1. Background 

In recent years, the high prices of pharmaceutical products have posed challenges in both high- and low-income countries. In many instances, the high prices of pharmaceutical products have led to significant financial hardship for individuals and negatively impacted the healthcare system’s ability to provide population-wide access to essential medicines.

Pharmaceutical pricing policies must be carefully planned, implemented, and regularly reviewed and revised in response to changing conditions. Strong, well-thought-out policies can guide well-informed and balanced decisions to achieve affordable access to essential health products. The World Health Organization (WHO)'s 2020 guideline on country pharmaceutical pricing policies recognizes country experiences in managing the prices of pharmaceutical products.

The Rwanda Food and Drug Authority (Rwanda FDA), established in 2018, plays a crucial role in regulating the pharmaceutical market, encompassing pricing, procurement oversight, and supply chain governance. The agency aims to establish suitable administrative and technical mechanisms to prepare, implement, and monitor the pharmaceutical products pricing policy, established in 2020. While the regulatory framework is in place, the implementation tools to enforce and monitor the pricing policy are essential for its effective implementation and enforcement. 

To address these needs, the World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting the Rwanda FDA to develop a pricing database to store pharmaceutical pricing data. This database will enhance regulatory oversight and support the effective enforcement of pricing policies.

The pharmaceutical pricing database will address this gap by providing the Rwanda FDA with a reliable platform for monitoring pricing trends, developing reference price lists, evaluating the impact of policies, and ensuring transparency in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Furthermore, this will strengthen efforts in developing pharmaceutical pricing policies and regulations, thereby increasing access to quality and safe medicines and vaccines.

Additionally, the pricing database will help contain public pharmaceutical expenses amid increasing demands on the Rwandan health system, partly due to economic growth, demographic transition, and increased burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). 

In this regard, the WHO is seeking an IT company based in Rwanda with expertise in database design and development, including strong analytical and data management skills, preferably with experience in pharmaceutical pricing for three (3) months. 

2. Deliverables

The selected company will perform the following activities, in collaboration with the RFDA and WHO:

Inception phase and requirement gathering

• Organise an on-site workshop with the Rwanda FDA to understand the user requirements.
• Participate in meetings on pricing organised by the Rwanda FDA 
• Conduct desk review and stakeholders’ interviews to gather insights on current practices, challenges, and requirements for the reference pricing database
• Explore current data sources and IT systems used by the Rwanda FDA and other relevant stakeholders, including the Rwanda Revenue Authority 
• Identify potential areas for improvement in the current data management processes, including data governance and data sharing between government agencies, to exploit data for future price monitoring purposes.
• Provide guidance on accessing international pricing databases for external reference pricing purposes, with support from the WHO
• Develop conclusions of the user requirements and preliminary analysis of the data, and integrate these findings into an inception report, including methodology, planning of activities, risk management, and scope.

Database development

• Extract and clean relevant data from existing data sources.
• Design the structure and functionality of the reference pricing database in a digital format, ensuring its user-friendliness and data safety.
• Provide functional guidance to the Rwanda FDA IT analyst on building a module for the pricing information in the Integrated Regulatory Information Management System (IRIMS). This module should foresee the capability to house the pricing database with internal and external reference prices, as well as the functionality to extract pricing information from import modules.
• Review and test the database alongside the Pricing Unit and/or key stakeholders.
• Ensure successful handover to the Rwanda FDA 
• Conduct the work alongside the Rwanda IT /Pricing Team to ensure involvement in the development process.

Develop a user manual and hands-on training of the future users

Develop a roadmap 

• Develop a roadmap to update the reference pricing database beyond the implementation phase
• Include criteria for including additional medicines, data collection processes, and validation methods.
• Develop a methodology to expand the database to address the gaps identified in the inception phase 

Deliverables and Timelines are shown below:

3. Contract duration

3months (October to December 2025) (2 months and ½, up to 31 Dec 2025)

4. Requirements 

Educational Qualifications

Members of the team should have at least Master’s degree in computer science, information technology, health informatics, or another relevant field such as medical sciences, project management, or economics, with a proven experience in data curation, monitoring and evaluation, accountability and learning, capacity building, and cybersecurity.

Experience

Members of the company should have at least ten to fifteen years of experience in implementing solutions that enable health decision-makers to turn complex data into action, including in the African region.

Essential: the company should demonstrate the following:

1. Development and implementation of data-driven solutions tailored to individual organizations’ needs to support evidence-based decisions. 
2. Support projects in database design, development, and maintenance, including data curation, and Big Data and Analytics in health and social care.
3. Evidence for transformative services and development of solutions that strengthen accountability and learning
4. Extended experience in the field of E-Health and Cybersecurity.
5. Work experience with African countries, including Rwanda.

Desirable: 

• Expertise in pharmaceutical pricing or similar assignment 

• Facilitation of tailored capacity-building programs.

• Proven at least two (2) similar assignments for the last ten years 

• Experience working with government agencies, Academia, and/or UN agencies. 

Languages and level required

• Team members should have working proficiency in English and French. 
• Knowledge of Kinyarwanda is an added advantage. 

Proposal documents and submission (How to apply): 

The consultancy firm will submit proposals which comprises the technical and financial details in PDF and/ or in Excel files. The technical proposal should be a narrative which includes the proposed approach, methodology and timeframe for each deliverable; Staffing structure, including staff CVs with completion certificates of research activities undertaken in the past if applicable. Details of days per team member articulated against a workplan of activities should be also included. The financial proposal includes activities and budget details. Interested firms shall submit their proposals with their full address to the following generic e-mail address for WHO/RWANDA: afwcorwbids@who.int

The deadline for submission of proposal is 17 October 2025 at 23:59 PM, Kigali time. 

Selection and contract signing

After analysis of proposals WHO will notify the winner in writing and call for discussion, if necessary, followed by contract signing if fully agree. The work is expected to start immediately after contract signing.

WHO Rwanda reserves the right to cancel any or all the proposal without assigning any reason thereof.