Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2021-07-02
Buyer: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Country: DE
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 73000000 | 85140000: Miscellaneous health services
Submission deadline: 2021-07-29
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:
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 specialised in the subjects are scattered over various universities and institutes. And institutes with capacities for implementing operational research lack sufficiently qualified academic staff for conceptualising 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.
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 and 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 organisations.
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:
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.


Eligibility requirements: 1) Trading name and address, commercial register number; 2) Eligibility declaration that no grounds for exclusion in Section 123, 124 of the German Act Against Restraints of Competition (GWB) apply; 3) Eligibility declaration subcontractors if applicable; 4) Association clause if applicable.