Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance III Project
Request for Proposals
Strengthening Local Governance for Nutrition in Uganda, Facilitation and Process Guidance
Technical Manager: Kristen Cashin, Project Manager MCHN Capacity building
Hanifa Bachou, Project Manager, FANTA/Uganda
Brenda Namugumya, Nutrition Specialist Policy and Advocacy
Other FANTA Contacts: Sandra Remancus, Project Director
Gilles Bergeron, Deputy Director, Field Support
Joseph Diederich, Associate Director, Finance
Ann Bourns, Deputy Director, Operations
Elizabeth Mugala, Contracts Specialist
Period of Performance: March 1, 2015 – September 31, 2015
Deadline for Submission: Friday, December 19, 2015
Project Numbers: 100210.001.026.820
1. RFP Objective
The Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance III Project (FANTA), managed by FHI 360 and funded by USAID, is seeking firms to assist in activities related to the strengthening of local governance for nutrition in Uganda.
The purpose of this sub-award is to provide support services to FANTA in establishing a multi-stakeholder participatory process to guide the operationalization of Uganda’s District Nutrition Coordination Committees (DNCCs) and to strengthen local governance for nutrition. This will be accomplished through a series of participatory planning and learning meetings, for which the selected firm will provide facilitation, develop the content for any necessary meeting materials (e.g. presentations, handouts), and contribute to meeting report out.
2. Background
The Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance III Project (FANTA), managed by FHI 360 and funded by USAID, is a 5-year cooperative agreement that works to strengthen food security and nutrition-related policies, programs, strategies, and systems. The project also builds capacity to promote good nutrition and to prevent, manage, and treat malnutrition by supporting sectors and implementing partners to fulfil their roles in implementing the multi-sectoral Uganda Nutrition Action Plan 2011–2016 (UNAP).
The UNAP provides a multi-sectoral framework to improve the nutrition situation in Uganda. It recognizes malnutrition’s multiple underlying causes and the need for contributions from all sectors, including health, agriculture, gender and social development, education, finance, and local government. It also notes that multi-sectoral action must be planned and coordinated at national, district, and community levels. Actions taken must be well-planned and coordinated to maximize use of limited resources, to leverage current activities and experience, and ensure sufficient financing. And stakeholder ownership of the plan and oversight of the implementation will promote accountability and long-term commitment.
There has been significant progress in establishing the national-level coordination framework for the UNAP. However, as Uganda is a decentralized system, district level planning, coordination, and oversight for nutrition must also take place and DNCCs play an essential role. DNCCs, whose members include representatives from health, planning and finance, education, agriculture, community development, and water sectors, are expected to ensure that nutrition is included in district plans and that the nutrition activities are well-coordinated and implemented.
FANTA will begin strengthening the local-level coordination framework in selected Feed the Future districts by supporting the relatively new DNCCs with their initial start-up and to provide them with tools and skills to eventually operate independently. They will work together with local stakeholders to develop locally appropriate strategies to address their nutrition problems, and track their own progress.
FANTA will use a participatory process that brings together district stakeholders from multiple technical sectors to create a shared understanding of the local nutrition problem, identify existing programs and services that can be leveraged for nutrition work, work together to develop innovative solutions, and develop and commit to district nutrition action plans. Experts with extensive experience facilitating multi-stakeholder processes will provide initial guidance and facilitation of the process, while building the capacity of DNCC members, Feed the Future Implementing partners, and local organizations to maintain the reflective process in the target districts and replicate it in additional districts.
3. Specific Activities
Using an established methodology of participatory programming, the selected firm will assist FANTA in introducing a process that helps stakeholders from multiple disciplines come together and take action based on a common goal. The process should involve defining a clear and shared understanding of the existing problem and establishment of a joint vision and strategy that leads to action planning. The process should be iterative and draw on the needs of the stakeholders (e.g. their sector’s objectives) and their specific capacity to contribute (e.g. their technical expertise) to addressing nutrition problems, which promotes sustainability. USAID implementing partners and a local civil society partner will participate throughout this process and build the skills to replicate in other districts with technical assistance from FANTA. Therefore, it is expected that the selected firm engage these partners and help build their capacity in the facilitation methods throughout the process.
There are three main set of activities that the selected firm will be involved in. The first set of activities will be tool development and guidance on the process of facilitation to be used during consensus building. The second set of activities involves consensus building meetings at national and district level that will help define the overall process of operationalizing DNCCs and strengthening local governance for nutrition. Finally, the third set of activities will include knowledge management and documentation of lessons learned so that the process of DNCC operationalization can be duplicated in other districts. The sections below describe the types of activities that may be included in a final SOW. The final set of activities will be discussed with the interested firms as part of the RFP review process.
Meetings will be held both in Kampala and outside of Kampala. FANTA will initiate this process with districts in North and Southwest Regions; some meetings may also take place regionally, upon consultation with the selected firm. FANTA anticipates that there will be approximately 30 participants at each meeting.
The selected firm will be asked to organize their own travel, if required. Local travel will be organized by FANTA/Uganda. All travel expenses must be in compliance with USAID regulations (details will be provided to the selected firm before finalizing the SOW and budget).
FANTA/Uganda will organize all of the meeting logistics (lodging, venue, catering, printing, per diem, etc.) The firm will not be responsible for any meeting logistics, aside from materials preparation and development.
3.1 Development of tools and guidance:
Before the starting the consensus building process, the firm will need to develop and/or adapt facilitation tools to the Uganda nutrition context. To facilitate this, FANTA will arrange meetings with the necessary stakeholders and a possible site visit to a DNCC (details to be discussed with the selected firm).
Throughout the DNCC process, FANTA will be compiling a toolkit for DNCCs that will include any reference materials or tools considered necessary for DNCCs to develop district nutrition action plans, advocate for their adoption, monitor their implementation, and share their experiences and stories. The firm will develop tools and guidance on the facilitation method that is to be used for consensus building, both at the national and district levels. These tools and guidance will be incorporated by FANTA into a final DNCC Resource Guide and Toolkit.
In addition, the firm will be asked to assist FANTA with the process of developing simple methods and tools, and propose indicators to benchmark progress of DNCCs towards becoming operational as part of the national level consensus building process (described under activity 3.2). These tools will be developed through a consultative process with DNCCs, and may include self-assessment or other checklists that can be reviewed at regular time periods and discussed with stakeholders. The tools will help monitor the pace of progress, identify DNCCs that need additional support, and identify success stories. Results of this monitoring will inform learning sessions and guide adjustments to the process. The monitoring tools will be modified, as needed, based on experience.
3.2 Facilitation of key consensus building meetings and workshops:
Because this approach is being applied for the first time to the field of nutrition in Uganda, additional efforts in building consensus on the DNCC operationalization process are required. Several key meetings have been proposed to facilitate this consensus building, both at the national and district levels. The selected firm will be expected to tailor their facilitation methods and tools so that they are appropriate to the Uganda nutrition context. They will assist with the preparation of meeting/workshop materials (e.g. handouts, session planning, and presentations), they will lead facilitation of key meetings, and will provide reports and briefs based on meeting outcomes (to be included in the final list of deliverables after consultation with the selected firm).
The final process for consensus building will be discussed with the selected firm.
Possible key meetings and workshops requiring participatory facilitation include:
DNCC workshops on defining DNCC roles, milestones, stages in development, targeting, monitoring progress
Although there is a set of broad responsibilities identified for DNCCs, exactly how they will operate and develop the capacity to operate is still to be determined. In three multi-day workshops (2 regional and 1 national), representatives of DNCCs from the 10 selected Feed the Future districts, as well as the DNCC sub-committee and Feed the Future implementing partners, will gather to review the DNCC mandated responsibilities, prioritize the ones that are essential to starting nutrition activities in the districts, identify steps/milestones in fulfilling those areas and becoming “operational,” establish recommended timelines for achieving milestones, and recommend minimum standards. The Feed the Future implementing partners’ package of support will be finalized based on the results of this consultation. The firm would help FANTA to synthesize information from the facilitated meeting to develop a joint DNCC “work plan” that documents agreements and decisions made by stakeholders during the consensus building process.
Consensus-building on support role of USAID IPs
With extensive responsibilities and limited experience and capacity, DNCCs need local level technical and logistical support. USAID Feed the Future implementing partners, who operate at district level, are well-placed to provide this support and their programs are likely to benefit from strong local governance systems for nutrition. However, most implementing partners are not mandated to support DNCCs, so gaining their buy-in and commitment is essential. FANTA will host a three-day consensus building session with Feed the Future implementing partners to identify key collaborators within each agency, develop a shared vision of the roles and responsibilities of Feed the Future implementing partners, and draft standards of support that implementing partners would provide to DNCCs in their districts. This package will be finalized after DNCC consultation. The firm will be asked to apply a participatory, consensus building process to help meeting participants define and agree upon their roles and responsibilities as part of the DNCC capacity building process.
District-level nutrition action plan workshops
Each DNCC must prepare a district nutrition action plan to submit to the District Council. A multi-day workshop, guided by the nutrition planning and budgeting guidelines currently under development, will help them to prioritize local nutrition problems, identify and prioritize potential solutions, and develop a detailed draft plan and budget line items. For the first plan, the DNCC will be encouraged to focus on small, doable actions that build on current sectoral mandates. The workshop will identify responsibilities for follow-through, for example research costs for budgeting purposes, holding community and leadership consultations. The plan will be discussed, revised and finalized at the following DNCC meeting. The selected firm will apply a participatory, consensus building process that will help DNCC members to arrive at an agreed upon district nutrition action plan.
Information Sharing and Learning Sessions
Throughout this process, FANTA will host a variety of information sharing and learning sessions with national and district level partners. These sessions will provide updates on the DNCC operationalization and lessons learned during the process to date. It is hoped that a learning session will occur after districts have developed the district nutrition action plans. The firm will be asked to participate in information sharing and learning sessions, or prepare materials for these sessions.
3.3 Knowledge Management and Documentation of Lessons Learned
Consistent documentation of what happens at each step of the process, including what worked and didn’t, are central to this activity. The selected firm will be expected to complete reports throughout this process that document lessons learned. The firm will also be expected to complete meeting/workshop reports for the meetings/workshops that they are asked to facilitate. Other possible briefs and reports include: a brief on the outcomes/methods of multi-sectoral consensus building within the Uganda nutrition sector and a final report including details on the facilitation process used. Outlines and templates for reporting will be provided to the firm, following further discussion about the specifics of the facilitation process.
Key aspects to be capture in the above mentioned reports and briefs include, but are not limited to:
· Methodology used for facilitation/consensus building and how it has been adapted for the Uganda nutrition context/Uganda nutrition stakeholders
· Key meeting outcomes
· Discussion of encountered challenges and suggestions for improving the consensus building process for future iterations
Finally, the selected firm will be expected to train selected stakeholders in key facilitation methods and tools so that the process can be replicated and sustainable. This could take place as part of regular meeting/workshop facilitation or through a separate training exercise (to be decided in consultation with firm).
The full schedule of deliverables will be completed in consultation with the selected firm.
4. Proposal Submission Requirements
FHI 360 anticipates issuing a cost-reimbursable sub-award. Payments will be issued on a monthly or quarterly based on the scheduled activities. Interested firms should read the following proposal instructions carefully. All interested parties must provide the following in English:
A. Technical Proposal: Based on the scope of work as described in section 3 above, provide a description of your team’s approach, methodology, and rational. For each activity list the proposed time frame. Deadlines will be confirmed with FANTA during sub-award negotiations.
B. Organizational Capacity and Personnel: Background summary of the contractor should be included, with descriptions of staffing/functions/ departments of the organization, and how accounts are serviced. Please include: