Consultancy services for designing and piloting a farmer-led irrigation intervention — Ministry of Finance and National Planning of Zambia

Original title: Consultancy services for Designing and Piloting of a Farmer-Led Irrigation Development (FLID) intervention in Zambia

Deadline

October 1, 2026

Closed

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Published on September 10, 2026 at 12:00 AMModified on September 12, 2026 at 01:01 AM

Key information

Type: Consulting & Studies
Location: Zambia
Deadline: October 1, 2026 at 12:00 AMClosed
Estimated Value: Not disclosed
Language of Notice: English

What is this tender about?

Consultancy services for designing and piloting a farmer-led irrigation intervention — Ministry of Finance... is a consulting & studies procurement opportunity published by Ministry of Finance and National Planning in Zambia on September 10, 2026. Submissions closed on October 1, 2026. 1 official document is attached below.

Survey the current private sector landscape that is providing goods (supply of irrigation equipment) and services (irrigation services) to assess equipment capital and operational costs for the range of farmer types and farm sizes, understand private sector challenges and draw on private sector insights into opportunities for rapid irrigation technology uptake and expansion. • Understand the existing public financing structures and mechanisms for financing smallholder irrigation. • Explore the policy and legal barriers in the enabling environment constraining smallholder farmers in autonomously carrying out small-scale irrigation development. b) FLID intervention and RBF Design: Translate the diagnostic into a set of feasible, scalable FLID intervention models. • Develop the design of potential FLID interventions within the ISAT project, providing different options and potential scenarios based on the diagnostic of farmers’ assets, willingness to pay, providers’ capacity, among others. • Design an RBF framework and its parameters: Key Result Indicators (KRIs), payment triggers/schedules, eligibility, verification, financial flows, subsidy/rebate, risk-sharing. c) Piloting the Methodology: The pilot phase serves as a controlled environment to test the feasibility, scalability, and sustainability of the proposed FLID intervention. Particularly irrigation modernization, financing mechanisms, and private sector partnerships. The four sequential stages of the methodology include: • Elaborate a piloting methodology of the proposed interventions in Zambia accounting for the time constraint of the project preparation, outlining the process for selecting testing sites, testing financing mechanisms, partnering with irrigation equipment providers and any other intervention design aspects that might be piloted. • Identify 10 appropriate sites for piloting based on a set of pre-defined characteristics. • Onboard participants of the pilots such as providers, financial institutions, districts, farmers. • Define the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework to assess the pilot’s performance. d) Pilot implementation and evaluation: Implement FLID interventions with continuous technical support, collect baseline, midline and end-line data, identify challenges along the implementation process to refine the model and document lessons for national scale-up. Specifically: • Deploy the FLID interventions and RBF mechanisms in the selected zones. • Execute the MEL framework. • Conduct a structured assessment of pilot outcomes and rank the best-performing options Duration of the Assignment The assignment is expected to be completed within seven (7) calendar months after signing of contract between November 2026 and May 2027. Invitation The National Authorising Office now invites eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services. The shortlisting criteria are: • Must be a legally registered firm with a minimum of 5 years of continuous operations in providing consultancy services. • Experience in similar assignments, evidence of at least three similar assignments completed in Sub-Saharan Africa within the past ten years. Experience must include:
At least one assignment related to Farmer-Led Irrigation Development or smallholder irrigation systems
At least one assignment involving performance-based or results-based contracting. 3. Proven track record working with government agencies, private sector actors, and development partners (Consultant to provide copies of contracts for past assignments or completion certificates as evidence). 4. The firm must demonstrate strong technical multidisciplinary expertise in Irrigation and Water Resources Engineering, Agricultural Economics, Market Systems Development and Private Sector Engagement and Environmental and Social Risk Management 5. Managerial capabilities indicating the general qualifications and experience of Principals (key staff of the firm) and the structure of the organization. The above required relevant qualifications and experience relate to the qualifications and experience of the firm and should not be based on individual experts as this is not required at this stage. The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Section III, paragraphs, 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” Seventh Edition, September 2025 (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s Policy on Conflict of Interest. Consultants may associate with other firms to enhance their qualifications but should indicate clearly whether the association is in the form of a Joint Venture and/or a sub- consultancy. In the case of a Joint Venture, all the partners in the Joint Venture shall be jointly and severally liable for the entire contract, if selected. Therefore, each member of JV shall independently meet the requirements of the evaluation criteria. The experience, technical & managerial capability of the Sub-Consultant shall not be evaluated to enhance the qualification of the Lead Firm or JV. A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) Method set out in the Procurement Regulations. Interested Consultants firms may obtain detailed terms of reference (ToRs) at the address below during office hours from 08.00 to 17.00 hours Local time Monday to Friday except public holidays or visit https://nao.gov.zm/ Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form to the address below (in person, or by mail, or by fax, or by e-mail) by 1st October 2026, at 10:00 Hours Central African Time (+2hours GMT), clearly marked “EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES FOR DESIGNING AND PILOTING OF A FARMER-LED IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (FLID) INTERVENTION IN ZAMBIA The firms that will submit their EOI via e-mail must get confirmation of the receipt of their documents. In case the firm does not receive acknowledgement within two working days after sending the documents via email, they should call the numbers provided below for follow-up. The address referred to above is: The Coordinator; and Deputy National Authorising Officer National Authorising Office of the European Development Fund Ministry of Finance and National Planning Plot No. 488a/37/0/1/4, Lake Road, Kabulonga P.O. Box 50376 10101 Lusaka Zambia E-mail: tenders.agriculture@nao.gov.zm Tel: +260 211 250828

What are the key dates?

Publication
September 10, 2026
Bid Submission Deadline
October 1, 2026
Evaluation & Award
Pending
Contract Signature
Pending

Procuring Entity

Name: Ministry of Finance and National Planning
Country: Zambia
Contact person: Thomas Simfukwe
Phone: Create a free account to view

Which documents are available?

Tender Details
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