SUMMARY DESCRIPTION:

The Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) requires the services of a Consultant for the Sector Evaluation of the Health Intervention of Canada’s Bilateral Development Program in Mali 2013-2018.

Rationale and Purpose of the Evaluation

Health is one of the key areas of focus of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) programming framework in Mali. Programming over the past six years has focused heavily on improving maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) and has built on achievements made, particularly through the Muskoka Initiative, while adapting to the post‑crisis context. Through its significant investment in the sector and its active role in coordinating assistance and in policy dialogue, Canada aimed to increase synergies between partners and encourage better sector management as well as contribute to the achievement of meaningful MNCH outcomes. As all of the initiatives will be concluding over the next year, this evaluation comes at the perfect time to provide food for thought about the program’s future in this sector.

It is in this context and within the context of the Feminist International Assistance Policy that the bilateral development program team feels that a sector evaluation (funded through the aid budget) would be useful. Its purpose would be the following:

• identify stakeholders in Mali and inform them of the contribution of interventions implemented over the past six years to MNCH outcomes and the objectives of the Health and Social Development Program (PRODESS);
• provide food for thought to inform and guide policy dialogue between Malian stakeholders (Government of Mali, civil society organizations, etc.) and international development players (technical and financial partners (TFPs), international non‑government organizations (NGOs), etc.) working in Mali, including DFATD;
• provide specifics to inform and enrich programming from both a strategic and an operational standpoint, particularly with respect to sexual and reproductive health and rights, in order to provide tools to Malian ministry departments in the sector, Malian civil society organizations and technical partners operating in the field, and Canadian or international executing agencies involved or interested in the delivery of projects or programs for the development of the health sector in Mali.

Users of this evaluation will be Malian stakeholders, development partners (Canadian and multilateral organizations, international NGOs) and DFATD.

The purpose of this notice is to invite formal costed proposals from eligible Consultants. Based on proposals received, one Consultant will be invited to negotiate a contract with DFATD for the provision of services. DFATD reserves the right to reject any or all proposals received. The amount allocated to this contract will not exceed two hundred and fifty thousand Canadian dollars (CAN$250,000.00) excluding applicable taxes. The anticipated contract duration is six (6) months.

WORKING LANGUAGE OF THE PROJECT

The working language for this project is French. The language proficiency level required for the Evaluation Team Leader and Specialists is level 4 advance professional proficiency in French.

DESCRIPTION OF TEAM

The Consultant must provide a team of qualified people with a combination of evaluation skills and thematic knowledge to successfully complete this exercise in the Malian context. More specifically, the team must make arrangements so that gender equality is taken into account at every step of the evaluation cycle (design, data collection, analysis and reports). Given the security situation, it is recommended to have a joint team with international and local staff.

The Consultant will assign qualified people to the following positions:

• Evaluation Team Leader;
• Local public health specialist;
• Local gender equality specialist;
• Local sexual and reproductive health and rights specialist

The roles and responsibilities of the Consultant’s proposed team members is to be defined by the Consultant in its Technical Proposal.

INSTRUCTIONS TO BIDDERS

Proposals should be presented following the instructions provided in the Request for Proposals document to be obtained through the GETS on the Internet (https://buyandsell.gc.ca ). Please note, DFATD does not send out Request for Proposals directly to interested Bidders.