Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2022-02-09
Buyer: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Country: DE
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 73000000 | 85140000: Miscellaneous health services
Estimated value: 1003100 EUR
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The "Support to Social Protection - Social Health Protection" (SP-SHP) Project is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It focuses on improving conditions for more effective implementation of social protection programmes in Pakistan, of which social health protection is one important component. In its current project phase, it will address the latest developments in the sectors - expansion of social protection (SP) and social health protection (SHP), above all - and aims to ensure that the government"s focus on achieving quantitative targets is accompanied by qualitative development of the system processes. The project adopts a capacity development approach in four main areas: (1) coordination processes across implementing organisations (data sharing, generation of evidence), (2) programme processes, (3) general organisational and personnel capacities and (4) vertical dialogue processes between national, provincial, and local levels.
The project is active in two provinces in Pakistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Punjab?is?Pakistan's most populous?and most?industrialised?province. Punjab is known in for its relative prosperity, having the lowest rate of poverty amongst all Pakistani provinces. A clear divide exists however between the northern and southern parts of the province, with the northern areas of Punjab showing the lowest poverty rates in Pakistan, while some southern areas are amongst the most impoverished. Punjab is also one of?South Asia's most?urbanised?regions with approximately 40% of people living in urban areas. Its?human development index?is ranking high relative to the rest of Pakistan.
The social protection and social health protection systems are in a phase of very massive expansion of their coverage, accompanied by dynamic developments in programming and administrative processes, and requiring fast and flexible decision-making on a whole range of issues regarding design, organisation and finance.
In the absence of timely and solid operational research, decisions often lack sufficient evidence. The academic knowledge base and capacities for operational research in the field of social protection and social health protection are still in an emerging status in Pakistan. Individual academics specialized in the subjects are scattered over various universities and institutes. And institutes with capacities for implementing operational research lack sufficiently qualified academic staff for conceptualizing work in the two areas.
Given this scenario, the project aims to initiate a partnership (consortium) between an international research institution in the field of social protection/ social health protection, renown Pakistani academics and local institutes with capacities for implementing research.
The partnership shall serve several objectives: it shall (1) provide a range of good quality research pieces, (2) support partner organisations with evidence for their own immediate decision-making at operational level as well as for their superiors at political level, (3) strengthen academic and methodological capacities of researchers at the participating institutes, and (4) support the establishment of a research hub or research network on social protection issues for policy makers and implementing bodies in Pakistan.
Research in Pakistan is provided by private as well as public universities. Private universities usually have established research centers. They conduct their research work with teams comprising of faculty and research degree students. At public sector universities, the research arm is the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan known as "Office of Research, Innovation & Commercialization (ORIC)". The purpose of this Office (ORIC) is to develop, expand, enhance and manage the university"s research programs and to link research activities directly to the educational, social and economic priorities of the university and its broader community. Research institutes, both at private and public universities, can be contracted by private and public, local or international organistions.
These existing research institutes located at national universities shall form the nucleus of the research hub/ basic elements of the network. The ownership for the research activities lies with the national partner organisations of the GIZ project, research bodies and decision-makers. The national partner organisations will take on the role of commissioners of the research. For some products they will also be the ultimate customers, for other products the customers will be their superiors, the political decision-makers. The envisaged "research hub" will provide complementary - scientific - advisory on operational and political issues. It will be linked to the partner system through a steering committee, to be set-up and facilitated by the GIZ team. The contractor is expected to deliver four main work packages: (1) support the establishment and functioning of the new research "hub" (2) conduct research, produce reports and various communication pieces, (3) strengthen capacities of the local partner universities for high quality operational research and communication of results and (4) set-up and accompany the process of deliberating and communicating research results at professional/ technical and political levels.
GIZ may optionally commission contract amendments and/or increases based on the criteria in the tender documents to the successful bidder of this tender. For details, please see the terms of reference.
According to Article 160, Section 3 of the German Act Against Restraint of Competition (GWB), application for review is not permissible insofar as
1. the applicant has identified the claimed infringement of the procurement rules before submitting the application for review and has not submitted a complaint to the contracting authority within a period of 10 calendar days; the expiry of the period pursuant to Article 134, Section 2 remains unaffected,
2. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that are evident in the tender notice are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for the application or by the deadline for the submission of bids, specified in the tender notice.
3. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that first become evident in the tender documents are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for application or by the deadline for the submission of bids,
4. more than 15 calendar days have expired since receipt of notification from the contracting authority that it is unwilling to redress the complaint.
Sentence 1 does not apply in the case of an application to determine the invalidity of the contract in accordance with Article 135, Section 1 (2). Article 134, Section 1, Sentence 2 remains unaffected.


Winner: GFA Consulting Group GmbH
Award value: 1003100
Number of bids: 5