Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2025-02-05
Buyer: 81309881-Awareness raising and behaviour change activities related to food and nutrition security in Lebanon
Region: DEA22
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 71241000 | 71313000: Environmental engineering consultancy services | 77100000 | 79411100
Estimated value: 256129.04 EUR
Award criteria: price, quality

Technical requirements: According to Article 160, Section 3 of the German Act Against Restraint of Competition (GWB), application for review is not permissible insofar as
1. the applicant has identified the claimed infringement of the procurement rules before submitting the application for review and has not submitted a complaint to the contracting authority within a period of 10 calendar days; the expiry of the period pursuant to Article 134, Section 2 remains unaffected,
2. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that are evident in the tender notice are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for the application or by the deadline for the submission of bids, specified in the tender notice.
3. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that first become evident in the tender documents are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for application or by the deadline for the submission of bids,
4. more than 15 calendar days have expired since receipt of notification from the contracting authority that it is unwilling to redress the complaint.
Sentence 1 does not apply in the case of an application to determine the invalidity of the contract in accordance with Article 135, Section 1 (2). Article 134, Section 1, Sentence 2 remains unaffected.
Lebanon continues to face severe challenges such as an economic crisis causing food security to worsen and a financial crisis due to the constant depreciation of the Lebanese Lira exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic effects and the explosion in the Beirut port. Economic downturn and lost livelihoods are among the consequences of this multi-layered crisis that the Lebanese population is going through. Due to the value loss of the Lebanese Lira, imports have become so expensive that importing necessary inputs for food production is challenging putting food security at risk. Vulnerable households and municipalities are particularly affected by these issues. Moreover, and the hosting of the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, the repercussions of the Syrian conflict, coupled with the conflict in the region since October 7, 2023, have compounding Lebanon woes. According to IOM Lebanon Displacement Matrix in March 2024, this has resulted in the internal displacement of already 92 621 individuals, most of them finding shelter with relatives or friends or renting private accommodations, putting them in a fragile situation while being already in a challenging context.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC- https://www.ipcinfo.org/), approximately 1.4 million people, comprising Lebanese citizens and refugees, face alarming food insecurity, marked by malnutrition and inadequate food consumption. Over 800,000 Lebanese and 540 000 Syrian refugees fall into IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) or higher, necessitating urgent humanitarian intervention. Disturbingly, 59 000 Lebanese residents and 48 000 Syrian refugees are classified as IPC Phase 4 (Emergency), demanding immediate food assistance.  As mentioned above the crises facing by Lebanon have several roots and a constellation of direct and indirect consequences, at national as well at the regional levels. It is therefore of utmost importance that the most vulnerable are educated on how to reduce food expenditure while keeping a healthy diet using locally available foods and to uphold their nutritional health and wellbeing.

Within such context, the project Strengthening Agriculture, local Communities, and small and medium Enterprises (ACE) aims to strengthen economic stabilization and improve social cohesion. The project is categorized as part of the transitional development assistance, with a focus on food security and social stability. Up to 2026, ACE project will implement in the areas of Mount Lebanon, Chouff, Hasbaya and Southern Baalbek, through three areas of action:
1. Agriculture: Supporting farmers to form agricultural associations and to produce in accordance with market needs, including training and sharing of good agricultural practices, 
2. Accompanying micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), targeted promotion of income prospects with financial and capacity-building measures to promote entrepreneurial action and closing important gaps in the value chains,
3. Fostering local communities' capacities to act locally, throughout joint planning and implementation of low-threshold community initiatives both within civil society and together with local governments to strengthen positive intergroup experiences as well as increasing confidence in local capacity to act.
GIZ may optionally commission contract amendments and/or increases based on the criteria in the tender documents to the successful bidder of this tender. For details, please see the terms of reference.
Zur Ermittlung des wirtschaftlichsten Bieters wird hier von der Vergabestelle die erreichte Gesamtpunktzahl nach fachlicher Wertung eingetragen. Es werden nur Angebote mit einer fachlichen Bewertung von über 500 Punkten gewertet. Fachliche Angebote mit weniger Punkten scheiden als fachlich ungeeignet aus.
Integrated throughout the three areas of action mentioned above, to bridge the seasonal food insecurity, activities are implemented by ACE mainly in the form of food parcels distribution and multi-purpose cash assistance, accompanied by awareness/information sessions. Therefore, and to complement the activities organized so far, ACE project wants to collaborate with a Contractor to develop and implement strategic and measurably awareness raising, and behaviour change activities. Based on the offer of the project, the understanding of food and nutrition security includes also sustainable food production and farming as well as renewable energy, all together focusing on using products locally available and produced.
The Contractor will primarily be commissioned to map actors and to assess initiatives/needs in awareness raising and behaviour change activities, improving food and nutrition security of the vulnerable (Working Package 1).

It will enable the project to strengthen its approaches, as well as to identify and address the key change makers for informed behaviour change mainly but not limited to the fields mentioned above, allowing the use of various tools (Working package 2).   

The Contractor will also be requested to implement awareness raising activities about the importance of food and nutrition security, among the local rural communities identified (the project regions) with a potential emphasis on young children, pregnant and lactating women (Working Package 3). 

Key activities

A specific focus will be given to the rural and most vulnerable households of ACE four project regions, including but not limited to young child, pregnant and lactating women. 

Considering that to be well informed and create change behaviour, the process designed will need to be community inclusive and sustainable. In that sense, the intervention will be based on an Actor of Change structure (to be determined). 

Major activities: 

1. Situational analysis and mapping of actors;
2. Development of awareness raising, and behaviour change approach;
3. Design awareness and behaviour change activities, including communication messages and appropriate communication channels;
4. Roll out and monitoring;
5. Evaluation and dissemination of impact.

It will be required to the Contractor to monitor and evaluate the impact of these awareness raising and behavioural change activities, as planned and from the initial situation. 
Looking at the sustainability of the intervention, steps to be followed, to disseminate the impact and to scale up activities at larger scale, will be identified by knowledge sharing processes.


Winner: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Award value: 256129.04
Number of bids: 4