INVITATION TO BID FOR CONSULTANCY:
TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR FISCAL SPACE ANALYSIS FOR SOMALIA/SOMALILAND
SCI Contracting Office: Save the Children Somalia/land Country Office
Period of Consultancy
The duration of this assignment is 3 Months. encompassing preparation of materials and resources, desk review, workshop facilitation, and development of the final report. Specific schedules will be agreed upon with the selected consultant/consultancy firm.
Consultant type required: Consultancy Firm
Responsibility for Logistics arrangements and Costs
Save the children will pay the consultant fee in a lump sum and will not reimburse any incurred costs during the assignment. The consultant will cover their own Logistical arrangements, costs; including food, accommodation, local transport, and all cost associated with data collection work and whole activities.
Taxation Provisions
The consultancy firm shall be responsible for all taxes arising from the consultancy in line with the local Tax regulations applicable at the SCI contracting office.
Travel requirements
The consultancy firm will cover all travel costs (tickets) and arrange local travel to field sites.
Security requirements
The consultancy firm will comply with standard of Save the Children Security procedures, including the completion of SCI online security training (applicable to international consultants) prior to travel to Somalia.
Professional quality and Expertise
The following are the minimum requirements for the Consultancy Firm to be considered for conducting the assignment.
Firm Experience (Mandatory)
- Comparable assignments: at least three (3) Similar (country level assignments) completed in the last 7-10 years, covering fiscal space analysis, DRM diagnostics, public expenditure reviews, or PFM assessments. Evidence: contracts or completion letters and client references.
- demonstrated experience in child-sensitive or social-sector public finance analysis (education, health, nutrition, protection), including budget analysis and the equity and efficiency of spending. Evidence: sample reports.
- experience in fiscal scenario modelling, financing gap analysis, and human capital ROI modelling. This includes investment case and costing methodologies that link spending to child outcomes, such as the World Bank Human Capital Project approach, sector costing, and simulation tools (for example One Health Tool and education simulation models), and cost-of-inaction analysis. Evidence: share at least one modelling output the firm delivered
- experience harmonizing fiscal data across authorities with different reporting cycles and building consolidated fiscal and financing databases.
- experience applying established methodologies, such as child budget analysis, child-sensitive expenditure tagging and tracking, and Save the Children’s public finance for children (PF4C) approach, including the “adequacy, equity, efficiency, effectiveness and transparency” lens.
- Experience in analyzing intragovernmental fiscal relations, on-budget and off-budget aid flows, and political economy dynamics.
- strong experience using desk review, KIIs, stakeholder mapping, budget and aid flow analysis, and validation workshops.
- a record of producing policy briefs, advocacy toolkits, and budget advocacy materials.
Contextual Experience (Mandatory)
- demonstrated experience in Somalia, Somaliland, or comparable federal and fragile contexts. This includes understanding the political and fiscal architecture, the federal-state relationship, and the political economy shaping revenue and budget decisions.
- existing relationships with, or demonstrated ability to access and coordinate with relevant ministries and parliamentary committees in Somalia/Somaliland
- demonstrated ability to work in fragile, conflict-affected, and access-constrained settings, with a security and risk management plan.
Team Requirements (Mandatory)
- Team Leader: a master’s degree or equivalent in economics, public finance, development economics, public policy, or a related field. At least 10 years of experience in fiscal policy, DRM, and public expenditure analysis, including as lead author of at least two fiscal space, PER, or DRM studies.
- Core team: at least three specialists, each with a relevant advanced degree and a minimum of 5 years of experience:
- a DRM and tax policy specialist
- a child-focused public finance specialist
- a fiscal modeler
- Somali language proficiency in the team, or local research coordinators in each of the three locations.
- strong English communication and report-writing skills, with facilitation experience.
- a demonstrated process for data quality assurance, validation, and peer review.
Understanding of Global benchmarks (Mandatory)
- Familiarity with global sector financing benchmarks: the Education 2030/Incheon targets (15-20% of public expenditure and 4-6% of GDP for education), the Abuja Declaration and Universal Health Coverage benchmarks for health, and ILO Recommendation No. 202 on social protection floors.
- Familiarity with budget transparency, participation, and oversight standards: the Open Budget Survey, GIFT principles, and OECD best practices.
- Experience integrating cross-cutting lenses: gender-responsive budgeting, disability-inclusive budgeting (CRPD Article 4), and climate-sensitive public finance (climate public expenditure reviews and tagging).
- compliance with Save the Children’s procurement, due diligence, and partner vetting requirements, with no history of sanctions, debarment, or conflict of interest.
- acceptance of Save the Children’s child safeguarding policy and code of conduct, and adherence to data protection and confidentiality requirements.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
The proposals submitted by consulting companies will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
Essential Criteria
Pass/Fail
The Bidder and its staff agree and Sign to comply with SCI policies embedded below at this ITB. The Bidder is to download below listed items, read, understand and sign off appropriate section in below.
Terms & Conditions of Bidding
Supplier Sustainability Policy and the included mandatory policies
Pass/Fail
- Nationally registered consultancies/firms must provide a valid Certificate of Registration issued by the relevant Ministry of Commerce of the Federal Republic of Somalia/Somaliland, or any Federal Member State.
- Internationally registered consultancies/firms must provide valid documentary evidence of business registration issued by authorized government authority, chamber of commerce, or other legally mandated registration body in their country of origin or country of operation.
Pass/Fail
Nationally registered consultancies/firms must provide a valid Tax Compliance Certificate (or equivalent tax clearance document) issued by the relevant Ministry of Finance, Revenue Authority, or other competent tax authority of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Somaliland, or any Federal Member State.
- Internationally registered consultancies/firms must provide a valid Tax Compliance Certificate, Tax Clearance Certificate, or equivalent document demonstrating compliance with tax obligations, issued by the authorized tax authority in their country of origin or country of operation.
Capability Criteria (Technical Evaluation):
Detailed technical proposal with clear understanding of the TOR and Methodology of how the consultant intends to conduct assignment with detailed work plan, clear milestones, methodologies, data analyses plan including any software to be used for analysis.
This to be evaluated based on:
- Overall quality, clarity, organization and relevance of the technical proposal document
- The level of work plan detail and how it is related to the proposed methodology
Two Copies of the previous similar reports relevant to the subject matter.
Submit official and genuine signed bank statement from 1st November 2025 to 31st October 2026.
Experience in conducting similar assignments related to the subject matter as proven experience. This to be evaluated based on:
- Prior experience of conducting similar assignments in political analysis or DRM/PFM (- Please provide at least two contracts
and/or LPOs - Two CVs for the proposed technical team detailing qualifications and experience
- Cover letter introducing the company, outlining their technical expertise and interest for the assignment including their technical suitability.
- Updated Company Profile (Optional)
Commercial Criteria (Financial Evaluation):
Detailed financial proposal with budget breakdown including all expenses, fees, and taxes.
Note: For the bid/proposal reviews and evaluations, a company must pass the essential criteria and score 60% and above on the capability to be considered in the next evaluation process and the ultimate decision will be based on interview performance
Application Procedure
- Interested consultant (s) who meet the consultancy requirements are requested to submit their bid and each application package should include the above required minimum requirements.
Applications can be submitted by:
Protected Email box below
- Email should be addressed to [email protected]
- Should you need any clarifications please direct your queries to [email protected] and expect responses within maximum of two working days.
- Note – this is a sealed tender box which will not be opened until the tender has closed. Therefore, do not send tender related questions to this email address as they will not be answered.
The subject of the email should be TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR FISCAL SPACE ANALYSIS FOR SOMALIA/SOMALILAND
- All attached documents should be clearly labelled so it is clear to understand what each file relates to.
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