Request For Proposals (RFP)- Support the technical development and operationalization of Rwanda's Sustainable Landscape Management Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (SLM-MRV) System

SUMMARY OF PROCUREMENT

WRI intends to award a fixed-price contract to a consulting firm or an individual consultant with the capacity to gather a qualifying team to support the technical development and operationalization of Rwanda's Sustainable Landscape Management Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (SLM-MRV) System. The assignment will establish a national restoration baseline, assess existing data systems and institutional arrangements, evaluate system feasibility and architecture options, and develop a harmonized national SLM-MRV framework, indicators, data standards, interoperability protocols, technical manuals, and implementation guidance. This work will cover a period of four (4) months, starting right after contract signing. 

About the World Resources Institute

Founded in 1982, the World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global environmental think tank that goes beyond research to put ideas into action. We work with governments, companies, and civil society to build solutions to urgent environmental challenges. WRI's transformative ideas protect the earth and promote development because sustainability is essential to meeting human needs and fulfilling human aspirations in the future.

For more than 30 years, WRI has partnered with African governments, local institutions, communities, and the private sector to advance evidence-based solutions for forest protection, landscape restoration, climate resilience, clean energy transitions, and sustainable development. In Rwanda, WRI works closely with national and local partners to strengthen restoration policies, mobilize finance for restoration, build institutional capacity, and support the implementation of high-impact restoration initiatives.

Through its Restore Local program, WRI provides direct financial and technical support to locally led restoration organizations, empowering them to restore degraded landscapes while improving livelihoods and ecosystem resilience. This work contributes to Rwanda’s national restoration priorities and international commitments under initiatives such as AFR100, the Bonn Challenge, and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Building on this experience and partnership with the Government of Rwanda, WRI is commissioning this assignment to provide the technical expertise needed to support the successful delivery of the process and generate high-quality outputs that will inform decision-making and implementation.

About Rwanda's SLM-MRV System

Context and Rationale

Rwanda has made significant commitments toward sustainable landscape management, ecosystem restoration, climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable natural resource management. These commitments are reflected in national strategies and frameworks including Vision 2050, the National Strategy for Transformation (NST2), the Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy (GGCRS), and the Sustainable Landscape Management Investment Framework (SLM-IF). 

Over the past decade, Rwanda has implemented numerous restoration interventions, including afforestation and reforestation programs, agroforestry initiatives, watershed rehabilitation, terracing, wetland restoration, erosion control measures, and other landscape restoration activities supported by government institutions, development partners, civil society organizations, and the private sector. While substantial investments have been made, there remains a need for a comprehensive and harmonized system to monitor, report, and verify restoration progress and outcomes at national scale. 

Currently, restoration-related information is generated and managed through multiple systems, databases, platforms, and reporting mechanisms operated by different institutions. These systems vary in their objectives, methodologies, indicators, data standards, reporting formats, and operational arrangements. As a result, challenges remain in ensuring data interoperability, consistency, completeness, accessibility, and alignment with national and international reporting requirements. 

To address these challenges, the Ministry of Environment, in collaboration with the Rwanda Space Agency, Rwanda Water Resources Board, Rwanda Forestry Authority, the World Resources Institute and other relevant institutions and development partners, is advancing the establishment of a Sustainable Landscape Management Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (SLM-MRV) System. The system is envisioned as a geo-enabled and interoperable platform capable of supporting evidence-based decision-making, restoration planning, monitoring, reporting, and resource mobilization.  

Objective

The overall objective is to support the technical capacity for operationalizing Rwanda's SLM-MRV System, specifically the consultancy will:

• Increase capacity of geo-spatial reporting of restored landscapes and related SLM indicators in line with the nationally adopted standards, through comprehensive training and capacity building of personnel working in the landscape management sector, who are responsible for the collection, management, analysis, reporting, and use of spatial data.
• Support submission routines, screening layers in the RSA dropping sites in line with the nationally adopted standards
• Clean the datasets that will be provided through dropping sites
• Consolidate all tasks completed by the assignment and Technical Advisory Group (TAG) in developing the SLM-MRV unified system such as standards, baseline reports, training manuals, reference datasets and computer codes.
• Provide recommendations and an implementation pathway for an efficient, scalable, interoperable, and sustainable national SLM-MRV system.

SCOPE OF WORK AND OUTPUTS/DELIVERABLES

The consulting firm or individual consultant shall provide comprehensive technical support across two components. The work will include development of technical manuals, computer codes, GIS operations in line with standards that will be adopted as a parallel process to this assignment by the Technical Advisory Group.

Component 1: National SLM MRV Capacity building

Establish a nationally consistent baseline of restored landscapes and associated SLM indicators through capacity building to collect, integrate, harmonize, analyze, and validate relevant geospatial and non-spatial datasets.

• Create a training module in line with SLM data standards and a GIS file template.
• Review and suggest improvements to existing data reporting protocols including data formats, attribute information, and reporting frequency.
• Establish interoperability protocols and data-exchange mechanisms in line with the standards of data prepared by the TAG.
• Provide data quality assurance and data cleaning trainings to central government agencies and ministries, local government and NGOs reporting on existing interventions, landscape conditions and selected environmental indicators in line with standards developed by the Technical Advisory Group (TAG)
• Prepare code for screening layers for the dropping sites of the GeoHub where central government agencies and ministries, NGOs, and local government submit shapefiles or other relevant datasets of existing interventions, landscape conditions and selected environmental indicators according to the standards developed by the TAG
• Facilitate the cleaning of data submitted to the dropping site according to the standards developed by the TAG.

Component 2: Consolidate the unified SLM-MRV system, and capacity building to report Indicators, and Data Standards

Consolidate the Work of the TAG related and proofread the SOPs and protocols for large public and relevant webpage/portals supporting a national system that aligns with Rwanda's restoration objectives, policy priorities, and reporting obligations and supports interoperability across institutions and information systems.

• Produce baseline maps, statistics, and the National SLM Baseline Assessment Report using data submitted through the dropping sites at RSA.
• Facilitate technical review and validation of the baseline products.
• Consolidate documentation and technical packages (template, source code, cleaned datasets) related to the SLM-MRV.
• Provide recommendations and an implementation pathway for an efficient, scalable, interoperable, and sustainable national SLM-MRV system.

DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINE

TIMING

The expected start time for this assignment is immediately after contract signing. The final contract duration will be confirmed and agreed upon during the contracting process. All deliverables must be submitted within the contract timeframe unless otherwise agreed in writing.

BUDGET

This is a Fixed Price contract. WRI invites bidders to submit a comprehensive financial proposal based on their understanding of the scope of work and expected deliverables. The financial proposal should include:

• A detailed cost breakdown showing the proposed professional fees and all other costs associated with the assignment.
• An estimate of the level of effort (number of person-days) required to complete the assignment, disaggregated by key personnel and major activities. This estimate should be used to justify the proposed budget but will not form the basis for payment.
• Any assumptions made in preparing the financial proposal.

The proposed budget shall be inclusive of all costs necessary to successfully complete the assignment. This includes, but is not limited to, personnel costs, stakeholder consultation and meeting costs, local transport, communication, taxes (where applicable), and any other incidental or operational costs required to deliver the agreed outputs.

 Payments under the contract will be linked to the satisfactory completion and acceptance of agreed deliverables and milestones, rather than the actual number of days worked or expenses incurred. Bidders are therefore expected to ensure that their proposed budget is realistic, comprehensive, and sufficient to deliver the assignment in accordance with the requirements of this RFP.

 Please note that WRI is an IRS-registered 501(c)3, tax-exempt organization. WRI is not VAT exempt. All prices or quotes should include VAT and tax, as applicable.

GUIDELINES FOR PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

Requirements

The selected consulting firm or individual consultant must demonstrate:

• Legal registration and authorization to operate in Rwanda.
• At least five years of experience in environmental monitoring, geospatial systems, restoration monitoring, MRV systems, or related assignments.
• Experience in geospatial analysis, remote sensing, data systems development, environmental monitoring frameworks, and institutional assessments.
• Experience working with government institutions and development partners.
• Capacity to coordinate a multidisciplinary team and complete the assignment within the agreed schedule.
• CVs of qualified team members

Required Project Team

At a minimum, the firm should propose the following key experts. Additional experts may be proposed where necessary.

All experts must demonstrate strong analytical, report-writing, and communication skills. Experience in Rwanda or similar Sub-Saharan African contexts is an advantage. Fluency in English and Kinyarwanda is required. Key experts may not be replaced without prior written approval from WRI.

 

Proposal content

Applicants should submit:

• A technical proposal describing the firm's understanding of the assignment, methodology, stakeholder engagement approach, workplan, schedule, quality assurance approach, and proposed team.
• A financial proposal with a detailed cost breakdown and payment schedule linked to deliverables.
• Company registration document and tax clearance certificate.
• Relevant references and completion certificates for at least five similar assignments.
• CVs and academic certificates for all proposed key experts.
• An account of how the work and the firm's operations support sustainability.

Expression of Interest, Deadline for Questions, and Proposal  

All questions or requests for clarification regarding this RFP must be submitted by August 28, 2026. Via the following emails: Peter.Ntaganda@wri.org and CC: Kevin.Nfor@wri.org .

 Responses will be shared with all prospective applicants, as appropriate, by September 1, 2026.

Complete proposals must be submitted by September 4, 2026. Proposals received after the deadline may not be considered.

Applications must go through the WRI Workday system; you will be required to log in to submit your application.

EVALUATION AND SELECTION

Evaluation Criteria

The following elements will be the primary considerations in evaluating proposals:

• Completion of all required proposal elements.
• The extent to which the proposed methodology and workplan fulfill the requirements of this RFP.
• Relevant experience of the firm and proposed experts with comparable assignments.
• Technical quality, feasibility, and clarity of the proposed approach.
• Ability to deliver within the required timeline and coordinate effectively with WRI and TAG institutions.
• Overall cost, value for money, and reasonableness of the proposed budget.
• Debarment and sanctions status; WRI will not consider firms presently debarred by the U.S. government or named on restricted-party lists.
• Sustainability; all other factors being equal, WRI will favor a proposal that performs the work more sustainably.

The bidder offering the best overall value will be selected. For this procurement, non-price considerations will carry relatively more importance than price.

Selection Criteria

No proposal development costs may be charged to WRI; bidders must bear all proposal-related expenses. WRI may award to the bidder offering the best value without discussion. WRI reserves the right to request clarifications and negotiate with bidders deemed to be within a competitive range.

WRI may, at its discretion and without explanation to prospective bidders, discontinue this RFP without obligation, make multiple awards, or make no award. Contracts will not be awarded to entities debarred by the U.S. government or named on restricted-party lists.

APPENDIX

Institutional Arrangements

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of WRI and the TAG institutions, including the Ministry of Environment, Rwanda Space Agency, Rwanda Water Resources Board, Rwanda Forestry Authority, and other relevant stakeholders. WRI and TAG institutions will provide technical oversight, review, and validation of all deliverables. The consultant must maintain regular consultation and progress reporting throughout implementation.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND OPEN DATA COMMITMENT

Intellectual property resulting from the award of this RFP will belong to WRI and, to the extent possible, made publicly available in accordance with WRI's Open Data Commitment. Please click on the link to learn more: WRI Open Data Commitment.

COMPLAINTS

Bidders with complaints or concerns related to the conduct of this procurement may contact nicole.giffen@wri.org or submit a report to WRI's Whistleblower Hotline.