Request for Proposal: Consultant for Design and Implementation of Health Sector Data Lakehouse for the Ministry of Health

I. INSTRUCTIONS

• Results for Development (R4D) is the prime implementer of the Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator (HSS Accelerator). R4D in partnership with the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Ghana (through the Research, Statistics, and Information Management Directorate of the Ministry of Health), invites interested parties to submit applications to design and implement a data repository platform with the capability to communicate with and access data from the various data systems of the Ministry’s agencies within the health sector in Ghana. The platform is to enable the Ministry to ingest, store, analyze, provide access and disseminate health sector data using various analytics, visualization, and dissemination technologies for the health sector.
• Interested parties may apply as a single institution or as a consortium.
• The duration of this award is expected to be approximately 90 days with an anticipated start date of 1st April 2023. The exact duration of the consultancy will be based on the technical scope and schedule of performance negotiated with the selected applicant and specified in the contract.
• Applications should be directly responsive to all items, terms, and specifications referred to in this RFP. Incomplete applications or those missing mandatory documentation may not be considered.
• Applications should be submitted in English. Quotes should be made in both Ghana Cedis and US Dollars (USD) using rate on this link at time of submission https://www1.oanda.com/currency/converter/
• Applications should be submitted electronically no later than 17:00 GMT on 1st March 2023 to AcceleratorGhana@r4d.orgusing “Submission- Design and development of National Health Data Lakehouse for the Ministry of Health of Ghana”.
• Any questions or clarifications regarding this RFP can be addressed via email to AcceleratorGhana@r4d.org until 20th February 2023.
• All submissions expected no later than 17:00 GMT on the due date. 


The winning applicant will work closely with the HSS Accelerator Ghana project team in Accra and the Research, Statistics, and Information Management Directorate of the Ministry of Health to carry out activities listed in Section II of this document.


Please be advised that this solicitation does not obligate R4D to award a contract. R4D reserves the right to award any resultant contract pursuant to this RFP to an entity other than the applicant submitting the lowest price application based on technical, quality, or schedule superiority. At any time before the submission of applications, R4D may, for any reason, whether at their own initiative or in response to a clarification requested by an invited institution, amend the RFP or extend the deadline for the submission of applications. Any changes shall be communicated by email. The contract will be contingent upon a review by a Technical Review Committee. Applicants will be contacted in line with the timelines listed on page 1 of this document.


All communications regarding this RFP should be addressed via email to AcceleratorGhana@r4d.org

II. TERMS OF REFERENCE

• 2.1    Program Background
The Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator (HSS Accelerator) is a global initiative funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that is working with countries to strengthen local institutions, processes, and expertise to accelerate progress towards self-reliant health systems. In Ghana, the HSS Accelerator is supporting the Government of Ghana (GoG) and other local actors to ensure adequate and efficient use of health sector resources to achieve Ghana’s vision of health for all. 


The GoG has reaffirmed its commitment to Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as a signatory to the UHC 2030 Global Compact and is spearheading the “Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All.” The Ministry of Health (MoH) has developed a UHC Roadmap to guide the process for Ghana to achieve its vision of health for all by 2030. The UHC Roadmap identifies strengthening health information systems and establishing the culture of data driven decision making as   key strategies to attaining the goals of quality universal health coverage.


The Ministry of Health through the Research, Statistics and Information Management Directorate is mandated to maintain a sector wide health databank/repository in addition to conducting research into policy and strategy options for effective decision-making. This mandate also includes compiling and applying advanced analytics on sector-wide data and using innovative research to support the development and review of policies, plans, regulations, standards, programs, and projects of the health sector. It also leads in creating the appropriate strategies to coordinate the production of statistical data and analytic reports for the health sector while disseminating information on the Ministry’s priorities, policies, activities, and procedures as well as providing a mechanism for receiving feedback on health sector policies and programs.


The Health Sector further recognizes the need for quality information as an essential part of the health planning, management, and policy development processes. However, investments for creating the enabling environment, building infrastructure and capacity for health information management remain limited and uncoordinated. The absence of interoperability standards has also resulted in limited interoperability between diverse agency electronic systems, leading to very little information sharing among agencies; thus, negatively affecting informed decision-making. Therefore, the HSS Accelerator supported the Ministry of Health to develop Health Information Systems Strategic Plan. This strategic plan seeks to set out the governance systems, the implementation and integration plans that will facilitate improved collection, analysis, access, and use of comprehensive quality health data across all the agencies of the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders. The proposed structure of the health information system plan includes transmitting health data generated from services delivery, regulatory, purchasing (health financing) and training institutions in the health sector to a national level database.
 
The Ministry of Health intends to establish a National Health Database that will have content and functional integration of various health data sources with the capacity to produce a comprehensive, coherent, and up-to-date overview of the health sector. The National Health Databasewill serve as the repository of extensive information and evidence on Ghana’s health systems and will play a key role in monitoring the implementation and evaluation of national health strategies, plans, programs, and the delivery of quality services to the people of Ghana.  It is expected to provide the single source of truth of verified health data, statistics, and information assembled on one platform, covering all the health system building blocks and health strategies which will be readily accessible to all users and in appropriate form as they require it.


To this end, HSS Accelerator and the Ministry of Health are seeking consultancy services to implement the health sector data database to serve as the repository for a comprehensive health data.   The database is expected to interface with information systems deployed in all agencies of the Ministry of Health, communities, citizens, and other stakeholders.  It will have a modular structure that can easily be customized to the different requirements of the Ministry of Health that can support advanced analyses at different levels of the health system.


2.2   Objectives
The objective of this assignment is to ensure the setup of the data repository infrastructure at the Ministry of Health that will ensure a low-cost, timely and successful establishment, ingestion and updating of the health sector data systems with data from all agencies and other MDAs, regularly at relevant granularity and scope that will ensure greater use and serve the information/data needs of the Ministry.


The specific objectives for setting up the national health data lake include:
•  Implement a comprehensive health sector data repository using open-source technologies.
•  Provide infrastructure to support the establishment of data-driven decision-making in the health sector.
•  Support data governance programs and drive the establishment of data-driven culture for decision-making in the health sector.
•  Implement extensive training programs on the maintenance and use of the national database for all levels of managers.


2.3   Specific tasks to be accomplished by the consultant include the following:
• Undertake detailed conceptual, logical and physical design using the system specification design to be produced by the Ministry of Health.
• Identify and document health sector metadata and standard operating procedures for automated population and update the National Health Database.
• Develop data ingestion pipelines to extract, transform and load data from MoH agencies to the National Health Database
• Implement inbound ingestion pipelines to populate and update the health sector data repository and outbound data pipelines to share data from the National Health Database with visualizations with stakeholders.
• Install a hybrid cloud platform for the health sector data repository on the premises of the MoH and an on online cloud platform.
• Implement an interactive highly customizable data visualization portal for consumption by stakeholders especially within the health sector and partners.
• Provide data infrastructure to generate and track all indicators pertaining to programs and policies in the health sector.
• Implement an interactive highly customizable open-source GIS portal with geospatial analysis features for both macro and micro planning. This should be able to interoperate with the agency database.
• Design and mockup of the data repository for the Ministry of Health to beta test and provide feedback. The design should be based on technology and interoperability standards utilized currently within the Ministry of Health.
• Internal testing/troubleshooting of the system within the Research, Statistics, and Information Management Directorate of the Ministry of Health.
• System field testing and validation with the participation of at least 6 agencies of the Ministry of Health
• System improvement and finalization based on feedback from a select facility/district testing/troubleshooting.
• Build capacity of Research, Statistics and Information Management Directorate of the Ministry of Health staff and other directorates of MoH on the use of the national health database
• Develop performance monitoring tool. Utilize the critical measurable elements of the standards and other key indicators as required by the Research, Statistics, and Information Management Directorate of the Ministry of Health to develop a performance measurement dashboard for monitoring health facilities' performance.
• Any other tasks as requested by the Ministry of Health or HSS Accelerator to support the digitization process of the tools and standards.




2.4   Utility
The MoH database infrastructure will serve as the single source of truth for cleaned data in the health sector and will be administered at the Ministry of Health. It will contain data from all the Agencies and function as the source for both local and international reporting requirements of the Ministry and the country. The Ministry of Health data database will center around a metadata layer that adds transactions, versioning, and auxiliary data structures over files in an open format and will have the capability of being queried. The Ministry will be using a hybrid architecture platform to manage the operations of the national data repository. This hybrid architecture will involve the setup and installation of additional server capacity within the Ministry of Health headquarters premises and a public-facing online cloud platform to facilitate easy access and transmission of data via data pipelines. 


Relevant data will be transmitted to the national health data repository based on MoH metadata definitions implemented as a transactional metadata layer.  The ingestion Data pipelines will be set up to enable the collection, flow, and delivery of data from Ministry of Health Agencies and will involve the filtering, cleaning, and aggregation, enriching and sometimes analyses of data in motion. For the national health database, data will be transmitted via batch processing, with batches of data from agencies moved from agency or source systems to the MoH database on a regularly scheduled basis. Data to be transmitted through the pipelines will include structured, semi-structured and unstructured data from all potential sources in the health sector.
To ensure the successful deployment of these modern data transmission systems that will support the making of faster and better health decisions, the pipelines to be developed will have the following features.
1.     Real-time data processing and analytics
2.     Scalable cloud and on-premises architecture
3.     Fault Tolerant architecture
4.     Exactly once processing
5.     Self-service management
6.     Process high volume of data
7.     Streamlined data pipeline development.


2.5   Deliverables
The consultant will be expected to complete the following deliverables:
• Schema of data flow as outlined in the section on “utility” developed.
• Design and develop data repositories using open-source big data storage platforms capable of scaling at a reduced cost.
• Design and develop an analytic engine for national health information. This should involve the capability to use modern analytics techniques such as the use of natural language processing, machine learning and other data science techniques.
• Design and develop data ingestion pipelines using existing open-source technologies.
• Installation of developed systems on MoH servers using container technologies to allow for multiple production instances. In addition, a test server will be installed for training and testing purposes.
• Plan for post-service support for 6 months on an as needed Training and Management basis.
• Develop performance monitoring module for the data repository.
• Design and develop a web and mobile module for managing health sector metadata. This will become the base for the metadata layer for the MoH repository management.
• Design and develop a comprehensive, highly interactive, and highly customizable data visualization capable of linking data from multiple sources used over multiple years.
• Develop a comprehensive training curriculum and content designed using instructional design methods to allow the use of digital learning.
• Completion of training and submission of a training report on Research, Statistics and Information Management Directorate of the Ministry of Health staff and other users trained on the new system.


2.6   Supervision
The consultant will work closely with the Research, Statistics, and Information Management Directorate of the Ministry of Health and HSS Accelerator to execute the consultancy. He/she will report directly to the Director, Research, Statistics, and Information Management Directorate of the Ministry of Health or his assigned representative, and the HSS Accelerator Country Director or her assigned representative.
The consultant will have bi-weekly check-in with the Research, Statistics, and Information Management Directorate of the Ministry of Health and HSS Accelerator to assess the progress of work and address any challenges encountered during implementation.
He/she will be expected to collaborate with the Research, Statistics, and Information Management Directorate of the Ministry of Health to ensure integration with existing systems.
2.7   Qualification
• The consultant/vendor and/ or firm must have expertise in data engineering and skills in data systems integration with a minimum of 7 - 10 years of experience in development and/ or deployment for data ingestion pipelines using opens source technologies, big data platform development, interoperability technologies, and related disciplines.
• Advanced development and technical skills that include:
• Coding: Proficiency in coding languages including SQL, NoSQL, Python, Java, R, and Scala.
• advanced skills in both relational and non-relational databases
• Advanced skills in ETL (extract, transform, and load) systems:
• Advanced skills in big data storage
• Automation and scripting: should be able to write scripts to automate repetitive tasks.
• Machine learning
• Data tools: advanced skills in Apache Kafka, Spark, Beat, Airflow, and others
• Cloud computing: advanced knowledge in cloud storage and cloud computing
• Data security

III. PROPOSAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

• The proposals should be submitted in the English language. The application should include a cover page, listed mandatory documents, and may include some supplementary documents, in line with the specifications provided below: 


3.1 Cover Page – Must contain the applicant's name and contact information (s) as well as a presentation of its proposed staffing model. 


3.2 Mandatory Documentation


• Technical Application (8 pages maximum) – The technical application must contain an overview of the technical approach and design that the applicant(s) will employ to produce deliverables outlined in section 2.5 of this RFP; this should include the timelines required to complete activities. A general description of the techniques approaches and methods to be used in completing the project, detailing the approach in undertaking the task.
• Firm: a brief description of the history and organization of the bidder’s firm, and of any proposed subcontractor. A list of individuals in the firm that would work on this project.
• Copies of business licenses, professional certifications, or other credentials, together with evidence that the bidder, if a corporation, is in good standing and qualified to conduct business in Ghana.  
• Performance Portfolio Report – A description of at least two (2) similar projects completed by the bidder within the past three (3) years, to demonstrate experience and technical excellence in carrying out the scope of work. Include dates of engagement and personal references with contact information for each of the listed projects. 
• Resumes or Certification of the individual or organization, including qualifications, background, and experience of the project staff proposed to work on the project. 
• A description of the chronology for completing the work, including timelines and deadlines for each task, describing clearly how long it will take to complete each task outlined in Section II of this RFP including post management support plan.


The technical application must contain a section on capacity building, demonstrating the applicant’s approach to capacity transfer.


3.2.1       Financial Application – The financial application must be submitted in both Ghana Cedis and US Dollars (USD) using this link https://www1.oanda.com/currency/converter/ for currency conversion, and should contain the following components for all the deliverables of the project:
Budget – outline the unit and total costs associated with the provision of the service.
Budget Narrative (5 pages maximum) – explain budget estimates for each line item of the financial proposal and a rationale from which they were derived.

IV. SELECTION CRITERIA & PROCESS

• Applications will be evaluated in terms of both demonstrated competence and cost in accordance with the following criteria and relative weights to the maximum score of 100 points.
• Price (25%) - the financial application will be evaluated for its cost competitiveness and realistic depiction of cost components.
• Demonstrated Experience (25%) – the extent to which the applicant has the requisite level of experience to successfully carry out the scope of work described in section II of this RFP.
• Quality of services proposed (40%) – Innovative and strategic to deliver beyond requirement without compromising on cost and quality.
• Delivery and Payment (10%) –Bidder provides the most advantageous delivery schedule and most flexible payment terms.