Consultancy framework agreement for formulation, appraisal and review of Danish development cooperation programmes and projects

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (MFA) is in the process of streamlining the management of its development cooperation. Part of this effort concerns the simplification of the procurement process of key consultancy services relating to development cooperation. Consultancy contracts are currently procured individually by the case worker responsible for the programme or project. Case workers are MFA staff from MFA Services at Home and Services Abroad. They are responsible for the procurement process of individual contracts which is often lengthy, and can have implications on programme and project implementation timelines. Moreover, the fragmentation of the process makes it difficult to use the feedback from case workers on the fulfilment of the assignments. This makes it challenging to harvest learning from past performance and ensure a sustained quality of services. It is in this context that the MFA wishes to consolidate the procurement of consultancy services through a framework agreement with multiple contractors. The streamlining of the management of Danish development cooperation entailed a revision of the Danida – Aid Management Guidelines (AMG). This foresees a delegation of key tasks to external consultants, primarily appraisals, and thereby an expected rise in the number of consultancy services to be requested. It is therefore an opportune time to seek a more streamlined procurement process of consultancy services. The AMG’s Bilateral Guidelines (https://amg.um.dk/bilateral-cooperation/guidelines-for-programmes-projects-country-strategic-frameworks-and-hard-earmarked-multilat-support) and Financial Management Guidelines (https://amg.um.dk/bilateral-cooperation/financial-management) constitute the basic set of procedures for all Danish bilateral development cooperation. The guidelines outline the processes and requirements for the preparation, formulation, quality assurance, approval, implementation, completion and closure of Danish bilateral programmes and projects. The purpose of the framework agreement is to make the MFA procurement of key consultancy services relating to Danish bilateral development programmes and projects more effective and efficient by ensuring quick access to relevant specialists, reducing the procurement time for assignments, and improving the quality of services provided. The objective of the framework agreement is to have a contractual set-up between the MFA and a number of contractors who can provide, upon demand and in a timely manner, the required expertise and service quality for the formulation, appraisal and review of Danish bilateral development programmes and projects. The objective of each assignment and the required outputs will be described in the Terms of Reference, which will be part of the Delivery Contract for the individual assignment. The Framework Agreement solely covers Denmark’s bilateral development cooperation programmes and projects. Therefore, the scope of work of consultancy services solely pertains to Official Development Assistance (ODA) funds. The framework agreement is divided into two lots that reflect the thematic areas and priorities of Denmark’s Strategy for Development Cooperation: Lot 1: Climate, environment, private sector and financing. Lot 2: Governance, fragility, and migration. The framework agreement will require the provision of the following services pertaining to the design and implementation phases of bilateral development cooperation programmes, namely: Formulation of bilateral programmes and projects. This may include preparatory work in the formulation process if and as needed. Appraisal of the design of bilateral programmes and projects as a quality assurance milestone prior to approval. This includes external appraisals led by the consultant and early appraisals of larger or high-risk programmes/projects led by LÆRING. Review of bilateral programmes and projects under implementation. This can span inception, midterm and technical reviews covering the full implementation period of the programme/project as part of the MFA unit’s monitoring and reporting cycle. Reviews do not have the same scope of work, methodology and methods as an evaluation. The MFA’s definition of appraisal, review and evaluation services is aligned with the definitions provided by OECD/DAC (https://one.oecd.org/document/DCD/DAC/EV(2022)2/en/pdf). The content of the services will vary and be defined by the MFA in the specific Terms of Reference for each individual assignment. The following themes and types of services will not be part of the framework agreement: Research and university partnerships. Training programmes and tracer studies. Culture. NGO strategic partnership agreements with the MFA (SPA agreements). Core support to multilateral organisations as described in Danish Organisation Strategies. Strategic Sector Cooperation. Audit assignments. Legal assessments. Monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) unit contracts and multi-year MEAL technical assistance. Evaluations. Tender process consultancies. Please refer to the Consultancy Framework Agreement and Appendix 1 Scope of Services for a more detailed description of the object of the procurement.