Recruitment of an Agency for the Recruitment of WAPP staff

The West African Power Pool (WAPP) is a specialized institution of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the energy sector, enjoying autonomous management. It was created in 2006 to integrate the operations of national energy systems into a unified regional electricity market with the ultimate goal of providing ECOWAS member countries with stable, reliable, and affordable electricity. The WAPP General Secretariat, headed by the Secretary General, is the administrative body that conducts the day-to-day management of WAPP activities, supporting the Executive Board (EB) in fulfilling the organization's mission.

The WAPP General Secretariat plans to use the services of a qualified firm (recruitment agency) to assist it in handling the entire selection process for the positions of Directors, professional managers, and local staff. The Agency's overall mandate is to support the WAPP General Secretariat, assisted by the WAPP, in recruiting for various positions as needed.

Specifically, the Agency will, among other things, be responsible for: (i) preparing a recruitment package including the job description and required qualifications; (ii) supporting the WAPP General Secretariat in issuing the call for applications; (iii) evaluating the applications received; (iv) supporting the WAPP General Secretariat in the testing and interviewing of shortlisted candidates; and (v) preparing a final report to be submitted to the HRGC and the EB for approval, if applicable.

Profile of the Required Recruitment Agency
To be eligible, interested recruitment agencies must meet the following qualifications:

1. Be registered and legally established, and carrying out activities in one of the ECOWAS countries. In the event of a grouping between a recruitment agency operating in ECOWAS and another outside, the lead agency must necessarily be the agency established in the ECOWAS zone.
2.  Have at least ten (10) years of proven experience in recruiting staff (Local Agents, Senior Executives and Directors) on behalf of regional organizations and projects, banks, insurance companies or institutions comparable to WAPP.

Consultants may partner with other firms to form a joint venture to increase their chances of qualification. Under these conditions, they must clearly indicate whether the partnership is a joint venture and/or a subcontractor. The joint venture agreement or provisional agreement between the firms must be provided.

The contract will be entered into as a client contract for an initial period of one (1) year, renewable once, up to a maximum of two (2) years, depending on the service provider's performance.

The detailed Terms of Reference (ToR) for the assignment, the subject of this Call for Expressions of Interest, can be viewed and/or downloaded from the following website: www.ecowapp.org/fr/tenders

It is important to note that these ToRs are indicative and may change prior to the publication of the Request for Proposals, which will be sent to the shortlisted firms.

The WAPP General Secretariat invites eligible consulting firms ("Agencies") to express their interest in providing the Services. Interested Agencies must provide information indicating that they have the required qualifications, relevant experience, and desired capacity to perform the Services. The pre-selection criteria are:

1. Eligibility: the Agency (or lead agency in the case of a group) must be registered and legally established in one of the ECOWAS countries and have activities there and have at least ten (10) years of proven experience in the recruitment of staff
2.  References of similar services and comparable recruitment missions over the last ten (10) years in general (local agents, high-level executives - Directors) on behalf of regional organizations and projects, banks, insurance companies or institutions comparable to WAPP (exclusive).
3. References for similar services comparable recruitment missions in the ECOWAS zone over the last ten (10) years, preferably with international or regional institutions;
4. General presentation of the agency (status, date of creation, organizational structure);
5. Availability of permanent qualified personnel for the mission;
6. Logistics capacity and application management tools.

The relevant references to be presented by the Agency must clearly indicate for each assignment: the year the assignment was completed, the Client, the country, the exact title of the assignment, a brief description of the assignment, its duration, the contract value, and the references (provide their email and telephone numbers). Bidders must also provide proof of their references (contract extracts or certificates of services provided, etc.). Unproven references will not be taken into account during the evaluation. Similarly, references from firms acting as subcontractors will not be considered.

Agencies are strongly recommended to only submit references relevant to the assignment.

Key experts will not be evaluated during the Agency pre-selection stage; they will be evaluated during the evaluation of technical proposals to be solicited from the firms that will be shortlisted. Agencies are therefore requested not to submit experts' CVs in the expression of interest file. CVs will be requested during the Agency's second recruitment phase, namely the request for technical and financial proposals.

The Agency will be selected in accordance with the Least Cost Selection ("LCS") method set out in the WAPP Public Procurement Code, which can be viewed on the WAPP website (https://www.ecowapp.org/en/documents/wapp-procurement-code).

Further information can be obtained at the address below.

Email: cpm@ecowapp.org. Copied to: andorere@ecowapp.org and ektoe@ecowapp.org

Expressions of interest must be submitted (in soft copy) by email exclusively in French or English, at the Consultant's discretion. The original document will be clearly marked "Original," and its translation into the other language will be required for evaluation purposes; both versions will be submitted jointly. The document in the language of application will prevail in the event of a discrepancy.

Expressions of interest must be sent no later than May 19, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. Cotonou local time to procurement@ecowapp.org, with a copy to andorere@ecowapp.org and cpm@ecowapp.org.

Application emails must clearly state "Expression of Interest - Recruitment of an Agency for the Recruitment of WAPP Staff" in the subject line.

The opening of applications will take place on the same day, May 19, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. local time (Cotonou).

Submission of applications in hard copy is not permitted, and hard copy expressions will not be opened or evaluated. Any application received by WAPP after the deadline for submitting bids indicated above may be rejected.

A Microsoft Teams link to log in will be sent to all bidders before the opening. Bidders are strongly recommended not to submit their applications at the last minute to prevent possible internet connection issues.

The minutes of the opening of the expressions of interest received will be sent to all candidates.