REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST - (REOI)

CONSULTING SERVICES – FIRMS SELECTION ONLY

African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) is a programme of the African Union adopted in 2001 in Lusaka, Zambia, aimed primarily at poverty alleviation and promotion of economic growth and sustainable development in Africa. AUDA-NEPAD was established by the Decision of the 14th African Union (AU) Assembly of February 2010 as the technical body of the African Union, the offices located in Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Its mandate is to facilitate and coordinate the implementation of continental and regional priority programmes and projects; mobilize resources and partners in support of the implementation of Africa’s priority programmes and projects; conduct and coordinate research and knowledge management; monitor and evaluate the implementation of programmes and projects; and advocate on the AU and AUDA-NEPAD vision, mission and core principles.

It is against this background that AUDA NEPAD seek Consultancy services for establishing an African Union Development Fund (AUDF). The idea came about during NEPAD Senior Management Team brainstorm sessions to design financial tools and instruments to sustain the funding of the AUDA – NEPAD. For the new Development Agency to fulfil its mandate, it was agreed on the necessity to find a mechanism to provide a sustained revenue generation stream to fund its continental programmes. It was also established; the annual assessment of the member’s states will not be adequate to meet the funding requirements of the AUDA-NEPAD. Further the African Union member’s states are overburdened by the annual assessment contribution to the Union, this is because the poor economic outlook of many countries. The proposed creation of the African Union development Fund was for the first time presented to the AU member’s states during the budget hearing in Bahir Dar (Ethiopia) to the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) subcommittee on budget and administrative matters on the 31st of May 2019. The PRC approved the idea and requested a concept note to be developed. It is clearly articulated during the PRC’s budget hearing that each member state has its own economic challenges hence it will be unreasonable to further burden them with new funding requests. Hence the support of the PRC to create Africa Union Development Fund to finance the development agenda of the Union.