J.1 - Task Order for Business Services.doc

Attachment 1

Request for Task Order Proposal

Task #1 – Business Services in Mozambique *This is a firm fixed price task order.*

Task Order Title: Local Partner Capacity-Building in Mozambique

Background & Purpose The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Center for Global Health (CGH), Division of Global AIDS (DGA) supports the development of sustainable public health capacity to effectively deliver HIV care and treatment services, in order to ensure the long-term impact of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). As part of this effort, CDC supports transitioning Track 1.0 HIV care and treatment programs from cooperative agreement partners to local national partners, including ministries of health, by 2012–2013. The scope of the Track 1.0 Anti – Retroviral Therapy (ART) program at the end of 2008 included 913 treatment sites, supported by 25 programs in 13 countries, that provided ART services to more than 557,000 persons. A class deviation waiver extended the Track 1.0 ART program period another 3 years, until 2012, with the possibility of an extension for a fourth year if needed. The purpose of the waiver is to provide time for the cooperative agreement partners to transition the Track 1.0 ART programs to local national partners, while continuing uninterrupted access to ART services. The four cooperative agreement partners funded through the Track 1.0 ART program were required to submit plans for transitioning the Track 1.0 ART programs to local national partners as part of their FY2009 non-competitive continuation applications.

Transitioning HIV care and treatment services to local partners is a complex process that requires developing the technical and business capacity of local partners, as well as developing the institutional capacity of these partners to manage the programmatic and financial aspects of USG-funded programs. The transition is expected to occur incrementally, according to how well local partners achieve identified benchmarks over several years as part of the transition process.

CDC and Track 1.0 partners’ work in this area directly contributes to the goal in the PEPFAR reauthorization legislation to promote a transition toward greater sustainability of PEPFAR programs. The Track 1.0 ART program transition to local partners will transition care and treatment programs developed during the rapid scale-up of HIV services during 2004-2009 to local leadership and management in partner countries, while ensuring uninterrupted provision of ART services, sustained quality, and continued scale-up of services. The transition will also contribute to PEPFAR II targets for care and treatment for at least 3 million persons and care for 12 million by using available resources for care and treatment programs as efficiently and effectively as possible.

The services described below may be requested by the CDC Atlanta office in order to support USG missions in multiple African countries, but this task order is specific to Mozambique.

Need Areas have been identified within the business services of the local partner organizations where technical assistance is required in an effort to build capacity. Assistance may include, but is not limited to: 1) developing and delivering training and coaching on business services; 2) developing/validating/evaluating organizational systems; 3) developing assessment tools for measuring organizational systems and levels of organizational development in the following technical areas:

· Organizational leadership development support – training, support systems and resources, and other appropriate development activities for senior management teams.

· Financial management systems – budgeting, accounting and record keeping, purchasing and procurement systems, payroll management, payment and invoicing systems, cash control, banking and cash flow management, cost containment strategies, management of inventory and fixed assets, audit systems, managerial oversight.

· Human resource management systems – policies, recruitment, personnel record systems, performance management systems, appraisal systems, supervision, clinical mentoring and workforce development

· Grants management – ability to register for, apply for, administer and report according to United States Government (USG) assistance awards and procurement requirements, pre-award surveys, grant audit resolution, broad internal control and review of specific concern with grant management issues, evaluation of current grantee’s level of management capability, grantee understanding of applicable laws, policies and directives.

· Commodities, equipment logistics and facilities management systems, grants related property management systems.

· Strategic resource development – processes and systems for developing the organization resource base, including a combination of international partner funding, private funding, host government budget allocations and other diversified fundraising activities.

· Monitoring and Evaluation and Quality Management Systems (QMS) – management and health information systems, including clinical standards of care and continuous quality improvement systems, organizational quality management systems.

· Technical Support for site level infrastructure - renovation and development, buildings, power systems (solar/electric), ventilation, safe water, confidentiality areas in clinics, patient flow in clinics.

· Policy support – assist host governments and advocacy organizations in strengthening and enforcement of health policies with the goal of improving overall health systems and health outcomes.

· Documentation and systems development – assess documents for human resources, procurement, and budget as required by CDC and USG grants management policy, recommend improvements on electronic file systems, documentation storage for archives and active files, and drafting procedures, and provide a training manual and training for staff in the management of data records systems.

Specific Tasks The specific request of this task order seeks support for USG efforts to build the capacity of local partners involved in HIV care and treatment programs in Mozambique to equip them with the knowledge and skills to apply for and manage USG cooperative agreements/grants or contract awards as direct prime partners. These services will focus on developing training, support tools, and technical assistance for strengthening the capacity of local partners in Mozambique to understand and implement skills on how to apply for and manage USG funding awards.

The Contractor shall be required to perform the following tasks:

Base Period (Up to 3 months from award)

1. Develop a user-friendly and plain language grants management training course, including participant and facilitator materials and content, as well as job-aids and organizational tools to support the competencies covered. Content should include the ability to register for, apply for, administer and report according to United States Government (USG) assistance awards and procurement requirements, preparing the organization for pre-award surveys, broad internal control and review of specific concern with grant management issues, how to evaluate the current grant management level of capability, understanding and integration of applicable laws, policies and directives into organizational policies and procedures, and grant audit requirements and resolution processes. These materials should be developed in Portuguese (Mozambique) and English languages. The initial request is for 100 copies in each language.

Base period activities must be reviewed and approved by CDC prior to starting work on Option 1.

Option 1 (9 months)

2. Plan and implement the pilot testing of the training course in the field in Mozambique. Coordinate the pilot training with USG Mozambique offices and USG-funded international and local partners as requested by CDC Mozambique. CDC-Mozambique will provide the facilities and the equipment for the training course for 75 participants. Work with the 10 selected organizations from Mozambique who participated in the training course to conduct a simple and user-friendly baseline pre-training organizational assessment on the grants management competencies covered. This should be done through electronic means only, with the content areas to be determined.

3. Provide six-months of electronic communications, mentoring, and technical follow-up support to organizations participating in the training, priced on a per organization basis, of approximately 20 hours/month/organization. Monitor and track organizational changes and provide participants with a final tool to assess meeting benchmarks required for applying for USG funded awards.

Reporting Requirements The Contractor shall provide deliverables in accordance with the delivery schedule in section VI, below, as well as a monthly progress report to the Contracting Officer Technical Representative (COTR). This monthly progress report will not exceed one single-spaced type-written page. It will include a brief narrative account of key activities accomplished and activities planned for the next month.

Period of Performance Twelve (12) months from the award date of task order.

Deliverables All deliverables developed under this task order must be approved by the Procurement and Grants office prior to acceptance by the COTR

Performance-Based Matrix

Surveillance "Incentives" Positive or Negative

1. Detailed work plan and schedule outlining program to address all of the specific tasks described in this task order.

and observation.

Past Performance and Evaluation to Determine whether or not to Exercise Future Options.

Past Performance and Evaluation to Determine whether or not to Exercise Future Options.

Past Performance and Evaluation to Determine whether or not to Exercise Future Options.

Past Performance and Evaluation to Determine whether or not to Exercise Future Options.

Past Performance and Evaluation to Determine whether or not to Exercise Future Options.

Past Performance and Evaluation to Determine whether or not to Exercise Future Options.

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