Deadline: 21-Aug-24
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking applications for a Cooperative Agreement or grant from qualified entities to implement the Public Supply Chain Madagascar “MAHENIKA”.
Objectives
- This activity aims to strengthen Madagascar’s technical capacity and efforts to achieve an integrated public health supply chain (SC) which increases the availability of quality health commodities for the population in accordance with national policies, standards, and procedures. This activity focuses on three primary objectives.
- Objective 1: Increased MOPH ownership, leadership, and accountability for national health commodity security and strengthened responsiveness of SC.
- This activity aims to engage the MOPH to strengthen governance, policies, human resources, and accountability functions to ensure commodity security throughout Madagascar.
- Objective 2: Improved availability, accessibility, and affordability of quality health commodities at all levels of the supply chain.
- With the support of this activity, the public health supply chain will be more responsive to the health needs of the people of Madagascar with health commodities that are available, accessible, and affordable. The cross-cutting facets of the activity, coupled with the national-level support, will enable these effects to be felt across the supply chain – not only in the geographies with USAID presence. Through the support of this activity, the MOPH will be better poised to respond to emergencies and supply chain disruptions.
- Objective 3: Increased availability of USG-funded health commodities, as well as GOM and other donors, at targeted service delivery points.
- This activity will target specific USAID-presence regions and districts (see below), where USG-funded commodities will be procured (via the appropriate procurement agent – initially the GHSC-PSM project transitioning to the specific NextGen Procurement Service Agent) and distributed. Innovative approaches to last mile distribution will ensure commodity availability of not just these USG-funded commodities, but also those procured by the GOM and other donors.
- The goal and technical objectives will be achieved through the implementation of supply chain and pharmaceutical technical assistance, capacity building, subcontracting, targeted procurement and logistics services in coordination with MOPH and other national stakeholders.
- Objective 1: Increased MOPH ownership, leadership, and accountability for national health commodity security and strengthened responsiveness of SC.
Funding Information
- USAID intends to award one or more Cooperative Agreement(s) pursuant to this notice of funding opportunity. Subject to funding availability and at the discretion of the Agency, USAID intends to provide $45,000,000.00 in total USAID funding over a five (5) year period.
Program Principles
- Country Ownership and Sustainability: This activity contributes to the Mission’s DO 1: Improved Human Capacity to Contribute to the Country’s Journey to Self-Reliance – IR 1.1 Sustainable Health Impacts Accelerated. This public supply chain approach fosters institutional capacity building, ownership, and self-reliance in the health sector, as well as the long term sustainability of USAID investments in health systems.
- Learning and Innovation: This approach is reliant on innovation for creative problem solving within the supply chain context. This is particularly true for, but not limited to, seeking solutions for last mile distribution. The innovation strategies deployed by the activity should all be initiated from a place of curiosity and openness to learning, then exploration and assessment and finally testing new approaches.
- Gender, Adolescent, and Youth Considerations: This activity shall engage with women’s associations, youth, and vulnerable populations including people with disability and Disabled People Organizations in appropriate capacity building programs and implications in implementation – in particular the last distribution mile phase.
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility: Ensuring Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) in the distribution of health commodities is paramount for fostering resilient and equitable societies. This public supply chain activity adopts a multifaceted approach, placing emphasis on engaging with women’s associations, youth, and vulnerable populations at every stage, particularly during the crucial last mile distribution phase.
- Environment Compliance and Climate Change: Madagascar confronts a range of climate risks, including cyclones, floods, landslides, droughts, and coastal erosion. This activity aims to tackle these challenges through a combination of climate change mitigation, adaptation measures, and environmental protection strategies. Based on internal geography, various regions and districts are vulnerable to floods, cyclones, heavy rains and/or winds, landslides, and elevated temperatures and/or humidity. These conditions all have potential impact on the supply chain, in particular storage and distribution. Emergency preparedness strategies, such as prepositioning of critical commodities in response to extreme weather conditions – or the threat thereof – is one strategy the grantee shall deploy.
- Private Sector Engagement: This activity will engage the private sector as a solutions provider for last mile delivery of USAID-procured health commodities. The grantee is encouraged to seek additional opportunities to leverage the expertise, reach, and/or economies of scale of the private sector throughout the breadth and depth of this activity. The private sector will also benefit from capacity building and regular assessment from the partner.
- Local Capacity Strengthening/Locally Led Development with New and Underutilized Partners: This activity invests in the capacity of host government institutions and community systems to increase MOPH’s leadership for more effective national health supply chain and to improve downstream distribution. A key intervention would include assessing SALAMA’s readiness to become an applicant for direct award of USG funds for storage and distribution of USAID-funded commodities as well as a provider of technical assistance to the lower levels of the supply chain.
- HIS and digital: USAID/Madagascar is committed to supporting the national strategic plan for strengthening the health information system (HIS) and the national digital health strategy for 2023-2027, aligning all interventions with the PDSS. Their efforts will focus on promoting good governance, leadership, advocacy, and capacity building for health information systems and digital health; enhancing systems and standards for continuous improvement in data availability and use related to supply chain. All digital initiatives should be cost-efficient, useful, scalable and sustainable innovations according to USAID digital strategy criterias.
Intermediate Results & Illustrative Interventions
- This activity aims to achieve the following results. The illustrative interventions described below are some of the pathways to achieving these results. While the partner will be expected to conduct the described interventions, this is not an exhaustive list.
- Result 1.1. Improved policy making processes and capacity to integrate parallel supply chain at MOPH
- The activity will support USAID to advocate for other development partners to reintegrate their respective parallel supply chains back into the public sector in a coordinated and cohesive manner. The activity will support the rollout of the Plan for Integration of All Essential Medicines and Commodities (PAIS) – a roadmap for the design of a new, fully integrated system. This includes coordinating with all key stakeholders to develop a plan that covers the management, storage, and distribution of all commodities in the new, fully integrated, system. This involves resolving any vestigial issues remaining from the previous parallel supply chain.
- Result 1.2. Strengthened governance, leadership, and technical capacity to improve performance of national SC systems
- This will support the implementation of the new national strategic plan for Madagascar that sets out the mission, vision, objectives, and priority areas for supply chain strengthening. This may include guidance for the development of operational plans for the implementation of the strategic plan at all levels of the supply chain. Once these plans are developed and ratified, the activity will support their implementation, including joint coordination, monitoring, and performance control. The activity will also support the DPLMT to conduct regular updates of the essential medicines list for the country.
- Result 1.3. Increased availability of skilled human resources for SC and pharmaceutical management
- An adequate, competent supply chain workforce is critical for a successfully operating supply chain. Madagascar lacks a cadre of appropriately trained logisticians. The activity will support the rejuvenation of educational programs for supply chain management in Madagascar, including the re-establishment of a Bachelor’s degree program for logisticians. Further, it will aid in the development and implementation of policies and practices that target staff motivation and retention, with particular focus on the district level.
- Result 1.4. Increased resources use and mobilization to improve SC
- The supply chain subcommittee of the health system strengthening committee is a key forum to support GOM and donor agency collaboration and coordination for the supply chain. The activity will serve in a technical advisor role to this subcommittee, supporting USAID’s agenda therein. This may include initiatives to increase access to financial resources for businesses involved in the supply chain through microfinance institutions, government grants, and international funding and other state-of–art approaches to supply chain staff retention based as fit well in Madagascar context.
- Result 2.1. Strengthened quantification, management, and product storage at all levels
- The activity will play a key role in bolstering the basic logistical functions of the national supply chain. This includes the national quantification and planning for MNCH, FP, malaria, and nutrition products. The activity should support the GOM to ensure that forecasts are routinely produced (at a minimum, annually with semi-annual review) and procurement-ready supply plans are routinely updated, whenever new data is available (at a minimum, monthly – or as close to monthly as possible) as well as resources mobilization to cover the needs/fill any gaps. This is a key coordination point with two critical global data visibility entities – the USAID NextGen Control Tower and the Global Health Family Planning Visibility and Analytics Network (GH FPVAN). It will additionally enhance and optimize the efficiency and reliability of data management at all levels throughout the country.
- Result 2.2. Improved reverse logistics and pharmaceutical waste management, disposal of unusable health commodities, and efficient use of medicines
- Sustainable storage practices are essential to minimizing waste and minimizing some of the environmental impacts of the supply chain. The activity shall support best practices for warehousing and storage of health commodities at all levels of the supply chain. In addition, it shall support the development and implementation of policies at national and institutional levels to regulate and guide the proper disposal of health-related waste in keeping with environmental best practices. When relevant, waste will be efficiently returned back through the same delivery chain or to district level authorities who can ensure their proper disposal.
- Result 2.3. Reduced impact of illicit markets and leakages
- Madagascar is rife with gray and black markets for medicines and other health commodities. Products leaked from the public sector wind up for sale by individuals in the market, on WhatsApp groups, or on Facebook. To combat this, the grantee will work with MOPH to support and enforce robust regulatory frameworks and committees for the distribution and sale of health products. The activity will work with all the stakeholders and the appropriate technical partners to conduct a feasibility and readiness assessment for the implementation of tracking and tracing technologies to monitor the movement of health products throughout the supply chain. Based on the outcomes of these assessments, the grantee will guide the process of implementation of these technologies as appropriate and as directed by USAID.
- Result 2.4. Effective use of electronic logistics management information system (eLMIS) to make logistics decisions and manage the supply chain.
- Madagascar is poised to transition from a paper-based logistics management system to an electronic system with the pilot of the Open LMIS system currently underway. Based on the outcomes of this pilot, the activity will work with the MOPH to scale-up the e-LMIS system nation-wide – from the PHAGeCom and PHAGDis until the central level at MOPH and SALAMA. Further, the grantee will capacitate the PHAGeCom and PHAGDis in the USG-identified districts to ensure the e-LMIS is adopted and adhered to. The project will work on MOPH ownership and capacity building to manage e-LMIS effectively and expand its implementation to regions beyond those currently supported by USG. The grantee shall ensure the elimination of duplicative processes and procedures – especially in terms of reporting requirements and any vestigial paperwork as well as work actively to take necessary measures to make this system work properly.
- Result 3.1. Effective procurement of commodities related to malaria, family planning, maternal and child health, nutrition and global health security for public health services for routine and campaigns
- As USAID/Madagascar’s flagship supply chain activity, this activity will be responsible for ensuring coordination with all entities involved in USAID supply chain programming. This includes the NextGen Procurement Service Agent(s) that will procure USAID-funded health commodities (including ITNs), NextGen Control Tower, the Global FP Van, and the follow-on award to the USAID/Madagascar ACCESS project. The activity will be responsible for ensuring regular and accurate quantification and supply planning for USG-covered regions and districts.
- Result 3.2. Efficient customs clearance of USG procured health commodities
- This activity will commence its supply chain duties with ensuing customs clearance of the USAID-procured commodities (including ITNs), which will be shipped to the port of entry by the NextGen Procurement Service Agent(s). The activity will contribute to the harmonization of customs procedures and documentation requirements for health commodities to cross the border into Madagascar. This requires ensuring strong coordination with both the NextGen Control Tower and NextGen Procurement Service Agent(s) for procurement administrative needs. Furthermore, the grantee will foster collaboration and communication with customs authorities to ensure a mutual understanding of health product specifications and regulatory requirements. This shall be conducted in the context of USAID’s recent customs project.
- Result 3.3. Improved downstream distribution to last mile with the elimination of stockouts at service delivery points in USG-covered regions
- Collaboration with the community health and service delivery activity (ACCESS follow-on) to track demand, consumption patterns, and stock levels in real time is essential for the success of this activity.
- This activity includes a “Transition Award” that covers the last mile distribution of USAID-funded – and perhaps GOM- and partner-funded – commodities. This will involve conducting a landscaping of private sector, underutilized partners, NGOs, and associations that have the capacity to deliver these commodities from the PHAGDis to the CSB at the community level. Initially, the Recipient will make subawards directly to these partners to carry out this last mile distribution. Simultaneously, the activity will seek to capacitate these partners to be poised to contract directly with USAID for last mile distribution. The activity will develop a transition strategy that includes a capacity building plan and a timeline for transition that will be agreed upon with USAID.
- Result 3.4 Safe use of drugs at community level
- The activity will support the DPLMT (along the Directorates of health promotion and Communiton) develop and deploy communication strategies related to safe use of drugs targeting the community level. It will engage community organizations and local organizations for public awareness campaigns to this end. This will include messaging that discourages the purchase and use of health commodities via illicit channels.
- Result 1.1. Improved policy making processes and capacity to integrate parallel supply chain at MOPH
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligibility for this NOFO is not restricted.
- Faith-based organizations are eligible to apply for federal financial assistance on the same basis as any other organization and are subject to the protections and requirements of Federal law.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.