Establishment of an African Procurement and Supply Chain Observatory for Public Health and R&D Reagents and Laboratory Supplies

Option A: The Observatory Platform Hosting Institution

The hosting organization will act as the system steward, normative authority, and trusted custodian to ensure the Observatory delivers long-term public value to Africa’s R&D and public health laboratory supplies, reagents, and consumables. To balance legitimacy, usability, and ultimately user ownership it is preferred that an African public health regional body takes up this role.

We are looking for a hosting organization that will:

• Safeguard the mission and public-good nature of the Observatory.
• Develop governing frameworks and set up the various governance bodies.
• Ensure long-term alignment with:
  • Continental public health and R&D priorities.
  • Regulatory harmonization efforts (e.g., AMA, AfCFTA).
  • Research scientists and institutional needs.
  • Other relevant procurement and supply chain platforms that already exist and those that are under development.
  • Periodically review whether the platform addresses the most critical procurement and supply-chain bottlenecks.
• Safeguard vendor capture and misuse of the platform for commercial interests.
• Ensure that all system architecture and technology decisions remain vendor-neutral and aligned with public-good principles.
• Provide operational oversight during the implementation in Phase I, ensuring milestones are met across technical and stakeholder engagement workstreams.
• Coordinate between various governance bodies, technical working groups, and regulatory actors to ensure a unified approach.
• Set up a lean agile team to support the above-mentioned work.

• In alignment with global, regional, and country regulations, define and maintain common standards for:
  • Product taxonomy and specifications (reagents, consumables, equipment, services).
  • Supplier eligibility and quality thresholds.
  • Demand, pricing, lead-time, and service-level definitions.
• Endorse alignment with recognized quality and regulatory benchmarks (e.g., WHO prequalification).
• Promote best practices in:
  • Demand aggregation.
  • Forecasting.
  • Pooled and bundled procurement.

• Act as the trusted custodian of system-level data, not a commercial data owner.
• Approve and enforce data governance policies covering:
  • Data collection, storage, and use.
  • Tiered access to sensitive demand and pricing information.
  • Anonymization and aggregation rules.
• Ensure compliance with:
  • Country and regional data protection requirements.
  • Ethical use of market and procurement data.
• Authorize use of data for:
  • Market intelligence products.
  • Policy analysis.
  • Donor and country decision-making.

• Monitor market health indicators, including:
  • Price volatility.
  • Stock-out frequency.
  • Supplier concentration and single-source risks.
• Identify and signal market gaps and vulnerabilities to:
  • Funders.
  • Manufacturers.
  • Regional industrial and trade actors.
• Promote local and regional manufacturers, distributors, and service providers.

• Partner with SFA during Observatory blueprint development in convening key stakeholders, gather information on user needs, and use these inputs to define observatory specifications and guide the development phase.
• Work closely with SFA to put together a sustainability plan for the Observatory.

• Define and track system-level performance indicators, such as:
  • Changes in procurement lead times.
  • Price trends for priority R&D inputs.
  • Forecast accuracy improvements.
  • Supplier performance and reliability.
• Commission or oversee:
  • Independent evaluations.
  • Periodic user feedback and satisfaction assessments.
• Use evidence and learning to:
  • Adapt platform strategy.
  • Inform policy and market-shaping recommendations.
• Support resource mobilization and sustainability of the platform beyond 18 months.

• Manage day-to-day procurement or transactions
• Monetize or commercially exploit platform data
• Compete with private procurement, logistics, or service providers
• Independently build or operate all technical platform components

Option B: A Technical Architecture and Systems Integration Partner

The Technical Architecture and Systems Integration Partner will serve as the lead technical entity responsible for system architecture design, specification development, and platform implementation, ensuring interoperability, modularity, and alignment with the Observatory’s public-good objectives. While the procurement and supply chain issues cut across public health and R&D efforts on the continent, the successful proposal will initially pilot on using Pathogen Genomic Sequencing as a use case.

We are seeking proposals that outline a milestone-based approach to achieving the deliverables described in Phases I and II above. Proposals should include clearly defined milestones across the following areas, including but not limited to:

1. Architecture, system design, and validation.
2. Platform development, integration, and deployment.

The technical partner will participate in user engagements conversations that will inform the Observatory blueprint which they will implement as a neutral architecture function, ensuring that all system design decisions are modular, interoperable, and not biased toward any specific technology stack, proprietary solution, or vendor.

The partners will operate under the strategic direction and partnership of an advisory panel, ensuring that the platform meets real-world user needs while aligning with regional health priorities, regulatory processes, and public-sector workflows.

The successful technical developer will be technically agile, user-centered, and with ability to make rapid iterations, while ensuring that the Observatory evolves into a robust, scalable, secure, sustainable, Africa-owned digital global public good.

The successful partner will demonstrate:

• Strong system architecture and integration capabilities.
• Ability to operate in complex, multi-country environments.
• Experience delivering modular, scalable, and interoperable platforms.
• A user-centered and iterative development approach.

We are looking for a Technical Architecture and Systems Integration partner that will:

• Lead end-to-end‑ technical design and development of the Observatory platform.
• Lead landscape mapping across relevant platforms (e.g., procurement, laboratory, and supplier system) and specification discussions at convenings organized and led by SFA and attended by the host organization.
• Translate stakeholder needs into system requirements as defined in the Observatory blueprint, in collaboration with SFA, the host organization, and end-users.
• Develop a modular, scalable, and interoperable architecture aligned with open standards and APIs building on existing procurement and laboratory systems.
• Ensure the platform supports:
  • Market visibility: Supplier and product catalogs, indicative pricing, regulatory status, and lead times.
  • Demand aggregation: Tools to consolidate demand across institutions and countries, using standardized universal HS codes.
  • Monitoring, analyses, and visualization of key performance metrics.
• Design Principles: Apply User-Centered Design to create low-bandwidth, mobile-friendly, and multilingual interfaces that reflect actual laboratory and procurement workflows.
• To ensure the observatory is efficient, easy to use, and sustainable, the following cross-cutting areas will need to be integrated:
  • Governance and trust: Clear rules on data use, supplier vetting, and pricing transparency.
  • Interoperability: Integration with existing country procurement systems and institutional workflows through open APIs.
  • User-centered design: Low-bandwidth, mobile-friendly, multilingual interfaces tailored to diverse users.
  • Logistics and last-mile visibility: Indicative timelines for manufacturing, shipping, customs clearance, and delivery.
  • Market-shaping analytics: Identification of fragile markets, chronic shortages, and opportunities for regional manufacturing.
  • Modular and expandable for other goods and use-cases

During the development and pilot phase, the Technical Architecture and Systems Integration Partner will:

• Build the Observatory platform based on validated architecture and SRS.
• Integrate with existing systems through APIs and interoperability standards.
• Host and manage development, staging, and production environment.
• Multilingual and low-connectivity access: Design for multilingual user interfaces and offline/low‑bandwidth functionality (e.g., offline data capture with secure synchronization when connectivity is available), ensuring usability across diverse operating contexts.
• Maintain development, staging, and production environments as appropriate.
• Security and Data Protection: Implement robust data security (at rest and in transit), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and ensure compliance with regional data protection laws.
• Quality Assurance (QA): Lead rigorous automated and manual testing, including security penetration testing and load testing for high-traffic scenarios.
• Establish automated backup protocols and a clear Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) to ensure business continuity.

• Ensure performance and scalability.

This arrangement enables flexibility and speed while minimizing early operational burden on the hosting institution.

Collaboration and Coordination with hosting institution and SFA

The Technical Architecture and Systems Integration Partner will continuously work in close coordination with the platform hosting institution and SFA and provide technical leadership in the development of the Observatory blueprint by:

• Participating in regular joint design and review sessions organized by SFA or other relevant stakeholders
• Incorporating policy, regulatory, and operational considerations into system design.
• Supporting SFA led and other relevant stakeholder consultations and country engagements to define the platform specifications and develop a phased-out iterative milestone timeline.
• Adapting platform functionality based on feedback from key stakeholders such as scientists and laboratory users, procurement agencies, manufacturers, and service providers.

A core responsibility of the Technical Architecture and Systems Integration Partner is to ensure a smooth and complete transition of the Observatory to the host institution. This includes:

• Comprehensive documentation of:
  • System architecture.
  • Codebase and APIs.
  • Security protocols.
  • Operational and maintenance workflows.
  • User manuals
• Training host institution staff responsible for:
  • System administration.
  • User support.
  • Routine technical maintenance.
• Supporting joint onboarding sessions for participating institutions and users.

Following full development, launch, and validation, the Technical Architecture and Systems Integration Partner will support a structured handover to the host, including:

• Propose a defined co-management period, during which:
  • The host institution progressively assumes full operational responsibility.
  • The developer provides dedicated technical support and troubleshooting.
• Ensure full transfer of code, documentation, and system ownership to the hosting organization.
• Final verification that the host can independently operate, maintain, and evolve the platform.
• Ensure all code, assets, and data are legally and technically transferred as a Digital Public Good, free of proprietary lock-ins.

• Own or govern the Observatory.
• Propose or deploy a pre-existing or proprietary platform as the Observatory solution, nor shape system requirements to align with an existing product or internal technology stack.
• Set procurement policy or regulatory rules.
• Control access to or commercialize platform data.
• Operate the platform as a private marketplace beyond agreed development responsibilities.

Evaluation Metrics and Criteria 

Progress will be evaluated by:

• Commitment to participate in stakeholder engagement organized by SFA and if needed, to also organize additional engagements with end users and/or stakeholders.
• System Requirements Specification (SRS): The SRS is expected to describe, at a high level, the system architecture, functional and non‑functional requirements, data flows, user roles, security considerations, interoperability expectations, and operational assumptions. The document should also provide indicative specifications related to performance, scalability, maintenance, and support models, recognizing that these elements may continue to evolve during the development process based on stakeholder input and technical feasibility assessments. The SRS must demonstrate a modular, vendor-neutral architecture that avoids proprietary lock-in and supports integration with multiple systems and future technology partners.
• User Requirement Specification: Outlining a translation of operational workflows, stakeholder needs, and compliance obligations into clear and testable functional and non-functional requirements and covering user roles, use cases, data inputs and outputs, performance expectations, security and regulatory constraints, interoperability needs, and reporting requirements. The URS document will be used for validation, user acceptance testing, and ensuring that the final solution aligns with the planned observatory objectives and user workflows.
• Architecture and Technology Strategy
  • A structured approach outlining:
    • Build vs adapt vs integrate decisions
    • Proposed system architecture and component breakdown
    • Identification of required technology capabilities and potential partner types
    • Justification of design choices against alternatives
• The proposal must demonstrate how neutrality will be maintained in architecture design and technology selection.
• Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and Prototype Plan for the development and provision of an initial prototype and MVP for the observatory platform. The prototype and MVP are intended to demonstrate the core Phase I functional capabilities of the system and support early user testing, technical validation, and iterative refinement.
• A fully functional observatory platform: Detailed description of the finalized version of the observatory platform, developed and prepared for operational deployment. The final product is expected to reflect the core functionality, technical specifications, and user experience features agreed upon during the development process
• A clear Platform Development and Implementation Approach:
  • Building the platform based on validated specifications
  • Integration with existing systems
  • Deployment and scale-up strategy
• Note progression to Phase II will be contingent on validation of Phase I milestones (SRS, architecture, and MVP).
• Detailed Plan for Transfer and Hosting of the Observatory: Detailed description of the anticipated process, technical and operational requirements, and capacity‑building considerations associated with transitioning the observatory platform to the hosting institution for long‑term hosting and maintenance workflows and troubleshooting guides. The plan must ensure no proprietary lock-in and full transfer of system ownership.
• Cost-Effectiveness and Sustainability Model: A detailed description of Value-for-Money (VfM) proposal, which should outline:
  • Efficiency in resource allocation during the development phase.
  • A sustainable financial and operational model for the platform's post-launch lifespan.
  • A collaborative approach that maximizes shared value across the partnership ecosystem.
  • Assumptions on long-term funding, operational ownership, and cost drivers.