EuropeAid awards capacity building contract to 3-firm consortium

A consortium led by the GFA Consulting Group, a firm based in Germany, has been awarded a EuropeAid service contract to build the capacity of civil society and community-based organizations in Jordan. The three-year technical assistance contract — the second of two lots under the Support to Parliament and Civil Society Organizations project — is valued at 2 million euros ($2.8 million). It is a fee-based contract, meaning services are paid not based on output but on the time actually spent to implement the project. Five applications were shortlisted under the restricted tender procedure, and were evaluated according to what would provide the best value. The GFA-led consortium — Eptisa S.L. and Partners Jordan from Spain and Jordan, respectively, complete the group — won the contract with a technical score of 80 percent and financial score of 19.59 percent. The entire procurement process — from the forecast notice through contract award — lasted approximately 11 months. The tender was announced April 16, 2013, with bids due May 16, 2013. The contract was awarded to the GFA-led consortium on Feb. 2, 2014, after an eight-month bid evaluation process. Among the required fields of expertise for this contract are governance, legislation, public policy dialogue, gender and civil society development. While this component concerns nonstate actors, the first lot — which will be implemented by Altair Asesores S.L. of Spain and SIPU International of Sweden — entails building the government’s capacity to engage in policy dialogue with civil society. Both project components will be implemented simultaneously. Financing for the project comes from the European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument, the main EU funding mechanism for beneficiary countries in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. EuropeAid has been supporting Jordan’s economic, political, social and legal reforms since 1992. This project is one of three new financing agreements the EU and Jordan signed in 2013 to support civil society and media, as well as to assist the government in efforts to reform the justice and security sectors. Founded in 1982 and headquartered in Hamburg, GFA — an independent technical service provider — has implemented more than 260 projects in at least 130 countries. The firm has 250 staff members in Germany, Chile, Costa Rica, Morocco, Bangladesh, Vietnam, China, Indonesia and Turkey. Since its founding, GFA has carried out more than 2,000 studies and projects financed by governments, nongovernmental organizations, donor agencies and development banks, including the European Commission, World Bank, GIZ and KfW. “In 2013 alone, GFA carried out 216 projects and 39 studies worldwide,” a GFA representative told Devex. Of these, 36 are EuropeAid projects. GFA has also been selected as a 2013 Framework Contract consortium leader for culture, education, employment and social. Among the governance projects GFA is currently implementing are Support to Civil Society and the National Reconciliation Process in Togo, Decentralization and Good Governance in Niger, and Good Municipal Governance in Guatemala — all of which are funded by European donor agencies. Join the Devex community and gain access to more in-depth analysis, breaking news and business advice — and a host of other services — on international development, humanitarian aid and global health.