Solicitation for qualified company to conduct study for development of an ECOWAS Corridor Development and Management Strategy and Action Plan

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Date : 08 Apr 2016 - 27 Apr 2016
Venue : Abuja, Nigeria,
Town : Abuja
Country : Nigeria

The USAID Trade and Investment Hub (Trade Hub) invites Expressions of Interest from qualified consulting companies with experience in conducting cross-border trade and transport related analyses to undertake a study for the development of an ECOWAS Corridor Development and Management Strategy and Action Plan. The Trade Hub project is funded by USAID and is implemented by Abt Associates Inc.

The selected company will conduct the study to prepare or develop an “ECOWAS Corridor Development and Management Strategy and Action Plan” to guide the ECOWAS Commission and its partners to develop and manage regional land transport corridors as well as transform transport corridors into economic and development corridors that will support regional integration, and facilitate international and intra-community trade. The Action Plan should have clear activities to achieve the intended objectives and specifically outline the implementation approach on a hierarchy of selected corridors which must include the Tema–Ouagadougou and Abidjan–Bamako Corridors.

The study shall:

1. Design an ECOWAS Corridor Development and Management Strategy
2. Draft an Action Plan for implementing the strategy over a period of 20 years

• Through a hierarchy of corridors, identify corridors where Corridor Management Institutions (CMIs) can be established in West Africa

1. Advise on a regional approach to establish CMIs and propose a regional coordination mechanism for all corridors, drawing from lessons learnt in other regions and adapting implementation modalities to West Africa
2. Define the viability of identified corridors and corridor projects and establish a short, medium and long-term financing plan
3. Advise how a pilot CMI can be established on selected corridors such as the Tema– Ouagadougou and Abidjan– Bamako Corridors as test cases.

The objective of this solicitation is to develop a short list of qualified consulting companies for corridor management study.

The companies should have been in operation for at least 5 years in the West Africa region with experience in trade and transport analysis and development.

Only companies with at least one member of the team fluent in both French and English will be considered.

The Expression of Interest should not exceed 5 pages and should include:

• Technical approach (maximum 5 pages)
• Experiences of the company in the domain
• List of technical experts to work on this assignment

Shortlisted companies will be selected after which a detailed scope of work will be provided to them to develop a full technical and cost proposal. The objective of the solicitation is to award a subcontract that will be implemented in accordance with USAID’s regulations and Abt Associates’ policies and procedures.

The expression of interest in PDF format should be received at procurement@watradehub.com no later than April 27, 2016 COB.

The email subject must be: Proposal for Study for Development of an ECOWAS Corridor Development and Management Strategy and Action Plan and the document can be presented in French or in English.

No questions, no emails and no phone calls are allowed before submission of the expression of interest.