Overview
REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
The Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA) has received financing from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) towards the cost of Strengthening the Framework for Intra-Regional Trade in Agriculture Products 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 CAHFSA 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 CAHFSA shall derive any rights from the Financing Agreement or have any claim to the proceeds of the Financing Agreement.
CAHFSA, the Executing Agency, now wishes to procure consultancy services for the development of regional standards to facilitate intra-regional trade in agricultural commodities.
The main objective of the consultancy is to strengthen the framework for intra-regional trade in agricultural products, which includes the development of regional commodity standards to harmonise SPS measures and enhance the framework for intra-regional trade in agricultural commodities among CDB Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs). Specifically, the assignment will develop regional standards for commodities prioritised by BMCs and includes those for which guidelines were produced under the regional project “Development of Guidelines to Facilitate Intra-regional Trade in Selected Plant and Animal Products” as well as guidelines/protocols developed by the CRFM for the fisheries subsector. The duration of the assignment is expected to be eighteen months. Further details can be found in the attached Terms of Reference.
CAHFSA, now invites interested eligible consulting firms to submit Expressions of Interest for the provision of these consultancy services.
Eligibility
Consultants shall be eligible to participate if:
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in the case of a body corporate, it is legally incorporated or otherwise organised in an eligible country, has its principal place of business in an eligible country and is more than 50 percent beneficially owned by citizen(s) and/or bona fide resident(s) of eligible country(ies) or by a body(ies) corporate meeting these requirements;
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in the case of unincorporated firms, the persons are citizens or bona fide residents of an eligible country; and
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in all cases, the consultant has no arrangement and undertakes not to make any arrangements, whereby any substantial part of the net profits or other tangible benefits of the contract will accrue or be paid to a person not a citizen or bona fide resident of an eligible country.
Eligible countries are members of CDB[1]. Consultants are advised to review the detailed eligibility criteria detailed in Section 4 and conflict of interest provisions in Section 5 of the Procurement Procedures for Projects Financed by CDB (January 2021).
In the assessment of submissions, consideration will be given to technical competence, qualifications and experience, local and regional experience on similar assignments, financial capability and existing commitments. Key Experts will not be evaluated at the short-listing stage.
[1] Occasionally contracts may be financed out of special programs that would further expand or restrict eligibility to a particular group of member countries. When this is the case, it should be mentioned in this paragraph.
Instructions
All information must be submitted in English. Further information may be obtained from the first address below between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm (GMT-3) Mondays to Fridays.
Interested consultant teams are required to submit their Expression of Interest using the “EOI Consulting Firms template” attached to this REOI or can be made available upon request by contacting Address 1 below or downloaded from the Specific Procurement Notice on CDB’s website.
Expressions of Interest should be submitted at the first address below no later than 5:00 p.m. GMT-3, April 7, 2025. One electronic copy must be sent simultaneously to CDB at the second address below. The email containing each submission should include the name and address of the applicant and shall be clearly marked “Expression of Interest – Consultancy Services for Development of Regional Standards to Facilitate Intra-regional Trade in Agricultural Commodities - CAHFSA.
The selection method for the award of the consultancy shall be Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS). Therefore, following the assessment of submissions, firms shall be assessed and compared, and the best qualified and experienced firm shall be selected. Only the selected firm shall be asked to submit a combined technical and financial proposal and, if such proposal is responsive and acceptable, be invited to negotiate a contract to undertake the assignment. CAHFSA reserves the right to accept or reject late applications or to cancel the present invitation partially or in its entirety. It will not be bound to assign any reason for not short-listing any applicant and will not defray any costs incurred by any applicant in the preparation and submission of Expressions of Interest.
Contacts
Address 1
Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency
Letitia Vriesdelaan 10
Paramaribo
Suriname, S.A.
Address 2
Caribbean Development Bank
P.O. Box 408
Wildey
St. Michael
Barbados, BB11000
