Background

Project Title: UNAIDS Unified Budget, Results and Accountability Framework (UBRAF)-supported Joint UN Plans on AIDS

Project Description 

The HIV situation in the country can be described as hidden and growing. Based on the HIV/AIDS & ART Registry of the Philippines (HARP) published by the Epidemiology Bureau of the Department of Health (DOH-EB) in February 2021, the number of HIV-positive reported cases in the country has reached a total of 84,610 since January 1984. Additionally, for the month of February 2021, 855 newly diagnosed cases were recorded.

While the national HIV prevalence remains low at around 0.1%, men having sex with men are disproportionately affected, accounting for 83% of all new infections. As before, newly diagnosed cases are mostly concentrated in the National Capital Region (NCR), having the highest proportion of newly diagnosed cases in February 2021 among all the 17 regions in the country at 31%.

The Philippines is also far from reaching the 95-95-95 targets of UNAIDS. Among the estimated 97,000 people living with HIV in the Philippines, only around 73% are diagnosed. Among those diagnosed, only around 61% are enrolled to treatment. Viral load suppression remains, reaching only 28%, compared to the 95% target.

Generally, the policies and programs implemented in the country are in line with the Republic Act (RA) 11166 or the Philippine HIV and AIDS Policy Act of 2018, which repealed RA 8504 also known as the Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998, and made health services for HIV more accessible to Filipinos. Various activities on prevention and control, treatment, care, and support, including advocacy, training, and other management costs were implemented in the previous years.

An examination of the country’s total HIV spending over five years (2011–2015) showed an erratic trend, peaking in 2014, followed by a slight decline in the succeeding year. Notably, in 2014–2015, a large share of total annual spending came from public sources, from 33% in 2011 (USD 4,181,000) to 73% in 2015 (USD 1,303,200). However, despite the growing HIV epidemic in the country, external sources from which a substantial bulk of the annual spending came from (ranging from 26% to 56%) remained virtually the same, from USD 3,872,000 in 2011 to USD 4,582,000 in 2015.

In terms of the type of activities that were financed, these were mostly geared towards prevention given the low prevalence rate. Prevention-related activities include mass media, school-based education programs, condom promotion, and STD treatment, among others. Activities related to program management were also financed. These include surveillance, training, advocacy, and communication, among others.

Through national documents such as Health Sector Plan for HIV and STI for 2015–2020 and Sixth AIDS Medium Term Plan for 2017–2022, as well as various international obligations, the Philippines is committed to halting and reversing the spread of HIV. Hence, mobilization of resources is critical in keeping the prevalence of HIV low and the rate of transmission slow. To achieve UNAIDS’ 95-95-95 targets and the Sustainable Development Goals, it is also important that enough resources are allocated based on evidence-based planning to ensure that key populations at risk prevent infection and maintain negative, while the people living with HIV are afforded necessary treatment and care services.

Data from the Rapid Assessment on the Impact of COVID-19 pandemic in the National HIV Response shows that aside from the concerns on ARV services, women living with HIV who provide care for their children, are more concerned with financial assistance.

UNDP is conducting a regional spending assessment for HIV in NCR in order to estimate the amount of spending for HIV programs and activities in the region and to highlight gaps in the current interventions given the disease burden and HIV expenditure through a participatory approach. NCR is the priority region since it is the region with the highest burden of HIV, with more than a third of the Philippines’ HIV epidemic, and it has the highest number of key affected populations. This regional spending assessment will contribute to supporting the LGUs allocate the resources more effectively and appropriately and consequently help in improving access to health services. The regional spending assessment will also provide a reporting mechanism that will make HIV spending assessment for other regions feasible.

Institutional Arrangement

The IC shall work in collaboration with UNDP Institutions and Partnerships Team and UNDP HIV, Health and Development Team, Bangkok Regional Hub, and UNAIDS.  The consultant will be under the over-all management of the HIV Response Officer, Programme Analyst, and Programme Team Leader of UNDP Philippines Institutions and Partnerships Team.  The Policy Advisor, upon the recommendation of the HIV and LGBTI Focal and Programme Analyst, will approve outputs submitted by the IC.

Duration of the Work

The expected duration of engagement is 75 working days, spread over from 19 July to 29 October 2021. 

Duty Station

The Consultant’s duty station is in Manila. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and declaration of State of Public Health Emergency in the Philippines, all work of the Consultant shall be done within the guidelines and protocols set by the local government. During the quarantine period, the Consultant shall NOT ENGAGE in any meetings or activities OUTSIDE THEIR HOMES. Coordination/meetings shall be done through phone or online communication until such time that the quarantine is lifted.

The IC modality is expected to be used only for short-term consultancy engagements.  If the duration of the IC for the same TOR exceeds twelve (12) months, the duration must be justified and be subjected to the approval of the Director of the Regional Bureau, or a different contract modality must be considered.  This policy applies regardless of the delegated procurement authority of the Head of the Business Unit. 

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The Consultant must send a financial proposal based on an all-inclusive lump-sum amount including all cost components required to deliver the goods and services identified above (i.e., professional fees X number of person-days, communications, etc.).

Medical/health insurance must be purchased by the individual, and upon award of contract, the consultant must be ready to submit proof of insurance valid during the contract duration.

Payments will be released following the table below:

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

To ensure successful implementation of the project, it is proposed that a Technical Expert on Regional Spending Assessment on HIV be engaged as an Individual Contractor (IC). The scope of work includes:

1. Desk review of previous National AIDS Spending Assessments in the Philippines;
2. Collection of available data on planned budget and actual spending on HIV in NCR for 2018, 2019, and 2020 from relevant financing agents including LGUs, some NGOs, other contributors (e.g., UN agencies), DOH, PNAC, DSWD, DOLE, and DILG
3. Development of regional spending assessment on HIV for NCR for 2018, 2019, and 2020 with two-dimensional matrix of financing sources and beneficiary population by healthcare and social welfare functions and disaggregated data on spending related to women, children and adolescents and LGBTQI and analysis of data gaps in terms of regional priorities and recommendations; and
4. Proposal of reporting mechanism through participatory approach (e.g., FGD with the stakeholders) for government or public sources on regional spending assessment on HIV taking into consideration the Open Government Partnership Commitments and Citizen’s Participatory Budget

The IC will work with the Programme Analyst and HIV Response Officer (UNDP Philippines Institutions and Partnerships Team) with guidance from the Institutions and Partnerships Programme Team Leader, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub HIV, Health and Development Team and UNAIDS.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables 

Competencies

Corporate competencies

• Must have strong leadership and project management skills
• Must have an extensive background and understanding of the Philippine DRR, recovery, and resilience policies, programmes, and activities
• Must be detail-oriented
• Has excellent analytic skills especially in understanding complex information to produce evidence-based comparisons and conclusions.
• Excellent written and spoken English is required.

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Functional and technical competencies

• Ability to work in a diverse and multi-cultural environment;
• Self-motivated and ability to work under pressure and to meet strict and competing deadlines;
• Displays analytical judgment and demonstrated ability to handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities

Required Skills and Experience

Offers will be evaluated based on the combined scoring method :

• Technical qualifications = 70%
• Financial Proposal = 30%

For the evaluation of the Technical Proposal, the selection of the successful consultant must be based on the following qualifications (with the appropriate obtainable points).

Only applications that will obtain a minimum of 70 out of 100 obtainable points will be qualified for the financial evaluation.

Recommended Presentation of Offer

Interested applicants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload of a maximum of one document.

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
3. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided.  If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. 
4. At least two (2) research reports on HIV, health, or gender published by a reputable research/academic institution or non-government organization working on HIV are required. Link to a personal website or on-line file storage such as Google Drive containing the research reports should be included in the CV.
5. At least one (1) refereed research article published on a reputable journal on data analysis, statistics, or public health is required. Link to a personal website or on-line file storage such as Google Drive containing the research articles should be included in the CV.
6. Sample works on at least two (2) workshops/seminars/trainings/lectures on HIV laws and policies

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Interested applicants to note that personal Medical/health insurance (to be purchased by the individual at his/her own expense) is mandatory for the issuance of contracts. Upon award of the contract, the consultant must be ready to submit proof of insurance valid during the contract duration.

The following templates / Annexes and IC General Terms & Conditions can be downloaded from http://gofile.me/6xdJm/bE9TCw8fU:

• General Terms and Conditions for Individual Contract
• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability
• P-11 form

In view of the volume of applications, UNDP receives, only shortlisted offerors will be notified.