REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

A. Background:

The United Nations World Food Programme, hereinafter referred to as the “WFP”, is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies, and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience by assisting almost 100 million people in around 83 countries each year. WFP Lebanon provides assistance through three main programmes; Direct Food and Basic Assistance (Cash Based Transfers and in-kind distributions), National poverty targeting programmes, Livelihoods (Food Assistance for Assets and Food Assistance for Training) and the School Feeding Programme (snacks and kitchens). WFP Lebanon invites eligible International and National non-governmental organisations (INGOs/NGOs) and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) to express their interest in partnering with WFP to combat hunger in Lebanon. 

B. The purpose of the Expression of Interest (EOI):

The purpose of this request for expression of interest (EOI) is to identify potential partners through a competitive pre-selection process. Eligible organizations will be included in WFP roster, but will not necessarily sign a field level agreement (FLA) and collaborate with WFP. The eligible NGOs who meet the WFP requirements will be invited at a later stage to participate in a Call for Proposal (RFP) which may result in a signature of a Field Level Agreement (FLA). Call for Proposals are regularly launched on UNPP. The FLAs are partnership agreements that govern the arrangements between WFP and the Cooperating Partner (CP), for the direct implementation of food assistance programmes, setting forth the technical design, beneficiaries targeting and selection, activities supervision, food distribution and price monitoring.  
WFP will assess, analyse, evaluate and score the prospective partner capacity assessment questionnaire and the relevant supporting documentation submitted by applicants. Afterwards, WFP will notify eligible NGOs to submit proposals and budgets.

Eligible cooperating partners (CPs) must meet pre-defined criteria for inclusion onto the roster and should undergo vetting and, capacity assessment (see section D). There shall be no inclusion of any organization(s) in the roster after the closure of the EOI. Any organization(s) that missed the EOI process timeframe shall wait until the next EOI is launched. WFP Lebanon will maintain an updated roster of potential CPs that are eligible to be contracted, with details of key contact personnel, physical addresses, thematic focus areas, geographical scope, and other information as requested in the EOI.

C. WFP 2021/2022 Anticipated Activities:

1. WFP Country Strategic Plan (CSP) Activity 1: Unconditional resource transfers to support access to food (modality: CBT, in-kind)

To achieve its strategic outcomes, WFP Lebanon under its 2018-2022 Country Strategic Plan (CSP),  strategic outcome 1( Food-insecure refugees – including school-age children – and crisis-affected host populations have access to life-saving, nutritious and affordable food throughout the year) and activity 1 (unconditional resource transfers to support access to food), plan to  provide unconditional food assistance in the form of Cash based transfers (CBT) and in-kind assistance to nearly 1.3 million women, men, boys and girls. The assistance will only benefit those households and individuals that have been targeted and considered in need of food assistance under the CSP activity 1. Targeted refugees and crisis-affected host populations and Lebanese impacted by the COVID-19 and economic crises will receive unconditional food assistance through CBTs or in-kind food to meet their basic food and nutrition needs. WFP will continue to review most appropriate modality of assistance and make adjustment when and if justified by circumstances, on a limited scale or at national scale, in view of the state of the Lebanese economy, market functionality and food prices. 

2. Activity 2: School Feeding

Under Activity 2, WFP provides school snacks targeting vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian children, male and female, who attend public primary schools, mainly schools with the double-shift system, and located in vulnerable localities. As of October 2020, WFP reached 51,000 children in 81 public schools nationwide. Six of these schools have functional cold kitchens, ready to be activated when the COVID-19 situation permits students’ return to schools. WFP also organizes “health and nutrition summer camps” during the school summer break, covering around 3,000 students in 20 schools. These day-camps aim to improve the physical, mental and social well-being of children through a set of nutrition, psycho-social and life skills fun activities.  

Due to the prolonged school closure initiated since March 2020 as a preventive measure for COVID19, WFP has adapted its school meals activities to provide exceptional monthly Take-home Rations (THRs) of dry food staples to the families (around 22,000) of the students enrolled in WFP-supported schools.  

3. Activity 3 and 4: Food For Training and Food For Assets

Under Activity 3 and 4, Livelihoods Programme works to “sustainably improve household food security and community resilience to economic and climatic shocks and stresses for vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian refugee women and men”.  This is delivered through three intermediate outcomes: 

• Increased access to employment and income,
• Improved performance and inclusiveness of food systems; and
• Enhanced management of natural resources and climate adaptation practices

 5. Activity 5: Social Protection

Under Activity 5, WFP supports vulnerable Lebanese beneficiaries registered under the National Poverty Targeting Programme (NPTP). The NPTP or the Hayat program, is the Government of Lebanon’s social assistance programme, led by the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM) that directly assists the poorest Lebanese families. It provides three types of assistance: education, health, and food; the latter component is supported by WFP through food ecards redeemable at WFP contracted shops across the country.  

D. Eligibility of Potential Cooperating Partners:

Upon closure of the Call for Expression of Interest, WFP will assess, evaluate and score the NGO applicants, based on a capacity assessment and due diligence scoring list. NGOs eligible as a Low Risk Partner will be included in the WFP Lebanon Partnership roster as a WFP prospective partner that will be contacted to submit a proposal and a budget upon launching a Call For Proposal. 

1. Accountability:

• The organization must demonstrate to WFP that it is allowed by the Lebanese government to carry out its activities in Lebanon, by presenting its certificate of registration and an updated statement of registration valid until the end of 2021;
• The organization or any of its affiliates and subcontractors do not appear on the consolidated UN sanctions list maintained by the Security Council;
• The organization has undergone the vetting process against WFP’s core standards

2. Geographical Coverage:

• The organization should preferably have a field presence nationwide, in Lebanon, or strong community presence for national NGOs;
• Organization must have the capability to fully cover one or more operational locations such as Akkar and/or Tripoli+5 (Mennieh-Donieh, Zgharta, Bcharre, Koura and Batroun) and/or Mount-Lebanon and/or Beirut and/or Bekaa and/or South.

3. Sector of Expertise:

• The organization has adequate programmatic experience to implement cash-based transfer, food in-kind distribution, livelihoods and school feeding activities in a professional manner, consistent with WFP CSP strategy ;
• The organization should preferably be an active participant in the established coordination mechanisms in Lebanon (such as Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP), and any other clusters and separate NGO coordinating bodies).

4. Organization’s Capacity:

• The organization has enough capacity and experience in project and financial management to comply with WFP’s financial and programmatic standards and reporting requirements, including an audited statement of accounts for the three most recent years;
• The organization should demonstrate a willingness to invest in its partnerships e.g. International NGO working with and developing the capacity of national organizations.

5. Contribution to resources and WFP programmes:

• The organization should in principle be providing additional and complementary inputs to those specifically required by WFP for a more comprehensive assistance support package to the intended beneficiaries.

  6. Protection, Accountability to Affected Population (AAP) and PSEA:

• The organisation should have a protection strategy or policy that demonstrate commitment to providing safe and dignified access to assistance
• The organisation should have experience in designing and implementing activities in a way that effectively integrate or mainstream protection
• Regarding gender, protection and AAP, the organisation should align with the Inter-Agency coordination structures and referrals mechanisms, adhering to minimum standards of operations collectively agreed upon
• The organisation should integrate AAP into its projects and activities to facilitate information provision, meaningful consultation and two-way feedback with affected communities.
• The organisation should facilitate community feedback mechanism (CFM) that open up safe and trusted channels for beneficiaries to provide their views and concerns the assistance they receive, and ultimately influence programmatic adjustments
• The organisation should have in place safeguarding measures regarding protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) or is aligned to the SOPs of the inter-agency or PSEA Network in Lebanon including appointment of focal points, complaints handling procedures and confidential reporting and referral mechanisms.
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7. Gender Equality and Disability Inclusion:

The organization must be committed and demonstrate efforts towards gender parity across all the personnel grades, with special emphasis to senior level positions;
The organization should have experience in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in its projects and activities including: gender analysis, gender mainstreamed and targeted activities, gender responsive budgeting, monitoring and reporting, as well as, efforts in adopting gender transformative approaches.

Partner with organizations that advocate for the rights of women and girls, positive masculinity, as well as, elimination of harmful practices such as gender-based violence and child marriages

The organization should be committed to promoting the rights of persons with disability and working with organisations of persons with disability

E. Review Process and Timeline

The Call for Expression of Interest will be open on the United Nations Partner Portal (UNPP) from June 14th, 2021 until July 11th,2021. WFP will assess and evaluate the documents listed above starting July 11th, 2021 until August 6th, 2021 and will select potential cooperating partners based on the review of the scoring results and assessment of the required documents. 
Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their submissions starting August 6th via email. The potential selected cooperating partners who meet WFP requirements will be invited to participate in a “Request for Proposal” which may result in a signature of a Field Level Agreement (FLA). 
For further information or queries, please email: [email protected]  
Please note that all questions will be answered within 24 working hours. Please send all your questions before July 5th, 2021 COB. All questions and answers will be then compiled and shared with all applicants anonymously.