WE4F RFP-R05 Water Basins Assessment – Iraq & Morocco

1. Introduction: Berytech Foundation, acting on behalf of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Water and Energy for Food (WE4F) Project, under contract number 7200AA20C00040, is soliciting proposals from firms or individuals that can support our clients on the below scope of work.

Offerors are responsible for ensuring that their offers are received by Berytech Foundation in accordance with the instructions, terms, and conditions described in this RFP. Failure to adhere with instructions described in this RFP may lead to disqualification of an offer from consideration.

Offerors should take note that this RFP does not obligate Berytech Foundation to make an award,  execute a subcontract, nor does it commit Berytech Foundation to pay for any costs incurred in the preparation and submission of any proposals for this solicitation. Furthermore, Berytech Foundation reserves the right to reject any and all offers, if such action is considered to be in the best interest of Berytech Foundation.

1. Questions: Questions regarding both technical and administrative requirements submitted no later than 12:00 PM local Beirut time on July 2nd, 2024 by email to [email protected], and [email protected] questions must be submitted by email. Phone calls, faxes, and other methods of correspondence will not be accepted. Questions and requests for clarification—and the responses thereto—that Berytech Foundation believes may be of interest to other offerors will be circulated to all RFP recipients who have indicated an interest in bidding. Only the published answers issued by Berytech Foundation will be considered official and carry weight in the RFP process and subsequent evaluation. Any verbal information received from employees of Berytech Foundation, or any other entity should not be considered as an official response to any questions regarding this RFP.

1. Scope of Work: Section 3 contains the scope of work of the required service.
2. Quotations: Quotations in response to this RFP must be priced on a fixed-price, all-inclusive basis, including delivery and all other costs. Pricing must be presented in USD and offers must remain valid for not less than thirty (30) calendar days after the offer deadline. Offerors are requested to provide quotations on their official quotation format or letterhead.

In addition, offerors responding to this RFP are requested to submit the following:

• • Organizations responding to this RFP are requested to submit a copy of their official registration or business license.
  • Individuals responding to this RFP are requested to submit a copy of their identification card along with Ministry of Finance registration if applicable.

1. Taxes and VAT: The agreement under which this procurement is financed is not exempt from the payment of taxes, tariffs, duties, or other levies imposed by any laws in effect in the Cooperating Country. Therefore, offerors must include taxes, charges, tariffs, duties and levies in accordance with the laws of the Cooperating Country.

All invoices issued by your company should comply with the laws of your country of incorporation or registration.

1. Eligibility: By submitting an offer in response to this RFP, the offeror certifies that it and its principal officers are not debarred, suspended, or otherwise considered ineligible for an award by the U.S. Government. Berytech Foundation will not award a contract to any firm that is debarred, suspended, or considered to be ineligible by the U.S. Government.
2. Evaluation Criteria: The award will be made to a responsible offeror whose offer follows the RFP instructions, meets the eligibility requirements, and is determined via a trade-off analysis to be the best value based on application of the following evaluation criteria. The relative importance of each individual criterion is indicated by the number of points below.

1. Cost: 20 Points
2. Technical: 80 Points

• Offeror’s qualification, expertise & past experience: 40 Points
• Methodology (features of implementation or winning points that makes the proposed approach unique, success factors, key tasks and activities, risks, and mitigation measures): 30 Points.
• Timeline & Days of Intervention: 10 Points

TOTAL: 100 Points

Only offers achieving 70% or higher (70/100 total points) as an overall score will be considered. Berytech will organize and coordinate the interviews between Hub Specialists and the top offerors (who achieved the highest overall score) and will collect the Hub’s assessor’s post-interview feedback to identify the most suitable service provider.

The Final selection will be based on the Hub’s scores and post-interview feedback.

Follow-up discussions may be conducted with several Consultant(s) to resolve any questions, finalize the scope of work, and agree on final (not-to-exceed) costs as a means to recommend final selection to Berytech Foundation.

Please note that if there are significant deficiencies regarding responsiveness to the requirements of this RFP, an offer may be deemed “non-responsive” and thereby disqualified from consideration. Berytech Foundation reserves the right to waive immaterial deficiencies at its discretion.

Best-offer quotations are requested. It is anticipated that the award will be made solely on the basis of these original quotations. However, Berytech Foundation reserves the right to conduct any of the following:

• Berytech Foundation may conduct negotiations with and/or request clarifications from any offeror prior to award.
• While preference will be given to offerors who can address the full technical requirements of this RFP, Berytech Foundation may issue a partial award or split the award among various suppliers, if in the best interest of the Lebanon WE4F Project.
• Berytech Foundation may cancel this RFP at any time.

Please note that in submitting a response to this RFP, the offeror understands that USAID is not a party to this solicitation and the offeror agrees that any protest hereunder must be presented— in writing with full explanations—to Berytech Foundation for consideration, as USAID will not consider protests regarding procurements carried out by implementing partners. Berytech Foundation, at its sole discretion, will make a final decision on the protest for this procurement.

1. Terms and Conditions: This is a Request for Proposal only. Issuance of this RFP does not in any way obligate Berytech Foundation, the WE4F Project, or USAID to make an award or pay for costs incurred by potential offerors in the preparation and submission of an offer.

This solicitation is subject to Berytech Foundation’s standard terms and conditions. Any resultant award will be governed by these terms and conditions. A copy of the full terms and conditions is available upon request. A copy of the Fixed price Subcontract to be signed by the awardee is available in Annex 1.

Section 2: Offer Checklist

To assist offerors in preparation of proposals, the following checklist summarizes the documentation to include an offer in response to this RFP:

1. The Methodology

The service provider proposal should include the below:

• Understanding of the project
• Key success factors of the implementation
• Detailed list of tasks and associated deliverables to be executed, included a description of each task/deliverable, list of key activities, and key success factors of each task/deliverable
• Risks and mitigation measures
• Comments on the RFP where the vendor can recommend changes if needed (scope of work, additional deliverables.)

1. Qualification, expertise & past experience

Please include:

• CVs for the consultants that will work on the project Please provide the CVs for the staff that would likely work on this engagement explaining the roles and responsibilities of each and provide an organogram.
• Company Profile
• List of clients having similar intervention.
  1. Describe in 2-4 paragraphs your capabilities specifically relevant to this scope of work. Please provide evidence of your relevant past work. When documenting your evidence of past work, present each example in the following format:
  2. The business need is presented in the call order for which your past work is evidence.
  3. The challenge / issue your work addressed.
  4. Your activities / approach to address that challenge.
  5. The outcome / result of your work.

   

1. Timeline & Days of intervention

(Duration AND Man-days that is Level of effort -LOE)

Describe how you will mobilize resources to be able to deliver the work in the engagement delivery time frame indicated in the Assumptions section (see below). In your response, please include information such as who from your team will be involved in the project, their specific role, and their availability and also provide a high-level description of the project phases that you see necessary to complete the assignment, their purpose, and duration in days or weeks. We understand that this may change once, if selected, you have your requirements gathering calls with the innovator and learn in more detail the expectations and objectives.

1. Cost in USD

Please note that the project has a budget ceiling of $165,000. In your budget proposal, please itemize the deliverables noted in the call order. The budget should be broken down into the billing rate of each team member and their respective Level of Effort (LOE) as well as by task/deliverable. You may use the following SHEETS to reflect both LOE and cost breakdown per person. Please make sure to include these tables in your proposal. Daily rates should be inclusive of all indirect fringes. Budget proposals should be at or below the budget ceiling provided in the RFP and inclusive of VAT, travel, and other fees indicated separately from personnel fees. 

1. Legal documents

• Company Registration papers for companies.
•  Individual ID and Tax number if available for individuals.

WE4F Background and Context

Water, energy and food are essential for human well-being, poverty reduction and sustainable development. Global projections indicate that the demand for freshwater, energy and food will increase significantly over the next decades under the pressure of population growth and mobility, economic development, international trade, urbanization, diversifying diets, cultural and technological changes and climate change.¹ Agriculture accounts for 70% of total global freshwater withdrawals, making it the largest user of water. At the same time, the food production and supply chain consume about 30 percent of total energy consumed globally. However, the agricultural sector faces challenges in accessing renewable energy in low-income countries as significant barriers – that hinder the integration of renewable energy technology in agricultural development – exist. Likewise, renewable energy enterprises seeking to serve these farmers face a number of barriers such as limited access to debt, a remote client base or a lack of demand due to missing awareness. These issues create an unproductive cycle, in which suppliers and buyers are not connected, and farmers and agribusinesses are unable to leverage more cost-effective renewable energy technologies.

The above-described situation is expected to be exacerbated in the near future as 60% more food will need to be produced in order to feed the world population in 2050. Global energy consumption is projected to grow by up to 50% by 2035. Total global water withdrawals for irrigation are projected to increase by 10% by 2050. As demand grows, there is increasing competition for resources between water, energy, agriculture, fisheries, livestock, forestry, mining, transport and other sectors with unpredictable impacts for livelihoods of smallholders, women and youth working in the agricultural sector and the environment as a whole. Furthermore, these trends will also influence development in general. The creation of jobs, or improvement of those that exist, both within the agricultural sector but also jobs related to non-agricultural activities, can make a crucial contribution towards poverty reduction, food security and sustainable rural and urban development. Targeting women in the agricultural sector both as producers and consumers in this regard is of particular importance since they constitute nearly half of the agricultural workforce and up to 70% in many parts of the world. If women had the same access to resources as their male counterparts, they could increase yields by 20% to 30% and, in the process, feed up to 150 million more people.

The above situation is strongly pronounced in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Tackling issues in the water-energy-food nexus is imperative to achieve political and social stability, gender equality and inclusion, food security, prosperity and sustainable development in the MENA. Although the region’s water-energy-food challenges are severe, they present an opportunity for local innovators to find solutions for the most pressing water and energy issues in food production and agriculture.

Water & Energy for Food (WE4F): A Grand Challenge for Development is a joint international initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Foreign Ministry of the Netherlands, Norway through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) , Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), European Union (EU), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (herein after referred to as the “Donors”). Within this initiative the MENA Regional Innovation Hub (MENA RIH) supports innovators that work in the region and produce more food while using less water and energy, to impact food security, gender and poverty reduction in an environmentally sustainable way. Together with investors and partners, the MENA RIH works to scale mid-to-later stage enterprises that have an environmental and social impact in the water-energy-food nexus. The RIH MENA is implemented by a consortium (herein after referred to as the “Consortium” by Berytech (the leading organization and the contracting entity for this RFP), Chemonics Egypt Consultants, CEWAS, and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

The MENA RIH aims to support 50 innovators with a proven solution tackling water and/or energy issues in urban or rural food production. The MENA RIH for WE4F is designed to support innovators in the region in growing their business by tackling the most common internal and external challenges. By tackling matters related to business growth, technical aspects, environmental and social impact, and access to finance, supported innovators will receive tailored and intense assistance to help them rapidly grow. The support includes technical assistance in numerous topics including

• developing strategic growth plan
• redesigning business model for growth and impact
• overcoming cash flow problems
• strengthening financial management foundations
• optimizing production processes and organizational structure
• improving ESG standing
• improving inclusion of BoP and women in business operations
• receiving more than 20 other growth support services such as export readiness, technical, and impact aspects

The MENA RIH will also assist innovators in raising investments, building partnerships, and expanding their networks. Some innovators will receive matching grants with a value reaching up to 300,000 USD.

We encourage the offeror to visit the WE4F website (https://we4f.org/innovators) to get acquainted with the innovators supported under this program.

Within the above context Berytech is seeking the assistance of a service provider to support the WE4F Program in a water-related assignment described below.

Background of this assignment

The gap between the amount of food produced and the amount required by future generations is set to widen, leading to global food insecurity^[1]. Also, extreme events due to climate change are disrupting the agricultural input and output supply chains and increasing pressure on food systems. Hence it is essential to strengthen the resilience of local food production systems to improve the availability of nutritious food to populations through sustainable expansion of agriculture. Resilience building requires a systems approach to intervention design and implementation by embedding the solutions within the broader enabling environment. Supporting smallholder farmers to invest in irrigation solutions presents a medium-to-long-term adaptation strategy and provides self-reliance for the most vulnerable sections of the population to produce food and secure income while reducing dependency on food assistance programs.

Under the WE4F program, the RIHs have funded several innovations addressing food and water security challenges. Innovations lead to increasing food production and water use efficiency and lowering production costs and vulnerabilities^[2]. While these innovations are initially implemented over local to regional scales, additional investment is often required to achieve significant impact over large scales. However, as the large-scale implementation of some of the innovations can result in the depletion of water resources and could lead to unsustainable practices, guidance is required to scale the innovations using evidence-based data solutions when it comes to water efficient agriculture. 

The proposal should bring added value through (i) the application of water accounting in the river basins/regions for baseline and future time periods; (ii) combining remote-sensing approaches and in situ data to produce information on surface water availability and scarcity; (iii) the generation of new hydrological insights in the focused geographies, iv) the development of a dynamic dashboard, and (v) guidelines and limits on sustainable scaling of irrigation investments.

Activity Summary

WE4F is seeking the development of customized water availability dashboards for key river basins in WE4F focused countries, particularly Morocco and Iraq.  These dashboards will provide several insights into water availability for scaling innovations (“The Project”). The Project will aid in assessing the water potential for scaling innovators funded under the Water and Energy for Food (WE4F) program. The required approach could use a rapid water accounting modeling to generate river basin-scale information on water availability for baseline (2018-2022) and future time periods (2030, and 2040). Water accounting plus (WA+) modeling framework or other proposed methodology would be applied over selected river basins/regions within the MENA Region. The information generated from the rapid water accounting framework will enable the RIHs, donor organizations, and other stakeholders to identify if enough water is available for further agricultural use, and if scaling an innovation or technology would adversely affect the water availability in the said river basins. The Project should generate a dynamic easy-to-use dashboard displaying several useful water availability indicators.

The Project could use a combination of datasets from remote sensing platforms and national and regional agencies to generate a variety of water availability and scarcity indicators. Such information from the WA+ model (or another recommended model by the service provider) could be used to generate analysis-ready, easy-to-use indicators summarized in the dashboard setup and presented to      WE4F. The outcomes should include maps and water availability indicators to facilitate the sustainable expansion of localized investments by the individual RIHs. The Project could build upon existing work that the service providers may have already undertaken.

Morocco context:

Morocco faces significant drought risk and water scarcity issues, exacerbated by climate change and over-extraction of water resources. The country experiences frequent droughts that severely impact its water availability, with some regions receiving less than 250 mm of rainfall annually. This scarcity affects agricultural productivity, as agriculture consumes about 87% of Morocco’s water resources. Additionally, increasing demand from urbanization and industrial activities further strains the already limited water supplies. The situation necessitates efficient water management practices and investments in sustainable water resources to mitigate the adverse effects of droughts.

The Sebou basin holds 30% of surface water and groundwater resources. Although it represents only 6% of the total area of Morocco, 18% of the country’s population lives within it.

The Sebou River in Morocco is the main river of concern in the assignment. It is one of Morocco's most important waterways, originating in the Middle Atlas mountains and flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. It covers the regions of Fès-Meknès, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, and parts of Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, playing a vital role in agriculture by supporting extensive irrigation for crops like citrus fruits, olives, and cereals. Additionally, the river is crucial for the region's economy, providing water for both domestic and industrial uses. Although other rivers, such as Oum Er-Rbia, Tensift, and Moulouya are facing higher risk of water scarcity, the Sebou River has the highest average annual discharge, making it the most voluminous among the listed rivers. This volume supports extensive agricultural activities in the Gharb plain but is still subject to over-extraction and pollution issues. Climate change-induced droughts have further strained its water resources.

Iraq context:

The Euphrates–Tigris River Basin, shared by Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and parts of Iran, faces significant water scarcity due to geopolitical tensions, climate change, and extensive human activities like dam construction and irrigation. Reduced rainfall and inefficient water use exacerbate the situation, threatening agricultural productivity, food security, and regional stability. For that reason, the Euphrates-Tigris River Basic is of key focus in the assignment. The Euphrates–Tigris River Basin is a transboundary basin with a total area of 879,790 km2 with 46 percent located in Iraq. The two main sources of water in Iraq are the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. These rivers originate in the mountains of eastern Turkey and flow southward through Iraq, eventually joining to form the Shatt al-Arab waterway which empties into the Persian Gulf.

Water flows in these rivers have been declining in recent decades due to the hydrological projects built in riparian countries and climate change. The decline in water resources is having a serious impact on agricultural production and the availability of drinking water.  Now, the discharge of the Tigris River and its tributaries at Baghdad is about 16 BCM while it is about 4.4 BCM in the Euphrates.

It is believed that groundwater utilization will be tremendously important in Iraq in the near future. Iraq's groundwater resources play a supporting role alongside the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but they also face challenges. Estimates suggest they make up only around 2% of Iraq's total water resources (1.2 billion cubic meters).

Objective

The main objective of the Project is to develop an approach to sustainable scaling of innovations for strengthening WE4F through a water accounting framework.  By integrating water accounting principles into WE4F projects, the Project aims to enhance the impact and sustainability of innovations in water, energy, and food security, ultimately contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Project should be a data-driven, evidence-based approach to providing information on water availability for scaling innovations by the RIHs.

Project Components

The project should include three work packages that enhance the water accounting approach to provide water availability information for selecting and implementing sustainable irrigation/water management solutions by the WE4F RIHs.

Work Package 1: Rapid water accounting using the latest version of WA+ framework or another recommended methodology by the service provider (baseline and future conditions).

Work Package 2: Quantifying the limits on surface and groundwater availability and use.

Work Package 3: Dashboard development and Capacity building.

Description of Required Activities / Deliverables

The Project should include three work packages to develop an approach to present information on water availability for scaling innovations. The Project could combine open and multi-source datasets to generate information on water availability and scarcity, as discussed below. The Service Provider will work closely with the MENA RIHs to understand the need and requirements for scaling innovations.

The Service Provider will be expected to carry out a thorough review of current innovations and investments in irrigation made by the RIH. The selection of the river basins is made based on i) the presence of a large number of existing or potential end-users of WE4F innovations in a river basin, ii) river basin characteristics (water scarcity, food security issues, and size of the basin), iii) river basin hydrology and iv) the availability of data for water accounting modeling v) relevant water use policies and regulations. The tentative river basins of interest are:

1.  Sebou River, Morocco
2. The Tigris River, Iraq
3. The Euphrates River, Iraq

Work Package 1 – Water accounting modeling or other proposed methodology at river basin scale using relevant frameworks

The main aim of this work package is to take stock of water availability and water scarcity in the selected river basins. Under this work package, the water accounting plus (WA+) modeling framework and/or methodology proposed will be implemented for baseline (2015-2022) and future scenarios (2030, and 2040). The framework could be an open-source application built specifically for data-scarce regions that use several globally available remote sensing datasets and a  few in situ datasets.

The WA approach should be customized and adapted to generate rapid water accounts for each river basin. The approach where applicable can be adapted to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Water Productivity through Open access of Remotely sensed derived data (WaPOR) data^[3].     

The rapid water accounting assessment for the baseline period (2015-2022) can be conducted using historical data obtained from remote sensing and hydrologic modeling approaches. For the water accounting assessments for the future, CMIP6 data (SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 – medium and extreme case scenarios) can be obtained from CORDEX or any other source preferred by the Service provider. The future assessment will be summarized for, 2030 and 2035.

This work package may use the hydrologic information available from multi-source platforms such as WaPOR and CWatM or other as proposed, to track the pathways of water flowing in the basin. The model will account for water use from multiple landscapes, generating information on productive vs. unproductive water use, rainfed water use vs. irrigation water use, and information on water use by different landscapes and sectors. Analysis of both surface water and groundwater resources will be conducted. This work package will answer three fundamental questions under baseline scenario and climate change scenarios (SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5): how much water is/will be available in the basin/sub-basin/catchment level? How much is currently being/will be used by irrigation and other natural landscapes? How much unused water is/will be available for further use?

Activities:

• Analysis of existing information in public resources and in existing databases and resources of the service provider that could be used as well as primary research if needed (e.g. obtaining critical data from the relevant ministries).
• Collection and pre-processing of remote sensing and in situ datasets for water account modeling (baseline and future scenarios).
• Water Accounting applications for the two river basins in Morocco and two river basins in Iraq.
• Summary of basin-scale water balance (P, ET, Q, Runoff).
• Summary of surface and groundwater availability (baseline and future scenarios).
• Summary of water availability, use, and security indicators (baseline and future scenarios).
• Conduct a comprehensive analysis of the available data and proposing approaches to obtaining data that may not be readily available, demonstrating resourcefulness in obtaining and integrating data from various sources, including remote sensing, global datasets, and local ground measurements, to overcome potential data availability.
• Include seasonal variations (dry and wet season).
• Analysis will consider river basins and sub-basin areas.

Outputs:

• Maps and tables summarizing water availability, scarcity, and sustainability in the three selected river basins.
• A slide deck summarizing the outputs from this study.

Work Package 2 – Development of the WE4F dashboard

The work package should include the development of an investment scaling approach based on the information generated from the rapid water accounting framework or other proposed frameworks. The service provider could build upon its earlier research.

Under the Project, the Service Provider should provide the limits of total water availability (surface and groundwater availability) based on the water resources information generated under work package 1. The planned analytical approach will leverage indicators such as utilizable outflows, surface water yield, and groundwater recharge from the rapid water accounting framework or the other frameworks. The output should produce maps of surface and groundwater availability for baseline and future scenarios. By comparing water availability and the water requirement for innovation scaling, it would be possible to assess the sustainability of water resources in the RIH. The information on water availability will be available as raster maps (at 1 km resolution or higher) or can be summarized for the smallest administrative/hydrologic unit.

Activities:

• Derive water accounting and availability maps and indicators for said river basins.
• Generate charts and maps for the river basins, sub-basin areas, and sub-catchments required for dashboard creation.

Outputs:

• Maps of water availability and scarcity for the baseline and future scenarios.
• A slide deck summarizing the results and limitations of the analysis.

Work Package 3 – Dashboards and Capacity building

Work package 3 will summarize the results from work package 1 and 2 into an easy-to-understand and user-friendly online dashboard. The dashboard will provide evidence-based information on water availability (maps) and other water scarcity indicators (maps and charts) that can be accessed online by the WE4F staff members. The dashboards will be available online for easy and rapid access by the WE4F staff.

A set of training materials will be developed for each river basin's applications, and capacity-building workshops will be conducted for relevant WE4F staff. The guidelines for sustainable scaling of innovations will be summarized for each river basin area or administration region within the river basin. The results will be shared via multiple platforms (presentations, web apps, story maps) for the focus countries.

Activities:

• Develop training materials on the water accounting approach to derive evidence-based information on water availability.
• Develop training materials and conduct capacity-building workshops for relevant WE4F staff in the river basin countries (Using the newly developed dashboards). Additional staff as identified by the RIHs can be included. 

Outputs:

• Dashboard showcasing the water availability indicators at the basin/sub basin/catchment levels, superimposing the geographical boundaries.
• Presentations, web apps, and story maps.
• Training materials and presentations on the results from this study.
• Capacity building workshops for relevant WE4F Secretariat and Hub staff.

TIME FRAME / IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

The total time required for project implementation in the selected three river basins should not exceed five months from contracting date (no later than December 15^th, 2024). A staggered approach can be proposed. 

PROJECT TEAM AND RESOURCES

The Service provider is expected to propose a team of specialists and consultants preferably based in the region of implementation with experience in water resources management, irrigation, water accounting, agricultural technology, basin and & aquifer management, social and institutional analysis, and environmental sustainability.