RFP - Hiring of Digital Health Agency to Build an Interactive Chat Service for YUVAA Project

RFP - Hiring of Digital Health Agency to Build an Interactive Chat Service for YUVAA Project

Background

Pathfinder International’s mission is to champion Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) worldwide, mobilizing communities most in need to break through barriers and forge their own path to a healthier future. Since 1957, Pathfinder has partnered with local governments, communities, health systems and implementing partners to advance access to critical SRH services, and currently has over 45 innovative programs in more than 20 countries throughout the world. Pathfinder has been in India since 1999 and has coordinated 15 major projects, funded by a variety of private and government donors. 

In India, Pathfinder coordinated the PRACHAR project (2001-2012) in Bihar, which aimed to delay the age at first birth by delaying the age at marriage and increasing contraceptive use among Young Married Couples, and to ensure spacing of at least three years between the first and second births by supporting an audience-segmented behavior change approach, targeting different cohorts of young people and influential gatekeepers. Building on the learnings from PRACHAR, the Sashakt project reaches out to the Mahadalit population in Bihar through the ASHAs. Pathfinder’s ongoing Salaamati project (2015-present) aims to increase demand for and access to modern contraceptive methods, including DMPA-IM, through the Public Health system. Pathfinder helped in coordinating the Matrika project (2013-2016), in Uttar Pradesh which improved access to high quality affordable maternal health services, including post-pregnancy family planning (PPFP), in the public and private sectors. Active between 2004 and 2014, the AIDS Initiative (Avahan) funded the five-year $8.5 million grant Mukta (meaning “freedom” in Hindi) which worked in 10 districts of Maharashtra.

Pathfinder International is currently coordinating  - The Next generation: Yuvaa (Youth Voices for Agency and Access) Project to “Scale Up Approaches to Increase Contraceptive Use among Young Married Couples and First-time Parents in India” through a consortium of local partners in ten districts (five each) of Bihar and Maharashtra from July 2018 - June 2022.

The foundational innovation in Yuvaa combines social entrepreneurship with innovative social behaviour change communication approaches where a cadre of community based young couple entrepreneurs, called the Yuvaa Corps (YCs) are trained to provide comprehensive family planning counselling, over the counter contraceptives and referrals that enable young people to delay first child birth and space subsequent births.

Yuvaa will focus on increasing contraceptive uptake: 

• by ensuring Young people’s needs and perspectives are at the center of the intervention design 
• by providing reliable sources of information, comprehensive counseling, referrals and doorstep delivery of over the counter contraceptive methods to Young couples 
• by ensuring a gender synchronized approach that reaches both young women and men
• by encouraging couple communication and joint decision-making and improving women’s agency to be able to take decisions independently   
• by fostering an environment that emphasizes and supports delaying pregnancy to when couples are physically, mentally and economically ready.

Yuvaa will work at the individual level (focusing on increasing agency and empowered decision making among young people), at the couple level (focusing on improving couple communication, gender equitable relationships and joint decision-making) as well as the community level (focusing on shifting gender and social norms). Proposed interventions are intended to promote genuine choice and support young people in the decisions they make before, during, and after their first birth.

YCs will be aided by digital and mobile based technological tools and job aids to provide relevant, customized and quality family health information. YCs will not only aim to change behaviors of young married couples but also address social and gender norms in the community by reaching out to key stakeholder groups such as Mothers-in-law and Community leaders. YCs will also market over the counter (OTC) contraceptive methods (oral contraceptives, emergency contraception, and condoms) and make referrals to public and private sector providers for long acting contraceptive methods (such as IUD and injectables) and other health services. Detailed Project brief and outcomes will be shared with the finalized agency.

The project is implemented by a consortium of partners, including Pathfinder (lead partner), Dalberg Advisors, Camber Collective, Dharma Life, Gram Vaani, Mullen Lowe Lintas Group, IQVIA and Reach India Trust.

Purpose of RFP

Project YUVAA would like to know more about its target audience to optimize engagement and improve the quality of care in response to the family planning client experience. YUVAA would like to reach users during outreach better, serve them actionable information via Chat, and encourage users with a high readiness to seek FP products and services to make a provider visit and re-engage at the appropriate time for follow-on services.

The purpose of this RFP is to solicit a digital health agency that engages users from the initial marketing through conversations and finally to service endpoints that will allow YUVAA to visualize their target audience’s health journeys, to support their self-care needs and priorities, and to enable them to take up family planning services.

Scope of Work

Objective

By June 2022, the YUVAA project is expected to reach 600,000 couples for healthier contraceptive behaviors, improved choice, and informed decision-making on family planning and healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy.

Reaching out to young married couples would require sustained digital engagement round the clockfor healthier contraceptive behaviours, improved choices & informed decision-making on family planning, and healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy.

Deliverables

The digital health agency will –

• Provide access to an existing mobile-based interactive chat service that would work on various social media channels and SMS platforms in both Hindi and Marathi language.
• The chat service will integrate YUVAA’s online and offline campaigns to offer a tailored 1:1 experience to Project YUVAA’s target audience (young married couples and first-time parents of 15-24 years).
• The chat service will digitally engage YUVAA’s target segments on key SRH/FP topics during COVID-19 to raise awareness, build knowledge, and improve self-care choices.
• The chat service will help improve access and uptake of contraceptive methods by providing referrals to service providers and gathering feedback on method uptake and barriers to adoption.
• The chat service will also consist of a built-in feature that would help re-engage users to measure the user-perceived quality of care, method satisfaction, and intent to switch or discontinue.
• The agency will provide insights gleaned from individual interactions, enabling the Project YUVAA team to adjust our messaging and tailor the YUVAA services to meet the young people’s needs.
• The agency will help visualize insights showing key behavioural outcomes along users’ family planning health journeys.

Quotes Deadline 

All written responses to this RFP must be received by Pathfinder no later than 5:00 PM on July 1, 2021. Please email the quote and other information at indiaprocurement@pathfinder.org. 

Pathfinder has no obligation to consider or evaluate bids that proposal submit after the due date and time mentioned above.

Inquiries

If you have any questions/inquiries, please e-mail Dweepesh Ghosh <dghosh@pathfinder.org> and CC Amit Rawat <arawat@pathfinder.org> no later than close of business June 17, 2021. As a part of this RFP process, Pathfinder reserves the right to hold a bidders conference in addition to the question and answer period.

Proposal Guidelines and Instructions

• Potential supplier will be required to submit the technical and financial proposal in two separate PDF files.
• Technical proposal should not be more than 15 pages.
• The financial proposal should be password protected.
• The proposals should be submitted with the subject line "Response to YUVAA RFP [Insert Name of Bidder/ Solicitation Number]” at the e-mail address given above by July 1, 2021, 5:00 PM Indian Standard Time.
• All proposals must be signed and valid for a minimum of sixty (60) days.

Srn	Criteria	Weight
1	Bid submission   Was the technical and cost proposal submitted on time? Was the technical and cost proposal submitted as per the Guidelines and instruction given in the R	Accept/Reject
2	Technical evaluation   The digital health agency will have demonstrated experience in developing mobile-based interactive chat service that can deliver messaging on social media channels about modern contraceptives and key health topics like sexual health. The agency should have demonstrated experience in conducting similar assessments in multi-state settings, and preference will be given to an agency with experience implementing similar projects in Bihar or Maharashtra.    The agency should be based preferably in New Delhi/NCR. Credentials of work done in the above area with other clients on similar application/health topics are to be shared with appropriate links/copies of work done. Personnel details/ capacity Organization capacity	85
3	Cost evaluation    Pricing should complement the agency’s ability to offer insights of monthly active users on the chat service.	15
4	Total Weight	100

Proposals will be assessed by a review panel. The review panel will be made up of Pathfinder technical, financial, and management staff. All reviews will be written and scored against the evaluation criteria.

Terms

Pathfinder reserves the right to cancel this solicitation at any point and is under no obligation to issue a subcontract as a result of this solicitation.

Pathfinder will not reimburse any expenses related to the preparation of any proposal related materials or delivery.

Notification: Only bidders selected to move to the next round will be notified of their status in writing. 

Presentation: Shortlisted bidders will be invited to provide a virtual or in-person presentation. Shortlisted bidders will be given the opportunity to answer questions regarding their technical capabilities.

Selection: Successful bidders will be notified of selection and a draft contract will be shared for contractor’s review.

Note: No payment is required to apply for or receive a contract from Pathfinder. Please report any irregularities to RThomas@pathfinder.org. 

 

Tags Healthcare and Healthtech Innovations and Technology Others