RFP from Agency/Consultants for doing Situational Assessment & Baseline in Gujarat for SRH & HIV

RFP from Agency/Consultants for doing Situational Assessment & baseline in Gujarat for SRH & HIV

About the Organization:

India HIV/AIDS Alliance (Alliance India) is a diverse partnership that brings together committed organisations and communities to support sustained responses to HIV in India. Complementing the Indian national programme, they work through capacity building, knowledge sharing, technical support and advocacy. Through their network of partners, they support the delivery of effective, innovative, community-based HIV programmes to key populations affected by the epidemic.

About Sampoorna

Sampoorna (meaning Complete / holistic in Hindi) Project is implemented in six priority districts of Gujarat, Ahmedabad, Surat, Sabarkatha, Bhavnagar, Vadodara and Rajkot, focusing on strengthening of health systems, improving linkages, building capacity and influencing policies with the aim to integrate Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and HIV. Supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) the project was rolled out in April, 2020 for the project cycle 2020-2022. In the wake of COVID19 outbreak, the project has included COVID-19 response to provide assistance to the high risk groups.

Leveraging on the past experiences of working with key population for improving access to HIV and SRH service and innovations such as community-based testing through Samarth clinics, addressing immediate SRH needs of women in sex work and Gender-based violence (GBV) for retaining women for a long time in HIV care and support programme, project Sampoorna endeavours to strengthen SRH-HIV integration, pilot interventions for community-level integration, facilitate policy-level integration and document the intervention as a blueprint for scaling-up of the model in other states of India.

The project in the beginning stage, will be conducting situational assessment and baseline to understand the ground situations for programme prioritising and planning. The baseline and situational assessment will also involve mapping on the critical resources, opportunities for linkages and current stakeholders to establish linkages and coordination mechanism. The baseline and situational assessment will be conducted in 30 days. The outcomes of the study will be disseminated state level and national level. The outcome of this study will be also used for the policy dialogue and advocacy on crucial integration of SRH and HIV.

Purpose of the assessment:

Sampoorna project is aiming to create conducible environment in next two years for the SRH and HIV service integration. As the project is rolling down in the first month we intend to create and understand the ground situation to build programme activities based on the findings.

Objective/s:

Overall objective of the baseline and situational assessment is as follows

• To understand the current gaps & needs for SRH & HIV service delivery integration
• To identify opportunities within community delivery system for SRH & HIV integration
• Identify key stakeholders for improving service delivery collaboration between SRH and HIV

Scope of work:

Study design and Methodology:

• Alliance India encourages consultants/agencies to propose best suitable methodology considering research questions and objectives of the assessment. However, an ideal methodology will include review of the existing knowledge based and primary data collected through interactions.
• A detailed implementation plan and exact sample size including sampling methodology is to be developed by the consultant/organization including development of tools, guidelines, training of data collection team and data collection, analyses plan and report by the consulting organization/individual.
• However, considering the current COVID 19 pandemic, agencies are requested to suggest the plan based on the current situations associated with travel restrictions. I.e. desk review, KII, virtual meetings etc.

Data Collection:

• Training of interviewer/s and moderators for data collection will be responsibility of the hired consultant/agency. The survey agency will organize training of investigators, supervisors and moderators, as the case may be. The data collection exercise must be based on a well-defined plan which will be share with Alliance team well in advance.

Quality control Mechanism:

• Quality of data will be at the core of the entire exercise. All the key aspects like design, training, conducting interview ‘virtually’ as well as office, editing, soft data entry, will adhere to rigorous quality control mechanisms. A standard quality control protocol is required to be prepare by the consultant team.

Data Entry:

• Interested agencies clearly need to elaborate in their proposal on aspects of data collection, management, entry, quality check and analysis. All qualitative interviews/discussions should be audio recorded in regional language/English, transcribed in English for editing and analysis.
• All analysis of quantitative and qualitative data will be done using software, agencies to propose which software will be used for both quantitative and qualitative data management and analysis. All data of the study must be available to Alliance (compatible for the data analysis) before the deadline fixed with mutual understanding and feasibility by the agency and the Alliance.

Analysis Plan and Survey Report:

• The data analysis and report will be generated by the survey agency in consultation and supervision by the India HIV/AIDS Alliance. A detailed Analysis Plan will be developed for the assessment in close coordination with Alliance India. Prior approval of Alliance team will be taken on the analysis plan.
• Report will contain national as well as state specific sections. State specific section, particularly will contain state advocacy strategic plans and stakeholder analysis, in addition to findings from the situational assessment.

Ethical Approval:

• This research deals with vulnerable population and utmost care will be taken by the consultant to maintain sensitivity, confidentiality to carry out this research. This will be kept in mind while developing study instruments, selecting research teams in the states and also training the local teams. The consultant is expected to ensure ethics in researches with vulnerable population at each stage of the study implementation.
• India HIV/AIDS Alliance has its own internal ethical review board. The consultant/agency will be expected to submit all the relevant documents from the project to the institutional ethics committee of India HIV/AIDS Alliance for the required ethical approval before beginning data collection.

Expected Deliverables:

• A top-line finding
• Brief and detailed assessment report – containing state specific sections, advocacy policy briefs, advocacy strategic work plans for above mentioned four states
• Finalised study protocol, guides, tools and instruments
• Ethical approval
• Recruitment and training of Interviewers and moderators
• Translated audio recordings and transcriptions
• Cleaned data sets, content analysis and audio tapes should be made available
• Any other task(s)/deliverables as requested by Alliance team

Agency/Consultant is required to discuss each stage of the study in detail with India HIV/AIDS Alliance before finally implementing it in the field.

Timeline for Survey and Impact Assessment report: Starting on 10st July June – 10th August 2020

Deadline: 7th July 2020 by 6:00 PM

Email: procurement@allianceindia.org

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