Research services

Tender description

The African Cities research programme aims to move away from research in specialised sector areas to looking at cities as concentrated, complicated and integrated systems. The “city as a system”, and how underlying political economy factors can link together a series of problems, will be the starting point of research conducted under the programme. A key feature of the research in a city will be how the “political settlement” — ie the balance or distribution of power between contending social or interest groups within a city or even beyond — applies to linked problems within and across sectors. This is a prior information notice (PIN) only for the purposes of holding an Early Market Engagement Event: publication and call for competition will be conducted once the scope of work is fully defined and approved. Subject to the completion of a Business Case and funding approval, DFID will be seeking a supplier(s) to provide research, research management and research procurement services. The intention is that the new contract will be operational by the end of 2018 and will run for 5 years, subject to satisfactory supplier performance. It is anticipated that the contract(s) will be worth between 15 — 25 000 000 GBP over the lifespan of the programme, with funding windows added for different areas of research as DFID interests emerge and the systems model is developed. The contract will cover a new approach to undertaking urban research. Typically, research in African cities is of a particular problem, such as energy, pollution, or transport. However, often the analysis of these problems reveals similar features such as a “lack of political will”, or “restrictive bureaucracy”. The African Cities research programme aims to move away from research in specialised sector areas to looking at cities as concentrated, complicated and integrated systems. The “city as a system”, and how underlying political economy factors can link together a series of problems, will be the starting point of research conducted under the programme. A key feature of the research in a city will be how the “political settlement” — ie the balance or distribution of power between contending social or interest groups within a city or even beyond — applies to linked problems within and across sectors.