BID Opening for Evaluating Social Return on Investment (SROI) of an Integrated Approach (SRH, WASH, SGBV, and Nutrition) in Conflict-Affected Areas

Amref Background

Amref Health Africa is the largest African-based and led international health development organization serving over 30 million people annually across 35 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Strategically engaging with communities, governments, and local partners for the past 65 years, we work through our European and North American network of sister organizations on program implementation, advocacy, fundraising and partnership. Our subsidiaries include Amref Flying Doctors, Amref Enterprises Limited, and the Amref International University.

Our organization is driven by its vision to bring lasting health change in Africa and its mission to catalyze and drive community-led and people-centered health systems while addressing social determinants of health. Amref believes that the power to transform Africa’s health lies within its communities, and therefore strives to ensure that health systems are functioning at an optimal level and communities are empowered to hold these systems accountable for the delivery of high-quality and affordable health care.

Amref has been active in Ethiopia since the 1960s and became fully operational as of 2002. We have been partnering with the Ethiopian government and local communities to co-create solutions and implement diverse health and development project portfolios throughout the country for over twenty years. Aligning with the national Health Sector Transformation Plan II (HSTP II), we work to ensure health equity by serving women and children, reaching the most disadvantaged, inaccessible communities including pastoralist communities and placing an emphasis on youth development.

Our programs are designed to support community level interventions while strengthening health systems at the regional and national levels. With an integrated and multi-sectoral approach, Amref strategically addresses cross-cutting issues through these programmatic focus areas.

Project Background

Amref Health Africa, with funding from the Dutch Postcode Lottery (NPL), is implementing the Tena LeSelam project to support conflict-affected communities in the Amhara region. Building on existing efforts like the Power to You(th)! project, this initiative aims to accelerate recovery from war through integrated interventions in WASH, nutrition, SRHR, SGBV, peacebuilding, and income-generating activities.

The project focuses on restoring essential health services by rehabilitating facilities, strengthening referral systems, training healthcare workers, and improving access to clean water. It emphasizes community collaboration with civil society, government, universities, and the private sector.

Tena LeSelam targets over 500,000 direct beneficiaries and 1.5 million indirect beneficiaries across seven locations: Tarmaber, Shewa Robit, Efrata Gidem, Ataye, Kemmisse, Kombolcha, and Dessie.

Priority groups include:

• Conflict-affected women, children, survivors, and marginalized groups
• Primary healthcare workers
• Local CSOs, government, and faith-based organizations engaged in SGBV response and peacebuilding

The project integrates GESI, using context-specific Social and Behavioural Change Communication (SBCC) strategies to increase community awareness and service uptake. It empowers women and youth to advocate for their health rights and challenge harmful practices through gender-transformative education and inclusive programming.

 

Objectives of the project.

General Objective

To improve the health and WASH status of women, children and adolescent by 15% from the baseline in targeted woredas and cities of Amhara region by 2026.

Specific Objective

• Rehabilitate all WASH infrastructures at 8 selected health facilities in targeted woredas and cities of Amhara region by 2026.
• Strengthening the capacity of 8 health centers by providing need-based training for 180 health workers in targeted woredas and cities of Amhara region by 2026.
• Improve the uptake of services and appropriate referrals on family planning (FP), Antenatal care (ANC), skilled delivery, Postnatal Care (PNC), newborn care and child health by 15 % from the base line in the catchment areas of the 8 health facilities, in targeted woredas and cities of Amhara region by 2026.
• Improve the identification and referral of women who experience SGBV by 15% from the base line in targeted woredas and cities of Amhara region by 2026.

 

Key Interventions

1. Health Facility Reconstruction & Equipment Supply
Renovation of 8 health facilities affected by conflict, including furnishing essential equipment, supplies, and medicines. This includes training healthcare workers on SRHR and nutrition service delivery, leadership, governance, and psychosocial support.

2. WASH Improvements

Enhancing WASH infrastructure at 8 health facilities, including water reservoirs, improved toilets, handwashing stations, and waste management systems. Health workers will conduct regular health education and sanitation campaigns.

3. Nutrition

Expanding outreach through mobile health teams. Activities include IYCF and breastfeeding education, nutrition surveillance, and screening for MAM/SAM in coordination with local systems.

4. SRHR

Rehabilitation of SRHR units including maternity wards and waiting homes and supply with essential equipment .The project supports quality service delivery: family planning, ANC, PNC, newborn care, immunization, and breastfeeding promotion.

5. SGBV Response & One- Stop Centres (OSCs)

Establishing and strengthening one OSCs to provide integrated health, psychosocial, legal, and police services for survivors. Trained staff will offer free, holistic care, with strong community-facility linkages and collaboration with local structures.

6. Youth-Focused Income Generating Activities (IGAs)

Supporting youth-led businesses. Through partnership with Kefeta, the project will offer skills training, financial literacy, entrepreneurship support, economic resilience.

General Objective

• Estimate the social, financial, and economic value of an integrated approach (SRH, WASH, SGBV, and nutrition) and assess their impact/effectiveness on community resilience and well-being in conflict-affected areas. This includes testing the assumptions behind the Theory of Change of the integrated approach by mapping existing evidence and identifying gaps that require additional validation

Specific Objectives

• The impact of integrated SRH, WASH, SGBV, and Nutrition programs on the health and well-being of individuals and communities in conflict-affected areas.
• Analyze the financial returns associated with investments in integrated interventions, comparing costs against health outcomes and improvements in quality of life.
• Estimate the economic value generated from reduced healthcare costs, increased productivity, and enhanced community stability resulting from the integrated approach.
• To establish what has worked, what did not work and opportunities for the integrated scaling approach

Geographic coverage

Project implementation locations: Debrebirhan, Kemmisse, Kombolcha, and Dessie.

Proposed Methodology

The consultant is expected to propose a scientifically sound methodology that best suits the research objective. Amref is open to considering the consultant’s suggestions. The research methodology should include an appropriate sampling approach with robust data collection and quality assurance processes. The methodology should not only inform program decision-makers from a programmatic and scientific perspective, but also generate findings that are suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The goal is to develop a research approach that is both rigorous and practical, providing Amref with the information needed to make evidence-based decisions, while also producing outputs that contribute to the broader scientific literature in this domain.

Specific tasks to be done by the consultant

The below listed will include main activities to follow;

• Meet Amref Health Africa in Ethiopia country office to present the work plan as per the tasks required as per the terms of reference (ToR).
• Review key databases and or researches and other relevant documents like project reports, documented data …etc including but not limited to develop the introduction, frameworks and methods will used.
• All reviewed databased should be included in standard referencing software’s preferably endnote program (also share will shared the databases used to Amref for reviewing)
• The firm should get approvals from Amref M&E department on the body of the content, introduction, framework/s and methods used before starting the final tool development.
• Develop the final tool as per the agreed introductions, frameworks and methods.
• Meet Amref Health Africa in Ethiopia head office and project staff at the beginning and at the end of the field work for inception report and debriefing.
• Discuss with Amref program development/program/project managers and M&E staffs
• Identify key partner for interviews from the government and private sectors at all levels
• Develop protocol that clearly defines the methodologies for sampling/ disaggregated by district/urban, data collection, entry, cleaning, compilation, analysis of data and report writing (Approvals required from Amref M&E department) and so that Amref health Africa will have a mandate to follow the process directly or indirectly.
• Recruit qualified data collectors and train evaluation team and pre-test data collection tools;
• The team compositions for the data collectors have to be very well qualified and who has an experience in both quantitative and qualitative research.
• Coordinate data collection, processing, analysis, management and reporting;
• Conduct a final debriefing at an Amref health Africa Ethiopia Office
• Develop and submit final report incorporating all comments given by Amref Health Africa Ethiopia, datasets and Do-files.

Period for Submission and deliverables

• The consultancy firm or team should follow the overall time frame of 60 calendar days starting from signing of the agreement to the finalization of report (incorporating all changes and requests from Amref).
• The consultancy firm will submit and present the inception report that clearly defines the methodologies for sampling and data collection tools in the first week following signing the contract. Final data collection tools will be annexed to the protocol and address the feedbacks in the second week of agreement.
• Training of data collectors and supervisors will take place in the second week following singing the contract.
• By end of fifth week, data should have been analyzed and first draft of report submitted. The actual data collection will take place in the third and fourth weeks following signing the contacts.
• The consultant will update Amref Health Africa in Ethiopia on the progress of the work regularly.

Expected Key Outputs

• Detailed Final proposal: including the consultant’s understanding of the assignment, proposed methodology to be used (for sampling, data collection, and entry, cleaning and data analysis), report structure, deliverables, timelines, budget and CV.
• Final Data Collection Tools (Use Amref data warehouse for data collection)
• Develop an infographic or 2-pager as a final product that can be used as handouts for conferences/meetings with donors/stakeholders
• Analysis plan and steps
• 1ts draft of the survey report
• 2nd draft of the survey Report
• Final survey report and presentations as required.
• Final Survey Report: hard copy, complete data set and analysis syntax / preferably STATA dataset and DO-file.

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria of Applicants

Any interested bidder shall provide, in its submission in response to this TOR, sufficient documentary evidence of adherence to eligibility and minimum qualification criteria detailed below. Amref Health Africa will assess the documents submitted by the applicants in response to this TOR.

A. Preliminary Evaluation Criteria

Bids will be evaluated based on the criteria below.

Bids lacking any of the documents below will be considered as non-responsive and therefore will be eliminated at this stage.

 

No.	Particulars	Marks	Compliant	Non-compliant
1	Provide a copy of valid business Trading License.	1 or 0
2	Provide VAT Certificate	1 or 0
3	Provide a copy of Valid TIN/Tax Compliance Certificate	1 or 0

Note: Bids missing any of the 3 mandatory requirements above will be considered as non-responsive bid and therefore will be eliminated at this stage.

Requirement	Criteria	Max Score	Actual Score	Remarks
Context and Alignment with ToR	1)Local Context and study Population, and rational of the study Relevance and clarity of local area context (3) Specificity and clarity in describing the study population (3) Demonstrates understanding of ToR and outlines overall approach (6)	12
Methodological Rigor and Sampling Strategy	2.1 Methodological Fit & Clarity Relevant and appropriate data collection approaches (10) Clear explanation of methods in relation to objectives and target groups (5) Clear analytical approach aligned with each objective (4)	19
	2.2 Sampling Approach Method selected and justified (3) Sample size and rationale explained (6) Sampling frame articulated clearly (5)	14
	2.3 Practical Considerations Methods to identify and reach target units (6) Ethical issues appropriately addressed (2) Feasibility of methods with respect to objectives (3) Overall unique future or innovation proposed (4)	15
Work Experience	Provide appropriate references to demonstrate having the technical experience specified in the TOR. Track record in similar assignments, (Attach relevant documents as proof of previous works handled) Provided 4 references & plus contact details [4 Marks] Provided 2 reference & contact details [2 Marks] Provided 1 reference & contact detail [1 Marks] Iv, Did not provide reference [0 Marks]	4
Organizational Capacity, Team Composition and Qualification	Team Qualifications (Provide CVs and academic certificates of the team which includes educational background, professional certifications, ) [4 marks) Years of relevant experience of the team [2 marks]	6
	Total Score	70
Note that: The technical proposal should have met the high quality has to get a score of 75% or 52.5/70 of the technical marks.

 

The remaining 30% accounts for the finance offer of the consultants. Only technically qualified consultants are invited to the financial proposal.

• Proposals will be evaluated based on experience and qualification of the candidates, price/cost effectiveness, and conceptual understanding and suggested methodology/ approach. The evaluation mainly considers the three blocks namely methodological proposal/technical proposal/, the profile of the evaluators/consultant team members/ and the economic/financial/ offer.
• The weight for technical and financial proposals shall be 70 % and 30% respectively. The financial proposal will be considered when only the technical assessment is above 60 out of 100%.
• Failure to respect the statements in the TOR by the consulting firm will result in the termination of the contract agreement by Amref Health Africa.
• The consultant is obliged to avail all the experts mentioned in the technical proposal for the assignment. If the consultant wants to change any personnel, he/she should formally communicate to Amref Health Africa and get approval

Technical evaluation Criteria

Logistics

Amref Health Africa in Ethiopia will not provide office space, computers, copying, printing and telephone services to the Consultant, the consultant is expected to cover the costs related to vehicle for the fieldwork and thus, advised to include all those costs that Amref Health Africa will not cover including vehicle costs for the field work within prices to be quoted by his/her firm.

Others

• The consultant will work closely with Amref health Africa Ethiopia Program Manager, Regional Manager and M & E unit and project staff
• All relevant documents should be submitted to Amref health Africa upon completion of tasks both in hard and soft versions.
• The consultant should not share any of the evaluation results to any other third party without the consent and approval of Amref Health Africa in Ethiopia

Payment Modalities

The consultant will be issued consultancy contracts and paid in accordance with Amref Health Africa’s financial rules and regulations. Payment needs to be correlated to deliverables – two installments are typically planned for:

• The first payment of 30% in advance of the total agreed contractual amount will be made immediately after the signing of the contract agreement based on Amref Health Africa’s financial regulations and procedures.
• The second payment of 70% of the total agreed contractual amount shall be made effective to the consultant upon the approval and acceptance of the final evaluation report.

Annexes

Any documents such as curriculum vitae, publications, work experiences, renewed license and other information, which the applicants feel, will assist the proposal review team in evaluating the proposal may be attached as annexes.

Required Experience

• The team will consist of professionals in the fields of public health, economics and Social Science with a minimum of second-Degree. Very good professional diversity is an advantage in related areas. In addition, to the above requirement, consultancy firm or team is required to meet the following minimum requirements in order to qualify for the submission of its proposal:
• Significant Previous experience in similar tasks(evaluations) or consultancies specifically in project integrations and outcome-based financing; previous experience in similar tasks or consultancy. In particular, the applicant must have experience in conducting quality evaluation and performing impact data collection methods associated with service integration setting.
• Previous outstanding research and publication in reputable journals.
• Ability to effectively coordinate with government, NGO, and local stakeholders’ essential, an understanding of sectors coordination mechanisms and asset.
• Analytical and conceptual ability, demonstrated understanding of evaluations, research design and social research methods to understand the impact of the project.
• The consultant should have experience of using digital data collection tools /technologies (ODK, big data analysis and others).
• High quality English report writing and proofreading.
• The consultancy firm should be a registered firm and whose license has been re-registered and renewed for the current Ethiopian fiscal year.