Mali: Final Assessment of Health Facilities and Household Survey, Mali MNCH

Background:

The Canadian Red Cross (CRC) is soliciting information from industry so that it may select a service provider for two components of its end line evaluation for it’s Maternal, Newborn and Child health (“MNCH”) Project in Mali (the “Project”):

· Health Facilities Assessment

· Household Survey

Overview of the Red Cross

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide, which was created to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering.

The Mali national Red Cross society, Croix-Rouge Malienne (“**CRM**”) was established in 1965 based on the Geneva Conventions of August 1949 and in line with the March 1959 order governing associations and non-government organisations (NGOs) in the Republic of Mali. Its mission is “to improve the living conditions of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity". The CRM has been implementing projects in partnership and with the support of the Canadian Red Cross (“**CRC**”) in Mali since 2008.

CRC is a not-for-profit humanitarian organization dedicated to improving the lives of vulnerable people in Canada and throughout the world. The Letters Patent have established CRC as “auxiliary to the public authorities”, and the corporate body responsible for providing volunteer relief in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.

With its National Office in Ottawa, ten provincial operations, and regional offices, CRC operates a widely decentralized organization across Canada and internationally, supported by more than 2,000 employees.

CRC’s Strategy 2020 plan calls for the strengthening and focusing of our services in three areas of excellence:

· Disasters and Emergencies: in Canada and around the world.

· Community Health and Wellness: in Canada and around the world.

· Prevention and Safety.

Project Overview

The CRC and the CRM have partnered in the implementation of the project : "***Improving the health of mothers, newborns and children in Mali”*** (the “**Project**”) funded by Global Affairs Canada (“**GAC**”) and the CRC.

The Project is an integrated five-year maternal, newborn and child health (“**MNCH**”) intervention implemented by the CRM and the Government of Mali through the Ministry of Health (MoH) and Social Services (national, regional and district levels), and in partnership with the CRC.

The Project is aimed at preventing and addressing the major threats to the lives of women, children and newborns in the most underserved populations (5 districts in the Koulikoro region and 1 district in Sikasso region) and significantly contributes to advancing the objectives of the Ministry of Health’s MNCH and integrated community case-management) (“**ICCM**”) strategies.

The goal is to:

· Harness the potential of communities, extending the reach of the Ministry of Health, through Community Health Workers (“**CHW**”) based in remote communities to implement practical, proven and cost effective ICCM and MNCH interventions

· address social barriers through social and behavior change communication, particularly gender barriers

· Increase access to MNCH services.

· strengthen MNCH services in primary and secondary health care centers (Centre de Santé Communautaire

– CSCOMs and Centre de Santé de Référence - CSREFs); and

· target strengthening of the MoH’s commitment to use the DHIS2 platform as part of the health management information system in the targeted districts.

The total beneficiary population is 1,748,830 women, men, girls and boys in the districts of Nara, Dioila, Kolokani, Koulikoro, and Banamba in Koulikoro Region and Sikasso district in Sikasso Region.

Aligned with the goals of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (“FIAP”) the Project invested in the empowerment of girls and women, making progress toward:

· Commissioning a gender barriers study to qualitatively assess the root causes of poor MNCH practices;

· Securing the development and approval of an institutional gender policy for the Malian Red Cross;

· Ensuring gender mainstreaming into health providers trainings; and

The Canadian research institution, SickKids Centre for Global Child Health (“**SickKids**”) has played a key technical advisory and implementation role, reinforcing project monitoring and evaluation activities and supporting throughout the implementation of operational research at the primary health care level.

As part of the requirements of the GAC funding agreement as well as to fulfill CRC standards of program evaluation for accountability and quality improvement, the CRC is commissioning an endline study and evaluation of the Project (the “**Endline Study**”)

The Endline Study is intended to provide programme staff with detailed data on key project indicators as outlined in the Performance Measurement Framework (“**PMF**”). The results of the Endline Study will be used to assess behavioural changes and health outcomes measured in the baseline activities.

Period of work:

Between March to July 2020

Location: Mali, in the districts of: Nara, Koulikoro, Kolokani,Dioila, Banamba, Sikasso

Instructions:

Bidders may submit a proposal for one or both Terms of References found in the Statement of Work as set out in this RFP. If a bidder chooses to submit for both Terms of References the bidder must submit two independent proposals: one proposal for each terms of reference found in the Statement of Work as set out in this RFP

This process will locate a source that will provide the best overall value to CRC. While price is a significant factor, other criteria will form the basis of our award decision, as more fully described in the Evaluation Terms of Reference, in section D of the RFP.

The RFP is available in MERX (https://www.merx4.merx.com/public/solicitations/1247198314/abstract) and by request at CRCLOG.OTTAWA@redcross.ca. Bids can be submitted through MERX or via e-mail at CRCLOG.OTTAWA@redcross.ca.

Timeline:

· Date of Issuance: January 31st 2020

· Deadline for Notice of Intent to Respond: February 7th 2020

· Deadline for Receipt of Clarification Questions: February 7th 2020

· Deadline for Receipt of Proposals: February 21st 2020; 23:00 (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)