Germany – Foreign economic-aid-related services – 7000000205-Technical Assistance and advice to the European Commission (DG INTPA and EU Delegations)

Opportunity description

By 2030, 582 million may remain chronically undernourished, and healthy diets could remain unaffordable for 2.8 billion people. Partner countries need strategic investments in food systems and early human capital development to meet rising environmental, social, and nutritional challenges. Tight resources threaten funding for nutrition-specific interventions; expected donor cuts risk reversing progress. A renewed strategic focus and coordination (Team Europe+) are essential. Council Conclusions on Food Security and Nutrition (Dec 2024) called for Global Gateway investments in value chains and corridors under a Team Europe approach. The EU"s 360-degree Global Gateway offers additional opportunities for nutrition by creating an enabling environment for sustainable and quality investments. The Multi-Donor Action "Capacity for Nutrition 2.0" (C4N 2.0) is jointly co-financed by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH as part of the BMZ Global Programme (GP) "Knowledge and Policy Coherence for Nutrition" (KPCN). C4N 2.0 contributes to the following overall objective: "To contribute to the transition to inclusive, climate-neutral, resilient and sustainable agri-aquatic food systems". The specific objective of C4N 2.0 is "to support the nutrition and gender sensitive transformation of agri-food systems". Good nutrition is a human rights marker and a driver of health, resilience, economic development and stability. Multiple crises and competing budgets jeopardize shifts toward efforts to transform agri-food systems to support healthy and sustainable diets. Effective nutrition requires multisectoral approaches and sustained investments across sectors. Strengthened nutrition governance will be essential for advancing nutrition integration, including a reinforced Team Europe approach and enhanced multistakeholder engagement and coordination. Ensuring sustainable, resilient, and healthy diets is critical to both improve nutrition and mitigate climate change. Climate change exacerbates all forms of malnutrition via reduced yields, damaged infrastructure and heightened disease susceptibility, while today"s food systems significantly drive climate change and environmental degradation. Healthy diets are key to poverty reduction and climate adaptation/mitigation. Achieving SDG 2 within planetary boundaries requires jointly addressing the food-nutrition security, climate and gender interlinkages. Implementation challenges include low political prioritization, capacity and investment gaps, and inadequate frameworks. C4N 2.0 addresses the nutrition-climate-gender nexus to drive food systems transformation for healthy, sustainable diets. Building on N4G momentum and the EUR6.5bn Team Europe pledge, C4N 2.0 promotes nutrition integration in global, regional and national agendas, supporting climate-smart, gender-transformative policies and interventions, including via Global Gateway blended finance investments. It strengthens the alliance between the European Commission and Germany, extending to EU member states and like-minded countries (Team Europe+) for greater coherence and efficiency in line with Global Gateway. This will be achieved through 4 mutually reinforcing outputs: Output 1: Positioning - Coherent and evidence-based positions on the Nutrition-climate-gender nexus are developed to promote healthy and sustainable diets in a Team Europe+ approach. Output 2: Advisory -Increased technical capacities of INTPA, EUDs and BMZ to scale up effective, equitable, sustainable, and resilient nutrition policy responses and outreach at global, regional, and national levels. Output 3: Country support - Improved technical and institutional capacities to implement evidence-based recommendations for integrated climate- and gender-sensitive nutrition action in (SUN) partner countries. Output 4: Stakeholder Engagement - Nutrition integration is supported through civil society organisations, think tanks and academia. These outputs will be implemented through tailored technical assistance (TA), capacity development (CD), grant mechanisms, and multilevel coordination with EU and BMZ partners. The Action builds on the achievements of the first C4N phase and leverages established networks in Senegal, Kenya, and Thailand as regional hubs. C4N 2.0 has a duration of 41 months (1 April 2026 to 31 August 2029). Tasks to be performed by the contractor Objectives, outputs and indicators: The contractor contributes to achieving the following objectives: - Overall: To contribute to the transition to inclusive, climate-neutral, resilient and sustainable agri-aquatic food systems - Specific: Support the nutrition- and gender-sensitive transformation of agri-food systems. Specific objective indicators: 1. Number of global/regional events where EC, Germany and other Team Europe+ present coherent positions on the nutrition-climate-gender nexus promoting healthy, sustainable diets. 2. Number of global policy processes in which EC, EUDs and Germany enhance nutrition integration (focus on the nutrition-climate-gender nexus) through TA or CD. The contractor mainly contributes to Output 1: Positioning - Coherent, evidence-based positions on the nutrition-climate-gender nexus developed to promote healthy, sustainable diets in a Team Europe+ approach. Indicator - 1.1: Number of briefing materials/policy documents for EC, Germany, and other EUMS+ based on data/evidence/indicators. Output 2: Advisory - Increased technical capacities of INTPA, EUDs and BMZ to scale effective, equitable, sustainable, and resilient nutrition policy responses and outreach at global, regional and national levels. Indicators: - 2.1 Average satisfaction score ?3/4 from INTPA and BMZ on technical advisory. - 2.2 Number of TA/CD measures to enhance INTPA/EUDs" capacities related to programmes (incl. Global Gateway investments and M&E) or policy processes in food and nutrition security. - 2.3 Six accountability-related reports produced. Implementation modality Demand-driven TA/CD (short- to medium-term), triggered by requests from EC DG INTPA and EUDs. The contractor provides Key Experts and an expert pool to implement activities under Outputs 1 and 2, supporting C4N 2.0 and commissioning partners (INTPA, EUDs). Mode of implementation: demand-driven technical assistance and capacity development (TA/DC), mostly of a short to medium-term nature, with assignments emanating from requests to KPCN/C4N 2.0 from the EC DG INTPA and EU delegations in partner countries. Contractors" main responsibility is the provision of key experts and an expert pool which will contribute to the implementation of the project"s activities across the outputs mentioned above.. Expert tasks (non-exhaustive) - Technical advice. - Human capacity development (e.g. design and delivery of trainings). - Desk research. - Knowledge products (case studies, situation analyses) and briefings. - Contributions to monitoring and reporting. - Support to internal team processes (e.g., workshops, planning). In addition, the consultancy services can be utilized for internal team processes such as workshops or planning sessions. Availability: Key Experts: available throughout the project on an ad-hoc, short-notice basis. Experts from the pool: available on demand; C4N 2.0 issues specific assignments; contractor identifies, deploys and ensures assignment quality. Assignments are demand-driven; tasks/deliverables may evolve within the overall scope. Examples of assignments: - Output 1: Drafting briefings; inputs to strategic documents on healthy and sustainable diets. - Output 2: Drafting accountability reports; support to INTPA"s engagement in international events/initiatives (e.g., N4G, SUN); technical/strategic advice to INTPA/EUDs on programme design. Personnel Six Key Experts (KE) will be mobilised to support INTPA and EUDs in nutrition and, more specifically, on the following topics support INTPA/EUDs in: - International governance (KE1). - Programme identification/formulation and nutrition integration across sectors and funding modalities (all KEs except KE4). - Accountability including financial resource tracking (KE4); M&E, nutrition surveys, data, evidence, epidemiology (KE3, KE2). - Investments/financing for nutrition under Global Gateway, including nutrition-sensitive value chains and healthy diets (KE5, KE6). Two expert pools complement Key Experts. Prior EU experience-ideally with EU nutrition advisory facilities-is essential. Prior experience with the EU, and ideally its nutrition advisory facilities, is of paramount importance for the experts to be mobilised by this contract. Expert assignment: - Contractor selects, prepares, steers experts; ensures accessibility for queries and effective information flow among GIZ, contractor staff and experts. - Ensures timely delivery and adherence to deadlines. - Ensures quality assurance of expert performance. - Manages adaptations to changing conditions. Expenditure management: - Manage costs/expenditures, accounting and invoicing per GIZ requirements. Monitoring and reporting: - Active role in results-based monitoring covering: implementation progress and financial monitoring. - Reports in English: Inception report (3 months after award); Annual interim reports; Final report at contract end. Backstopping: - Standard backstopping (costed in fees): responsibility for own staff; information flow; process-oriented technical/conceptual steering; performance monitoring; administrative management; compliance with reporting; technical support to field personnel; capturing/sharing lessons learned with GIZ. Data protection and information security GIZ General Terms and Conditions, sections 1.6 (Confidentiality) and 1.10 (Data protection and information security) apply. Other requirements Gender equality: formulate assignments with gender balance in mind. Team composition should be balanced by gender and age Environment and climate: integrate climate mitigation/adaptation and avoid negative environmental impacts. Conflict/context sensitivity and human rights: research context, assess risks, and avoid unintended negative impacts Security: in high-risk/fragile contexts, coordinate requirement coordinate with local RMO. Procedure: neg-w-call. Review the original TED notice for the complete requirement, lots, amendments and attachments.