Notice of Request for Information Maseru, Lesotho February 14, 2023 Horticulture, Training, Gender, and Social Development (HTGSD) Requirements 1. The United States of America, acting through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (“MCC”), and the Government of Lesotho (the “Government”) entered into a Millennium Challenge Compact in May 2022 for Millennium Challenge Account assistance to help facilitate poverty reduction through economic growth in Lesotho (the “Compact”) in the amount of USD 300 million (“MCC Funding”). No party other than the Government and Lesotho Millennium Development Agency (“LMDA”) shall derive any rights from the Compact or have any claim to the proceeds of MCC Funding. The Compact and its related documents can be found on the MCC website (Lesotho Health and Horticulture Compact) and on the website of LMDA (http://www.lmda.org.ls/). 2. The Compact addresses ineffective delivery of public goods and services necessary to create private-sector led, poverty-reducing growth in Lesotho, one of the country’s most binding constraints to economic growth. The Compact includes three projects (see Annex B), the largest of which is the Market-Driven Irrigated Horticulture Project (MDIH), which will assist the Government to increase rural incomes related to commercial horticulture, including for women, youth, and the rural poor, and to establish a sustainable and inclusive model of irrigation, water resource, and land management. The MDIH project consists of three closely related investment activities described below: • Institutional Reform Activity, to support policy reforms, capacity building, and technical assistance that ensure strong legal and policy frameworks are in place to equitably and sustainably support inclusive growth of irrigated horticulture in Lesotho; • Irrigated Horticulture Support Services Activity, to help smallholder farmers and landholders, including women and youth, overcome the obstacles to sustaining their irrigation systems by providing relevant technical assistance and attracting experienced commercial farmers to help leverage smallholder efforts and sustain infrastructure investments; and • Irrigation Infrastructure Development Activity, to develop up to four irrigation schemes in the Lesotho Lowlands, at Manka, Tsoili-Tsoili, Likhakeng, and Phamong, to the north and south of Maseru, respectively. This irrigation infrastructure will cover approximately up to 2,000 hectares on these four (4) sites. 3. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to identify qualified organizations capable of designing and implementing the Horticulture, Training, Gender, and Social Development (HTGSD) requirements of the Irrigated Horticulture Support Services (IHSS) Activity within the MDIH Project. However, LMDA reserves the right to not to conduct procurement for this requirement, or to remove one or more of the proposed tasks in Annex A. 4. Any organization, including non-profit associations/organizations, interested in receiving the RFI and submitting responses should register using the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/9Un9qZLmKe . Please fill in the form to get access to the RFI document. For clarification, please email the Procurement Point of Contact, Zenobia Maddy (Ms.), Interim Procurement Agent for the Lesotho Millennium Development Agency, Email:
[email protected] with a copy to: LMDA Interim Procurement Director - Malehlohonolo Lefothane,
[email protected] and the Procurement Agent Manager – Ian Stewart,
[email protected]. 5. Deadline for submission of responses to the RFI is 5:00 pm SAST (GMT+2), on March 3, 2023. Yours sincerely, Lira Molapo (Mr.) Acting Chief Executive Officer-LMDA DISCLAIMER: THIS NOTICE IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. FOR UPDATES ON THIS SOLICITATION PLEASE FOLLOW THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE LINK PROVIDED. THIS PROCUREMENT IS NOT CONDUCTED UNDER THE FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATIONS, IS NOT ADMINISTERED BY THE US GOVERNMENT, AND THE RESULTING AWARD WILL BE MADE BY THE COUNTRY INDICATED IN THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS PROCUREMENT PLEASE CONTRACT THE PERSON NAMED IN THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT.