Establishment and coordination of the Migration and Remittances Peer-Assisted Learning network: terms of reference and request for expressions of interest

The Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank has been active in providing a range of live and virtual interactive programs to support the improvement of the environment of migrant workers within the former Soviet Union (FSU) states .    A series of video conference based dialogues between six CIS countries provided for dialogue with experts on best practices worldwide.   The series led to a study tour in the Philippines and a subsequent workshop for representatives from each of participating country in Moscow, and a new video conferencing series has recently been launched.  This time the series will also be focused on helping to establishment of the MiRPAL (Migration and Remittances Peer-Assisted Learning) network, a community of practitioners in this area located throughout the region.

The World Bank is now interested in identifying a firm (e.g. NGO, think tank etc) that would  serve as the secretariat supporting the establishment and operations of the MiRPAL network.  This selected firm will be expected to carry out the following tasks over the period of January 2010 – December 2012:

• Provide intellectual leadership to the MiRPAL community and to individual country participants to support the development of plans for reform of migration regimes at the level of the individual countries and for the initiation of new mechanisms to support migrant workers abroad.  These efforts will be based on the areas defined in the Protocol of Intention and Action Plan developed by participants at the migration and remittances workshop in Moscow in July 2009.
• Help community members to assess the validity of different approaches to reform that have been adopted by other countries and to help provide access to best practices approaches  and experts/peers involved in them.
• Support the development of the community by initiating and conducting live and virtual meetings and knowledge-sharing events intended to build collaboration between members.   It is expected that these activities will reflect demand from community participants.   (The selected firm may wish to subcontract out the organization and logistics of staging such events and can organize the event in a third country if needed.)
• Work to help initiate and build relationships and collaborations between community members  from different countries.

As an initial key task is for the firm oversee the organization of a workshop for approximately 60 potential network participants in March 2010.      This work will involve the identification of a suitable conference facility, arranging for lodging, transportation and catering.   The firm may contract out all or part of the responsibility of logistical and organizational matters.

Firms may bid in consortia with other firms from their own or from other countries.

The selected  firm will be responsible for these tasks for a three year period starting in December 2009.

The firm will be selected based on the following criteria:

• Significant knowledge of the migration and remittances theme in the country and region, and active participation at the country level in addressing migration-related issues.
• Ability to propose a well-defined strategy towards the MiRPAL network establishment and development.
• Experience in creating and coordinating communities of practice, in particular using online tools, will be a plus.
• Feasibility of a price quotation (Note: the budget for the March 2010 workshop will not be requested as part of the firms’ proposals and will be negotiated and finalized at a later stage).
• Fluency in Russian of the key staff and availability of staff proficient in English.

During the first stage of the selection, the World Bank is requesting interested firms to submit expressions of interest (in English language) consisting of the following information:

1. Name of the firm and the contact person. Firm’s contact information, including mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, email address.
2. Brief information about the firm (up to one page), including date of creation, management structure, key services, key projects, key clients, URL of the Web site.
3. One-paragraph explanation of why the firm will be able to successfully carry out the proposed assignment.

The expressions of interest should be emailed to Moscow@worldbank.org by November 30, 2009. Only shortlisted firms will be contacted and requested to submit more detailed proposals, including CVs of the key staff and price quotation. The selected firm is expected to be notified by December 15, 2009.