Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund
TERMS OF REFERENCE
- About AECF
The AECF is a leading development finance organization that supports businesses to innovate, create jobs, and leverage investments to build resilience and sustainable incomes for rural and marginalized communities in Africa. AECF’s goal is to bridge the investment gap between early-stage enterprises and business maturity for entrepreneurs serving the poorest communities.
The AECF provides patient capital to new and innovative business models in the agribusiness and renewable energy sectors across Sub-Saharan Africa through various financing instruments, which include grants, zero-interest loans, guarantees, and working capital facilities. AECF’s financing products are supplemented by three additional growth support services to improve the viability and sustainability of our investees, namely, (i) Advisory Services to improve investee internal capabilities (ii) Investment Support in raising commercial capital in significant volumes, and (iii) Knowledge and Insights for learning and evidence gathering for policy influencing and advocacy.
AECF has successfully implemented programmes across 26 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), supporting over 343 enterprises, raising US$ 392 million in funding for programmes, leveraging $750 million in additional capital, and impacting 28 million lives.
The AECF 2021-2025 new strategy objective is to build resilience and sustainable incomes for rural and marginalized communities in Africa. Through catalytic funding, the AECF surfaces and supports the commercialization of new ideas, business models, companies, and technologies designed to increase agricultural productivity, expand energy access, and alleviate poverty while also addressing the cross-cutting themes of women and youth.
2.0 Renewable Energy and Adaptation to Climate Technologies in Sub Saharan Africa (REACT SSA) Programme.
REACT SSA is a Sida-funded programme supporting the private sector in Sub-Saharan Africa to meet the energy needs of rural communities. The target countries include Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Somalia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe.
About 510 million people in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) currently have no access to electricity and will not get grid access, resulting in a steady increase in the number of people without electricity until at least 2025. The slow progress and prohibitive cost of conventional solutions to the household energy crisis mean that cheaper and more accessible new clean technologies offer a better chance of improved access to energy for rural households. Over the last decade, clean energy technologies have become more economical than conventional generation for many applications, and although the regulatory environment to facilitate their application has improved, there is a need for strong renewable energy private sector voices to influence decision-making around policies, laws, and regulations that impact the industry.
The AECF’s engagement in the energy sector under REACT SSA is designed to catalyse the private sector to increase the supply of cleaner fuels, raise awareness of the dangers of indoor air pollution, demonstrate how new knowledge in renewable energy technologies can be put into practice in ways that benefit the poor, especially women, and provide evidence on challenges in policy formulation and implementation.
3.0 AECF engagement in Burkina Faso
The AECF’s Renewable Energy and Climate Technologies window provides patient capital to new and innovative business models in the renewable energy sub-sector. AECF’ s financing products are supplemented by three additional growth support services to improve the viability and sustainability of our investees, namely, (i) Advisory Services to improve investee internal capabilities (ii) Investment Support in raising commercial capital in significant volumes and, (iii) Knowledge and Insights for learning and evidence gathering for policy influencing and advocacy.
The REACT window has two programmes in Burkina Faso i.e., the REACT Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and REACT Efficient Electrification Programme (EEP). The objective of the programmes is to accelerate access to renewable energy technologies for rural and marginalised populations. AECF has invested in 12 companies, eight under the REACT SSA Burkina Faso programme and four through the REACT EEP programme.
3.0 Background to the assignment
The Authorite de Regulation Du Secteur de L’energie, Burkina Faso (The Electricity Sub Sector Regulatory Authority) has expressed interest to work with AECF in line with its broad mandate which includes:
- Enforcement of Laws and regulations in the energy sector
- Promoting effective development of the sector, particularly economic and financial balance and preserving the economic conditions necessary for the sub-sectors viability.
- Consultative role with the relevant ministries, such as on issues of electricity tariffs, and on the development of investment plans.
- Implementing consultation mechanisms for stakeholders, including the private sector, in policy and regulatory development.
In July 2022, the AECF and ARSE agreed to work together to address two key issues:
- Coordination of Renewable Energy Sector Actors, particularly designing a coordination mechanism, and supporting the ARSE to operationalise the mechanism. Specifically:
- Recruit a Policy Liaison Advisor to lead the design and operationalisation of the coordination platform.
- Finance the meeting costs for the coordination platform, quarterly meetings, and the technical working group forums. (Physical or virtual meetings)
- Support ARSE to undertake a comprehensive review and propose improvements to:
- Reduce certification costs and improve the compliance process for the solar sub-sector so as to improve the enabling environment for the renewable energy sector.
- Create a one-stop shop to facilitate the issuance of the documents necessary for the importation of solar equipment.
- Utilise the coordination mechanism to widen the scope of stakeholders supporting ARSE to implement their mandate.
3.0 The assignment
The AECF seeks to recruit a Policy Liaison Advisor in Burkina Faso to support the Policy and Advocacy Manager and the ARSE’s Director of Legal Affairs and Litigation to deliver the development of an appropriate coordination mechanism and support the ARSE to develop appropriate evidence to inform the simplification and improvements to the licensing and importation processes. Specifically, the advisor will be required to:
- Design and operationalise a coordination and consultation platform to support ARSE to deliver its mandate as a sector coordinator to improve the regulatory framework for the renewable energy sector.
- Undertake a literature review to develop a suitable policy proposal to improve the (a) licensing process and the (b) importation of solar products. The proposal will explore the simplification, and cost appropriateness of the licensing and importation of solar products.
- Facilitate consensus building and stakeholder engagements on the RE sectoral advocacy agenda through the coordination platform for proposal and adoption by ARSE.
- Support implementation of AECF advocacy activities by representing AECF at key meetings or developing policy briefs on key issues identified and any other tasks assigned.
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- Roles and responsibilities
The Policy Liaison Advisor will be required to engage with AECF and ARSE, to develop an appropriate work plan and implement it in consultation with the two organisations. The advisor will report to the AECF Policy and Advocacy Manager.
The key roles and responsibilities include:
- Developing an appropriate inception report outlining a suitable work plan to:
- Design and operationalise the coordination mechanism to support ARSE to implement its mandate. Specifically, the report is expected to outline, the structure of the coordination mechanism, stakeholder mapping, a proposed agenda of the forum, proposed working groups and their specific mandates, and a timeline to operationalise the plan.
- Undertake a limited literature review and engagement with ARSE to develop appropriate policy proposals to be utilised by ARSE to improve the licensing and importation processes for the solar sub-sector in Burkina Faso.
- Coordination mechanism
- The Policy Liaison Advisor will provide secretariat services for the coordination platform to be hosted by ARSE.
- Rally stakeholders and convene, in collaboration with ARSE and AECF.
- Document an appropriate baseline of the state of the sector, agenda and priority issues agreed on by stakeholders and support their uptake.
- Support ARSE through the platform to partner with relevant stakeholders to provide support on the most pressing issues for private sector delivery of renewable energy technologies.
- Organise and facilitate quarterly coordination meetings, and technical committees to implement the agenda of the platform.
- Annual review meeting to review the progress of the coordination platform and design future engagements.
- Developing appropriate policy proposals on licensing and importation.
- Scope the state of licensing and importation and licensing of solar products in Burkina Faso to identify the key pain points for the private sector, and the needs of the ARSE to simplify and improve these processes.
- Undertake literature review on licensing and importation of solar products to determine global best practices and identify how to address the key pain points identified.
- Deliberate proposals from the literature review and stakeholder engagement with ARSE and relevant government agencies, e.g., the tax authority, to determine the suitability of the proposals and seek to identify options for consideration.
- Facilitate a stakeholder engagement forum with the private sector, and key stakeholders to agree on suitable revisions of the processes.
- Develop a suitable policy proposal for ARSE to review and adopt.
- Provide technical advice and support to ARSE to implement appropriate revisions to the licensing and importation processes for solar products.
- Reporting to the Policy and Advocacy Manager AECF.
- Submit quarterly reports providing meeting notes, workshop reports, and stakeholder engagement tracker.
- Develop a regulatory tracker to be utilised by the coordination platform for baseline and key changes as and when they arise.
- Provide concise draft policy proposals, and final policy proposals accepted by ARSE.
- Develop a final report proposing a sustainability plan for the platform to be presented by September 2023.
- Act as the Policy Liaison Advisor for the AECF policy and advocacy department representing AECF at key events in collaboration with the Policy and Advocacy Manager.
5.0 Deliverables and timing
This assignment is expected to be implemented over the period of one year, on a part-time basis up to 5 working days per month for with the key deliverables outlined below:
- Inception report agreed upon by ARSE and AECF.
- Operationalisation of a coordination platform through quarterly meetings and technical working group meetings held on a quarterly basis. Appropriate documentation of meeting deliberation and agreed way forward will be required.
- Facilitation of the coordination meetings, led by ARSE with AECF support.
- A baseline of the sector position to be documented in a regulatory tracker, a priority agenda for the coordination platform, and subsequent agendas for each working group.
- A stakeholder engagement tracker to be updated on a quarterly basis.
- Draft policy proposals for review and agreement with ARSE.
- Stakeholder engagement to deliberate on proposals made for appropriateness to market needs.
- Final policy proposals for adoption by ARSE.
- Meeting notes for meetings attended as AECF Policy Liaison Advisor.
- Final report proposing a sustainability plan for the platform due at the end of September 2023.
6.0 Payment structure
The payment breakdown below will be milestone-based, against the Assignment deliverables, and will be made upon satisfactory signoff by AECF. It is expected that this assignment will be delivered over a period of a year from the contract sign-off date. The payments will be made upon submission of timesheets and appropriate deliverables.
7.0 Qualification and experienced required.
Qualifications of the consultant:
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- At least 10 years of work experience supporting the renewable energy sector, providing technical advice to government Ministries, Departments or Agencies, to accelerate private sector delivery of renewable energy technologies.
- A bachelor’s degree in energy, environmental or tax law, public policy, economics, business, or related courses.
- Demonstrated knowledge of Burkina Faso’s renewable energy sector, and particularly have relationships with key stakeholders in the sector.
- Verifiable evidence to demonstrate the capacity to deliver high-quality reports or policy proposals.
- Proposal submission
1)A proposal on how to carry out the assignment and indicative timelines to deliver the assignment (Not exceeding 10 pages).
- A financial proposal to deliver this assignment.
- Technical and financial proposal must be submitted as separate documents and will need to be submitted in English or French.
8.0 Pricing
AECF is obliged by the Kenyan tax authorities to withhold taxes on service contract fees as well as ensure VAT, at 16%, is charged where applicable. Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position with regards to provisions of Kenya tax legislation when developing their proposals.
9.0 Evaluation Criteria.
An evaluation committee will be formed by the AECF and shall include employees. All members will be bound by the same standards of confidentiality. The consultant should ensure that they fully respond to all criteria to be comprehensively evaluated.
The AECF may request and receive clarification from any consultant when evaluating a proposal. The evaluation committee may invite some or all the consultants to appear before the committee to clarify their proposals. In such an event, the evaluation committee may consider such clarifications in evaluating proposals.
In deciding the final selection of qualified bidders, the technical quality of the proposal will be given a weighting of 75% based on the evaluation criteria. Only the financial proposal of those bidders who qualify technically will be opened. The financial proposal will be allocated a weighting of 25% and the proposals will be ranked in terms of total points scored.
The mandatory and desirable criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are identified in the table below.
NO.
CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT
Weighted Award
- TECHNICAL PROPOSAL
75
- An understanding of the terms of reference
Demonstrate understanding of the assignment and expected outcomes.
10
Demonstrated RE policy and regulatory experience in Burkina Faso, particularly in relation to private sector delivery of renewable energy technologies.
10
- Methodology and work plan that will deliver the best value on the assignment
Demonstrate the capacity to deliver the task in a timely and efficient manner.
Demonstrate access to relevant sources on the ground (local/regional databases and human intelligence) that are credible, reliable, and independent.
Demonstrate the best and most practical approach to the assignment.
Provide a work plan on the key deliverables.
15
- Qualification and Experience
The consultant shall demonstrate past relevant experience to be evaluated based on the quality and appropriateness of previous related assignments.
10
Demonstrate relevant experience in conducting similar engagements. Provide evidence of similar previous experience including a reference list indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments; specification of reporting capabilities; provide samples of reports previously developed.
30
- FINANCIAL PROPOSAL: Clarity, relevance, and reality to market value/ value for money of cost for the assignment (inclusive of any applicable tax, reimbursable, and travel).
25
Total Score
100
11.0 Disclaimer
AECF reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, the number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party.
How to apply
10.0 Application.
The AECF is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The AECF considers all interested candidates based on merit without regard to race, gender, colour, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
AECF invites qualified consultants/firms to send a proposal presented in English or French to [email protected], clearly marked “Terms of Reference for an AECF Burkina Faso Policy Liaison Advisor” to be received no later than 14th November 2022 5:00 pm East Africa Time (GMT +3) addressed to: The AECF, Procurement Department. All clarifications and or questions should be sent to [email protected]
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Please visit the link below for the french version