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Overview

Many Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICs) have achieved remarkable progress on many health targets, including on many communicable diseases and on child and maternal health.  However, progress has not equally benefited everyone, and some population groups remain left behind in most countries, even those with strong health systems. Disruption to delivery of essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic further impeded the progress towards achieving health targets, particularly for unreached groups. Despite the success achieved in reducing the mortality and morbidity of TB over the years, TB remains as public health issue around the world. The Western Pacific Region accounts for 18 % of the Global TB burden. There has been reduction in TB deaths by 13% and incidence by 6.7% between 2015 and 2020. TB remains a significant public health challenge which includes missing cases, drug-resistant TB, a huge pool of latent TB, slow uptake of innovations, and lack of multisectoral action to address catastrophic costs faced by TB patients and their families. With rapid economic growth, many countries are transitioning their health financing from international to domestic. The flourishing private sector indicates the need to focus on a public-private mix strategy. There is an ever-growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCD) among general population which is an important risk factor for TB disease while other risk factors like, alcohol, air pollution, malnutrition and tobacco also need to be addressed. The region has an increasing elderly population requiring the TB program to collaborate with palliative and rehabilitative geriatric care.

The WHO Global Health Sector Strategies on HIV, Hepatitis and STI 2016-2022 has come to an end and the 75th WHA in May 2022 has noted with appreciation the new GHSS and approved its implementation for the next 8 years. The strategies guide the health sector in implementing strategically focused responses to achieve the goals of ending AIDS, hepatitis B and C and STIs by 2030 and are aligned with the regional priority of “reaching the unreached” with a health systems approach. The 2022-2030 strategies underline the critical role of the health sector in ending these epidemics, acknowledging that a multisectoral “Health in All Policies” approach is required to remove structural and systemic barriers to accelerating progress. The strategies call for a more precise focus to reach the people most affected and at risk for each disease and to address inequities. They promote synergies under a universal health coverage and primary health care framework and contribute to achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is important that these policy initiatives are translated into enhanced standards of care through provision of quality services and improved patient access to these services. Thus, it is important that continuous technical support is provided to PICs in implementing services according to these guidelines and best practices.

In this direction a regional meeting is planned for the PICs to share experiences, update with newer WHO recommendations, and build capacity to overcome the challenge of achieving the targets for 2025 and 2030. The Regional meeting will focus on training and professional development activities.

A.Objectives

The core objectives of this Pacific Island Countries Regional Meeting for Reaching the Unreached is to: 

TB/ TB-DM/ HIV-STI Workshop

• Provide recommendations for activities to accelerate the uptake of tools and approaches to increase case detection and early treatment of TB / HIV / STI / Hepatitis. 
• Provide technical support on improving of country clinical and public health surveillance systems, data management and information technology for programmatic management of TB / HIV / STI / Hepatitis.
• Provide latest and other relevant literature, international guidelines, and standards to Participating PIC GF funded countries.
• Strengthen the in- country collaboration between TB / HIV / DM - NCD collaboration and to prepare workplan to implement Bi-directional screening/testing.

Laboratory System Strengthening Workshop

• Provide technical support to strengthen laboratory system
• Strengthen laboratory quality assurance.

Procurement Supply Chain Management

• Strengthen the Logistics and Supply Chain Management in the areas of logistics, warehouse operations and inventory management.
• Strengthen in- country procurement process
• Improve fixed assets management

C.   Scope of Work

Under the guidance of the UNDP Programme Manager and Programme Analyst the Consultant will undertake the following task:

1. Rapporteur for the HIV/TB and PSM regional workshop.
2. Document and report on the results of consultations
3. Based on the workshop, develop strategic directions and recommendations and advocacy strategies such as infographics.
4. Coordinate communication activities necessary to capture the meaningful content of the consultation(s), such as photographs and videos, and coordinate communication needs.

D.    Expected Outputs and Timelines  

• Regional consultations report detailing the main highlights, country gaps with key recommendations and way-forward.
• Communication strategy developed and fully implemented at all stages of the consultation.
• An egalitarian and socially inclusive approach are integrated into all stages of the consultation; gender empowerment and leadership considerations are supported and integrated into key outcomes and deliverables.

E.    Institutional Arrangement

• The Consultant will be monitored, overseen and supervised by the Programme Manager and he/she is expected to work closely with UNDP Communications and Programme Analyst.
• The Consultant is expected to provide his/her own laptop. He / She is expected to inform UNDP immediately in writing if he/she is unable to meet the deliverables of this consultancy.

F.    Duration of the Work

• The consultancy is for 15 days commencing no later than 14 November 2022 and completion no later than 9th December 2022.

G.   Duty Station

• The NC will be home-based and will travel with UNDP during the duration of the workshop;
• The NC is expected to use her/his laptop computer, loaded with the appropriate computer

H. Competencies

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities skills;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Comprehensiveness knowledge of Stockholm Convention and its obligatory requirements
• Proficiency in the use of office IT applications and internet in conducting research; • Outstanding communication, project management and organizational skills;
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
• Positive, constructive attitude to work;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

H. Qualifications of the Successful Contractor

i) Academic Qualifications
• Minimum Bachelor’s Degree in Communication, Journalism or equivalent.

ii) Years of experience & skills
• At least 5 years of professional experience in program development or coordination
• Experience working with a combination of public organizations and platforms, the private sector and civil society.
• Proven records of communication developed material or products related to Development stories, short stories & Blogs
• General understanding of the environment and other climate change related issues in the Pacific

Language requirements

• Fluency of English language is required; and the main national language (if not English)
• Proven competence and experience in Internet and social networking tools (i.e. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, etc.) ability to use standard computer applications (i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.)

I.   Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Payment under the contract will be output based and will be made upon satisfactory completion and acceptance of the Assignment by UNDP Programme Manager.

The contractor shall submit a price proposal as below:

• Daily Fee – The contractor shall propose a daily fee, which should be inclusive of his/her/their professional fee and communication cost. The number of working days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract is not more than 50 working days.
• The total professional fee, shall be converted into a lump-sum contract and payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of deliverables under the contract as highlighted in section D.

J.    Recommended Presentation of Offer

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications with financial proposal as separate:

1. Duly accomplished Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II); If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she/they expects his/her/their employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her/they to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. 
2. Latest personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) professional referee’s.
3. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself/themself as the most suitable for the assignment

K.   Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

Cumulative analysis

The proposals will be evaluated using the cumulative analysis method with a split 70% technical and 30% financial scoring. The proposal with the highest cumulative scoring will be awarded the contract. Applications will be evaluated technically, and points are attributed based on how well the proposal meets the requirements of the Terms of Reference using the guidelines detailed in the table below:

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract may be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

1. responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
2. having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria weighting; 70%

Financial Criteria weighting; 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the Technical Evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation. Interviews may be conducted as part of technical assessment for shortlisted proposals.

Documentation required

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
• Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
• Technical proposal, including a) a brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment; and b) a methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment.
• Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: National consultants must quote prices in United States Dollars (USD).

Note: Successful individual will be required to provide proof of medical insurance coverage before commencement of contract for the duration of the assignment.

Incomplete, joint proposals and proposals sent to the wrong mailing address will not be accepted and only candidates for whom there is further interest will be contacted.

Individuals interested in this consultancy should apply and will be reviewed based on their own individual capacity.

Apply to:

United Nations Development Programme
Level 8, Kadavu House, Victoria Parade, Suva, Fiji.
Attn: Nischal Narain
etenderbox.pacific@undp.org