GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR IMPROVED NUTRITION (GAIN)
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS DEVELOPING THE E-LEARNING COMPONENT FOR INSTITUTIONALIZED LABORATORY CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT
DEADLINE: DECEMBER 28, 2020
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Working with both governments and businesses, we aim to transform food systems so that they deliver more nutritious food for all people.
At GAIN, we believe that everyone in the world should have access to nutritious and safe food. We work to understand and deliver specific solutions to the daily challenge of food insecurity faced by poor people. By understanding that there is no “one-size-fits-aN” model, we develop alliances and build tailored programmes, using a variety of flexible models and approaches.
We build alliances between governments, local and global businesses, and civil society to deliver sustainable improvements at scale. We are part of a global network of partners working together to create sustainable solutions to malnutrition. Through alliances, we provide technical, financial and policy support to key participants in the food system. We use specific learning, evidence of impact, and results of projects and programmes to shape and influence the actions of others.
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, GAIN has representative offices in Denmark, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition, we have country offices in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Tanzania. Programmes and projects are carried out in a variety of other countries, particularly in Africa and Asia.
BACKGROUND
Since 2012, GAIN has been working in Nigeria to improve Large Scale Food Fortification. Within this period, the frequency of loss of technical analytical capacity in laboratories, especially from regulatory agencies has been raised as a persistent challenge by industry stakeholders who are faced with grappling the constant changes and inconsistent quality of the officials they interface with. Regular staff redeployment is a norm in public sector laboratories which poses a challenge to long term capacity development and sustainable knowledge investments, as trained staff can be moved at any time to other units or departments, which may or may not be relevant to the built capacity.
GAIN is therefore collaborating with the Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria (IPAN) through the Driving Fortification’s Effectiveness through the Systems Innovations Project to develop an innovative and interactive training and certification program that will facilitate the institutionalization of laboratory analytical capacity development and maintain a premium capacity standard for personnel.
The three-tiered certification program will have a client group which will include: fresh graduates; laboratory technical professionals, statisticians, field staff involved in surveys and sampling, and laboratory services managers involved in laboratory management and quality systems. The training exercises offered should elevate the skill set of this group to meet pre-defined internationally accepted and recognized quality standards.
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is thus issuing this Request for Proposal (RFP) and will be the administrative lead organisation for this RFP. The purpose of this RFP is to engage services of a Service Provider to develop an innovative and interactive platform to deliver/run for an accredited certifiable training program jointly developed by the Institute of Public Analyst of Nigeria (IPAN) and GAIN. “The proposed elearning component will be a key delivery component of the training programme currently under development a range of partners under the leadership of IPAN. Overall, the training programme will support further professionalization of the skilled workforce involved in sampling and laboratory analysis of micronutrients and food safety parameters and deliver certification to internationally recognized standards and best practice.
