REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL – PAKISTAN MARKET ANALYSIS AND STRATEGIC OPTIONS TO INCREASE ACCESS TO NUTRITIONAL PRODUCTS ADDRESSING MALNUTRITION

1.2. Project Overview:

The “Increasing Access to Maternal and Child Wasting (MCW) Products: Market Analysis and Strategic Options” project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) aims to address malnutrition in women and children under-five in South Asia (SA) and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where access to life-saving nutritional products remains suboptimal.

In Pakistan, one of the 5 focus geographies for this project, undernutrition for women and children is a major driver of infant and child morbidity and mortality. In 2018, Pakistan’s National Nutrition Survey found that 14.4% of women were underweight (BMI <18.5)1, where maternal underweight is a key factor to adverse pregnancy outcomes such as small for gestational age (SGA) and low birth weight (LBW).2 Child wasting also affected 17.7% of children under 5 in 2018, contributing to thousands of preventable deaths.1,3

Supplementary and therapeutic products have the proven potential to save many lives. There are a range of promising products that are either in-market or progressing through the development pipeline: Among mature products, ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) are the current gold standard for treatment of child wasting, but market coverage has reached at most 1/4 of children who need it. Small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) are an effective method of preventing wasting and stunting in children that have increasingly promising evidence, but with much more limited scaleup even than RUTF. Among more innovative products, microbiome-directed RUTF (MD-RUTF) is a new formulation of RUTF that has shown promise in reducing relapse of wasting, but it is unclear whether this will be adopted and scaled. Meanwhile, balanced energy protein supplements (BEP) have been recommended by WHO during pregnancy to address maternal malnutrition and improve birth outcomes, however a range of BEP products are still being tested; no product has been scaled up substantially via a health or non-health platform, through public or private sector channels, and it remains unclear what will be the most effective and sustainable way to scale BEP.

Overall, there are a range of promising products that have the potential to save and improve lives by preventing and treating maternal and child undernutrition. But market access remains low even for the most mature of these products, and innovative products have an uncertain path to reaching scale. Maximizing the impact of these products will require a better understanding of market barriers and enablers of scale and will require key actors to actively shape the markets for these products both within countries and internationally.

1.3. Purpose and Objective:

Results for Development (R4D) is looking for a Pakistan-based partner organization to collaborate and partner with our Market Shaping team based in Washington, DC, USA to achieve two objectives:

Phase I – Using a hypothesis-driven approach, conduct a market analysis in public sector, with exploration in private sector, leveraging connections with stakeholders in the nutrition landscape to identify enablers and barriers to product introduction and scale-up for 4 nutritional products: RUTF, SQ-LNS, MD-RUTF, and BEP.

Phase II – Building on the market analysis completed as Phase I, co-create strategic options with key stakeholders to address challenges in market introduction and scale-up, enabling key decisionmakers, such as programmatic actors, procurers, and financiers, to make well-informed, strategic decisions regarding how best to catalytically implement changes to improve access to nutritional products.

This body of work will be carried out in one province, either Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) or Balochistan. The selected province will be finalized in conjunction with the decision of this RFP. The focus will be on the public sector, with exploration of the private sector market, to introduce and scale-up nutritional products where most impact can be made. This project has recently begun and will operate until June 2024.

1.4. The Opportunity

As a part of this project, R4D is looking to work closely with a Pakistan-based organization, ideally already based in KP or Balochistan province, to achieve the two Phases of this project (additional information regarding the scope of our project objectives and overall approach is included below). The selected organization will be working closely with R4D team based in Washington DC.

A successful partner will engage closely with R4D throughout this project and support the below activities (non-exhaustive):

1. Co-lead the analytical and technical activities required to achieve the specified objectives, in close collaboration with R4D
2. Lead on the stakeholder management and consultations with stakeholders in Balochistan or KP to gather evidence and inputs to identify and refine the market analysis and co-create strategic options with stakeholders and R4D
3. Play the role of on-the-ground nutrition and KP or Balochistan context-specific experts who can provide inputs to tailor the market analysis and strategic options to the appropriate context
4. Provide translation services to include translation of data collection tools, interviews, notes, and data if conducted and collected in a non-English language

Proposals are requested from interested partner organizations to share how their organization is uniquely placed and is the best candidate to achieve the two project Phases using the approaches outlined below, and is able to engage in co-creation and collaboration with key stakeholders and R4D. Proposals should also include the interested partner’s reasoning for which province (KP or Balochistan) they are best placed to work in and provincial selection factors that will enable success for this project to address malnutrition. Details on contents of proposal packages are included in Section 5 and additional details for the technical proposal can be found in Section 6.2 – Appendix B.

This opportunity is only available to a team that is legally able to work in Pakistan, and ideally already working in KP or Balochistan.

Scope of Phase I: Market analysis

To support the introduction of BEP, MD-RUTF, and SQ-LNS and shape those markets for scale-up, as well as scale-up use of RUTF, the partner, in close collaboration with R4D, will take an iterative, hypothesis-driven approach to identify key areas of opportunity to drive market access and identify existing barriers.

First, the key influencers and actors that can shape the public and private nutrition markets will be identified in KP or Balochistan. Then, the “market health”, or factors that can enable product introduction and scale-up, will be assessed across four categories: regulatory environment, financial availability and avenues, demand for products and procurement channels, and supply/production stability. Existing barriers to product introduction and scale-up will also be identified as a part of the market analysis.

For products not yet introduced or scaled, some consideration of corollary products is anticipated (e.g., to consider a market for MD-RUTF, we expect to consider the combined market for ready to use supplementary food – RUSF – and RUTF, since MD-RUTF is aimed to address both moderate acute malnutrition and severe acute malnutrition). We welcome suggestions for corollary products/markets in the proposal.

This project will focus on product and market areas; supply chain assessment and service delivery is not in scope for this project. Neither R4D nor the partner organization will be procuring the nutrition products.

Scope of Phase II: Strategic options

In Phase 2, the partner, in close collaboration with R4D, will use an iterative approach to co-create practical market shaping options with country stakeholders to address the identified market challenges from the market diagnostic findings from Phase 1. Data and stakeholder relationships developed during the first phase will be leveraged and market shaping options adapted as new data becomes available. Recommendations will focus on cross-cutting options that can impact the whole product class or multiple products within the class but will also look at individual products where unique challenges are identified. These strategic options will be pressure tested and validated with various stakeholders in Pakistan.

Expected timeline for major deliverables is included below:

Phase 1:

• October 2022: Stakeholder engagement plan: Public and private nutrition sector
• December 2022: Early market data on the regulatory landscape, financing, supply, and demand for nutrition commodities (RUTFs, SQ-LNS, MD-RUTF, and BEP, including the corollary products)
• April 2023: Final analysis of the market opportunities and barriers to introducing and scaling up priority nutrition commodities

Phase 2:

• December 2023: Initial list of strategic options addressing market barriers
• April 2024: Final delivery of province level market shaping strategic options to address barriers identified in the market analysis

Budget proposals, inclusive of all costs, should not exceed $250,000 USD, for both Phase I and Phase II. Proposals shall separately price Phase I and Phase II, and R4D will evaluate each Phase separately. R4D is looking for an organization to partner with for both Phases of work, but R4D reserves the right to make separate determinations of supplier selection for Phase I and II. Should R4D determine that one Offeror is capable of implementing both Phases I and II, R4D may at its discretion make a resultant award to one Offeror whereby authorization of Phase II is dependent on the partner organization’s performance and completion of Phase I, and R4D reserves the right to evaluate performance in Phase II.

2. General Information

2.1. Proprietary Information

All information contained in this RFP is proprietary. It is for the sole use of the Offeror in connection with bid response preparation and is not to be used by Offeror for any other purpose or revealed or disclosed in any manner to any other individuals and/or company without specific written permission from R4D.

2.2. Procurement Protocol

R4D reserves the right to make all decisions regarding this RFP, including the right to reject any and all proposals received in response to this RFP. Offeror understands that the issuance of this RFP does not create any obligation on the part of R4D to enter into any contract or to undertake any other obligation with respect to the requirements referred to herein. We reserve the right to make separate awards for Phase 1 and Phase 2 and/or to award Phase I and not Phase II depending on environmental, market, and funding conditions.

2.3. Addendum

In the event that any modification to this RFP becomes necessary, Offeror will be notified via email.

2.4 Notification of Supplier Selection

Offerors will be notified via email of the results of the selection process.

2.5. RFP Response Preparation Cost

All costs incurred by Offeror in the preparation of its response to this RFP, and any oral presentations requested, shall be wholly absorbed by the Offeror.

2.6. Confidentiality/Proprietary Information

Materials submitted by Offeror in response to the RFP that are considered confidential/proprietary must be clearly marked as such at the time of submission.

2.7. Contract Terms and Conditions

Engagement with selected Offeror will be based on R4D’s standard terms and conditions. It shall constitute the written agreement between Offeror and R4D and shall not be binding until fully executed and delivered by both parties.

2.8. No Publicity

No publicity or news release pertaining to this RFP, responses to this RFP, or the award of any contract related to this bid document may be released without R4D’s prior written approval.

2.9. Accuracy of Information

This RFP and other bid documents furnished by R4D may include errors, omissions, or deficiencies and the accuracy and completeness of such documents is not guaranteed. In the event of such errors, omissions, or deficiencies are discovered by Offeror, it shall promptly notify R4D in writing. Corrected information will be provided to all Offerors.

2.10. Third Party Services/Products

Offeror must clearly identify any third-party product(s) or service(s) that is a part of its RFP response.

2.11. Offeror’s Response

A clear and complete response must be provided for each element of the RFP. Any response which deviates from the stated requirements must be noted and underlined.

3. Communications Regarding this RFP

3.1. Intention to Bid and Proposal Delivery

For those who are interested in applying, please reach out to [email protected] to secure the appropriate budget template before submission and share intent to apply. Notification must include the name, address, email address, phone number for the Offeror’s contact person who should receive answers to questions and RFP revisions and updates.

Offerors must submit an offer to this RFP no later than Sept 19, 2022 at 9am Eastern Time (Washington DC). Final application should be sent to [email protected], with the name, address, email address, phone number for the Offeror’s contact person who should receive answers to questions and RFP revisions and updates.

It is our intent that the process be expeditious, concise, and straightforward. If, at any time during the process Offeror should elect to discontinue pursuit of this opportunity, you are requested to notify us via email to the addresses above.

3.2. Contractual Obligations

Offeror’s response to this RFP, in the whole, in part or by reference, may be incorporated into any resulting contractual agreement at the sole discretion of R4D to ensure that all representations made by the Offeror are legally binding.

4. Evaluation Process and Schedule

4.1. Schedule of Activities

The expected timeline for this RFP:

• August 19th 2022: Issue RFP
• August 29th 2022 at 9am EST (Washington DC): Questions from interested bidders*
• Sept 9th 2022: Distribution of responses to questions to all interested partners
• Sept 19th 2022 at 9am EST (Washington DC): RFP Responses Due**
• Week of Oct 3rd 2022: Notice of award
• Oct 10th 2022: Contract Start-up

*If your organization has no questions, but you are interested in receiving the answers to questions coming in, you should still express intent to bid by Aug 29th at 9am EST via email to [email protected] with name, address, email address, phone number for the Offeror’s contact person who should receive answers to questions and RFP revisions and updates.

**For those who are interested in applying, please reach out to [email protected] to secure the appropriate budget template before submission.

4.2. Evaluation Criteria

Offeror responses to this RFP will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• 65% – Completeness and quality of the Technical Proposal, including:
• Past performance and experience
• Quantitative and qualitative analytical experience and examples (2-3)
• Stakeholder engagement approach
• Detailed Workplan
• Professional Experience and Stability
• 10% – Completeness of Service Proposal
• 25% – Pricing/Cost plan and excel

5. Organization of the Service Proposal

A clear, definitive response to each element of the RFP must be included in the Offeror’s proposal. Any exceptions must be noted, typed in all caps and underlined. Failure to address any stated requirements/specifications may disqualify your proposal from further consideration.

Responses should be concise and contain the sections below:

5.1. Letter of Transmittal

A transmittal letter must accompany all proposals. This letter must be prepared on the Offeror’s letterhead, signed and dated by an authorized officer or partner of the submitting firm whom has the authority to sign and legally bind the Offeror. The title of the individual signing the proposal, the legal company name must be included with the signature. The transmittal letter must contain the following information:

• Offeror name, date R4D RFP #, date of offer, title of the proposal, price, quote validity period.
• Clear identification of any RFP requirements the Offeror cannot satisfy.
• A statement describing the basis upon which the Offeror is qualified to address R4D’s requirements as outlined in this RFP.
• The names and positions of individuals authorized to negotiate with R4D on behalf of Offeror.
• Indicate inclusion of the required documents in the application. Any exceptions must be noted, typed in all caps and underlined.
• Section 5.2
• Section 5.3
• Section 5.4
• A Signed Non-Disclosure Agreement Certification (Section 6.3 – Appendix C) is also required in a separate document executed by an authorized signatory.

5.2. Service Provider Profile

Offeror must provide the specific information requested in the Service Provider Profile contained in Appendix A.

5.3. Technical Proposal

Offeror must submit a comprehensive plan outlining services proposed to accomplish each section of the work to be performed. Plan must include, at a minimum, the following components:

• Narrative answering proposal requests in Section 1.4 and Appendix B
• Detailed Workplan with tasks and timelines aligned to the narrative

No template is provided; please keep technical proposals to a maximum of 6 pages.

5.4. Pricing Proposal

Offeror shall provide an explanation of the breakdown of costs by Phase I and Phase II, in alignment with the Technical Plan. Breakdown shall include:

• Personnel costs and breakdowns per person
• Materials and supplies costs
• Overhead costs,
• Travel costs (if not already based in KP or Balochistan) etc.
• Total estimated costs

An excel file must be filled out along with the description of the reasoning behind the cost breakdowns. Budgets shall be submitted in MS Excel and include the above line items broken down by each Phase and including a total cost line.

If not already provided where RFP is posted or via source, please reach out to [email protected] to express interest to apply and secure the appropriate budget template in advance of proposal submission.

6. Appendices

6.1 Appendix A. Service Provider Profile

Please provide the following specific background information about your organization and the services that your provide:

• Organization profile:
• Brief history of your organization
• Location of your offices in Pakistan, and headquarters
• Type of legal entity (corporation, partnership, etc.)
• Date of incorporation
• Disclose anything that can be construed as a conflict of interest between R4D and the Offeror
• Organization personnel:
• Presence in Pakistan: which provinces worked in, if different from above
• List key personnel who will be servicing the R4D account and how each employee participates in the delivery of service to the client, should your company be the successful Offeror, and provide a brief resume for each.
• Organization performance:
• Indicate whether or not you have ever had a service agreement canceled due to reasons within your organization’s control, such as poor performance. Provide a general explanation of the incident.
• Indicate whether or not your company has been the subject of a lawsuit for services rendered. Provide general explanation of the case.

Please have the following documents on hand and ready to submit upon request, but will not be needed on RFP due date:

R4D will require additional documents from the successful offeror in order to prepare for and establish the sub-award. These items include:

• Full organization or corporate name and employer identification number/registration number (as applicable), such as DUNS#.
• Risk Assessment and due diligence information
• Organization financials:
• U.S. Government NICRA, if applicable, or most current three (3) audited financial statements
• Describe three (3) financial references including company, contact name, telephone number and email address.
• Organization Policies:
• Conflict of Interest Policy
• Procurement and Financial Policies
• Record Retention Policy
• Safeguarding Policy

6.2 Appendix B. Technical Proposal Requirement Specifications

Required in the proposal narrative:

1. Please identify and include reasoning on which province – Balochistan or KP – your organization is best placed to work in and provincial selection factors that will enable success for this project to address malnutrition
2. Propose an approach that will be used to identify and engage the key public and private sector nutrition stakeholders.
3. Describe the methodology that your organization will use to gather analytical evidence on the market (e.g. procurement volumes, prices, supplier landscape etc.) and refine market analysis (iterative steps used by your organization)
4. Propose your approach to co-creation of strategic options with key stakeholders and detail the steps your organization will take
5. Detail your approach to partnering with the R4D team based in Washington DC, USA and approach to working/ collaborating in a remote environment. Describe your services and how your organization will work with R4D to co-lead, co-create, and collaborate to ensure project goals are achieved
6. Please include clear reasoning identifying specialized experience and capabilities as it relates to this RFP. Provide at least 3 examples of past work (with client references) that demonstrates capabilities in the “Qualifications” section below
7. For each example, please provide the associated client references, including company, contact name, phone number, and email address for which you have provided services similar to those requested herein. R4D reserves the right to contact the references.
8. Please include a detailed proposed workplan with tasks and timelines, aligned to the narrative approach

Qualifications

Organizations must have demonstrated expertise on the below. Please outline in the proposal how you meet the below requirements and which qualifications you have demonstrated experience on.

Required qualifications:

1. Knowledge of nutrition products and programs in KP or Balochistan, ideally the four priority nutrition products of interest to this project and any corollary products proposed
2. Demonstrated experience in qualitative and quantitative data analysis, with ability to update hypotheses as new data comes in
3. Demonstrated track record of successfully creating and managing stakeholder relationships, ideally public sector nutrition stakeholders influential in shaping markets, including ability to identify new stakeholders and build relationships as needed for this project
4. Demonstrated experience leading and navigating complex conversations with senior leaders and effectively workshopping complicated/sensitive topics in real-time during meetings to uncover new and surprising insights (e.g., quickly identifying the right questions to ask to understand the underlying reasons for procurement inefficiency).
5. Experience previously working with an international organization and successfully collaborating via and sharing deliverables in a remote working environment (e.g. via Microsoft Teams or Zoom)
6. Experience providing translation services to English for any documents, data, or interview notes conducted in a non-English language

Ideal qualifications:

1. Experience introducing and/or scaling up lifesaving health and nutrition commodities.
2. Experience working with an international non-profit organization
3. Experience conducting analysis using a hypothesis-driven approach and designing solutions in iterative manner, leveraging empirical evidence where necessary. Additionally, distilling findings into clear and simple, but effective insights
4. Strong existing relationships with key public and private sector nutrition stakeholders (please provide examples), including stakeholders at the provincial nutrition program department, the provincial procurement agency, the regulatory authority, implementing partners, donors, as well as local civil society organizations
5. Ability to access nutrition budget, procurement volumes, pricing and other required quantitative data, relevant policy documents and any relevant studies conducted.

6.3 Appendix C. Non-Disclosure Agreement Certification

In connection with R4D’s Pakistan Market Analysis and Strategic Options To Increase Access To Nutritional Products Addressing Malnutrition Request for Proposal (“RFP”), you may hereafter from time-to-time receive confidential information in order to enable you to participate in a competitive negotiation with R4D. All information, documents and data provided to you in a written format and/or by electronic medium in connection with the RFP is considered strictly confidential. Use of such information, documents or data for purposes other than proposal development is strictly prohibited. Moreover, you may not disclose such information, documents or data to any third party, and further may only disclose it to your directors, officers, employees and professional advisors who must be informed of such confidential information for purposes of bid development.

You shall take all reasonable steps to safeguard R4D’s confidential information and agree to protect the information using the same measures exercised to protect your company’s highly confidential material and trade secrets.

Upon termination of the bid process, you shall upon R4D’s request, immediately return all confidential information to R4D or destroy such information as directed by R4D (provided that recipients may retain a single copy for archival purposes only).

You acknowledge that the disclosure of any aspect of confidential information will give rise to irreparable injury to R4D inadequately compensable in damages. Accordingly, R4D may seek to obtain injunctive relief to prevent the unauthorized use of disclosure of the confidential information in addition to any other legal remedies that may be available to it, and you hereby consent to obtaining such injunctive relief.

Please include this certification executed by your entity’s official signatory with the proposal submission.

• Accepted and agreed to:
• Name and Title
• Signature
• Company Name
• Address

How to apply

We request applications to be sent to the [email protected] email address with the name, address, email address, phone number for the Offeror’s contact person. As a part of the application, we require a budget template to be filled out – if interested in bidding, please reach out to [email protected] to secure the appropriate budget template.