External Procurement

Guidelines and Protocols  

Development of the following:

1. Policy on a Rights-Based Approach to Health 
2. PrEP & PEP Policies and Procedures
3. Policies and Guidelines on delivering Services for adolescents and vulnerable populations
4. Quick Guides on Health and Treatment literacy
5. Contact Tracing Protocols and Policies
6. Inclusion of PITC in the Nursing Curriculum for Pre-service and In-service.

Community Empowerment for Key Populations

1. Economic Empowerment Training
2. Community Liaison and Mentor mobilization (without grants)
3. Resource Mobilization exercises (grant writing)
4. Protecting and sustaining safe spaces 

Commodities

1. Procurement of condoms, lubricants, Rapid test kits (including self-test kits), ARVs for PEP and PrEP.

Module 2: Treatment, Care and Support

Target interventions include:

• Development of strategies to address the special needs of (adolescents or alternatively - persons aged 13-17) diagnosed as HIV positive.
• Institutionalization and optimization of linkage to care inclusive of all chronic diseases (HIV, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), etc.).
• Development of strategies to mitigate HIV treatment interruption and increase retention in care.
• Development of a standard referral pathway especially addressing sensitive points of contact within the health system for e.g. referring a newly diagnosed HIV positive client from testing to the treatment site.
• Development and standardization of an appropriate package of care for persons with advanced HIV or late HIV diagnosis.
• Development of IEC strategies for demand creation for treatment literacy to address (youth living with HIV, elderly living with HIV, HIV treatment regimens, required annual blood and other testing for the HIV positive patient, medication adherence, psychosocial support – the appropriate means of dissemination of the IEC strategy should also be addressed).
• The integration of NCD and HIV services and treatment into existing treatment centres.

Training:

1. Training of case managers on linkage to care – use of Trainer of Trainer (TOT) concepts and development of a training manual.
2. Training health care providers, peer navigators, civil society organization (CSO) members on developed IEC materials for demand creation, including messaging and dissemination of the message (TOT concepts).
3. Training of health care providers on the management of persons who have Advanced HIV disease or who have been diagnosed late with HIV.
4. Training on updated PAHO/WHO guidelines and practices.

Surveys:

1. Survey(s) to capture the causes of medication fatigue in chronic disease patients
2. Survey(s) to determine causes of medication non-adherence in chronic disease patients

Guidelines and Protocols:

1. Development of linkage to care policies, protocols and guidelines
2. Development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for patient retention and adherence
3. Development of policies and SOPs for the management of Advanced HIV care and Late HIV Diagnoses
4. Development of SOPs on the prevention, monitoring and management of NCDs and other chronic diseases in HIV positive patients
5. Adaptation of existing PAHO/WHO policies or guidelines into local policies and guidelines (within country contexts)

Community Empowerment:

1. Scaling up linkage to psychosocial support provided through peer navigators
2. Development of treatment support programs through mentoring and chronic disease support groups.
3. Treatment literacy training of HIV positive persons on IEC materials addressing viral load testing (TOT), understanding the message and disseminating the correct message.

Commodities:

1. Scale-up procurement and use of Tenofovir/Lamivudine/Dolutegravir (TLD)
2. Procurement of viral load testing reagents

Module 3: Resilient Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH)

Target interventions include:

• Development of strategies to ensure service continuity for key affected populations and other vulnerable populations inclusive of persons living with HIV in post-disaster situations.

Training:

1. Training of frontline workers on service provision to key affected populations and other vulnerable populations.
2. Training on supply chain management to ensure availability of medications such as ARVs, PrEP, PEP and testing reagents such as rapid test kits for HIV and syphilis, HIV self-test kits, CD4 and Viral Load monitoring reagents, etc.

Module 4: TB/HIV Co-infection

Target interventions include:

• Advocacy for greater political commitment, funding and stewardship for planning and essential services of high quality
• Addressing the most vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups.
• Scaling up screening for active TB and LTBI in TB contacts and selected high-risk groups, and provide appropriate treatment
• Laboratory systems strengthening

Module 5: Health Information Systems and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)

Target interventions include:

• Strengthen M&E and Research capacity in the OECS
• Strengthening of the electronic Case Based Surveillance (eCBS) system

Training:

1. Development of a training programme with TOT concepts and a training manual to ensure continuity of training on the eCBS system
2. Development of a standardized framework of targets and indicators for reporting within the eCBS system

Module 6: Human Rights - Reducing Human Rights-related Barriers to HIV/TB Services

Target interventions include:

• Legal Literacy “Know your rights” - integration of human rights and legal literacy into peer educator trainings key populations outreach and treatment literacy.
• Ensuring nondiscriminatory provision of health care - pre-and in-service training of health care providers, including facility and non-facility based, health care administrators and health care regulators on patient rights, non-discrimination, duty to treat, informed consent and confidentiality, violence prevention and treatment.
• Increasing access to justice - community-led and community-based monitoring of share of stigma, discrimination and other rights violations referred for redress. Strengthen linkage of community-led monitoring (CLM) to legal counselling and support.
• Ensuring rights-based law enforcement practices - Sensitization of police, judges and magistrates on HIV, TB and human rights.
• Community mobilization and advocacy for human rights - Community-led outreach campaigns to address harmful gender norms and stereotypes and other gender and human rights-related barriers

4. PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

• Approach and methodology (maximum 4 pages)

• Describe your approach to the implementation of the proposed activities described in Section 3 above - Priority areas and proposed activities for funding request
• Describe prior experience in the implementation of Global Fund programmes, your understanding of and experience working with persons living with HIV, and key populations including gay men and other men having sex with men, transgender persons and commercial sex workers and knowledge of the OECS geo-political dynamics and nuances.

5. PROPOSED BUDGET AND WORK PLAN

A detailed budget for the provision of services as PR should be prepared in a Microsoft Excel workbook as part of this application, and guided as follows:

Budget

a.     Human Resources

b.     Technical Assistance

c.     Training 

d.     Infrastructure and other equipment

e.     Communication materials

f.      Monitoring and evaluation

g.     Planning and administration

h.     Overheads

i.      Other

The budget should be copied onto a USB for submission with the hard-copy proposal. Please ensure the detailed budget complies with the following requirements:

• The budget should be presented in US Dollars.
• The detailed budget should follow an activity-based costing approach that is aligned with the proposed implementation plan.
• Budget notes detailing how unit costs were arrived at are encouraged and can be provided in supporting sheets in the Excel workbook.
• A separate main activity or cost centre should be presented in the detailed budget to provide for programme management, grant management and administration costs associated with PR operations.
• Salaries and wages should be based on actual payroll data in applicants’ organisations or based on actual market rates for new positions

6. EVALUATION PROCESS

• An evaluation panel (PR selection committee) will make recommendations to the full OECS RCM. The OECS RCM will make the final decision on the preferred applicant.
• The OECS RCM reserves the right not to select any of the shortlisted candidates or to reissue the call for proposals.
• The applicant selected by the OECS RCM will be invited by the Global Fund to enter grant negotiations,
• The OECS RCM holds no responsibility or liability with respect to the outcomes of the negotiations with the Global Fund.
• The table below provides guidance on the score distribution for organizational capacity to carry out the functions of Principal Recipient.

7.  APPLICATION SCHEDULE

The deadline for submission of a fully completed proposal and budget is on 7^th July 2024. Please submit a hard and digital copy of the proposal, with the budget in Microsoft Excel format on a flash drive in a sealed envelope to the OECS RCM Secretariat:

Digital copy: joan@oecsrcm.com

Hard copy:    Honourable Moses Jn. Baptiste, Minister of Health

                         The Chair

                         OECS Regional Coordinating Mechanism

                         2^nd Floor, Ministry of Health,

                         Sir Stanislaus James Building,

                         Waterfront

                         Castries, Saint Lucia

The timelines for the application process are as follows:

• Publication of call 16^th June 2024
• Deadline for submitting application: 7^th July 2024 Close of Business (COB) 4:30pm (Saint Lucia time)
• Evaluation period 8-12^th July 2024 during which additional details may be requested. Candidates who meet the minimum requirements and are short listed will be invited to an interview with the PR selection sub-committee by: 14^th July 2024
• Feedback to applicants: 20^th July 2024
• Grant agreement finalized: March 2025