Request for Proposal for Services (RFPS) – for the provision of Giga Connectivity Cost Tool Services for the establishment of Institutional Contract

UNICEF has now issued a Request for Proposals in order to select a supplier for the provision of Giga Connectivity Cost Tool Services. Background Underpinning nearly all of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Giga seeks to connect every school to meaningful internet and give every young person access to information, opportunity, and choice. The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented education crisis with school closures peaking at 188 countries. This situation motivated many Governments to devise and implement alternative ways to provide continuous education using technologies such as Internet, TV, and radio. Even before the COVID-19 disruption to education, it was evident students require access to internet in order to become computer literate, undertake research, and have access to the digital world and to markets beyond their communities. According to the ITU, ~40% of people in the world do not have internet access, and by extension, unconnected to digital products and services that could dramatically improve their lives. Approximately 29% of 18-24 year-olds, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa, do not have digital access (~360m people) and thereby lack access to the same information, opportunity and choice as their more-connected peers. Unless things change, a big part of this rapidly growing group of young people is in danger of being left behind, excluded from the modern digital world. Giga combines UNICEF’s focus on children and education with ITU’s experience in connectivity policy, to ensure that every school in the world has access to the internet – and every young person has access to information, opportunity, and choice. In addition to connecting the more than 1 billion students that Giga is aiming to serve through their primary and secondary schools, last mile infrastructure can also be used to allow for other public (and private) growth of internet access. This tender will be run through the UNICEF e-submissions system. By clicking on the blue ‘Express Interest’ button in the UNGM tender notice, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document (including instructions on how to access the tender documents and submit an Offer) will be automatically emailed to the ‘contact persons’ included in your UNGM registration. Alternatively, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document is publicly available on the UNICEF supply internet pages here: https://www.unicef.org/supply/index_procurement_policies.html . In the tender management site, if you navigate to the documents tab and opt in to confirm your intention to submit a Bid – you will then see the mandatory placeholders for documents that must be attached prior to submitting your Offer (you will also see if there are any mandatory questionnaires to complete). As such, you are recommended to `opt in` well before the submission deadline so you are clear exactly what documents are required to be uploaded prior to completing your submission. Please note that in order to access the tender documentation through UNICEF’s e-submissions system, vendors must: (i) be registered with UNICEF in UNGM as a company/NGO; (ii) have successfully completed all mandatory information currently required by UNGM when registering. Please ensure that any files submitted as part of your Bid are not corrupt or damaged in any way. Please exercise particular caution when using compressed files. Any corrupt or damaged files may lead to your Bid being invalidated. All vendors are strongly recommended to regularly log in to the UNICEF e-submissions system to check for any deadline extensions, new clarifications, new correspondence or updated tender documents relating to this tender.