Consultancy Assignment to develop an incentive package for i...

Terms of Reference – Local Consultancy Assignment

RFQ#PTC-044-08-2019

THE PALESTINE TRADE CENTER- PALTRADE

The Palestine Trade Centre - PalTrade is a non-profit, membership-based organization with a national mandate to lead the development of exports as a driving force for sustainable economic growth. The centre advocates a competitive, enabling business environment and is dedicated to improving trade competitiveness.  PalTrade provides a wide range of export support services in the areas of export development and market intelligence, export promotion, and export policy and advocacy.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

PalTrade has received a grant from the EU to implement a project titled “Creating a Business Enabling Environment for a Green Economy in Palestine” as part of European Union (EU), represented by the European Commission (EC), Support to Civil Society Organizations in Palestine – Economic Development and Local Authorities, To ensure that actions which are funded by the European Union (EU) incorporate information and communication activities designed to raise the awareness of specific or general audiences of the reasons for the action and the EU support for the action in Palestine concerned, as well as the results and the impact of this support , PalTrade will undertake a series of activities to ensure the visibility of the project 

PalTrade has set two specific objectives for this project: 

• Objective 1: To create a national policy that would foster a green enabling environment for Palestinian economic enterprises;
• Objective 2: To build up enterprises’ green capacity to penetrate global markets.

As part of the National Policy component, and within activity 1.1.5, Proposing tax and investment incentive packages which encourage the production of green products through environmentally friendly processes; the Policy Department in Paltrade will hire a consultant / company to support in the development of an incentive and investment package for green agricultural products.    

Background on Available Information:

Paltrade has previously conducted a study tour to Tunisia, where the team has learnt about the incentive package available for organic exports.  The selected consultant will be provided with copies of documents received from Tunisia; as well as with lessons learnt report.   

PIPA has recently developed an incentive package for renewable energy, also PIPA has special package for agricultural products.  For details, the consultant can check PIPA website.    

PAltrade has conducted a supply survey on agricultural products specifically (dates, herbs and olives), including on organic production, which could be shared with the selected consultant.  

Financial mechanisms used globally to support conversion to organic as well as obstacles to convert to organic farming can be found in the following document: Financial incentives to encourage organic farming in Thailand (2016). 

https://issuu.com/salforest/docs/organic-farming-final: 

SCOPE OF WORK Incentive and investment package for green agricultural products.  

PalTrade is seeking highly qualified consulting firm/consultants to develop the investment and incentive package for Green agricultural: 

The use of the incentive package is expected to: 1) promote investment Green agricultural practices and in organic agriculture in Palestine as part of the policy space provided by the Palestinian Investment Promotion Law; and 2) provide incentives to green agricultural exporters. 

The incentive package should be developed taking into consideration the procedures, laws and bylaws at the Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency (PIPA); as well as taking into consideration successful international experiences for example, Tunisia.   PIPA has recently developed an incentive package for renewable energy; thus, it is recommended to learn from their recent experience. Agricultural products already have an incentive package within the Palestinian Investment Promotion law, it is important to develop an incentive package that takes into considerations in addition to the existing package, incentives for organic and green agricultural producers.   

The consultant should take into considerations the following issues upon the development of the incentive and investment package:  

1) transformations to organic requires three years, with the exception of olives (where two years would be sufficient).   Several obstacles face farmers during the transformation period including, including higher costs with no premiums for selling as organic during this period; combined with lower yields during the transformation and initial maintenance period (2 years after transformation period).   

2)  Costly organic certification in terms of certification costs, additional requirements for monitoring and reporting, as well as inspection associated with obtaining and maintaining certifications.   

3)  Higher costs of production for organic in many crops.  

4) High risks during transformation period.     

5) PalTrade has conducted a supply survey on agricultural products specifically (dates, herbs and olives), including on organic production.  In this report, PalTrade has identified obstacles facing conversion to Green / organic farming in three products: herbs, dates, and olive oil.   

6) The creation of an incentive package will require endorsement at the national level. Thus the development of the package should be formulated with discussions with the relevant stakeholders.  It is suggested that the incentive package will be formulated through specialized focus group meetings (between 4 and 5).   

The incentive and investment package should integrate specific incentives to the following: 

1. a)  Starting a new farm that is organic  
2. b) Conversion of existing farm to organic.  
3. c) Investments in production to significantly improve environmental performance at the farm,  and the packaging houses.   
4. d) Specific considerations shall be given to olive mills that will shift to dry processes, and those that will invest in waste management.  Note: no incentives for wet processes of olive oil. 
5. d) Producing or importing inputs required for organic agriculture for example: organic fertilizers, biological control, organic insecticides, organic seeds and seedlings, precision agriculture technologies, organic agricultural oils, and their certifications.   
6. e) incentives to maintain exports of organic products.  
7. f) incentives to certify olive mills and packaging houses as organic.  

 Experience of the consultants and qualifications 

The consultants should include at least two experts: 

1. a) Agronomist with strong experience in organic agriculture.  
2. b) Economist with strong experience in the fiscal policy in Palestine and investment policy framework.  

Each consultant should have at least Masters degree in their field, with minimum of 10 years experience.    A Bachelors degree with 15 years of experience directly relevant to the assignment would be acceptable.  

The lead consultant will have experience in facilitating focus group discussions and meetings with stakeholders.   

The economic consultant should have a clear understanding of the fiscal policy and regulation of the county.  

The agronomist should have demonstrated experience in organic and /or eco-agriculture, perm agriculture, environmental agriculture. 

The consultants will lead discussions with various stakeholders to come up with the incentive package.  

The consultants should have good communication skills, and excellent writing skills in Arabic.  

DELIVERABLES

• Inception report: following the review of documents, and conducting initial meetings, the inception report should include the detailed methodology, mile stones, schedule of meetings and focus groups, and the expected content (approach) of the incentive and investment, this report should be deliver one week after signing the contract.  
• Minutes of meetings of the focus groups – Arabic 
• Incentive and investment package.  The language of the incentive package shall be in Arabic, with Executive summary in English.  
• Conduct dissemination work shop for the result and work shop report (Logistics for the workshops will be on PalTrade) 

TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL OFFER SHOULD INCLUDE 

• List of related experience supported by samples. Showing why the consultant/company is qualified to conduct the assignment. 
• Detailed work Methodology.
• CVs of consultants.
• Contacts of at least 3 references. 
• Proposed action plan with milestones. 
• Detailed financial budget with breakdown of cost.

Financial Offer: 

Detailed financial budget with breakdown of cost. Financial offer should include (level of effort and “number of days for each expert involved in the team.    

The Financial offer should be in EURO and exclude VAT  

PalTrade reserves the right to split or cancel the assignment.

DURATION

No longer than 6 weeks of the date the contract is signed. Note that the work possible to start at Mid – September 2019. 

Application process

Send a cover letter responding to the Terms of Reference that includes a technical proposal including CVs of the working teams, a sample of related previous works, financial proposal and work plan 

Your proposals should be addressed and submitted to Palestine Trade Canter – Al Balou Street, Mall of Palestine Bldg. 5th floor in 2 separated financial and technical sealed envelopes no later than Aug 28, 2019 at 02:00 hours with subject RFQ # PTC-044-08-2019. 

The winner company will bear the cost for the local newspaper ad.

For more inquiries contact us in written email at [email protected] and by replying to the invitation email you will receive from this email, no inquiries will be taken over the phone. Deadline for receiving inquires is 08/09/2019, at 02:00 PM Palestine time. 

The evaluation criteria are the following

Evaluation passing scores

Evaluation will be based first on technical evaluation; if the companies and individual consultants based the technical passing scores (55/70), then PalTrade will open the financial offers.