Appel d’offres pour la préparation de rapports de supervision élargie, rapports d’achèvement de projet, pour les projets d’accord de participation au risque de financement du commerce.

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

FOR THREE (3) INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANTS

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Trade Finance Division (PIFD3), Financial Sector Development Department

CCIA Building, Avenue Jean Paul II, Plateau, Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Title of the assignment: Consultancy services for the preparation of Expanded Supervision Reports (XSR), also called Project Completion Reports, for Trade Finance Risk Participation Agreement (RPA) projects.

Brief description of the Assignment: The Expanded Supervision Report (XSR) is a standard one-time supervision report undertaken once a project reaches operating maturity or completion. The objective of the XSR is to assess the implementation experience and evaluate the result chain from inputs, outputs, outcomes and impacts while drawing lessons to enhance future projects. The assignment involves reviewing project documents, visiting clients to collect information about the performance of the project and subsequently producing a comprehensive report. However, given the current COVID19 pandemic context, discussions with clients will be done on virtual basis. The assignment will cover among others the followings areas: (i) implementation arrangements for the Project; (ii) Operational and financial performance of the project;

• Development impact assessment; (iv) Compliance with transaction eligibility criteria and adherence to the Exclusion List; (v) AfDB’s work quality; (vi) AfDB’s additionally (role and contribution); and (vii) Key issues and lessons learned, including recommendations.

Through this consultancy recruitment process, AfDB plans to identify and recruit three

(3) qualified consultants to undertake the preparation of XSRs for three (3) RPA projects.

Department issuing the request: Trade Finance Division, Financial Sector Development Department

Place of assignment:  Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Assignment involves virtual

Interaction with Clients located in European and Asian countries

Duration of the assignment: 15 working days per RPA project.

Tentative Date of commencement: 7 June 2021

Deadline for applications: 18 May 2021

Applications to be submitted by email to: [email protected]

You will find attached the Terms of Reference (TOR) indicating the scope of the assignment to be undertaken as well as the services required from the selected consultants. You are kindly requested to comment on the TOR for the proposed assignment, present your practical experience and updated Curriculum Vitae. You are also requested to present your financial proposal regarding the fees¹. Only the proposals scoring a mark of 70 points or more on a scale of 100 shall be considered for the assignment. All the consultants shall be ranked and the highest ranked consultant(s) shall be selected for the said assignment(s) given that his/her fees are within budget limits.

• Indicate daily or lump sumy fees, as the case may be.

The Consultants shall bear all his/her insurance and medical costs for the duration of his/her services.

Any questions and requests for clarification should be sent to: [email protected]

Terms of Reference (ToR)

Trade Finance Risk Participation Agreement (RPA) Project Expanded Supervision Report (XSR)

1. Introduction

1.1    The Trade Finance Risk Participation Agreement (RPA) is an unfunded guarantee product through which AfDB (the Bank) shares the credit risk (usually up to 50%) of a portfolio of eligible trade transactions with partner Confirming Banks (CBs), mainly global banks, African regional banks as well as regional development finance institutions active in trade finance. The Bank provides partial risk mitigation to these CBs for the risk they take on the trade finance activities of banks in Africa (issuing banks), especially letters of credit. The wholesale approach of RPA means that the Bank relies on these international banks to perform credit/risk analysis on the issuing banks, as well as originate, process and monitor the guaranteed transactions. AfDB classifies the partnership with each CB as a project, typically with a tenor of 3.5 years. The CBs submit a monthly report to the Bank with details of all guaranteed transactions. The Bank maintains a special database for recording and monitoring all accepted guaranteed transactions.

1.2    The purpose of this Assignment is to prepare XSRs for Trade Finance Risk Participation Agreement (RPA) projects. The XSR is a self-evaluation product representing the tail end of the project monitoring process. The preparation of XSRs for RPA projects is under the responsibility of the Manager, Trade Finance Division of the Financial Sector Development Department (PIFD).

2. Objective of the XSR

The objective of the XSR is to enable AfDB learn from its experiences, document the achievements/outcomes of the project compared to initial projections, and finally to identify and use the lessons learned to enhance future RPA projects.

3. Scope of evaluation

The XSR has two main parts: (i) a summary of the Project Supervision Report (PSR); and (ii) the self –Evaluation Findings. The PSR Section must present sufficient basic information on the project, its implementation and operating performance to facilitate evaluation .It should also include the “without Projects” counterfactual i.e; what would have happened if the Bank did not participate in the project. The evaluation will be based on the framework defined in the December 2011 “Revised Guidelines for the preparation of the Expanded Supervision Report and the Expanded Supervision Report Review Notes” (the Guidelines), a copy of which will be made available to the consultant.

The evaluation will cover the following four performance dimensions:

• Development outcome: This criterion assesses the impact of the project (direct / indirect) on the supply of trade finance in various countries or regions, and implicitly the extent to which the project has contributed to fulfilling the Bank’ mandate of economic development and poverty alleviation in regional member countries. It is a synthesis of the ratings of four sub-dimensions (i) Business Success – financial performance and fulfillment of project’s objectives; (ii) Economic sustainability; (iii) Adherence to AfDB and RPA Partners’ environmental and social policies, in particular on: (a) E&S screening and risk assessment in line with applicable policies; (ii) reporting on E&S risks. t; and (iv) Private Sector Development. The consultant will provide a rating for each of the four sub-sections and an overall development outcome rating. The development outcome rating is on a six-point scale while the ratings of the four sub-dimensions of the development outcome dimension are on a four-point scale.
• Bank’s Investment Profitability: For the Bank to be sustainable, the investments it makes must be profitable. This dimension assesses the extent to which the bank has realized or expects to realize over the remaining life of the project the income that was expected during appraisal.
• Bank’s Work Quality: This criterion assesses the operational performance of the Bank with respect to how well the Bank goes about its operations prior to project approval and during implementation. It reflects the contribution of the bank towards achievement of project outcomes, but this rating is independent of the rating of development outcome and the Bank’s investment outcome. The rating for the Banks ‘work quality is based on the ratings of the two sub-dimensions: (i) screening, appraisal, and structuring, which relates to the Bank’s performance in its front-end work (i.e. quality at entry); and (ii) monitoring, supervision and administration which refers to how well the Bank is executing its monitoring and supervision functions.
• Bank’s additionally: This assesses the Bank’s role and contribution especially focusing on what the Bank financing brings to the Project compared to other commercial financiers.

The consultants will pay particular attention to the pending issues that are identified after an initial review of available projects documentation.

The consultants shall use the following six value rating system to assess actual development outcome performance of the projects.

• Highly Successful (HS) ;
• Successful ;
• Mostly Successful (MS) ;
• Mostly Unsuccessful (MU) ;
• Unsuccessful (U) and ;
• Highly Unsuccessful (HU).

The performance of the project with respect to the evaluation of the sub-dimensions of development outcome and the other three dimensions ( AfDB’s Investment Outcome, Work Quality and Additionality) will be rated on the following four point rating scale on the basis of relevant indicators and benchmarks, the definitions of which are specific to the indicator and type of project :

• Highly Successful (S+) ;
• Satisfactory ( S) ;
• Unsatisfactory ( U) and ;
• Highly Unsatisfactory ( U-).

Issues relevant to the Bank and lessons learnt to improve future Bank’s operations shall be identified by the consultant. To assess how the Bank’s operations have evolved, lessons gained from previous evaluation assessments of other projects will also be reviewed. Lessons should be concise, prescriptive, transparent and operationally guided.  More specifically, the consultants are expected to analyze the information collected from project documents, discussions with project stakeholders and a field mission to the project company to:

• Determine the performance of AfDB and the project company with respect to achieving overall objectives set at project design;
• Evaluate the performance of the Bank and project company in the establishment of the project and in realization of contractual obligations by using the rating as described in the guidelines;
• Evaluate the achievements in qualitative and quantitative terms compared to the objectives set out in the appraisal report and to determine the impact of the project; and
• Evaluate the sustainability of economic, institutional and social impacts of the project.

4. Methodology for preparing the XSR

4.1.    The XSR assessment will be a combination of a desk review and a virtual mission.

4.2.   The desk review will consist of a review of existing project documents such as project appraisal report (PAR), supervision reports, project credit notes, the risk participation agreement, as well as analysis of data on the project extracted from the database system. This phase will also include information gathering via meetings with various staff of AfDB involved in the origination and implementation of the project.

4.3.   The virtual mission will include conference calls with confirming bank to gather more information on the actual implementation and performance of the project.

5. Deliverables, Feedback & Reporting

5.1.   After the virtual mission, the consultants will prepare a Back to Office Report (BTOR) and a draft XSR.

5.2.   A meeting will be held with staff of various divisions of the Bank to review the draft XSR. Thereafter the consultants would revise the document and produce the final XSR.

6. Resources (Team Composition) and Specific Tasks of the Consultants

6.1.   The joint team for this Assignment will consist of at least one staff member from the Trade Finance middle/back office in PIFD3 and the Consultants. The designated Bank staff (Task Manager) would oversee the work of the consultants.

6.2.     The specific tasks of the Consultants will include the following:

• Review background information of the project (appraisal report, risk participation agreement, project status reports, annual supervision reports etc.)
• Analyse the information collected from background documents, database extracts and findings from the virtual mission to:

o assess the performance of the Bank and the project partner (CB) with respect to the design of the project vis-a vis the defined objectives;

o evaluate the development outcomes of the project, including the impact on the availability of trade finance in various countries.

o  evaluate the operational and financial performance of the project;

o determine the lessons learnt and make recommendations that could be used to improve future projects.

• Prepare a draft report and present it to staff of the Department;

• Finalize the report by incorporating comments and feedback.

7. Duration of the Assignment

The estimated duration of the assignment per project is 15 working days.

Table 1: Assignment Schedule

8. Qualification and Experience required

The Consultants must have at least a master degree in Finance, Business administration, Economics or related discipline. They must have a minimum of five (5) years of professional experience in commercial banking with specific emphasis on trade finance and correspondent banking. The Consultant must be proficient in English, which is the working language of almost all the project partners. Knowledge of French is desirable. Prior experience in preparing project completion reports would be an advantage. The expression of interest to be submitted will be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:

• General qualification and suitability for the assignment (20%) ;
• Experience related to the assignment (60%) ;
• Experience with international development agencies or commercial banks (10%) ;
• Language capacity (5%) ;
• Experience in the region (5%).

9. Remuneration

The Consultants will be paid a daily fee or a lump sum in accordance with the Bank’s remuneration scale for Consultants taking into account the number of years of relevant experience.

Please attach your Curriculum Vitae based on the template below:

Annex 1: MODEL CURRICULUM VITAE (CV)

Title of the Assignment:

Department:

Surname:                                                                                                            First Name:

Birth Date:                                                                                                        Nationality:

Address:                                                                                                            Country:

Telephone:                                                                                                        E-mail:

Key Qualifications:

Please provide

(i) a summary of your experience and training highlighting the most relevant for the proposed assignment, and

(ii) the responsibilities, which you exercised. Utilise one half-page maximum.

Education (University Level and above only):

Professional Training:

Employment Record:

Begin with your most recent employment. For each job since your Master Degree achievement, please indicate:

• Name of the Employer
• Type of Activity/Business of the Employer
• Title / Function
• Place of Employment
• Brief Description (three lines maximum) of main accomplishments and responsibilities

Reference:

Please indicate the name and address of three persons with no family relationship with yourself, familiar with your character and titles.

I hereby certify that the responses which I provided above are all, to the best of my knowledge, true, complete and accurate. I acknowledge that an inaccurate statement or essential omission in a personal declaration or another document required by the African Development Bank might result in the rejection of my application, termination of my Contract or any other administrative sanction by the Bank. The African Development Bank may verify any statements which I made in this application.

Date: ____________

Signature: