Verfahrensangaben

Political transitions, governance changes, insurgencies, and violent extremism continue to reshape West Africa"s peace and security landscape. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) plays a critical role in coordinating regional responses to security challenges through its strategic frameworks for peace and development. These include conflict prevention and governance, alongside regional strategies addressing climate adaptation, resilience, and economic integration. Strengthening coordination, fostering inclusive engagement - including with civil society - and promoting adaptive and preventive approaches are cross-cutting themes.

The European Union (EU) and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)- co-financed Support to ECOWAS in Peace, Security and Governance (EPSG) project provides technical and financial support to ECOWAS for the strengthening of regional peace, security, and democratic governance. Service provision is ensured by regular joint planning processes with the partner. At the same time, the project is required to react flexibly to the political context.

The project is active in five components:

a. Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management
EPSG enhances ECOWAS' ability to detect and respond to conflicts by strengthening National Centres for Coordination of Response Mechanisms (NCCRMs) and other National Peace Infrastructures (NPIs). It also supports the ECOWAS Early Warning Directorate (EWD) in improving data collection, analysis, and reporting within the ECOWAS Early Warning and Response Network (ECOWARN) system. The project reinforces ECOWAS' capacity to initiate timely interventions through the Early Response Mechanism (ERM).

b. Security Sector Reform, Governance and Human Rights
To strengthen accountable and citizen-focused security institutions, EPSG supports security sector reform through: Training and advisory services for security actors, parliamentary committees, and civil society organizations; strengthening democratic oversight to improve governance and transparency; and promoting human rights, addressing gender-based violence, and increasing the representation of women in security roles.

c. Electoral Support and Democratic Transitions
Amid political transitions and the risk of election-related violence, EPSG supports ECOWAS member states to conduct peaceful and credible elections by: Supporting Election Management Bodies (EMBs) to address gaps from past elections and facilitating training and peer-learning initiatives coordinated by the ECOWAS Electoral Assistance Division (EAD) and the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC); implementing recommendations from ECOWAS election observation missions; engaging civil society and the media to counter disinformation and prevent electoral violence; and supporting transition of member states back to a constitutional order.

d. Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) and Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) Agendas
Recognizing the crucial role of women and youth in peacebuilding, EPSG supports the implementation of ECOWAS" WPS and YPS agendas. EPSG: Supports women and youth networks like the Network on Peace and Security for Women in West Africa (NOPSWECO) to enhance their involvement in peace processes; provides training and advocacy to increase women and youth participation in governance and conflict mediation.

e. Strengthening cooperation of the regional training infrastructure in the implementation of the ECOWAS Peace and Security Architecture
Funded by BMZ, this component enhances capacities of and cooperation between regional training centres of excellence such as the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) and the National Defense College (NDC) and the ECOWAS Commission, in particular with respect to Peace Support Operations (PSOs). Support is focused on: Developing and implementing trainings, dialogues and research; policy development; strengthening (digital) capacities of training centres.

To be able to deliver the requested support to the political partner ECOWAS Commission, its institutions and specialized agencies, and other cooperation partners such as Training Centres of Excellence (TCEs) in time and at a high level of flexibility, quality, efficiency and reliability, the EPSG project seeks to engage a consulting firm to facilitate the engagement of experts to implement initiatives at the continental, regional and local level in the areas of:

- Structural conflict prevention;
- Conflict management;
- Peace consolidation;
- Organizational development and change management.

The selected expert pool shall advise both internal project staff and external partners for the implementation of project outputs. External partners could be officials from the ECOWAS Commission, related institutions and agencies such as the regional Training Centres of Excellence (TCEs), member states and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). The activities implemented by the expert pool must comply with the associated indicators, fulfilling the module objective and output indicators.

The implementation of all outputs of the EPSG project is managed through the project"s heads of components. Required areas of support include, but are not limited to, thematic research, curriculum development, conduct of training, inputs to and facilitation of policy development processes, inputs to and facilitation of strategic planning and monitoring, conduct of human and institutional capacity development measures, facilitation and rapporteuring of events.

The key experts and expert pool which are the objective of this tender is expected to deliver the following:

1) Provision of national, regional and (at times) international experts.
2) Long-term support in some thematic fields through the same (key) consultants.
3) Flexibility in responding to emerging demands by partners: Based on the specific ToR provided by the project, the selected consultancy will provide 3 suitable options for experts to support the specific assignment.
4) Delivery of work assignments which involve both travel to ECOWAS member state countries as well as remote work from the experts" respective home countries.
5) Backstopping of individual experts by international consultancy.

GIZ may optionally commission contract amendments and/or increases based on the criteria in the tender documents to the successful bidder of this tender. For details, please see the terms of reference.

According to Article 160, Section 3 of the German Act Against Restraint of Competition (GWB), application for review is not permissible insofar as
1. the applicant has identified the claimed infringement of the procurement rules before submitting the application for review and has not submitted a complaint to the contracting authority within a period of 10 calendar days; the expiry of the period pursuant to Article 134, Section 2 remains unaffected,
2. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that are evident in the tender notice are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for the application or by the deadline for the submission of bids, specified in the tender notice.
3. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that first become evident in the tender documents are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for application or by the deadline for the submission of bids,
4. more than 15 calendar days have expired since receipt of notification from the contracting authority that it is unwilling to redress the complaint.
Sentence 1 does not apply in the case of an application to determine the invalidity of the contract in accordance with Article 135, Section 1 (2). Article 134, Section 1, Sentence 2 remains unaffected.

All communication takes place in English via communication tool in the project area of the procurement portal.