Tender Advertisement #1231053

REQUEST FOR TENDER

Peer Review of the Internal Assessment of Different Labor Mobility Arrangements, Including Under Regional and Sub-Regional Trade Agreements – Exploring Options for a Regional Labor Mobility Platform

Background

Labour mobility has increased over the years through labour mobility schemes and bilateral arrangements that provide employment and upskilling opportunities, remittances, and capital for re-integration initiatives and entrepreneurship. While the schemes are intended to improve livelihoods and standards of living for many Pacific Islands families, there are prevalent challenges that require a broader Forum intervention.

At their February 2020 meeting, Forum Trade Ministers in noting the outcomes of the 2019 Pacific Labour Mobility Annual Meeting (PLMAM), acknowledged the multiple facets of labour mobility, which offer opportunities within and beyond the region, and noted the need for a long-term and inclusive decision-making Forum mechanism on regional labour mobility issues. Ministers directed the Secretariat to undertake a comprehensive assessment of different labour mobility arrangements, including under regional and sub-regional trade agreements, and report back to the next FTMM. Ministers also endorsed labour mobility as a standing item of FTMM and Forum Trade Official Meeting.

Purpose

The Forum Economic Ministers (FEMM) in their meeting on August 12, 2020 recognized the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus disease since 2019 (COVID-19) and acknowledged the largely successful containment of the spread of COVID 19 throughout the Pacific. However, the strictly imposed border restrictions have had substantial downside flow-on economic impacts on the movement of people, trade and essential goods and services across the region. Labour mobility is key to economic recovery throughout the region through contributions from increased wages, remittances, experiences from working abroad and the skills that are brought back to home countries by returnees. Providing opportunities to work abroad beyond seasonal work in skilled and semi- skilled professions can increase investment in education and training, creating even greater skills benefit.

Forum Trade Ministers directed the Secretariat to prioritize the finalization of the assessment, including consulting with Members on the comprehensive assessment of regional labour mobility arrangements and present the final report and recommendations by officials for Ministerial consideration by end of 2021.

Scope of Work

The consultant will carry out the responsibilities and tasks as set out under the Terms of Reference (TOR) document which can be downloaded from www.tenders.net/forumsec.

HOW TO APPLY

Submissions should be entitled:

TENDER – LABOR MOBILITY

Method of Submissions:

Submissions must be forwarded in PDF format following the instructions at www.tenders.net/forumsec

Note: Tenders must be submitted with clear labelling of the technical offer and the financial offer. The Technical Offer documents must be saved and submitted clearly labelled “A. Technical Offer”. Financial Offer documents must be saved and submitted clearly labelled “B. Financial Offer”.

The electronically submitted documents should be converted to the PDF format.

Deadline for Submissions:

Submissions need to reach the Secretariat by 4pm Wednesday 15 September 2021.

Late or incomplete tenders will not be considered.

Questions and Answers

All queries or request for information must be submitted via the Question and Answer Forum at www.tenders.net/forumsec . Tenderers may submit questions in writing to the mentioned Question and Answer Forum before the stated “deadline for requesting clarifications” 10 September 2021. The Secretariat has no obligation to provide clarification after this date.

Note: The Secretariat will not be responsible for non-receipt/non-delivery of the Bid documents due to any reason whatsoever.

Any complaints regarding the Secretariat’s tender must be directed to the following email: Tender.Complaints@forumsec.org. This email address will forward your complaint to a person that is independent and removed from the tender process. Complaints must be well founded and should not be used as a mechanism for notifying displeasure with the outcome of a tender award. Further information on making a complaint can be found on the Policies & Information page at http://tenders.forumsec.org.

In the event that further information is required by the Secretariat in relation to the tender for consultancy, the Secretariat reserves the right to seek the required information without the need for calling for resubmission of proposals.