Project Management Services to Support Electrification and Refurbishment of Schools in Tanzania

Tender ID: RFP No. 2025-104

Tender description: SEforALL’s Clean Cooking Team is seeking the services of a Project Management Firm (the “Consultancy”) to finalize the technical designs for the school kitchens, prepare a bill of quantities (BOQ) for each school, procure and supply all required materials, supervise the execution of civil and electrical works, develop safety and health plans, and provide direct day-to-day support until the completion of all the works. The Consultancy will also be responsible for ensuring the project is completed as per the agreed work plan and that it meets national and international quality standards.

Context:

Over 2.1 billion people globally, including a large portion of Tanzania's population, lack access to clean cooking solutions, relying instead on traditional biomass and polluting fuels. This dependence leads to severe health risks, particularly for women and children, causing 3.2 million premature deaths annually, more than tuberculosis, malaria, and AIDS combined. Traditional cooking methods also contribute to significant environmental harm, including deforestation and carbon emissions. 

In response to these challenges, Tanzania has recently launched the National Clean Cooking Strategy 2024-2034, which sets an ambitious target of achieving 80% clean cooking access across the country. This strategy underscores the government's commitment to reducing reliance on biomass and promoting modern, sustainable cooking solutions. Complementing this, H.E. President Samia Suluhu Hassan has issued a specific mandate requiring all public institutions that feed more than 100 people to stop using firewood and charcoal and transition to clean energy for cooking. This directive from the president highlights Tanzania’s prominent role in the global sphere as, not only a national advocate for clean cooking but also a global leader and is a critical step toward accelerating the adoption of clean cooking technologies in Tanzania.  

In Tanzania, with 17,686 government primary schools and over 11 million students, there is a pressing need for change. Surveys by the World Food Programme (WFP) in 2023 revealed that approximately 9,200 schools operate feeding programs, with 99% relying on firewood for cooking. However, around 5,600 of these schools are connected to the national grid, offering a prime opportunity to introduce electric cooking (eCooking) solutions. This presents a pivotal moment to implement sustainable and clean cooking solutions, leveraging existing infrastructure to catalyse positive change in cooking practices in Tanzanian public institutions.

Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have announced an innovative partnership focused on bringing clean and efficient electric cooking solutions to government primary schools in Africa through a Clean Cooking Transition in Schools Initiative (CCTIS), helping them shift away from polluting and harmful cooking methods currently used for preparing student meals.
 
Transitioning schools to clean, affordable and reliable cooking solutions, such as electric cooking (eCooking), improves the health of students, teachers and cooks by reducing their exposure to air pollution generated in school kitchens. It also improves wider economic and social outcomes, for example by eliminating time spent collecting firewood, while protecting the environment from emissions and deforestation from firewood use.

SEforALL and WFP, together with the Government of Tanzania with support from the UKAid-funded Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme, have already begun work on creating an eCooking Demonstrator project in Tanzania that targets learnings from up to 50 schools. These are primary schools with school feeding programmes that are connected to the national electricity grid, which offers an immediate opportunity to provide clean eCooking solutions that will feed more than 25,0000 students. Beyond the initial phase, the partnership has identified more than 5,000 grid-connected schools in Tanzania for potential expansion of the programme, with more expected to join as national electrification extension progresses. Using learnings from Tanzania, WFP and SEforALL will look to scale and replicate the programme to other countries as well. The partners have the ambition of reaching 10,000 schools and 5 million children globally in the next three years and are calling for an investment of about USD 100 million combined with carbon financing, to achieve this target.

For more information, please refer to the attached documents below.

Submission of Bids: Please submit your proposal to procurement@seforall.org by 28 July 2025, 17:00 CEST (UTC +2). In case of questions or queries please contact SEforALL at procurement@seforall.org