The Fred Hollows Foundation Australia and New Zealand: Expressions of Interest for ATScale - Scaling up Access to Assistive Technology and Rehabilitation Services in Pacific Island Countries, 2024-2027
What was done
The Fred Hollows Foundation Australia and New Zealand engaged Future Partners Associate (Dr Iobi Batio) to provide support to specific Pacific governments to complete EOI responses that are endorsed from relevant senior level officials and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The EOI form had a series of questions that required extensive responses based on detailed information, for example: information on:
the current policies and plans
levels of funding and staffing
lists of service providers
details of any recent situational analyses
programmes being offered
Completing the forms was a somewhat intensive process in a short timeframe as questions were numerous and responses were at least 25+ pages in length.
How it was done
Dr Iobi is a medical doctor who is based in Kiribati and has worked extensively in the region. He knows key players in the each of the Ministries of Health and having worked for several development partners, he has a good sense of the criteria that is required by those assessing EOI forms.
Being well-trusted, Dr Iobi worked in Kiribati and he also travelled to Samoa. He consulted with relevant stakeholders within each country (relevant government departments and other stakeholders), accessed reports from other work in the sector to source and analyse the information that would be required for the best-possible responses to all the questions. This enabled him to populate the ATscale EOI template with relevant data and analysis and get sign off from relevant representative within government. Time was quite limited, and Dr Iobi had to work at pace.
Benefits for the client
The Ministries of Health in participating countries submitted completed quality EOIs on time, using their own resources along with support from Dr Iobi Batio, consultant funded by The Foundation. The Ministries reporting that the experience has been an excellent learning experience, and that they were much better placed to ‘roll-out’ the implementation should the EOIs be successfully funded. In addition, funders (including the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) have independent assurance of the quality of data and other information submitted in the EOI forms.
What The Foundation had to say
We were impressed by the level of technical knowledge, the ability to interact with stakeholders as well as to bring together information from various sources under time pressures to complete the EOI form to such a high standard. Dr Iobi really knows how to engage with Pacific stakeholders and also to navigate donor processes and forms to ensure that the correct answers for all questions are provided. Dr Iobi’s patient but methodical approach drew the respect of all concerned.
Komal Ram, Senior Pacific Programme Manager, The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ).
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