Foreign economic-aid-related services

Tender description

The Department for International Development (DFID) on behalf of the The Department of Health (DH) is seeking a Management Agent for the recently launched Fleming Fund. Both the Prime Minister and Chief Medical Officer are clear that tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at home and abroad is a key priority and that the UK will help lead a global response. The Fleming Fund is a key part of this work and as such is funded through Official Development Assistance (ODA). The Fleming Fund is a 265 000 000 GBP programme to tackle antimicrobial resistance by improving laboratory capacity and diagnosis as well as data and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in low and middle income countries through a 1 health approach. The fund will do this by: — Building laboratory capacity for diagnosis; — Collecting drug resistance data; — Enabling the sharing of drug resistance data locally, regionally and internationally; — Collating and analysing data on the sale and use of antimicrobial medicines, particularly antibiotics; — Advocating the application of these data to promote the rational use of antimicrobials for human health, animal health and agriculture; — Shaping a sustainable system for AMR surveillance and data sharing. Between 200 GBP and 235 GBP of the fund will be dedicated to establishing country and regional grants to achieve the aforementioned Fleming Fund objectives in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern and South Eastern Asia, alongside delivering a scheme of Fleming Fellows. The Fleming Fellowship scheme will be a network of practitioners from different disciplines and sectors. The network will focus on professional development facilitating the cross-pollination of ideas and experience, peer to peer learning, and finding creative solutions as part of a multi-disciplinary network to tackle AMR in LMICs. The Management Agent will work collaboratively with DH during an 8 month inception phase to design the detail of the fund's country and regional work before (subject to successful delivery of inception phase) moving into an implementation phase for the remainder of the 5 year contract. DH reserves the right to extend the contract for a further three and then 2 years (up to 5 years maximum) if further funding is identified. During the inception phase DH has established ten minimum deliverables as part of the design process to which payment disbursements will be allocated and made through a payment by output model. These deliverables will include: analytical work to support country selection; country capability and political economy assessments; delivery of pilot projects in Sierra Leone and Burma, the delivery of a sustainable implementation strategy for the life of the programme; and the delivery of a responsible exit strategy for the programme. During the implementation phase the Management Agent will work with country governments and local stakeholders, launching a call for grant funding, managing and monitoring these grants. The Management Agent will be expected to work closely with a selected Evaluation Supplier that will undertake an independent evaluation of the Fleming Fund country and regional work. The anticipated operational start date of the Management Agent will be the beginning of October 2016.