REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)

Description of Requirements

The United States government, represented by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), invites qualified companies/individuals to submit quotation of the services/items specified below. This is to support the operation of USAID/RDMA, Bangkok Thailand.

Proposal submission and questions regarding this Request for Proposal (RFP) shall be ONLY via email to BANGKOKUSAIDPROC@usaid.gov by the time/date specified above.

The award of a contract hereunder is subject to the availability of funds. Issuance of this RFP does not constitute an award or commitment on the part of the U.S. Government, nor does it commit the U.S. Government to pay for costs incurred in the preparation and submission of a quotation. Please be advised that all interested parties are required to be registered in Dun and Bradstreet and are subject to SAM registration before an award can be made. Information on obtaining the Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS), can be found at this website: http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform. Offerors are also required to register their business on the U.S. Government’s System for Award Management (SAM) at www.sam.gov. Information on this process for foreign vendors is available here. Prospective offerors are encouraged to register in SAM prior to the submittal of quotations.

Statement of Work for Technical Support for a 5-day Training Workshop on The Art and Science of Gender Norm Change , January 2020

USAID/RDMA: Health Sector Consultant

BACKGROUND

RDMA is a leader in developing the skills and understanding of key staff members, particularly gender and social inclusion advisors. USAID policy stipulates that Mission Gender Advisors “should have (or be given the opportunity to fully develop) the technical skills and competencies necessary to provide appropriate guidance to technical and program staff to ensure that the policy is successfully implemented at the mission” (GEFE Policy, page 15.)  Annual training is one of opportunities gender advisors have to develop their skills and competencies in participatory and experiential ways, to pause and reflect on successes, find solutions to challenges at their missions, build their expertise, share promising practices, strengthen advocacy skills, adapt their approaches across the program cycle, and deepen their collaboration as a community of practice as gender advisors.

The Asia Bureau and USAID/RDMA are sponsoring a gender advisors’ training from January 27- 31, 2020, at the Asia Regional Training Center (ARTC) in Bangkok, Thailand to support gender advisors’ learning needs. Approximately 25 participants will come from countries in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The external consultants would only participate from January 27 to 30^th.

II.        OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The annual training will be led by senior gender advisors from the Asia Regional Development Mission/Asia (RDMA) (“Advisors”).  A subject matter expert (consultant) in gender and social norm change in the HEALTH SECTOR to participate in this training. The overall design of this training is that it is highly participatory, collaborative, appreciative, and hands-on. RDMA is looking for one short-term consultant with the technical expertise on social norm and behavioral change on gender in the HEALTH SECTOR to provide training on the science of gender norm change and the application of practical field-based techniques for shifting values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors on gender and social inclusion.

One of the most important barriers to gender equality and female empowerment and the prevention of gender-based violence is gender norms – the standards and expectations to which males and females generally conform, within a range that defines a particular society, culture and community at that point in time. Analyzing gender norms is one component, or domain, of conducting a gender analysis for all strategies, projects and activities as required of USAID missions under the ADS 205 and the WEEE Act of 2018.  Over the past several years, an exciting body of knowledge has emerged that focuses on understanding the role gender norms play as both barriers and facilitators to gender equality and female empowerment as part of international development programming.  No other trainings currently available through USAID University focus on this complex area of development.

At present, there are few social scientists at USAID with expertise in quantitative and qualitative analysis of gender norms. Few mission gender advisors have these skills yet all are expected to be able to conduct - or guide their USAID colleagues to do – this analysis. The purpose of this training is: 1) Introduce gender advisors (and other interested staff) to the theory and science of gender norms change, 2) strengthen gender advisors’ analytic skills to identify opportunities to integrate activities to address harmful gender norms into project and activity designs and, 3) understand the development of indicators to track change in gender norms in missions’ monitoring and learning plans. We expect most participants will come from the Asia region but if past trainings are an indication we will have participants from around the world.

USAID/RDMA would like to engage with experts from various USAID and non-USAID funded organizations using evidence-based, theory-driven approaches to addressing gender norms to co-design and participate in training for gender advisors from January 27-31, 2020. The training will take place at the Asia Regional Training Center (ARTC) in Bangkok, Thailand. Our goal for the training is to introduce participants to the art and science of gender norm change in development sectors within which USAID has programming: economic growth, health, and preventing and responding to gender based violence and digital/ innovation. We want to include a particular focus on preventing and responding to GBV, particularly at the community level: This is a priority goal of the USAID Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy (2012), the US Government Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender Based Violence (2016), and the US Strategy on Women, Peace and Security (2019).

By collaborating with experts from different sectors with expertise in changing gender norms in the development space we can ensure we are introducing participants to approaches that are relevant to USAID projects and activities. Participants at the training will have the opportunity to take a “deep dive” into the theory and practice of gender norms change and application in various settings. We want to create an enabling environment for participants to learn in a safe, interactive and participatory setting about challenging topics. 

III.       TARGET POPULATIONS

For the purposes of this Gender CLA, the following are the targeted populations in ranked descending order:

1. Asia-based gender advisors;
2. Invited gender advisors from other regions;
3. RDMA staff members working on other areas of social inclusion;

IV.       TASKS

This scope of work will be accomplished over a period of 10 days. The contractor will be tasked with the following,

Because we want to promote a Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) approach the Advisors would like to engage the HEALTH SECTOR CONSULTANT participating in the training to co-design this training, that is, work together with the Advisors and the economic growth, digital/innovation and GBV consultants to craft the agenda, the sequencing of sessions and the activities that will unfold over the 4 days of the training. We would like to engage the consultants in thinking collectively about how to structure the training so that each consultant contributes to:

1) Building the knowledge and capacity of participants to understand the theory of behavior change and the application of theory in the health, economic growth, GBV and digital/innovations development sectors and understand the development to indicators to track changes in gender norms, and

2) Leading participants through the use of qualitative data collection methods such as focus group discussions, community mapping, key informant interviews, pile sorts. 

While it is possible that each consultant could have a day of the training dedicated to their particular area of expertise (health, economic growth, Gender Based Violence (GBV)or digital/innovations) the training could be structured so that these topics overlap and intersect throughout the 4 day training. Through a co-design process we hope to develop a coherent, exciting and inspiring training for participants.

To co-design the training a HEALTH SECTOR consultant would be asked to:

• Participate in one or more conference calls or video conference with the Advisors and other consultants to brainstorm on the design of  the workshop;
• Explore how all the consultants and Advisors can collaborate as co-facilitators in each session;
• Indicate if the consultant can attend for the entire 4 days or can attend only on specific dates so the sequencing of activities can be coordinated
• Submit a detailed description or “curriculum” for his/her individual or group sessions to the Advisors at least 10 days (2 calendar weeks) before the training, indicating the resources that will be needed for the session(s) – handouts, access to internet site etc. 

USAID/RDMA will facilitate the clearance process for the HEALTH SECTOR consultant to attend the training and ARTC will provide detailed information on venue location and hotels in Bangkok accepting USG hotel rates. 

V.        DELIVERABLES

The consultant from each organization would be asked to:

• Participate in one or more conference calls or video conferences to brainstorm on the design of  the workshop;
• Provide a detailed description or “curriculum” for her/his individual or group sessions to the = the Advisors at least 10 days (2 calendar weeks) before the training, indicating the resources that will be needed for the session(s) – handouts, access to internet site, if any;
• Deliver agreed upon session(s) at the Annual Gender Advisors’ CLA training;
• Submit any feedback or notes on the training sessions to the Advisors by February 7 2020.

VI.       LEVEL OF EFFORT (LOE)

The level of effort is approximately 10 days, including pre-training planning and consultation, travel to and from Bangkok from home office, and 4 days participation in the training for each consultant (4).

VII.     SELECTION CRITERIA

The proposal will be evaluated using two criteria:

1.  Past Performance    70%

The evaluation of the offeror’s technical proposal shall deal with the extent to which the offeror is able to demonstrate the proposed consultant’s expertise as evidenced by past performance.

2.  Price Proposal         30%

The evaluation of the offeror’s price proposal shall deal with whether the price is fair and reasonable in relation with the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

VIII. TECHNICAL PROPOSAL (5 pages maximum)

The offerors shall include in the technical portion of the quotation:

• Resume (3 pages maximum per candidate) of the consultant
• References for at least three (3) contacts where similar services have been provided

IX. PRICE PROPOSAL (no page limit)

Price quotations shall include the hourly rate for the consultant. The price quote should also list separately the cost for transport of materials by express courier and other miscellaneous costs.

USAID intends to make a contract award that represents the best value to the U.S. Government. “Best value” is defined as the offer that results in the most advantageous solution for the Government, in consideration of technical, cost/price, and other factors. All evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are significantly more important than cost or price.  When Contracting Officer determines that competing technical proposals are essentially equal, cost/price factors may become the determining factor in source selection. Upon successful negotiations with the offeror, a fixed-price Purchase Order will be issued to procure the services.

The training will take place from January 27-31. The last day of the training will focus on in-house issues for USAID gender advisors and consultants will not participate.