Date: March 13, 2026
REQUEST FOR QUOTATION
RFQ Nº UNFPA/IND/RFQ/26/003
Dear Sir/Madam,
UNFPA hereby solicits a quotation for the following service:
“Mainstreaming Gender Equity in Panchayat Planning and Financing”
I.About UNFPA
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is an international development agency that works to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every child birth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
UNFPA is the lead UN agency that expands the possibilities for women and young people to lead healthy sexual and reproductive lives. To read more about UNFPA, please go to: UNFPA about us
Service Requirements/Terms of Reference (ToR)
1) Background and rationale
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) has launched the Model Women-Friendly Gram Panchayats (MWFGP) initiative to advance safety, inclusivity, and gender equality at the grassroots, supported by training and a real-time monitoring dashboard. UNFPA has partnered closely with MoPR for rolling out this initiative.
Building on this momentum, mainstreaming gender equity in planning and financing, including through gender responsive budgeting (GRB), can help Panchayats move from “gender-intent” to gender-results. This helps link—women’s and girls’ priorities) to allocations, expenditures, and outcomes.
GRB is widely recognized as a practical approach to ensure that public budgets respond to different needs of women, men, girls and boys, improving equity and accountability. For Panchayats, GRB offers a structured method to:
- prioritize women, adolescent girl, and child-related services in annual plans,
- track allocations and benefits across devolved functions and schemes, and
- demonstrate progress aligned with woman and girl friendly Panchayat benchmarks.
2) Goal
To mainstream gender equity in Panchayats by integrating GRB frameworks, tools, and indicators into the planning process across PRI tiers (District, Block, Gram), and validating practical, scalable approaches in selected states.
3) Objectives
- Compile global and Indian evidence on local government GRB and translate good practices into Panchayat-ready guidance.
- Review how gender budgets are currently prepared/represented at District, Block, and Gram Panchayat levels in four states with demonstrated GRB-related practices/materials.
- Conduct trend and pattern analysis of spending for women, and girls across priority sectors (health, education, safety/GBV, social protection, skilling & livelihoods, early learning/ECD, nutrition/food security, immunization, cash transfers, SRH, maternity benefits, pensions for elderly/widows, etc.).
- Critically assess assumptions and estimation methods used for classifying/attributing “gender spending” across tiers.
- Develop and pilot frameworks and tools to mainstream gender equity, including GRB tools that can be embedded in GPDP templates and review processes at each PRI tier.
- Validate frameworks in at least 1 PRI tier per state and produce a policy-ready guidance note for national scale-up.
4) Scope of work
A. Literature review (global + India) with focus on local self-governance
- Map approaches used by local governments globally (e.g., gender mainstreaming in local authorities; planning-budget linkages; accountability mechanisms).
- Synthesize Indian decentralization-linked experiences, including local government gender budgeting guidance and examples.
- Output: Evidence synthesis + “what works” playbook for Panchayats (tools, enabling conditions, pitfalls).
B. Review of gender budgets across PRI tiers in four states (regional representation to the extent possible)
Proposed state selection to be finalized in consultation with states, based on feasibility/data access and experience with gender budgeting.
Sampling:
- Per state: review 3 PRI tiers (District + Block + Gram Panchayat) per state (total 9 PRI sites/state)
- District tier: 3 Zila Parishads (or District Panchayats where applicable)
- Block tier: 3 Panchayat Samitis / Block Panchayats
- Gram tier: 3 Gram Panchayats
Total review sample:
4 states × 9 institutions = 36 PRI institutions, plus document review at state level.
II.Instructions for submission
Proposals should be prepared based on the guidelines set forth in Section III above, along with a properly filled out and signed price quotation form, and are to be sent by email to the contact person indicated below no later than : 26th March 2026, 23:59 Hrs. IST
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Name of contact person at UNFPA:
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Bids India
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Email address of contact person:
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Please note the following guidelines for electronic submissions:
- The following reference must be included by the Bidder in the email subject line:
- UNFPA/IND/RFQ/26/003 – [Company name], Technical Bid
- UNFPA/IND/RFQ/26/003 - [Company name], Financial Bid
- Submissions without this text in the email subject line may be rejected or overlooked and therefore not considered.
- It is the Bidder’s responsibility to assure compliance with the submission process. If the envelopes or emails are not marked / submitted per the instructions, UNFPA will neither assume responsibility for the bid’s misplacement or premature opening nor guarantee the confidentiality of the Bid process. Incorrect submissions might result in your Bid being declared invalid.
- The total email size may not exceed 20 MB (including email body, encoded attachments and headers). Where the technical details are in large electronic files, it is recommended that these be sent separately before the deadline.
- Any quotation submitted will be regarded as an offer by the bidder and does not
- constitute or imply the acceptance of any quotation by UNFPA. UNFPA is under no obligation to award a contract to any bidder as a result of this RFQ.
For detailed information, please check the complete version of the RFQ attached below.