General Information Country: MongoliaPublication Date: Aug 11, 2021Deadline: Sep 1, 2021Agency: Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)Buyer: Original Language: English Contact Information Address: Baigali Ganbold MPM Complex, Floor 5, Sukhbaatar District Ulaanbaatar 14220 MongoliaTelephone: +976-77111710E-mail: Click here Original Text MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE ACCOUNT -MONGOLIA SPECIFIC NOTICE REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FOR “Water Operators’ Partnership / Twinning Facilitation” Activities Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia August 11, 2021 1. The United States of America, acting through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (“MCC”) and the Government of Mongolia (the “Government”) have entered into a Millennium Challenge Compact for Millennium Challenge Account assistance to help facilitate poverty reduction through economic growth in Mongolia (the “Compact”) in the amount of USD 350 million (“MCC Funding”). No party other than the Government and Millennium Challenge Account-Mongolia (“MCA-Mongolia”) 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 (www.mcc.gov) and MCA-Mongolia website (https://mca-mongolia.gov.mn). 2. The Compact will assist the Government in meeting the projected demand for water supply in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar for residential consumers and commercial and industrial users through a Water Supply Project, consisting of three closely related investment activities described below: • Downstream Wells Activity, to construct new groundwater wellfields with attendant transmission lines, reservoirs, and an advanced water purification plant; • Wastewater Recycling Activity, to construct a new wastewater recycling plant and pipelines to provide high-quality treated wastewater that can substitute the groundwater used by water-intensive industries, thereby increasing the amount of fresh water available for household consumption; and • Water Sector Sustainability Activity, to support policy reforms, capacity building, and technical assistance to improve the long-term sustainability of Ulaanbaatar’s water supply. 3. Purpose: The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to identify qualified organizations or private firms capable of implementing Water Operators’ Partnership / Twinning Facilitation activities. For this purpose, MCA-Mongolia requests your feedback on the questions listed in part 5 of the RFI document. However, MCA-Mongolia reserves the right to not conduct procurement or grant competition for this activity. 4. Background: The “Water Sector Sustainability Activity” supports five interventions that address policy, legal, regulatory, and institutional issues and improve the long-term sustainability of the water sector in Ulaanbaatar. One of these five interventions is the Utility Operations Sub-Activity, which is intended to support the strengthening of critical operational capacities within USUG, the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority of Ulaanbaatar city, as identified through the implementation of AquaRating, an international assessment and benchmarking tool for utility operations developed by the International Water Association. The sub-activity includes funding support for a comprehensive partnership between USUG and an experienced water utility from a developed country that operates in similar conditions or deals with similar concerns under a so-called Water Operators’ Partnership (i.e., Twinning arrangement), which is a peer-to-peer knowledge exchange conducted on a not-for-profit basis. The AquaRating assessment has been completed for both USUG and OSNAAUG, the Housing and Public Utilities Authority of Ulaanbaatar city. Now, MCA-Mongolia is interested in designing and implementing the Twinning arrangement for USUG and OSNAAUG, for which it will eventually be seeking to competitively solicit a Twinning Facilitator that has previous experience in enabling such water operators’ partnerships. It is anticipated that the key parties to a twinning arrangement would be USUG/OSNAAUG and a mentor utility as partners; a Facilitator; and MCA-Mongolia as the funder. The Facilitator would provide administrative and logistical support for the twinning, including helping to identify a mentor, making travel arrangements for the participants, hiring translators, and bringing other resources to the water operators’ partnership, such as training, knowledge products/toolkits, and communities of practice/networks to facilitate knowledge exchange, etc. 5. Competition: MCA-Mongolia is planning to launch a competitive process for the following activity: “Water Operators’ Partnership / Twinning Facilitation” in the near future. Any organization including non-profit associations/organizations can register its interest for the planned competitive process. 6. Description of Water Operators’ Partnership / Twinning Facilitation Activity: Potential and interested organizations/entities (any organization including non-profit associations/organizations can register interest for the activity) are requested to review the technical details that are provided in the following annex of the RFI document: The Description of Activity “Water Operators’ Partnership/Twinning Facilitation” (Annex A) of this RFI document presents the draft objectives and key elements of the activity. 7. Clarification requests: All requests and questions regarding this solicitation shall be directed to the Procurement Agent for MCA-Mongolia at
[email protected], with a copy to
[email protected]. 8. Registration: To register and request the complete RFI and its annex, interested parties should send an email with the subject line “Request for RFI for Water Operators’ Partnership / Twinning Facilitation” to the Procurement Agent at
[email protected] with a copy to
[email protected]. Interested parties should provide their full contact information in the email message. This will ensure that interested parties receive updates regarding the RFI and the planned competitive process. 9. Deadline: Respondents are requested to provide their responses to the questions via email to the Procurement Agent for MCA-Mongolia at
[email protected], with a copy to
[email protected] no later than 10:00 AM, Ulaanbaatar time (GMT +8), on September 1, 2021. Millennium Challenge Account-Mongolia