News
NIRAS evaluated an EU-funded project to increase agricultural production and productivity and improve food security at the household level in Eritrea.
March is generally a quiet month. Spring hasn’t quite arrived, at least in the western hemisphere, and the only people celebrating very much are Irish people raising a pint to St Patrick and supporters of International Women’s Day or World Water Day (of which there are many of us in the development space). But this year, March was a big month for NIRAS. The EU’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development announced the successful consortia tendering to deliver services under the Framework Contract targeting external aid (FWC SIEA 2018). In a fierce competition that was open to international organisations, NIRAS bid for and won five out of six lots in the SIEA, two as lead (lot 1 - Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and Resilience - and lot 3 - Human Rights, Democracy and Peace) and three as a partner (lot 2 - Infrastructure, Sustainable Growth and Jobs; lot 4 - Human Development and Safety Net; and lot 6 - Innovative Financing for Development).
NIRAS has been managing EU FWC for close to 20 years, implementing more than 300 short-term assignments worth over €30 million in excess of 100 countries. The SIEA is a game changer for NIRAS because while in the past FWC were limited to assignments under €300,000, the maximum amount allowed for a specific contract has been raised to €999,999 going forward.
NIRAS has supported the European Union (EU) in designing and budgeting future interventions funded by the EU Budget and the European Development Fund. By helping EU delegations and other decentralized authorities formulate new projects around the world, NIRAS has assisted in shaping the future of EU Development Cooperation, especially with respect to achieving its goals of reducing poverty, ensuring sustainable development, and promoting democracy, peace and security.
Our approach to the implementation of framework contracts is based on fairness and transparency towards experts, partners and clients, and securing proper value for money.
We will continue to strengthen our cooperation with our excellent group of freelance and associated experts, who have been a key factor in the results obtained in the previous frameworks. We have developed strong relationships with external experts that choose to work with us because we support them from mobilisation and through implementation and provide backstopping and logistics.
Thanks to NIRAS’ success in the SIEA, EU FWC will continue to be a cornerstone of our work. We are actively seeking new colleagues to join our team of knowledgeable, passionate experts and get involved in the many ground-breaking assignments this will lead to on a global scale. We are committed to building a local presence and long-term partnerships and SIEA will enable us to enlarge our office footprint around the world and build internal capacity.
Join the NIRAS team and help us in our mission of contributing to a better, more equal, and stable world.
You can submit your CV to our database at: https://cv.niras.com
Title: Framework contract for the implementation of external aid 2018 (FWC SIEA 2018).
Scope: All ongoing European Union external aid.
Geographical coverage: Global
Contract value: €650,000,000 for all six lots, during a four year period.
Number of contractors per lot: to be confirmed, but maximum ten.
