
Excerpt from Request for Proposals document. Read complete RFP.
Issuing Organization: The waniska Centre
Partnering Organizations:
Canadian Network on Hepatitis C (CanHepC)
Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN)
Canadian Association of Hepatology Nurses (CAHN)
Additional organizations may be included
Deadline for Submissions: Open until filled
Budget: $50,000 maximum
Introduction
Following the momentum created from the national Blueprint to inform hepatitis C elimination efforts in Canada, the Canadian Network on Hepatitis C, or CanHepC, has initiated regionally led multi-stakeholder processes to inform hepatitis C elimination efforts across Canada. Priority recommendations and potential actions will be sought through consensus for each region. CanHepC has created the following regions: 1) British Columbia; 2) Prairie region (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba); 3) Ontario; 4) Québec; 5) Atlantic (New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island); 6) Northern region (Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon). Additionally, a national Indigenous-specific group will address strengths and challenges associated with Indigenous peoples and hepatitis C. Each region, including the National Indigenous hub, is lead by Indigenous, provincial and territorial vested parties with expertise in the area.
The waniska Centre, under the direction of Alexandra King, in partnership with Renée Masching, Director of Research and Policy at the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN), will lead the creation of the National Indigenous Roadmap. The waniska Centre is a team led by dedicated Indigenous researchers and Knowledge Holders to specifically address the inequities of HIV/HCV/STBBI in Indigenous communities of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It aims to develop innovative methods via etuaptmumk (a Two-eyed Seeing approach) grounded in Indigenous philosophies and methodologies to achieve its goals.
Background
Canada supports the World Health Organization’s Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis from 2016. The goal was to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by the year 2030. In 2019 the CanHepC, funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research, released the Blueprint to inform hepatitis C elimination efforts in Canada. This guidance document offers a policy framework for evidence-based action achieving the elimination of hepatitis C in Canada. The document has been informed by an extensive national consultation processes involving vested parties from research, policy, community and clinical backgrounds. It is to be used as a resource and tool for the regions and national Indigenous hub to develop regionally specific hepatitis C elimination plans.
Canada’s colonial history and the continued health and social inequities experienced by Indigenous peoples contribute to their susceptibility to and overrepresentation in the burden of hepatitis C. Although there is a paucity of robust population-based data on HCV infection in Indigenous populations, modeled estimates of its prevalence in Canada have shown about a three-fold higher prevalence among Indigenous people than non-Indigenous Canadians.
Goals of the Project
The main goal of the National Indigenous Roadmap hub is to attain consensus on priority recommendations to inform hepatitis C elimination planning efforts. This process requires the involvement of multiple collaborators. The identification of potential actions to be used in policy and program creation is a priority. The goals of the CanHepC National Indigenous Roadmap are the following:
• Work with Indigenous organizations, researchers, healthcare practitioners, political leaders, public health officials, Knowledge Holders, Elders, youth and people with lived experience of hepatitis C to draw out elements relevant to Indigenous realities across the county
• Respectfully engage with Indigenous people, honouring and elevating Indigenous worldviews, methods of research and consultation processes
• Lay the groundwork for action
• Model the pathway to elimination
• Plan actions through the identification of key challenges and barriers
• Identify the tools and supports required
• Define the way forward for the elimination of hepatitis C within Indigenous populations across the country
Implementation of the planned coordinated actions is essential and therefore, the inclusion and participation of public health officials and government program and policy developers is paramount.
Theoretical Frameworks and Methodologies
A foundational tenet of the waniska Centre is employing Indigenous-derived theoretical frameworks and Indigenous methodologies to accomplish goals and objectives. These frameworks draw upon the Indigenous Wholistic Theory and etuaptmumk (Two-eyed Seeing). Etuaptmumk is a philosophical, theoretical and methodological approach that recognizes the need for both Western and Indigenous paradigms and methods in research, knowledge translation and program planning, development and implementation. It draws on the strengths of both theoretical constructs to build and establish meaningful relationships with all people that promote a sense of belonging to achieve results beneficial to all.
The waniska Centre also mobilizes Indigenous research methodologies through a Culturally Responsive Framework (CRF)1 and restores Indigenous Ways of Knowing. Indigenous research methodologies map seamlessly onto the three strategic objectives of CRF, which are restoring Indigenous community-based health and wellness systems; creating an ethical space for engagement between mainstream and Indigenous systems and worldviews; and transforming mainstream health service delivery to be culturally responsive. Using these frameworks and methodologies, the waniska Centre researchers adopt an implementation and program science approach, which has emerged via global efforts in HIV/HCV/STBBI to promote systematic contextualization and adaptation of research to a complex and changing environment.
Approach
The successful application will have knowledge of Indigenous ways including the understanding of protocol, reciprocality and respectful consultation processes. The successful applicant will adopt an approach to consultation grounded in Indigenous principles and understand Indigenous people’s trauma resulting from historical and current colonialist systems and policies.
Additionally, the applicant will have high political acuity to navigate the relationships between First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
Scope
This RFP is an open call for consultants to provide a comprehensive proposal on strategies to consult Indigenous people within Canada for the creation of a CanHepC Roadmap for the elimination of Hepatitis C. The proposal must include the following elements:
• Context
• Objectives and goals
• Proposed tools
• Roles and responsibilities
• Plan of action and schedule
• Cost breakdown and specific budget lines for activities
• A statement on how Indigenous data governance will be honoured and respected in their work
• Other elements considered necessary
For addditional RFP information on:
- Specifications
- Outcomes
- Timelines
- waniska’s Roles and Responsibilities
- Confidentiality
- Privacy
- Copyright and Indigenous Data Governance
- Proposal Instructions
- Budget
- Rights of the Organization (waniska), and
- where to direct proposals.
please read complete Request for Proposals on the waniska Centre site.
[1] Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN). (2013). Cultural Responsiveness Framework. Retrieved from http://allnationshope.ca/userdata/files/187/CRF%20-%20Final%20Copy.pdf.