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Issuance Date: Monday, January 11, 2010
Closing Date: Monday, February 1, 2010
Closing Time: 12 Noon, Geneva Time
Subject: Request For Proposal No.: TGF-10-003
Recruitment of the Technical Review Panel Experts 2010-2012
The Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is seeking proposals from experienced organizations to assist in the recruitment of experts for the Technical Review Panel (TRP).
You are invited to submit an application based on the background, guidelines and instructions for submission in the following pages.
Sincerely,
Orion Yeandel
Contracts Specialist
ATTACHMENT A
INVITATION TO APPLY
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) No. TGF-10-003
Recruitment of the Technical Review Panel Experts 2010-2012
Issuance Date: January 11, 2010
I. BACKGROUND
The Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) is a unique global public-private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing. The Global Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organizations to supplement existing efforts dealing with the three diseases.
II. OBJECTIVE
The recruitment of experts for the Technical Review Panel (TRP). This should be carefully targeted to reach a diverse range of experts with relevant skills and experience.
The aim of this recruitment process is to fill vacancies for Round 10 TRP membership and to create a pool of experts of approximately 110 people (TRP Support Group) to be called upon in future funding application review. The TRP recruitment is done through an open, transparent, criteria-based selection process.
III. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
A. Background: Technical Review Panel
To support the Global Fund in financing effective programs, the Board relies on an independent panel of international experts of health and development - the Technical Review Panel (TRP). The TRP reviews eligible grant proposals for technical merit (soundness of approach, feasibility and potential for sustainability). Based on this review the TRP recommends proposals for funding to the Board.
Currently, the TRP consists of a maximum of 40 experts. Each expert is appointed by the Board for a period of up to four Rounds of proposal review. However, this might change in the future.
The composition of the TRP covers expertise in HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and cross-cutting (including health systems) issues. Balances in terms of gender, regional representation and a mix of sectoral experience are taken into consideration in the composition of the panel.
The TRP membership shall:
(a) be representative of a wide array of expertise, both scientific and programmatic, with a preference for extensive program experiences;
(b) have geographically diverse experiences and include persons who work or have worked with a broad range of organizations in both developing and developed countries;
(c) include a balance of expertise in HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria prevention, care and treatment, as well as cross-cutting and health systems areas applicable to program implementation in resource-poor settings;
(d) include persons with extensive experience in the role of civil society/private sector in the field of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and/or malaria; and
(e) include, all other matters being equal, geographically and ethnically diverse representation, and a significant number of women and people living with and/or affected by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and/or malaria.
• TRP members serve in their personal capacities only. Members of the Secretariat and employees of the United Nations and its specialized agencies are ineligible to serve as TRP members. Board Members, Alternate Members, Focal Points and country coordinating mechanism members shall stand down from these roles if selected to serve on the TRP. TRP members are paid an honorarium for serving on the panel and their expenses.
B. The criteria for short listing/selection of TRP members
The following criteria will be used to shortlist and select new TRP members. These criteria will be used to ensure a skill mix which will enable the TRP to make judgments across all the agreed criteria by which they are asked to assess proposals.
Throughout this process, the recruitment of “experts” in very specialist areas is avoided. This is because it is important that the membership of the TRP continues to be drawn from people who have an overall broad understanding of the diseases, programming at country level, and key issues that impact implementation capacity (even if the reviewers have a particular interest in one field or another).
Applicants should be available for dates of TRP meetings, though this should be a pre-requisite of applying rather than a criterion. In 2010 the TRP meeting (in person meeting) is planned for the last two weeks in October, which is followed by clarification process for approved proposals for up to four months (by e-mail, for in average 3-6 working days in total).
• Disease specific experts:
o Experience and expertise in at least one of the three diseases;
o Expert knowledge with internationally accepted best practice and ability to judge whether proposals are consistent with this and scientifically sound;
o Familiarity with international processes and national / global partnerships (e.g. Stop TB, RBM, UNAIDS, National AIDS Control Programmes);
o Familiarity with multi-sectoral approaches, particularly for HIV ;
o Expertise in tackling the diseases in a developing country context.
o Experience in reviewing and/or evaluation of scientific or programme grant applications in a national or international context
• Cross Cutters:
o Experience / understanding of current development processes and best practice (including national planning, prioritisation, budgeting and implementation systems) and ability to make judgements on whether proposals build on, complement and co-ordinate with these;
o Experience of working in developing countries;
o Understanding of key challenges to achieving better health outcomes and ability to make judgements on feasibility of implementing proposals in developing country context and likelihood of delivering increased coverage of key interventions;
o Familiarity with international health and healthcare institutions and processes and national / global partnerships (eg Stop TB, RBM, UNAIDS, National AIDS Control Programmes) and NGOs;
o Understanding of issues around financial management, supply and distribution; ability to appraise governance and institutions in an healthcare context ;
o Ability to assess high-level political involvement and commitment, whether this is reflected in the allocation of national resources, and whether Global Fund money is additional;
o Ability to judge whether monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and indicators are realistic / appropriate;
o Basic understanding of diseases-specific issues (see above);
o Expert knowledge of health systems in a developing country context;
o Expert Knowledge of social services and needs of people living with the diseases and orphans;
o Programmatic Experience, including familiarity with PRSP and sectoral approaches (e.g. SWAps), as well as human capacity development.
Selection will made on the basis of applicants who perform best against the above criteria. Wherever possible consistent with this, the selection of members will also seek to achieve a significant proportion of members from each of the geographical regions, and sufficient representation of women and experts from public and private sectors and civil society.
A qualified member from the persons living with or affected by the diseases community should be actively recruited among applicants.
All selected TRP members would be subject to the Fund's conflict of interest and confidentiality policy.
C. Specific deliverables
For this TRP recruitment process, the company is expected to:
1. In close collaboration with the Global Fund Secretariat, revise the Application Form and the Advertisement to reflect the relevant changes since 2006 when the last TRP recruitment occurred;
2. Suggest and place advertisements in scientific journals in addition to those with wide distribution such as The Herald Tribune, the Economist, Le Monde, Le Figaro etc. and on relevant websites, e-mail to potentional candidates. Suggest other channels to solicit applications to ensure that sufficient number and diverse qualified experts apply.
3. In close collaboration with the Global Fund Secretariat, draft the assessment criteria, receive, screen and assess applications against these. In this regard it is important that consultants evaluating applications have relevant scientific and technical expertise.
4. Produce a full list of ranked applications within each category, and a shortlist for each category, with the following approximate numbers per category:
- HIV: 28
- Cross Cutters, including HSS: 54
- TB: 16
- Malaria 16
And provide assessment sheets for each of these.
The expected performance period is up to 6 months, which involves:
- Initial meeting – February 2010;
- Call for applications - 1 May 2010;
- Deadline for applications – 30 June 2010;
- Screening/shortlisting/report on the process – July 2010
- References for shortlisted candidates/final meeting – August 2010.
The timeframes will be confirmed at the initial meeting.
HOW TO APPLY: SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Offerors are requested to submit their proposal by e-mail attachment formatted in Microsoft Word and/or Excel. Electronic copies should be addressed as follows: orion.yeandel@theglobalfund.org or Solicitation@TheGlobalFund.org.
Your two-part proposal must include the following elements:
Part I -Technical Proposal
The technical component of your proposal should be concisely presented and structured, and should explain in detail your ability, capacity and resources to provide the requested services. In this regard please provide us with:
1. Recruitment strategic approach, including communication strategy;
2. CVs of :
a. Technical Coordinator/Task Manager;
b. Senior Administrative Officer (day-to day contact);
c. 3-5 Panel members for the first stage and second stage screening and short listing of applications);
3. At least two past projects relevant to the work requested, highlighting the challenges encountered and outcomes achieved
Part II - Cost Proposal
Cost is an important factor in our selection criteria. Given the humanitarian, developmental and non-profit character of the Global Fund, proposals including preferential rates, will be appreciated. Your cost proposal must be detailed (number of days estimated and daily rates for each of the persons involved should be provided) and in a single currency.
Each part must be submitted as a separate electronic file and labeled as follows:
Organization Name-tec-003
Organization Name-cost-003
All proposals must be submitted in English. The RFP number must be clearly indicated in the subject line.
Proposals which are incomplete or non-responsive may not be considered in the review process.
The Global Fund may, at its discretion, place a closing date, close the RFP, or revise the terms of reference, by issuing an amendment to this solicitation.
The Global Fund may award one or more contracts resulting from this RFP to the responsible Offeror(s) whose proposal(s) conforming to this RFP offers the greatest value in terms of the selection criteria. The Global Fund may (a) reject any or all proposals, (b) accept other than the lowest cost proposal, (c) accept more than one proposal, (d) accept alternate proposals, (e) waive informalities and minor irregularities in proposals received, and (f) cancel this RFP.
The Global Fund may award one or more contracts on the basis of initial proposals received, without discussions or negotiations. Therefore, each initial proposal should contain the Offeror's best terms from a cost and technical standpoint. The Global Fund reserves the right (but is not under obligation to do so) to enter into discussions with one or more Offerors in order to obtain clarifications or additional detail, to suggest refinements in the technical proposal or other aspects of the proposal, or negotiate the cost proposal.
The Global Fund will be under no obligation to reveal, or discuss with any Offeror, how a proposal was assessed, or to provide any other information relative to the selection process.
Offerors whose proposals are not selected will be notified in writing of this fact, and shall have no claim whatsoever for any kind of compensation.
Offerors are solely responsible for their own expenses, if any, in preparing and submitting an offer to this Request for Proposal. This would include any costs incurred during functional demonstrations and subsequent meetings and negotiations.
This RFP shall not be construed as a contract or a commitment of any kind. This request for proposals in no way obligates the Global Fund to award a contract, nor does it commit the Global Fund to pay any cost incurred in the preparation of the proposal.
EVALUATION PROCESS
A technical evaluation committee will be established by the Global Fund to rate the technical proposals. Each member of the committee will evaluate each technical proposal in accordance with the technical evaluation criteria stated in this section to determine if the proposal is acceptable. Full and impartial consideration will be given to all offers received pursuant to this solicitation, and the evaluation will be conducted in the same manner. The Global Fund Corporate Procurement Team will evaluate the cost proposals.
The Global Fund intends to award to one responsible and responsive Offeror whose proposal are the most advantageous to the Global Fund, price and other factors considered. Technical, cost and other factors will be evaluated relative to each other, as described herein. The award selection will be made on a best value (technical or non-cost versus cost tradeoff) basis, where all non-cost factors will be significantly more important than cost.
