REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Mid term Assessment of Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health Program in Uttarakhand

  1. BACKGROUND

One of the primary aims of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), launched in April 2005, was to provide universal access to equitable, affordable and quality health care through promoting decentralization of health services. Its other goals include responding to the needs of the people, reducing infant and maternal mortality, preventing and controlling diseases, providing access to integrated and comprehensive primary health care and achieving population stabilization and gender and demographic balance. Its vision is to provide effective health care to the rural population. Uttarakhand Health and Family Welfare Society (UKHFWS) aims to improve the health care provisions for the population of the state through National Rural Health Mission and external funding from USAID under Innovation in Family Planning services (IFPS) Grant.

The Government of Uttarakhand is running “Understanding and Addressing Adolescent Needs (UDAAN)”, an adolescent health initiative since 2008 in four districts (Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainital and Uddham Singh Nagar) of the state. Amid term evaluation of the program has been proposed to assess the current health status of the adolescents besides appraising the status of the ongoing program activities.

This request for proposals (RFP) is being issued to short-list firms to formally compete in order to select research agencies for conducting the midterm Assessment Studyof ARSH program in Uttarakhand. On the basis of criteria that are used in this RFP, the firms / research agencies should submit technical and financial proposals for conducting the midterm study.UKHFWS will select one of the bidding firms to implement this study.

  1. RFP INSTRUCTIONS

This RFP is floated under the financial assistance from USAID and is open to Indian agencies only. The agency will have to provide along with the proposal full details of the key persons and their responsibilities in the assignment along with the CVs of the master trainers having experience in conducting such trainings whether in the state of Uttarakhand or in any other State in India. All proposals received by the deadline will be reviewed for responsiveness to the specifications outlined in these guidelines and the proposal format.

This document addresses the technical and financial evaluation procedures for the proposals. Proposals which are submitted late or are incomplete will not be considered in the review process. Proposals should be submitted separately for technical and financial bids through sealed envelopes; and should be prepared to the structural format set forth below. Proposals should be submitted no later than the date and time indicated on the cover page of this RFP, to the location indicated on the cover page.

DMH&FW, Govt. of Uttarakhand policy requires that contacted agency should provide professional, objective, and impartial advice and at all times hold the Government’s interests paramount, strictly avoid conflicts with other assignments or their own corporate interests and act without any consideration for future work.

Contacted agency shall have an obligation to disclose any situation of actual or potential conflict that impacts their capacity to serve the best interest of the DMH&FW, Govt. of Uttarakhand and UKHFWS, or that may reasonably be perceived as having this effect. Failure to disclose said situations may lead to the disqualification of the agency or the termination of its Contract.

No agency or current employees of the Government sector shall work as Consultants under their own ministries, departments or agencies. Recruiting former government employees of the Government to work for their former ministries, departments or agencies is acceptable provided no conflict of interest exists. When the agency nominates any government employee as Personnel in their technical proposal, such Personnel must have written certification from their government or employer confirming that they are on leave without pay from their official position and allowed to work full-time outside of their previous official position. Such certification shall be provided to the Client by the agency as part of their technical proposal.

The DMH&FW, Govt. of Uttarakhand, require that agency participating in UKHFWS -financed projects adhere to the highest ethical standards, both during the selection process and throughout the execution of a contract. In pursuance of this policy, the DMH&FW defines, for the purpose of this paragraph, the terms set forth below as follows:

  • “Corrupt practice” means the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting, directly or indirectly, of anything of value to influence the action of a public official in the selection process or in contract execution;
  • “Fraudulent practice” means a misrepresentation or omission of facts in order to influence a selection process or the execution of a contract;
  • “Collusive practices” means a scheme or arrangement between two or more consultants with or without the knowledge of the Grantee, designed to establish prices at artificial, non-competitive levels;
  • “Coercive practices” means harming or threatening to harm, directly or indirectly, persons or their property to influence their participation in a procurement process, or affect the execution of a contract.
  • UKHFWS will reject a proposal for award if it determines that the agency recommended for award has, directly or through an agent, engaged in corrupt, fraudulent, collusive or coercive practices in competing for the contract in question;
  • UKHFWS will cancel the portion of the fund allocated to a contract if it determines at any time that representatives of the Grantee or of a beneficiary of the fund were engaged in corrupt, fraudulent, collusive or coercive practices during the selection process or the execution of the contract, without the Grantee having taken timely and appropriate action satisfactory to the DMH&FW to remedy the situation.
  • UKHFWS will sanction an agency, including declaring the agency ineligible, either indefinitely or for a stated period of time, to be awarded a DMH&FW -financed contract if at any time determines that the Consultant has, directly of through an agent, engaged in corrupt, fraudulent, collusive or coercive practices in competing for, or in executing, a UKHFWS -financed or any other state department’s contract; and
  • UKHFWS will have the right to require that, in contracts financed by the DMH&FW, a provision be included requiring agency to permit the UKHFWS to inspect their accounts and records and other documents relating to the submission of proposals and contract performance, and have them audited by auditors appointed by the UKHFWS.
  1. OBJECTIVES

The primary objectives of the study are to:

  • Assess the mid-term progress of UDAAN program against the various components and the key barriers.
  • Study accessibility and acceptability (barriers) of health care services to adolescents

The secondary objectives are to:

  • Assess the healthcareneeds of school-going and out of school adolescents
  • Understand adolescents’ knowledge and perceptions towards healthcare in view of the UDAAN program and personal hygiene
  • Understand the community’s (parents, influencers, community health workers, PGE) perception towards adolescent health
  • Study service provider’s perception towards adolescent health and effective service delivery system for adolescent gauge the effectiveness of UDAAN interventions
  • Assess the peer group educators’ (PGE) opinion on functioning of the program and requirement of any strategy modification
  • Assess the retention rate and reasons for drop out among PGEs
  • Assess the number of activities conducted as against the proposed number of activities
  • Understand the problems associated with NGOs in carrying out the activities proposed in the contract
  1. TERMS OF REFERENCE

Type of Subcontract

This is a firm-fixed price subcontract for work specified in the scope of work. Payments to the subcontractor will be made by UKHFWS upon completion of the activities described in the scope of work, Section V, “Deliverables”.

  1. KEY IMPLEMENTATION ACTIVITIES

The midterm study has to be carried out in four districts, viz., Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainital and Uddham Singh Nagar.Both quantitative (semi-structured interview schedule) and qualitative (FGD and IDI) tools will be used to gather required information from the stakeholders associated with the program. Specifically, a semi structured interview schedule will be administered among the adolescents in selected villages covered in the program. Additionally, the study proposes Focus Group Discussion among parents of the adolescents. Again, other stakeholders such as NGO functionary, PRI member, PHC/CHC doctor, ANM/ASHA, Field trainer, and Peer Group Educator will be covered through in-depth interviews.

The following table presents district wise number and type of stakeholders to be covered under the study.

Districts/ Blocks / Number of interviews
Beneficiary/community / Service providers / NGO level
Adolescents / Parent / PRI member / CHC/ PHC Doctor / ANM/ LHV / RMP/ Pharmacist / ASHA / Peer Group Educator* / NGO functionary / Field trainers
Dehradun
Chakrata / 320 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 1
Doiwala / 320 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 1
Haridwar
Bahadrabad / 320 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 1
Khanpur / 320 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 1
U.S Nagar
Gadarpur / 320 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 1
Khatima / 320 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 1
Nainital
Haldwani / 320 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 1
Okhalkand / 320 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 1
Total / 2560 / 8 +2# / 8 / 8 / 8 / 8 / 8 / 40 / 8 / 8
* Efforts should be there to interview equal number of male and females
# Current and previous Nodal NGOs: SAMARPAN and HIHT

In each of the eight pilot blocks, 10 villages (primary sampling units (PSUs)) will be selected using simple random sampling from the list of 100 villages where the ARSH programme was implemented. In each PSU, house listing will be done to identify households with adolescent boys and girls aged 10-19 years and 32 adolescents will be selected using systematic random sampling. A total of 2,560 adolescents will be covered from 80 primary sampling units (PSUs) spread across 4 districts. All sampled adolescents will be interviewed to get information pertaining to health and nutritional status of adolescents, knowledge, perceptions of health and hygiene, accessibility and acceptability of health services, identify programme barriers and the impact of UDAAN intervention. UKHFWS will provide the list of all the selected PSUs / villages with identification details to the subcontractor.

House listing and Sample Selection:

  • The subcontractor will do the complete house listing and mapping of the sampled PSUs.
  • Only in case of larger villages (more than200 households), segmentation is permitted and 2 segments are to be selected for house listing and detailed enquiry.
  • The necessary village maps are to be collected and used for identifying the PSU boundaries before starting the household listing.

Interview Schedules:

UKHFWS will provide the interview schedule and guidelines to the subcontractor. The guidelines should cover issues like whether the targeted population have participated in any of the trainings, been to the adolescent friendly counseling centers, seen any UDAAN IEC materials, whether the program inputs improved the services available for adolescents and if there any change in their health seeking behaviors.

  • The subcontractor will translate and print the required number of interview schedule. and guidelines
  • The subcontractor will recruit and train the investigators, field editors and supervisors needed to collect data from stakeholders in thedistricts.

Data Collection, analysis and report writing:

  • Prepare the time schedule indicating the dates on which the household listing team and investigating teams will visit PSUs to list the households and collect information respectively.
  • Supervise the data collection to ensure quality.
  • Office editing of all the completed schedules before entering them.
  • Data entry, analysis and report writing

Programme Parameters and Assumptions:

The subcontractor will work closely with UKHFWS at all stages of the study. For planning purposes only and to provide consistent set of parameters under which your response to this request for proposals can best be prepared and evaluated. You should use the following assumption in proposing activities under the scope of work.

  • This midterm survey subcontract will run for 12weeks from the date of signing the subcontract including time for trainings for house listing team and investigators, house listing, data collection, office editing of filled in questionnaire, data entry, analysis and report writing.
  • The draft report with soft copy of cleaned data should be submitted to UKHFWSby not later than April 15, 2011 and final report by April 30, 2011.

Subcontractors Roles and Responsibilities for Linkages with UKHFWS:

The sub-contractor will ensure close collaboration between the UKHFWS staff and the subcontractor’s staff responsible for the survey implementation. There will be exchange of information at all stages of the study.

  • Submitting copies of time table for trainings, house listing and data collection
  • Submitting copies of house listing details of selected households
  • Submitting all filled in questionnaires

The subcontractor shall be responsible for supplying necessary personnel and organization resources to facilitate these linkages with UKHFWS staff. After subcontract award, specific guidelines will be developed jointly and implemented to allow subcontractors to collaborate with UKHFWS research team.

  1. DELIVERABLES

The deliverables include:

  • List of house-listers, mappers, investigators, supervisors and field-editors with educational qualifications recruited and trained to conduct the mid term assessment
  • Report on completion of listing of all PSUs and collection of data from selected households
  • Submission of draft report with key findings and soft copy of the data. The report should have recommendations from primary and secondary group on improving the programme.
  • Submission of final report
  1. CONFIDENTIAL CLAUSE

All documents, information, statistics and data collected by the short-listed agency in the discharge of obligations under the agreement shall remain confidential.

  1. CLAUSE FOR QUALITY CONTROL ISSUES
  • All the households of a PSU must be listed for the sampling. A PSU will be cancelled if more than 5 percent of households are found to be ignored in the listing operations.
  • Mapping and listing operation of households must be completed at least 5 days before the survey date.
  • Minimum qualification for all the field investigators, field editors and supervisorsrequires at least graduate.
  • At least 20 percent back check is required from field professionals of subcontractors.
  • Investigator’s payment should not be made on the basis of questionnaire/households covered.
  • Subcontractor have to preserve all filled in interview schedules and hard copy/cassettes (if recorded) of the transcripts of IDI and FGD for 6 months after completion of the task for any future requirement
  1. BIDDING PROCESS

The following steps will be taken in conducting the bidding process and selecting the winning agency

  • UKHFWSwill constitute the review panel for proposal responses. Evaluation criteria and a point based scoring system have been developed and included in this RFP.
  • Upon receipt of proposals on or before the due date, review committee members will independently review and score all written submissions. Scores will be calculated for technical, management and cost components of each proposal. Provide costs for each specific task separately.
  • The committee will then meet, scores based on the individual assessments will be aggregated, and the winner will be notified.
  1. REQUIREMENTS FOR RESPONSE

Agencies are required to submit the following in response to this RFP.

Technical Proposal

  • A statement on organization capabilities including:
  • A background summary of the agency outlining areas of expertise
  • A current list of clients; and any direct experience the agency has working on large surveys
  • Information indicating that proposed personnel will be available to carry out the tasks required to implement this project
  • A description of who will be assigned the tasks and how the project will be managed. Brief CVs of the staff to be assigned to the project must be enclosed.
  • A detailed description of how the agency will approach, plan and complete the scope of work outlined in RFP.
  • A proposed time table outlining the specific steps to be taken in completing the activities in the scope of work
  1. INSTRUCTIONS FOR COST ESTIMATES

For cost comparisons, bidders are requested to submit realistic and competitive cost estimates for each of the tasks, based on the specifications outlined in the scope of work. Cost estimates must be provided with sufficient information to justify the estimates. In other words, we request bidders to provide us with total costs, costs per task and unit costs where applicable.

For all cost estimates, adequate detail should be provided so that the basis of the estimate can be understood. All costs should be justified based on current market experience or with means for alternative validation.

  1. EVALUATION CRITERIA

Evaluation criteria for selecting the agency will include both technical and cost categories consistent with the scope of work including:

Technical approach and qualifications

Criteria / Points
Technical
  1. Agency background and experience
/ 15 points
  1. Knowledge about and prior experience of similar exercise
/ 15 points
  1. Technical approach and management plan
/ 35 points
Technical total / 65 points
Budget
  1. Cost per task and unit costs
/ 20 points
  1. Cost justification
/ 15 points
Budget total / 35 points
Total Points / 100 Points
  1. DUE DATE

Responses to this Request for Proposals are due no later than 4:00 pm on January 31st, 2010. Proposals delivered and/or received after the due date will not be considered and will be marked disqualified and returned. Agencies are requested to enclose soft copies of the proposals in CD with the proposals. Agencies are further requested to submit technical and financial proposal separately within a single envelop. Written responses in sealed cover can be mailed or hand delivered to:

The Executive Director

Uttarakhand Health & Family Welfare Society,

107, Chander Nagar, DG Health Campus,

Dehradun – 248001 (Uttarakhand)

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