Request for Proposal (RFP)

RFP Number: LHSSBD-009/2021
Issuance Date: 24 September 2021
Deadline for Offer:10 October 2021
Title of the Assignment: Request for proposal (RFP) for Consultancy services to support GoB to Establish ‘Health Sections under MOHFW and MOLGRDC and develop a guideline on Creation of Health budget line in LGD budget head.
Funded by: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Contract No.: 7200AA18D00023/7200AA19F00014; Local Health System Sustainability Activity
Implemented by: Abt Associates, Inc.
For: Local Health System Sustainability Project-(LHSS) Bangladesh
Address: Concord Blikis Tower (2nd Floor) ,40/6, North Avenue (Madani Road), Gulshan-2, Dhaka-1212

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Abt Associates is a mission-driven global leader in research, evaluation, and program implementation in the fields of international development, health, and social and environmental policy. Known for its rigorous approach to solving complex challenges, Abt is regularly ranked as one of the top 20 global research firms and one of the top 40 international development innovators. The company has multiple offices in the U.S. and program offices in more than 40 countries. Serving both the public and private sectors, Abt supports participatory governance processes that empower citizens and promote accountability and transparency across sectors. Our impact is felt in responsive and inclusive institutions, empowered communities, equitable access to public services, improved mobilization and management of financial resources, and enhanced enabling environments for economic growth and opportunity.

Program background:

The LHSS Project is USAID’s flagship initiative in integrated health systems strengthening, with a goal to help low- and middle- income countries transition to sustainable, self-financed health systems as a means to support universal health coverage. The project will support country-level efforts to reduce financial barriers to health care, ensure equitable access to essential health services for all people, and improve the quality of health care. Equally important, it will equip host countries to sustain progress after the project ends. It will do so by ensuring that local institutions and organizations have the technical capacity and expertise to independently design, implement, and manage continued health system strengthening activities.

USAID Bangladesh is supporting the Government of Bangladesh in its efforts to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030. Bangladesh has directed attention toward improving coverage, efficiency, and quality of essential health care services, with a particular focus on improved governance, stewardship, health financing, monitoring, and community engagement in urban areas. It is critical in order to achieve UHC that the GOB strengthens its capacity and commitment to financing self-reliance of the health sector.

LHSS’s work will span three key objectives:

Objective 1: Improved governance in financial management and health service delivery
Objective 2: Models for financial protection (FP) and service delivery (SD) tested and scaled
Objective 3: Increased private sector investment for health

Scope of work

As part of Objective 1, the purpose of this assignment is to advocate for the establishment of a ‘Health Section’ (or any suitable coordinating office) under the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives (MLGRDC) and ‘Urban Health Section’ under the Planning Wing, HSD, MOHFW

Rules of Business in Bangladesh stipulate that City Corporations and Municipalities have the overall responsibility for health management within their jurisdictions.  The National Urban Health Strategy (2020) (para 7) identifies the number 1 gap in Urban Health is the “Lack of effective coordination among MOH&FW, LGD/MOLGRDC and Urban Local Government Institutions (City Corporation and Municipalities) on the provision of urban health service.   As such, the MOLGRDC has had an important role to play in urban health under its mandate to provide support to local governments to fulfill their functions. However, the LGD, MOLGRDC does not have a dedicated section devoted to supporting health activities. The Local Government Division of the MOLGRDC implemented the Asian Development Bank’s long running urban health projects. Within the National Urban Health Strategy (2020), the MOLGRDC retains an important role in supporting local governments through provision of technical assistance. Establishing a health section within the MOLGRDC and developing the capacity of the proposed health section would help to ensure that the MOLGRDC can effectively fulfill its role as envisioned in the Strategy.

Similarly, there is no separate Urban Health section in Health Service Division under MOHFW. As a lead ministry of health in the country, MOHFW has well set up for managing rural health up to the level of union and rural community, but no organized set up is available to manage urban primary health care. At the backdrop of this aspect, an Urban Health Section is needed for coordination with MOLGRDC and to foster the urban health activities. So MOHFW also proposed for examining the feasibility of opening an urban health section in HSD like that of Health section under LGD. LHSS will work with both ministries to advocate or establish the Urban health section under HSD and Health section under LGD.

A circular published by LGD, MOLGRDC on 22 March 2021 stated that there should be a block allocation in LGD budget head to spend it for health and nutrition by the LGIs. For this block allocation in LGD budget, a budget line needs to be created in LGD budget head/subhead.    Consultant will work with MoF, MOHFW and LGD, MOLGRDC to create a Health budget line in the LGD budget head.

Pending appropriate government order, the consultant will temporarily work under the administrative supervision of LGD secretary but will be under, Chief of Party, LHSS/Bangladesh, Abt Associates. The consultant will display effective coordination to LGD/city corporation/ municipalities and DGHS by his presence and assigned task.

The consultant will be required to provide technical assistance to related project activities where necessary and needed. Specific tasks are listed below.

Task 1: Consultative meeting/workshop with GOB and all stakeholders: Consultant will undertake a series of consultations/advocacy workshops/meetings with the MOLGRDC, MOHFW, and other relevant stakeholders   to define the institutional arrangements for a ‘health section under LGD and Urban Health section under HSD’.    s.

Task 2:  Develop Guideline regarding organogram with ToR of proposed ‘health section at LGD’ and ‘Urban Health section’ at HSD. Basing on the findings of consultative /advocacy workshops, the consultant will formulate   the guideline regarding organogram with TOR of proposed health sections. He/She will compile all supporting documents aligning with National Urban Health Strategy-2020 and other relevant documents/journal articles, including examples from other countries if available, , etc. The guideline should depend on the needs of health service delivery by the LGIs in the present context and follow the existing rules of Business. This guideline should stipulate the most effective means of coordination and collaboration between two ministries in the improvement of urban HSD.

Task 3: Creation of Health Budget line in LGD budget and LGI budget head: Consultant will include a separate guideline on feasible ways and modalities for creating a health budget line in LGD budget head in order to allocate to all categories of LGIs for spending on health and nutrition. The consultant needs to discuss with Ministry of Finance, Planning, H&FW, LGRDC and relevant DPs through discussion/consultative workshop.

Task 4: Roadmap for establishing Health sections: Consultant will make recommendations on feasible roadmaps for establishing ‘health sections’ under LGD and ‘urban health section’ under HSD basing on the consultation/meeting/workshops with GOB and other stakeholders  

Task 5: Roadmap for Creating Health Budget line in LGD budget: Consultant will make recommendations on feasible roadmap for creating health budget line in LGD budget head basing on the consultation/meeting/workshops with GOB and other stakeholders  

Task 6: Review of the report and dissemination to stakeholders for approval. Consultant will arrange a review of the draft Guideline   of Health section organogram, its TOR and a roadmap by the officials of LHSS Bangladesh office, Abt home office and USAID. After being reviewed, consultant will arrange workshop for the final dissemination and presentation of the reports to GOB and other concerned stakeholders to finally get endorsed by the government.

  • Deliverables:

The assignment is a level of effort (LOE) based contract which means that the Consultant is required to document time spent for each activity and based on that complete the log-sheet to indicate number day/time required for each activity. However, key deliverables of the assignment would include:

  • Inception report with a detailed work plan and the process to conduct this assignment
  • Summary Report of key consultations held with GOB and other main stakeholders
  • Compilation of relevant resource materials like summary of key consultations, minutes of meeting, notes on comparative study/example with/from other countries, reference of existing rules, relevant papers/journal articles etc
  • A Guideline of opening health sections, its Organogram with TOR for the proposed ‘health section’ under LGD and ‘urban health section’ under LGD
  • Recommendation for a Roadmap for establishing   the health section under LGD
  • Road map for establishing Urban Health section under, HSD, MOHFW
  • Separate Guideline and roadmap of Health budget line in LGD budget head to allocate to LGIs for spending in health and nutrition by LGIs.
  • Updated report incorporating the feedback of stakeholders (if any) from dissemination workshop/meeting
  • Dissemination workshop report
  • Period of Performance expected Level of Effort (LOE), reporting, and travel

Period of Performance and LOE: The consultant’s period of performance will be from August 25 – October 31, 2021. (Or 25-30 days since day of joining spread over the four months). This assignment is a LOE based consultancy which meant that the consultant will be required to complete timesheet/log-sheet to indicate time and activity he/she has worked and spent. The payment then will be compensated based on that LOE and the agreed daily rate. However, the total number of days needed for this assignment should not exceed 30 days. The tenure may be adjusted (reduced/extended as per the progress and cooperation from the government) according to the COVID-19 surge situation.

Reporting To: The consultant will directly report to the Chief of Party, LHSS-Bangladesh. Urban Health Technical Advisor will cooperate and assist the consultant’s activities where needed. The LGD secretary (or their assigned official) will act as the temporary host and manager for the consultant (pending issuance of the appropriate government order).

Travel:  Pending COVID-19 restrictions, the consultant will be required to travel within Bangladesh outside of Dhaka.  All expenses incurred during the travels will be inclusive of consultant’s remuneration.

  • Qualifications and Requirements

In order to perform the job well, the consultant will be required to have, but not limited to, the following qualifications:

  • A Bangladeshi national, and due to COVID-19 travel requirements, the persons must be the one who currently resides in the country.
  • Consultant should submit their brief technical proposal, financial proposal with justification of previous consultancy rate (if available or did the job of consultancy), updated VAT registration certificate (BIN) (applicable as per turnover of payment rate)
  • If no experience of consultancy before, then the consultancy fee will be adjusted according to the existing/last served position and previous experiences. Master’s Degree (minimum), in Public Health, Finance, Urban Health, Management, Public Administration, Health Administration, or another any relevant field. 
  • Retired Government officials with relevant experiences is preferred.
  • Ten to fifteen years of relevant professional experience in managing progressively complex health programs.  Experience in working in USAID programs is preferred (but not mandatory).
  • Extensive understanding of urban health, MOLGRDC and LGD
  • Prior experience working in the MOHFW or MOLGRD or both at a senior level or working with senior MoH officials. 
  • Demonstrated leadership and management skills and ability to lead and motivate multidisciplinary teams.
  • Proven track record and ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with USAID, government ministry officials, and other development partners and having interpersonal skill of interacting with officials of other projects, high-level host country governments and international agencies.
  • A proven, successful record of achieving results.  Ability to sustain the key roles and responsibilities largely independently and requires the initiative to ensure work is progressing.
  • Fluency in English and Bengali is required.
  • Computer skill (MS Word, MS Excel, SPSS, MS ppt etc)
  • Must have the Tax (TIN) & VAT (BIN) registration Certificate.
  • Possessing presentation skill

Offer Deadline and Protocol: To apply, submit your CV and an application letter/email message that provides details of your relevant qualifications to LHSS_Bangladesh@abtassoc.com by 10 October , 2021. Please specify “Consultancy services to Establish ‘Health Section’ under LGD,  MOLGRDC and ‘Urban Health Section’ under HSD ,MOHFW”,
Technical Queries: For technical queries, interested applicants may contact: Name of the Person: r Dr. Md Saidur Rahman, Chief of Party, LHSS-Bangladesh Email; Md_Rahman@abtassoc.com or Abu Sufian, Urban Health Technical Advisor, email# Abu_Sufian@abtassoc.com

 Terms and Conditions: This is a request for proposals only. Issuance of this RFP does not in any way obligate Abt Associates or the Project to make payment for costs incurred by potential offerors in the preparation and submission of an offer/proposal. This solicitation is subject to Abt Associates' standard terms and conditions. Please note the following terms and conditions will apply:

  • Abt Associates' standard payment terms are net 30 days after receipt, acceptance of any deliverables and Invoice from the Consultant. Payment will generally be made from Abt's office in Dhaka, Bangladesh via check or electronic transfer. However, the consultant may propose their own payment schedule in their proposal. Source VAT and Tax should be deducted as per Government revenue policy from Payment. VAT Exemption Coupons will be issued to the Consultant in lieu of VAT upon submission of Mushok-6.3 (if Applicable) with the invoice.  Payment will only be issued to the entity submitting the offer/proposal in response to this RFP, payment will not be issued to a third party.