The Commission of the Economic Community of West African States ("ECOWAS") has received funding from the European Union (the "EU") and the French Development Agency (the "AFD"), under the Agroecology Program in West Africa and intends to use part of the amount to make payments for the implementation of a "Massive Open Online Course" (MOOC) on Agroecology in West Africa..

The Applicant's Services will aim to adapt and facilitate a "Massive Open Online Course" (MOOC) on Agroecology in West Africa. Part of the service will be carried out in partnership with the Institut Agro of Montpellier (France).

The ECOWAS hereby invites Applicants to show their interest in delivering the Services described above.

This Request for Expressions of Interest is open to: Universities, Higher education schools.

Eligibility criteria to AFD financing are specified in sub-clause 1.3 of the "Procurement Guidelines for AFD Financed Contracts in Foreign Countries", available online on AFD’s website: http://www.afd.fr.

The Applicant shall submit only one application, either in its own name or as a member of a Joint Venture (JV). If an Applicant (including any JV member) submits or participates in more than one application, those applications shall be all rejected. However, the same Subconsultant may participate in several applications.

If the Applicant is a JV, the expression of interest shall include:

• a copy of the JV Agreement entered into by all members,
• a letter of intent to execute a JV Agreement, signed by all members together with a copy of the Agreement proposal.

In the absence of this document, the Application will not be considered.

Interested Candidates must provide information demonstrating that they are qualified and experienced to perform these Services. As such, they will justify that they have references of recent and similar services or have plans to develop online courses.

The Client will also examine the relevance of the Expressions of Interest regarding to the following criteria:

• The nature of the Services: previous experience in the management of distance learning, development or animation of skills transfer platforms;
• Domain and technical expertise: agriculture, agronomy, agroecology, sustainable development of territories, environment, reasoned agriculture, sustainable agriculture, zootechnics, social sciences, economy, crop protection, genetics, etc. ;
• History of collaboration: past or current partnerships with other universities or schools at regional or international level; and
• A geographical criterion: the Candidate must imperatively have its headquarters in one of the ECOWAS Member States.

For a JV, its leader and any member that has its registered office outside the Client's country shall fulfil each of these criteria.

An application that does not meet any of these requirements will be rejected.

Among the submitted applications, ECOWAS will shortlist a maximum of sixteen (16) Applicants maximum, preselected on the basis of the applications received, to whom requests for additional information shall be sent. These requests for additional information will be used as a score framework to shortlist a maximum of eight (8) Applicants for the end of the selection process.

The Expressions of Interest must be submitted to the address below no later than February 21st, 2022.

Email : procurement.pae.araa@gmail.com

Email subject : « MI ARAA/PAE/2022/AMI/01 »

Interested Applicants may obtain further information at the same address mentioned above.

Appendix to The Request for Expressions of Interest
(To be sumitted with the application, signed and unaltered)

Statement of Integrity, Eligibility and Environmental and Social Responsibility

Reference name of the bid or proposal: ______________________________________ (The "Contract")

To: __________________________________________________________ (The "Contracting Authority")

1. We recognise and accept that Agence Française de Développement ("AFD") only finances projects of the Contracting Authority subject to its own conditions which are set out in the Financing Agreement which benefits directly or indirectly to the Contracting Authority. As a matter of consequence, no legal relationship exists between AFD and our company, our joint venture or our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants. The Contracting Authority retains exclusive responsibility for the preparation and implementation of the procurement process and performance of the contract. The Contracting Authority means the Purchaser, the Employer, the Client, as the case may be, for the procurement of goods, works, plants, consulting services or non-consulting services.
2. We hereby certify that neither we nor any other member of our joint venture or any of our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants are in any of the following situations:

2.1      Being bankrupt, wound up or ceasing our activities, having our activities administered by the courts, having entered into receivership, reorganisation or being in any analogous situation arising from any similar procedure;

2.2      Having been:

1. convicted, within the past five years by a court decision, which has the force of res judicata in the country where the Contract is implemented, of fraud, corruption or of any other offense committed during a procurement process or performance of a contract (in the event of such conviction, you may attach to this Statement of Integrity supporting information showing that this conviction is not relevant in the context of the Contract);
2. subject to an administrative sanction within the past five years by the European Union or by the competent authorities of the country where we are constituted, for fraud, corruption or for any other offense committed during a procurement process or performance of a contract (in the event of such sanction, you may attach to this Statement of Integrity supporting information showing that this sanction is not relevant in the context of the Contract);
3. convicted, within the past five years by a court decision, which has the force of res judicata, of fraud, corruption or of any other offense committed during the procurement process or performance of an AFD‑financed contract;

2.3      Being listed for financial sanctions by the United Nations, the European Union and/or France for the purposes of fight-against-terrorist financing or threat to international peace and security;

2.4      Having been subject within the past five years to a contract termination fully settled against us for significant or persistent failure to comply with our contractual obligations during contract performance, unless this termination was challenged and dispute resolution is still pending or has not confirmed a full settlement against us;

2.5      Not having fulfilled our fiscal obligations regarding payments of taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of either the country where we are constituted or the Contracting Authority's country;

2.6      Being subject to an exclusion decision of the World Bank and being listed on the website http://www.worldbank.org/debarr (in the event of such exclusion, you may attach to this Statement of Integrity supporting information showing that this exclusion is not relevant in the context of the Contract);

2.7      Having created false documents or committed misrepresentation in documentation requested by the Contracting Authority as part of the procurement process of the Contract.

1. We hereby certify that neither we, nor any of the members of our joint venture or any of our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants are in any of the following situations of conflict of interest:

3.1      Being an affiliate controlled by the Contracting Authority or a shareholder controlling the Contracting Authority, unless the stemming conflict of interest has been brought to the attention of AFD and resolved to its satisfaction.

3.2      Having a business or family relationship with a Contracting Authority's staff involved in the procurement process or the supervision of the resulting Contract, unless the stemming conflict of interest has been brought to the attention of AFD and resolved to its satisfaction;

3.3      Being controlled by or controlling another bidder or consultant, or being under common control with another bidder or consultant, or receiving from or granting subsidies directly or indirectly to another bidder or consultant, having the same legal representative as another bidder or consultant, maintaining direct or indirect contacts with another bidder or consultant which allows us to have or give access to information contained in the respective applications, bids or proposals, influencing them or influencing decisions of the Contracting Authority;

3.4      Being engaged in a consulting services activity, which, by its nature, may be in conflict with the assignments that we would carry out for the Contracting Authority;

3.5      In the case of procurement of goods, works or plants:

1. Having prepared or having been associated with a consultant who prepared specifications, drawings, calculations and other documentation to be used in the procurement process of the Contract;
2. Having been recruited (or being proposed to be recruited) ourselves or any of our affiliates, to carry out works supervision or inspection for the Contract.

1. If we are a state-owned entity, and to compete in a procurement process, we certify that we have legal and financial autonomy and that we operate under commercial laws and regulations.
2. We undertake to bring to the attention of the Contracting Authority, which will inform AFD, any change in situation with regard to points 2 to 4 here above.
3. In the context of the procurement process and performance of the corresponding contract:

6.1      We have not and we will not engage in any dishonest conduct (act or omission) deliberately indented to deceive others, to intentionally conceal items, to violate or vitiate someone's consent, to make them circumvent legal or regulatory requirements and/or to violate their internal rules in order to obtain illegitimate profit;

6.2      We have not and we will not engage in any dishonest conduct (act or omission) contrary to our legal or regulatory obligations or our internal rules in order to obtain illegitimate profit;

6.3      We have not promised, offered or given and we will not promise, offer or give, directly or indirectly to (i) any Person who holds a legislative, executive, administrative or judicial mandate within the State of the Contracting Authority regardless of whether that Person was nominated or elected, regardless of the permanent or temporary, paid or unpaid nature of the position and regardless of the hierarchical level the Person occupies, (ii) any other Person who performs a public function, including for a State institution or a State‑owned company, or who provides a public service, or (iii) any other person defined as a Public Officer by the national laws of the Contracting Authority’s country, an undue advantage of any kind, for himself or for another Person or entity, for such Public Officer to act or refrain from acting in his official capacity;

6.4      We have not promised, offered or given and we will not promise, offer or give, directly or indirectly to any Person who occupies an executive position in a private sector entity or works for such an entity, regardless of the nature of his/her capacity, any undue advantage of any kind, for himself or another Person or entity for such Person to perform or refrain from performing any act in breach of its legal, contractual or professional obligations;

6.5      We have not and we will not engage in any practice likely to influence the contract award process to the detriment of the Contracting Authority and, in particular, in any anti‑competitive practice having for object or for effect to prevent, restrict or distort competition, namely by limiting access to the market or the free exercise of competition by other undertakings;

6.6      Neither we nor any of the members of our joint venture or any of our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants shall acquire or supply any equipment nor operate in any sectors under an embargo of the United Nations, the European Union or France;

6.7      We commit ourselves to comply with and ensure that all of our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants comply with international environmental and labour standards, consistent with laws and regulations applicable in the country of implementation of the Contract, including the fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and international environmental treaties. Moreover, we shall implement environmental and social risks mitigation measures when specified in the environmental and social commitment plan (ESCP) provided by the Contracting Authority.

• We, as well as members of our joint venture and our suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants or subconsultants authorise AFD to inspect accounts, records and other documents relating to the procurement process and performance of the contract and to have them audited by auditors appointed by AFD.

Name: ______________________________  In the capacity of: ___________________________________________

Duly empowered to sign in the name and on behalf of [1]:___________________________________________

Signature:___________________________________________________________________________________ Dated: 

[1]     In case of joint venture, insert the name of the joint venture. The person who will sign the application, bid or proposal on behalf of the applicant, bidder or consultant shall attach a power of attorney from the applicant, bidder or consultant.