(Closed) Request For Proposal – GPSNR-RFP-A02-019 Guidance and Tools for GPSNR’s Reporting Requirements

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Introduction & Background

The Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) is an international multi-stakeholder, voluntary membership initiative seeking to lead improvements in the socioeconomic and environmental performance of the natural rubber value chain. Members of the platform include tire manufacturers, rubber producers and processors, vehicle makers and NGOs.

In December 2021, GPSNR members approved Reporting Requirements that would allow member companies to report on their progress implementing their commitments under the Policy Framework. With the approval of the reporting requirements, ordinary member companies shall report annually on the questions included in the Reporting Requirements for the member’s reporting category.

GPSNR members are required to submit data for the previous year according to the following reporting timelines:
• Category A and Category B: Industrial Producers or Processors and Traders of Raw Materials: on or before 30 June
• Category C: Manufacturers and Traders of Processed Material: on or before 30 September
• Category D: OEMs and End Users: on or before 31 December.

To support GPSNR members in fulfilling their obligations under the Reporting Requirements, the platform is calling for consultants to develop a systemic view of the reporting process, inclusive of developing supporting documents and reporting templates for members to facilitate reporting, and exploring the potential user interface and portal design for data submission to ease the integration and consolidation of reported information from various GPSNR member categories.

Reporting scope and materiality are topics for consultant’s review and suggestion based on the GPSNR reporting requirement.

The reporting process should cover the following scenarios (non-exhaustive list):
(i) tier-1 supplier is disclosed to GPSNR
(ii) tier-1 supplier is not disclosed to GPSNR
(iii) members with suppliers across different category groups that are not GPSNR members
(iv) members with external reports that may substantiate the GPSNR reporting requirement
(v) how the information is consolidated at GPSNR level at the end of each category reporting cycle

Figure below is taking one example of tire maker category member reporting on NR supply chain scope to illustrate the potential complexity of the reporting process.

The expected documents to be developed should include:

  • A guidance document for each reporting category outlining the appropriate methodology and reporting format for each question, with reference to necessary definitions. One example of reporting segment that requires guidance is Policy Component 2.5 and 2.6 for member categories C and D.
  • Standardized reporting templates which may utilize word documents, excel spreadsheets, or other appropriate reporting formats.

The documents developed should ensure that data can be consolidated easily across the supply chain with an understanding that the information will be passed downstream. Where appropriate, the requested data should align with data gathered by other reporting schemes to reduce the reporting burden (including, but not limited to, CDP, Ecovadis, ZSL SPOTT, GRI, FSC, PEFC, SNR-i).

The reporting user interface which includes ability for member to upload supporting evidence (e.g., documents, photos etc) and portal design should also enable easy intake by the Secretariat for data analysis, verification and reporting. The ability to design integration with Salesforce is a plus.

Submission Guidelines & Requirements

The following submission guidelines & requirements apply to this Request for Proposal:

  1. Proposals will only be accepted from individuals or firms with experience relevant to this project.
  2. Examples of previous relevant work should be provided as well.
  3. A technical proposal must be provided that should be around 6 pages in length. This technical proposal must provide an overview of the proposed methodology as well as resumes of all key personnel performing the work. In addition, the technical proposal should provide a proposed schedule and milestones, as applicable.
  4. A price proposal must be provided that is not more than 1 page. This price proposal should indicate the overall fixed price for the project as well as daily rates and an estimated total number of days.
  5. Proposals must be signed by a representative that is authorized to commit bidder’s company.
  6. Proposals must be received prior to 14th of March to be considered. Proposals should be submitted to stefano.savi@gpsnr.org and aidan@gpsnr.org for consideration.
  7. GPSNR anticipates shortlisting at least two individuals or firms to have more in-depth discussions with, and will make an award to one of these “down-selected” individuals or firms.


Project Timelines

The Request for Proposal timeline is as follows:

Request for Proposal Issuance  4 Mar 2022
Proposal submitted by consultant to stefano.savi@gpsnr.org  14 Mar 2022
Selection of Consultant /
Notification to Unsuccessful Bidders
18 Mar 2022
Contract Award22 Mar 2022
Work to commence no later than  23 Mar 2022
Specific work-plan agreed upon with GPSNR’s Policy Toolbox Working Group (WG1) 24 Mar 2022
1st deliverable: first draft of guidance on GPSNR Reporting Requirement content and reporting template for PPTs (category A & B), both GPSNR and non-GPSNR.18 Apr
2022
Final draft of guidance on content for PPTs25 Apr 2022
2nd deliverable: first draft of guidance on GPSNR Reporting Requirement and reporting template for category C & D, both GPSNR and non-GPSNR.13 May 2022
Final draft of guidance on content for category C & D20 May 2022
3rd deliverable: first draft proposal for a streamline reporting process, user interface and portal design to integrate and consolidate the reporting information from all GPSNR member categories24 Jun
2022
The final draft proposal submitted to WG17 Jul 2022

Budget

The Platform is anticipating that a total budget of no more than 30,000 SGD. If the consultant deems that travel plans are required to execute this project, these should be included in the proposal (along with any additional budgetary requirements).

Payment terms shall be:

●       20% at the signing of the contract
●       30% at the midpoint date to be agreed upon and memorialized in the contract based on the submitted work plan
●       50% on delivery of the final report

Evaluation Factors

GPSNR will rate proposals based on the following factors, with cost being the most important factor:

  1. Cost
  2. Responsiveness to the requirements set forth in this Request for Proposals
  3. Relevant past performance/experience
  4. Technical expertise/experience of bidder and bidder’s staff
  5. The ability to collect relevant information at the global and local level

GPSNR reserves the right to award to the bidder that presents the best value to GPSNR as determined solely by GPSNR in its absolute discretion.

More To Explore

Request For Proposal – GPSNR-RFP-A02-029-Risk Taskforce Traceability Pilot Field Trial – Thailand

Introduction & Background

 

The Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) is an international, multi-stakeholder, voluntary membership initiative seeking to lead improvements in the socioeconomic and environmental performance of the natural rubber value chain. Members of the platform include tire manufacturers, rubber suppliers and processors, vehicle makers and NGOs.

The Risk Subgroup of GPSNR is seeking a consultant/field team to identify, test, evaluate and report on what effort may be required for a rubber processor to map their supply shed (i.e., all the farms that they are sourcing from) in complex supply chains such as in Indonesia and Thailand. 

 

Objectives

The goal of the pilot is to investigate what effort (i.e., time, effort, cost, labour) may be required for a rubber processor to map their supply chain in complex supply chains such as Indonesia and Thailand.

The goal of this pilot is to map at least 300 small holder farmers supplying one processing mill each in Thailand. The subgroup is open to negotiation on the total number of small holder farms mapped based on the service provider’s experience and estimation.

The service provider should work with the GPSNR Risk Subgroup and the participating processors from Thailand and their dealers to:

  1. Keep track of time and costs of all mapping related activities throughout the study, calculate time and cost of mapping each farm, and provide them to their GPSNR Point of Contact at the end of the survey.
  2. Register and map farmers using field-based mapping or in combination with remote sensing that is crossed checked with field-based mapping samples. The service provider is welcomed to use their own method.
    1. Collect and provide the shapefiles from the mapping at the end of the project to the point of contact and the participating processor.
  3. Ask farmers to answer the RubberWay questionnaire.
  4. Ask farmers to answer the HCVRN Nature Positive Farming questionnaire.
  5. Unless automatically uploaded, submit farmers’ responses to the respective databases and the GPSNR point of contact at the end of each day for compilation.
  6. Record the effort required to convince 300 farmers per processing mill to complete all 3 tools.
    1. Number of dealers and farmers contacted to identify 300 farmers willing to participate in study.
    2. Total person hours required to identify 300 willing suppliers.
    3. Details of incidental (not staff time) expenses required to identify 300 willing farmers.
  7. Record the effort required/difficulty to convince the super dealers/suppliers to participate in the study, based on the supplier tiers & on the pilot sample goal.
    1. Skip Tier 1 farms
    2. Not more than 100 responses from Tier 2
    3. 200 responses from Tier 3 and 4 suppliers

Scope of Work

  • Field data collection has to be completed by the second month from the starting date of the project.
    • Ideally, field teams are experienced in 2 or more of the above tools (RubberWay questionnaire, HCVRN Nature Positive Farming questionnaire and field-based or remote sensing-based mapping), else training will be provided. Please indicate which tools your team is experienced in using we will provide the necessary training.
      • If remote-sensing based is preferred by the service provider, please respond with the process and note that the data has to be cross-checked with field-based samples.
    • Field teams have to be able to speak the local language at each survey location(i.e., Thai).
  • GPSNR estimates the necessary activities per farm and the time required to conduct them to be as follows:
  1. Explain purpose of visit (~15 mins)
  2. Get permission for personal data collection to ensure data protection (~5mins)
  3. Map farm via mapping based on the mapping method chosen by the service provider (e.g., field-based mapping or remote sensing cross-checked with field samples) (~90mins).
    1. Mapping for farms <4 hectares:
      1. Polygon mapping or GPS mapping is up to the discretion of the service provider.
    2. Polygon mapping for farms above 4 hectares:
      1. This is based on the EU regulation (see Annex A) that a polygon would be required for farmers over 4 hectares.
      2. At least 10% (~30 of the 300 farms must be polygon mapped)
    3. Fill in RubberWay questionnaire (~30mins)
    4. Fill in HCVRN Nature Positive Farming questionnaire (~30mins – 1 hour)
    5. Verify data before departure (~10mins)
  • GPSNR assumes:
    • Total time required: ~approximately 180 mins/3 hours per farm per field assistant.
    • Farms likely to be covered per day: 2 farms.
    • Total number of field assistant days required assuming 2 farms per day: 450 days
    • Total weeks required for 1 field assistant assuming 5 work days per week: 90 weeks
    • Total weeks required for two processors assuming 10 field assistants working simultaneously in one country: 9 weeks
    • This is an estimation of the time taken, we look forward to a comparison with the final recorded timings.
  • If you have other ideas on how to achieve the above objectives, please provide details about how you would design the study

Expected Deliverables

Specifically, GPSNR expects the consultant to:

 1. Map at least 300 farmers supplying to the participating processor in Thailand and provide the shapefiles to the processor and the GPSNR point of contact.

a.      There should at least be 10% (~30 farms out of 300 farms) that are polygon mapped, based on the requirements mentioned above and in Annex A.

 2. We would like a detailed account of the time and resources spent on 1. travelling to the farm, 2. On the farm and 3. Data analysis

a.      We would like to see a breakdown of the total time spent in each component. E.g., Total reported time spent on 1 farm + 1 analysis = 8hours, within that 2 hour (time taken to travel to farm), 0.5 hours (convincing the farmer), 0.5 hours (communicating to farmer about the tool), 20 mins (Mapping the farms), 30 mins (HCVN questionnaire), 30 mins (Rubberway questionnaire)

 3. An evaluation of the merits and limitations of each tool

a.      E.g., 3/11 farmers surveyed were more apprehensive about the mapping tool due to fear of exposing their location.

 4. A recommendation of the scalability of this pilot

a.      Can the same estimated cost/time/labour be replicated in other regions/jurisdictions within the same country?

b.     E.g., $X/farm is calculated but is not scalable due to what reason(s).

Proposal Format and Contents

The proposal should include the following:

1. A workplan that outlines the key activities towards the deliverables outlined in Expected Deliverables above

2. The timeline and key stages of operations based on Project Timeline below

3. Budget, including detailed breakdown of expected manpower, logistics, and costs based on Budget below

4. Description of past work and technical expertise that is relevant to this RFP

A list of project team members with their roles in the project and associated qualifications.

 

Submission Guidelines & Requirements

The following submission guidelines & requirements apply to this Request for Proposal:

  1. Proposals will only be accepted from individuals or firms with experience relevant to this project.
  2. Examples of previous relevant work should be provided.
  3. A technical proposal must be provided that is not more than 4 pages. This technical proposal must provide an overview of the proposed solution as well as resumes of all key personnel performing the work. In addition, the technical proposal should provide a proposed schedule and milestones, as applicable.
  4. A price proposal must be provided that is not more than 1 pages. This price proposal should indicate the overall fixed price for the project as well as hourly rates and an estimated total number of days.
  5. Proposals must be signed by a representative that is authorized to commit bidder’s company.
  6. Proposals must be received prior to the 10 March 2023 to be considered. Proposals should be submitted to stefano.savi@gpsnr.org and cheryl@gpsnr.org for consideration.
  7. GPSNR reserves the right to amend the scope and budget of this RFP in order to get the most suitable consultant for each topic.

Project Timelines

 

Proposals submitted by consultant to stefano.savi@gpsnr.org

10 March 2023

Selection of consultant /
Notification to Unsuccessful Bidders

16 March 2023

Contract Award / Notification to Unsuccessful Bidders

17 March 2023

Initial methodology presentation and Q&A with subgroup

23 March 2023

Training sessions for tools 

Late March – Early April 2023

Update session with subgroup 

April 2023

Final Draft report and conclusion of project 

July 2023

 

Budget

The Platform is anticipating that a total budget of no more than €25,000 be allocated to this engagement.

Payment terms shall be:

·        20% at the signing of the contract

·        30% at the midpoint date to be agreed upon and memorialized in the contract based on the submitted work plan.

·        50% on delivery of the final report

The allocation of the payment shall be based on the net amount after travel expenses, if deemed necessary by both the consultant and Secretariat, are incurred and documented.

 

Evaluation Factors

 GPSNR will rate proposals based on the following factors, with cost being the most important factor:

1.        Responsiveness to the requirements set forth in this Request for Proposal

2.      Relevant past performance/ experience

3.      Samples of work

4.     Cost, including an assessment of total cost of ownership.

5.      Technical expertise/experience of bidder and bidder’s staff

GPSNR reserves the right to award to the bidder that presents the best value to GPSNR as determined solely by GPSNR in its absolute discretion.

 

Annex

Annex A: EU Deforestation Regulation

‘geolocation’ means the geographical location of a plot of land described by means of latitude and longitude coordinates corresponding to at least one latitude and longitude point and using at least six decimal digits. For relevant commodities other than cattle, for plots of land of more than 4 hectares, the geographical location shall be provided using polygons, meaning sufficient latitude and longitude points to describe the perimeter of each plot of land.

Text obtained from Article 2: Definitions, point (29) of the Deforestation Regulation consolidated text dated 20/12/22Deforestation Regulation consolidated text 20-12-22


View RFP Document here

Request For Proposal – GPSNR-RFP-A02-031-Proposing a Quantitative Orientation for GPSNR’s Reporting Matrix

Introduction & Background

 

The Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) is an international, multi-stakeholder, voluntary membership initiative seeking to lead improvements in the socioeconomic and environmental performance of the natural rubber value chain. Members of the platform include rubber products manufacturers, natural rubber producers and processors,  end users, smallholders and NGOs.

In 2021, GPSNR members approved Reporting Requirements that would allow member companies to report on their progress implementing their commitments under the Policy Framework. With the approval of the Reporting Requirements, ordinary member companies now report annually on the questions included in the Reporting Matrix, which is organized by member category. Many of the questions in the matrix require qualitative responses.  While qualitative information is helpful to understand a company’s progress in implementing its policy, it makes data analysis either to evaluate its progress year to year or to assess progress within a particular stakeholder category difficult.

GPSNR Policy Toolbox Working Group is seeking a consultant to review the GPSNR Reporting Matrix and revise the questions to generate quantitative responses wherever possible.  The consultant should review the following GPSNR documents to inform these proposed revisions: draft GPSNR Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), GPSNR risk assessment guidance documents, feedback from member survey on Year 1 reporting. The consultant should also do a crosswalk with other credible reporting frameworks commonly used by members (e.g., Global Reporting Initiative – GRI, CDP Forest and ZSL SPOTT) to inform proposed changes.

Objectives and Scope of Work

 

  1. Review GPSNR’s Reporting Matrix to  identify questions that currently generate qualitative responses that could generate quantitative responses and propose revisions (this may not be feasible in all cases).
  2. Do a crosswalk of the draft category specific KPIs to determine if they can replace any questions with qualitative responses in the reporting matrix.
  3. Do a crosswalk of the Reporting Matrix questions with GRI, CDP Forest and ZSL-SPOTT reporting questionnaires to identify gaps between the GPSNR Reporting Matrix and the identified reporting schemes and propose equivalent questions from the identified reporting schemes to be integrated into the Reporting Matrix.
  4. Review the recommendations for clarifying reporting questions and responses in the Reporting Matrix that were made by the consortium of consultants that prepared the GPSNR Reporting Guidance (Proforest, Are We There Yet, and Hevea Connect), and propose revisions to reporting questions/responses accordingly.

The consultant can also reference other GPSNR work, such as the risk assessment matrix and the draft Due Diligence Manual.

 

Expected Deliverables

GPSNR expects the consultant to:

Review and revise questions in the GPSNR Reporting Matrix that require a qualitative/narrative response that could be modified to generate a quantitative response. To support the process, the consultants should do the following:

  1. Crosswalk the GPSNR Reporting matrix with reporting frameworks such as GRI, CDP Forest, and ZSL-SPOTT
  2. Use feedback from members’ survey and report from consultants that prepared the reporting guidance to revise reporting questions/responses that have been flagged as unclear and in need of rewording.
  3. Reference the below-listed GPSNR work and determine if any of the work could be used in place of the existing questions in the Reporting Matrix to obtain quantitative responses.
    1. Draft stakeholder category KPIs document
    2. Draft risk assessment guidance framework
    3. Draft due diligence guidance document

Proposal Format and Contents

The proposal should include the following:

1. A workplan that outlines the key activities towards the deliverables outlined in Expected Deliverables above

2. The timeline and key stages of operations based on Project Timeline below

3. Budget, including detailed breakdown of expected manpower, logistics, and costs based on Budget below

4. Description of past work and technical expertise that is relevant to this RFP

A list of project team members with their roles in the project and associated qualifications.

 

Submission Guidelines & Requirements

 

The following submission guidelines & requirements apply to this Request for Proposal:

  1. Proposals will only be accepted from individuals or firms with experience relevant to this project.
  2. Examples of previous relevant work should be provided as well.
  3. A technical proposal must be provided that is not more than 4 pages. This technical proposal must provide an overview of the proposed solution as well as resumes of all key personnel performing the work. In addition, the technical proposal should provide a proposed schedule and milestones, as applicable.
  4. A price proposal must be provided that is not more than 1 pages. This price proposal should indicate the overall fixed price for the project as well as hourly rates and an estimated total number of days.
  5. Proposals must be signed by a representative that is authorized to commit bidder’s company.
  6. Proposals must be received prior to the 14 Apr 2023 to be considered. Proposals should be submitted to savi@gpsnr.org for consideration.
  7. GPSNR reserves the right to amend the scope and budget of this RFP in order to get the most suitable consultant for each topic.

 

Project Timelines

 

Proposal Publishing date

17 Mar 2023

Proposals submitted by consultant to stefano.savi@gpsnr.org

14 Apr 2023

Selection of Top Bidders / Notification to Unsuccessful Bidders

21 Apr 2023

Contract Award / Notification to Unsuccessful Bidders

28 April 2023

First consultation with Policy Toolbox Working Group

3 May  2023

Final Report + Deliverable submission  

16 June 2023

(if needed) Closing meeting with the Working Group

18 June 2023

   

 

Budget

The Platform is anticipating that a total budget of no more than $10,000 USD be allocated to this engagement with an additional amount available to support approved travel, if
necessary.

Payment terms shall be:

·        20% at the signing of the contract

·        30% at the midpoint date to be agreed upon and memorialized in the contract based on the submitted work plan.

·        50% on delivery of the final report

The allocation of the payment shall be based on the net amount after travel
expenses, if deemed necessary by both the consultant and Secretariat, are
incurred and documented.

 

 

Evaluation Factors

 GPSNR will rate proposals based on the following factors, with cost being the most important factor:

1.        Responsiveness to the requirements set forth in this Request for Proposal

2.      Relevant past performance/ experience

3.      Samples of work

4.     Cost, including an assessment of total cost of ownership.

5.      Technical expertise/experience of bidder and bidder’s staff

GPSNR reserves the right to award to the bidder that presents the best value to GPSNR as determined solely by GPSNR in its absolute discretion.eforestation Regulation consolidated text 20-12-22

 


View RFP Document here

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