The project's objective is to strengthen the resilience of the Africa CDC. The project is working towards four outputs in total, but the scope of this tender will only focus on Output 1.

Output 1 aims to strengthen institutional capacities at Africa CDC in relation to selected organisational functions. These include organisational development as well as partnership management. The results hypothesis is that the harmonisation and standardisation of work processes across the institution will increase the institutional resilience of Africa CDC and thus contribute to improving the protection of the population"s health. A better partnership management will further lead to technical and financial inputs by international development partners being geared more effectively towards Africa CDC"s strategic objectives, which in turn directly support the organisation"s institutional resilience. The introduction of institutional learning and innovation also contributes to this objective. Furthermore, more strategic and targeted internal, external, social media as well as risk communication will contribute to the institution"s ability to deliver on its mandate as the autonomous continental health institution.

The strategy pursued by the project focuses both on the capacity development level of the organisation of Africa CDC and on the individual level (experts and managers of Africa CDC, including the Regional Coordinating Centres (RCCs)), in order to enhance institutional capacities.
The SCPRA has already provided support to Africa CDC through a subcontracted consultancy firm (March to November 2024) to develop its communication strategies as well as complementary action plans.
The services outlined in this contract will build upon this previous work to support the implementation of Africa CDC"s communication strategies. The consultancy firm is expected to support the launch and implementation of the communication strategies with a focus on priority activities, and to provide technical support and advisory service to the SCRPA project and its partners, incl. Africa CDC and AMA.
The contractor is responsible for providing the following work packages and for achieving the corresponding milestones:
Work package 1: Socialisation and implementation of Africa CDC"s communication strategies and technical advisory services to Africa CDC

a. Provide support to the facilitation of the external launch and publication of the strategies. This includes the development of a roadmap for launch activities and publicization opportunities, resources to socialise and publicise the strategies (such as one-pager summaries, PPT slide deck) and a concept note for the launch event.
b. Provide support to the Africa CDC with regards to the internal socialisation of the strategies. This includes the design and implementation of different formats targeted at Africa CDC staff at all levels in HQ and RCCs to familiarise them with the strategies.
c. Provide continued technical support and advisory service to the Africa CDC, particularly to the Director for Communication and Public Information and their Senior communications Officer, on strategic communications related to the implementation of the strategies.
d. Provide technical advisory services to the Africa CDC in prioritising the implementation of activities outlined in the four communication strategies, including the action plans. It should take current available resources and capacities of the Directorate for Communication and Public Information in consideration. This prioritisation should help Africa CDC to identify areas which need further external support.
e. Support the roll-out of the communication strategies and the implementation of jointly defined prioritised activities of the communication strategies, with a focus on trainings to build and strengthen capacities at the Directorate for Communication and Public Information and across Africa CDC and on supporting Africa CDC in implementing its new approach "communicate for Impact" using evidence-based information
Work package 2: Support to the GIZ SCPRA Project and its partners in their strategic positioning in the global health landscape
a. Provide technical advisory service to the GIZ SCPRA Project on strategic communication to strengthen their positioning in the global health landscape. This includes
i. the development of communication narratives for external and internal audiences
ii. support the project"s communication of impact, including the identification of relevant communication formats and the development of corresponding templates
iii. support strategic communication for SCPRA-supported programmes, such as Africa CDC"s Youth Programme, National Public Health Institutes, and others (e.g. development of a communication plan)
b. Provide technical advisory service on strategic communication for the GIZ SCPRA Project partners, such as AMA. This includes
i. Conduct a landscape and situational analysis
ii. Identify communication needs to support the set-up and strategic positioning of AMA as a new continental health institution
iii. Develop recommendations and a roadmap for strategic communication activities and channels
iv. Support implementation of selected communication activities (e.g. support to the set-up of communication structures and development of relevant SOPs)
For the implementation of these tasks, the tenderer is required to provide 1 team leader, 1 key expert and 1 expert pool (total of 500 expert days). Individual trips by the team leader, regional key expert and international experts to Addis Ababa are necessary; however, a large part of the services provided can be performed home based.

The epidemiological context in Africa is characterised by ongoing outbreaks of new and recurrent infectious diseases with epidemic potential. The ongoing Mpox and Marburg virus disease outbreaks are playing a major role in exacerbating the epidemiological situation in the African Union (AU) member states. As a relatively young institution still in the process of fully developing its systems and processes, Africa CDC as the autonomous health institution of the AU is faced with high expectations in combatting ongoing and emerging health threats on the continent. Therefore, coordinating partners and effectively implementing measures to combat outbreaks are essential.

In 2021, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has commissioned the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH with the project "Strengthening Crisis and Pandemic Response in Africa" (SCPRA). The project's goal is to enhance the resilience of the Africa CDC by strengthening its institutional and programmatic capabilities. This includes bolstering its coordination role with global, regional and national health institutions; strengthening public health institutions, fostering community engagement, particularly young people; and strengthening digital health capacities on the continent.

The project supports Africa CDC to sustainably institutionalise selected organisational functions through standardisation of work processes and skills development measures. A more strategic and targeted internal, external, social media and risk communication will contribute to the institution"s ability to deliver on its mandate.

The implementing partner of the project is the Africa CDC. The project also assists other continental health institutions such as the African Medicines Agency (AMA) and the Africa Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation (APTF).

The SCPRA project has four outputs
Output 1 strengthens institutional capacities at Africa CDC in relation to selected organisational functions. This tender is focusing on Output 1 only
Output 2 strengthens Africa CDC"s coordination role on public health matters on the African continent
Output 3 strengthens the institutional capacities of AMA and APTF through selected organisational development measures
Output 4 improves the conditions for strengthening human and institutional capacities for digital health in the Africa CDC and AU member states

The SCPRA has already provided support to Africa CDC through a subcontracted consultancy firm in 2024 to develop its communication strategies and complementary action plans:
1. Africa CDC Corporate Communication Strategy
2. Africa CDC Internal Communication Strategy
3. Africa CDC Digital and Social Media Strategy
4. Africa CDC Continental Risk Communication and Community Engagement Strategy
These strategies will guide the entire organisation, programme, and interventions. They also ensure that all communication activities, products, and materials work in harmony to achieve Africa CDC corporate strategic goals.
The services outlined in this contract will build upon this previous work to support the implementation of Africa CDC's communication strategies.
Summary of work packages to be performed under this contract:
- Provide support to the socialisation and implementation of Africa CDC's communication strategies through technical advisory services to Africa CDC
- Support to the GIZ SCPRA Project and its partners (esp. AMA) in their strategic positioning in the global health landscape

Target group of the assignment
The target group is the entire population of the AU, comprising around 1.3 billion people. The intermediaries at regional level are the Africa CDC staff who work as experts and managers, including at the RCCs, through whom the target group is reached. At national level, the intermediaries are experts and managers at the health ministries and public health institutes in the 55 Member States of the African Union.

GIZ may optionally commission contract amendments and/or increases based on the criteria in the tender documents to the successful bidder of this tender. For details, please see the terms of reference.

According to Article 160, Section 3 of the German Act Against Restraint of Competition (GWB), application for review is not permissible insofar as
1. the applicant has identified the claimed infringement of the procurement rules before submitting the application for review and has not submitted a complaint to the contracting authority within a period of 10 calendar days; the expiry of the period pursuant to Article 134, Section 2 remains unaffected,
2. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that are evident in the tender notice are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for the application or by the deadline for the submission of bids, specified in the tender notice.
3. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that first become evident in the tender documents are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for application or by the deadline for the submission of bids,
4. more than 15 calendar days have expired since receipt of notification from the contracting authority that it is unwilling to redress the complaint.
Sentence 1 does not apply in the case of an application to determine the invalidity of the contract in accordance with Article 135, Section 1 (2). Article 134, Section 1, Sentence 2 remains unaffected.

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GIZ asks the applicant or bidder to submit, complete or correct documents, within the framework laid down by law.

The execution conditions result from the information given in the contract notice and the tender documents.