Responses for Pre-Solicitation Conference.pdf

Pre-Solicitation Conference USAID/India: Health Systems Strengthening and Building

Resilience to Future Pandemics and Climate Change

Reference Number: 72038623RFI00003

Amendment Date: October 16, 2023

Subject: Pre-Solicitation Conference USAID/India- Health Systems Strengthening and

Building Resilience to Future Pandemics and Climate Change, USAID/India

The purpose of this amendment is to provide responses to questions (Appendix 1) received against the announced Pre-Solicitation Conference for Health Systems Strengthening and

Building Resilience to Future Pandemics and Climate Change.

Sincerely, CHS

Cheryl Hodge-Snead

Contracting Officer

Office of Acquisition and Assistance

USAID India

Appendix 1: Responses to Questions received.

Note: USAID will not accept any further questions

1. Is there an agenda / structure of the conference which will be shared prior to the meeting?

USAID Response: Agenda will be shared with the participants later.

2. Does USAID expect organizations to make a presentation?

USAID Response: No presentation required from the participants. Participants are expected to contribute to the group discussions to identify any issues and prioritize the approaches that the HSS activity may include.

3. Phases of the program - USAID has mentioned that the proposed activity would focus on universalization of healthcare through "next generation" comprehensive primary healthcare and expanded disease surveillance, while improving efficiency of public health expenditures, reducing out-of-pocket expenditures, addressing climate adaptation in health systems, and involving the private sector strategically for sustainable health outcomes. This seems to be a step wise approach. Will the grants be rolled out in stages/ phases, or the entire program will be rolled out at once.

USAID Response: This is a pre-solicitation consultation. The workshop is expected to help USAID incorporate solutions into the final solicitation for the activity, should

USAID decide to issue one.

4. Geographic outreach – USAID program aims to reach the remote, unserved areas. Are there specific regions/ state/ states that USAID would like to prioritize?

USAID Response: USAID has not finalized the geographies, but would like to focus the majority of its efforts in the northeastern states, the tribal states of Odisha, Jharkhand and

Chhattisgarh, and around a few large urban pockets like Mumbai.

5. Engagement model - There are several layers to the proposed program – from health workforce capacity building, integrated disease surveillance and outbreak response, supply chain management, innovative risk management, to addressing systemic barriers, such as governance, financing to advocacy and BCC. Is it a correct assumption that the multi-fold requirements shall warrant engagement of multiple organizations by USAID or will it be a single organization for the entire life cycle.

USAID Response: This definitely calls for multiple domain expertise. But the modalities of engagement have not been decided yet. In case USAID decides to go ahead with the solicitation, the modalities of engagement will be decided based on the recommendations emerging from the co-creation workshop.

6. Expected outputs – Great if USAID team can throw some light around the expected outputs from the program so that Jacobs can align their best resources and subject matter expertise for the same?

USAID Response: Expected outputs of the planned activity will be discussed during the workshop.

7. Compliance and regulation - How does USAID plan to monitor and regulate private sector involvement in climate-resilient health systems to ensure compliance with quality standards, ethical practices, and pricing regulations?

USAID Response: The monitoring and regulation will be based on the issues and approaches prioritized during the workshop.

8. Involving local communities - How does USAID plan to integrate climate adaptation strategies into the broader health systems strengthening initiative in India? Do they envision involving local communities in climate adaptation efforts within the health sector, particularly in vulnerable areas like urban slums and rural regions?

USAID Response: This will be discussed during the workshop.

9. Best practices - USAID/India is planning a broader, comprehensive, and integrated health systems activity to support health ecosystem players in India, including the vulnerable and marginalized communities. In aspects such as reducing the out-of-pocket expenditure

(OOPE), expanded surveillance for pandemic preparedness, making health systems adaptable and resilient to climate change, they have sought for best practices, effective approaches, and good models. Will the team benefit from a literature review/ benchmarking of case studies and exemplars across comparable geographies to review the successes and lessons from them?

USAID Response: Some background and findings from consultations undertaken by

USAID for this activity, will be presented and discussed during the workshop.

S.

No.

Clause Reference Page

No.

Clarification/ changes Required/Sought

1. Organizations/Firms may propose up to TWO people, identifying the order of priority for the two proposed individuals

2 Request the client to kindly consider / clarify the following:

▪ Please increase the number of participants from 2 to 4 per organization.

USAID Response: Additional members can join virtually.

▪ Please clarify if other team members will be able to join the conference virtually.

USAID Response: Additional members can join virtually.

▪ Please share the detailed agenda for the pre-solicitation conference.

USAID Response: Attached at the end of this document.

2. This Pre-Solicitation

Conference will be held as part of the Mission’s effort to co-design activities that include input from the community and prospective applicants and/or offerors to foster innovative approaches to problems that jointly produce a mutually beneficial sustainable outcome

1 Request the client to kindly clarify the following:

▪ Please share a list of prioritized areas (from the initial list of 29 questions), if applicable, which will be focused during the conference.

USAID Response: Prioritization will be done in the workshop.

▪ Will it be possible for an organization to propose multiple solutions / interventions as a response to a single question / objective?

USAID Response: Yes

▪ Is there any specific type of intervention (digital, HSS etc.) which is being preferred?

USAID Response: No, USAID is open to hear different innovative approaches and solutions.

▪ Will the scope of work & evaluation criteria be shared with potential organizations post the pre-solicitation conference?

USAID Response: Taking into account the inputs received in the workshop, in case USAID decides to go ahead with the solicitation, the scope of work will be shared during the solicitation.

3. Should USAID decide to issue a solicitation, NOFO, or RFP, it will be announced on the

“Contract Opportunities” section, website link is https://sam.gov/content/opportu nities

1 Request the client to kindly clarify the following:

▪ Will the organization be awarded under a contract or a grant?

USAID Response: Not decided yet, will be decided based on the merging approaches and related requirements.

▪ Will it be possible for an Indian consulting entity to sign the contract with USAID?

USAID Response: We are at the pre-solicitation stage.

Modalities of engagement will be decided in case USAID decides to go ahead with the activity at the solicitation stage.