Request for Proposals (RfP) Title:Distribution of mobile improved cooking stoves in seven Districts of Eastern Province of Rwanda

IUCN Rwanda Country Office RfP Reference: IUCN-2025-07-P03168-08 

Welcome to this Procurement by IUCN. You are hereby invited to submit a Proposal. Please read theinformation and instructions carefully because non-compliance with the instructions may result indisqualification of your Proposal from this Procurement.

1. REQUIREMENTS 

1.1. A detailed description of the services and/or goods to be provided can be found in Attachment 1. 

2. CONTACT DETAILS 

2.1. During the course of this procurement, i.e. from the publication of this RfP to the award of a contract, you may not discuss this procurement with any IUCN employee or representative other than the following contact. You must address all correspondence and questions to the contact, including your proposal. 

IUCN Contact: tenders.rwanda@iucn.org 

3. PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE 

3.1. This timetable is indicative and may be changed by IUCN at any time. If IUCN decides that changes to any of the deadlines are necessary, we will contact you. 

DATE	ACTIVITY
12 September 2025	Publication of the Request for Proposals
NA	Deadline for confirmation of intention to bid
18 September 2025	Deadline for submission of questions
23 September 2025	Planned publication of responses to questions
10 October 2025	Deadline for submission of proposals to IUCN (“Submission Deadline”)
15 October 2025	Clarification of proposals
22 October 2025	Interviews / site visits / presentations
30 October 2025	Planned date for contract award
30 October 2025	Expected contract start date

3.2. Please email the IUCN contact to confirm whether or not you are intending to submit a proposal by the deadline stated above. 

4. COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL 

4.1. Your Proposal must consist of the following three documents: 

• Signed Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2) 
• Technical Proposal (see Section 4.4 below) 
• Financial Proposal (see Section 4.5 below) Proposals must be prepared in English. 

4.2. Your Proposal must be submitted by email to the IUCN Contact (see Section 2). The subject heading of the email shall be [IUCN-2025-07-P03168-08 – Bidder name]. The bidder’s name is the name of the company/organisation on whose behalf you are submitting the proposal, or your own surname if you are bidding as a self-employed consultant. Your proposal must be submitted in PDF format. You may submit multiple emails suitably annotated, e.g. Email 1 of 3, if attached files are too large to suit a single email transmission. You may not submit your Proposal by uploading it to a file-sharing tool. 

IMPORTANT: Submitted documents must be password-protected so that they cannot be opened and read before the submission deadline. Please use the same password for all submitted documents. After the deadline has passed and within 12 hours, please send the password to the IUCN Contact. This will ensure a secure bid submission and opening process. Please DO NOT email the password before the deadline for Proposal submission.

4.3. Pre-Qualification Criteria 

IUCN will use the following Pre-Qualification Criteria to determine whether you have the capacity to provide the required goods and/or services to IUCN. Please provide the necessary information in a single, separate document.

1. The stove must be Made in Rwanda and having a unique serial identifying number or code provided by the supplier, with image / drawings. 
2. The stove must be mobile, appropriately sized for an average household, and designed to use fuelwood as the primary fuel. 
3. It should feature an insulating interior and a durable external metallic structure to improve heat retention and safety 
4. With a laboratory thermal efficiency superior or equal to 34% (item1) and 39% (item2); with CO (g/MJ) equal or below 7.2 and PM2.5 (mg/MJ) equal or below 218 to be proven by a testing report from RSB 
5. The stove must be covered by a minimum 12-month warranty, including parts and labour for manufacturer defects. 
6. A commitment letter must be submitted affirming that the stoves distributed under TREPA will not be used to claim carbon credits and that the offered price excludes any carbon finance support. 
7. The supplier must have completed similar work of supplying ICS within a reputable organization and having supplied ICS of at least 100,000,000 Rwf 
8. For the technology 2: Provided with:

• 2 cooking pots of different size + adaptor: the adaptor must be fixed on the stove or removable but have to be adapted to the size of provided pots, to avoid energy loss and maximize the transmission of the energy to the pots. The bidder has to present clear picture and drawing explaining this pot and adapter design, clearly demonstrating the energy optimization. Without clear demonstration, the proposed stove might be rejected. 
• Heat retainer box: this has to be a box designed for heat retention, where the hot pot at the end of cooking can be transfer to this box for heat retention/continued cooking. The bidder has to present clear picture and drawing clearly demonstrating that box can accommodate each of the provided 2 pots, while providing a certificate proving the heat retention capacity of the box. Without clear demonstration, the proposed equipment might be rejected. 

4.4. Technical Proposal 

The technical proposal must address each of the criteria stated below explicitly and separately, quoting the relevant criteria reference number (left-hand column). 

Proposals in any other format will significantly increase the time it takes to evaluate, and such Proposals may therefore be rejected at IUCN’s discretion. 

Where CVs are requested, these must be of the individuals who will actually carry out the work specified. The individuals you put forward may only be substituted with IUCN’s approval. 

IUCN will evaluate technical proposals with regards to each of the following criteria and their relative importance: 

Description	Information to provide	Marks
1	Requirement 1:  (Thermal  efficiency:) As defined in the ToR	State the efficiency of the proposed stoves (technology 1 and technology 2) as a percentage with Rwanda Standard  Board Certificate.	40  the score out of 40 will be calculated as follow: 20+ 20*(Eff-30)/10. For stove of more than 40% (technology 1) or 44% (technology 2) efficiency the score will remain 40 out of 40  coring Breakdown calculated Technology 1  Technology 2  Efficiency Marks Efficiency Marks  34  28  39  30  35  30  40  32  36  32  41  34  37  34  42  36  38  36  43  38  39  38  44  40  40  40  45  40  41  40  46  40  42  40  47  40
2	Requirement 2:  (Carbon monoxide CO, g/MJ)	RSB ICS test report	20
3	Requirement 3  (Particulate  Matter, PM2,5 mg/MJ)	RSB ICS test report	20
4	Requirement 4 (Description of ICS and  Distribution Strategy methodology)	The physical description of the ICS with picture and the Proposed supply methodology detailing the process of distribution of Improved Cooking Stoves (ICS) in the Eastern Province y -Clear demonstration of  ICS production materials 10 Marks -Distribution strategy 5 marks -Local authorities and community engagement  approach 5 marks	20
TOTAL			100

Note: Seven top bidders will be selected to supply ICS of technology 1 in seven Districts. The bidders will be selected based on both financial and technical proposals while the three top bidders will be selected to supply ICS of technology 2 in Seven Districts. Only bidders meeting the required technical specifications will be considered for financial analysis. If the project receives a smaller number of required bidders for each technology, the bidders meeting the requirements will need to supply the total required ICS equitably.

4.5. Financial Proposal 

4.5.1. The financial proposal will include a fixed and firm price per stove (one for each type).The volume bought from each vendor will be determined during contract award. Prices include all costs 

Submitted rates and prices are deemed to include all costs, insurances, taxes (except VAT, see below), fees, expenses, liabilities, obligations, risk and other things necessary for the performance of the Terms of Reference or Specification of Requirements. IUCN will not accept charges beyond those clearly stated in the Financial Proposal. This includes applicable withholding taxes and similar. It is your responsibility to determine whether such taxes apply to your organisation and to include them in your financial offer. 

4.5.2. Applicable Goods and Services Taxes 

Proposal rates and prices shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax. 

4.5.3. Currency of proposed rates and prices 

All rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in RWF

4.5.4. Breakdown of rates and prices 

For information only, the price needs to be broken down as follows: 

	Description				Quantity	Unit Price	Total Price
1	Technology stoves	1:	lower	efficient	12,000
2	Technology stoves	2:	highly	efficient	1,285
	TOTAL

Note: The tender intends to attract multiple suppliers to distribute high efficient stoves in seven districts of eastern province. 

4.6. Additional information not requested by IUCN should not be included in your Proposal and will not be taken into account in the evaluation. 

4.7. Your proposal must remain valid and capable of acceptance by IUCN for a period of 90 calendar days following the submission deadline. 

4.8. Withdrawals and Changes 

You may freely withdraw or change your proposal at any time prior to the submission deadline by written notice to the IUCN Contact. However, in order to reduce the risk of fraud, no changes or withdrawals will be accepted after the submission deadline. 

5. EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS 

5.1. Completeness 

IUCN will firstly check your proposal for completeness. Incomplete proposals will not be considered further. 

5.2. Pre-Qualification Criteria 

Only Proposals that meet all of the pre-qualification criteria will be evaluated. 

5.3. Technical Evaluation 

5.3.1. Scoring Method 

Your proposal will be assigned a score from 0 to 10 for each of the technical evaluation criteria, such that ‘0’ is low and ‘10’ is high. 

5.3.2. Minimum Quality Thresholds 

Proposals that receive a score of ‘0’ for any of the criteria will not be considered further. 

5.3.3. Technical Score 

Your score for each technical evaluation criterion will be multiplied with the respective relative weight (see Section 4.4) and these weighted scores added together to give your proposal’s overall technical score. 

5.4. Financial Evaluation and Financial Scores 

The financial evaluation will be based upon the full total price you submit. Your financial proposal will receive a score calculated by dividing the lowest financial proposal that has passed the minimum quality thresholds (see Section 5.2.2) by the total price of your financial proposal. 

Thus, for example, if your financial proposal is for a total of CHF 100 and the lowest financial proposal is CHF 80, you will receive a financial score of 80/100 = 80% 

5.5. Total Score

Your proposal’s total score will be calculated as the weighted sum of your technical score and your financial score. 

The relative weights will be: 

Technical:70% 

Financial: 30% 

Thus, for example, if your technical score is 83% and your financial score is 77%, you will receive a total score of 83 * 70% + 77 * 30% = 58.1% + 23.1% = 81.2%. 

Subject to the requirements in Sections 4 and 7, IUCN will award the contracts to the bidders whose proposals achieve the highest total score. The distribution will be awarded to a maximum of 7 vendors.

6. EXPLANATION OF PROCUREMENT PROCEDURE 

6.1. IUCN is an open procedure for this procurement. This means that the contracting opportunity is published on IUCN’s website and open to all interested parties to take part, subject to the conditions in Section 7 below.

6.2. You are welcome to ask questions or seek clarification regarding this procurement. Please email the IUCN Contact (see Section 2), taking note of the deadline for submission of questions in Section 3.1.

6.3. All proposals must be received by the submission deadline in Section 3.1 above. Late proposals will not be considered. All proposals received by the submission deadline will be evaluated by a team of two or more evaluators in accordance with the evaluation criteria stated in in this RfP. No other criteria will be used to evaluate proposals. The contract will be awarded 

to the bidder whose proposal received the highest Total Score. IUCN does, however, reserve the right to cancel the procurement and not award a contract at all. 

6.4. IUCN will contact the bidder with the highest-scoring proposal to finalise the contract. We will contact unsuccessful bidders after the contract has been awarded and provide detailed feedback. The timetable in Section 3.1 gives an estimate of when we expect to have completed the contract award, but this date may change depending on how long the evaluation of proposals takes. 

7. CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION IN THIS PROCUREMENT 

7.1. To participate in this procurement, you are required to submit a proposal, which fully complies with the instructions in this RfP and the Attachments. 

7.1.1. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted a complete and fully compliant proposal. 

7.1.2. Any incomplete or incorrectly completed proposal submission may be deemed noncompliant, and as a result you may be unable to proceed further in the procurement process. 

7.1.3. IUCN will query any obvious clerical errors in your proposal and may, at IUCN’s sole discretion, allow you to correct these, but only if doing so could not be perceived as giving you an unfair advantage. 

7.2. In order to participate in this procurement, you must meet the following conditions: 

• Free of conflicts of interest 
• Registered on the relevant professional or trade register of the country in which you are established (or resident, if self-employed) 
• In full compliance with your obligations relating to payment of social security contributions and of all applicable taxes 
• Not been convicted of failing to comply with environmental regulatory requirements or other legal requirements relating to sustainability and environmental protection 
• Not bankrupt or being wound up 
• Never been guilty of an offence concerning your professional conduct 
• Not involved in fraud, corruption, a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism, or any other illegal activity. 

7.3 You must complete and sign the Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2) 

7.4. If you are participating in this procurement as a member of a joint venture, or are using subcontractors, submit a separate Declaration of Undertaking for each member of the joint venture and sub-contractor, and be clear in your proposal which parts of the goods/services are provided by each partner or sub-contractor. 

7.5. Each bidder shall submit only one proposal, either individually or as a partner in a joint venture. In case of joint venture, one company shall not be allowed to participate in two different joint ventures in the same procurement nor shall a company be allowed to submit a proposal both on its behalf and as part of a joint venture for the same procurement. A bidder who submits or participates in more than one proposal (other than as a subcontractor or in cases of alternatives that have been permitted or requested) shall cause all the proposals with the bidder’s participation to be disqualified. 

7.6. By taking part in this procurement, you accept the conditions set out in this RfP, including the following: 

• It is unacceptable to give or offer any gift or consideration to an employee or other representative of IUCN as a reward or inducement in relation to the awarding of a contract. Such action will give IUCN the right to exclude you from this and any future procurements, and to terminate any contract that may have been signed with you. 
• Any attempt to obtain information from an employee or other representative of IUCN concerning another bidder will result in disqualification. 
• Any price fixing or collusion with other bidders in relation to this procurement shall give IUCN the right to exclude you and any other involved bidder(s) from this and any future procurements and may constitute a criminal offence. 

8. CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION 

8.1. IUCN follows the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The information you submit to IUCN as part of this procurement will be treated as confidential and shared only as required to evaluate your proposal in line with the procedure explained in this RfP, and for the maintenance of a clear audit trail. For audit purposes, IUCN is required to retain your proposal in its entirety for 10 years after the end of the resulting contract and make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when requested. 

8.2. In the Declaration of Undertaking (Attachment 2) you need to give IUCN express permission to use the information you submit in this way, including personal data that forms part of your proposal. Where you include personal data of your employees (e.g. CVs) in your proposal, you need to have written permission from those individuals to share this information with IUCN, and for IUCN to use this information as indicated in 8.1. Without these permissions, IUCN will not be able to consider your proposal. 

9. COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE 

If you have a complaint or concern regarding the propriety of how a competitive process is or has been executed, then please contact procurement@iucn.org . Such complaints or concerns will be treated as confidential and are not considered in breach of the above restrictions on communication (Section 2.1).

10. CONTRACT 

 The contract will be based on IUCN’s template in Attachment 3, the terms of which are not negotiable. They may, however, be amended by IUCN to reflect particular requirements from the donor funding this particular procurement. 

11. ABOUT IUCN 

IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. 

Headquartered in Switzerland, IUCN Secretariat comprises around 1,000 staff with offices in more than 50 countries. 

Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,300 Member organisations and some 10,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards. 

IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development. 

Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well-being. www.iucn.org

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ATTACHMENTS 

Attachment 1 Specification of Requirements / Terms of Reference 

Attachment 2 Declaration of Undertaking (select 2a for companies or 2b for self-employed as applicable to you) 

Notice: Final statement_of_requirements and other documents related to this consultancy should be found:

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