REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Procurement of consultancy services
EGPAF Lesotho
LCA Office Complex, 30 Princess Margaret Road
FIRM DEADLINE: Friday, the 10th of March 2023 by 14:00 PM (Maseru time)
INTRODUCTION
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing pediatric HIV infection and eliminating pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention, care, and treatment programs. Founded in 1988, EGPAF works in 19 countries globally.
EGPAF Lesotho country office is one of the major HIV service partners of the Lesotho Ministry of Health (MOH), since 2004. EGPAF first opened doors in Lesotho in 2006. To support the Lesotho Program, EGPAF has received funding from several Donors to implement different projects in collaboration with the MOH. The EGPAF program support has been in the areas of pediatric & adult HIV care & treatment, Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT), tuberculosis (TB) services, TB/HIV integration; strategic information and evaluation, quality Improvement, operational research and health systems strengthening. In 2015/2016 the Foundation received an award through Providing Universal Service for HIV and AIDS in Lesotho (PUSH), a mechanism under United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Strengthening the TB and AIDS Response in Lesotho (STAR-L), a mechanism under Centre for Disease Control (CDC) which ended in 2020, and was then followed on by the Accelerating Lesotho’s Progress to Epidemic Control (ALPEC) through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
This award has facilitated the implementation of the services outlined above. For more information, please visit the Foundation’s website at: http://www.pedaids.org
OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT/SCOPE OF WORK
EGPAF now invites eligible individuals or firms (“Contractor” or “Consultant”) to submit proposals for the following consultancy services:
- Development and finalization of the Health Systems Strengthening-Human Resources, Integration of services and sustainability component.
- Epidemiologist to develop M&E chapter of the Lesotho Health Sector HIV/TB Strategic Plan 2023 – 2028 (HSHTSP), deliver the final M&E framework, and support in delivering a final coherent HSHTSP for HIV, TB and STIs 2023 – 2028.
- Development of STI and chronic viral hepatitis screening and management service component of the Lesotho Health sector HIV/TB Strategic plan 2023-2028(HSHTSP).
NB: Detailed Terms of reference and Request for Proposals can be viewed at http://www.pedaids.org/pages/contracting-opportunities
Background to the Assignment
The Government of Lesotho since 2004 has worked tirelessly to scale up access to comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment and care services to all Basotho through a nurse driven service delivery model in public facilities. Over the past 15 years, the HIV response has demonstrated resilience through key shifts in policy, strategy and innovation. Lesotho has consistently adopted guidance that supported local efforts to meet global UNAIDS 90 90 90 targets and attained HIV epidemic control in 2020. The successful adoption and implementation of option B+ for the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in 2013, Test and Treat for all in 2016, and differentiated HIV testing services in 2018, coupled with the scale up of improved advanced HIV disease management, differentiated service delivery, ART optimization, HIV drug resistance monitoring and management have been instrumental in propelling the country towards HIV epidemic control.
However, despite this progress in the response, new HIV infections remain unacceptably high, with high rates of HIV related stigma, discrimination and inequalities remaining prevalent especially among young people, women and key populations. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed and compounded these inequalities, threatening the gains made in the HIV response in Lesotho.
EVALUATION CRITERIA AND SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
The Foundation will accept the submissions from the qualified vendors that is the BEST VALUE (i.e. the Contractor that provides the most economically advantageous services to the Foundation and meets the minimum required specifications stated in this solicitation).
All proposals will be evaluated against the following Evaluation Criteria. Each proposal should contain the items listed in the Submission Requirements column in the following table. Please submit your Submission
Requirements in the order they appear below.
All documents must be written in English (or include an English translation of the document if necessary).
Completed submission packages must be delivered to Procurement Manager electronically to [email protected].
The deadline for submission is Friday, 10 March 2023 at 2:00pm (Maseru time).