Rwanda Non-Communicable Diseases Programme: call for proposals

Introduction

The Scottish Government (SG) wishes to commission an organisation (the grant holder) with international development expertise in noncommunicable diseases, to undertake the scoping, design, delivery and ongoing management of a new palliative care focused programme on Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) in Rwanda, as part of the International Development Fund (IDF), for a 3 year programme with option of a further year pending programming success.

The successful grant holder is required to deliver a programme to improve palliative care services at the community level in Rwanda, delivered in line with PEN^[1] and PEN Plus ^[2] methodology at the community level. If successful the programme will create a significant impact for patients requiring palliative care in Rwanda, while the findings should provide evidence which is of relevance across developing countries. Input from the SG will be given as required. The grant holder is expected to submit an inception report outlining the programme following SG and partner country review and approval, and then deliver the project.

The grant holder will be required to design and validate any tools used to analyse the project, and separately provide a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) framework that will be used to assess success of the programme throughout its lifespan, separate to the Results.

The successful candidate will be required to mainstream gender equality (see Annex D) and ensure a partner-led approach throughout all aspects of the programme. As part of the SG’s new approach within its Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend, we are seeking to apply the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) gender equality policy marker scoring to all new funding (OECD, 2023).^[3]

This Health focused International Development Programme in Rwanda is a new programme under the IDF. The overall aim of the NCD Health Programme is to increase financial and political engagement and commitment for the prevention, diagnosis and management of NCDs. In Rwanda the aim is to deliver a programme to improve community palliative care services by building on the PEN and PEN Plus platforms. The NCD Health Programme will take a participatory approach to increasing access to locally led quality NCD care in SG partner countries (Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia), in a way that reduces health inequalities and builds institutional resilience in our African partner country health systems, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 (UN SDG3) on good health and wellbeing.

In line with the SGs International Development Principles, commitments to ‘do no harm’, and to be Global South-led, we are seeking a grant holder to design and deliver the International Development Programme on NCDs in Rwanda taking a participatory approach. The programme design, delivery, and evaluation processes will involve meaningful participation from a diverse range of stakeholders, including marginalised groups (e.g. participants from a range of different: ages, sexual orientations, socio-economic backgrounds, religions, rural and urban areas, those living with disabilities) and will consider conflict sensitivity in all aspects of programme design and delivery