CONSULTANCY CLARIFYING ENGAGEMENT IN COMMERCIAL CONTRACTS

Date: 04/06/2023
Deadline: 05/15/2023

Context

Action contre la Faim France (ACF-Fr) has launched a brainstorming exercise regarding its business model and its positioning strategies. This required drawing the line between:

• The need to carry out and abide by humanitarian principles, the ethical and social values of ACF-Fr, on the one hand;
• The need to ensure we have an impact on the population we serve, which requires access to funding, on the other hand.

Global trends include the emergence of commercial contract funding by some institutional donors. This translates in i) the development of commercial tenders, with payment by results, pre-financing and a trend towards greater initial definition of programmes by donors, ii) the arrival of new for profit actors, competing for these contracts.

In this context, a dedicated group has worked on this topic.

Conclusions from the group include:

• A need to clarify what defines commercial contracts so as to have a common understanding within the organization;
• A need for clarification of what these funding opportunities involve in terms of risks and processes;
• A need to be informed of these funding opportunities’ characteristics, in order to position ACF-Fr on contracts that are compatible with ACF-Fr’s project management/monitoring/implementation practices, either at mission or HQ level.
• A need to adapt ACF-Fr’s current set-up to be able to respond to relevant commercial contracts

As a result, the group’s main recommendation is to recruit a consultant/team of consultants to conduct a study and a preparedness audit.

OBJECTIVES

General objective

Provide ACF-Fr with a clear overview of the implications (including risks) and requirements of USAID, FCDO and World Bank commercial contracts as well as recommendations on changes that would need to be made to ACF-Fr’s current systems.

Specific objectives

• Externally: provide ACF-Fr with a clear overview of USAID, FCDO and World Bank commercial contract specificities;
• Internally: provide ACF-Fr with an analysis of required changes and evolutions within its systems, processes and ways of working.

To apply or for more information, please contact: jguillaume@actioncontrelafaim.org