1. The ECOWAS Commission, through the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (ARAA), has obtained funding from the French Development Agency (AFD) to finance the cost of the West Africa Milk Offensive Support Project (PAOLAO), and proposes to use part of the funds to make authorized payments under the Contract for the "Development and Implementation of a PAOLAO Communication and Visibility Plan" The Terms of Reference for the Services are available for download at: https://bit.ly/41j39jM.
2. ARAA invites Applicants to express their interest in providing the Services described. This Call for Expressions of Interest is only open to Individual Consultants.
3. The eligibility criteria for AFD funding are specified in Article 1.3 of the "Guidelines for the Procurement of Contracts Financed by AFD in Foreign States", available online on the AFD website: http://www.afd.fr
4. Candidates may submit only one application in their own name or in a consortium. If a Candidate (including a member of a Group) submits or participates in several applications, these will be eliminated. On the other hand, the same Subcontractor may participate in several applications. If the Candidate is constituted as a consortium, the Expression of Interest must include:
   • A copy of the Grouping agreement entered into by all its members, or
   • A letter of intent to set up a Consortium, signed by all its members and accompanied by a copy of the proposed Consortium's agreement.

In the absence of this document, the other members will be considered as Data Processors. The references and qualifications of the Subcontractors are not taken into account in the evaluation of applications.

5. Interested Candidates must provide information demonstrating that they are qualified and experienced to perform these Services. As such, they will justify that they have references for recent and similar services. The similarity of the references will be analysed in terms of:
   • The size of the contracts;
   • The nature of the Services: development of a communication strategy and/or plan, advice on institutional communication, and communication for development.
   • The field and technical expertise: specialist in institutional communication and development projects, knowledge and experience in the field of livestock farming, particularly in the local dairy sector, etc. See Terms of Reference for detailed qualification criteria.
   • Geographical context: West Africa
6. ARAA will draw up a shortlist of up to six (6) Applicants, pre-selected on the basis of the applications received, to whom it will send the Request for Proposals for the performance of the required Services. A consultant will be selected by the selection method based on quality and cost.
7. Expressions of interest consisting of the following documents must be submitted no later than September 8, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. GMT through a download to https://bit.ly/45s2P4P :

• Detailed curriculum vitae with detailed information on the experience (employer, period, function, location, key activities and results, source of funding if applicable) and the services provided (client, period, location, products/deliverables provided, source of funding)
• The Declaration of Integrity, Eligibility and Social Responsibility form attached as an annex, signed without modification of the text (document annexed to the terms of reference).
• Doc 3 : Where applicable, a copy of the Consortium agreement concluded by all its members, or a letter of intent to form a Consortium, signed by all its members and accompanied by a copy of the proposed Consortium.

All of the above documents MUST be grouped together in a single PDF file named
AMI014-[NAME OF CANDIDATE].pdf.

ARAA reserves the right to reject applicants who do not comply with the instructions described in paragraph 7.

8. Interested Candidates may obtain additional information by writing to the following e-mail addresses: procurement@araa.org  cc: ctienon@araa.org and awaki@araa.org with the subject
   line "AMI014 - PAOLAO Communication Plan".