Certification

One of the most striking demands of international donors for call and tenders is proof of certification. In their strive for standardization, compliance and quality assurance, donors tend to demand that bidding parties provide proof that they meet a variety of quality standards. They are, by the way, not the only ones, as there is an increasing market segment calling for sound environmental and social respoinsiveness and there is a broad civil consensus that recepients of grants and publicly funded contracts should be as transparent, complient and quality-driven as the government itself. And, let us not underestimate that these all help us to further improve our efficiency, effectiveness and professionality.

You can expect, in one point in time, that international donors demand you to provide proof on the following: 

Quality

There are ISO certifications, like the 9001-standard, that require you to excel in your quality management systems and lay these down in policies, manuals and protocols that comply with these standards and are enforced on every staff member and sub-contractor. They also need to be properly communicated to all staff and sub-contractors. Further their compliance needs to be regularly monitored, and, if need be, the quality systems need to be updated and further sharpened. 

Your organization needs to increase the customer satisfaction and meet all your customers' demands and wishes, and adequately deal with accountability routines nad grievance and complaints procedures. Further you need to comply with all the legal and professional standards that apply to your sector, and subscribe the relevant codes of conduct, if applicable. Further you need to be in control of your operational processes and proof that.

After an initial external quality audit, your organization or company may receive certification proving that you comply with the standards. This is a proof to your custumers that your organization or company effectively stages quality management - prioritising quality management issues, controling quality and anchoring it in the operational processes. 

This quality audit is annually repeated to examine if your organization or company continues to meet the standards.

Environment

In the field of environmental management the relevant ISO-standard is ISO-14001, to analyze the environmental risks of your operational and to make environmental management plans to reduce your possible environmental damage to the bare minimum.  

The certificering follows a very similar pattern as the one for quality management, with an initial profound external analysis, an environmental management plan with fixed norms, targets and procedures and recurring annual audits.

For major infrastructural projects additional environmental and social impact analysis studies and management plans are required, that have to be elaborate following the international professional standards and meet the IFC performance criteria. Any project that does not have an ESIA (environmental and social impact analysis) and ESMP (environmental and social management plan) elaborated along the IFC criteria and approved by the respective environmental authorities, will not stand a chance of even being considered.

Social responsiveness and sustainability

There are also norms for social responsiveness and sustainability. International donors demand that their suppliers comply with high social responsiveness standards and demand proof of that: a proper social responsiveness policy, an annual social responsiveness report, and often also additional certificates and accreditations. Often they also demand a social return on investment (SRoI) analysis: showing how vulnerable and marginalised people gain sustaianble employment, income and recognition. This will have to not only be very prominent in your application but also in the deliverables you commit yourself to and the monitoring and accountability procedures that you propose.

Tenders2Go shows you the way to go about these certifications, or in composing alternative documents that the donor may also find acceptable. We have excellent partners who can take care of the certification process and the related audits, external studies and system documentation.