IntraHealth International Hiring for RFP from Service Provider to develop a learning program for the African Professi at Chapel Hill, NC  Full Time

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Date: May 11, 2023

Subject: Request for Proposal (RFP) from Service Provider to develop a learning program for the African Professionalisation Initiative (API) on Performance Audits of Health Sector Commodities.

Dear Sir/Madam,

1. USAID, Global Fund, GAVI and others provide significant funding for the procurement and supply chain management (PSM) of health commodities and services. USAID is providing funding to grow and strengthen the capacity of staff at Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI), internal auditors at Ministries of Health and local accountants to conduct quality performance audits on accountability and stewardship of funding and commodities. This activity will develop a learning program through API.
2. One aspect of the API’s work is the development of generic learning content that targets accountants and auditors working in the public sector with a view to making them competent, ethical, and influential professionals that support accountability, transparency and good finance governance. This learning program will cover the unique aspects of working as an accountant or auditor in the public sector. It will be offered in partnership with Professional Accounting Organizations (PAOs) to enable them to enhance the skills and knowledge of professional accountants and auditors working in or with the public sector.
3. You are hereby invited to submit a technical proposal and a firm fixed price cost proposal for service to be provided to IntraHealth International, Inc. Proposals should be received no later than 5pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on June 9, 2023. Your offer will include a technical proposal as well as a financial proposal, each sent separately in PDF format, duly signed.
4. Offerors with a team of individuals are invited to submit proposals. One individual cannot be considered to complete this entire scope of work.
5. Those interested in the bidding process can obtain additional information and have until 5pm EDT on May 19, 2023, to send questions via e-mail. All questions should be addressed to Vickie Hayes-McGee at and the subject line should read: “Develop Learning Program for Performance Audit of Health Sector Commodities for API.’
6. Proposals should be sent to Vickie Hayes-McGee at before June 9, 2023, at 5pm EDT. All proposals received after 5pm EDT will not be considered.
7. The duration of the contract to develop the learning program will be seven (7) months from the date of the award.
8. This letter cannot be construed as a legally binding contract between our organization and the entity you are representing.
9. This procurement is being funded by a US government contract. Refer to the eligibility requirements in Section M. below.

Please acknowledge receipt of this letter and let us know whether you plan on submitting a bid.

Sincerely,

Vickie Hayes-McGee

ASAP II Contracts and Grants Manager

DEFINITIONS, KEY TERMINOLOGY AND ACRONYMS

Preparation of proposals

Interested parties should prepare their proposals in response to this Request for Proposal to include all of the following sections: The technical proposal should be no more than 10 pages. Attachments can include CV’s, Company Registrations etc. The financial proposal should be no more than 3 pages and include budget assumptions.

B. Annex Letter

A one-page annex letter in English providing background and relevant details about the offeror submitting the proposal. This letter is to be signed by the President/Director of the company and include the name, address, and phone number for the company, as well as the contact person for this Request for Proposal.

The annex letter should state that the offeror will carry out the activities in accordance with the specifications contained in Attachment A. Proposed exceptions to any part of Attachment A must be detailed in an attachment to the annex letter.

B. Introduction

An overview of the proposed methodology, approach and quality assurance measures according to the understanding of the RFP. In this section, the offeror should demonstrate how it will effectively implement the proposed activities step by step as stipulated in Attachment A. The offerors will have to show that it has a clear comprehension of the requested mission.

C. Detailed Technical Plan

A detailed plan of the described tasks, along with a proposed work plan defining the key phases and activities of the mission, as well as the possible suggestions which contribute to obtaining expected results. The operational and technical part of the Proposal should not contain any information on the costs of the services offered. This financial information must be provided separately in the cost proposal.

D. Calendar of the Activities

The offerors will have to submit a calendar of the activities, with the dates of accomplishment. To support this, the offeror will have to present a planning and methodology of how they will execute the mission, along with a precise calendar for their intervention.

E. Qualifications and Competency of Key Staff

The offerors will have to list the key staff/consultants, their role, and function, the amount of time allocated for the project, as well as their CV. In this section, the offeror will indicate the various members of the personnel to be assigned to the project and their personal experience of their particular tasks.

Offerors will only be considered if their proposed team clearly has the skills and experience to develop all required modules and to implement the content onto the Moodle platform. Please see website for further information: https://moodle.org .

F. Material Capacity of the Company

The offerors will have to submit material capacity of their company and any important information which qualifies them to undertake the work in Attachment A. In this section, the offerors will provide detailed explanations about the level of human and material resources that will be made available to ensure the proper and effective execution of the mission.

G. Cost proposal

The cost proposal must be a separate document from the technical proposal. The cost and technical proposals should be submitted in separate emails. A detailed justification of the budget and cost of achievement of the activities must be submitted. Each budgetary heading must be justified in a narrative format and the cost for each task included to these categories:

1. Administrative and management costs
2. Personnel costs assigned to the project
3. Transport costs
4. All other related costs

As there is no template for the cost proposal, you are required to ensure all costs are included in the four cost categories.

H. Ethical and Business Conduct Requirements

IntraHealth is committed to integrity in procurement, and only selects offerors based on objective business criteria such as price and technical merit. IntraHealth expects contractors to comply with our . Please cut and paste this link into a browser:

I. Proposal Validity Period

Proposals shall remain valid and unit cost prices unchanged for 90 days after the proposals are submitted. A Proposal valid for a shorter period shall be rejected as non-responsive.

J. Administrative Documents

All important documents need to be submitted, such as curriculum vitae (CVs), or any other information, that the offeror feels relevant to be considered in the technical proposal such as:

1. Headquarters contact information.
2. Legal registration document of the company/consultant for consulting work in the country of operation/registration
3. USG required Unique Entity Identifier
4. At least three references of clients for whom the offeror has recently provided services similar to those described herein.

K. Evaluation and comparison of the Proposals

International IntraHealth, Inc. will coordinate the Proposal Evaluation Committee (PEC) team amongst interested parties from API, PAFA USAID, IFAC, GAVI, and Global Fund. Considering that the technical proposal and the cost proposal will be sent separately, the evaluation of the proposals will be processed in two phases. The evaluation of the technical proposal will be done before the opening and the comparison of the financial proposals.

Financial proposals will be opened only for those proposals which will have received the minimal technical score of 70% (based on the grade coefficients below). The technical proposal is evaluated based on how the company responds to the requirements of the RFP.

During the second phase, the financial proposals of all the offerors that have obtained the minimal technical score of 70% during the technical evaluation will be evaluated, but will not be assigned a rating. The evaluation of cost will include a determination of cost realism, completeness, and reasonableness. Cost realism is defined as the offeror’s ability to project costs which are realistic for the work to be performed, reflect a clear understanding of the requirements; and are consistent with the offeror’s technical capacity.

Criteria of Technical Proposal Evaluation

Technical Proposal	Weight
Extensive knowledge of the public sector context, health commodity procurement and supply chain management and public sector accounting in Africa.	30%
Proven experience with competency frameworks, developing curricula, syllabi, student material, and teaching material, drawing on an extensive understanding of the International Education Standards and input from key stakeholders.	20%
Proven experience in developing online learning program content and implementing the content on Moodle Platform and capabilities in HTML and JavaScript programming.	30%
A track record of high-quality projects completed within scope, budget, and timeline giving rise to sustainable outcomes.	20%
Total	100%

Criteria of Cost Proposal Evaluation

Cost Proposal	Weight
Rates fall within industry standard.	25%
Technical quality assurance is reasonably included	25%
Allocation for IT uploading is reasonable	25%
Indirect costs are reasonable	25%
Total	100%

L. Attribution of the Contract

International IntraHealth, Inc. will award the contract to the offeror whose proposal, after evaluation, is considered as the most responsive to the needs of IntraHealth and the requirements of the activity, and that provides the best value to IntraHealth, technical and financial factors combined. IntraHealth reserves the right to award in whole or in part, or to make no award at all.

The contract will stipulate the terms and conditions of IntraHealth International, Inc.

M. Eligibility Requirements

Subcontractors making bids of $30,000 or more must have a US Government issued Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) to be eligible for a subcontract. The UEI must be included in the bid. IntraHealth reserves the right to disqualify offerors that do not have UEI.

Attachment A – Scope of Work

BACKGROUND

Public sectors in Africa face a significant shortage of accountants and auditing professionals. Public funds are often managed by individuals with no formal qualifications or training. Existing accounting and audit qualifications are usually delivered and assessed in a private sector context, and therefore do not adequately address the unique complexities of accounting and auditing in the public sector. Consequently, most audit professionals tend to work in the private sector. The shortage of a sufficient number of competent accountants and audit professionals in the public sector is often cited as one of the root causes of corruption and inefficiency in the public sector. The African Professionalisation Initiative (API) () has been created to respond to this problem.

One aspect of the API’s work is the development of generic learning content that targets accountants and auditors working in the public sector with a view to making them competent, ethical and influential professionals that support accountability, transparency and good finance governance. This learning program will cover the unique aspects of working as an accountant or auditor in the public sector. It will be offered in partnership with Professional Accounting Organizations (PAOs) to enable them to enhance the skills and knowledge of professional accountants and auditors working in or with the public sector.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in collaboration with International Federation of Accountants, GAVI the Vaccine Alliance, and the Global Fund, is supporting API to strengthen public financial management systems in the health sector. The collaboration is formalized through a multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to support the development of strong PAOs to contribute to the enhancement of public financial management, reporting, accountability, and transparency; and to improve the public financial management systems to support sustainable health outcomes and impact.

Through the MOU, the multilateral collaboration is supporting the API to grow the capacity of a country’s Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) staff and local accountants through API professionalisation learning platform. It is intended that, through partnership with the API, a PAO will be able to make use of the API learning resources to deliver local training. Through a process of local certification, the API learning programs may form part of a pathway to a professional designation. All API learning programs drive specific competencies based on a Competency Framework and mapped to specific courses and intended to meet IFAC and INTOSAI Education and professionalisation standards in line with the API Learning provider accreditation arrangements.

USAID, Global Fund and GAVI among others provide significant funding for the procurement and supply chain management (PSM) of health commodities and services, such as Pharmaceuticals, Vaccines, Equipment, IT Systems and Implementation, PSM training, Outsourced warehousing and distribution services etc. The objective of the USAID funded activity is to grow the capacity of SAI existing and new staff, internal auditors working in the Ministry of Health and local accountants through API Learning Programs to strengthen the SAI’s capacity to conduct quality performance audits on for accountability and stewardship of such commodities and funds.

The main activity for this RFP is to develop the performance audit learning program for healthcare commodities procurement and supply chain performance for API. The API learning programs follow a building block approach. Generic content, such as that developed under this project, can be supplemented by local content which provides the learner with a country-specific perspective.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

USAID has requested Accelerating Support to Advanced Local Partner II (ASAP II) to seek a service provider/consultant to develop a digital learning program on performance audits on supply chain of healthcare commodities and the associated broad risks. The specific tasks include:

1. Develop learning objectives, core competencies and skills.
2. Develop strategies for learning assessments and/or outcomes.
3. Course content with learning and formative and evaluative assessments.
4. Digitize course material for online delivery on the API Online Learning Platform.
5. Coordinate pilot and pretesting in two countries.

The training will be targeted at SAI staff, internal auditors in the Ministry of Health and local accountants to contribute to anti-corruption work and inefficient use of funds within the health sector related to issues with substandard and falsified (SF) medical products and theft, fraud, and misuse in public health procurement and supply chain management. The consultant will develop the generic learning content in accordance with the API’s required structure and format. The consultant will also be required to implement the content into the Online Learning Platform (OLP). This will require the consultant to have team members capable of HTML and JavaScript programming in the context of the Moodle platform. It will not be possible to meet the minimum requirements for this project as an individual (see section on quality assurance below).

Offerors will only be considered if their proposed team clearly has the skills and experience to develop all required modules and to implement the content onto the Moodle platform. Please see website for further information: https://moodle.org .

PRINCIPLES

The following principles must be adhered to throughout the development of the learning content.

1. All learning content to be developed in alignment with API learning development approach.
2. Intellectual property will remain with USAID for their future use and to adapt to different country contexts.
3. All learning content must conform, where applicable, to the relevant international standards, including those developed by the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), African Organization of English-speaking Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI-E), International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, International Accounting Education Standards by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), and other internationally recognized learning development guidance for performance audits.
4. For topics where there are not specific international standards, content should be based on international good practice, with particular consideration to guidance from USAID, Global Fund GAVI Alliance, IFAC, INTOSAI, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Reference should also be made to internationally recognized assessment tools such as the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) tool and the SAI Performance Management Framework (SAI PMF).

All learning content must be:

1. Generic in nature, that is, it should be of relevance to all African countries (translation to other languages is planned for the future but will not form part of this project).
2. Focus distinctly on the public sector perspective. The content must be innovative in the extent to which it incorporates public health commodities specific as part of financial management and the public sector context.
3. Developed in a manner appropriate to the learning needs of current and new audit staff for the SAI.

• Structured in a manner that makes it simple for a PAO to add accompanying local content to the generic content without reducing the standard of the learning materials.
• Developed in a format that is easy to update and maintain.

REPORTING ARRANGEMENTS

1. The consultant will work closely with the API and ASAP II.
2. The consultant will share updates with the collaborating partners on a regular basis.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

1. The consultant is responsible for ensuring the quality of all project deliverables.
2. The consultant is expected to include an internal quality review process for all project deliverables. This review should include consideration of both technical and pedagogical expectations.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

The project will be monitored and evaluated by API and ASAP II in accordance with contract requirements.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

All rights of ownership and use of the intellectual property produced under this project will be held by USAID. With the express written approval of a duly authorized representative of USAID, AFROSAI-E and the service provider selected to develop the learning program may use the course content material for future adaptations for the benefit of the API . It is incumbent on the consultant to ensure that all content produced is original and does not infringe on the copyright of any other party.

MANAGEMENT

IntraHealth International will seek approval from API on the deliverables before payments are made to the supplier.