Building Capacity for Intersectoral Action on Healthy Child Development, with a specific focus on Early Child Development.

ADVANCE CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE (PAC)

TITLE: Building Capacity for Intersectoral Action on Healthy Child Development, with a specific focus on Early Child Development.

SOLICITATION NUMBER: 1000176526

1. The purpose and explanation of an ACAN

An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows Health Canada contracting authorities to post a notice on Buyandsell, for no less than fifteen (15) calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that a good, service or construction contract will be awarded to a pre-identified contractor. If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the contracting authority may then proceed with the award. However, should a Statement of Capabilities be found to meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, then the contracting authority will proceed to a full tendering process.

2. Rights of suppliers

Suppliers who believe that they are fully qualified and available to provide the services or goods described in this ACAN may submit a Statement of Capabilities clearly demonstrating how they meet the advertised requirement. This Statement of Capabilities must be provided via e-mail only to the contact person identified in Section 12 of the Notice on or before the closing date and time of the Notice. If there is a reasonable level of evidence regarding capability, the requirements will be opened to electronic or traditional bidding processes.

3. Proposed Contractor

Canadian Institute of Child Health (CICH)

201 Powell Avenue

Ottawa, Ontario

K1S 2A4

4. Definition of Requirements or Expected Results

Introduction

The Public Health Agency of Canada (the Agency) is the Government of Canada lead for the implementation of the 2012 Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health (Rio Declaration). Under the Rio Declaration, World Health Organization Member States, including Canada, have agreed to develop action plans to reduce health inequalities.

The Agency is supported in this role by the Canadian Council on Social Determinants of Health (CCSDH), a collaborative multi-sectoral stakeholder group established to provide the Agency with advice on matters relating to the implementation of the Rio Declaration. This includes planning, monitoring, and reporting, as well as facilitating action on the social determinants of health (SDH) by leveraging member networks and targeted intersectoral initiatives.

The CCSDH’s 2014-2017 workplan is organized around the key initiative of Healthy Child Development (HCD), which includes Aboriginal HCD with the goal of building capacity for intersectoral action by equipping sectors with a web-based user-friendly resource. To accomplish this goal, the Public Health Agency of Canada requires a Contractor to undertake a project that builds on the existing web-based user-friendly resource by consolidating existing early child development (ECD) and Aboriginal ECD (ie. children and Aboriginal children aged 0- 5 years) evidence, identifying intersectoral initiatives, and developing an interactive tool that will lead to action on ECD.

The evidence consolidated from this project will help inform planning and programming both at the local and broader systems levels for children and Aboriginal children. This project is significant as it will be the first time that ECD and Aboriginal ECD evidence is consolidated and has an interactive tool that supports cross-sector parternships is developed for practical application on a user-friendly website.

Objectives of the Requirement

The project has three objectives, with each contributing to the goal of building capacity for intersectoral action by equipping sectors with evidence-based web resource(s).

Objective 1: To develop content for the equipment of a web-based user-friendly resource that consolidates ECD data and Aboriginal ECD data from national, provincial, territorial (F/P/T) and local level data sets to provide stakeholders with the evidence for action with respect to children aged 0 – 5 years.

Objective 2: To develop content for the equipment of a web-based user-friendly resource that leads to an increased awareness of intersectoral initiatives and action related to ECD.

Objective 3: To develop an interactive tool that enables stakeholders to better recognize readiness for partnership and the opportunities for cross-sector collaboration, as well as strategies and best practices that have led to collaborative action to address healthy child development.

Background and Specific Scope of the Requirement

In December 2013, the CCSDH agreed that consistent with its mandate and membership it could play a role as an intersectoral knowledge facilitator by undertaking an initiative that focusses on HCD which includes Aboriginal HCD. The CCSDH’s HCD Task Group was formed and as a first step in order to refine the initiative the following was undertaken: 1) a sectoral scan of early childhood development models, and 2) interviews conducted with Canadian experts in the field of ECD.

Based on the findings from the sectoral scan and the interviews, the HCD Task Group agreed that while there is an ECD and an Aboriginal ECD evidence base to draw upon, there is a paucity of web-based user-friendly resources that consolidate this information for broad audiences, including researchers, policy-makers, and clinicians, etc. Developing content for an existing web-based user-friendly resource that highlights ECD and Aboriginal ECD indicators from F/P/T and local data sets (i.e. a collection of data) was seen as integral in order to advance intersectoral action to address healthy child development. As a result, the HCD Task Group proposed to undertake a project that consolidates the ECD and Aboriginal ECD data, identifies innovative intersectoral initiatives and highlights this information in a user-friendly way.

This project will build on the web-based resource and methodolgies. Current evidence on early child development tends to focus on research studies published in peer-reviewed journals and may not be easily accessible to a wide audience, whereas the Profile provides a comprehensive consolidation of credible research and data on children and youth available in an accessible web-based source. At present, there is no other similar consolidation of credible research and data into one, easily accessible source available to a broad audience through a user-friendly format in Canada.

5. Minimum Essential requirements

Applicants must fulfill all the minimum requirements:

• Experience of 20 years working in the field of child and youth health and wellbeing.

• Experience of 10 years working on collaborative knowledge translation projects with First Nations, Inuit or Métis. Experience can be with one particular group or a combination of groups.

• Experience 5 years owning, maintaining and providing a web-based resource on the health and wellbeing of children and youth in Canada.

• Experience of 10 years using statistical software (SAS, SPSS, Stata) to analyze and synthesize key indicators from multiple data sources (i.e. individual research studies, meta analyses, narrative synthesis, qualitative and quantitative research) for practical application and that will support cross-sectoral partnerships.

• Experience of 10 years developing and implementing initiatives, projects, programs and research to enhance public awareness and understanding issues impacting early childhood development.

• Experience of 10 years of developing strong partnerships with early child development experts from across Canada and Aboriginal peoples with expertise in early child development.

• Experience of 10 years with dissemination activities related to enhancing public awareness and understanding of issues impacting children’s health. Dissemination activities include summaries for / briefings to stakeholders, practitioners and/or policy makers, engaging knowledge users, tools creation, and media engagement.

• Experience of 10 years of direct involvement with community leaders as well as an understanding how evidence can be translated into useful practical tools for the community.

• Knowledge of early child development issues facing Canadian and Aboriginal children; the social determinants of health; various Canadian data sets that focus on early child development (i.e. Health Behaviors in School Aged Children, General Social Survey, etc.); and strategies and best practices that have led to collaborative action on healthy childhood development.

All of the above years of experience required is cumulative, is from the date of the posting of this ACAN and must be demonstrated in month and years.

6. Reason for non-competitive award

The web-based tools and resources required by the Agency must build on the methodologies previously established by the Canadian Institute of Child Health (CICH) for The Health of Canada’s Children:

CICH is the only firm with detailed knowledge of the design, results, implications and lessons learned from the previous development of resources and tools developed for the the profile. This knowledge of previous methodologies and tools established is essential to creating the required resources and tools for the Agency, and to sharing these on a web-based platform with the target audience and other networks/contacts, in a timely and cost efficient manner.

The CICH Profile is recognized as a comprehensive web-based source of information on the health and wellbeing of children and youth in Canada that provides an unbiased analysis and synthesis of key indicators from multiple data sources, vetted by experts in the field. At present, there is no similar consolidation of data and reporting on the health and wellbeing of children and youth in Canada.

7. Applicable trade agreements and justification for limited tendering or the Procurement Strategy forAboriginal Business

Section 6 of the Government Contracts Regulations contains four exceptions that permit the contracting authority to set aside the requirement to solicit bids. These are:

(d) Only One Person or Firm is capable of performing the contract.

Article 506 Paragraph 12 (a) of the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) : to ensure compatibility with existing products, to recognize exclusive rights, such as exclusive licences, copyright and patent rights, or to maintain specialized products that must be maintained by the manufacturer or its representative;

Article 506 Paragraph 12 (b) of the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT): where there is an absence of competition for technical reasons and the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no alternative or substitute exists;

8. Ownership of Intellectual Property

Contractor to own IP

9. Period of the proposed contract

The services of the Contractor will be required for a period of approximately 16 months commencing upon Contract Award. The expected completion date of this project is March 31^st, 2017.

10. Estimated value of the proposed contract

The total value of any contract emanating from this Advanced Contract Award Notice (ACAN) shall not exceed $199,885 CAD, including all option years, travel and living expenses and all applicable taxes

11. Closing date and time

The closing date and time for accepting Statements of Capabilities is January 14, 2016 at 2:00 pm EST

12. Contact Person

All inquiries with regard to this Notice must be addressed by e-mail to:

Name: Donna Pettit

E-Mail: Donna.pettit@hc-sc.gc.ca