Dear Sir / Madam:

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Afghanistan Country Office hereby invites you to submit a Proposal to this Request for Proposal (RFP) for the above-referenced subject. 

This RFP includes the following documents:

• Letter of Invitation
• Annex 1 - Description of Requirements
• Annex 2 - Terms of Reference
• Annex 3 - Form for Submitting Service Provider’s Technical Proposal
• Annex 3b – Form for Submitting Financial Proposal
• Annex 4 – Proposal Submission Form
• E-tendering Instructions Manual for Bidders
• FAQ for Bidders

The Proposal that complies with all of the requirements, meets all the evaluation criteria and offers the best value for money shall be selected and awarded the contract.  Any offer that does not meet the requirements shall be rejected.

Any discrepancy between the unit price and the total price shall be re-computed by UNDP, and the unit price shall prevail and the total price shall be corrected.  If the Service Provider does not accept the final price based on UNDP’s re-computation and correction of errors, its Proposal will be rejected. 

No price variation due to escalation, inflation, fluctuation in exchange rates, or any other market factors shall be accepted by UNDP after it has received the Proposal.   At the time of Award of Contract or Purchase Order, UNDP reserves the right to vary (increase or decrease) the quantity of services and/or goods, by up to a maximum twenty-five per cent (25%) of the total offer, without any change in the unit price or other terms and conditions. 

Any Contract or Purchase Order that will be issued as a result of this RFP shall be subject to the General Terms and Conditions indicated herein.  The mere act of submission of a Proposal implies that the Service Provider accepts without question the General Terms and Conditions of UNDP in this link: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/procurement/business/how-we-buy.html

Please be advised that UNDP is not bound to accept any Proposal, nor award a contract or Purchase Order, nor be responsible for any costs associated with a Service Providers preparation and submission of a Proposal, regardless of the outcome or the manner of conducting the selection process.

            UNDP’s vendor protest procedure is intended to afford an opportunity to appeal for persons or firms not awarded a Purchase Order or Contract in a competitive procurement process.  In the event that you believe you have not been fairly treated, you can find detailed information about vendor protest procedures in the following link:

http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/operations/procurement/protestandsanctions/

            UNDP encourages every prospective Service Provider to prevent and avoid conflicts of interest, by disclosing to UNDP if you, or any of your affiliates or personnel, were involved in the preparation of the requirements, design, cost estimates, and other information used in this RFP. 

UNDP implements a zero tolerance on fraud and other proscribed practices, and is committed to preventing, identifying and addressing all such acts and practices against UNDP, as well as third parties involved in UNDP activities.  UNDP expects its Service Providers to adhere to the UN Supplier Code of Conduct found in this link : http://www.un.org/depts/ptd/pdf/conduct_english.pdf

Your offer, comprising of documents stated in this RFP, should be submitted to UNDP Afghanistan in accordance with the Annex 1 (Description of Requirements) through the “UNDP ATLAS E-tendering system” (https://etendering.partneragencies.org

Kindly go through this invitation letter and other documents attached here to this RFP. Should you have any questions or require any clarification, please feel free to email your questions/clarifications to the procurement officer at [email protected]. The subject of the email should be UNDP/AFG/RFP/2021/0000009212 Appointment of Business Consultancy Firm for identifying Women’s owned SMEs eligible for Innovative Funding

UNDP looks forward to receiving your proposal and thanks you in advance for your interest in UNDP procurement opportunities.