GHSC_Technical_Assistance_-_Draft_PWS.pdf

‐ 1 ‐

Section C – Statement of Work

Section C.1 – Background

The purpose of this Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC) is to serve as a vehicle through which USAID will procure global health supply chain technical assistance (TA) to improve supply chain management and commodity security in partner countries.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the U.S. Government’s (USG’s) principal implementing organization for international development assistance. This IQC will serve the needs of USAID, other U.S. Government (USG) agencies, partner country governments, NGOs, and other entities. USAID is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and maintains USAID Missions in more than 75 countries across the globe. USAID/Washington is comprised of five geographic bureaus (Africa, Asia, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Middle East) and four functional bureaus, (1) Global Health, (2) Economic Growth, Education and Environment, (3) Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, (4) Bureau for Food Security, that conduct Agency programs globally.

The Bureau for Global Health has the overarching goal of improving human health. The Bureau for Global Health portfolio includes programs that represent the commitment of the USG to prevent suffering, save lives, and create a brighter future for families across the globe.

Successful implementation of USG health programs in partner countries is dependent in part on an uninterrupted supply of essential health commodities.

Procurement of essential health commodities and providing health systems strengthening technical assistance has been a focus of the USAID Bureau for Global Health for over 30 years.

Since 2005, USAID has procured and delivered more than 4,300 different products valued at $2.4 billion and has provided more than $500 million in supply chain technical assistance in more than 50 countries. These activities support USAID Global Health Bureau’s vision “a world where people lead healthy, productive lives and where mothers and children survive and thrive”.

The Bureau for Global Health includes three Offices that procure essential health commodities and technical assistance for USAID programs and Presidential initiatives globally: the Office of Health, Infectious Diseases, and Nutrition (HIDN); the Office of HIV/AIDS (OHA); and the Office of Population and Reproductive Health (PRH). These three offices plus the Office of Health Systems (OHS) provide in‐country technical assistance related to supply chain management and commodity security. These offices provide global leadership and technical support to USAID Missions, and undertake research and innovation to achieve the Global Health Bureau’s health objectives.

Office of Health, Infectious Diseases and Nutrition – HIDN manages a diverse portfolio.

It is responsible for managing the Global Health Bureau’s activities in child health, maternal health, and infectious diseases (including tuberculosis, malaria, avian

‐ 2 ‐ influenza, and neglected tropical diseases). The activities also include programs in nutrition/micronutrients, food security, health policy and health systems strengthening.

USAID’s major malaria program is the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), and is implemented out of the HIDN office. PMI is a collaborative USG effort led by USAID and implemented together with the Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the White House, and others. HIDN is responsible for managing PMI’s central commodity procurement and supply chain technical assistance portfolio.

Office of HIV/AIDS – OHA provides HIV/AIDS technical leadership for the Agency and has primary responsibility for leading the Agency’s efforts within the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This responsibility entails ensuring the technical integrity of USAID/Washington and USAID Mission strategies; providing global technical leadership on the full range of issues related to HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment; managing numerous research and USAID Mission support programs;

managing PEPFAR’s central commodity procurement and supply chain technical assistance portfolio; and monitoring and reporting on the impact of the Agency’s HIV/AIDS program.

Office of Population and Reproductive Health – PRH provides strategic direction, technical leadership and support to USAID Mission programs in population, voluntary family planning, and reproductive health. It manages programs that advance and apply state‐of‐the‐art technologies, expand access to quality services, promote biomedical and social science research, promote healthy behaviors, broaden contraceptive availability and choices, strengthen policies and systems to address family planning and reproductive health needs, and improve data collection and use. PRH is responsible for managing the Global Health Bureau’s central contraceptive procurement and supply chain technical assistance portfolio.

Office of Health Systems Strengthening – The Office of Health Systems leads the development of USAID’s agenda and strategy to promote effective, sustainable, country‐owned health systems capable of advancing maternal, neonatal and child health and nutrition; combating infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases; and addressing emerging public health priorities. OHS leads the Agency’s health systems research efforts including development of a research portfolio and of metrics and tools for measuring health systems improvements. OHS tracks and works to align USAID resources, funds and programs for health systems strengthening with this agenda. OHS also works to influence the priorities of others to support this agenda and strategy, including other USG agencies, partner country governments, donors, firms, and civil society. The goal of OHS is to provide worldwide leadership and technical expertise in health systems strengthening.

‐ 3 ‐

The four offices described above currently work with various implementing partners to provide technical assistance to strengthen supply chain management and commodity security. The current supply chain and commodity security mechanisms are described in brief below.

USAID | DELIVER PROJECT – The USAID | DELIVER PROJECT (DELIVER) is a single‐award IQC that is implemented by John Snow, Inc. (JSI), in collaboration with 3i Infotech; Abt Associates; The Center for International Health and Development at Boston University School of Public Health; Crown Agents Consultancy, Inc.; FHI 360; Fuel Logistics Group (Pty) Ltd.; The Manoff Group, Inc.; MAP International; PATH; UPS Supply Chain Solutions; and U.S. Pharmacopeia. The USAID | DELIVER PROJECT provides global procurement and delivery of essential health commodities for non‐PEPFAR programs as well as technical assistance in many of the countries where these commodities are consumed. The project designs, develops, strengthens, and, on request, operates safe, reliable, and sustainable supply chains that provide a wide range of affordable essential health commodities, including drugs, diagnostics, and supplies to clients in country programs. The project also provides technical support to strengthen global and country environments for commodity security, supporting policy development, financing, advocacy, etc. There are currently four active task orders in the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT. Task order 4 relates to in‐country technical assistance for USAID’s PRH office.

Task order 5 relates to global procurement and logistics for PRH. Task order 6 relates to USAID’s response to emerging and pandemic threats. Task order 7 relates to global procurement and logistics as well as in‐country technical assistance for USAID’s HIDN office. The project’s technical support strengthens all aspects of in‐country supply chains including forecasting, procurement, distribution, management information systems, quality assurance, storage and infrastructure, and medical waste disposal. The USAID | DELIVER PROJECT supports, through supply chain strengthening and other technical assistance, a range of essential health commodities, including contraceptives and condoms, malaria treatment medicines, insecticide‐treated bed nets, and rapid diagnostic tests for malaria, essential medicines, maternal and child health, infectious diseases, avian influenza(AI), and other emerging pandemic threats.

Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) – SCMS is a single‐award IQC that is implemented by the Partnership for Supply Chain Management, a non‐profit consortium of 13 organizations led by John Snow Inc. Research & Training Institute and Management Sciences for Health (MSH). Other partners include Booz Allen Hamilton, Crown Agents USA, Inc., The Manoff Group, MAP International, North‐West University, Northrop Grumman, RTT, UPS Supply Chain Solutions, Voxiva, and 3i Infotech. SCMS delivers essential lifesaving medicines and products to HIV/AIDS programs around the world as part of the U.S. PEPFAR. SCMS works to strengthen supply chains to enable the scale‐up of HIV/AIDS care and treatment in partner countries. SCMS operates a safe, secure, and reliable supply chain to buy and distribute high‐quality, low‐cost essential medicines including antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs, HIV test kits, laboratory supplies, male circumcision supplies and other products. SCMS strengthens the capacity of national supply chains to ensure long‐term sustainability. SCMS supports supply chain

‐ 4 ‐ collaboration and information‐sharing among global and local partners in the HIV/AIDS community.

System for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals (SIAPS) – The SIAPS project is a cooperative agreement implemented by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) with four core partners, Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), Harvard University, Logistics Management Institute (LMI) and University of Washington.

Specialized resource partners include Africa Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network, Results for Development (R4D), RTT Group, Village Reach, and William Davidson Institute. The SIAPS project aims to ensure the availability of quality‐assured pharmaceutical products and effective pharmaceutical services needed to achieve desired health outcomes by applying systems‐strengthening approaches and principles of country ownership, integration of health programming, sustainability, and improved performance metrics. The SIAPS result areas address the intersections of five health systems components (governance, human resources, information, financing, and service delivery) as they relate to medicines policies, management and use, including a focus on patient safety and therapeutic effectiveness.

Potential interventions are designed to ensure that they respond to health elements and cross‐cutting concerns in support of health system strengthening.

Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM) – The Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM) program is a cooperative agreement that is implemented by the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP), works to strengthen quality assurance mechanisms at the country level by improving medicines quality control laboratories and systems for monitoring the quality of medicines in the marketplace, in addition to collaborating with worldwide efforts to combat counterfeit and substandard medicines. The latter includes support for regional initiatives to develop regulatory capacity, sharing of information on product quality, and developing improved tools and approaches to detect counterfeit and substandard medicines. PQM is working as well to expand the pool of WHO‐prequalified manufacturers of second line TB medicines.

Supply Chain Technical Assistance by USAID Global Health Bureau, FY2009 to FY2012

Project TA Value

DELIVER TO1/4 $138M

DELIVER TO3/7 $52M

SCMS TO1/2/3 $260M

USAID posted the Global Health Supply Chain synopsis in August, 2012. USAID is restructuring its existing portfolio of projects related to commodity security and supply chain management of essential health commodities. The Global Health Supply Chain contract architecture continues to evolve with an updated contract architecture described in the public notice to bidders posted with this IQC revision. A diagram of the new portfolio of projects is illustrated in Figure 1 below. This request for proposal is for the multiple‐award, $500M (shared ceiling) IQC for

‐ 5 ‐

“Technical Assistance”. USAID targets four awards under this IQC including a target of two small business set asides. It is intended that this IQC will provide USAID Missions and other USG Partners with the flexibility and choice in selecting a partner for supply chain technical assistance. USAID reserves the right to directly award task order requests for technical assistance that are $1.5 million or less to the small business set‐aside(s). This threshold may be amended during the life of the IQC as appropriate.

Of critical importance to USAID in the transition from the existing DELIVER and SCMS contracts to this new implementing architecture is ensuring a continuous provision of technical assistance. To this end, the Global Procurement and Technical Assistance IQC contract and this IQC may be required to operate in parallel with the existing contracts for a sufficient period of time to ensure a successful transition. This transition period is expected to last for a period of up to one year or until a full transition has been made. This transition will require all existing

‐ 6 ‐ and new contracting parties to collaborate as directed by USAID in support of the overall mission of improving global public health.

Section C.2 – Overall Objective and Guiding Principles

The overall objective of this contract is to improve the availability of essential health commodities through supply chain systems strengthening technical assistance. To accomplish this overall objective, the contractors will need to design, implement, and maintain public health supply chain technical assistance capabilities that are requested by USAID’s Headquarters, Missions as broadly outlined in this IQC.

It is imperative that the contractors actively collaborate, coordinate, and communicate with other partners to provide high quality services to USAID. The contractor is expected to recruit, hire and maintain staff with the appropriate mix of skills to either provide services directly, or to engage appropriate subcontractors to accomplish the objectives of this IQC. In addition, the contractor is expected, whenever possible, to identify efficiencies through collaboration with other partners and awards under the architecture, as well as within the IQC, to achieve savings and best value for the USG. All components of this contract should represent best value for the

USG.

As the demand for essential health commodities has grown, so has the need for improved supply chain management and commodity security in the countries where these commodities are distributed. The contractor must provide global technical leadership in supply chain management and commodity security for essential health commodities. Capacity development within partner country institutions and organizations is expected to be a guiding principle of such leadership.

The Contractor may be requested to provide supply chain technical assistance to USAID Missions, USAID Bureaus, operating units, other USG agencies, public international organizations, local and international non‐governmental organizations, private sector entities, and/or partner countries. In all cases, the Task Order Contracting Officer Representative’s (TOCOR) written approval is required.

The contractor shall maintain key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate its processes and performance. KPIs will be established at the task order level, but the contractor may be called on to seek KPIs that are harmonized across multiple task orders under this IQC and the Global Procurement and Technical Assistance Single‐Award IQC. The contractor shall provide USAID with baseline data, agreed upon targets, and periodic performance against targets for all KPIs throughout the life of the contract at the Task Order.

USAID anticipates to award different types of task orders including hybrids that include cost reimbursement, fixed price types and/or incentives. The purpose of incentives contracts is to improve the performance of successful contractors against specific targets. Incentives will be specified at the task order level and will be negotiated with the prospective bidders during the contract negotiation process.

‐ 7 ‐

Section C.3 – Scope of Work

Components of the Overall Objective

To accomplish the overall objective, the contractor shall address the activity components illustrated in Figure 2 below.

Objective 1: System Strengthening – Use and Improve In‐Country Supply Chain Systems

USAID is committed to strengthening in‐country supply chain systems to improve commodity availability. The contractor must have the capacity to work in countries with supply chains of varying degrees of complexity and capacity. Refer to Section J for a current list of country field offices for SCMS and DELIVER, from which technical assistance is provided. The contractor must address USAID’s commitment to system strengthening through the provision of technical assistance (described below) to countries using approaches that promote sustainable solutions and country ownership, drawing from evidence‐based best practices derived from the public and private sectors, academia, and elsewhere. This may require working with a variety of country counterparts within the Ministry of Health and other partners and stakeholders concerned with the regular and sustained availability of essential medical supplies and commodities.

Each task order that may result from this IQC could have differing aims or emphasis. The contractor shall seek to realize synergies, avoid duplication, and encourage collaboration, ‐ 8 ‐ where appropriate, in its technical assistance efforts across all task orders managed by the contractor. Technical assistance activities under this IQC may include, but are not limited to, the following:

1.1 Strategic Planning – Ensure in‐country strategic planning and design for assistance to achieve best value

In many cases, country partners will have already undertaken extensive strategic planning exercises related to supply chain management and commodity security. In these instances, the contractor will be expected to plan its activities within strategic plans and frameworks that are being implemented by the country and its partners. In other cases, as requested by USAID and in collaboration with country partners, the contractor may be called upon to provide technical assistance to support the implementation of strategic planning related to supply chain management and commodity security. In this case, the contractor will be expected to have the capacity to fulfill such a request. The contractor must demonstrate the capacity and flexibility to work in either context.

This activity includes, but is not limited to, the following elements

Strategic Planning – When requested by USAID, and in coordination with USAID Missions, USG agencies, international partners, partner government officials and other partners, the contractor must develop multi‐year strategic plans for its own activities with appropriate operating results frameworks. The frameworks should identify the strategic objective, intermediate results, hypothesized cause‐and‐effect linkages and critical assumptions.

Monitoring and Evaluation – As defined at the task order level, the contractor’s strategy and plans should be accompanied by a monitoring and evaluation plan approved by USAID. It is the intent of these documents to be updated regularly and to be the template on which to measure success of technical assistance and its role in capacity building. In addition, the contractor must develop a measurement plan to determine baseline performance and track performance change over time for its various technical assistance initiatives. As directed at the task order level, the contractor may be called on to collaborate with a third party to develop monitoring and evaluation plans and participate in broader USAID monitoring and evaluation activities.

Technical Assistance Tracking – The contractor must record and track all system strengthening tasks at the country level, including funding and level of effort needed to monitor and to enable contract budget performance and management. The contractor must provide, complete and on‐time, any system strengthening deliverable documents to USAID or other designee. The contractor must document and track all system strengthening tasks on an ongoing basis. The contractor must submit to USAID any raw data used in the development of its deliverables in an organized, complete, and searchable form (for example, LMIS extracts or GIS coordinates), when requested.

‐ 9 ‐

1.2 In‐Country Logistics – Improve effective and efficient delivery to service sites

Building on support already being provided by various groups at the country level, the contractor must be prepared to provide both short‐ and long‐ term technical assistance to partner countries in supply chain management and commodity security . The contractor must provide technical assistance with the ultimate goal of establishing country systems that are not dependent on the contractor for their proper functioning. All strategic plans and work‐plans must include clearly defined activities that incrementally lead to increased country ownership and sustainability of supply chains.

This activity includes, but is not limited to, the following elements:

Supply Chain Technical Assistance Coordination – USAID expects that there will be other USG and non‐USG activities in any given country to support supply chain strengthening activities. It is incumbent on the contractor to engage with other supply chain related programs and to ensure coordination among technical assistance activities within the country.

Commodity Quantification and Forecasting – Commodity forecasting, sometimes referred to as demand planning, refers to the estimation of future consumption of essential health commodities. In collaboration with partner country counterparts, the contractor may be called on to review the current approach to estimating commodity supply needs, identify data or service gaps and/or different approaches to the estimation of required supplies. When providing technical assistance in forecasting, the contractor must collaborate with partner country counterparts to determine the most appropriate methodologies to be used. This may involve providing technical assistance to health care and service‐delivery programs to ensure the timely submission of accurate forecasting data and/or procurement requests. As directed by USAID, the contractor shall assist in the production of detailed supply plans that reflect national treatment guidelines, local drug product registration requirements, and other related regulations. When requested by USAID, the contractor shall provide assistance in new product quantification, forecasting, and procurement planning as well as for any transition to newer and more efficacious products.

Commodity Supply planning – Commodity supply planning refers to the estimation of inbound orders and tracking of inbound orders to customers. The contractor shall ensure that supply plans will be developed for all USG funded supplies and that these supply plans take into account existing inventory levels, min/max inventory policies, as well as the commodity forecast, which may take into account the compounded needs of rising treatment levels, expansion of services, and increasing numbers of service sites. The contractor shall monitor designated commodity funding levels versus re‐supply needs and provide guidance to the appropriate stakeholders to assist in decision making on fund deployment for resupply. Data in these country‐level supply plans should be formatted to be easily aggregated at the global level for global inventory management by the contractor and/or other procuring agents.

‐ 10 ‐

Commodity Warehousing and Inventory Management – In collaboration with partner country counterparts, the contractor may be called on to provide technical assistance related to equipment and storage requirements and business processes for the proper management of supplies. The contractor may be called on to provide assistance to identify quality assurance issues and risks with existing in‐country storage and develop and/or implement long term solutions for such challenges. The contractor may be called on to provide technical assistance in the establishment of warehousing process and procedures, loss prevention strategies, WMS systems implementation and usage, deployment bar coding and other operational technologies, training programs for warehouse personnel, and other activities as directed by USAID. The contractor may be called on to advise and/or oversee warehouse/facility design and construction, racking, and refurbishment. In addition to warehousing, the contractor may be called on to provide technical assistance in inventory management, which may include but is not limited to product slotting and positioning, setting of min/max levels, ABC analysis, SKU rationalization, technology selection, and other relevant activities.

Construction – Resource shortages do not allow many countries to adequately design, build or maintain adequate warehouses and distribution systems. The contractor may be called on to provide technical assistance and financing to in support of rehabilitation and renovation of warehouses in countries according to the following guidelines or as instructed by USAID:

Technical assistance may include but not be limited to: architecture, civil/structural engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, quantity surveying, construction design concepts, materials/technology selection, design of sustainable construction, site planning and management, etc.

Commodity Distribution and Transportation – The contractor may be called on to provide technical assistance related to commodity distribution and transportation. In particular, the contractor must have the ability to facilitate outsourcing of transportation for public health commodity distribution. This may include the assessment of the private sector transportation and third party logistics market in a country, assistance in the transportation tendering process, assistance in ongoing vendor performance management, transportation cost and service benchmarking, assistance in setting up effective and transparent financial management systems to manage outsourcing, and other activities.

As described in Objective 1 of this IQC, the contractor may be called on to directly manage in‐ country distribution, possibly down to the point of final consumption of the commodity or the “last mile.” The contractor must have the capacity and flexibility to provide technical assistance as appropriate for the level of supply chain within which the contractor is engaged. (e.g.

providing TA for managers and decision makers at the central level; health workers at the facility level; and community members at the household level). The contractor must also have the capacity to capture data at all levels of engagement (e.g. commodity stock data, case management data, etc.).

‐ 11 ‐

Health Waste Management – The contractor may be called on to provide technical assistance related to waste management and reverse logistics within health supply chains in partner countries.

Commodity Quality Assurance – The contractor may be called on to provide technical assistance related to product quality assurance in the field. As directed by USAID, these activities will be undertaken with full consultation and collaboration with other USAID implementing partners (e.g., SIAPS and PQM) to avoid duplication. For example, technical assistance regarding proper sampling and testing, and pre‐shipment inspections may be required as part of the overall product quality process. Other illustrative examples include technical assistance to the national drug regulatory authority or national entity responsible for in‐country supply chains.

Appropriate Pharmaceutical and Commodity Selection – In collaboration with partner country counterparts and other entities as directed by USAID, the contractor may be called on to provide assistance to select appropriate pharmaceuticals, laboratory products, and other commodities to support the programs and adhere to treatment protocols.

Identification of Barriers to Commodity Importation – In each country, the contractor shall review the tariff and regulatory barriers to importation of the needed products, call these problems to the attention of appropriate local and USG officials, and assist in devising solutions to reduce/minimize these barriers.

Commodity Loss prevention – In collaboration with partner country counterparts, the contractor must identify any problems of theft, deterioration, or other diversion of supplies, indicate appropriate corrective measures, and assist in their execution.

Commodity Supply Chain Design – The contractor may be called on to identify and pursue opportunities for transformative change in how public health supply chains are designed. This may include “south‐to‐south” exchanges of best practices, adaptation of commercial practices and technology, and application of academic concepts. Such design work may involve network optimization, inventory and transportation strategies and optimization, and decision and predictive analytics.

Data Collection – Timely, accurate, complete, analyzable data related to public health facilities’ stock balances, commodity consumption, and inventory adjustments (hereafter referred to as logistics data) remains a perennial challenge in many countries. The contractor may be called on to provide technical assistance to improve the collection of logistics data. The contractor may be called on to work with the appropriate stakeholders to develop incentive systems and managerial systems to improve logistics data collection. The contractor may be called on to assist countries to pursue appropriate technology strategies to collect and use logistics data.

These strategies could include electronic LMIS and other data collection technology such as mobile reporting and web‐based data collection. The contractor may be called on to assist in the selection, implementation, and training necessary for new electronic systems to collect

‐ 12 ‐ logistics data. The contractor may be called on to pursue activities to digitize paper‐based logistics reports for use by other parties in the supply chain. The contractor may be called on to design and implement improvements to the logistics data collection process. The contractor may be called on to be involved in revisions to the country’s standard operating procedures that dictate the reporting forms used and processes followed by the various actors in the public health system to report logistics data. As a principle, the contractor should seek opportunities to minimize the burden of data collection at the lowest level while still ensuring quality and cost‐effective reporting.

Collecting periodic logistics data for all commodities for all SDPs ultimately produces large amounts of data that must be analyzed to improve the functioning of the supply chain. The contractor should assist the appropriate stakeholders in the use of such data, including improving allocation decisions upstream, improving ordering downstream, improving forecasting of future consumption, improving budgeting for maintaining commodities in full supply, improving inventory management upstream, improving procurement timeliness and supply planning, and a host of other mundane supply chain activities that can be driven by such data and are critical to the effective functioning of a supply chain. The contractor should actively seek to bring best practices and knowledge from what works in other countries to improve logistics data collection.

Logistics Management Information Systems – LMIS refers to the in‐country combination of processes, people, and technology that produce and use logistics data. The contractor may be called on to maintain detailed, ongoing tracking as to the completeness, timeliness, and accuracy of logistics data. For SDPs providing health commodities purchased as a part of this IQC, the contractor may be called on to obtain logistics data directly in the instances that such data is not available via an existing country system.

1.3 Capacity‐Building – Effective transfer of skills, knowledge, and technology for improved and sustained performance.

Capacity building of local institutions and human resources is critical in effecting long term change in a country’s supply chain. As such, USAID will require the contractor to implement strategies to improve processes, systems, and management of those persons and institutions most critical to public health supply chains. The contractor must seek to share best practices with partner country organizations and institutions. The contractor must identify barriers to effective skills transfer and institutionalization of best practices, and work with partner country governments and other in‐country partners to find approaches to address and overcome these challenges. USAID may call on the contractor to provide this assistance to partner countries and other partners involved in local supply chain activities. In addition, USAID may request that the contractor provide skills transfer through training, publishing information and research, and providing materials to other USG partners, international organizations, and foundations involved in supply chain and commodity security.

The contractor must always consider the use of local supply chain expertise as a preferred

‐ 13 ‐ option for both long term and short term assistance. The contractor should actively seek opportunities to embed within existing institutions to strengthen them. Additionally USAID expects the contractor to provide a transition plan (exit strategy) as part of its strategic and monitoring plans for when supply chain functions are transferred from the contractor to partner country counterparts. This requirement will be expected at the task order level and the details will be negotiated and finalized during work‐plan development. When requested by USAID, as part of the planning process, the contractor shall develop plans to phase out and devolve activity implementation and management to local partners and beneficiaries.

1.4 Enabling Environments – Strengthen enabling environments to improve supply chain performance.

Increasing and sustaining client access to essential health commodities through systems strengthening is dependent on the country context and the enabling environment. The enabling environment includes aspects such as political commitment, policies, organizational development, personnel, and other human and financial resources and other conditions that make it possible for program implementation to take place. Where USAID determines applicable, the contractor will serve as an advocate for change through collaboration with key stakeholders to formulate and implement new and better policies, to allocate resources effectively, to engage and coordinate multi‐sector efforts to improve health supply chains, and to compile and present the data necessary for sound decision‐making.

The contractor must implement and maintain a program design that may include, but is not limited to, the following elements:

Commodity Financing – Financing can come from a variety of resources, including national governments, households, donors, the commercial sector and other private entities. As directed by USAID, the contractor will provide technical assistance to identify and access new funding sources, both public and private, to serve the total demand for essential health commodities. In addition, the contractor will assist governments and national health programs in coordinating a wide array of stakeholders to ensure a more effective allocation of financial resources.

Information Systems – The contractor must work with USAID and partner country counterparts to strengthen existing information systems that support the supply chain management system.

This assistance may be at the central, intermediate, or service‐delivery point level

When the contractor is involved in supporting the implementation of Commercial‐Off‐The‐Shelf (COTS) applications, open source software (OSS), or custom applications, each IT project must have an assigned project manager as well as a statement of work, an estimated cost, a business case including return on investment calculations, and success criteria and performance measures. The contractor must monitor each significant IT project, and report to USAID Mission, the partner country activity managers, and the Task Order COR or his or her designee.

Such reporting should employ project management standards to include, but not limited to, ‐ 14 ‐ project plans, project schedules, budget/expenditure numbers, requirements documents, system architecture and design documents, security plans, testing plans, communications plans (with escalation procedures), support and maintenance plans (to include Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and monthly SLA trends reports), change control plans, organizational change management and training plans, risk management plan, and user and system administrator guides. In addition, USAID funded IT project implementation must follow guidelines as established in ADS Chapter 548.

Prior to beginning work on each significant IT activity as defined above, the contractor IT manager must meet with the relevant Task Order CORs from USAID as well as with relevant partner country counterparts to review the scope of the activity, and to determine a schedule of deliverables. USAID will provide the contractor with the budget threshold that will be used to decide whether the IT is significant. The specific list of project documents and their timing may be adjusted as agreed upon by USAID, the relevant partner country counterparts, and the contractor IT manager. While software development may be conducted through various methodologies (agile, waterfall, etc.), the overall project management of all IT projects will follow a standard methodology. This standard methodology and these standard documentation templates will be agreed upon by the contractor, the partner country counterparts, and USAID. If the contractor does not have an existing standard process or documentation templates, they will follow the standards as already defined within USAID/GH.

Refer to Section J for examples of the standard and templates.

Human Resources – The availability of essential health commodities depends on the adequate supply of appropriately trained and supervised staff equipped and empowered to meet the supply chain needs of health programs. The contractor must work with USAID and partner countries to develop strategies for human resource development including, but not limited to pre‐service training, in‐service training, and continuing education for health professionals, task shifting opportunities, and organizational development.

Governance and Leadership – For supply chain interventions to work, partner countries need effective policy making, transparent rules, open information, and active participation by all relevant stakeholders in the health sector. The quality of overall governance in a country directly affects the environment in which health systems operate and the ability of government health officials to exercise their responsibilities. As such, the contractor must work with USAID, partner countries and other stakeholders to strengthen the stewardship and accountability of the health supply chain. This may include but not be limited to promoting the participation of citizens, civil society, and the private sector as responsible actors in strengthening supply chain performance, monitoring, stewardship, and implementation. The contractor should encourage stakeholder accountability through audits, physical inventory, etc. The contractor must also work with all USG and partner countries to improve the leadership and management skills of supply chain staff to better plan and use resources.

‐ 15 ‐

Effective coordination with all USAID funded supply chain activities ‐ This contract is part of a supply chain architecture that includes several contracts related to supply chain management and commodity security. In addition to this IQC, there will be a single award IQC for Procurement and Supply Chain Assistance, there will be a small business set aside for laboratory supplies, awards for specialized purposes (e.g. research, innovation, evaluation, etc.), a quality assurance award and a business intelligence award. The contractor shall coordinate and collaborate with all awards described under the new GH supply chain architecture as appropriate and as directed by USAID. In addition to coordination across all awards, the contractor will be expected to facilitate coordination within awardees under this IQC. USAID anticipates awarding multiple task orders over the life of the program; as such, USAID expects contractors to coordinate and collaborate across contracts and task orders. In a situation where activities under more than one task order are expected to operate in one country, USAID will expect the contractor to identify efficiencies to achieve best value for the USG (e.g. operating in one office, cost sharing staff, etc.).

1.5 Use of In‐Country Systems – Increased utilization of country‐managed supply chains.

At the task order level, the contractor should use, wherever feasible, in‐country supply chain organizations, whether public, private or non‐profit, rather than establishing and operating its own supply chain. As directed by USG country team, the contractor may occasionally be called on to use temporary approaches to manage a commodity supply chain outside of that already in‐country. This would be done on a temporary, short‐term basis until country supply chain systems become the primary conduit for supply chain management, commodity security, and service delivery.