DEADLINE: 7TH SEPTEMBER, 2021
THE GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR IMPROVED NUTRITION (GAIN)
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
SURVEY TO ASSESS CONSUMER AWARENESS AND KNOWLEDGE OF FORTIFIED FOODS IN NIGERIA
PROJECT BACKGROUND AND SCOPE OF WORK
(1.1) THE GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR IMPROVED NUTRITION (GAIN)
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-all” 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
Large-scale fortification of staple foods and condiments is a proven, cost-effective, and scalable strategy to address micronutrient deficiencies. In Nigeria, national fortification of salt with iodine began in 1993, and law has mandated fortification of wheat flour, semolina flour, and maize flour with multiple micronutrients, and sugar and edible oil with vitamin A since 2002.
Monitoring of large-scale food fortification programme in Nigeria across the value chain is the responsibility of regulatory agencies that monitor fortification compliance with national fortification standards at the factory, market and household levels. In other to achieve this, a Joint Monitoring Framework (Joint Monitoring Framework for Large Scale Food Fortification Programme in Nigeria by the Regulatory Agencies Core Group, 5th July 2020) was jointly developed by the three agencies: Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), National Agency for Food & Drugs Administration & Control (NAFDAC), and Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), facilitated by GAIN. The framework specifies the roles and responsibilities of each organization with regards to food fortification monitoring. Specifically, the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) is responsible for monitoring fortification compliance at factory level, the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration & Control (NAFDAC) is responsible for monitoring fortification compliance at market level and the Federal Competitive and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) is responsible for monitoring at consumer level which may involve survey/data collection, advocacy and consumer enlightenment.
Fortification quality assessments of mandatory fortified foods have been conducted and are still ongoing at factory and market levels by SON and NAFDAC, respectively; to determine compliance with national fortification standards by industry to ensuring adequately fortified foods are available for consumption by the population. In 2019, a national market level assessment of fortified foods in Nigeria was conducted by NAFDAC in collaboration with GAIN, which showed existing gaps in fortification compliance by Industry as compliance levels were evidently low. Currently, GAIN is partnering with the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), to carry out a survey to monitor factory level fortification compliance. At the consumer level, data on information on awareness and knowledge of fortified foods is important to understand drivers and barriers to creating demand for such foods. However, currently there are no data routinely collected on of consumer awareness and knowledge of fortified foods. FCCPC, in collaboration with GAIN, is looking to develop and test a method for collecting this information that could be implemented routinely overtime.
The purpose of this RFP is to engage services of a Service Provider to design and conduct a baseline survey in collaboration with FCCPC and GAIN, to assess consumer awareness and knowledge of fortified foods in Abuja, FCT, Nigeria. The results of this work will be used to inform future consumer education and awareness programs/interventions conducted by the FCCPC, advocate to partner regulatory agencies on the realistic status of food fortification consumer awareness and compliance, and used alongside data from the factory and market level monitoring data to understand fortification program performance.
(3) SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES
The successful applicant shall provide the following services:
- Develop a study protocol (including literature review, detailed methodology and justification, sampling plan (where applicable), data analysis plan, and data collection tools) for review and approval by GAIN and FCCPC.
- Obtain relevant access and data collection permissions as appropriate, e.g., 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 FCCPC with raw and clean datasets, accompanying codebooks, and syntax and output of all data analyses. If quantitative data are collected, data documentation must be provided using Nesstar.
- Develop final report outlines for review and approval by GAIN and FCCPC.
- Draft full report, including literature review, methods, data collection activities, results, and conclusions.
- Revise and finalize report based on inputs from GAIN and FCCPC.
OBJECTIVES
The main objective is to assess awareness and knowledge of fortified foods among consumers.
The scope of this assessment will focus on Abuja, FCT, Nigeria and the target population is the general population.
Subsequently, this work is envisaged to be replicated at scale to include larger population and wider coverage, contributing to the existing body of knowledge.
The specific objectives are to assess:
(1) Awareness of fortified foods among consumers;
(2) Knowledge of and perceived benefits of consuming fortified foods among consumers;
(3) Barriers towards consumption of fortified foods among consumers;
(4) Awareness and knowledge of the two fortification logos in use. i.e., for vitamin A and iodine among consumers.
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 first, a rapid review of the literature followed by purposeful primary data collection (i.e., consumer insight survey). Given the short timeline for the work, a convenience sample design will be accepted.
DELIVERABLES
The timeline for completion of all aspects of the Scope of Work and submission of deliverables is outlined in the following table:
DELIVERABLE
DEADLINE
Proposal submission 7 September 2021
Final response regarding selection of Service Provider 14 September 2021 Contracting process finalized 21 September 2021 Study protocol and data collection tools submitted and approved by GAIN and FCCPC 28 September 2021 Draft report outline submitted 30 September 2021 Data collection completed 4 October 2021 Draft report submitted 18 October 2021 Final report and dataset and data documentation in Nesstar submitted 29 October 2021
This section addresses the process for responding to this solicitation. Applicants are encouraged to review this prior to completing their responses.
CONTACT
Please direct all inquiries and other communications to the contact below. Reponses will not be confidential except in cases where proprietary information is involved.
Ava Bawa, Junior Associate, GAIN Nigeria (abawa@gainhealth.org)
Oluwatoyin Oyekenu, Senior Project Manager, GAIN Nigeria (ooyekenu@gainhealth.org)
FORMAT FOR PROPOSAL
The proposal needs to be formatted as follows:
- A Technical Proposal, consisting of an executive summary, project background, methodology, activities to be conducted, and a Gantt chart with the estimated timelines. Describe reasons for any deviations from the suggested due dates listed in the scope of work.
- Budget Proposal, consisting of the detailed budget needed to implement the activities based on the assignment of this project. Budget should include itemized costs for key elements of the assignment as follows:
- Rates of key staff and percentage participation in total level of effort for key staff.
- Estimated schedule of other anticipated expenses (sub-contracted resources, supplies, outside resources, etc.).
- Itemization of all other costs, e.g., agency costs, agency fees, administrative costs, etc.
- Preparation of reports and required documentation.
- The fees shall be quoted as a fixed sum inclusive of all applicable taxes and/or institutional overhead.
- In case of errors in calculating overall costs, the unit costs will govern
SUBMISSION
An electronic copy containing the documents preferably in Microsoft Office Suite formats and / or PDF, along with all the required information (including the fee proposal) should reach GAIN at the following address: abawa@gainhealth.org with ooyekenu@gainhealth.org and lolaakeju@yahoo.com in copy.
DEADLINE
Completed proposals should be submitted before 2300HRS Central European Time on 7 September. 2021. Proposals may be postmarked on the due date, provided that an email of the proposal is submitted by the deadline.
