*** See the attachments for the complete solicitation detail. ***

MCC has issued two amendments to this solicitation. Offerors must read and acknowledge all amendments in their quotes.

1. Overview of Tunisia Compact and Recruitment Opportunity

The Government of Tunisia has applied for grant funding from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, called a Compact.

MCC is a U.S. government agency focused on assisting countries dedicated to good governance, economic freedom, and investing in people. The proposed Compact tentatively includes an investment from MCC of approximately US $450 million to $500 million. The final compact is subject to negotiations and the approval of the MCC Board of Directors, and as such the final compact amount could be more or less than this estimated range.  The Compact consists of two primary projects: the Transport and Trade Project, which aims to focus on expanding and improving transport services and trade in Tunisia, and the Water Demand Management and Productivity Project, which aims to alleviate water scarcity to promote increased productivity in Tunisia’s interior regions.

The Transport and Trade Project will focus on reducing the time and costs related to maritime transport and logistics, primarily through the reduction of container offloading, handling, storage and cross border regulatory processing times at the Port of Rades. This will be complemented by efforts to reduce the cost of compliance with trade procedures and other regulatory requirements by simplifying and digitalizing government trade and transport requirements as well as expanding transport and logistics services. The project also includes a complementary activity to expand trade and access to markets by women-owned businesses.

The Water Demand Management and Productivity Project will increase water savings in targeted interior areas of Tunisia where inadequate and variable water supply is hindering sustainable private investment, particularly in agriculture, in the medium and long term and limited water supply is reducing the sustainability of such investments.  This will be done by supporting institutional and policy reforms for improved groundwater management and rehabilitation of public irrigated perimeters in four interior governorates: Kairouan and Sidi Bouzid in the center of Tunisia and Kebili and Tozeur in the south. The project will also support the development of agricultural cooperatives to introduce more productive and water efficient farming practices and technologies.  Finally, it will also aim to strengthen participation of women and youth in decision-making bodies governing use of water resources and create employment opportunities.

Although the scope of the Compact has not been finalized and some of the above activities are subject to change, in order to staff the Accountable Entity ("MCA-Tunisia", an entity created by the Government of Tunisia) that will administer this program on behalf of the Government, MCC is procuring a consultant to recruit a total of 13 positions (for a list of positions see Annex I and for nominal position descriptions see Annex II) filled by individuals who will be based in Tunis, Tunisia.. The consultant’s team would be responsible for the following activities:

• Ensure that the recruitment process is fair, transparent and competitive and in all respects meets MCC’s recruitment requirements;
• Develop a plan for ensuring that the recruitment efforts lead to the hiring of qualified, competent personnel, based on position descriptions approved by MCC;
• Develop, implement, and oversee all procedures and communications to solicit and engage qualified candidates for all positions, and to conduct a review and evaluation of application materials, candidate interviews, and supervise the process of selection of preferred candidates;
• Review profiles of selection panelists identified by the Government of Tunisia, develop conflict of interest disclosure forms and protocols for disclosure and/or recusal as necessary;
• Develop training materials and interview questions, documentation for selection panelists and then fully brief all selection panelists on interview protocol and responsibilities and train on effective interview techniques;
• Arrange for appropriate interview space, communications equipment, logistics, and any other equipment, tools, materials, and supervision needed for the work, in Tunis and off-site as necessary; and
• Provide documentation and access to all data from the applicant tracking system, as well as reports from the interview process to MCC. This will include, but is not limited to, information related to a candidate’s initial application, the shortlisting process, interviews and review panels, final selection, candidate notifications and negotiation as required.

2. Project Governance

The project will be managed and implemented by the consultant with direction from MCC, in close coordination with representatives from the Government of Tunisia, specifically those responsible for participating in interview panels.

The consultant will be responsible for staffing a team that will be able to:

• Supervise all aspects of project implementation; be responsible for project team communications, deliverables and reporting;
• Direct recruiting efforts for all positions, including the evaluation of candidate applications to derive a shortlist of candidates for interview using objective and documented criteria;
• Review and advise on all project deliverables and communications, serve as a main point of contact for MCC, candidates, selection panelists, and Government of Tunisia representatives;
• Develop and deliver training on interview techniques; support facilitation of interview and selection process; and
• Support in-country logistics, job advertisement placement in local media, and facilitation of interview and selection process.

Project Communication Protocols

To ensure timely delivery of relevant project implementation status information to project stakeholders, the parties will hold weekly coordination calls. In addition to the weekly calls, the consultant will summarize major status updates and provide them in an email to the project stakeholders listed above on a weekly basis by Thursday COB (Washington, DC time) in dashboard form with narrative updates. All operational updates and troubleshooting will occur between project stakeholders using available means of communications on an as-needed basis.