Request for Proposal (RFP) at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a non-profit foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland. GAIN was developed at the UN 2002 Special Session of the General Assembly on Children. GAIN’s actions include improving the consumption of nutritious and safe foods for all.

Applications are invited for:

Title: Request for Proposal (RFP) - Rapid Market Assessments of Biofortified Foods in Six Countries in Africa and Asia

The purpose of this RFP is to engage services of a Service Provider to design and conduct rapid market assessments to determine the availability and market share of selected biofortified foods in six countries (i.e., zinc rice in Bangladesh, iron pearl millet and zinc wheat in India, zinc wheat in Pakistan, high iron beans in Kenya, vitamin A maize and vitamin A cassava in Nigeria, and vitamin A maize and high iron beans in Tanzania). These assessments are a key component of the final year monitoring activities under the CBC programme.

Objectives

The main objective is to design and conduct rapid market assessments to determine the availability and market share of selected biofortified foods in six countries.

The scope of work will focus on selected raw4 and prepared/processed5 biofortified foods in each country, i.e., zinc rice in Bangladesh, iron pearl millet and zinc wheat in India, zinc wheat in Pakistan, high iron beans in Kenya, vitamin A maize and cassava in Nigeria, and vitamin A maize and high iron beans in Tanzania. 

The specific objectives are to:

The Service Provider is expected to use the results from this work to report on the following five monitoring indicators for each of the nine country-crop combinations:

The Service Provider should propose the methods for the assessment of the above-mentioned objectives based on their expertise, but it will be expected to include a combination of primary data collection and use of secondary data sources. The Service Provider should propose the methodology for estimating market volumes and identify various data sources that can provide an in-depth overview of the food market including in-country production, imports, and exports and a dataset with breakdown by food producers/suppliers and brands/products and their respective market volumes/values.

Additionally, FortiMApp, a tailored application and dashboard for the collection and management of similar data on availability of industrially fortified foods developed by GAIN, which can be adapted to assess biofortified foods, will be made available for use by the Service Provider. (Similar market assessments for industrially fortified foods were recently carried out using FortiMapp in Nigeria, Tanzania, and India).

• Develop a study protocol, including background, detailed methodology and justification (including a food identification protocol given the complexity of identifying foods prepared from biofortified crops with invisible traits), sampling plan where applicable, data analysis plan, and data collection tools, for review and approval by GAIN and HarvestPlus.
• Obtain relevant access and data collection permissions as appropriate, e.g., from government.
• Carry out all aspects of primary data collection, quality assurance, and data entry, cleaning, management, and analyses.
• For any primary data collected, provide GAIN and HarvestPlus with raw and clean datasets, codebooks, and syntax and output of all data analyses. If quantitative data are collected, data documentation must be provided using Nesstar8.
• Draft final report outlines (one for each country) for review and approval by GAIN and HarvestPlus.
• Draft full reports (one for each country), including background, methods, data collection activities, results, and conclusions/recommendations.
• Revise and finalise reports (one for each country) based on inputs from GAIN and HarvestPlus.

• The Service Provider is expected to have extensive experience in market research, including market size and share determination.
• The Service Provider should also have experience and in-depth knowledge of the market in the countries of interest, previous experience working in all or some of the market categories (including preexisting data would be an added advantage), and excellent writing skills in English.

• Proposals must be submitted must be signed by a principal or authorising signatory of the lead firm or organisation.
• In case of errors in calculating overall costs, the unit costs will govern.
• It is the applicant's responsibility to understand the requirements and instructions specified by GAIN and HarvestPlus. In the event that clarification is necessary, applicants are advised to contact GAIN at rfp@gainhealth.org prior to making their submission.
• While GAIN and HarvestPlus have used considerable efforts to ensure an accurate representation in this RFP, the information contained in this RFP is supplied solely as a guideline. The information is not warranted to be accurate by GAIN and HarvestPlus. Nothing in this RFP is intended to relieve applicants from forming their own opinions and conclusions with respect to the matters addressed in this RFP.
• By responding to this RFP, the applicant confirms its understanding that failing to comply with any of the RFP conditions may result in the disqualification of their submission.