Request for Proposal: HST-NETREACH-2023/12/01

Request for Proposal for End-Term Evaluation of Project NETREACH

Purpose of Consultancy End-Term Evaluation of Project NETREACH

Project Owner The Humsafar Trust

Duration for Completion Two months

Last Date of Submission 05-01-2024

1. About The Humsafar Trust

Founded in April 1994, The Humsafar Trust (HST) is India’s first community-based organization
(CBO) of self-identified homosexual men, MSM, Hijras and LBT persons. The HIV interventions of
HST are supported by National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) and Mumbai District AIDS
Control Society (MDACS) to provide health services to men who have sex with men (MSM) and
transgender communities every year through public health care delivery systems and its in-house
clinics. HST organizes advocacy workshops for health care provides, law enforcement agencies,
judiciary, legislators, politicians and political parties, government bodies, media, student community
to sensitize them on Gay, MSM and TG issues. HST also builds capacities of Community Based
Organizations in 27 Indian states on HIV prevention, treatment, care & support and advocacy for
LGBTQ rights, in addition to providing legal support, crisis management, mental health and nutrition
counselling to its communities. Kindly refer to the website https://humsafar.org/ for more details
about the organization.

2. Background of the RFP

The project NETREACH aims to strengthen the HIV prevention efforts, including access to HIV
testing among Key Population (KP) seeking partners and socialising on virtual platforms. Through
NETREACH project, population at risk of acquiring HIV- who are on the virtual platforms (dating
apps and social media) are identified and referred for HIV testing in public and private health
facilities. NETREACH focuses to achieve the first 95 targets (95% of people living with HIV are
aware of their HIV status) by ensuring services are located where they are needed most. More details
about project NETREACH can be found at https://netreach.co.in. The project has three main
components such as virtual outreach, private sector engagement, and community systems
strengthening.

The Humsafar Trust requests proposal for services of a qualified agency/institution, or independent
researcher(s)/consultant(s) to conduct the “End-term Evaluation of Project NETREACH” that is being
implemented since April 2021. The research agencies/institutions or consultant(s) are requested to
submit a detailed proposal as per the guidelines outlined in this RFP.

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3. Objective and rationale

Objective: The primary objective of the end-term evaluation is to evaluate the implementation
processes, bottlenecks, stakeholder analysis, output and outcome of the project.

Key population: The key populations under project NETREACH include MSM, FSW (Female Sex
Workers), Transgender/Hijra communities, MSW (Male Sex Worker), PWID (Persons Who Inject
Drugs), Adolescent and Youth (18-24 years) and Men and Women (25 years and above) at risk of
HIV accessing sexual partners through virtual platforms.

Rationale: The project NETREACH aims to reach populations who are at risk of HIV and who have
not been reached by previous and existing HIV intervention program. Currently in India, access to
internet is growing and people adapt virtual platforms quickly. Dating apps and social media
increasingly provide avenues to socialize and seek sexual partners. Therefore, the nature of risk
perception among the individuals are gradually changing. NETREACH through virtual intervention
aims to reach out to the populations who are currently not part of any HIV prevention programme.

Given that project NETREACH is one of the first HIV intervention programmes implemented across
the country for reaching out the at-risk populations using virtual platforms to seek partner, the
learnings from the project will augment the future online HIV intervention.

About end-term evaluation: Project NETREACH has conducted baseline assessment and mid-term
evaluation. In a similar fashion, the end-term evaluation is aimed to underscore the outcome of the
project including success and challenges of the programme vis-à-vis the learnings from the project
and way forward for a HIV virtual intervention programme in the country. However, the end-term
evaluation needs to be conducted during the community consultation workshop, learning and
experiences sharing workshop as these workshops will be attended by the project beneficiaries,
community leaders as well as other govt. stakeholders. Additionally, in-depth interviews or other
method of information gathering may be proposed as per the project requirements. The evaluation is
expected to use dominantly qualitative approach to gather the experiences of beneficiaries,
community leaders and other stakeholders in the project. Therefore, the agency/consultant needs a
robust methodological design/planning to make use of these workshops for conducting end-term
evaluation and additionally propose other methods of information gathering. The interim findings of
the end-term evaluation is proposed to be presented in the project dissemination event.

4. Scope of Work
The selected agency/consultant(s) is expected to carry out the end-term evaluation and provide the
following deliverables:

a) Design appropriate methodologies, evaluation framework/approach and methodology for end-

term evaluation of project NETREACH
b) Provide key evaluation questions and tools
c) Conduct stakeholder analysis
d) Assess and appraise processes and mechanism followed in project NETREACH to achieve
the project goals vis-à-vis output and outcome of the project
e) To identify strength and limitations of project implementation
f) Best practices and innovations in light of similar HIV interventions across the globe

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 g) Finding out implementation bottlenecks and suggest a road map to achieve the project target
effectively and outcome with special reference to the three main components of project
NETREACH
h) Identify and propose sustainable strategies for effective implementation of project
NETREACH in the next cycle

5. Report Structure

The outline of the final report is as follows:

 Executive summary

 Background/Introduction

 Methodology

 Findings based on the scope of work

 Conclusion
 Bibliography
 Appendix (tools used for data collection, adequately labelled all data collected through this assignment
and any other relevant information generated through end term evaluation)
*The above outline is indicative, please add as applicable

These Terms of Reference may vary to reflect the changing needs of The Global Fund and HST, Alliance India,
and NACO. This will be done in consultation with the selected agency/consultant(s). The selected
agency/consultant(s) will be expected to work in a flexible and adaptable manner, responding to changing
needs, priorities and context.

6. Safeguards

Agency/consultant(s) are advised to adhere to the HIV Act 2017 and specially to consent &
confidentiality and in respecting the human rights of all participants during the end-term evaluation.
The HST is committed to safeguard community members’ confidentiality, respect for online spaces
and not intrude to cause imbalance (disgrunt) in discussion themes or services emanating from the
project. The agency/consultant(s) will ensure non-discriminatory approach in conducting the end-term
evaluation and representation in the thematic discussions thereon. Selected agency will adhere to HST
data protection policy as well as statutory requirements presently practiced in the development sector.
The proprietary of the end-term evaluation is with HST as under the rules of GFATM and thus the
agency/consultant(s) will require to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that would extend
beyond the project period and hand over all data in raw and report forms to HST on completion of the
evaluation study. The agency/consultant(s) are required to adhere to HST research guidelines as well
as norms for engaging with the community.

7. Activities & timeline

The end-term evaluation is expected to be completed in approximately 8 weeks including

presenting the final findings. The tentative durations at all stages is given below:

i. Tentative duration for orientation and desk review (1 week)

ii. Tentative duration for development of tools and finalization of data collection (1 week)
iii. Tentative duration for data collection, transcripts, and data processing including participation in
consultation/workshop (3 weeks)
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 iv. Tentative duration for data analysis and presentation of top line results and findings (1 week)
v. Tentative duration for report preparation, review and revision (2 weeks)

8. Who can apply to this RFP?

Agency/consultant(s) must demonstrate the following requirements in their application in order to be

considered:

i. The agency/consultant(s) is expected to have a minimum of 3 years of experience in

conducting high quality research and evaluation of integrated social development projects
preferably related to health, HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ+, and gender equality. Preference will be
given to agency/consultant(s) who have worked in the area of virtual intervention and
HIV/AIDS intervention.

ii. The team lead should have a Post Graduate degree in Social Sciences, Public Health, Health
Services Research, Population Studies, Statistics or other related field.

iii. Excellent spoken and written command in English and Hindi

iv. Excellent report writing and presentation skills

9. Proposal Submission Guidelines

The proposal should be submitted in two parts: i) Technical Proposal, and ii) Financial Proposal. The technical
proposal must contain the following:

Technical Proposal

i. A brief background including relevant past experiences up to three years related to the
studies conducted by the agency/consultant(s). Please include name and contact details of past
and current clients

ii. Brief introduction about the importance of end-term evaluation for a virtual intervention
project such as project NETREACH
iii. End-term evaluation methodology and framework including tools to be used, data collection plan,
ethical concern etc.
iv. Data quality and security
v. Data analysis
vi. Outline of the report
vii. Bio-data of key resource person(s) who will be involved in the end-term evaluation
viii. Timeline for end-term with key deliverables (Annexure 1)
ix. Contact information of two key officials who will manage, lead and sign contracts. In case
of individual consultant, contact information of one key person is required

Financial Proposal

Provide detailed cost estimates for each of the task envisaged in conducting the end-term evaluation
as per Annexure-2.

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10. Criteria for selection of an agency

Given below are the criteria for selection:

Sl.No. Selection Criteria Points

1 Technical approach and methodology 20
2 Data collection plan 15
3 Data quality and security 10
4 Data analysis and report writing plan 15
5 Past experience of the agency/consultant 10
6 Timeline and execution plan 10
7 Financial proposal 20

HST reserves the right to select a short list from the bids received. HST can conduct interview and
discuss specific details with agency/consultant(s) who are short-listed.

11. Right to final negotiations

HST reserves the option to negotiate on the final costs and final scope of work, and also reserves the
option to limit or include third parties at HST’s sole and full discretion in such negotiations.

12. Bid submission instructions

Bid submission The technical bid and financial bid are to be submitted in PDF documents by email
deadline on procurement@humsafar.org

Email subject line: RFP-HST-NETREACH-2023/12/01: End-term Evaluation

of Project NETREACH

Deadline for Queries related to submission of the RFP will be taken until, 29th December 2023,
submission of queries 5PM by email to jayakant@humsafar.org

Proposal’s File name ‘Name of Agency- Technical and Financial Proposal’

should have

Last Date of The application must be submitted along with all supportive documents
Submission on or before 5th January 2024

Annexure - 1
Outline of Timeline for the Study*
(To be completed by the agency)

Completion
S. No. Activities/Deliverables
Date
Orientation and discussion with HST about the end-term evaluation and
1.
presentation of detailed methodology including tools to be used for data collection
2. Review and finalization of the tools and methodology
3. Data collection
4. Data Analysis
5. Submission of Topline Findings
6. Submission of the final clean and labelled data sets
7. Draft Report Structure and Chapterization Plan
8. Draft report submission

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 9. Review on the first draft
10. Final report submission
11. Submission of other deliverables including raw data
* Fields mentioned here are only indicative, please add steps as applicable

Annexure 2
Outline for Budget

No of Total
Unit cost (in
Description Unit days Amount
Rs.)
(in Rs.)
Consultancy Fees
Note: HST will bear the expenses on travel, accommodation and other related expenses as per the requirement
to conduct end-term evaluation