Study to Develop Cross-border Digital Soil and Associated Water Resources Information System for a Pilot Area in the Igad Region, Including Digital Soil Property Maps, and Uncertainty Layers.

Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Request for Expression of Interest (Consulting Services – Firms Selection) Country: IGAD Secretariat Name of project: Food Systems Resilience Program for Eastern and Southern Africa Project No.: P178566 Grant No.: IDA-E0820 Assignment Title: Study to Develop Cross-Border Digital Soil for a Pilot Area in the IGAD Region, Including Digital Soil Property Maps, and Uncertainty Layers Reference/Contract No.: DJ-IGAD-567697-CS-CQS 1. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has received financing from the World Bank towards the cost of the Food Systems Resilience Program for Eastern and Southern Africa and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services. 2. The consulting services (“the Services”) includes i) The review of cross border areas in the IGAD region that have existing or planned IGAD Ground Water Information System (GWIS) in place, and identify the most suitable pilot area based on agreed technical, institutional and data-availability criteria. ii) To conduct soil field sampling, laboratory analysis, and quality controlled data compilation one cross border pilot area with a Ground Water Information System in place. iii)To generate updated, harmonized and decision-ready digital soil maps for the selected cross-border pilot area, including key soil properties, soil constraints, land-suitability information and uncertainty estimates. iv)To compile and harmonise existing soil, water, land-use, climate, terrain and remote-sensing datasets relevant to the selected pilot area and ensure compatibility with IGAD’s GeoNode repository, dashboards, DACAS and related decision-support tools. v)To develop a scalable workflow, data standard and implementation approach that can later be extended to other IGAD cross-border clusters. The assignment is expected to take 175 Calendar Days from the date of contract commencement. 3. The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment can be found at the following website: https://igad.int/consultancies or can be obtained at the address given below. 4. The The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) 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: i) The firm should hav