(Closed) Request For Proposal – GPSNR-RFP-A02-020-Smallholders Policy Equivalent

Introduction

GPSNR

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. Development of GPSNR was initiated by the CEOs of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Tire Industry Project (TIP) in 2019. Members of the platform include tire manufacturers, rubber suppliers and processors, vehicle makers and NGOs. Representatives from each of these stakeholder groups have contributed to the development of the Singapore-based platform and the wide-reaching set of priorities that define GPSNR strategy and objectives.

As of October 2022, GPSNR has 157 smallholder members from 10 countries.

HCSA

Established in 2014, the HCSA sets the standard approach for implementing no deforestation commitments on the ground for any commercial crop grown in moist tropical forest landscapes (for example, of palm oil, wood pulp or cocoa). It is underpinned not only by a commitment to no deforestation, but also by a commitment to respect the rights and livelihoods of local people.

To this end, the HCSA has developed a Toolkit that provides practical guidance to help companies, local communities, and other stakeholders to agree on which lands should be used for commercial agriculture or forestry, what activities will take place on community lands, which areas of forests should be conserved, and how lands should be managed and monitored. 

HCVN

The Network is a member-based organization that promotes the High Conservation Value (HCV) Approach, a three-step methodology to identify and protect ecosystems, biodiversity, and the needs of local communities and indigenous groups where development takes place.

Over several years the HCV Network has developed smallholder adapted HCV procedures, tailored to certification schemes, including for RSPO, Better Cotton Initiative and Fairtrade. More recently, The HCV Network have developed Nature Positive Farming, a tool to scale up engagement with smallholder producers who are not certified, and support them transition towards no-conversion and HCV protection production.

Project Summary

GPSNR is working with a Partnerships for Forest (P4F) grant to create mechanisms and systems to support and sustain long-term participation of smallholder members on the platform.

Under the P4F grant, a collaborative effort between GPSNR and HCSA was proposed due to the timely development of the HCSA Smallholder Approach which required further trials towards the development of a global, cross commodity framework and practical guidance for smallholders. 

Key Project Details

Smallholder farms utilise approximately 12% of global agricultural land and smallholder farms are estimated to support a population of more than 2 billion people directly and indirectly[1]. Smallholder farms therefore play a critical role in food security, poverty reduction and sustainable development for a very large proportion of rural populations, globally. This being said, it is also important to identify the role of smallholder farmers in sustainable commodities production and trade.  

HCSA Smallholder Approach

The HCSA Smallholder Approach is being developed with the aim to provide a framework and practical guidance for smallholder groups to identify and manage forests and other conservation values in their administrative areas. It is designed to provide simple, clear steps to formulate and implement an initial plan to manage these forests and other conservation values sustainably. The HCSA Smallholder Approach was developed and tested in the Indonesian context and for smallholder farmers that produce palm oil in mixed production landscapes, i.e., in combination with other commodities including rubber, agroforestry systems, home gardens, and that manage forest areas as part of shifting cultivation regimes
or as customary forests.

HCVN Nature Positive Farming

The Nature Positive Farming programme is an early engagement programme for companies and landscape initiatives to support non-certified smallholder farmers protect High Conservation Values and natural ecosystems as part of responsible sourcing commitments.

It is built around facilitated, structured dialogue with smallholders and their communities. It aims for conservation and support agreements between smallholders and project partners, for maintaining and enhancing environmental and social conservation values on and around their farms. The first field trial was conducted with smallholder producer communities in the Siak Pelalawan Landscape, Riau, Indonesia.

[1] Lowder et al. 2016; Goldman et al. 2016

Deliverables

Proposals should provide a timeline and plan that covers the four project phases set out below. 

Proposals should include a timeline and budget for either project option:

Option 1
Field trials only for the HCSA Smallholder Approach

Option 2
Concurrent field trials for the HCSA Smallholder Approach and the HCVN Nature Positive Farming Programme

 Phase 1: Project Preparations

a.   Dialogue with key Task Force members, including understanding GPSNR’s (in-development) risk assessment approach

b. Assessment and proposal of suitable field trial locations for natural rubber smallholders in the following regions in Indonesia:

a.    North Sumatra, and/or

b.    Jambi, and/or

c.    South Sumatra

d.    Bidders may also propose other regions with reasons and justifications

c.    Initial networking with key actors on-site in Indonesia

 Phase 2: Outreach and Training

a.    Develop training systems and materials for implementing actors for the HCSA (and HCVN) toolkits, including training sessions for field staff

b. Plan for actively involving locally embedded actors in pilot activities and engagement with smallholders

Phase 3: Field Trials

a.    Plan to implement 1-2 field trials for the HCSA (and HCVN) toolkits with natural rubber smallholders, communities, or cooperatives in the proposed locations of Jambi and/or South Sumatra

b.    Plan should include:

§ Target total number of smallholders or farms involved in the trials

§ Level of actor engaged (e.g., village; cooperatives; individual smallholders) engaged for the field trials

§ Targets such as gender, minority, and youth representation

§ Description of the proposed relevant Areas(s) of Interest (ideally village-level trials, but project is open to trials with independent smallholder cooperatives)

o  In case areas under control by cooperatives or individual farmers deviate (significantly) from official village administrative areas, an outlook on how this will be considered during field trials and post-trial review

§ Description of field trial methods including an outlook whether different methods are going to be tested during field trials (in relation to verification of maps, assessment of vegetation strata, land use zoning, etc.) 

Noting ideal requirements for smallholder representatives or community-leads: adequate level of reading and writing ability

 The consultants would be responsible as well for providing technical guidance to smallholders throughout the trials

Phase 4: Post-Trial Review

a.    Analyse strengths and weaknesses of each toolkit from the perspective of natural rubber smallholders

b.    Provide recommendations (e.g. contexts on when/how to use the tools, areas of toolkit improvement, how the toolkits support delivering on the GPSNR systems i.e. risk assessment, risk mitigation, assurance framework, reporting framework and shared responsibility mechanism)

c.    Contribute to developing a strategy to upscale pilot activities in the project areas, or to other project areas

  Intended project outputs and outcomes

Through the field trials, the Task Force aims to develop a strong understanding of the feasibility of the HCSA (and HCVN) toolkits for the following:

1. Mapping: Areas for development / conservation areas / mixed, multi-layered production areas, e.g., community use areas including shifting cultivation, agroforestry, home gardens, others as applicable  

2.    Conservation: Toolkit that can be passed on to GPSNR smallholder communities to
effectively map and manage areas for conservation; to understand their land and
land-use plans; showcase their commitment to no-deforestation 

 3. Integration with GPSNR Risk-based Approach: Toolkits as a risk mitigation tool that GPSNR member companies can use to identify and address land-use risks, and to channel funding and other related commitments accordingly 

i.     Analysing the extent to which the toolkits can be a mitigation tool for specific/multiple policy commitments in the GPSNR Policy Framework and
other systems 

 Submission Guidelines & Requirements

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

 1.  A detailed technical proposal must be provided. This technical proposal must provide an overview of the proposed methodology for the three Phases of the project. In addition, the technical proposal should provide a proposed schedule and milestones, as applicable. 

2.    A detailed price proposal must be provided. This price proposal should indicate the overall fixed price or expected price range for each Phase of the project, including daily rates and an estimated total number of days for each Phase of the project.   

 3.     Proposals will only be accepted from individuals or firms with experience relevant to this project. Examples of previous relevant work should be provided, as well as resumes of all key
personnel performing the work.

4.    Proposals must be signed by a representative that is authorised to commit the bidder’s company.

Project Timelines

The Request for Proposal timeline is as
follows:

Budget

The Platform is anticipating a total budget of up to 92,000 GBP for the project.

Payment terms shall be:

·      30% at the signing of the contract

·      10% upon completion of Phase 1: Project Preparations

·      10% upon completion of Phase 2: Outreach and Training

·      20% upon completion of Phase 3: Field Trials and Analysis

·      30% upon completion of the entire project

Evaluation Factors

GPSNR will rate proposals based on the following factors:

1. Responsiveness to the requirements set forth in this RFP
2. Methodology for completing all three Phases of the project
3. Costs and expected timeline for all three Phases of the project
4. Technical expertise/experience, including team composition, past performance/experience

When evaluating bids, GPSNR may request for more information as part of a full due diligence to understand bidders’ technical and commercial background, assess potential conflicts of interests and independence vis-à-vis natural rubber smallholders and the wider agricultural sector, and level of competence for the project.

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.

Digital Guidelines and Considerations

The consultant should commit to follow the guidelines specified in the Principles for Digital Development.

The principles of data protection legislation must be taken into account when processing personal data:

• The data must be processed lawfully (lawfulness)
• Data must only be processed if this is required and reasonable (fairness).
• The data must be processed transparently (transparency).
• The data must be processed for defined (time-limited), clear and legitimate purposes (earmarking).
• Only as much data as is required may be processed (data minimisation).
• Accuracy and currency must be ensured (data accuracy).
• The principle of integrity and confidentiality must be guaranteed through an appropriate level of protection (data security).

View RFP Document here

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

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