Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa

GENERAL PROCUREMENT NOTICE

Multinational (All ADF-Eligible RMCs; RECs; SROs; and STCs) – P-Z1-K00-099

Name of Project: Statistical Capacity Building Program, Phase V (SCB-5)

GENERAL PROCUREMENT NOTICE

  1. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Secretariat has received a Grant from the African Development Fund to finance the Statistical Capacity Building Program, Phase V for the implementation of the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics (SHaSA-2) across all ADF-Eligible Regional Member States (RMCs), Sub Regional Organizations (SROs), Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Statistical Training Centers (STCs) across Africa.
  1. The principal objectives of this Program are to;
  • Strengthen the Statistics, Policy, and Decision-making Chain: The proposed SCB program is anchored on strengthening the data responsiveness of the African Statistical System to the evolving development agenda through the implementation of SHaSA-2. The increasing demand for more and better statistics has brought to the fore the importance of data as a strategic resource for national, regional and international development. The effectiveness of national planning systems hinges largely on the availability of quality and accurate of data. Data informs the setting of policy and development priorities and facilitates the tracking of performance, highlighting points of timely intervention and assistance. SHaSA-2 is cognizant of statistics as a global public good that transcends national boundaries. With its regional and global impacts, SHaSA is anchored on the design and management of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) as one of its basic building blocks.
  • Contribute towards the implementation of the SHaSA.2 as a continent-wide statistical framework designed to deliver timely, reliable and accurate data for growing current and emerging needs. Africa’s evolving development agenda is articulated in a range of recent strategic agendas including but not limited to National Development Plans (NDPs), Regional Integrated Strategic Development Plans (RISDPs), the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the AfDB’s High 5s agenda. The SCB-5’s implementation will improve the availability and quality of data that complies with international best practice. Africa’s ability to meet all the critical objectives determining its future resilience and sustainability hinges on its capacity to measure its progress using Better Statistics, for better policies, decisions and development outcomes.
  1. The Program has the following components:

3.1 Component 1: Improving the availability and quality of economic statistics, including the measurement of the COVID-19 impact:

The proposed program will focus on two broad areas namely the International Comparison Program(ICP) and other economic statistics. The breakdown of the domains of statistics will be as follows: National accounts, Price statistics, Debt statistics, Agriculture and food security, Business registers, Labor statistics, Environment and climate change and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) statistics.

3.2 Component 2 Improving the quality and availability of Social Statistics and reporting on COVID-19: The SCB-5 aims at consolidating previous efforts across selected domains of social statistics by way of training and demand-driven technical assistance using international best practice. A second sub-component will involve strengthening the knowledge base on the state of infrastructure in Africa.

3.3 Component 3: Data Collection, Management and Dissemination

The Africa Information Highway (AIH) has resulted in significant growth in the efficiency of data management and dissemination systems in RMCs. The SCB V will continue strengthening the gains made in previous SCB rounds on data management and dissemination systems.

A Data Innovation Lab (DiB) will also be established to create an enabling environment within the Bank and build the necessary skills and expertise to assist countries to reap the benefits of Big Data.

3.4 Component 4: Strategic Planning, Systems Development, Coordination and Training: This component, focuses on raising the statistical capacity of National Statistical Systems (NSSs) by responding to demand-driven technical assistance, covering the design, review, monitoring and evaluation of the National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDSs) using best practice. There will be a review of outgoing and a formulation of incoming Regional Strategies for the Development of Statistics (RSDSs) at the REC level, aligning them with the relevant country NSDS as much as possible and as part of best practice.

3.5 Component 5 Project Management

This component covers project staff costs, supervision missions, preparation of progress reports, audits and financial statements, as well as the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) process, including the Project Completion Report (PCR).

  1. The acquisition of consulting services financed by the Bank for the Program, will be carried out in accordance with the Bank’s Procurement Policy for Bank Group Funded Operations dated October 2015 and in line with the provisions stated in the Grant Agreement. Requests for Expressions of Interest for the acquisition of various consulting services are expected to be issued by June 2021.
  1. Interested bidders may obtain further information, and should confirm their interest, by contacting:

THE HEAD OF PROCUREMENT

COMESA SECRETARIAT

BEN BELLA ROAD

P.O BOX 30051

LUSAKA, ZAMBIA

Tel: 260 211 229725 – 32

Email: [email protected] with a copy to [email protected]

Attention: Mr. Silver Mwesigwa