Southern African Development Community Secretariat

SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY SECRETARIAT

CONSULTANCY FOR A STUDY TO ESTIMATE THE POPULATION OF SEX WORKERS, LONG DISTANCE TRUCK DRIVERS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS IN 11 CATCHMENT AREAS OF THE SADC HIV AND AIDS CROSS BORDER WELLNESS SITES

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS NO.

SADC/GF/CONSULTANCY/01/2017

Procurement entity: SADC SECRETARIAT

ISSUED ON: 2 FEBRUARY 2017

FIRST AND FINAL SET OF RESPONSES TO REQUESTS FOR CLARIFICATION

DATE OF ISSUE OF RESPONSES: 2 FEBRUARY 2017

SERIAL NO / REQUEST FOR CLARIFICATION / SADC RESPONSE
1 / On page 46, you mention three populations: sex workers, long distance truck drivers and community members. Can you please clarify “community members”. Is there a working definition on this? Are they located in particular catchment areas around the clinics. / A community member is any person residing in the catchment area of the wellness site. This group is important because it is not realistic to have a clinic in an area that would serve long distance truck drivers and sex workers only. Any member of the community who needs basic primary health care services can get such services from the wellness site. There is no other special definition of a community member
2 / On page, 47, you indicate 12 wellness sites established in Phase 1, please specify site locations and language medium used by populations at these sites / The eleven of the twelve wellness sites that were established in Phase 1 that are functional are in the following countries: Botswana (Kazungula); Malawi (Mwanza); Zimbabwe (Forbes, Beitbridge, Chirundu South and Victoria Falls); Swaziland (Ngwenya); South Africa (Ficksburg); Zambia (Chirundu North); and Namibia (Oshkango and Katima Mulilo). It is less clear what we mean by medium of communication – do you mean the official language of the hosting country or the local languages used? If you mean the local languages used, we may not be the most appropriate source for that information, This can be collected from the hosting countries.
3 / Is data being captured at the clinic on clinic attendance/ use of facilities by a) sex workers, b)LDTD, c) community members. I would assume this data is collected on monthly/regular basis. / Like any clinic, data are collected on a daily basis as clients are receiving services and consolidated monthly and quarterly. Yes, data are collected on the basis of the three categories of beneficiaries
4 / On page 48 under Objectives i, ii and iii, 32 CBI wellness sites are indicated. On page, 49 under Scope and Methodology, it is indicated that the research will focus on 11 functional wellness sites, established during phase 1. Please clarify number of sites where research activities are going to occur? / In all, there will be 32 wellness site but the research will be conducted in the catchment areas of 11 wellness sites. It is also important to note that the catchment area of a wellness site is roughly of radius 5kms.
5 / Do you have any data (previous surveys, previous research studies, attempts to map communities, density of settlements in catchment populations) of populations in these catchment areas. Will we be able to access this information? / The SADC Secretariat has not facilitated any studies. You may want to do your own searches perhaps you may find some individual researchers or NGOs that may have conducted studies.
6 / Given the amount of time for fieldwork at each site (3 days), researchers would need swift access to sex workers in vicinities around clinics. One would assume that clinic staff will be able to help with facilitating access. Apart from wellness clinics, are there other support services provided to sex workers (eg, NGO’s operating in the area), or other designated populations groups / Things are not uniform across wellness sites, in some site there may be support services while in others, there may not
7 / Size estimation usually consists of either capture: recapture, location based sampling or the multiplier method. All of these methods would require considerable time in the field. However, it seems you only budgeting 56 days in total for this study (3 days per site in the field, not including design, development of data collection tools, ethics submissions etc. ). Other options are more qualitative, but would not provide a rigorous size estimate. Can you please provide guidance about whether you require rigorous size estimation in 11 sites, and if so, is there flexibility on the days and budget? / What we want are numbers that reflect the prevailing situation and can be used for planning and resource allocation purposes. If you look at the different phases of the study, there is an inception phase which includes your understanding of the study, elaboration of the methodology, data collection tools and the limitations. There are days allocated for this phase.
8 / Is there a budget ceiling for this activity? / Definitely there is – but our approach is that the bidder must define the methodology and methods that they will use to realise the study objectives. These will then guide the activities that must be undertaken. It is on the basis of these activities that a budget will be drawn. You are therefore encouraged to present a budget consistent with your methodology and not departing too much from the days proposed in the RFP.
9 / Is ethical approval required for this study, and is this taken into account in the timelines and budget? / This study is part of an on-going programme and the SADC Secretariat will work around this with Member States. This is not the responsibility of the consultants.
10 / Are there 7 sites or 11? / We are not sure where the number 7 is coming from – the study will be conducted in the catchment areas of 11 wellness sites. Roughly the catchment area for each site has a radius of 5 kilometres
11 / Can we please get the list of catchment areas and sites? / The wellness sites are as follows: One in Botswana (Kazungula); One in Malawi (Mwanza); Four in Zimbabwe (Beitbridge, Forbes, Chirundu South; and Victoria Falls); One in Zambia (Chirundu North); One in South Africa (Ficksburg); One in Swaziland (Ngwenya); and Two in Namibia (Katima Mulilo and Oshkango).

PLEASE NOTE: ALL OTHER INSTRUCTIONS REMAIN UNCHANGED

End of Responses

Kondanani Miti – Procurement Officer

Southern African Development Community

CBD Plot 54385

Phone: (267) 395 1863 | Fax: (267) 397-2 848