Reference No; NBI/WRMD/C-17/01
The Nile Basin Initiative has received financing from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH toward the cost of the Transboundary Water Cooperation in the Nile Basin Project, and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services to develop the State of the River Nile Basin Report [SOB (2018)].
The State of Basin Report will be used to continuously monitor the state of the Nile Basin in terms of Nile River basin health and development, and the monitoring of policy response by member states, NBI and other regional actors
The primary objective of the assignment is to support the NBI Secretariat (Nile SEC) in developing the second State of the Nile River Basin Report. The SOB will be developed as a key tool in the NBI basin planning cycle, with the SoB Report providing the tool for monitoring the change in drivers, pressures, status of the basin with a purpose of identifying action areas that require policy action. The report The report will also monitor key policy response of member states and NBI in terms of interventions. These policy responses will initially be based on the high-level results framework of NBI. The report will need to be aligned as much as possible to existing reporting requirements of riparian countries under various regional and international commitments (such as Africa Agenda 2063, African Water Agenda, PIDA, SDGS, etc). It will be focused on the Nile Basin perspective which will require additional specific reporting themes and information, to be gathered from countries, NBI’s information and other globally available data. Part of the assignment is to develop, based on the experience of the SOB development process, a policy guidance document for the SOB reporting mechanism that will be followed also for the next rounds of reporting.
The SOB shall feed into enhanced shared understanding among riparian countries on the status of the basin, appreciated common risks/challenges and riparians’ drawn attention to priority actions for addressing emerging issues.

The assignment will include:
• Develop the final SOB (2018) document specifications that present the structure, detailed list of contents, themes and sub-themes, illustrations, data sources, analysis and key messages.
• Develop the set of reporting indicators that corresponds to the thematic configuration. The indicators should reflect well the NBI Strategy and other reporting requirements.
• Establish the baseline for the NBI Strategy (2027) high level results framework (“policy response variable”)
• Establish the baseline for the key drivers, pressure and status indicators to be monitored under the Nile River State of the Basin reports (SOBs).
• With NBI, collect and compile all the data and information required to develop the SOB (2018).
• Lead the technical analysis and analytic work to develop the contents (chapters, sections and parts) of the SOB report.
• Undertake the write up, drafting and preparation of the draft SOB document.
• Support the intensive consultation process envisaged for the SOB (2018) development process with the NBI member states and other RECs..
• Supervise the peer review of the final draft document.
• Supervise the graphic design of the SOB (2018) document.
• Finalize the SOB (2018); after editing, graphic design, and critical reviews.
• Summarize the agreed work-process into an NBI policy guidance document for developing SoB reports, as a basis for the future rounds of reporting.

The high-level outcome is a well-established Nile Basin Reporting Mechanism that meets the efficiency and sustainability criteria. The prime output of this exercise is a world-class Nile River State of the Basin Report; reliable, adaptable to new development, flexible in terms of the format and combination of pointers and flags, and accessible to all concerned parties. This assignment will be carried out over a period of 8 months and is expected to commence in January/February 2018. The final draft of the SOB will need to be ready for validation the Nile-COM in 6/2018. NBI has already held consultations with member states to define the indicative scope of the SoB and has various projects ongoing that will contribute information to the SoB process, so that the process is already ongoing. NBI has to this end established a Regional Experts Working Group with representatives from all countries. NBI has a dedicated team of staff members that will be assigned with part of their time to this process – in particular to support the organization of the consultations and information sharing process with the member states. The Nile Basin Initiative now invites eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services.

The shortlisting criteria are:
§ A minimum of Ten (10) years firm’s general experience in Transboundary Water Resources Planning and Management.
§ A minimum of Seven (7) years firm’s general experience in the design and development of river basin state of water and environment reports, monitoring and reporting, technical analyses and documentation.
§ A minimum of Five (5) years of firm’s general experience in development and preparation of comparable River Basin monitoring and reporting systems.
§ Proven experience of at least Five (5) years in developing basin monitoring and reporting indicators and baselines.
§ Relevant experience of the firm on at least Five (5) assignments with similar scope and complexity within the last 10 years.
§ Availability of appropriate skills/expertise among the consultant’s staff including water resource management in transboundary basins context, transboundary river basin monitoring and reporting, water security, energy/hydropower, river basin-wide agriculture and food security, environmental sustainability, transboundary water governance, and climate change *. Individual expert’s bio data is not required.*
§ Working experience in Sub Saharan Africa of at least one project during the last Five (5) years.
Consultants may associate with other firms in the form of a joint venture or a sub-consultancy to enhance their qualifications. Expressions of Interest must clearly indicate the type of association and the lead firm.
A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the QUALITY-AND COST-BASED SELECTION (QCBS) method set out in the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) Consultant Guidelines.

HOW TO APPLY:
Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours: Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 12:00 and from 14:00 to 17:00 Hours. Inquiries should be addressed to the attention of:
Procurement Specialist,
Nile Basin Initiative,
P.O Box 192, Entebbe, Uganda; Tel: +256 414 321 424; Fax: +256 414 320 971
Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form to the address below by e-mail, registered mail or hardcopy by 11th December 2017 at 10:00am (East African Time); the subject header of the email must be clearly marked as “Expression of Interest for Nile River State of the Basin (SOB) 2018”.
Attn: Eng. Innocent Ntabana, Executive Director
Nile Basin Initiative,
Plot 12, Mpigi Road,
P.O Box 192,
Entebbe, Uganda;
Tel: +256 414 321 424; Fax: +256 414 320 971
E-mail: nbisec@nilebasin.org and copy to: intabana@nilebasin.org; embonye@nilebasin.org and aseid@nilebasin.org