying out stakeholders’ consultations and performing research studies, or policy analysis in related fields-10
Proven experience working with agencies or other stakeholders in eco/green labeling or certification, especially in the agri-food and beverage sub-sector-20
Technical criteria 3: Methodology/approach and workplan-30 scores
A brief proposal describing the methodologies, workplan and timeframe-30
Technical Proposal-70% (100)
Financial Proposal-30% (100)
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
Requirements on Consultant Qualification
Educational Qualifications:
The consultant must send a financial proposal based on a Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:
Expected DeliverablesPayment
Documentation required
Interested individual consultants and a team of consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document with no more than 25 pages as the application only allows to upload a maximum of one document and submit it to procurement.mongolia@peopleinneed.net by 4 p.m. (UB time zone), 01 February 2023:
The consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology
Cumulative analysis
The award of the contract shall be made to the team of consultants whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%) and financial criteria (30%). Financial proposal shall be evaluated as a ratio of the Proposal’s offer to the lowest price among the proposals received by PIN .
Technical criteria 1: Academic qualification- 20 scores
At least Master’s degree in related fields-20
Technical criteria 2: Professional experience-50 scores
Work experience in relative fields-20
Previous experience in carrying out stakeholders’ consultations and performing research studies, or policy analysis in related fields-10
Proven experience working with agencies or other stakeholders in eco/green labeling or certification, especially in the agri-food and beverage sub-sector-20
Technical criteria 3: Methodology/approach and workplan-30 scores
A brief proposal describing the methodologies, workplan and timeframe-30
Technical Proposal-70% (100)
Financial Proposal-30% (100)
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
Requirements on Consultant Qualification
Educational Qualifications:
- A Master’s degree in the relevant fields.
- 3+ years of experience in the field of agriculture, agri-food production, circular practices and schemes, eco/green labeling or any related fields.
- Experience in carrying out stakeholders’ consultations and performing research studies, or policy analysis.
- Proven experience working with agencies or other stakeholders in eco/green labeling or certification, especially in the agri-food and beverage sub-sector.
- Proven ability to facilitate dialogue among senior agency officials and other stakeholders.
- Research and analytical experience in areas in the aforementioned fields
- Excellent knowledge of data collection and analysis.
- Experience on eco-labelling projects is an advantage.
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
- Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities skills;
- Proficiency in the use of IT applications; evaluate the working principles and data flow of information technology, software, and similar systems, identify strengths and weaknesses, and summarize.
- Follow the the Key Principles of PIN Code of Conduct, and agrees to uphold the standards of conduct required; and
- Be sensitive and adaptable to culture, gender, religion, race, ethnicity and age.
- Fluency in English (written and spoken), and an ability to summarise and present information effectively.
The consultant must send a financial proposal based on a Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:
Expected DeliverablesPayment
- Inception report including detailed workplan, methodology and report outline-20%
- Comprehensive research and study on existing international and national green certification platforms that identifies the best practices, gaps and lessons learnt-40%
- Final report and dissemination workshop-40%
Documentation required
Interested individual consultants and a team of consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document with no more than 25 pages as the application only allows to upload a maximum of one document and submit it to procurement.mongolia@peopleinneed.net by 4 p.m. (UB time zone), 01 February 2023:
-
- PIN Eligibility Sworn Statement /please see the Annex A/;
- Personal CVs of consultant(s), indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least two (2) professional references.
- Technical proposal, including a) a brief description of why the consultants considers him/herself/themselves as the most suitable for the assignment, b) proposed approach for the assignment.
- Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex B.