RFQ for provision of communications and advocacy services to deliver COVID-19 health messaging, community awareness and outreach in Kasokoso and Kinawataka, Uganda

New clarification added: Assessment: Who wlll do impact assessment of the programme?Answer: The impact assessment should be undertaken by the contractor and carried in the report delivered after the awareness training as listed in the deliverables schedule. The impact should cover reach and participation of the beneficiaries and also their perspectives.  2. Posters: Who will design the posters? Must supplier do it? What is the size of posters?Answer: The contractor should design the posters. The poster size will be A2.3. What will the shows and videos be about? Would Cities Alliance be open to explainer videos?Answer: The two videos will be about the PPE handover at the two health centres and the COVID impact at each catchment area. One video will be about the gender component explaining the COVID impact. The last will be general to the campaign activities and this is where the supplier can (if they want to) do the explainer video.4. What languages they want to operate in? English and Luganda?Answer:  English and Luganda5. For TV, radio shows - do you want supplier to  (i) buy media time for one hour on each channel and create the content OR (ii) only create content OR (iii)only buy media time? Which channels do you have in mind?Answer: The contractor is expected to secure/buy airtime for each channel and invite participants (local leaders, beneficiaries and health workers) for the talk show. The discussion themes should be COVID related and should be proposed beforehand by the supplier and approved by CA/UNOPS. The radio channels should be city wide and preferably those most listened to in informal settlements e.g. CBS radio.6. One hour is EXTREMELY long for an TV radio show. Can supplier provide a shorter time period for the shows but keep media time at one hour for each channel?Answer: The one-hour is based on research for similar shows that have been undertaken locally, and factors in the radio ads. The contractor should work within that timeframe.7. Will the contract and payment be made with a Ugandan registered NGO, or with UNOPS registered in a country other than Uganda and paying from a bank account outside Uganda? This is for the 18% VAT foreign companies need to pay for services rendered in Uganda. Is there a way UNOPS can assist with alleviating these charges so as to make the bid more competitive?Answer: UNOPS can sign a contract with an Ugandan registered NGO but the contract will be commercial contract. UNOPS is tax exempted in Uganda like all other UN entities and agencies. The bid should excluding any VAT or taxes. 

New clarification added: DRive Supplier Sustainability Questionnaire1. Talking about the DRive Supplier Sustainability Questionnaire, the first excel sheet named "Profile" has a field named "UN Global Compact Participant" What is this? Can we leave it blank?Answer 01: The bidders can leave the field UN Global Compact Participant blank, if you are not a participantRFQ_Section_II_ScheduleofRequirements-RFQ_2021_184042. From RFQ document named above, what you mean on Pg.2 when you say "experiential teams"? Be specific to onlthis scope of work/RFQAnswer 02: Experiential teams means teams with actual experience in delivering COVID-19 messaging to informal settlement communities while also incorporate messages that  focus on women who are more exposed to gender-based violence (an effect of the lockdowns) and have limited access to reproductive health services3. This project seems to belong to another entity named Cities Alliance (funded by SIDA) as you state in the RFQ document showing schedule of requirements. But again the tendering is coming from UNOPS, not CA. What is your  relationship with CA - we don't understand it? We know this kind of thing can always come clear once anengagement has been signed but it won't do us bad if we learn this nformation earlier enough.Answer 03: The Cities Alliance is hosted by the United Nations entity, UNOPS, enhancing our reach, productivity and impact and ensuring delivery to a high standard and integrity through UNOPS systems.Form C: Technical Quotation Form04: Under point 1.7 it states - "Organization’s commitment to sustainability by submitting documentation on policies or procedures in place. The offeror should also submit the completed Sustainability questionnaire excel sheet". Clarify: Is this commitment must for this RFQ? Here, each project has own sustainability or each individual employee/externalcontractor engaged is issued their own line of terms and conditions depending on the work and mode of engagement and having a generalpolicy may not be necessary. If we do not currently have a company policy entirely on sustainability, does this affect the application? Moreover,isn't the excel "SUPPLIER SUSTAINABILITY QUESTIONNAIRE" form enough to satisfy you?Answer 04a : Organization’s commitment to sustainability by submitting documentation on policies or procedures in place is a must for this RFQ. Answer 04b: Please note that the excel sheet has options for each question and you can answer the questions with the actual facts and if you don't have policies or procedures in place you can mention the same and explain the details. We will check and clarify during evaluation in case of any missing information or if we require any additional information to ascertain that the bidders meet the criteria. Answer 04c: The excel sheet is part of this criteria and the bidders are recommended to provide more details on labour conditions, equal wages for all genders, social and enviromental conditions 05: Is it possible to rephrase the statements (if not questions) in the table of "Technical Proposal Evaluation sections" - they look more of questions meant for adjudicating the bidder's scores than being technically attempted by the bidder. They also seem to be only "Conditional Statements" where the bidder only requires to say "yes" OR "no"Look at Row 2.1 for example, under proposed methodology.Answer 05: Please do not change the statements/ questions in the Technical proposal form. The bidders are expected to provide narrative feedback on each of the question/ criteria and related documents to prove that the bidder shall meet the requirements. 06: Clarify here that in Section 2 (proposed methodology), questions 2.1 -2.6 are actually fields forming what could be the technical proposal for this RFQ and that the bidder should attempt them fully. You already state in the TENDER  PARTICULARS on this esourcing platform that that lowest priced most technically acceptable offer wins the tender thus meaning a technical proposal is imminentAnswer 06: Submitting a technical proposal as mentioned in the answer 05 above is very important and mandatory and non-submission of technical proposal form with adequate details  might result in disqualification of the bid. The bidder should provide as much as details possible to show the evaluation team that the bidder has enough experience and can meet all the requirements.  

New amendment added #1: The amendment issued on 19th Jan 2021 is to extend the deadline for submission due to elections in Uganda and internet black out for almost a week before the current deadline of 21st Jan 2021.