OUR REF: NCB/AHRI/0013/2020

                                                                                                    Date: April 23, 2020                                                                     

Invitation to Tender for The Community Engagement Guideline Development

Background

The Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) was founded in 1970 through the initiative of the Swedish and Norwegian Save the Children organizations seconded by the Ministry of Health.   By 2016, the Institute was reestablished with the proclamation number of 376/2016, as the biomedical and clinical research arm of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Ministry of Health.

As part of ensuring ethics in research, community engagement becomes increasingly an emerging common component of scientific research. Drawing on a growing consensus about the importance of community representation and participation for ethical research, a number of research institutions and funding bodies now promote, or even mandate, community engagement. We can also see the increasing interest in and emphasis on community engagement in the explosion of published articles over the last 30 years, describing engagement activities across a wide variety of research areas.

There are several evidences indicate that community-engaged researches can build trust between researchers and communities, and enhance the relevance and uptake of research findings. However, there is paucity of clear road map which showing strategic direction about engaging the community in clinical and bio-medical researches and the crucial steps to be followed. Therefore, AHRI seeks qualified and competent professionals in the area to submit full technical and financial proposals to develop the Community engagement guideline which will be used as a guiding tool to conduct medical and clinical researches in the community.

Objective

The Objective of the Community engagement guideline is to develop a community engagement road map that enables AHRI to perform its research strategically and within a certain logical framework of community engagement.

1.            

Scope of the Task

In this consultancy service, the consultant is expected to do necessary reviews on community engagement history, approaches and tools in global, continental and national contexts and develop a working community engagement guideline document in relation with health research.

The Consultant will consider the following key points to the guideline in a patterned and reasonable way.

Part one

• Explore and define all the terminologies used to explain or relevant meanings with Community engagement in health research (Community Participation, Community consultation, community involvement, and community contribution, public participation in relation with clinical research, health research and medical research will be explained). Based on all the definitions and meanings, finally one suitable and relevant working definition for AHRI will explored.
• Goal, objectives and purpose of the Community Engagement guideline
• Scope of the Community Engagement guideline

Part two

• Ethical considerations, core values and Principles of community engagement in research (eg.like, setting clear goals, learn about the community, develop cultural competence, foster transparency etc….)
• Preferable strategies, specific approaches, models, frameworks and methods  of Community engagement (based on the natures of the researches AHRI has, like clinical trials)
• Level of engagement or clearly stated the determinants to the level of engagement. Eg Nature and complexity of the research (like institutional, single projects, Multi-partner (consortium) project and Postgraduate Student project. 
• Opportunities and challenges of Community engagement and possible cop up strategies too.

Part three

• Planning and Designing Community Engagement
• Research feedback mechanism (how to give feedback, what to feedback, and to whom)
• Monitoring and evaluation system for the community engagement
• Resources required 

For this assignment Armauer Hansen Research Institute /AHRI/ would like to invite interested and qualified consultant. Interested eligible candidates may obtain Bid documents from AHRI Finance and Procurement Directorate Office, after paying non-refundable 100 birr to AHRI’s cashiers Office.

To ensure the selection of appropriate consultant, participant of the tenders besides eligibility documents (Business license, VAT registration certificate, Public Procurement Agency (PPA) Registration Certificate, Tax Payer Registration certificate and Tax Clearance Certificate from concerned office.) bidders must have the following expertise:

 Consultancy’s Team composition

The task requires a high level of knowledge, experience and technical competency on social, behavioral, public health and biomedical research.  The consultant must have at list three expertise in the following areas. The task requires, but not limited to the following experts: 

a)      Social scientist: PhD/Ma in Anthropology and Sociology more than 5 years’ of work experience in research.

b)      Health Professionals; PhD, MD,MPH, and MPH

c)      Senior consultant: PhD/MSc more than 5 years consultancy experience. 

The applications will be evaluated against a combination of technical and financial criteria. It follows quality and minimum cost based selection for the proposal. 

APPLICATION GUIDELINE

Completed tender documents must be accompanied by a bid security in the form of CPO or Bid Bond from Banks Birr 5,000(Five Thousand) and should be addressed to Armauer Hansen Research Institute /AHRI/. These are to be enclosed in plain sealed envelopes marked with the tender reference number and be deposited in the Box made ready for the completed tender documents by the Finance and Procurement Directorate within 15^th  days starting from the announcement of this tender on Addis Zemen News Paper.

The Bidder Must Submit a bid which has a technical proposal (Original and Copy) and financial proposal (Original and Copy) in one envelope. Tenders will be opened in the presence of bidders or their legal representatives who choose to attend on the 15^th working day immediately after the announcement of the bid on Addis Zemen News Paper. The tender box shall be closed on May 13, 2020 at 10:00 am (Morning) and opened at 10:30 am (Morning) at Finance and Procurement Directorate office, ALERT Hospital Compound, Ministry of Health, Jimma Road.

AHRI reserves its right to reject all or part/s of tender.