5.2.1 Poor quality of project outlines
Even though Nuffic assesses the technical quality of the project outline, the Dutch institutes are not satisfied with the quality of the published outlines. It is the shared opinion of the Dutch institutes that frequently the project outlines have one or more of the following deficiencies:
• The ‘demand identified’ is not in line with the real need of the southern institutes; • Not all relevant information is included in the project outline;
• The outline consists of unrealistic assumptions and/or is overambitious (given time and budget limitations);
• The formulation of the outline is too fixed; not only the problem has been identified, but the solution has also been incorporated.
Apparently, quality control by Nuffic is insufficient to eliminate above-mentioned issues. It is noted that, since three years, Nuffic undertakes more corrective actions with regard to the content of the outline. Moreover, it has organised workshops on how to deal with the outlines.
Given the low quality of the outlines, the risk exists that ‘artificial’ proposals are being submitted. During the interviews, it has been confirmed by the Dutch institutes that - even though they have no confidence in the outline - they are willing to submit a proposal to be able to get involved in the project. A proposal as such is being made with the thought that after winning the contract, the project can be reformulated during the inception phase. Dutch institutes also complain, however, that the current set-up of tendering is time- consuming. Win chances may be high, but time is not spent efficiently given the
deficiencies of the project outline, which makes that a lot of work needs to be done again during the inception phase.
The reasons for Dutch institutes to participate in the NPT projects are not always congruent to the programme objectives. One of the universities that implement a NPT project in Tanzania mentioned the following reasons to be involved in the NPT:
• To be present and participate in a globalised world; • To develop contacts, networks and partnerships;
• To bring ideas from these countries back to the Netherlands; • To bring real-life experience back into the classroom; • To create publicity for the university.
At the findings workshop, consulting organisations involved mentioned that obviously commercial objectives also play a role. However, this is not always a major role, since it often pays much better to do consulting work in the Netherlands.
5.2.2 Low response rate to tenders
Until today, the response rate on the published call for tenders is very low with on average not more than 1.3 proposals from Dutch organisations per tender. There are several reasons which could explain this low response rate:
• The articulated demand of the southern institute is very specific; only a few Dutch providers are able to respond to the demand;
• Potential competitors form consortia to improve their individual success rate; • Not all Dutch providers have sufficient experience or capacity to write project
proposals. If there are several call for tenders published around the same time period, the provider will select one outline to respond to;
• In their tender the Dutch providers have to conform to fixed fees, set by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This may imply limitations on the scope of competition. The response rate is also related to the country in question. Language difficulties make that French (Benin) and Spanish speaking countries (Guatemala and Colombia) have a lower response rate as can be seen from table 2.7. Average response rates below 1 show that for some invitations no proposal was received.
Table 5.1 Average number of proposals received per tender per country
Country Average no. of proposals received per tender
Benin 0.7 Colombia 0.8 Ethiopia 1.4 Ghana 1.3 Guatemala 0.9 Indonesia 1.3 Mozambique 2.0 Rwanda 1.5 South Africa 1.8 Tanzania 1.6 Uganda 1.7 Vietnam 1.5 Yemen 1.6 Zambia 2.7
The table gives an overview of the tender history during the first three years of the NPT programme. In total 152 outlines where published out of which 22 (14.5 percent) were re- tenders. Eleven projects (8.5 percent) were cancelled because there was no qualifying bid.
Table 5.2 Number of tenders, bids and proposals per year
2003 2004 2005 Total
Number of outlines published 18 69* 65** 152
Number of proposals received 23 111 83 217
Number of tenders without a bid 1 8 12 21
Number of tenders with no
qualifying bid(s) 0 7 4 11
Number of successful tenders 16 53 52 121
Grants signed 10 49 46 105
* Including 10 re-tenders ** Inclusing 12 re-tenders
When no proposals are received, the Nuffic desk officer makes phone calls with the Dutch institutes that have requested information and then, after hearing their reasons for non-response, the outline might be re-tendered. If only one proposal is received, the NPT host institution in the South is not inclined to be too critical in its assessment. The
alternative - no project at all or at least substantial delays when the project is re-tendered - is not attractive for the institute. As a result, proposals might be accepted although the quality and the (international) experience of the consortium is not optimal. More competition would have prevented such an outcome of the tendering process.
Nevertheless the Tender Evaluation Committee still can have a critical role in assessing the proposal, frequently requiring adjustments by the tenderer. See for instance the comments of the TEC on a proposal in Benin below.
Project NPT/BEN/151: Development of hydraulic courses in the water sector in Benin
Two project proposals were received for this project both of which were not of very high quality. The proposal which has been selected only just qualified. The TEC made a long list of desired adjustments: Analyse labour market needs
Identify with EPAC training programme
Ensure that investments are in line with new training programmes
Clarify partnerships with institutions in the region in time terms of technical content (time and budget) Clarify responsibilities of EPAC relationships with regional partners
Explain how to guarantee high quality transfer of knowledge by team members that are not francophone Ensure better division of days in Benin and the Netherlands
Reduce days on project management Better incorporate sustainability issues Provide a detailed work plan for the first years Clarify collaboration with others
Given the limited competition, it is unlikely that this market-like-mechanism has led to substantially better price/quality ratios. However, the introduction of tendering is, without exception, seen as an improvement by those interviewed from the southern institutes. More specifically, interviewees in the South see as an advantage that:
• Tendering has brought a wider range of potential partners to their attention, like Universities of Professional Education and consultancy firms, allowing for a better response to the variety in demand in the South;
• In many cases collaboration, which previously was with one partner, has grown to include others, thus “increasing the number of friends”;
• In some of the above cases those additional friends are themselves partners from the south (thanks to the emphasis in the program on regionalization);
• Ot has made their role in participative project design more prominent and meaningful, increasing their sense of ownership and involvement;
• The process has led to significant improvements on initial ideas about what the project or training activity should look like;
• Participation in the tendering process, particularly being a recognized part of the three-party Tender Evaluation Committee (TEC), is an important learning event in its own right.
5.2.3 Formation of consortia
The Dutch institutes often cooperate with each other instead of compete in the tendering process, resulting in less competition than was intended at the start of the NPT
programme. There are two considerations to build consortia with potential competitors. On the one hand it may be possible that the demand cannot be met by one organisation, in which case complementary expertise is found by a partner organisation. For instance, it can be very useful to have a combination of a university and a consultant in a consortium, having complementary roles in a project. Universities often have less experience with institutional development and hire consultancies for these components. When
consultancies have the lead in a NPT project, they often sub-contract universities to deliver the academic inputs.
On the other hand, there is an incentive to improve the win chances which are higher if potential competitors are brought together in one team. Especially the last consideration results in consortia and project teams which are larger than strictly necessary, creating additional transaction and coordination costs.
For instance, in one of the NPT projects in Tanzania two Dutch experts conducted a needs assessment in preparation for a new MBA curriculum. They interviewed private sector institutions about the knowledge and skills they expected graduates to have. The findings were presented at a stakeholders meeting. However, then another Dutch expert came after the meeting to give follow-up. It would have been better if the same persons would have continued their work.
5.2.4 Tender Evaluation Committee
The TEC is properly functioning and gives valuable recommendations and suggestions for project improvements. The Dutch institutions are satisfied with the feedback from Nuffic on their submitted proposals. In some southern countries there have been problems with the evaluation of the tenders as the concept is completely new and unknown to some of the evaluators.
Evaluation of project proposals - The case of Yemen
The concept and consequences of a tendering process were insufficiently well understood nor appreciated by Yemeni project partners involved. They expressed that:
• They would have had a preference for a project formulation process whereby they could outline a detailed project proposal jointly with Dutch partners;
• They had difficulties to assess the incoming bids, as they had no previous experience. This has caused delays in the process as groups were formed to jointly assess a bid;
• TEC score sheets were not easy to understand and categories were subject to different interpretation. Much assistance from the Project Management Unit and Nuffic was needed to explain procedures;
• More competitive project proposals were expected to choose from; • Some project proposals were found to be below acceptable standards;
• Emphasis on project experience in developing countries for foreign expert personnel is not always appreciated and many prefer experts with exclusively developed country experience. This increases the learning experience for Yemeni counterparts they claim;
• Some organisations would have preferred to combine two competing proposals and consortia to implement a project;
• Some organisations would have wanted to first select a Dutch organisation to work with and subsequently select appropriate experts to work with based on face-to-face interviews; • Logistical arrangements of sending proposals by mail were not optimal;
• They preferred face to face contact with other TEC members which would have made communication and in depth analysis of the proposals much easier;
Source: Desk study Yemen