REQUEST FOR QUOTATION

RFQ Nº UNFPA/KOS/RFQ/2021/005

 

 

Conduct Survey on Loneliness among Older Persons in Kosovo

This Request for Quotation is open to all legally-constituted companies that can provide the requested services and have the legal capacity to perform in Kosovo, directly or through an authorized representative.

 

IMPORTANT:

 

UNFPA in Kosovo is 0% VAT payer;

•     The bidders shall be legally-constituted companies or an authorized representative with at least 5 years of experience in similar profile researches, preferably linked to academia/ universities;

•     Broad regional network of interviewers would be an asset;

•     Ability to communicate in English fluently both verbally and in writing; 

•     Bidders are requested to provide total price in EUR;

•     All bidding documents shall be prepared in English;

•     Bids must be valid at least 30 days from the date of bid opening.

 

Payment terms: the payment will be effected by the bank transfer, after delivery of deliverables as agreed within the scope of work;

The full set of the services to be provided by one contractor, partial bids will not be considered;

Quotation Submission Forms should be with company stamp and signature.

1. About UNFPA

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is an international development agency that works to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.  

UNFPA is the lead UN agency that expands the possibilities for women and young people to lead healthy sexual and reproductive lives. To read more about UNFPA, please go to: UNFPA about us

2. Service Requirements/Terms of Reference (ToR)

1. Background  

Loneliness is a key risk factor for ageing-related diseases and is detrimental for healthy ageing. Loneliness has two linked components. Emotional loneliness occurs when a person lacks close relationships and confidants, and generally reflects the quality of one’s relationships. Social loneliness occurs when a person lacks an extensive social network, and reflects the quantity of one’s social relationships. Both components are important for health, but they pose different critical risks for older people’s health and well-being. A lack of quality social relationships – typically associated with emotional loneliness – is linked to increases in cardiovascular disease and depression, and is a risk factor for dementia. A reduced social network – largely associated with social loneliness – has been shown to have a high mortality risk in older people, as large as regular smoking or obesity, and is more strongly correlated with a decrease in life span than physical inactivity. A recent survey of older people in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) found that while many older people were attending social events in the community, more than 75% of older people reported that they often feel lonely. This high level of reported loneliness in older people is consistent with reports from many countries. Furthermore, COVID-19 pandemic and the measures introduced to contain it, have most likely had an additional effect on loneliness among older persons.

2. Objectives and scope of the requested services

The objective of the Survey on Loneliness among Older Persons is to gain better understanding of loneliness as a risk factor during ageing. This is a joint initiative between University College London (UCL) and UNFPA to investigate loneliness in older people throughout selected countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), including Kosovo. This survey will specifically examine:

1. the degree to which older people report feeling lonely in different countries,
2. the demographics (gender, age, urban/rural settings, family situation, internet availability, socioeconomic status, etc.)  of lonely people and
3. the factors that contribute to feelings of loneliness.

The results from this survey will enable a better understanding of the extent to which older people are lonely in selected countries in the region, the reasons for loneliness and good practices for tackling loneliness issues. The results will be to inform the development of interventions to contribute to other healthy and active ageing initiatives and address loneliness in older people across the EECA region.

3. Survey Design and Administration

The survey is designed by UCL. The Vendor will be provided with the questionnaire, translated into Albanian and Serbian language, to be administered through face-to-face interview with 1,000 respondents throughout Kosovo, and data will be collected with computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI). The Vendor will be responsible for CAPI software and hardware.

In close collaboration with Kosovo Agency of Statistics (KAS), the Vendor will elaborate a sample design, representative of the Kosovo population of citizens who are over 65 years old, with an equal split between genders, using a multi-stage stratified approach, with stratification by region and by urban or rural areas.

Since confidentiality is of paramount importance, the Vendor should administer the survey, host the survey, process the responses and ensure that survey respondents cannot be identified individually by UCL or UNFPA. Upon completion of the survey administration, the Vendor will submit the clean anonymized data in SPSS format to UCL and UNFPA. 

According to the methodology and questions provided by UCL, the Vendor will also conduct focus group discussions, two (2) sessions with older persons and two (2) sessions with young persons in rural and urban settings. Each focus group should comprise of 5-7 people. The Vendor will submit all the transcripts and data acquired from the focus group discussions and interview to UCL and UNFPA.

The health and safety of older respondents, interviewers and all citizens are of paramount importance. Therefore, the Vendor is requested to observe the COVID-19 pandemic related regulations and measures, and ensure that interviewers are equipped with facemasks and hand disinfectants at all times during their work. Due to Covid-19 epidemiological situation, operational adjustments may be required.

The Vendor will be required to consult and collaborate closely with UCL, UNFPA and Kosovo Agency of Statistics (KAS).

4. Deliverables and timeline

The deliverables expected of the Vendor are as follows:

No	Deliverables	Timeline
1	Provide training to interviewers and test the CAPI software and hardware	13-18 May, 2021
2	Administer the survey with 1,000 respondents	18 May – 18 June, 2021
3	Submit the clean anonymized data in SPSS format to UCL	18 June 2021
4	Conduct focus group discussions with younger (2) and older people (2) in urban and rural areas	9 -27 August, 2021
5	Submit the data (transcripts) to UCL	27 August, 2021

 

5. Timeframe

The assignment shall be conducted during May to August 2021. The deliverables are expected to be submitted according to the above timeline.

3.  Questions

Questions or requests for further clarifications should be submitted in writing to the contact person below:

Name of contact person at UNFPA:	Dea Pallaska O’Shaughnessy
Email address of contact person:	pallaskaoshaughnessy@unfpa.org

 

The deadline for submission of questions is 4 May 2021 at 17:00. Questions will be answered in writing and shared with all parties as soon as possible after this deadline.

4. Content of quotations

Quotations should be submitted in a hard copy. Quotations must contain:

 

1. Technical proposal, in response to the requirements outlined in the service requirements/TORs (one envelope), including:

• copy of the Organization’s registration certificate;
• description of organization profile (Corporate CV), including list of similar surveys conducted (including URL) with brief outline of any studies conducted concerning issues of older persons;
• list of experience working with international development organizations, preferably with the UN agencies, and clients’ portfolio;
• availability to start immediately, train and deploy interviewers – i.e. and fully comply with the above stated timeline; 
• at least 2 references - please indicate email and phone numbers of the contact persons (No need to submit Ref. Letters);
• implementation (work) plan and management plan;
• resumes (CVs) of the key personnel comprising information requested as per the evaluation criteria, including expert(s) who will provide professional expertise on  sample design methodology, oversight of survey administration, database monitoring, etc.;
• written confirmation of commitment to meet the timelines for the deliverables. 

 

     2. Price quotation, to be submitted strictly in accordance with the price quotation form in Euros (one envelope).

5. Instructions for submission

Proposals should be prepared based on the guidelines set forth in Section IV above, along with a properly filled out and signed price quotation form.

Your offer comprising technical proposal and financial proposal, in TWO separate sealed envelopes, clearly indicating RFQ No. as a reference, should be hand-delivered to the following address no later than: 10 May 2021, at 12:00 (noon).

UNFPA office, Zagrebi Str. No.58, Prishtina, 10000

Name of contact person at UNFPA:	Mr. Naim Galica
Email address of contact person:	galica@unfpa.org

 

Please note the following guidelines for submission:

• Bidders must submit proposals/offers in a sealed envelope;
• RFQ reference number UNFPA/KOS/RFQ/2021/005 must be clearly visible on the outside of the envelope;
• The envelope must indicate the name and address of the Bidder. If the outer envelope is not sealed and marked as required, UNFPA will assume no responsibility in the event of Bid misplacement or premature opening.
• Any quotation submitted will be regarded as an offer by the bidder and does not
  constitute or imply the acceptance of any quotation by UNFPA. UNFPA is under no obligation to award a contract to any bidder as a result of this RFQ.

6. Overview of Evaluation Process

Quotations will be evaluated based on the proposal and the total cost of the services (price quote).

The evaluation will be carried out in a two-step process by an ad-hoc evaluation panel. Technical proposals will be evaluated for technical compliance prior to the comparison of price quotes.

Technical Evaluation

Technical proposals will be evaluated based on their responsiveness to the service requirements in Section 2 and in accordance with the evaluation criteria below.

 

Category	Criteria	[A] Maximum Points	[B] Points attained by Bidder	[C] Weight (%)	[B] x [C] = [D] Total Points
Overall response	Completeness of response and overall concord between requirements and proposal.	100		10%
Experience of the company	Expertise in conducting similar surveys including studies concerning issues of older persons	100		25%
	Implementation (work) plan and management plan	100		25%
	Qualifications of the team	100		20%
Delivery time	Meet requested delivery schedule	100		20%
GRAND TOTAL ALL CRITERIA		500		100%

 

The following scoring scale will be used to ensure objective evaluation:

 

Degree to which the Terms of Reference requirements are met based on evidence included in the Bid submitted	Points out of 100
Significantly exceeds the requirements	90 – 100
Exceeds the requirements	80 – 89
Meets the requirements	70 – 79
Partially meets the requirements	1 – 69
Does not meet the requirements or no information provided to assess compliance with the requirements	0

 

Financial Evaluation

Price quotes will be evaluated only for bidders whose technical proposals achieve a minimum score of 70 points per category in the technical evaluation. Price quotes will be evaluated based on their responsiveness to the price quote form. The maximum number of points for the price quote is 100, which will be allocated to the lowest total price provided in the quotation. All other price quotes will receive points in inverse proportion according to the following formula:

 

Financial score =	Lowest quote ($)	X 100 (Maximum score)
	Quote being scored ($)

 

Total score

The total score for each proposal will be the weighted sum of the technical score and the financial score.  The maximum total score is 100 points.

 

Total score = 60% Technical score + 40% Financial score

 

7. Award Criteria

In case of a satisfactory result from the evaluation process, UNFPA intends to award a Professional Service Contract on a fixed-cost basis with duration of 10 days to the Bidder(s) that obtain the lowest-priced technically acceptable offer.

8. Right to Vary Requirements at Time of Award

UNFPA reserves the right at the time of award of contract to increase or decrease, by up to 20%, the volume of services specified in this RFQ without any change in unit prices or other terms and conditions.

9. Payment Terms

UNFPA payment terms are net 30 days upon receipt of invoice and delivery/acceptance of the milestone deliverables linked to payment as specified in the contract.

10. Fraud and Corruption

UNFPA is committed to preventing, identifying, and addressing all acts of fraud against UNFPA, as well as against third parties involved in UNFPA activities. UNFPA’s Policy regarding fraud and corruption is available here:  Fraud Policy. Submission of a proposal implies that the Bidder is aware of this policy.

Suppliers, their subsidiaries, agents, intermediaries and principals must cooperate with UNFPA Office of Audit and Investigations Services as well as with any other oversight entity authorized by the Executive Director and with UNFPA Ethics Advisor as and when required.  Such cooperation shall include, but not be limited to, the following: access to all employees, representatives agents and assignees of the vendor; as well as production of all documents requested, including financial records.  Failure to fully cooperate with investigations will be considered sufficient grounds to allow UNFPA to repudiate and terminate the Agreement, and to debar and remove the supplier from UNFPA's list of registered suppliers.

A confidential Anti-Fraud Hotline is available to any Bidder to report suspicious fraudulent activities at UNFPA Investigation Hotline.

11. Zero Tolerance

UNFPA has adopted a zero-tolerance policy on gifts and hospitality. Suppliers are therefore requested not to send gifts or offer hospitality to UNFPA personnel. Further details on this policy are available here: Zero Tolerance Policy.

12. RFQ Protest

Bidder(s) perceiving that they have been unjustly or unfairly treated in connection with a solicitation, evaluation, or award of a contract may submit a complaint to UNFPA Head of the Office Ms. Visare Mujko-Nimani at nimani@unfpa.org. Should the supplier be unsatisfied with the reply provided by UNFPA Head of the Business Unit, the supplier may contact the Chief, Procurement Services Branch at procurement@unfpa.org.

13. Disclaimer

Should any of the links in this RFQ document be unavailable or inaccessible for any reason, bidders can contact the Procurement Officer in charge of the procurement to request for them to share a PDF version of such document(s).