Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2022-05-20
Buyer: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Country: DE
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Competitive procedure with negotiation
CPV classification: 71313000: Environmental engineering consultancy services | 73220000 | 79411100 | 92534000 | 98910000
Estimated value: 488600 EUR
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The project COVID-19 emergency support to wildlife conservancies of the Maasai Mara region, Kenya contributes to integrated landscape protection in southern Kenya.
The Maasai Mara ecosystem is home to around a quarter of Kenya"s entire wildlife population and is world-renowned as one of the most important destinations for safari tourism. Some 70% of the animals live outside the Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) protected by the state. Conservation-based management of the neighbouring land, that is the property of local landowners, is crucial to national reserve and integrity of the ecosystem. The landowners on the periphery of the MMNR in Narok County therefore came together and introduced a conservation-based form of land use: they voluntarily offered their individual plots of land to form 16 wildlife conservancies.
The project provides COVID-19 emergency and recovery support to the 16 wildlife conservancies in the Maasai Mara region, which are not only one of the mainstays of Kenya"s tourism industry but are also particularly vulnerable. Funds from the COVID-19 emergency support project will stabilize the income of the Maasai communities, whose survival is largely dependent on income from the tourism sector and the lease payments to landowners that are financed through tourism.
The project objective is that wildlife conservancies as a land-use model in the Maasai Mara region emerge from COVID-19 crisis more sustainable, resilient and representative than before. The project has four outputs:
(i) the income of the conservancy bodies during the COVID-19 pandemic is stabilised (short-term emergency support),
(iv) State institutions at subnational (county) and national level are strengthened in fulfilling their mandate to support conservancies.
The project COVID-19 emergency support to wildlife conservancies of the Maasai Mara region, Kenya supports the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife (MoTW) in the implementation of the Kenyan Wildlife Policy 2020. The target group of the project is the 14,500 landowners who are part of the Maasai people and have made their land (or part of the land) available to form 16 wildlife conservancies in the areas surrounding the Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) managed by Narok County. The business model for conservancies is primarily based on income from tourism generated through cooperation with private tourism companies. This income is used to cover the operational costs of wildlife protection and the lease payments to the various landowners, which make up a large part of their livelihood. The wildlife conservancy model includes co-use of the areas for extensive and sustainable livestock farming (enshrined in management plans) and is therefore compatible with the traditional pastoralist land use practised by the Maasai people in the region.
In 2013, the conservancies formed a regional umbrella organization, Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies association (MMWCA), which in-turn is a member of the Kenya Conservancies Association (KWCA), the national umbrella organization.
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kenya"s tourism industry has been brought to a standstill since March 2020 resulting in severe financial losses for the conservancies. The umbrella organization MMWCA has set up a crisis group with involvement of various private donors and developed a COVID-19 crisis response strategy in order to support its member conservancies. This is based on (i) a Conservancy Operations Fund (OPEX) which provides subsidies to cover the minimum operational costs in the conservancies tied to conditions for strengthening governance, and (ii) a Lease Relief Fund, which provides the most advanced wildlife conservancies qualifying for loans with loan-based financing to cover 25% of the loss of lease income.
The project supports MMWCA through a grant agreement in order to absorb losses in lease payments and maintain operations in selected conservancies. As part of this support and the advisory services provided to the MoTW different short-term experts are requested by the contractor. The contractor is required to provide four international short-term experts to offer expertise and advisory services to the project and partners on:
(i) Organisational Development and Gender: directed to MMWCA and its member conservancies to support the implementation of governance improvement plans and the MMWCA gender strategy;
(ii) Business Development and Income Diversification: development of strategies for the diversification of income opportunities of wildlife conservancies in the Maasai Mara.
(iii) Conservation Policy and Finance, incl. Funds Management: provision of advice on the set-up of the Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund run by the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife (MoTW), taking into consideration of other funds established to cushion future shocks and strengthen resilience of conservancies;
(iv) Carbon markets in landscape management: Preparation of a feasibility study and developing a concept on setting-up a carbon credit scheme for the conservancies of the greater Mara region.
In addition, the contractor is required to provide the project with two pools of (i.) national/regional and (ii.) international short-term experts. Based on needs and requirements identified during project implementation, the project will prepare terms of references for each of the requested consultancy assignments. The contractor is responsible for the selection and identification of suitable international and regional/national short-term consultants. The pools of experts comprise of expertise in the following areas: organisational development, gender, youth employment, human rights and safeguards, tourism development, wildlife conservation and spatial planning, monitoring and evaluation, communication and campaigning, business development and income diversification, carbon market and others. More detailed information can be found in the terms of reference for this tender.


Winner: AMBERO Consulting Gesellschaft mbH
Award value: 488600
Number of bids: 1