Support to the Kingdom of Eswatini Government Condom Program led by the Ministry of Health | RFI 674 20 00002

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFI 674 20 00002

This opportunity is a USAID/Southern Africa Request for Information (RFI) focused on strengthening and supporting the Kingdom of Eswatini Ministry of Health (MOH) National Condom Program. It is not a grant competition or an application call, and it does not commit the U.S. Government to issue funding now or later. The point of the RFI is planning: USAID is trying to map the landscape of organizations that can realistically support condom programming in Eswatini, especially around public-sector (free) condom distribution and promotion, while also helping the commercial condom market grow for long-term sustainability.

The national context behind the RFI is Eswatini's National Condom Strategy (2018-2022), which sets a five-year goal to expand access to quality, affordable male and female condoms for all sexually active people, as part of preventing HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, and unintended pregnancies. The program sits under the MOH Sexual and Reproductive Health Unit and is integrated into the Family Planning Program. It is also guided by a technical working group that includes government, civil society, private sector, and development partners who help with planning, coordination, quantification, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. At the time of the notice, about 90 percent of public-sector condoms were being procured with U.S. Government funding through PEPFAR, with the remaining share supported by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Operationally, condom distribution is split across key systems and partners. Central Medical Stores (CMS) distributes condoms to health facilities and some civil society partners, who then distribute to priority populations. In parallel, a U.S. Government-funded effort implemented by Population Services International (PSI) distributes condoms through retail outlets, NGOs, and other partners. The MOH has a stated vision to take over procurement responsibility for public-sector condoms and to centralize condom storage at the national CMS, which implies a shift toward more government-owned supply chain stewardship. On the demand side, the RFI notes that condom promotion is currently not well-structured and tends to be partner-driven, with the most consistent promotion occurring through health facility counseling (often linked to family planning services) and youth-oriented category branding.

A major theme in USAID's framing is sustainability and market shaping. Free government-supported condoms account for roughly 90 percent of the condom market, while the commercial sector supplies around 10 percent. USAID and the MOH describe a need to grow the commercial share for people who can afford to buy condoms, while better targeting free condoms to those who cannot. This is positioned as a way to protect equitable access, reduce long-term dependency on donor procurement, and ensure commodity security over time. USAID's future support is described as continuing a transition toward a more sustainable, equitable, market-based approach that includes male and female condoms as well as lubricants, with a particular emphasis on youth and men, and on improving correct and consistent condom use rather than distribution alone.

The RFI outlines the types of activities that PEPFAR and USAID envision supporting going forward. These include continued public-sector condom procurement, improving forecasting and quantification for procurement decisions, fully integrating public-sector condoms into CMS, strengthening MOH stewardship of the National Condom Program, and developing a more robust distribution and tracking system for free condoms. It also highlights an explicit intention to improve and coordinate condom promotion and demand creation based on ongoing understanding of user behavior, perceived availability, and consumer preferences. Another key element is supporting a market development approach that encourages private and commercial actors to expand marketing and distribution of condoms and lubricants and to propose innovative ways to increase condom use.

In terms of what USAID is asking from the market through this RFI, the agency wants corporate capability statements from qualified local, regional, and international organizations that can contribute to several core areas: strengthening MOH leadership, management, coordination, and data use for the condom program; supporting the national distribution system for public-sector free condoms from the national level down to sub-regional levels and outlets beyond health facilities; supporting evidence-based promotion for targeted free condoms (including category branding); and facilitating market access and growth for the commercial and private condom sector. USAID is essentially looking for organizations with demonstrated supply chain and last-mile distribution capability, along with demand creation and market development skills, and experience partnering with host governments.

Submissions were required to be short and structured: a maximum of five pages, submitted electronically in Word or PDF, using 12-point font. Organizations were asked not to submit applications or resumes, and to avoid proprietary information. The capability statement needed to cover experience promoting and distributing condoms or similar commodities, including experience improving distribution systems with governments; the types of products distributed; annual distribution volumes; how distribution works from national to sub-national and to the last mile; and the organization's capacity to operate at national and sub-national scale. USAID stated that responses would be kept confidential, that it would not answer questions submitted under the RFI, and that it could retain and use the information for planning.

Administrative details in the notice identify the opportunity as RFI 674-20-00002, issued by USAID Pretoria (USAID/Southern Africa), with unrestricted eligibility. The closing date for submissions was February 18, 2020 at 8:00 a.m. Pretoria time, by email only, with specific subject line instructions and two listed recipient email addresses. The notice also emphasizes several standard RFI disclaimers: participation is voluntary, costs are not reimbursed, responses provide no advantage in future procurement, and a future Request for Applications might be announced later through Grants.gov and local or USAID channels, but is not guaranteed.

• The South Africa USAID-Pretoria in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Support to the Kingdom of Eswatini Government Condom Program led by the Ministry of Health" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 98.001.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2020-01-30.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-02-18. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $700,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

Apply for RFI 674 20 00002

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