Provision of Consultancy Services for Community Beneficiary Wage Payment Administration – GEF 7 SLM Project

Appointment of a Non-Profit Organization or Service Provider, or Agency from Limpopo Province to Administer Community Beneficiary Wage Payments under the GEF 7 Sustainable Land Management Project for a duration of six months

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.

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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: tenders.sa@iucn.org

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).

4.1. Your Proposal must consist of the following four separate documents:

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.

5.1. Completeness

5.2. Pre-Qualification Criteria

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

5.5. Total Score

Technical: 70%

Financial: 30%

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 the contract award, but this date may change depending on how long the evaluation of Proposals takes.

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.

If you have a complaint or concern regarding the propriety of how a competitive process is or has been executed, then please contact procurement@iucn.org. Such complaints or concerns will be treated as confidential and are not considered in breach of the above restrictions on communication (Section 2.1).

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.

Attachment 1 Specification of Requirements / Terms of Reference

The Government of South Africa through Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture (DoA), supported by the International Union of the Conservation of Nature is implementing the seventh Global Environment Facility Project titled “Mainstreaming Sustainable Land Management for large-scale impact in the grazing lands of Limpopo and Northern Cape Provinces in South Africa\*\*”.\*\* The purpose of the project is to tackle the challenges of land degradation in the country while addressing poverty alleviation and livelihoods. The University of Limpopo is the Implementing Partner of the project and is responsible for project implementation on the ground as contained in the project document.

The GEF supports developing countries’ work to address the world’s most pressing environmental issues relating to land degradation, biodiversity loss, climate change, international waters as well as chemicals and waste. The project is being implemented at Ga-Matji Village within Fetakgomo-Tubatse Local Municipality under Sekhukhune District Municipality and Rietfontein Village within Dawid Kruiper Local Municipality under ZF Mgcawu District Municipality in Northern Cape Province.

The project integrates environmental restoration, infrastructure development, and livelihood creation to address land degradation while improving socio-economic conditions within the community. Planned interventions include labour-intensive restoration activities, agricultural production support, and the establishment of enabling infrastructure. To realise the success of the project, one of the most important factors is to ensure the sustainability of the activities and the long‑term legacy of the project within the community. Sustainability is viewed not only in terms of environmental outcomes, but also in relation to community ownership, skills development, and continued socio‑economic benefits beyond the project lifecycle.

In this regard, the project has deliberately adopted an approach that actively includes community members in the implementation of project activities. This approach is intended to strengthen local capacity, promote inclusion, and ensure that restoration initiatives are rooted within the community itself. The project has adopted an approach to temporarily employ community members to support the implementation of restoration activities, as documented in the implementing partners’ workplan. This approach reflects the project’s strong commitment to participatory development, ensuring that local communities play an active role in implementation while benefiting directly from project interventions and skills development.

The restoration activities to be implemented by community beneficiaries include the establishment of community gardens, the development and management of plant nurseries, the planting of trees and grasses, and the establishment of green belt. These activities are central to improving land productivity, strengthening ecosystem resilience, and supporting sustainable community livelihoods.

The nature of these activities is largely labour‑intensive and requires an appropriate balance between manual labour and the use of equipment. In line with the project’s socio‑economic objectives, preference will be given to labour‑based methods wherever technically and economically feasible, thereby maximising local employment opportunities while ensuring effective and efficient implementation of restoration activities.

For alignment with other provincial initiatives, the project will adopt an employment approach consistent with that of the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (LDARD), which implements a wide range of projects across the province. This approach is aligned with the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) strategy, which provides a structured framework for labour‑intensive public employment initiatives.

In accordance with the EPWP strategy, the minimum wage for EPWP participants will be applied as determined by the Minister of Labour. This ensures compliance with national labour standards while promoting fairness and consistency with similar government‑supported initiatives within the province. The daily wage rates should reflect the going market wage rate, but at the same time must take the overall objectives of the EPWP and the predominant use of labour into consideration.

The appointed Non-Profit Organisation (NPO)/Service Provider/Agency will have to pay in line with the departmental approved rates and charge a commission for administration of the payment. The payment of the UIF (1%) will be between the service provider and the workers including all applicable laws pertaining to employment. The EPWP Unit aims to implement wage rates for different categories of workers within the programme guided by the Ministerial Determination on minimum wage rate for EPWP workers. The EPWP is involved in different categories (general workers, supervisors, tractor drivers, chainsaw operator, brushcutter operator, herbicide applicator, data capture, etc) of workers within the scope of implementation. These categories of workers are paid different wages which are from R100.00 above and vary according to the type of task that are carried out.

Phase III of EPWP further stipulates that creation of decent work and where the appointed Non-Profit Organisation (NPO)/Service Provider/Agency is required to comply with policies and prescripts. Compliance with Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), COIDA, OHS and other related prescripts while ensuring quality of goods and services are delivered through the EPWP Programme.

The overall objective of this assignment is to appoint a competent Service Provider to administer the temporary employment and payroll management of community beneficiaries participating in the GEF 7 Sustainable Land Management Project. The specific objectives are to:

The appointed Service Provider shall provide comprehensive payroll administration services for community beneficiaries engaged under the GEF 7 Sustainable Land Management Project. The assignment shall include, but not be limited to, the following activities:

The right is reserved to visit the premises of the company that applied for this bid.

1.1. A detailed description of the services and/or goods to be provided can be found in Attachment 1.

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.

7.2. In order to participate in this procurement, you must meet the following conditions:

Registered on the relevant professional or trade register of the country in which you are established (or resident, if self-employed)

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 sub-contractors, 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:

The appointed Non-Profit Organization (NPO)/Service Provider/Agency must ensure that all project beneficiaries comply with the requirements of BCEA. 75 of 1997. The Non-Profit Organization (NPO)/Service Provider/Agency must ensure they adhere to the necessary registration requirements as determined by UIF and COIDA. Payment shall only be made:

The Non-Profit Organization (NPO)/Service Provider/Agency shall be responsible for all his/her office and living accommodation, transportation, equipment, supplies, surveys, investigation, secretarial services and everything else necessary for the satisfactory execution and completion of the Services. The Non-Profit Organization (NPO)/Service Provider/Agency is also expected to acquire, for his/her own use, the relevant documents necessary for the conduct of the consultancy, including standards, specifications, design manuals, costing data/prices, etc.

The standardized specification shall apply on this contract.Annexure represent rates attached to each service to be rendered for EPWP activities: