Strengthen Surveillance, Disease Intelligence Tender - 25857084

Procurement Summary

Country: Ethiopia

Summary: Strengthen Surveillance, Disease Intelligence and Health Information Exchange

Deadline: 21 Sep 2018

Posting Date: 25 Aug 2018

Other Information

Notice Type: Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 25857084

Document Ref. No.:

Competition: ICB

Financier: Self Financed

Purchaser Ownership: -

Tender Value: Refer Document

CPV Classification

79714000 - Surveillance services
85140000 - Miscellaneous health services

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Tender Details

Tenders are invited for Call for Proposals: Re- Advertised: To Strengthen Surveillance, Disease Intelligence, And Health Information Exchange.
Closing Date: Friday, September 21, 2018 - 17:00
Sector: Research, Consultancy and Professional Services
Description: Call for Proposals: Re- advertised: To Strengthen Surveillance, Disease Intelligence, and Health Information Exchange
Tender number: No reference number supplied
Closing date and time: 21/09/2018: 1700 Hours Addis Ababa Time (+3 GMT)
GUIDELINES FOR APPLICATION PROPOSALS TO STRENGTHEN SURVEILLANCE, DISEASE INFORMATION AND HEALTH INFORMATION EXCHANGE
The Commission of the African Union is seeking proposals to strengthen surveillance, disease information and health information exchange. The full Guidelines for Applicants are stipulated below in this dossier, which is available via this link: http://www.africaunion.org .
1. INTRODUCTION

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), officially launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on January 31, 2017, is Africa’s first continent-wide public health agency. It envisions a safer, healthier, integrated and stronger Africa, whereby Member States are capable of effectively responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases and other public health threats. The agency mission is to strengthen Africa’s public health institutions’ capabilities to detect and respond quickly and effectively to disease outbreaks and other health burdens through an integrated network of continent-wide preparedness and response, surveillance, laboratory, and research programs.
Towards meeting its mission, the Africa CDC works with African Union Member States, World Health Organization (WHO) and partners in the five geographic sub-regions of Africa to strengthen their capacity in five strategic priority areas:

1) Surveillance and disease intelligence;

2) Emergency preparedness and response;

3) Laboratory systems and networks;

4) Information and technology systems; and

5) Institutes and research.
Enablers of the Africa CDC’s mission include leadership, management, financial sustainability, workforce, partnership and innovation.
The African Union’s “Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want” in its strategy for the development of the continent, detailed several key concerns that justified the establishment of Africa CDC:

1) Increased potential for new or re-emerging pathogens to turn into pandemics as a result of increasing, rapid population growth (estimated population 280 million in 1960 and 1.2 billion in 2016) and movement across Africa;

2) Existing endemic and emerging infectious diseases, including antimicrobial resistance;

3) Increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases and injuries;

4) High maternal mortality rates, and

5) Threats posed by environmental toxins.
In addition to these concerns, African countries have insufficient public health assets, including surveillance systems, laboratory networks, competent workforce and research expertise, hindering timely, evidence-based decision-making.
To address these concerns, Africa CDC seeks proposals from African institutions, including academia and non-governmental organisations that possess the capacity to implement the goal and objectives described in the Guidelines below. Approximately US$3, 000, 000 is available for award to eligible institutions. The Contracting Authority anticipates the potential for multiple awards of varying amounts. The Africa CDC reserves the right not to award all available funds.
Proposal Intent and Purpose

The aim and intent of this Call for Proposals is to attract African universities, institutions, and non-governmental organisations that have the capacity to implement the main goal and objectives described in this Call. Accordingly, the main goal of this Call for Proposals is to strengthen surveillance, disease intelligence, and health information exchange within Africa CDC and among Member States so that ultimately each Member State can effectively prevent, rapidly detect, and resolutely respond to infectious diseases and other public health threats.
The Africa CDC will operate on a decentralized model driven by implementation of operational approaches that enables Member States to own and facilitate an increase in the proximity of their response capabilities. Africa CDC will operate as a network whereby the headquarters in Addis Ababa will establish close linkage with its five Regional Collaborating Centres (RCCs) based in Egypt, Nigeria, Gabon, Zambia, and Kenya.
In carrying out the overall objectives of activities supported under this mechanism, Africa CDC expects to work in collaborative fashion with grantee institutions. In this way, Africa CDC will have significant technical involvement in implementation activities through the provision of normative guidance, standards and policies, as well as provision of technical advisory services and assistance to address knowledge gaps and to build specialized institutional capacities as appropriate. Moreover, grant recipients will be expected to collaborate with Africa CDC-supported partners including, but not limited to the World Health Organization (WHO) and others to ensure synergies and consistency across funded activities in line with Africa CDC’s goals and WHO normative guidance and national public health strategic plans.
Background and Context

Africa CDC’s highest priority for surveillance is to accelerate the time to detection and enhance the quality of response to infectious disease outbreaks and other urgent public health threats. To achieve this goal, Africa CDC seeks to strengthen event-based surveillance (EBS), which is defined as the organized collection, monitoring, assessment, and interpretation of unstructured, ad hoc information (e.g., stories, rumours, reports, phone calls and messages) about health events, which may represent an acute risk to human health. One component of EBS involves public health analysts analysing information from open sources, such as traditional media, social media, blogs, and other internet-accessible sources, to identify health events. Africa CDC is collaborating with the World Health Organization on a new system known as “Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources” (EIOS). EIOS continuously scans the internet in multiple languages across a large number of sources to identify public health events. Africa CDC needs to export data about events detected in EIOS combined with all other possible sources of information into an electronic system that will allow a trusted network of analysts from Africa CDC headquarters, Africa CDC RCCs, and Member States to conduct continuous real-time analysis and risk assessment of public health events. The intended system would have both an interface for continuous updating of events by geographically dispersed analysts and a microblogging feature (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) to provide updates relevant to specific decision makers.
In addition to building its internal systems for EBS, Africa CDC seeks to strengthen the capacity of Member States to conduct EBS themselves, specifically through the use of reporters from the general community (community EBS), facilities (facility EBS), or national media-scanning platforms. In 2018, Africa CDC, in partnership with other stakeholders, will release guidance for Member States who want to establish EBS at the national or sub-national level. Africa CDC will first engage in a pilot training program to test the guidance in a small subset of African Member States. Then, working with partners, it will scale-up the training and dissemination of guidance to all Member States with intention to initiate EBS or strengthen existing EBS platforms.
Africa CDC seeks to work with National Public Health Institutes (NPHIs) in each country to integrate data across all government agencies that collect data relevant to health. Once integrated, Africa CDC’s RCCs will work with these NPHIs to create regional dashboards that continuously monitor health and disease. African countries are rapidly implementing electronic information systems within the health system and across agencies, but few are using a common electronic vocabulary or standard for such systems. This impedes the exchange and integration of health-related data within and

across countries. Africa CDC seeks to build consensus for and promote adoption of standards for health information exchange, including standard nomenclature and transmission methods, such as Health Level Seven International (HL7). Africa CDC will then collaborate with NPHIs to implement these standards, first, for rapid, comprehensive exchange of indicator- and event-based surveillance data and, second, for integration of such data with individual, clinical service, and administrative records.
Though routine surveillance data is scarce, it is estimated that antimicrobial resistance may cause up to 4 million deaths per year in Africa by 2050. In October 2017, Africa CDC officially launched its Framework for Antimicrobial Resistance, 2018—2023. This Framework describes strategies and tactics for Africa CDC to improve surveillance, delay emergence, limit transmission, and mitigate harm of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) pathogens. Africa CDC will identify partners to implement the short-term priorities of the Framework, including: to produce evidence-based guidelines for clinicians to treat

susceptible and resistant infections in humans; to develop and advocate for AU policies and statutes that promote infection prevention and control; to characterize current antimicrobial practices; to understand barriers to good antimicrobial practice; to propose solutions that will encourage prudent antimicrobial use; to strengthen human resources for AMR surveillance; and to define indicators with baselines and targets to measure progress on the Framework.
see document for more information
The deadline for the submission of applications to the address stated in Section 2.2.2 is 21/09/2018: 17:00 Hours, Addis Ababa time (+3 GMT). Any application submitted after this deadline will not be considered.
Further information for the Application

Questions related to the completion of the Grant Application Form must be received by email no later than 7 days before the deadline for the submission of proposals to the address below:

E-mail address

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AfCDC - Call For Grant Application Proposals Surveillance Strengthening-Re-advertised.pdf

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