Request for Applications: Calling for Innovative Health Programs

• ACA Communications
• February 3, 2014
• CHMI

Request for Applications

A Celebration of Kenyan Healthcare Innovations: Highlighting, Celebrating and Connecting for Improved Health Outcomes

Date of Issuance: Thursday, 30^th January, 2014

Due Date: Saturday 15^th February, 2014 (17: 00 hours – GMT +3)

Applications shall be submitted by email ONLY to:

Download the Application Form Template here

1. INTRODUCTION

The Centre for Health Markets Innovations (CHMI) promotes programs, policies and practices that make quality health care delivered by private organizations affordable and accessible to the world’s poor. Managed by Results for Development, CHMI works through a network of Regional Partners in countries such as India, Pakistan, Kenya, the Philippines, and Nigeria. CHMI receives support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and UKaid.

Through its global work, CHMI has identified over 150 healthcare innovations in Kenya. Kenya is second only to India in the number of innovations per country that CHMI profiles, with more innovations being added all the time. Please visit to see profiles of Kenyan healthcare innovations.

CHMI’s regional partner in East Africa, Africa Capacity Alliance (ACA), is issuing this request for applications with the aim of highlighting and celebrating innovative health programs implemented by the private sector, ultimately connecting them with policy makers, funders, other innovators and consumers. ACA will carry out a series of activities in Kenya to achieve this goal. These activities will provide innovators with opportunities to showcase their healthcare models and trigger discussions on scaling health care innovations in Kenya.

This Request for Applications (RFA) serves to announce that ACA is soliciting applications from health market innovators who are interested in participating in the aforementioned activities, which are described in additional detail below.

This announcement describes the RFA’s objectives including the technical areas of focus, the selection process, eligibility and evaluation. It also provides information on process, application requirements, and other relevant information.

2. Activities

Highlights of the activities to which successful applicants will have access include:

• - The 3rd East African Healthcare Federation Conference

The objective of the East Africa Healthcare Federation Conference is to increase opportunities, collaboration and innovation in the private health sector in order to improve overall health outcomes throughout the East African region.  Twelve successful applicants will be sponsored to attend the conference.  At the conference innovators will have the opportunity to:

1. i. Exhibit: Innovators will be able to showcase their products, innovations and initiatives to conference participants derived from a wide range of interest groups including experts, development partners, investors, other programs and academia. Successful applicants will be supported to prepare the necessary exhibit materials.
2. ii. Learn: Innovators will have the opportunity to hear from experts on topical issues, such as healthcare financing, human resources for health, developments in ICT, public-private partnerships, supply chain management and standards and regulation across national borders. They will also learn about opportunities in the East African private health sector, and existing business opportunities.
3. iii. Network: Innovators will have multiple structured and unstructured opportunities to network and connect with other conference participants and to form partnerships that will improve their business and overall health services in the region.
4. iv. Recognition: During the conference, a panel of experts shall identify, from the twelve successful applicants, three who demonstrate the highest potential for program scale-up and impact on healthcare outcomes. These three innovators shall receive a special award and recognition during the conference gala dinner.

• Workshop

In the month of April, a one-day workshop with Kenyan healthcare policy makers will be organized for innovators that participated in the conference. Specifically, innovators will:

• i. Interact with policy makers and discuss ways of working together to strengthen health systems and services;
• ii. Create action plans for continued linkages and enhanced dialogue.

3. ELIGIBILITY

The call for programs is open to programs and institutions in Kenya which meet the following criteria:

• i. Have a pro-poor health focus;
• ii. Demonstrate an innovative approach to providing affordable, quality healthcare to the poor;
• iii. Have demonstrated the capacity and or the potential to increase access to healthcare or to improve quality of care;
• iv. Demonstrate potential for sustainability and/or replicability at a wider scale;
• v. Have a well-defined business model that employs one or more of the five market improving mechanisms identified by CHMI: Organizing Delivery, Financing Care, Regulating Performance, Changing Behaviors and Enhancing Processes;
• vi. Have an up-to-date program profile in CHMI’s online global database of innovative health programs (to create a profile, please visit:
• vii. Have been operational for at least six months.

Although technology-driven programs are eligible to apply, programs do not necessarily have to be technology-driven.  They may also be product or process-oriented programs that have resulted in new and more effective approaches, tools, behaviors, methods, etc.

4. APPLICATION SUBMISSION AND SELECTION

Applications must be submitted by 17:00 East African Time (GMT +3) on 15th February 2014.  Both successful and unsuccessful applicants will be notified of the outcome by 17th February 2014.  A maximum of twelve innovators will be chosen.

Summary of timeline:

NB: Selected Programs will be provided with logistical support for meetings including travel and accommodation as necessary

5. APPLICATION INFORMATION

All interested applicants must submit their applications in English. The application should include all of the information as requested in the provided template (Annex 1) and in the format described under section D below. Applications submitted in any format other than the prescribed format will be deemed non-responsive and will not be reviewed.  ACA/CHMI will convene a technical review panel to evaluate applications in keeping with the standards established below.

I. Timing
Applications must be received by ACA no later than close of business (17:00 EAT) on 15th February 2014. It is not anticipated that late applications will be reviewed. However, ACA reserves the right to consider any application for review at its discretion.

II. Evaluation Process
ACA/CHMI will conduct a compliance review of each application for basic responsiveness to the instructions in this call for programs. Upon completion of the compliance review, all compliant applications will be subjected to a technical review by a technical review panel made up of representatives from ACA and other key expert stakeholders. All technical reviewers will be subjected to a screening process to eliminate any conflict of interest.

III. Evaluation Criteria
The critical areas that will guide the evaluation of the applications focus on the overall quality and impact of the program. During the evaluation process, the following criteria will be applied uniformly across the applications.

• i. Impact: (Maximum: 25 points). The innovation has achieved sustainability, or has good prospects for replicability or scalability. It is not location-specific, i.e., it is not dependent on a special, fixed advantage such as geography, cultural practice, personal charisma of the leader, or any other nonreplicable characteristics. It can be prototyped, which means that the idea, design, business process, or organization can be adopted elsewhere, thus ensuring significant impact. If the innovation is in the area of policy, it must have a profound impact on production or consumption of health services (e.g., generics law, reform in provider payment system of a large social health insurance fund). The innovation affects many agents or principals, with the overall effect deemed to be positive for society overall.
• ii. Pro-poor. (Maximum: 25 points). The innovation must be oriented primarily to the needs of lower income groups. It must be preferentially oriented to meeting the health needs of people who are currently experiencing access problems (due to distance, financial constraints, social exclusion, etc.). The innovation could be purely for-profit, provided it offers a service or product that is affordable, of good quality, and of good value-for-money.
• iii. Innovative. (Maximum: 25 points). The innovation must be interesting, exciting, pioneering, path-breaking, or trailblazing. It must be truly different or bold. It challenges conventional wisdom. If the innovation is a public/private partnership, it should bring out the best in the private and the public sectors. Although it may be of modest size at present, the innovation is likely to have a significant demonstration or ripple effect, if it gets to be known more widely.
• iv. Health systems strengthening. (Maximum: 25 points). The innovation addresses one or multiple institutional problems of the country’s health sector. It must have initiatives and strategies that improve one or more of the functions of the health system and that leads to better health through improvements in access, coverage, quality, or efficiency including provision and financing of health services.

Summary of evaluation criteria:

B. Question and Answer Period
Interested applicants may submit questions concerning this call for programs by email only to by 10th February 2014. No questions will be answered via telephone. Answers to all questions will be posted at: no later than 11th February 2014.

Please note that no assistance will be provided by any ACA/CHMI staff to any program for the preparation of applications. No requests for meetings or telephone calls related to this call for concept papers with any ACA/CHMI staff will be accepted during the application process. Prospective applicants are encouraged to respond to the call for programs in accordance with the guidelines provided.

C. Application Submission
Deadline for Submission: ACA must receive your application no later than 15th February 2014 (17: 00 hours EAT – GMT +3). It is not anticipated that late applications will be reviewed. However, ACA reserves the right to consider any application for review at its discretion.

Submission Process:

Applications must be submitted via email to the . Submissions should be saved as a single PDF file. ACA will acknowledge receipt to applicants within 2 days of receipt of an application. All applications received by the deadline will be evaluated for responsiveness to the call’s requirements and compliance with preparation guidelines provided below. Applications that are non-responsive to any of the below criteria will not be considered for further review.

Each full application must include the elements described in the application guideline to be considered responsive. Applicants are instructed NOT to submit superfluous materials such as photos, news articles or other unnecessary attachments that detract from the content of the application.

Application must be:

• i.In English;
• ii.Submitted using the Microsoft Word template provided (Annex 1);
• iii.Typed in Arial 12 point font, line spacing of 1.15pt;
• iv.Received in a single electronic PDF file format;
• v.Labeled with page numbers and name of applicant organization on each page;
• vi.Applications must be no more than six (6) pages in length, including the cover page. Applications more than seven (7) pages will be disqualified

Please note that this announcement is issued as a public notice to ensure that all programs have a fair opportunity to submit their applications for consideration. This announcement does not constitute an award commitment on the part of ACA/CHMI nor does it commit to pay for costs incurred in the preparation and/or submission of applications, or to procure or contract for services or supplies. Furthermore, ACA/CHMI reserves the right to reject any or all applications submitted, to negotiate with any applicants considered qualified, or to make awards without further applicant negotiations. Participating in any part of the application process is not a guarantee of funding or support.