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Request for Proposal

Uttarakhand Health & Family Welfare Society

SOCIAL MARKETING OF SANITARY NAPKINS IN FOUR DISTRICTS OF UTTARAKHAND

RFP Issue Date: 19-04-2011

Last Date of RFP: Submission: 10-06-2011 till 5.00PM

RFP Issued by: Executive DirectorUttarakhand Health & Family Welfare

Society,107, Chander Nagar, Health Campus,Dehradun – 248001 (Uttarakhand)Ph – 0135 – 2622166, 2520170

Issued Under USAID Funded IFPS Program: 6th Set of Benchmarks – BM # 55 1

SECTION I: PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

1. BACKGROUND

1.1 Introduction

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. 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. Adolescent health is a key technical programme under the National Rural Health Mission.

Uttarakhand Health and Family Welfare Society (UKHFWS) was constituted in the year 2002 with an aim to serve as an umbrella society for all national programmes and effect health sector reforms with the help of external funding agencies such as European Commission and USAID. UKHFWS aims to improve the provision of quality health care services in the state and their spread in this hilly region.

The Society has decided to outsource the activity for Social Marketing of Sanitary Napkins in four districts of Uttarakhand to a reputed and experienced agency. The said activity is to be pilot tested in the districts of Dehradun, Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar under the Understanding and Addressing Adolescent Needs (UDAAN) programme, an Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH) activity.Details of the activity and related programme are subsequently mentioned in the document.

1.2 Adolescents in Uttarakhand

Adolescents comprise nearly one fourth of the population in the state of Uttarakhand, with equal distribution of males and females. These young people live in diverse socio-economic circumstances and have diverse needs.

Total Rural Urban

Total Male Female Total Male Female Total Male FemaleAdolescents (14-19 yrs) % 13.4 13.7 13.1 13.4 13.7 13.0 13.6 13.8 13.3Youth (15-24 yrs)% 19.7 19.8 19.6 19.2 19.0 19.3 21.3 22.0 20.4

Source: Census 2001It was based on the need of these adolescents that Government of Uttarakhand initiated the “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.

1.2.1 Status of adolescent health in four selected districts


Almost 62 percent of the four-district population lives in the rural areas and 47 percent of the total population in these four districts constitutes of females. The baseline survey report 1 for UDAAN indicates that 94-96 percent adolescents are literate, and among them, predominantly 62 percent are studying at the secondary level. Nearly 34.5 percent adolescents dropped out of school, mostly girls (60.1 percent).

As per baseline survey report, about 5 percent of adolescents in the age group of 13 to 15 years are engaged in economic activities and nearly 26 percent among girls and more than 40 percent among boys in the age group of 16 to 19 years are economically active. More than 10 percent of adolescents in the above mentioned group have had some vocational training.

Hygiene practices amongst adolescents particularly among girls are very poor. Adolescents hardly have correct knowledge of menstruation and hygiene and only 7 to 13 percent of adolescents know about it correctly. Adolescents make little use of the health services either because of distance or because of lack of parental consent. The study also indicates the overall usage of the sanitary napkins among adolescent girls in the project districts, which is given in this table-

Dehradun Nainital Haridwar Udham Singh Nagar

% of adolescents using the Sanitary Napkins in the age-group of 14-19 Years in respective Project- Udaan Districts

42.2% 25.9% 23.2% 26.9%

IFPS Technical Assistance Project (ITAP) conducted a detailed baseline study for the UDAAN project, which may be found with the annexure-I.

1.3 Understanding and Addressing Adolescent Needs (UDAAN) Programme

UDAAN aims to make health care services more accessible and acceptable by increasing utilization of services, improving health by positively impacting behaviours, reducing unhealthy high-risk behaviours, delaying age at marriage for boys and girls, etc. Specific objectives also include building skills and capacity, and empower parents to tackle barriers that make it difficult for youth to access services, increase service usage at adolescent-friendly clinics by setting standards for quality, build capacity of health care providers to improve service performance for delivering adolescent-friendly services and establishing a convergence of stakeholders in providing a comprehensive package of services for adolescents based on their needs.

1.3.1 Programme Objective To make health care services more accessible and acceptable to adolescents To build the capacity of health providers to improve service performance for the

delivery of adolescent-friendly services

1 A Baseline Survey for Adolescent Health Initiative, Uttarakhand (March 2010) by Futures Group International, New Delhi


To establish convergence of various stakeholders in providing a comprehensive package of services for the adolescents based on their needs.

1.3.2 Area of OperationThe Programme is operational in four districts of Uttarakhand, namely, Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainital and Uddham Singh Nagar. Details for these districts are as per the table below:

DistrictsTot

Population (Rural)*

Female Population

(Rural)*

Female Population (14 -19 Yrs)

Rural*

% of rural adolescent females to total rural

female population*

Number of

villages*

Number of

ASHAs**

Dehradun 603401 288096 33688 11.7 746 1110Haridwar 1000912 466874 57535 12.3 510 1410Nainital 493859 236903 26905 11.4 1082 933U. S Nagar 832600 397946 45808 11.5 656 1235*Error! Not a valid link.Source: Census 2001 **Source: Uttrakhand Health and Family Welfare Society Records

1.3.3 Target AudienceThe target audience for the campaign is youth between the ages of 14 to 19 years, rural school-going and out-of-school adolescent boys and girls and married adolescents

1.3.4 Key Issues of UDAANKey issues that are being addressed under the UDAAN programme are-

Utilisation of services in Adolescent Friendly Centers (AFC) at the village level Utilisation of services in Adolescent Friendly Clinics and Counseling Centers (AFCC) at the

Primary Health Centers (PHCs) Specific health behaviours based on planned interventions such as anemia - weekly IFA

and six monthly de-worming Menstrual hygiene and concerns related to menstruation Family planning Saying ‘ No’ to high risk behaviors – abstinence from smoking, alcohol/drugs etc. Delay in age at marriage School drop outs Messages for parents – addressing barriers for not allowing adolescents to access

services Standards for AFCs.

One of the main components of the UDAAN programme is promoting the concept of menstrual hygiene.

1.3.5 Nongovernment Organisations (NGOs) and Peer Group Educators (PGEs)


Twelve Nongovernment Organisations (NGOs) have been contracted across the four districts in Uttarakhand under the UDAAN project. These NGOs are training PGEs and sensitizing them on issues pertaining to adolescent health and hygiene. It is envisaged that there will be nearly 3200 PGEs in the 27 blocks across four intervention districts.

1.3.6 Behaviour Change Communication The strategic approach and objectives of the campaign include, through advocacy, skill and capacity building, enhanced knowledge and awareness messaging, empowerment, and demand generation for services accessible to youth. The Interventions & Activities under the campaign includes development of training modules on key areas including hygiene practices among others. A formative study was conducted to understand the communication needs, aspirations and role models of the adolescents. Based on this a BCC strategy was developed for the UDAAN program as a whole followed by developing an integrated campaign. The campaign headline was ‘Taiyaar Ho’ (Get Ready). This aspirational campaign motivates all audiences involved in ensuring and helping adolescents get ready for a healthy, successful and thinking future. Additional Information about the Project UDAAN may be found in Annexure-II

2. PROJECT STRATEGY AND OBJECTIVES

2.1 Need for the ProjectIn Uttarakhand, as in other parts of India, menstruation and menstrual practices are clouded by taboos and socio-cultural restrictions for women as well as among adolescent girls. Limited access to products for sanitary hygiene, and lack of safe sanitary facilities could prove to be barriers to increased mobility and the likelihood of resorting to unhygienic practices to manage menstruation. Traditionally there are three primary practices prevalent : (1) use of old clothes as pads by recycling them; (2) no protection; and (3) making disposable pads with materials at home. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the lack of access to menstrual hygiene (which includes sanitary napkins, toilets in schools, availability of water, privacy and safe disposal) could constrain school attendance and possibly contribute to local infections during this period.As per the baseline survey report, usage of sanitary napkins among adolescents(14-19 Years) is more than 42 percent in Dehradun, nearly 26 percent in Nainital, nearly 23 percent in Haridwar and more than 26 percent in Udham Singh Nagar. At the same time, nearly 80 percent of the adolescents in these districts do not have access to sanitary napkins for various reasons.In an effort to increase access to sanitary napkins and influence menstrual hygiene among adolescents, Government of Uttarakhand is initiating a social marketing project in four districts of Dehradun, Nainital, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar. This will be a pilot project and based on this experience the intervention will subsequently be scaled-up across the state. The project will aim to promote the concept of menstrual hygiene by providing low-cost-high-quality sanitary napkins to adolescent girls primarily and other women who are in the need of it through the UDAAN network.

2.2 Strategic Objectives


To increase access to and use of low-cost high-quality sanitary napkins to young girls in the age group of 14-19 in four districts of Uttarakhand with particular emphasis on low income families through appropriate innovative and sustainable distribution models;

To increase awareness among young girls in the age group of 14-19 on menstrual hygiene along with correct usage of sanitary napkins; and

To build capacities of ASHAs and AWWs to counsel target audience on use of sanitary napkins and menstrual hygiene as well as serve as community based depot holders for the product.

2.3 Specific Objectives

Increase in sanitary napkin users to 50 percent, 36 percent, 33 percent and 36 percent in Dehradun, Nainital, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar respectively, among young girls (14-19 years) by February 2012.

At least 2500 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs)/Anganwadi workers (AWWs) and 1400 outlets are incorporated in the network for sales and distribution of sanitary napkins by the agency.

At least 60 percent of the number of ASHAs trained, continue to sell the product at the end of project.

2.4 Target Audience

The primary target audience is young girls in the age group of 14-19 years. The secondary audience includes key influencers such as parents, especially mothers (for resources to purchase sanitary napkins) and school teachers. In addition, the distribution network developed would also make sanitary napkins available to women who would like to use the product.

2.5 Increasing Access to Sanitary Napkins up to the Village Level

There are nearly 3000 villages in the four districts of Dehradun, Nainital, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar. The selected agency will be required make sanitary napkins available in at least one retail outlet and other points of distribution- ASHA and Anganwadi Workers(AWWs) through the NGOs, in at least 50 percent villages in each district. Agencies can suggest innovative mechanisms to increase reach.

The agency will be required to work with the 12 NGOs working under the UDAAN project to reach ASHAs and AWWs as community based distributors for sanitary napkins. These NGOs already have an established link with the ASHAs in their areas. The NGOs will be required to (1) involve ASHAs and AWWs for the social marketing project; (2) provide trainings to ASHAs and AWWs on menstrual hygiene and distribution of sanitary napkins; (3) conduct monthly meetings with ASHAs and AWWs; (4) forecast product requirement, maintain stocks of sanitary napkins and replenish stocks for ASHAs and AWWs; (5) compile reports of ASHAs and AWWs and submit to social marketing agency; and (6) address concerns related to sanitary napkin usage in communities.

The agency should also suggest mechanisms for establishing linkages of NGOs and community based distributors with wholesalers or other distribution channel members for sustainability and product availability even after the project life. Competitive pricing structure of sanitary napkins


through this contract is indeed going to be a strategic imperative for ensuring the sustainability of the network. Hence, various innovative below the line activities for leveraging the sales for each of the channel partners need detailing. Such activities may include various push and pull strategies, viz- trade and consumer promotion mechanisms, merchandising activities etc. The sustainability of the network would further capacitate it to introduce other need based products over a period of time.

2.6 Capacity Building of ASHA and AWW

There are more than 4600 ASHA in the four identified districts. In addition, AWW are available at the village level. Their role in this project will be to (1) maintain stocks of sanitary napkins and sell them to those requiring it in their villages; (2) mobilize adolescent girls to use and counsel them on use as well as disposal of sanitary napkins; (3) conduct monthly meetings of adolescent girls; (4) maintain accounts; (5) estimate requirement and indent accordingly to the social marketing agency through NGOs; and (6) submit progress report on key indicators.

These ASHA and AWW will have to be oriented to provide inter personal counseling to young girls in their respective areas. However, capacities of these ASHA and AWW further needs to be strengthened on skills required for inter personal counseling as well as on technical areas. The agency will be required to develop training modules and job aides on menstrual hygiene and use of sanitary napkins, detailed training plan, train master trainers in NGOs, and monitor trainings conducted by NGOs to community level volunteers/ workers.

2.7 Demand Generation and Behavior Change

Under the UDAAN project, IFPS Technical Assistance Project (ITAP) has developed a BCC strategy for adolescents. Based on this strategy an integrated campaign and materials have been developed to advocate for adolescent needs and rights, inform adolescents about healthcare, inform caregivers about their role, increase demand for adolescent services, and change attitudes of adolescents, caregivers, and service providers towards adolescent health through the NGOs and PGEs. The training modules for youth developed under the programme address issues of marriage and family planning, awareness of disease and vaccination, hygiene practices, utilisation of health services, school going habits and personality issues. Various materials include story books, board games, health lifestyle booklets, leaflets, posters, banners, letter boxes, dispensers, referral cards, and birth preparedness kits.

The agency will be required to conduct demand generation activities at district and sub district level to increase uptake of sanitary napkins and promote the brand. The agency should suggest innovative demand generation activities among the target group.

2.8 Monitoring and Reporting

The selected agency will be required to develop formats for procurement and distribution at various levels. The agency will also be required to develop formats for NGOs/ community based distributors and train them on maintaining records and using the information generated. The agency will be required to report secondary level sales as well as provide information on capacity building and demand generation activities.


Documentation of overall execution to capture the basic research-based information about the menstrual hygiene behavioural pattern among the adolescent girls (14-19 years of age) and the associated products they use for this purpose is desirable. This should further explore the effectiveness of various distribution channels so as to understand and replicate the viable distribution system.

2.9 Other Innovations

The agency should suggest innovations for distribution and demand generation among low income families that are already being implemented or can be piloted for scale up. The agency should also incorporate its strategy to involve the UDAAN programme centres developed in these districts. The strategies to upscale the activities through these centres and increase the reach to the target population may be described.

3. DETAILED TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Activity Description

3.1 Procurement, Distribution and Sales

Detail existing mechanisms of the agency for procuring sanitary napkins from reputed manufacturers and account for statutory requirements for procurement and distribution of sanitary napkins.

Describe any other innovative strategies, which you think appropriate to reach out to the targeted population (especially adolescents in the rural areas in the age-group of 14-19 years) and make products available particularly in the villages.

Describe the distribution system to be used to maximize access to products in rural areas. Applicants are also expected to detail out any existing distribution channel, which is currently operating. The agency should take care that continuous and optimum level product movement is maintained across the entire distribution channel proposed by them. Delays in procurement of sanitary napkins may lead to stock out situations for the social marketing brand. The applicants should take into consideration this aspect and use stock management/monitoring models to avoid such situations.

Provide information on probable network of distribution and location of distributors, wholesalers and sales agents. Also, detail out the modalities for reaching out to the last point of distribution i.e. ASHAs, AWWs, NGO networks, outlets etc.

Describe strategies to involve all the possible traditional (i.e. chemists’ outlets) and non-traditional channels (i.e. ASHAs, direct distribution through NGOs, village stores selling other daily use items etc.) of distribution for reaching out to the adolescent and other women groups to improve demand for and access to products.

3.2 Product

Describe the product/brand the agency intends to introduce in the proposed marketing network, in terms of brand name, price and any other product attributes.


Indicate the way you would like to segment the market and your strategy for positioning the product/brand.

Indicate if your agency has the marketing rights to promote and distribute the sanitary napkins brand in Uttarakhand, which are to be proposed for this Project.

3.2 Pricing structure

Describe the pricing structure throughout the distribution chain, highlighting the margins, cost of sampling at every level of the network, inclusive of VAT and other taxes which will be applicable as per the statutory norms.

3.3 Capacity Building

Describe the training and capacity building strategies for the channel members including ASHAs, AWWs, and NGO workers involved in the product distribution, chemists’ outlets and other willing outlet owners.

3.4 Partnerships, Communication and Promotion

Describe strategies to sensitize the target population about menstrual hygiene so as to sustain the intended behaviour change over a period of time among the target population.

Describe communication and promotional strategies and activities to increase demand for sanitary napkins including brand building and promotions.

Describe how you will ensure that accurate product information is provided to clients by retailers and vendors (i.e. ASHAs, AWWs and other NGO workers, UDAAN programme centers).

Describe measures you would take to build partnerships with different stakeholders including government agencies. Share past experiences in partnership building, if any.

3.5 Leveraging resources

Describe how you will leverage resources or use your own resources to generate demand and supply products.

Describe how the agency could leverage and build upon the existing UDAAN network and how the Adolescent Friendly Counseling Centers (AFCC) and Adolescent Friendly Center (AFC) under the UDAAN project can be made more viable by involving them in the proposed social marketing programme.

Describe how you propose to utilise any other existing channels of distribution (viz- girls’ schools, colleges, Mahila Mandals etc.) while keeping the cost of such distribution as low as possible with the aim of sustaining the same over a period of time.

3.6 Monitoring, MIS and Logistics

Provide information on the systems that would be used to supervise and monitor personnel involved in the distribution system.


Provide information on logistics management for products and information on agency’s capacity to stock and manage the social marketing product.

Indicate the management information system you intend to use for stock movement, stock condition, warehousing, logistics and other information for effective monitoring.

Provide details on measures to ensure quality of products throughout the distribution chain i.e. to avoid product expiration.

The applicants should propose and detail out the tracking and monitoring tools they intend to use to reflect their sales (primary, secondary and tertiary sales) accurately.

3.7 Innovative Strategies

Describe innovative strategies you would adopt to reach the targeted population (especially girls in the rural areas, in the age group of 14-19 years) and make products available, particularly in the villages.

The project should suggest innovations for distribution and demand generation among low income families that are already being implemented or can be piloted for scale up. The agency as part of its strategy should involve the UDAAN programme centers. The strategies to upscale the activities through these centers and increase the reach to the target population may be described.

3.8 Past Experience of the Agency

Describe the agency’s capacities and successful experiences in conducting communication/promotional campaigns, mass media branded products campaigns, generic campaigns and interpersonal communication campaigns.

3.9 Implementation structure

Applicants should clearly indicate the location of offices, whether the selected office space will be in a rented building or self-owned space, and specify the location of the proposed staff. Justification for location of offices and staff should be given.

Indicate the total number of positions and key personnel proposed for each position, including clearly defined qualifications and experience required for each position. Describe the roles and responsibilities for each position. Provide justification for the staff positions and the number of staff proposed. Key personnel should be identified and their CVs should be enclosed.

Identify key training requirements of staff members including type of training, objectives, duration, venue and expected outcome of the training.

Provide a work plan for each activity proposed in terms of how the activity is planned and the time required for completion of each task.

Prepare a performance monitoring plan. A few illustrative indicators are given below: Increase in knowledge of correct use of sanitary napkins at each point of

distribution-i.e. retail level and consumer level Assessment and analysis of sales figures Assessment and analysis of rural penetration


SECTION II: PROPOSAL FORMAT

PREPARATION GUIDELINES

All proposals received by the deadline will be reviewed for responsiveness to the specifications outlined in these guidelines and the proposal format. Section II addresses the technical evaluation procedures for the proposals. Proposals which are submitted late or are incomplete run the risk of not being considered in the review process.

Proposals should be submitted in two separate sealed envelopes: (a) technical and (b) cost; 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 the RFP, to the location indicated on the cover page.

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL FORMAT

Technical proposals should be specific, complete and presented concisely and should demonstrate the applicant’s capabilities and expertise with respect to achieving the goals of this program. The proposal should take into account the technical evaluation criteria found in Section II. The maximum page limit for the technical proposal is 30 pages, not including the annexe(s). Use font size 12 point, font type—Times New Roman or Courier.

COST PROPOSAL FORMAT

The Cost or Business Proposal is to be submitted under a separate cover (file) from the technical proposal in separate sealed envelopes. The technical proposals must not make any reference to the price data in order to ensure that the technical evaluation may be made strictly on the basis of the technical merit. The cost proposal should be submitted indicating costs under following heads. 1. Human Resource, 2. Travel, 3. Communication, 4. Capacity building, 5. Miscellaneous

PREPARATION OF PROPOSALS

1. Applicants are expected to review, understand, and comply with all aspects of this RFP. Failure to do so will be at the applicant’s risk.

2. Each applicant shall furnish the information required by the RFP. The applicant shall sign the proposal and print or type its name on the Cover Page of the technical and cost proposals. Erasures or other changes must be initialed by the person signing the proposals.

3. Each applicant should clearly provide the name of the person(s) who contributed to writing the proposal and provide details of their affiliation to the Applicant.

AWARDThe duration of the proposed project on the social marketing of Sanitary Napkin is 10 months. The project will be awarded to the responsible applicant whose proposal, conforming to the RFP, offers the greatest value under Quality and Cost Based Selection. UKHFWS may (a) reject all proposals; (b) accept other than the low cost proposals; and (c) waive informalities and minor irregularities in the proposals.


SECTION III:

SELECTION CRITERIA

The criteria presented below have been tailored to the requirements of this particular RFP. Applicants should note that these criteria serve to; (a) identify the significant issues which applicants should address in their proposals; and (b) set the standard against which all applicants will be evaluated. To facilitate the review of proposals, applicants should organize the narrative sections of their proposals in the same order as the selection criteria. The Technical Evaluation Criteria will look favorably at evidence based innovative approaches, leveraging resources from other projects and programs and building partnerships with other agencies.

The technical proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the Technical Evaluation Criteria set forth below. Thereafter, the cost proposal of all applicants submitting a technically acceptable proposal will be opened and costs will be evaluated for being generally reasonable. To the extent that they are necessary (if an award is made based on an initial proposal), negotiations will then be conducted with applicants, whose proposals, after discussion and negotiation, have a reasonable chance of being selected for an award. Awards will be made to responsible applicants whose proposals offer the greatest value, cost and other factors considered.

Awards will be made based on ranking of proposals according to the technical and cost evaluation criteria identified below. UKHFWS in consultation with the Review Panel, constituted for the purpose, will review all proposals in accordance with selection criteria specified in the Request for Proposal.

The proposal must include a description of the organization’s technical resources and expertise in implementing social marketing programs. This should include a description of the organization’s history, mission, current and past involvement in social marketing programs, and financial and reporting systems.

Department of Medical Health and Family Welfare (DMH&FW) policy requires that contracted 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.Contracted agency shall have an obligation to disclose any situation of actual or potential conflict that impacts their capacity to serve the best interest of DMH&FW, 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 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 requires that the agency participating in DMH&FW -financed projects adheres 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:

a) Defines, for the purpose of this paragraph, the terms set forth below as follows:

i). “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;

ii). “Fraudulent practice” means a misrepresentation or omission of facts in order to influence a selection process or the execution of a contract;

iii). “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, noncompetitive levels; and

iv). “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.

b) 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;

c) 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;

d) 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 through an agent, engaged in corrupt, fraudulent, collusive or coercive practices in competing for, or in executing, a DMH&FW -financed contract; and

e) UKHFWS will have the right to require that, in contracts financed by the DMH&FW, a provision be included requiring agency to permit the DMH&FW 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.

EVALUATION CRITERIA: BEST VALUE (Quality and Cost Based Selection)

A review panel constituted by UKHFWS will evaluate proposals. The review panel will use “Best Value” (QCBS criteria mentioned in state’s procurement policy document for outsourcing of services) criteria to determine the proposal most advantageous to UKHFWS. The award shall be made to the responsive and responsible applicants whose technical and cost factors offer the best value to UKHFWS.


A. Technical Evaluation

1) Qualification of Key Personnel

a. Appropriate technical experience for the position proposed;b. Appropriate educational background for the position proposed;c. Previous work that demonstrates the ability to work effectively in the position

proposed;d. Ability to work effectively in Hindi;e. Number of years of experience in social marketing of sanitary napkins programs.

2) Technical Approach

a. The likelihood that the proposals will make a recognizable, significant and measurable contribution towards achieving targeted Sanitary Napkins’ sales as identified in RFP;

b. Ability to increase awareness among females, primarily- adolescents, about product availability, benefits, correct use and disposal;

c. Ability to develop partnerships with public and private health sectors, NGOs, CBOs, Self Help Groups(SHGs) and other stakeholders;

d. Innovative approaches to increase the number of selling points for Sanitary Napkins, through both traditional(i.e- Chemists’ Outlets) as well as non-traditional (i.e- ASHA, AWW, ISMPs, Grocers etc), in rural Uttarakhand;

e. Effective training plan for ensuring adequate knowledge of menstrual hygiene and products among outlets and retail providers;

f. Emphasis on soundness of proposed technical strategies and responsiveness to the approaches mentioned in the RFP, specifically that the strategies are evidence based and clearly defined.

3) Management Plan

An achievable plan for rapid program start up, coverage of target populations through planned programming and a coordination plan with other partners clearly defined.

4) Past Performance

a. Previous performance for donor agencies in the area of contraceptive and health product social marketing;

b. Demonstrated ability to manage projects involving multiple partners.

5) Monitoring Plan

a. Effective plan for monitoring progress toward achievement of indicators and outcomes as well as monitoring day to day project activities.


B. Cost Evaluation

The applicant should have a structure that will allow it to provide the greatest value (best results at the lowest cost);

Each applicant’s cost proposal shall have the concurrence with following key concepts of preparation of financial proposals:

1) Effectiveness of proposed cost control structurea) Budget transparency to effectively track expenditures;b) Expenditure statements.

2) Reasonableness of proposed staff cost and structurea) Number of staff to be employed in the project;b) Salaries of staff, other allowances, travel and other costs.

3) Cost efficiency of other costsa) Reasonableness of costs associated with other services;b) Competitiveness of pricing and sound procurement processes.

4) Reasonableness of overall proposed Total Estimated Cost

The technical evaluation criteria’s’ are mentioned in the following table:

Technical Criteria PointsCompany profile and key persons 20Technical approach 50Management plan 15Past performance 15Total 100

The applicant agencies obtaining minimum score of 70 shall be shortlisted and be eligible for the next level i.e screening financial bid. The weightings for the technical scores shall be 80 and for financial bid 20 for the final evaluation.

Last Date for Submission of Proposals is 09-05-2011 till 5.00 PM A hard copy along with soft copy on CDs of the proposal should be enclosed in a sealed envelope and sent to: Executive Director Uttarakhand Health and Family Welfare Society 107, Chander Nager Dehradun.

Deliverables description: The tentative disbursement plan vis-à-vis deliverables is given below. But the same may further be consolidated after receiving the proposals from the interested agencies for the sake of better utilization of donor’s funding.

Payment schedulde


Payment terms and deliverable

s

Deliverable Description Due Date Amount Due (in %)

1 - Signing the contract and finalization of the project implementation plan, procurement plan and reporting formats

10

2 - All field personnel of social marketing agency trained

- 90% staff of 12 NGOs trained - 1500 ASHA/AWWs trained- 40 retailer meetings conducted- X Numbers of Community meetings with

the adolescent girls conducted.2

- List of all the stock points at the district level and 2000 distribution points for sanitary napkins including retail stores at the block level, ASHA and AWWs

- Monthly reports for all the completed months submitted to UKHFWS

Six months from the date of

signing contract

35

3 - X Numbers of additional Community meeting with the adolescent girls conducted

- 30 additional retailer meetings conducted.

- List of additional 900 distribution points for sanitary napkins including retail stores at the block level, ASHA and AWWs.


Nine months from the date of signing contract

30

4 - Yearly completion report indicating the sales and distribution mechanism, capacity building, communication activities, implementation structure, innovations and achievements.


Eleven months from the date of signing contract

20

5 Increase in sanitary napkin users to 50 percent, 36 percent, 33 percent and 36 percent in Dehradun, Nainital, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar respectively, among young girls (14-19 years)3

Eleven months from the date of signing contract

5

TOTAL 100

2 The number “X” may be finalized after receiving the proposals from the interested agencies.3 This may be established though an end-line survey to be conducted by the UKHFWS with the support of ITAP.


request for proposal - ukhfwsukhfws.org/tender/rfp_sm_sanitary _napkin.doc · web viewincrease in...

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