Request for Proposal: USSD & SMS Gateway Services – Girl Effect International

Who We Are Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media that girls want, trust and need. From chatbots to chat shows and TV dramas to tech, our content helps adolescent girls in Africa, and Asia make choices and changes in their lives. We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts and answering questions about health, nutrition, education, and relationships, empowering girls with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible “for a girl”.

Our reach is 50 million and counting. And we’re using technology to reach girls at scale so every girl can choose to be in control of her body, her health, her learning and her livelihood.

Because when a girl unlocks her power to make different choices that change her life, it inspires others to do so too. She starts a ripple effect that impacts her family, community, and country.

That’s the Girl Effect.

Background

For over a decade, we have been building technology that aims to create a safer and more accessible world for women and girls, using the insights and experiences girls share with us.

As technology evolves and girls’ habits change, we continuously strive to adapt and improve the platforms, processes, and infrastructure that underpin everything we do.

In Kenya, many girls lack access to comprehensive SRHR services due to social, cultural, and economic barriers. These barriers include a lack of information, stigma, discrimination, and financial constraints. In addition, many girls face challenges in accessing traditional healthcare services due to distance, transportation costs, and limited healthcare infrastructure.

Objective

The objective of this project is to provide girls in Kenya with accessible and comprehensive information about SRHR services through a chatbot-based service directory. The service directory will be accessible via the native USSD service widely used in Kenya.

Our organization is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to develop a chatbot-based service directory for girls in Kenya in need of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services. The service directory will use the native USSD service to provide accessible and comprehensive information to girls needing SRHR services.

The Scope

• Design and Support
  • Provide guidance and best practices for using USSD for the target audience.
  • Develop an intuitive and user-friendly interface that users can easily access and navigate via a menu-based experience with up to 20-30 message sets.
• Technical Development
• Develop a chatbot-based service directory for girls in Kenya needing SRHR services accessible via the native USSD service.
• Design and implement the technical interface to the USSD interface
• Application for USSD Shortcode and maintenance of code.
• SMS Marketing campaigns to an existing segmented database of users.
• Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) integration, integration maintenance, and negotiated USSD and SMS rates.
• Provide technical support and maintenance for interface to the USSD interface.
• Create documentation for the USSD interface integration
• Content management System to update flow structure or content. Girl Effect currently uses Rapid Pro a flow building software. We give preference to the use of Rapid Pro.
• Date Export or Data Integration with Girl Effect technology systems and data warehousing.
• Data Protection and Security in Compliance with local regulations and GDPR.
• Outbound calling capabilities for telemedicine services.

Expected Deliverables

The selected vendor will provide the following service (where applicable):

• Set up and licensing of shortcode and activation across all mobile network operators.
• Engage with Mobile Network Operators for the release of a unique 2 way reverse-billable short code for GE’s exclusive use for GE and partner programming.
• Activation of the shortcode.
• Management and maintenance of the shortcode for GE.
• Provide incoming and outgoing SMS services for toll-free shortcodes licensed to GE, relevant services and an appropriate billing system.
• Provide incoming and outgoing SMS service (pull/push) on all shortcodes licensed to GE or its implementing partners on reverse billing service.
• Provide USSD gateway hosting service and integrate with all MNOs.
• Provide an SMS tagline if requested. Tagline appears at the end of an SMS and uses up 17 characters of the 160 characters available per SMS.
• Provide customized ringtone service.
• Masking of sender
• Technical Support
  • Provide quick technical support shall there be any technical emergency or system failures.
  • Service outage and failure alerts system.
  • Proactive system monitoring of service quality, reliability, success rate and delivery time.

Who You Are:

Experience and infrastructure

• The bidder should have at least 5 years of experience designing IVR and USSD experiences.
• The bidder should have at least 5 years of experience negotiating and securing toll-free shortcodes in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Prior work experience providing services to Development agencies is an asset.
• Proven capacity to support licensing and activation process of a new short code.

Location

The consultancy must be conducive to working with teams in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia, the UK, the USA, and India.

Intended Timeframe

• Terms of reference published: May 10, 2023
• Questions/Clarification Deadline: May 15th 2023
• Deadline for proposal submission: May 22nd, 2023
• Project Commencement: June 2023

Reporting

This position will be managed by Girl Effect’s Kenya Program & Product Lead, who will work with the successful consultant to ensure its timely and thorough execution.

Reporting Requirements

The selected service provider should be able to provide the following reports:

• Technical Report on the setup of the SMPP, API, SIP and gateway service and integration with MNO.
• Provide delivery reports in the prescribed format if required by Girl Effect.
• Provide suitable means such as website/portal/tool for generating reports and should also have an option for showing the current status of messages and availability of services.
• The bidder should be able to provide daily statistics with auto-generated mail if requested to the email account given by Girl Effect.
• The bidder should be able to provide SMS, Voice SMS, and USSD in CSV or Excel file
• The monthly statistics for each separate short code for SMS delivery in the following format:
  • Date
  • Total SMS received
  • Total SMS delivered successfully
  • Total failed/expired SMS
  • Total SMS for which delivery report not received
  • Total invalid and DND
• The monthly statistics for each separate short code for voice calls in the following format:
  • Date
  • Total calls received
  • Total calls delivered successfully
  • Total failed calls
• Monthly inbound and outbound traffic reports, including separate data per network and short code, successful vs. failed messages, up/downtime of services and gateways and failure response mechanisms.

Proposal Submission

Interested consultants are asked to submit the following to support their candidature (Max 5-10 pages):

Technical Proposal

• Your understanding of the brief and why you feel you are well-placed to advise us on this
• Credentials/Profile/CV – Please showcase any previous work that you consider relevant to what we are trying to achieve and how we approach our work, and the audience we cater to. Describe the qualifications, experience, and capabilities of the firm or consultant in providing the requested services.
• Solution Design and Deployment
• Reference -Provide at least three references for similar contracts with a description of the service provided, the value of the contract, and the contract periods of performance.

Financial Proposal

• Breakdown of Costs with applicable taxes and other charges clearly identified in USD. Additional pricing options or modalities for consideration.
• All applicable taxes should be quoted separately.

Technical and Financial proposals will need to be submitted as separate documents. Financial bids will not be opened until the technical evaluation and then only for those proposals deemed qualified and responsive.

In their technical proposal, the bidder must demonstrate an understanding of the requirements described in the RFP and demonstrate how the bidder will meet the requirements of the evaluation criteria.

GE is not liable for any cost incurred during the award/contract preparation, submission, or negotiation of the award/contract. All submitted documentation and/or materials shall become and remain the property of GE.

VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for 90 days from the date of bid closure.

Evaluation Criteria

The criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are listed below:

Technical Evaluation

• Interpretation and understanding of this TOR – 10%
• Organization Profile-40%
  1. Organisation’s experience and reputation with similar work-10%
  2. Technical capacity and Knowledge in the field-10%
  3. Team member profiles and experience as demonstrated in their CV/Profile-10%
  4. Demonstrate geographic experience Kenya-5%
  5. Evidence of at least three contactable references – 5%
• Solution Design and deployment-20%
  1. Implementation strategy-5%
  2. Detailed methodology-5%
  3. Risk Management approach-5%
  4. Workplan with associated timeframes-5%

Financial Evaluation

• Value for money/proposed budget breakdown – 30%

Equal Opportunities

Girl Effect is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity, or expression. We are proud to be an equal-opportunity workplace.

We are committed to building an organization that is truly representative of the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy services of organizations and individuals with a deep understanding and experience of our programming markets and diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.

Safeguarding

You may be required to undertake safeguarding checks. Shortlisted consultants will be assessed on our organizational values at the interview stage. The successful consultant will be expected to adhere to our safeguarding policy. We encourage you to read and understand our safeguarding policy, the executive summary of which can be found here. We have zero tolerance for all forms of violence against children, beneficiaries, and staff.

Tax

Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position with regard to provisions of their local jurisdiction tax legislation when developing their proposals.

Disclaimer

GE reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, the number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice, and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party. GE shall inform the ONLY successful applicant(s). The process of negotiation and signing of the contract with the successful applicant(s) will follow.

Safeguarding

You may be required to undertake safeguarding checks. Shortlisted consultants will be assessed on our organizational values at the interview stage. The successful consultant will be expected to adhere to our safeguarding policy. We encourage you to read and understand our safeguarding policy, the executive summary of which can be found here. We have zero tolerance for all forms of violence against children, beneficiaries and staff.

Equal Opportunities

Girl Effect Services is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal-opportunity workplace.

We are committed to building an organization that is increasingly representative of and works extensively with the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy service organizations and individuals with diverse professional, academic and cultural