Procurement Notice

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) has applied for financing from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) towards the cost of the OECS Geothermal Energy: Capacity Building for Utilisation, Investment and Local Development (GEOBUILD) Programme and intends to apply a portion of the proceeds of this financing to eligible payments under a contract for which this invitation is issued. Payments by CDB will be made only at the request of OECS and upon approval by CDB and will be subject in all respects to the terms and conditions of the Financing Agreement.  The Financing Agreement prohibits withdrawal from the financing account for the purpose of any payment to persons or entities, or for any import of goods, if such payment or import, to the knowledge of CDB, is prohibited by a decision of the United Nations Security Council taken under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.  No party other than OECS shall derive any rights from the Financing Agreement or have any claim to the proceeds of the Financing.

The OECS Commission, the Executing Agency, now wishes to procure Regional Environmental and Social Consultancy Services for the Eastern Caribbean.

The overall objective of the consultancy is to provide environmental and social advisory and backstopping support and training for environmental and social matters (including gender) which emerge as part of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for all stages of the geothermal energy (GE) development in the Eastern Caribbean countries.  The key tasks/activities include but may not be limited to:

• Review of legislative and regulatory framework. This should include agreements that have been ratified by the relevant governments and applicable international performance standards referenced.

• Review of the Terms of Reference of the ESIA submitted by the project developer to ensure adequacy to provide the relevant outputs.

• Review and opine of Environmental and Social Baseline Assessment. The ESC may be required to comment on the following aspects although not limited to: air and noise quality, water & hydrology, geology, land-use and visual, biological environment, waste generation and management, and socioeconomic environment.

• Review and opine of the ESIA. The ESC is to ensure the ESIA reports meets the relevant standards – national and international, and sufficiently identifies and considers the potential impacts, their significance, mitigation alternatives and residual impacts.

• Review and opine of the adequacy of the Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP). The ESC will review any stakeholder analysis done and stakeholder engagement plan (SEP) developed.

• Review and opine of the adequacy of the Resettlement Policy Framework. The ESC may be required to evaluate whether the resettlement action plan was prepared as required and to the relevant standard.

• Provide capacity strengthening, knowledge, and awareness building support. The ESC will conduct a needs assessment of all relevant agencies and ministries, prepare training workshops/sessions, and prepare and make presentations on specific topics of the ESIA and GE development. They will also support in the development of relevant publications where feasible.

• Provide timely advice to relevant parties on the social and environmental aspects and related risks. This will be done in forms of written and verbal, formal and informal reports, or engagements for the GE project throughout the project cycle.

• Coordinate efforts with the OECS Project Implementation Unit (PIU) to identify where training and information sharing can be provided by the various GE expert advisors engaged as part of the GEOBUILD Project.

The duration of the assignment is expected to be for a period of thirty-six (36) months on a “call down” basis under a framework agreement.