Request for Proposals: Data Collection Services in Haiti

Transcription

1 Request for Proposals: Data Collection Services in Haiti Project: RFP number: Funder: RFP Release Date: Deadline for Questions: Answers to Questions: Deadline for Proposals: Contact: LOKAL+ Program Evaluation SOL_HESS_2018_003 USAID Tuesday, February 6, 2018, 9.00 ET Monday, February 12, 2018, ET To be released by Tuesday, February 13, 2018, ET Wednesday, February 21, 2018, ET Ms. Nora Chamma, cc: Ms. Marissa Germain, cc: Ms. Eleanor Powell, BACKGROUND In May 2017, USAID awarded Social Impact (SI) the Haiti Evaluation Survey Services (ESS) contract to conduct baseline, mid-term and final evaluations for a wide range of projects currently being implemented throughout the country, with more emphasis around USAID s development corridors of Port-au-Prince, Saint Marc, and Cap-Haitian. The contract also includes sector assessments to inform the Mission in designing its new Strategic Framework ( ). USAID is now commissioning the program evaluation of the LOKAL+ program in Haiti under the ESS Program. The evaluation s purpose is to inform the design of USAID/Haiti s future local governance and capacity building activities, building upon the successes of LOKAL+ and other successful activities by learning from existing best practices and approaches. Results of the evaluation will guide USAID s future investments to meet the needs of key stakeholders in local governance. The evaluation questions are as follows: 1. To what extent was the original project design relevant to the government of Haiti s concerns and needs? This question will examine the extent to which the Haitian government had ownership in the original design. It will also assess the extent to which the project built upon best practices in government decentralization and municipal government strengthening. 2. To what extent was the project effective, specifically in terms improving local accountability, transparency, and service delivery? This question will specifically examine the project s effectiveness in terms of: i. increasing tax revenues ii. improving access to central government funding iii. improving mayor s and staff s skills and knowledge of governance 1

2 2 iv. improving the legal framework for decentralization v. improving constituency satisfaction 3. To what extent will the local governments, assisted by LOKAL+, be able to continue improved governance, especially in terms of transparency and accountability, and service delivery? For additional information on the project and the evaluation scope of work, please refer to Appendix E. The qualitative data collection covered under this scope of work will focus on Question 2, part v, examining the project s effects on improving constituency satisfaction. SCOPE OF WORK Social Impact is seeking to engage a Haitian data collection firm as a Sub-contractor who is well versed in collecting data in the field in Haiti, and in using qualitative methods. It is anticipated that the Subcontract will be a Firm, Fixed Price type contract and the period of performance will take place within March 5, 2018 and May 4, Precise dates will be communicated upon award. This Request for Proposals (RFP) describes the specifications for the services of field data collection required to complete the program evaluation. Offerors will prepare a technical proposal that addresses all aspects of the data collection as detailed in each section below. Data Collection Activities Overview of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) The Sub-contractor will conduct FGDs with constituents of the local governments working with USAID s LOKAL+ project to assess how the project has influenced constituency satisfaction. These FGDs will take place in nine communes, including in Kenscoff, Delmas, Limonade, Ouanaminthe, Carrefour, Saint Marc, Caracol, Acul du Nord, and Cap-Haitian. The specific sampling plan will be determined based on additional detailed information to be provided about the specific interventions carried out within each locality, and the specific constituent groups that were targeted by the activities. ESS will lead the development of the sampling frame and sampling plan, with input from the Contractor. The Contractor will also be required to coordinate with ESS, SI home office staff, and the designated Evaluation Team (Team Leader, Assistant Team Leader, and Notetakers) on the design, planning, and implementation of the FGDs. The Sub-contractor will be responsible for the planning, enumerator training, pre-testing, piloting, data collection implementation and logistics, data preparation and cleaning, data security, recordings, basic data analysis, mobilizing people, providing refreshments to participants as appropriate, and collecting and securing data. The Sub-contractor will also provide detailed summary notes in either French or English. While the notes must be anonymized to protect the identities of participants, there will be a separate spreadsheet that lists who participated in each FGD with basic demographic data like age, gender, etc. The exact number of data collection sites and focus group discussions will not be determined until after the subcontract award, but will not exceed a total of 40 FGDs. As such, Offerors should prepare budgets that include a unit price per focus group discussion per site, using Appendix C.

3 Figure 1. Communes in USAID Corridors Tasks: Preparation Clearances The Sub-contractor will be responsible for identifying and liaising with the necessary authorities to gain permission/clearances to legally perform all tasks specified by this RFP. The Sub-contractor will be required to keep documentation of all requests, approvals, and correspondence between relevant parties and provide copies to SI upon request. The Sub-contractor will be expected to maintain positive, professional relationships with all local stakeholders and report any challenges therein immediately to ESS. Planning The Sub-contractor is responsible for planning the FGDs in the field and identifying and organizing the FGD participants, based on the sampling plan developed by ESS with input from the Sub-contractor. In addition, the Sub-contractor will coordinate with the Evaluation Team to determine the locations and participants in the FGDs as to complement the qualitative data collection that will be conducted separately by the Evaluation Team, and to maximize overall data collection coverage for the study. Instrument Development The Evaluation Team will assume primary responsibility in developing the data collection instruments, however, the Sub-contractor will be required to 3

4 provide input and review of the instruments. Translation The Sub-contractor will arrange for translation and back-translation of instruments. The Sub-contractor is responsible for ensuring the quality of translation, by verifying that translators possess the adequate credentials for work. The Sub-contractor will be responsible for reviewing the final wording of the translations of all data collection instruments to ensure that they are appropriate for the respondent group. Pretesting The Sub-contractor will be required to pretest all instruments, focusing on the flow, translation, and logic of the instrument. The Sub-contractor will be required to identify respondents comparable to the study population and ensure that no respondents from the study sample are included in pretesting. The Sub-contractor shall coordinate with the Evaluation Team to revise the instruments as needed based on the outcomes of the pretesting. Develop Manuals for Field Staff With input from ESS, SI home office staff, and the Evaluation Team, the Sub-contractor will be responsible for developing comprehensive manuals for field staff. These include a facilitator and notetaker manual. ESS, SI home office staff, and the Evaluation Team must have a chance to review and approve the final manual at least five business days prior to the start of training. Staff Training All facilitators and notetakers are required to receive training prior to data collection. The training shall be comprised of classroom sessions as well as practice sessions administering focus group discussions. Offerors are required to specify the recommended duration and content of field staff training as part of the technical approach. Offerors shall describe in their technical proposal their approach to assessing facilitators and notetakers readiness to conduct data collection during and after the training. It is recommended that more facilitators and notetakers be trained than will be required for any data collection activity, so top-performers can be selected, and a pool of back-up facilitators and notetakers be ready in case of need. Representatives of ESS and the Evaluation Team will assist with the training and may test facilitators and notetakers as needed and may require, at their discretion, replacement of facilitators and notetakers deemed to be performing inadequately in training or in the field. Piloting Piloting will be done as part of staff training and will focus on the entire data collection process. This is meant to be a real-life practice of the data collection. The Subcontractor should plan to conduct about four pilots. Following piloting, it is not expected that major changes to the tool will be needed. Quality Assurance Data Quality Assurance processes are required to be implemented in real-time during all phases of this engagement: translation, pretesting, facilitator and notetaker training, pilot testing, data collection, data entry/transmission, and development of all deliverables. Most critically, the Subcontractor is required to provide significant oversight of data collectors during data collection. It is the responsibility of the Sub-contractor to identify and communicate problems in any phase of the engagement to ESS. Minor issues should be corrected on the spot, to the extent that they do not change the scope of services or cause an increase in costs. Larger problems should be raised with 4

5 ESS and collaboratively discussed before any remediation measures are taken, which may require a subcontract modification. The Sub-contractor will be required to conduct quality control, at minimum, following the requirements listed below. o Daily team debriefs: Check-ins with the facilitators, notetakers and field staff to review any challenges faced, allow for questions and clarifications, and provide feedback to the wider group. These are especially important early in the data collection activity to ensure that proper interviewing habits are formed. o Facilitator checks: Facilitators will check their teams notes daily before they are submitted to the server to ensure completeness and spot-check for errors. ESS and SI home office staff will be performing independent Quality Assurance, including, at a minimum, the following actions: o Collaboration with Haiti ESS staff: The Haiti ESS will delegate a Team Leader (TL) and a Deputy Team Leader (DTL) to oversee data collection, provide guidance and support in the data collection process, and conduct additional quality assurance. The Sub-contractor should work closely with Haiti ESS staff, providing updated information about logistics, plans, and insights during their supervision visits. o ESS and SI home office staff will conduct independent quality checks of the data downloaded directly from the server up to three times a week, summarizing any questions or feedback for the Sub-contractor from each check. The Sub-contractor will be required to respond to these questions within one business day of receiving them. Respondent Protection & Data Security The Sub-contractor is required to abide by SI s respondent protection and data security protocols (to be provided upon award). The Sub-contractor will be given an opportunity to comment on the protocol and provide feedback that allows ESS to better contextualize the protocol (without modifying SI s required minimums ). All field staff will be asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement (to be provided upon award) signifying their understanding of ethical behavior in the field and proper handling of respondents confidential and private information, including personally identifiable information (PII). The Sub-contractor will ensure proper measures are taken in the field to monitor enumerators behavior with respect to respondent protection and data security (including interviewing, handling of devices, etc.). The Subcontractor will also be responsible for ensuring that detailed summary notes and other documentation do not include PII. Reporting The Sub-contractor will be required to submit six main deliverables, namely a (1) Workplan (2) Instrument Translations, (3) Field Manuals, (4) Training, Pre-testing, and Pilot Report, (5) Weekly 5

6 Status Reports, (6) detailed summary notes of each FGD, (7) audio recordings of FGDs, and (8) a Final Report. General guidance is provided below. Social Impact will provide report templates as guidance to the Sub-contractor following award. - Workplan: The Sub-contractor is responsible for developing a detailed work plan and schedule within one week of contract award. The document will detail the following: expected duration and sequencing of tasks, staffing/team composition, team roles/responsibilities, pilot testing approach, enumerator training approach, and data quality assurance protocols. The Work Plan should outline any areas for which the Sub-contractor requires support from ESS. - Instrument Translations: The Sub-contractor will submit the translated versions of the instruments. - Field Manuals: The manuals will cover roles, responsibilities, and protocols for facilitators and notetakers. - Training, Pre-Testing & Pilot Report: This report will describe the activities undertaken during the training and piloting, and identify problems, solutions, and the way forward. - Weekly Status Reports: This report will cover activities undertaken during the period, the challenges faced, strategies adopted to overcome such challenges, programming of upcoming activities for the next reporting period, and any identified risks related to upcoming activities. - Detailed Summary Notes of Each FGD: After each FGD, the team needs to meet to write the FGD report, which consists of combined notes of the two notetakers enriched with details from audio recording and the facilitators remarks. Within the summary notes will remain the raw qualitative data to inform ESS about findings on the field. They must be in French, stay as close as possible to the verbatim notes, and contain as many quotes as possible. The notes must be anonymized to protect the identities of participants, and the Sub-Contractor must provide a separate spreadsheet that lists who participated in each FGD with basic demographic data like age, gender, etc. Summary notes must be uploaded daily to the server. - Audio-recording: The audio recording of each FGD needs to be submitted to ESS as a backup file that supports the summary notes. Audio recordings must be uploaded daily to the server. - Final Report: This report will describe the overall activities, limitations, challenges, any modifications to the data collection protocols, data quality process, identification of any data quality issues, results and lessons learned. The Sub-contractor is required to submit to Social Impact the data in electronic format together with the final report. 6 Personnel Offerors must provide CVs for required team member (key personnel) positions as listed below, which meet the minimum qualifications. In this section, Offerors should also describe their recruitment strategy for other field staff and should specify the total number of facilitators

7 and notetakers that will conduct the activity. - Key Personnel Qualifications Coordinator (1) Facilitators (2-4) Notetakers (4-8) Required 5-10 years of relevant experience managing data collection exercises in Haiti Required 5 years of relevant experience leading focus group discussion exercises in Haiti Required 3 years of relevant experience in data collection exercises in Haiti - The field coordinator will oversee the interface with Haiti ESS, planning all the activities and writing the reports. 7

8 Proposal Submission Format Offerors must submit the following information or documents: o Valid business license o Contact person, telephone, office address, and o Technical proposal, not exceeding 5 pages o Past performance showing data collection services provided in the country (Appendix A in Technical Proposal). o Data Collectors Qualifications: Please provide the qualifications of personnel that would be involved in providing the above services. (Appendix B in Technical Proposal) o Price proposal (Appendix C in Technical Proposal) o Disclosure of Conflict of Interest (Appendix D in Technical Proposal) The Offeror shall submit its bid as per the following requirements: o Offeror shall submit quotes in US Dollars (USD) o Proposals must be in English o The Offeror shall propose unit prices for events in Table 1. Unit Prices shall include transportation to region, travel fees for participants, mobilizer s fees, refreshments, rooms for events, lodging and salaries for staffs. o The rates quoted shall be for complete services inclusive of all taxes and charges for service contingent to the work o SI will establish the scope of the services mentioned in this RFP at the design phase and will request a full budget based on unit prices. o Payment term: Net 30 days o Proposals validity: Net 30 days from date of submission Selection Criteria All proposals received in response to this solicitation will be evaluated by the Haiti ESS bid review committee. Awards will be made on a best value basis. Haiti ESS will conduct a source selection based on the evaluation factors listed below. These factors will serve as the standard against which all proposals will be evaluated, and therefore those which Offerors should address. Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria: i. Technical (50%) Haiti ESS will consider the technical specifications of the Offeror s ability to provide the services listed in the Description of Services Requested section of the RFP; ii. Past Performance (20%) Haiti ESS will consider Appendix A detailing past performance information (to be included in the technical proposal). iii. Personnel Qualifications (30%) Haiti ESS will consider Appendix B detailing the qualifications of each Offeror s data collection team. Offerors shall adhere to the timelines for questions and proposal submissions listed on the first page of this RFP. Late submissions will not be considered. All questions, technical proposals, and Price proposals should be submitted electronically to nchamma@socialimpact.com with a copy sent to mgermain@socialimpact.com, epowell@socialimpact.com. 8

9 Appendix A Summary of Relevant Capability, Experience, and Past Performance Offerors should submit a summary of three past performance reports, including contact information for references. SI reserves the right to contact references provided in these past performance reports. Include projects that best illustrate your experience relevant to this RFP or similar activities, sorted by decreasing order of completion date. Examples of specific past performance related to demonstrated experience in conducting data collection in the governance sector, demonstrated experience in successfully conducting data collection (surveys, focus groups, etc.), and demonstrated experience collecting data in Haiti are preferred. Experience working with US Government preferred but not required. Projects should have been undertaken in the past three years (i.e. 2015, 2016, and 2017). Projects undertaken in the past five years may be taken into consideration at the discretion of the evaluation panel. Item # Project Title and Description of Activities Location Client Name and Contact Information Cost in USD Completed on Schedule (Yes or No); if no, then explain 10

10 Appendix B: Data Collection Team Proposed data collection team and resumes 10

11 Appendix C: Pricing Template See attachment Appendix C: Data Collection Pricing Template 10

12 Appendix D: Disclosure of Conflict of Interest Disclosure of Real or Potential Conflict of Interest - USAID Evaluations / Services Provided to Social Impact Instructions: Evaluations of USAID projects will be undertaken so that they are not subject to the perception or reality of biased measurement or reporting due to conflict of interest. 1 For external evaluations, all evaluation team members and others who may provide services to Social Impact of a sensitive nature will provide a signed statement attesting to a lack of conflict of interest or describing an existing conflict of interest relative to the project being evaluated 2 and/or the services being provided to Social Impact. Evaluators/service providers have a responsibility to maintain independence so that opinions, conclusions, judgments, and recommendations will be impartial and will be viewed as impartial by third parties. Evaluators and evaluation team members, as well as providers of services that Social Impact has determined to be of a sensitive nature are to disclose all relevant facts regarding real or potential conflicts of interest that could lead reasonable third parties with knowledge of the relevant facts and circumstances to conclude that the evaluator or evaluation team member or services provider(s) is not able to maintain independence and, thus, is not capable of exercising objective and impartial judgment on all issues associated with conducting and reporting the work or carrying out the required services. Operating Unit leadership, in close consultation with the Contracting Officer, will determine whether the real or potential conflict of interest is one that should disqualify an individual from the evaluation team or require recusal by that individual from evaluating certain aspects of the project(s), or which could disqualify a potential vendor from providing services. In addition, if evaluation team members or service providers gain access to proprietary information of other companies in the process of conducting the evaluation/providing services, then they must agree with the other companies to protect their information from unauthorized use or disclosure for as long as it remains proprietary and refrain from using the information for any purpose other than that for which it was furnished. 3 Real or potential conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to: 1. Immediate family or close family member who is an employee of the USAID operating unit managing the project(s) being evaluated or the implementing organization(s) whose project(s) are being evaluated. 2. Financial interest that is direct, or is significant/material though indirect, in the implementing organization(s) whose projects are being evaluated or in the outcome of the evaluation. 3. Current or previous direct or significant/material though indirect experience with the project(s) being evaluated, including involvement in the project design or previous iterations of the project. 4. Current or previous work experience or seeking employment with the USAID operating unit managing the evaluation or the implementing organization(s) whose project(s) are being evaluated. 1 USAID Evaluation Policy (p. 8); USAID Contract Information Bulletin 99-17; and Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 9.5, Organizational Conflicts of Interest, and Subpart 3.10, Contractor Code of Business Ethics and Conduct. 2 USAID Evaluation Policy (p. 11) 3 FAR (b) 10

13 5. Current or previous work experience with an organization that may be seen as an industry competitor with the implementing organization(s) whose project(s) are being evaluated. 6. Preconceived ideas toward individuals, groups, organizations, or objectives of the particular projects and organizations being evaluated that could bias the evaluation. Disclosure of Conflict of Interest for USAID Evaluation Team Members / Service Providers Name Title Organization Social Impact, Inc. Evaluation Position? Team Leader Team member Service Provider Evaluation Award Number (contract or other instrument) USAID Project(s) Evaluated (Include project name(s), implementer name(s) and award number(s), if applicable) I have real or potential conflicts of interest to disclose. If yes answered above, I disclose the following facts: Real or potential conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to: 1. Close family member who is an employee of the USAID operating unit managing the project(s) being evaluated or the implementing organization(s) whose project(s) are being evaluated. 2. Financial interest that is direct, or is significant though indirect, in the implementing organization(s) whose projects are being evaluated or in the outcome of the evaluation. 3. Current or previous direct or significant though indirect experience with the project(s) being evaluated, including involvement in the project design or previous iterations of the project. 4. Current or previous work experience or seeking employment with the USAID operating unit managing the evaluation or the implementing organization(s) whose project(s) are being evaluated. 5. Current or previous work experience with an organization that may be seen as an industry competitor with the implementing organization(s) whose project(s) are being evaluated. 6. Preconceived ideas toward individuals, groups, organizations, or objectives of the particular projects and organizations being evaluated that could bias the evaluation. 10 Yes I certify (1) that I have completed this disclosure form fully and to the best of my ability and (2) that I will update this disclosure form promptly if relevant circumstances change. If I gain access to proprietary No

14 information of other companies, then I agree to protect their information from unauthorized use or disclosure for as long as it remains proprietary and refrain from using the information for any purpose other than that for which it was furnished. Signature Date 10

15 Appendix E: Scope of Work See attachment Appendix E: Scope of Work 10