Job id : 172383 Apply by: 25 Aug 2021 Relevant Sectors Infrastructure, Technology, Engineering, Science Monitoring, Evaluation, Policy, Research Social, Gender, Education, Youth, Child
Request for Proposal (RFP)
 
CALL CENTRE/AGENCY FOR TELECALLING MONITORING OF IRON FOLIC ACID SUPPLEMENTATION PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
 
I. INTRODUCTION
 
Evidence Action is a non-profit dedicated to scaling proven, cost-effective interventions to alleviate poverty. In India, our technical consultant EAII Advisors Pvt. Ltd (EAIIAPL). supports the National Deworming Day (NDD) Program and Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation program to national and select state government’s ministries of health, education, and women and child development and positively impacts the lives of children and adolescents in the 1-19 years for NDD and 6 months -19 years of age group every year in a measurable way. EAIIAPL is further referred to as “authorizing organization” in this document.  
EAIIAPL invites interested and capable agencies to submit proposals for “Telecalling Monitoring of Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation Program for Children and Adolescents”
 
Duration of the contract- Initially for one year with possibility of extension
 
Summary of deadlines
 
Release of Request for Proposals
11/08/2021
Confirmation of interest and clarifications on RFP
19/08/2021
Proposals due/last date of submission of proposal
25/08/2021
The proposal must be submitted electronically at the email id procurement@eaiiadvisors.in latest by 25/08/2021 by 18:00 IST. Please mention in the subject line – “Proposal for Tele calling agency - IFA Supplementation Program.”
For any queries on the RFP, kindly address your mail to procurement@eaiiadvisors.in latest by 19/08/2021. 
 
II. BACKGROUND
The Iron Folic Acid (IFA) Supplementation program is one of the key strategies under AMB (Anemia Mukt Bharat - Anemia Free India; Government of India’s flagship program for anaemia) launched in 2018 to combat anaemia among children and adolescents. The IFA supplementation program promotes the weekly distribution and consumption of pink IFA tablets to children (5-9 years) and blue IFA tablets to adolescents (10-19 years) in government schools and anganwadi centres (AWCs). Program also promotes bi-weekly distribution and consumption of IFA syrup to children aged 6-59 months through home visits by ASHAs. Hence, the IFA supplementation program targets children and adolescents of age 6 months to 19 years.
The COVID-19 outbreak has put strain on public health services and workforce, who are leading the fight in controlling the pandemic. There was a risk that essential health services which communities expect from the health system, would be compromised. Due to stigma and fear, benefiting from health services might be put on a back seat. Strategies and guidance for- immunizing children and pregnant women; providing medicines to tuberculosis, leprosy, viral hepatitis, and HIV patients among others like IFA supplementation have been shared by the MoHFW in April 2020.
During COVID-19 pandemic, our focus has been on supporting states to implement and sustain scale up of community-based distribution of IFA supplementation following the GoI initiative in April’20. Significant progress has since been made in ramping up community-based distribution, wherein we played a critical role in supporting states to roll out the community-based distribution of IFA supplementation by developing state-specific SOPs and engaging ASHAs for drug distribution from household to household.
III. PURPOSE
As part of its technical assistance to the IFA supplementation program to the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Haryana the authorizing organization is inviting RFP for “Hiring of call centre/agency for tele calling monitoring of IFA supplementation program ” The partner call centre/agency will be responsible to engage required tele callers in each state for program monitoring at various levels as per the schedule suggested by the authorising organisation.The tele calling will be used to gather information on critical process indicators such as IFA tablet stock availability, supply chain mechanisms, status of program implementation and knowledge retention, availability of IEC materials, and coverage reporting at various levels. The tele-calling data will be used for identifying real time gaps and necessary corrective actions will be taken by field, state teams and Government .Telecalling will be done on a daily basis( 5/6 days a week) in close coordination with the state team members.
Table A State wise callers required and tentative schedule of calling
 
State
Number of callers required
Level of calling and frequency of calling*
Frontline workers
(ASHA/AWW/ANMs/School teacher
Block Level
District level
Haryana
2
Daily
Two weeks in a month
One week in a month
Jharkhand
2
Daily
Two weeks in a month
One week in a month
Madhya Pradesh
4
Daily
Two weeks in a month
One week in a month
Rajasthan
3
Daily
Two weeks in a month
One week in a month
*Note- This is the proposed level and schedule of calling and this may change as per programmatic requirement. Agency will intimated the details in advance  
IV. Setting up centralized tele-calling unit/system
 
4.1 The hired call centre/agency will provide the required number of tele callers for every state (as per the requirement specified by the authorising organisation), technology for tele-calling and will arrange other logistics support in data collection-including integrating the tele calling monitoring formats in the tele calling system.
1. Logistics preparation for tele-caller (TC)
  • Tele calling set up and software to integrate,different contact database and tele calling monitoring formats
  • Headgear with mikes
2. The hired call centre/agency will engage the required tele callers in tele calling monitoring as per the schedule suggested by the authorizing organization.
3. Call center/agency should share the dashboard/online data portal to the authorizing organization for real time monitoring.
Tele calling system should have inbuilt feature to provide call disposition (like switch off, not reachable, refused, invalid) along with the number of attempts made for each call by tele caller Authorizing organization will provide a contact database of ASHAs/ AWWs/ANMs/Teachers and block and district level officialsin excel format. The hired call centre/agency will integrate these data bases in the tele calling system. Contact databases will be updated from time to time, so the tele calling system should have provisions to integrate the contact data bases as per requirement.
  • Authorizing organization will provide the tele calling question bank and the call centre/agency will integrate the question bank in the tele calling system and ensure proper quality checks including skips and consistency checks in the question bank. In the question bank new questions will be added or existing questions will be revised as per the programmatic requirements which the call centre/agency will ensure to integrate in the tele calling system as per the requirement.
  • Call centre/agency will provide a dedicated cloud based server for the authorising organisation to store the data with restricted access to authorised persons by the authorizing organisation. If required in future, call centre/agency would facilitate data migration on the servers suggested by the authorizing organization
NOTE: Due to the dynamic nature of the IFA supplementation program, school reopening schedules, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the authorizing organization may require changes to be made to the telecalling questionnaire/question bank, call schedule, and sample sizes over time. This will be dependent on the current state of the program and the pandemic, and the authorizing organization will engage with the telecalling firm in due course in such cases when changes are required. It is important that the firm will be amenable to such changes over time, and the authorizing organization will ensure timely notification of changes and requirements.
Authorising organization will designate a nodal from each state who will closely coordinate with the call centre/agency to allocation of districts and respective blocks amongst tele callers on day to day basis
 
 4.2 Telecalling process
  • Telecalling will be done on a daily basis( 5/6 days a week) in close coordination with the state team .
  • State nodal from each state will finalize the tele-calling plan including level of tele calling and indicators to be tracked at the beginning of month and review weekly/fortnightly for any change. Nodal will be responsible to share the specific questions sets to be tracked through tele calling to the call centre.
  • Considering the nature of the program a state will be calling officials across below block level and block level. The main stakeholders of the program that are to be covered mandatorily are as follows:
  1. Below block level designations-AWW, ASHA & ANM
  2. Block Level Designations: BEO (Block Education Officer), CDPO (Child Development Program Officer), BPM (Block Program manager), MO/MOIC (Medical Officer/Medical Officer in Charge) and other nodal for IFA program at block level.
  3. All the work assignments should be done a day before in the evening. Tele-calling should start between 9:00 am to 9:30am every day.  
  • On a daily basis a tele caller is supposed to make tele calling from 9:30am -4:30 pm and achieve maximum number of successful cases
  • At the end of the calling every day, call centre/ agency will download the data in XLS/CSV format, clean and share the final data with the state nodal for analysis
4.3 Orientation tele callers
 
Authorising organisation will provide the orientation to tele callers on tele calling monitoring format at the start of tele calling and will schedule orientation in case of change in data collection formats
4.4 Required Profile of tele callers
Required profile and qualification of tele callers:
  1. As the tele calling with involve calling to ASHAs/AWWs/ANMs,female tele callers will be prefered
  2. Should not be less than 25 years and more than 45 years
  3. University Graduates
  4. Resident of state with work experience in the same state
  5. Fluent with local language
4.5 Time Frame
 
Call centre/agency will be preferred for the award of the contract initially for a period of one year and the renewals will be yearly based on the past performance.
 
4.6 Deliverables of Telecalling agency
  1. Call center/agency will set up the tele calling system and arrange other logistic support for tele calling system
  2. Call center/agency will integrate and update contact data bases of below block level functionaries-ASHAs/AWW/ANMs/School teachers and block & district level officials in the tele calling system
  3. Call center/agency will integrate and update tele calling monitoring question bank and will revise the question bank including adding new questions or revising the existing questions as per the programmatic requirement and calling schedule in the tele calling system
  4. List of hired tele callers and certification as per the specified criteria
  5. Arrange orientation of tele callers as per the requirement by the authorising organization
  6. In every state, each tele-caller will make calls from 9:30-4:30pm to achieve the maximum number of successful calls.
  7. Call center/agency would require to submit cleaned data, and reports to as per schedule decided by the authorizing organization
  8. Details of call disposition along with (like switch off, not reachable, refused, invalid) along with the number of attempts made for each call by tele caller should be submitted on a daily/weekly basis or as per the requirement of the authorising organisation Call center/agency should share the dashboard/online data portal to the authorizing organization for real time monitoring
  9. Agency will need to conduct random calls from data quality assurance purposes in case of any divergent trend, conduct reorientation of tele caller in case of any gap and share status report with Evidence Action
  10. Call center/agency is not entitled to use contact databases of ASHAs/AWWs/ANMs for any other purposes other than authorizing organization and will provide an undertaking on this to the authorizing organization.
  11. Call center/agency would ensure continuous backup of individual data files of all completed interviews is mandatory. These files are required to be submitted to the authorizing organization.
  12.  In case required, call centre/agency would facilitate data migration on the server suggested by the authorizing organization
V. QUOTE SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
 
A call centre/ agency can apply either for one state or both TA states. Agencies submitting complete proposals (technical and cost) will need to ensure the following are included in their proposals:
  1. A separate technical proposal highlighting details on tele calling system setup, its features, provision of contact database and question bank integration, data security and quality quality control plan (technical proposal should not be more than 15 pages) and financial proposal need to be submitted.
  2. Previous experience of working in the respective states,team structure and role and responsibilities of key staff involved in management/supervision of tele calling activities including brief resume of proposed staff.
  3. If the agency is submitting a proposal for the states, the total cost should be reported separately for each state in the proposal and should be inclusive of all the applicable taxes with specific details. The unit cost needs to be clearly specified and we need to see further breakdown of costs broken up by:
Heads
Frequency
Technological particulars
One time
Tele caller charges
Monthly
Server cost
Annual
Any other, cost(Please elaborate)
Provided by the agency
 
        4. Call centre /agency should be legally compliant in terms of taxation laws of the country.
        5.Call centre/agency needs to submit the certificate of incorporation, PAN number, and GST details, with the proposal.
        6. Call centre/agency will explicitly clarify in the proposal and share plans if the task is to be further subcontracted.
VI. CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Respondents must disclose in their proposal details of any circumstances, including personal, financial and business activities that will, or might, give rise to a conflict of interest. This disclosure must extend to all personnel proposed to undertake the work. The organizations that may fall within the scope of this evaluation will include EAII Advisors Private Limited or Evidence Action, with which any association must be disclosed. 
Where Respondents identify any potential conflicts, they must state how they intend to avoid any impact arising from such conflicts. EAII Advisors Private Limited reserves the right to reject any proposals which, in the EAII Advisors’ opinion, give rise, or could potentially give rise to, a conflict of interest. 
VI. CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
 
Proposals will be assessed under following evaluation heads:
  1. Call center/ agency with dedicated centralized tele calling set up- provision to integrate contact database and question bank,data security and quality assurance provisions. Timely and uninterrupted provision of required personnel for required services across above-mentioned states.
  2. Prior experience of conducting large scale tele monitoring for development sector specially government health programs,Team structure, team profile, and implementation plan; and
  3. Total costs of the proposal.
Note: Evaluation criteria from 1 and 2 form technical components. Cost will have 40% weightage on total scoring whereas the technical will have 60% weightage.
Table: Evaluation Criteria weights
 
Proposal Evaluation Criteria
Weights (%)
Technical capacity and Quality control Mechanism
Demonstration of systems and capabilities in ensuring the accuracy, quality and non-falsification of submitted data
40
Experience / Past Performance
Organization background and capabilities
Previous experience in similar services
10
Staff Experience / Performance
Prior experience and qualifications of the personnel assigned and resources available
10
Cost
Cost estimate for the telecalling services
40
Total
100
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