ADB tenders (Asian Development Bank)

The Asian Development Bank is a regional multilateral development bank that serves Asia and the Pacific. It lends to governments and to the private sector to finance public investment projects, infrastructure, and reforms. Contracts under loan and grant projects are awarded by the executing agency of the borrowing government, not by ADB directly, but they follow ADB procurement rules and are open to firms and consultants worldwide.

ADB financed projects cover a broad range of sectors, including:

• Infrastructure: transport, energy, water supply, and urban services.
• Human development: education, health, and social protection.
• Agriculture, natural resources, rural development, and food security.
• Finance sector development, public sector management, and governance.
• Climate, environment, and regional cooperation and integration.

ADB tenders and consulting opportunities appear in several connected places. For any specific project you can trace the notice back to its official source:

• The Business Opportunities section at adb.org, which lists procurement notices and consulting recruitment.
• The Consultant Management System (CMS), where firms and individual consultants register, receive consulting recruitment notices, and submit expressions of interest.
• Procurement notices issued under each project, including the General Procurement Notice, Invitations for Bids, and Requests for Expressions of Interest.
• UN Development Business, which syndicates ADB and other development-bank notices in one feed.

Every notice carries a project number and reference. Keep them, because they let you find the full project documents, the procurement plan, and any later clarifications or addenda.

ADB runs its procurement and consultant selection under its Procurement Policy and the associated regulations, so that every bidder is judged on the same basis. It recruits consulting firms and individuals both for assignments administered by the borrower and for technical assistance administered by ADB, managing them through the Consultant Management System. For a typical consulting assignment the path is:

1. Register in the CMS. Firms and individual consultants create a profile in the Consultant Management System, which ADB uses to advertise and manage consulting recruitment.
2. Expression of interest. In response to a consulting recruitment notice, firms submit an EOI through the CMS with evidence of relevant experience.
3. Shortlist. ADB or the executing agency evaluates the submissions and draws up a shortlist, usually of about six firms.
4. Request for proposals. Shortlisted firms receive the RFP, the terms of reference, and the selection method.
5. Proposals. Firms submit a technical proposal, including expert CVs, and, for most methods, a separate financial proposal.
6. Evaluation and award. Technical and financial scores are combined using the weights set in the RFP, and the winning firm is invited to negotiate the contract.

The most common consultant selection method is Quality- and Cost-Based Selection (QCBS), which scores technical quality and price together. Other methods, such as QBS, CQS, FBS, and LCS, apply to specific situations, and individual assignments use individual consultant selection.

Preparing a competitive ADB bid takes weeks, so start as soon as a relevant notice appears. Practical steps:

1. Register in the CMS early, so you can receive notices and submit expressions of interest without delay.
2. Read the full project. Open the project record and procurement plan to understand scope, budget, and timeline.
3. Confirm eligibility. Check country eligibility, experience thresholds, and conflict-of-interest rules before you commit.
4. Assemble the team early. Identify the experts you will propose and collect their CVs.
5. Write to the terms of reference. Map your technical proposal directly to the evaluation criteria.
6. Prepare the financial proposal separately, keeping it consistent with the staffing and inputs in the technical proposal.
7. Submit before the deadline, through the CMS or the channel named in the notice.

Silka brings live ADB opportunities together with feeds from the World Bank, EBRD, AIIB, IsDB, and UZEX, so you can track them without checking each portal by hand. With Silka you can:

• See active ADB notices filtered by sector, country, and procurement method.
• Open the original project record and procurement plan directly from each listing.
• Generate expert CVs and assemble the technical and financial proposals.
• Invite independent experts into a specific tender workspace and track readiness against the deadline.