Request for Proposal (RFP)
For
Setting up an automated MRM system and conducting baseline, interim impact assessment and end line for the 2 components of BMMDP programme
Swisscontact, Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation, is headquartered in Zurich and was founded in 1959 by leading figures from the Swiss private sector and Swiss universities. It is exclusively involved in international co-operation and since 1961 has carried out its own and mandated projects. A part of the organization, Swisscontact – Bangladesh, is registered as an international non-governmental organization (INGO) under NGO Affairs Bureau, Government of The People’s Republic of Bangladesh, carrying out various development projects in the areas of skills development (ASTHA, B-SkillFUL, Skills and Employment Programme – Bangladesh, Uttoron), Enterprise Promotion (M4C), and Inclusive Finance (Sarathi, BMMDP) from its office based at House 19, Road 11, Baridhara, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh.
Project background
Bangladesh, having an agriculture-based economy, is extremely susceptible to climate change. Extreme weather events (flood and cyclones) devastate agriculture production particularly in the Northern and Southern region of Bangladesh. Though around 14% of the GDP comes from the agriculture sector, about 40% of the labour force is employed in there (Bangladesh Economic Review 2019). Therefore, climate change not only poses a threat to the economy but threatens the livelihoods of farmers. According to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2016, the poverty rate in rural areas is 26.4%, while urban poverty is 18.9 % with the overall extreme poverty rate at 12.9%. Smallholder farmers are especially vulnerable to climatic shocks induced poverty with their limited savings and coping strategy. Extreme weather events often force farmers to adopt negative coping strategies such as, reducing expenditure on food, borrowing at high-interest rates or selling off productive assets, which further reduce the resilience of farmers to cope with future shocks. The limited coping strategies force farmers to adopt a ‘low investment-low return’ policy to reduce their risks of crop loss and limit their capacity to specialize in income-generating activities with a higher risk profile.
To foster rural poverty reduction, there is a need to stimulate growth in the agriculture and livestock sector by facilitating commercially driven production. Building the capacity of farmers on specialized income-generating activities also fosters commercialization. Along with the need for access to inputs, technology and information, there is a strong need for access to financial services that increase farmers’ investment capacity and minimize ex-post risks. The Bangladesh Microinsurance Market Development Project (BMMDP) also known as Bangladesh Agricultural and Disaster Insurance Programme (BADIP) mandated by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) envisions fostering inclusive growth in the agriculture and livestock sector in Bangladesh through agriculture and livestock insurance along with risk-reducing embedded extension services. In Phase 1, BMMDP will work with two partners to design, pilot and roll out affordable crop and livestock insurance products and identify distribution channels for rice, maize, potato, vegetables, beef-fattening and other livestock and poultry related activities, reaching at least 633,000 insured farmers by 2024. Swisscontact is acting as the Managing Agent (MA) of the project and wants to engage a competent consultancy firm/individual under a framework contract to help improve and operationalize the already developed Monitoring and Results Measurement (MRM) system of the project and conduct baseline, mid-term, and end-line assessments at different intervals.
Submission Details
Interested bidders should submit the technical and financial proposals and other necessary documents as hard (financial and technical proposals in two separate envelops) and soft electronic copies by 27.07.2020 before 5 pm to the address mentioned below.
Swisscontact
House 19, Road 11, Baridhara, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh
E-mail to: bd.bmmdp@swisscontact.org
Click Here for detailed RFP |
