Request for Proposal | Procurement of Vehicle Dynamic Scales

Procurement
27 March 2024

DAI, implementer of the USAID Economic Resilience Activity in Ukraine, invites qualified local vendors to submit quotations for the RFP REQ-LVI-24-0031 

Attachment А.1. to RFP REQ-LVI-24-0031-dynamic scales

Please take note of these important dates and email addresses:
RFP Release Date Issue Date: March 27, 2024
Deadline for Receipt of Questions April 3, 2024, 6:00 pm, Kyiv, Ukraine Time to the email address ProcurementERA@dai.com.

All questions will be collected and replies to them will be sent via email to tender participants.

Deadline for Submission of Proposals April 9, 2024, 6:00 pm, Kyiv, Ukraine Time.

For proposals submissions the email address to use is ProcurementERAInbox@dai.com

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR RECEIPT OF QUESTIONS AND THE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR RECEIPT OF PROPOSALS ARE DIFFERENT

Alternative logistics solutions aid farmers during the war

AGRI-Ukraine Export Logistics Support
26 March 2024

USAID, through the Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) assists NIBULON, one of the largest Ukrainian agribusinesses and a leader in the grain export market, implement alternative logistical solutions during the war. In order to export grain crops and ensure global food security, USAID ERA has purchased 50 grain wagons for NIBULON, to transport grain purchased from 2600 farms. 

NIBULON works with many agricultural enterprises supplying grain for export, including Nikol, based in Kherson Oblast. For over 20 years, Nikol has specialized in grain and oil crop cultivation. At the onset of the war, Nikol’s facilities were under occupation. Later, after the liberation, the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was attacked, and operations ceased again. Thousands of tons of the previous year’s grain harvest were stored in Nikol’s warehouses, but due to the branch’s shutdown, not a single kilogram was exported. This complex situation threatened not only the existence of the enterprise itself but also the livelihood of its employees and the well-being of over 500 families from whom Nikol leases land shares. 

In the summer of 2023, NIBULON resumed operations out of its Zelenodolska branch in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a very strategic location for Nikol. Thanks to the 50 grain wagons from the USAID ERA, rail exports became possible. Currently, NIBULON uses these wagons to transport grain, like from Nikol, from blocked river terminals to the ports of the Danube. From the ports, the grain is transshipped onto barges and transported to 25 countries around the world. 

With new grain wagons, NIBULON is able to offer Nikol better prices for grain. This income helps farmers pay wages, taxes, repay loans, and purchase fuel and fertilizers for the upcoming sowing campaign. 

“Thanks to assistance from USAID ERA in 2023, we resumed purchasing grain and continue to collaborate with more than 2600 farmers, which allowed us to export 3 million tons of grain through the Danube ports and the deep-water ports of Odessa within the calendar year. Transporting grain solely by trucks is very expensive. Combining road and rail as modes of transportation allows us to optimize logistics costs and offer farmers procurement prices where they can profit. Otherwise, we would have had to stop grain procurement, close river terminals, and that would mean over 500 job losses,” says Mykhailo Rizak, Deputy General Director for Interaction with Public Authorities at NIBULON. 

USAID ERA supports other agro-exporters too. In 2024, USAID ERA purchased 85 grain wagons for Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) Ukraine, one of the largest exporters of Ukrainian grain and oilseeds among foreign companies. All 85 wagons have already been delivered to LDC’s elevators. 

The procurement of equipment for agricultural companies takes place within the framework of the Agricultural Sustainability Initiative in Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine), implemented by the USAID, to mitigate the global food crisis exacerbated by Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine. 

More about the initiative here.

USAID ERA helps manufacturer of water filters to increase production capacity

25 March 2024

On March 21, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, Director of the USAID Economic Growth Office in Ukraine Kim Kim Yee, and other representatives of USAID Ukraine and the USAID Economic Resilience Activity (USAID ERA) visited the production facilities of a Ukrainian company manufacturing water filtration systems. The company’s production workshop and warehouse were partially destroyed by Russian troops in March 2022. 

To help restore production, USAID ERA purchased two modern injection molding machines, which the company used to begin manufacturing household water pitchers and filter cartridges. This will enable Ukrainian households to purify water at home, and support the company to increase their volume of production. USAID’s support will provide employment for 26 people, increase the number of water treatment products, and allow the company to reach their pre-war production levels. 

USAID ERA donates large batch of IT equipment to relocated universities

Increasing Opportunities
25 March 2024

In 2023, the USAID Economic Resilience Activity (USAID ERA) provided support to partner universities. Five universities – Donetsk National Technical University (DonNTU), Mariupol State University (MSU), Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University (SNU), Priazovskyi State Technical University (PSTU), and Dmytro Motornyi Tavria State Agrotechnological University (TSATU) – received IT equipment to resume their educational processes.

USAID ERA provided its partners with IT and office equipment to ensure a stable Internet connection and to conduct distance-learning classes. The equipment included 64 routers, 31 printers, 5 servers, and 8 computers for IT administration, as well as 6 uninterruptible power supplies, 12 multimedia projectors, 10 tablet PCs, 150 headphones, 261 laptops, 231 computer mice, 5 Starlink kits with a one-year subscription, computer software, and other items necessary to power and operate the equipment (such as cables, plugs, and outlets).

In March and April 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion began, these universities were forced to move from eastern and southern Ukraine to safer regions. Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University and Mariupol State University moved to Kyiv, DonNTU found shelter in Lutsk, while PSTU and TSATU settled in Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, respectively. USAID ERA stayed in constant contact with its partners and began delivering the equipment in November 2022. To date, all the equipment has been delivered and is being actively used by 1,151 staff and faculty members of the higher education institutions to provide education to 14,166 students, mostly online.

This equipment, along with uninterruptible power supplies, made it possible to quickly set up online learning and maintain all necessary digital services. Students, postgraduates, faculty, and administrative staff received personal devices (laptops and tablets) that helped them to stay connected even during power outages. The support provided also made it possible to quickly restore administrative processes, methodological frameworks, and teaching materials, establish the online learning process, and ensure the operation of the educational institutions’ websites to promptly inform students and teachers of various activities.

BCP Government Liaison and Senior Coordinator

20 March 2024

Kyiv

With business trips 50% of working time at Border Crossing Points in Lviv, Volyn, Zakarpattia, Vinnytsia, and Odesa regions.

ERA BACKGROUND 

Ukraine’s efforts to win the future – emerging from Russia’s full-scale war ready to accelerate its development as a sovereign, independent, democratic, and prosperous state – require a dynamic, inclusive economic recovery. Through partnerships with the government and robust private sector engagement, ERA has supported economic growth and resilience in Ukraine since 2018. Following Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and subsequent occupation of the part of Ukraine, ERA shifted from its focus on Eastern Ukraine to cover development priorities across the country that address Ukraine’s urgent needs in export logistics and infrastructural improvements.

AGRI-UKRAINE GRAIN EXPORT LOGISTICS

USAID’s Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) is one of USAID’s core partners implementing the $350 million Agriculture Resilience Initiative – Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine) that was established in 2022 to bolster Ukrainian agricultural exports and alleviate the global food security crisis exacerbated by the war. Under AGRI-Ukraine, ERA partners with public and private companies to complement and leverage urgently-needed grain transportation and transshipment investments.

INFRASTRUCTURAL IMPROVEMENTSERA also directly supports the Government of Ukraine, including the State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure of Ukraine (SARDI), the State Customs Service and Ukrainian Railways, to upgrade 42 of Ukraine’s border crossing points (BCPs). Modern and more efficient border infrastructure and customs procedures will reduce export costs and increase export capacity, enabling  Ukraine to scale trade and advance its path to EU integration.

About the job

The Project Liaison and Coordinator is responsible for generally supporting the BCP activities and cooperating with the Procurement and M&E Teams to ensure the performance of program-level project implementation. The Project Liaison and Coordinator is expected to coordinate the work and activities of ERA engineers, contracted engineers, construction subcontractors, equipment suppliers, and vendors. This role requires a high level of in-person work at ERA offices in Kyiv, the partner offices in Kyiv, and their western regional offices.

The senior coordinator supports USAID ERA while also providing direct technical assistance to the project’s Government of Ukraine partners, including the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine (MOI), the State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure (SARDI), and through SARDI with the State Border Guard Services (SBGS), State Customs Service (SCS), and Joint Stock Company (UZ). The coordination effort will be at all levels of national, regional, local, and BCP sites.

The position can be located in Kyiv and reports to the Director of BCP in Lviv. It is required from the position to visit BCP sites at the western border of Ukraine and may require frequent visits and work at the various offices of the GOU agencies at national and local levels. The BCP Director should be kept informed on all the visits in advance unless there are regularly scheduled meetings and daily brief bullet reports to be provided after each meeting.

Responsibilities:

Liaison and Coordination Tasks:

  • Liaise and coordinate with the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine (MOI), the State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure (SARDI), and through SARDI with the State Border Guard Services (BG), State Customs Service (Customs), and Joint Stock Company (UZ).
  • The coordination effort will be at all national, regional, local, and BCP site levels. Solid coordination must be performed at the BCP site level, specifically with SARDI, Customs, Border Guards, and UZ.
  • The liaison and coordination will include the following levels of the program:
    • Share and provide and obtain feedback on the authorized ERA documents and reports to be shared. It is important to obtain permission to share any ERA project documents.
    • Share with ERA the only authorized documents to be shared by the GOU partner agencies.
    • Keep the stakeholder partners on the ongoing project progress.
    • Keep ERA BCP updated on the needs and issues presented by the GOU partner agencies, keeping in mind the project objectives.
    • Obtain access and permission to BCP sites from GOU agencies for the project staff and ERA subcontracted engineers, construction subcontractors, vendors, and suppliers.
    • Coordinate and facilitate authorized document review and approval by the GOU agencies.
    • Facilitate acceptance of projects, items, and equipment provided by ERA to GOU agencies.
    • Attend ERA coordination meetings in person or online and ensure the attendance of GOU representatives.
    • Focus on USAID-ERA project objectives and manage expectations.
    • Address and resolve any arising conflicts or issues between the project and governmental partners.
    • Work with all BCP team senior managers and teams members to facilitate and follow up on all the required coordination including access permits, acceptance of project provided materials, equipment, and workmanship.
  • Perform other liaison and coordination duties as the BCP Director assigns, such as overview and analysis of rules and regulations and government initiatives.

Technical Assistance Tasks:

  • The senior coordinator may be asked to work directly with GoU partner representatives and assist with the implementation of their partnership responsibilities in line with the MOU signed between the MOU and the partner. This may include helping with project trackers, communications, following up with design approvals, or similar processes.
  • The senior coordinator may attend meetings at the offices of the GoU partners at the request and direction of the BCP Director, share meeting notes, and support follow-on tasks.

Job Expectations

In this position, you are expected to share the DAI’s four core values:

  • Integrity: commit to civil and ethical behavior, play by the rules, and do the right thing;
  • Responsibility: be accountable to clients, partners, grant recipients, beneficiaries, colleagues, and communities where we work. If you fall short, you own up, fix the problem, and get it right the next time;
  • Excellence: adhere to the highest technical and professional standards in innovation, learning, and service;
  • Global Citizenship: respect cultural diversity and treat everyone everywhere with professionalism and dignity to make the world a better place.

About you:

  • MA/BA in infrastructure development, economy, law, or a related field.
  • A minimum of ten years of general professional experience is required, with five years of specific experience in the field of infrastructure, customs, or railways.
  • Mid-level English is required. Verbal English skills will be tested during the interview process.
  • Strong MS Office skills in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and Teams.
  • Experience with international donor-funded projects and GOU agencies is preferred.

WE OFFER

Contract length: 12-month employment agreement with a possibility of extension.

Benefits Package:

  • 28 calendar days of annual leave
  • 10 days of internal well-being paid leave per annum
  • Medical Insurance for ERA staff and their families
  • Life Insurance for ERA staff
  • Coverage of all expenses for the business trips
  • Military reservation is possible and granted if you are on a relevant military register

Start date: April 2024

Application process

All applicants must send a cover letter and updated CV (no longer than four pages) in English to ukraine@dai.com.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or status as a protected veteran.

Closing date for applications: April 15, 2024.

For further information about DAI GLOBAL LLC, please consult our website era-ukraine.org.ua.

USAID ERA supplies ICT equipment to rail border crossing points in Volyn, Lviv, Zakarpattia, and Chernivtsi Oblasts 

BCP Renovation and Reconstruction
15 March 2024

USAID’s Economic Resilience Activity (USAID ERA) has provided 103 pieces of ICT equipment to four rail border crossing points (BCPs) located in Volyn, Lviv, Zakarpattia, and Chernivtsi Oblasts, operated by JSC Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ). The ICT equipment and supplies, which have all since been put into operation, include printers, laptops, monobloc computers, and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS). 

They will increase the BCPs’ capacity for processing cargo movement, and will greatly enhance the day-to-day operations of the BCP and the positive experience of its users. To ensure cargo movement continues during power shutdowns, ERA also provided these BCPs with 50kw generators. This assistance is aimed at increasing the efficiency and accessibility of logistics routes for the export of Ukrainian goods. Improving logistics processes not only optimizes the rail’s operations, but also facilitates more efficient exports of Ukrainian goods, including grain, which is vital for boosting Ukraine’s economy and global food security. 

Background: Between 2023-2026, USAID, through the Economic Resilience Activity (ERA), is dedicating $115 million to support the State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure of Ukraine (SARDI), Ukrainian Railways (UZ), and State Customs Services, to upgrade border crossing points (BCPs) to improve grain trade and export volumes.