IUCN:
Request for Proposals (RfP)
Provision of Multimedia Production Services to International Union Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – ESARO.
IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, (ESARO)
RfP Reference: IUCN-26-01-P04216-01
Welcome to this Procurement by IUCN. You are hereby invited to submit a Proposal. Please read the information and instructions carefully because non-compliance with the instructions may result in disqualification of your Proposal from this Procurement.
IUCN intends to establish a Long-Term Agreement (LTA) with the successful bidder resulting from this RfP for an initial period of two years with the option to extend for one additional year, subject to satisfactory performance.
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: dennis.mugera@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 publish this on our website and contact you directly if you have indicated your interest in this procurement (see Section 3.2).
DATE ACTIVITY
13th February 2026 Publication of the Request for Proposals
18th February 2026 Deadline for expressions of interest
18th February 2026 Virtual Pre-submission meeting
20th February 2026 Deadline for submission of questions
24th February 2026 Planned publication of responses to questions
13th March 2026 Deadline for submission of Proposals to IUCN (“Submission Deadline”)
17th March 2026 Clarification of Proposals
N/A Interviews / site visits / presentations
20th March 2026 Planned date for contract award
23rd March 2026 Expected contract start date
3.2. Please email the IUCN contact to express your interest in submitting a Proposal by the deadline stated above. This will help IUCN to keep you updated regarding the procurement.
3.3. Pre-bid meeting will be held virtually via Microsoft teams on Tuesday, 18th February 2026 at 10:00 AM, Kenya Time. Bidders to confirm participation by sending their email addresses together with any queries prior to the pre bid meeting.
The selected consultant(s) will be required to provide video production and related services across countries within the IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) mandate. Bidders may submit proposals for all ESARO countries or for a selected number of countries, based on their operational capacity and experience.
4. COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL
4.1. Your Proposal must consist of the following four separate documents:
• Signed Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2)
• Pre-Qualification Information (see Section 4.3 below)
• 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 [RfP Reference – bidder name]. The bidder 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.
Pre-Qualification Criteria
1 3 relevant references of clients similar to IUCN / similar work
2 Confirm that you have all the necessary legal registrations to perform the work
3 State your annual turnover for each of the past 3 years
4 How many employees does your organisation have who are qualified for this work?
5 The Long-Term Agreement (LTA) award will be made on a per-country basis, and bidders must clearly indicate the country or countries for which they are submitting a bid. Work orders will be issued by country, and no minimum volume of work is guaranteed under the LTA. Failure to clearly indicate selected countries may result in disqualification.
No ESARO Country Tick
1 COMOROS ☐
2 ETHIOPIA ☐
3 KENYA ☐
4 LESOTHO ☐
5 MADAGASCAR ☐
6 MALAWI ☐
7 MAURITIUS ☐
8 MOZAMBIQUE ☐
9 NAMIBIA ☐
10 RWANDA ☐
11 SEYCHELLES ☐
12 SOUTH AFRICA ☐
13 TANZANIA ☐
14 UGANDA ☐
15 ZAMBIA ☐
16 ZIMBABWE ☐
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 - Relative weight
1 Organizational Capacity - 30
Information to provide
1.1 Details of relevant experience (provided by work portfolio and samples) 10marks
1.2 list of clients in the last five years, including contact details of three clients who can be used as reference. Reference letters must be addressed to IUCN. 5marks
1.3 Financial statement and balance sheet (audited preferably) for the last three years. 5marks
1.4 Description of Equipment’s, software, production capabilities
10marks
2 Quality of The Technical Proposal - 30
Information to provide
2.1 Proposed approach with reference to the scope of work in the TOR, outlining how the agency will undertake and deliver the required services for various assignments, ensuring confirmation that the agency can meet the required methodology and expectations as outlined. 20marks
2.2 Anticipated project risks and mitigation measures as well as quality assurance. 10marks
3 Key Personnel - 40
Information to provide
3.1 Names and resumes/CVs of the personnel that will be directly involved in assignments, including (but not limited to) the designated team leader/ project manager. (Please attach CVs and the copies of certificates) 20marks
3.2 Adequate and appropriate staff combination in relation to the respective tasks and deliverables (see TOR) and relevant prior experience of similar scope and complexity. (Attach evidence) 20marks
TOTAL100%
NB:
IUCN reserves the right to contract one or more firms to serve the different countries.
4.5. Financial Proposal
4.5.1. The Financial Proposal must consist of the fixed and firm unit prices in table 4.5.5 below for the provision of the goods/services stated in the RfP in their entirety.
4.5.2. 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 Proposal.
4.5.3. Applicable Goods and Services Taxes Proposal rates and prices shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax.
4.5.4. Currency of proposed rates and prices All rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in [USD].
4.5.5. Breakdown of rates and prices. For information only, the price needs to be broken down as follows:
PROFESSIONAL FEES
Description Unit of measurement Unit Cost
Concept development 1 Lot
Short videos (with storyline) up Per video
to 5 min
Short videos (with storyline) up Per video
to 10 min
Caption videos for up to 3 min Per video
Filming/ video coverage of the Per video
events up to 3 hrs
Documentary Per documentary
Teasers – 30 – 60 seconds Per
Final project coverage – Lot
compilation – 10mins
Thematic photo packages up to Lot
25 photos
Photography coverage of the Day
events up to 75 photos
High-end studio photography up Lot
to 75 photos
Reels (IG format) up to 1 minute Lot
NB: Prices should be inclusive of equipment and consultancy fees. A detailed breakdown of the costs should be provided.
Work orders will be issued as per the prices indicated above. Logistical costs will be managed as per IUCN travel policy. The number of days required to complete an assignment will be agreed upon before a work order is issued.
4.6. Additional information not requested by IUCN should not be included in your Proposal and will not be considered 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 an estimate of the total price you offer for the service. For the purpose of evaluation only, IUCN will estimate likely volumes of the different services based on the past 2 years and multiply these by the unit costs you submit in your financial proposal. Your Financial Proposal will receive a score calculated by dividing the lowest Financial Proposal that has passed the minimum quality thresholds (see Section 5.3.2) 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 contract to the bidder whose Proposal achieves the highest total score.
6. EXPLANATION OF PROCUREMENT PROCEDURE
6.1. IUCN is using the 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 evaluators in accordance with the evaluation criteria stated 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 then 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
https://twitter.com/IUCN/
12. 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)
Terms of Reference for Consultancy
Title: Provision of Multimedia Production Services to International Union Conservation of Nature (IUCN ) – ESARO.
Objective of the Consultancy
This objectives of the LTA are to:
1. Deliver broadcast-quality films and documentaries aligned with IUCN’s conservation priorities.
2. Ensure consistency, quality, and efficiency across multi-country productions.
3. Build a reusable, high-quality audiovisual asset library.
4. Enable consolidation of national outputs into coherent regional and global narratives.
5. Achieve cost predictability and operational flexibility through LTAs.
6. Script development.
7. Permits acquisition, Filming / shooting.
8. Post-production and editing and dissemination.
Background
Project Reference: P04216
Donor reference: 04216.33
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.
Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,400 Member organisations and around 15,000 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.
About the Project
As part of its visibility strategy, IUCN is commissioning a series of high-quality films and documentaries across multiple countries. These productions will communicate conservation impact, elevate local and regional narratives, support advocacy and donor reporting, and strengthen IUCN’s global communications. To ensure consistency, quality, and timely delivery across multiple countries, IUCN seeks to establish Long-Term Agreements (LTAs) with qualified multimedia production companies in different countries. These companies will produce films at national or regional level, while a Master Production Company will later consolidate selected outputs into final regional or global products.
Description of the Assignment
The service provider will be engaged to produce multimedia content for various assignments, including photography, videography, graphic design and motion graphics.
The services required for photography include the following:
• Visual documentation in digital original format of various subject matter, in accordance with IUCN priorities, in order to produce communication and advocacy material to be used across various platforms. Coverage may include professional photojournalism/documentary coverage of IUCN supported programmes and visual storytelling focused on the life and experiences of an individual subject.
• Professional photo coverage of events and activities, as needed.
• Submission of fully edited and ready-to-use photos, including captions in English – as agreed for the specific assignment.
The services required for videography will be broad and cover a wide range of media applications. These will include but are not limited to:
• Creative direction and production of a range of video/audio material, including script writing and storyboard development, that will be used by IUCN on various platforms, including website, social media platforms and television. Coverage may include professional
• documentary coverage of IUCN supported programmes and visual storytelling focused on the life and experiences of an individual subject.
• Professional video coverage of events and activities, as needed.
• Provision of relevant stock footage as needed.
• Submission of fully edited and ready-to-use video material as required or agreed for the specific assignment.
Application link; https://reliefweb.int/job/4198712/provision-multimedia-production-services-international-union-conservation-nature-iucn-esaro
