Evaluation of Unitaid’s portfolio of COVID-19 investments

Purpose of the Request for Proposal (RFP)

The purpose of this RFP is to enter into a contractual agreement with a successful bidder and select a suitable Contractor to carry out evaluation of Unitaid’s portfolio of COVID-19 investments.

The works (evaluation) will run over the span of three months from June 2021 and that the core phase of data collection and analysis will occur in June and July 2021. The aim is to present a final report to the Unitaid Secretariat in mid-September 2021.

Bidders are invited to submit a proposal for the above mentioned Request for Proposal in accordance with the tender documents. Kindly pay attention to below tender timeline:

1) No later than 23 April 2021 17h00 Geneva time, bidder shall complete and return, under “Correspondence” tab of UNGM (paragraph 4.2 of the Request for Proposals refer):

a) The enclosed Acknowledgement Form (Annex 1 of the Request for Proposals) duly completed and signed as confirmation of bidder’s intention to submit a bona fide proposal and designate the bidder’s representative to whom communications may be directed, including any addenda; and
b) The enclosed Confidentiality Undertaking form (Annex 2 of the Request for Proposals) signed.

2) A prospective bidder requiring any clarification on technical, contractual or commercial matters may submit its questions via UNGM “Correspondence” tab no later than 19 April 2021 17h00 Geneva time and formulate them as follows:

Question # Reference to RFP (paragraph #) Question text

The Unitaid team will respond in writing (via the “Correspondence” tab of UNGM) to any request for clarification of the RFP that it receives prior to the date mentioned in the Request for Proposals (paragraph 4.6).

A consolidated document of WHO’s response to all questions (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of enquiry) will be published on the UNGM. Paragraph 4.6 of the Request for Proposals refer.

3) Proposals must be uploaded via UNGM no later than 29 April 2021 at 17:00 hours, Geneva time (paragraph 4.11 of the Request for Proposals refer).

Objective of the consultancy:

The primary objective of this evaluation is to make an independent assessment of Unitaid’s response to the global public health crisis within the ACT-A framework, review the underlying theories of change and identify lessons learned to shape subsequent rounds of investments. The assessment will focus on strategic relevance, internal and external coherence, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability / scalability of Unitaid’s investments. 13 investments are within scope of this evaluation.

Qualification of Firm and Consultants:

Bidders will propose a multi-disciplinary team of experienced evaluators, including a team leader. The team leader must have at least 7 years of experience leading evaluations of a similar scope and complexity and a strong understanding of the global health landscape and the challenges to equitable access, particularly in emergency settings. Core team members should have at least five years of individual experience in their respective areas of technical expertise.

The proposed evaluation team should meet the following requirements:

• Experience conducting multi-investment/intervention/grant reviews in the field of global health, with a focus on innovation and catalytic investments;
• Demonstrable ability to connect higher level (global) objectives with those at the operational/grant level and to synthesize findings/recommendations at a portfolio (aggregate) level;
• Experience in evaluating interventions, with a focus on resource limited settings, in response to previous public health emergencies;
• Substantive knowledge of access issues to health products (diagnostics, medicines, equipment) in resource limited settings – challenges and options;
• Substantive knowledge of global coordination efforts put in place as a response to the pandemic;
• Include an appropriate representation with regard to sex, a broad mix of backgrounds, skills and perspectives, and national and international experience, including in resource-limited settings;
• Proficiency in English and French (knowledge of other UN languages an asset); final deliverables must be submitted in English

Desirable

• Knowledge of COVID-19 epidemiology, diagnostic and treatment landscape;
• At least one team member with expertise in working in health emergencies;
• Bidders have local presence or access to local experts/counterparts in (select) countries where Unitaid-funded COVID work is being implemented: South Africa, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania.

It is expected that work under this evaluation will take place entirely remotely. If the COVID-19 context permits that some consultations take place in person, then that can be considered.

Documents

In order to access the RFP documents, please log-in as a registered Supplier (Account registration accessible on https://www.ungm.org/Account/Registration).

If you experience difficulties in accessing the RFP documents after having registered and expressed interest, please send an email to: unitaid-proc@who.int.