USAID Georgia_Invitation for Presolicitation Conference_72011424RFI00002.pdf

SUBJECT: Invitation to Presolicitation Conference:

USAID Data-Driven Collaborating, Capacity, Learning, and Adapting (CCLA) Support Services

DOCUMENT NUMBER

(Notice ID): 72011424RFI00002

ISSUANCE DATE: February 13, 2024

RSVP RESPONSE DATE: February 20, 2024, 10:AM Georgia Standard Time

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS/

COMMENTS: March 5, 2024, 10:00 AM Georgia Standard Time

To All Interested U.S. Small Business Potential Offerors:

USAID/Georgia hereby invites interested U.S. Small Businesses to a presolicitation conference for the subject USAID Data-Driven Collaborating, Capacity, Learning, and Adapting (CCLA) Support Services Program (the “Program”). Please find the conference details below:

Date: February 26, 2024 Time: 16:30-18:00 Georgia Standard Time Format: Online

If you are interested in participating, please email to Eka Gamezardashvili at egamezardashvili@usaid.gov with cc to Salome Berishvili at sberishvili@usaid.gov by no later than February 20, 2024 10:00 Georgia Standard Time. In your email, please provide the following registration details for each participant:

● Name

● Title

● Organization Name

● Email address

29 Georgian-American Friendship Avenue Didi Dighomi, Tbilisi 0131, Georgia Tel: (995 32) 254 4000 Fax: (995 32) 254 4145 www.usaid.gov/Georgia mailto:egamezardashvili@usaid.gov mailto:sberishvili@usaid.gov

The Agenda Overview for the Pre-Solicitation Conference is as follows:

● Opening Remarks

● Technical Overview and Q&A

● Closing Remarks

Please note that USAID intends to issue a solicitation for the activity preliminarily entitled “USAID Data-Driven Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) Support Services.” The purpose of the activity is to enable data-driven decision-making and evidence-based collaborating, learning, and adapting within and amongst USAID/Georgia and its partners to improve program management and development impact in Georgia. As development programs continue to adapt to the rapidly-changing and dynamic operating environment in Georgia, USAID/Georgia requires access to up-to-date/on-demand contextual information, systems and processes to coordinate timely programmatic responses, and qualitative and quantitative context data to advance the goal and development objectives of its 2020-2025 Country Development Cooperation Strategy. As information sources and data points continue to grow, the Mission also requires comprehensive knowledge capture, retention, transfer, and management practices to support evidence-based decision-making and efficiently and effectively facilitate CLA approaches within USAID/Georgia and amongst implementing partners.

Additionally, the Mission requires performance improvement services for its strategic partners, and an approach that fundamentally ensures responsiveness to program participant feedback regarding USAID’s assistance.

USAID currently expects to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) in late April 2024. Please see the USAID Business Forecast for updates.

A preliminary draft version of the Statement of Work is included here as Attachment A.

Additional questions or comments regarding this document may be submitted no later than March 5, 2024 to: RCOCaucasus@usaid.gov and egamezardashvili@usaid.gov. If submitting questions or comments, please use the subject line: “[Name of Organization] - USAID CCLA Support Services Program”.

This Notice is NOT an RFP and in no way obligates the U.S. Government to issue an RFP and/or award a contract. The information herein is released for wide dissemination to all parties and is indicative only. The information is subject to modification and is in no way binding to the U.S.

Government.

Primary Point of Contact:

Eka Gamezardashvili, A&A Specialist, USAID/Caucasus, egamerazardashvili@usaid.gov mailto:RCOCaucas@usaid.gov mailto:mschronce@usaid.gov mailto:egamerazardashvili@usaid.gov

SECTION C - STATEMENT OF WORK

C.1 Purpose The purpose of the USAID Data-Driven Collaborating, Capacity, Learning, and Adapting (CCLA) Support Services contract is to enable data-driven decision-making; institutional capacity development; and evidence-based collaborating, learning, and adapting within and amongst USAID/Georgia and its implementing and strategic partners to improve program management and development impact in Georgia.

C.2 Background

C.2.1. USAID in Georgia USAID is the world’s premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results. Over 30 years of partnership with Georgia, USAID has supported the country’s transformation into a developing democracy that is increasingly integrated into Western political, security, and economic institutions. USAID programs strengthen Georgia’s resilience to malign influence, consolidate democratic gains through enhanced citizen responsive governance, and enable high-value employment through inclusive economic growth. Since it began partnering with the Government of Georgia (GOG) in 1992, USAID has provided more than $1.9 billion in assistance. As of 2024, the Mission oversees approximately 40 active development projects, cumulatively valued at approximately $373 million.

C.2.2. Rationale As development programs continue to adapt to the rapidly-changing and dynamic operating environment in Georgia, USAID/Georgia requires access to up-to-date/on-demand contextual information, systems and processes to coordinate timely programmatic responses, and qualitative and quantitative context data to advance the goal and development objectives (DOs) of its 2020-2025 Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) and follow-on strategic plan. As information sources and data points continue to grow, the Mission also requires comprehensive knowledge capture, retention, transfer and management practices to enable evidence-based decision-making and efficiently and effectively facilitate CCLA support services within USAID/Georgia and amongst implementing partners, and an approach that fundamentally ensures performance improvement amongst the Mission’s strategic partners and responsiveness to program participant feedback regarding USAID’s assistance.

C.3 Approaches

Problem Driven-Iterative Adaptation USAID/Georgia aims to become an organization skilled at creating, analyzing, and acting upon knowledge to achieve better development results in Georgia. As such, the tasks to be performed under this contract must have a clear connection to improvements in the management and impact of USAID/Georgia’s development programming. This support service is expected to further transform USAID/Georgia into a data-driven learning organization that is better able to generate lasting development impact in Georgia.

DRAFT

Attachment A

The Contractor must design its efforts using a problem-driven iterative adaptation approach (PDIA), meaning that the Contractor must work with the Mission to identify, understand, and solve the right problems and take an iterative approach to developing effective, scalable solutions in collaboration with the Mission’s staff and partners. In undertaking its work, the Contractor must recognize that its efforts are part of a complex system with interconnected parts. In guiding the Mission through this learning transformation, the Contractor must undertake small interventions and continually prototype, test, and refine its products and services to ensure that the solutions being offered truly meet the needs of the people being supported.

Human-centered Humans generate, organize, share, and apply knowledge to create value or support their decision-making, and humans make sense of knowledge and learn in different ways (and in different environments, including a range of in-person, virtual, and hybrid settings). This human-centered nature of knowledge must provide the basis for learning processes, tools, and systems, so diverse individuals can contribute to, understand, and use the knowledge base to achieve USAID/Georgia’s CDCS goal and DOs.

The contractor must employ human-centered systems and practices that support the work of Mission staff so that interventions are more effective, decrease time and resource burdens, and have a higher likelihood of adoption. Human-centered systems and practices work closely with end users to identify problems, create processes, and design solutions so that products align with expectations and ultimate needs. Because a person rarely creates knowledge alone, the contractor must assist USAID to create a culture where there are opportunities to generate knowledge through collaboration and engagement, including fostering behaviors and actions that facilitate learning across Mission staff, partners, and local counterparts.

Private Sector Engagement (PSE) USAID/Georgia has a rich history of working with the private sector to advance Georgia’s development agenda, reflected in the wide range of engagements and partnerships across its program portfolio. PSE is a cross-cutting approach that supports the implementation of the Mission’s 2020-2025 CDCS. A core premise of USAID/Georgia’s CDCS is that the Georgian private sector is ready for more direct engagement and collaboration. As Georgia’s economy has grown, a wide range of private sector partners have emerged that are able to substantively contribute to “win-win” solutions that make both commercial sense and address development needs. As USAID/Georgia shifts its development approach from a donor-beneficiary relationship towards one grounded in partnership, the private sector, as the engine of growth, has a critical role to play in strengthening and sustaining development outcomes.

The contractor must work with USAID, implementing partners, and other stakeholders to facilitate the learning capacity development activities identified, propose or identify additional relevant learning activities, and bring in experts from academia, private sector, and civil society to explore promising, workable approaches and strategies for expanding USAID’s development results, especially where they intersect with private sector equities, like innovation or workforce development. The contractor must also build the capacity and provide solutions for measuring the outcomes of partnering with the private sector in maximizing results and generate and share knowledge around selected technical programmatic areas and facilitate interactions that review these results and provide knowledge to inform strategic decision making.

Localization USAID envisions expanding the share of its programs that are locally led, in which a diverse group of local actors define priorities, design projects, drive implementation, measure and evaluate results, and more fully own and sustain efforts to reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance, reduce corruption, address climate change, and work to prevent conflicts. The contractor must incorporate localization principles to inform engagement beyond our projects, including: our convenings, the expertise we seek, our policy reform dialogues, and all the ways we engage in development. (See USAID Localization Vision.) Local capacity building - including working with local sub-awardees, upskilling local contractors, USAID implementing partner and government staff, and other similar local efforts - must be incorporated into every intervention in this contract (within appropriate reason).

USAID/Georgia has a rich history of using the Agency’s human and institutional capacity development (HICD) model to achieve lasting results in the institutional capacity of the Mission’s strategic partners in Georgia. The HICD model is based on a structured and systemic methodology of identifying and addressing gaps in institutional performance.

USAID/Georgia will work with the Contractor to identify select Georgian government, nongovernmental, or private sector entities that play a critical role in advancing Georgia’s locally led and long-term development solutions. The Contractor must work with these entities to help them achieve lasting results in their institutional capacity, utilizing a suite of HICD/performance improvement services tailored to the needs of selected institutions.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) USAID is committed to a diverse, equitable, inclusive workplace where everyone has an opportunity to thrive. The Agency’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Strategy commits USAID to improving and enhancing diversity throughout the Agency, enhancing inclusion and equity for everyone in the workplace, and strengthening accountability for promoting and sustaining a diverse workforce and an inclusive Agency culture. Throughout its programming, USAID aims to incorporate the principles of DEIA and the Agency expects this of its implementing partners as well.

C.4 Workload Management Specified tasks to be performed by the Contractor will be determined for every upcoming twelve-month period, updated on a quarterly basis, in collaboration with USAID based on the Mission’s needs in the upcoming period. The format of the work plan will be developed jointly between USAID and the Contractor. In addition, USAID reserves the right to request additional ad hoc tasks outside of the work planning process when unanticipated needs arise.

DRAFT

https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2022-12/USAIDs_Localization_Vision-508.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/about-us/diversity-equity-inclusion

C.5 Scope of Work The following are the general workstreams that the Contractor must perform:

1. Data: generate, collect, review, curate, analyze, and synthesize key information for decision-making.

2. Learning: regularly hold information and learning sharing events to support decision-making processes, utilizing data generated and analyzed.

3. Adapting: ensure USAID staff and partners have the skills and resources to effectively respond to shifting priorities and contexts utilizing data generated and learning derived.

4. Collaboration and Capacity: develop and utilize mechanisms/tools for multi-stakeholder collaboration and address partner entities’ human and institutional capacity gaps.

C.5.1. Workstream 1: Data

This workstream involves the supply of key inputs for decision-making through the collection, systematization, curation, synthesis, and analysis of data required to generate information and turn it into actionable knowledge.

The Contractor must conduct research, assessments, and data analysis to support the Mission in making decisions regarding strategy and activity objectives. Using data collected directly by the Contractor through research and assessments, as well as aggregating the data already collected by the Mission’s implementing partners and/or third party sources, the Contractor must increase the number of usable data sets, identify stakeholder priorities, consolidate existing data (and fill in gaps as appropriate), and develop data visualizations that allow Mission leadership to easily interpret the data for making evidence-based management decisions. Per the Agency’s forthcoming Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning Policy, knowledge needs to be available, organized, searchable, screen readable, translated when possible, intellectually clear and understandable across different learning styles, mindful of equity, and inclusive of diverse knowledge frameworks systems. Knowledge products must be framed and socialized to help people understand and use them. The management implications of context and performance data are not always self-evident. Insightful data analysis and a compelling visual display of performance and context information can help spur achievement and demonstrate the need for changes in USAID strategies, projects, and activities.

The contractor must seek to undertake this workstream in a manner that systematically builds the capacity of partner entities, most likely the GOGs economic cadre and university researchers, though potentially other entities and organizations.

Task 1.1. Conduct Data Collection, Polls, and Surveys The Contractor must develop and implement a range of primary data collection tools tailored to fill in gaps in USAID/Georgia’s analytical needs. The Contractor must work with USAID/Georgia to identify the best tools to address an identified knowledge gap, develop the methodology for the implementation, and then present findings and conclusions in both oral (presentation) and written (report) formats. Tools may include interviews, focus groups, polls, and surveys that collect information not available in secondary sources. Examples of tasks USAID may direct the Contractor to conduct include but are not limited to the following:

a. Engage with the Mission’s decision-makers at multiple levels, including Agreement Officer’s Representatives (AORs), Contracting Officer’s Representatives (CORs), Office Directors, and the Front Office, to identify the existing data gaps and develop a plan for generating and absorbing data insights.

b. Develop statements of work and detailed designs for polls, surveys, social sensing, and other data collection efforts, in close consultation with USAID/Georgia COR, implementing partners (as needed), and/or technical teams.

c. Collect beneficiary feedback through direct engagement with USAID beneficiaries in multiple languages.

d. Design national- and sub-national survey instruments (including listening tours) that collect qualitative and quantitative data.

e. Administer surveys and public opinion polls, collecting, systematizing, analyzing and presenting survey data at the national and subnational level.

f. Conduct third-party monitoring in inaccessible parts of Georgia to collect, analyze, and present performance and other contextual data through sub-contracts or other arrangements.

g. Produce new data through aggregating, systematizing, synthesizing, analyzing and presenting the existing data sets created by USAID contractors and grantees or third party sources using creative cross-tabulations, longitudinal analyses, and regression analysis.

h. Collect, synthesize, analyze and/or present data for select performance indicators included in the Missions Performance Management Plan (PMP).

i. Input data into USAID’s Development Information Solutions (DIS), and/or submit the data through any other system or format, as instructed by USAID.

j. Work with the GOG counterparts to systematically build capacity and improve information sharing between USAID and the GOG.

Task 1.2 Conduct Assessments and Analysis of Data Sets The Contractor must design and carry out assessments to examine country or sector contexts, the existing development trends and gaps, and other relevant information to inform USAID/Georgia strategy or project activities. Assessments will help inform Mission policy, strategic direction of programs, and overcome barriers to CDCS implementation.

Assessments may include information about USAID projects, programs, or research activities that provide information and knowledge on culture, environment, institutions, politics, economics, and social and geography dimensions. The Mission will draw on this knowledge base to devise new strategic approaches and interventions and adjust current ones. The Contractor may implement on average three assessments annually. Examples of tasks USAID may direct the Contractor to perform include but are not limited to:

a. Engage with the Mission’s decision-makers at multiple levels, including AOR/CORs, Office Directors, implementing partners (as needed), and the Front Office, to identify assessment and analytical needs.

b. Develop statements of work and detailed designs for assessments and studies, in close consultation with the USAID/Georgia COR, technical teams, and implementing partners.

c. Develop comprehensive analytical products such as political economic analyses

(PEAs), regional case studies, systems mapping, and thematic and sectoral assessments to inform USAID/Georgia strategy, approaches, and/or programming.

d. Conduct the analyses necessary to inform USAID/Georgia’s activity designs, such as stakeholder analysis, gender equality and women’s empowerment analysis, sustainability analysis, conflict analysis, institutional analysis, analysis of local capacities, environmental impact analysis, social soundness analysis, Government-to-Government (G2G) risk assessment, and others.

e. Conduct special studies, academic research, literature review and synthesis, situational analyses, rapid appraisals, feasibility studies, cost-benefit analyses (CBA), cost-efficiency analyses (CEA), due diligence analyses, and others on certain sectors or issues relevant to USAID’s programmatic or strategic areas.

f. Analyze, prepare reports, and present data and findings obtained in the assessments.

g. Conduct additional actions required to enable effective policy.

The Contractor must analyze existing data collected through either USAID/Georgia itself, its implementing partners, or third-party sources so that USAID can take the necessary actions to design, complete, and communicate results. The Mission, through the Agency’s Development Information Solution (DIS) system, annually collects large volumes of IP-generated data, including performance indicator data for both standard F indicators and the Mission’s Performance Management Plan (PMP) indicators.

In addition, the Mission currently maintains five geographic operational datasets: activity location, investment location, beneficiary location, local partners, and site visit monitoring.

This data is used to create the Mission’s annual geographic analysis.

The Contractor must utilize these existing data sources, along with other third-party sources, such as Geostat, World Bank, etc., to create accessible and easily understood data visualizations that can be used for decision-making at all levels.

The Contractor must work in consultation with USAID to identify key learning questions, then review USAID and third-party sources to analyze existing data to be used in the creation of visualizations. Visualizations can take the form of Tableau dashboards, infographics, or other useful formats determined in conversation with USAID.

Task 1.3 Create Repository of Existing Studies Conducted by IPs Without Replicating the DEC While USAID assessments are uploaded to the Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC), the existing system has limited search functionality, making it difficult to effectively utilize as a source of information.

The Contractor must identify what relevant assessments are available currently, on the DEC or elsewhere, and compile a searchable database within the Google Suite that contains links to available studies. The Contractor must also ensure that new assessments conducted under the life of the award are uploaded promptly to the DEC and linked to the database where they can be easily accessed by USAID staff for decision-making purposes. This will require working with USAID staff and implementing partners to understand what assessments have already been completed and what assessments are currently underway or planned in order to ensure no relevant or USAID-funded assessments are missed.

Task 1.4 Synthesize Related Assessments In addition to the assessments conducted by USAID/Georgia itself, the Mission’s implementing partners conduct many targeted assessments over the lifetime of their awards. These assessments are often technical and lengthy, requiring an investment of time and resources to both conduct and process.

The Contractor must utilize human-centered design techniques to synthesize and create more digestible knowledge products, allowing for easy dissemination of key points. In collaboration with USAID, the Contractor must develop a consultative process that involves both USAID staff and implementers to ensure the Contractor is aware of upcoming assessments to include in this process, as well as to inventory past assessments which may be relevant to the current context and valuable in informing programmatic approaches. The Contractor and USAID will jointly select assessments for synthesis.

Where possible, the Contractor must involve national institutions, CSOs, business organizations, and other relevant local entities in the analysis/synthesis of selected assessments; thus, advancing USAID's localization agenda.

C.5.2 Workstream 2: Learning

Under Workstream 2, the Contractor must support USAID to effectively utilize and transmit the knowledge gained from Workstream 1 by organizing, supporting, and facilitating learning events at the strategic, sectoral, and office level. These learning events will become instrumental components of management decision-making processes.

Learning takes place when USAID and stakeholders utilize a variety of sources of information (including data from monitoring, portfolio reviews, findings of research, evaluations, analyses conducted by USAID or third parties, knowledge gained from experience) and take the time to pause and reflect on what’s working and what needs adapting in the current implementation strategies. This helps USAID draw on evidence and experience from many sources and employ participatory development methodologies that catalyze learning for ourselves and our stakeholders. Learning helps USAID to adapt to rapidly changing events by incorporating lessons learned and past experiences into decision-making and program planning decisions, such as how to effectively support Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration and attain USAID’s CDCS goal and DOs.

The Contractor must assist USAID/Georgia to incorporate learning at key points under the Mission’s current CDCS both by developing the enabling conditions to successfully integrate learning across USAID/Georgia’s strategy and portfolio and by actively supporting learning throughout the Program Cycle.

Task 2.1 Support Mission Development, Implementation, and Closeout of the CDCS Developing a CDCS is a time-intensive process that requires engagement with stakeholders across the Agency and across the partner country. USAID’s CDCS is grounded in development theory, practice, literature, and experience from implementation and supports USAID’s mission to promote and demonstrate democratic values abroad, and advances a free, peaceful, and prosperous world. USAID/Georgia’s CDCS is valid through May 2025 with a possible extension.

During the lifetime of this contract, USAID/Georgia will go through the process of preparing and implementing a new CDCS. The brunt of this work takes place over three phases, which the Contractor must support through coordination, facilitation, and provision of logistical support.

During the official CDCS process, which consists of three phases as set forth in Automated Directives System (ADS) 201, USAID may direct the Contractor to perform the following, but not limited to, tasks in support of the CDCS development.

● Phase One: Initial Consultations and Parameters Setting: During Phase One, Missions initiate a formal dialogue with relevant Washington Bureaus and Independent Offices (B/IOs) and interagency stakeholders to ensure that subsequent drafts of their CDCS reflect a corporate view of Washington’s expectations. In addition, they discuss the relative strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities in their partner countries based on their assessment of the most relevant Mission- or third-party sourced data and other evidence. This phase culminates in agreement between the Mission and Washington on priorities, sectoral focus, and other parameters for the CDCS. It also results in agreement on the Mission’s plan for developing the CDCS during Phases Two and Three.

The Contractor may be required to facilitate Phase One of the CDCS preparation, including facilitating internal meetings and discussions, preparing materials, etc.

(including as part of Workstream 4). The Contractor may also be required to conduct sectoral assessments to inform this process (as part of Workstream 1).

● Phase Two: Development of a Results Framework: During Phase Two, Missions finalize key analyses, assess evidence and/or other types of information, engage with local stakeholders (GOG, civil society, private sector, other donor organizations) and relevant Washington B/IOs to establish their initial development hypothesis; finalize their budget scenarios; prepare the Summary Paper and Matrices annex associated with their Results Framework; and outline the next steps to prepare the full CDCS.

This phase culminates in Agency agreement on the approaches the Mission will use to advance its strategic goal, budget scenarios that reflect strategic priorities, and an organizing framework that will inform the subsequent development of their CDCS, PMP (see ADS section 201.3.2.15), and projects and/or activities (see ADS section

201.3.3 and 201.3.4).

The Contractor may be required to facilitate Phase Two of CDCS preparation, including organizing brainstorming sessions with internal and external stakeholders, preparing initial paperwork, arranging logistics, etc.

● Phase Three: Preparation and Approval of the CDCS: During Phase Three, Missions apply findings from additional analyses and consultations, further refine their strategy, and prepare and submit the full CDCS. This phase culminates in the final approval of the Mission’s CDCS.

The Contractor may be required to facilitate Phase Three of CDCS, including but not limited to support with drafting and finalizing the final strategy, both internal and public copies.

Task 2.2 Support Regular Mission Portfolio Review Processes Portfolio reviews are opportunities for Missions to periodically examine designated aspects of the Mission’s strategy, projects, or activities. Per ADS 201.3.2.18, Missions must conduct at least one portfolio review per year that focuses on progress toward strategy-level results.

Missions may conduct additional portfolio reviews, such as semi-annual portfolio or DO-level reviews, and the objectives, content, and format of these additional portfolio reviews may vary depending on the needs of the Mission. Portfolio reviews play an important role in a Mission’s ongoing learning and adapting, serving as a pause and reflect moment for the Mission to generate and apply new learning across a broad range of programmatic and operational approaches, including from changing circumstances or context in the country.

Missions may also leverage portfolio reviews to further enhance strategic collaboration and stakeholder engagement, to strengthen knowledge transfer among staff and partners, and to address organizational practices and culture to better enable adaptive management.

The Contractor may be required to plan, prepare, organize, and facilitate, and follow-up on portfolio reviews for the Mission.

Task 2.3 Facilitate the Development and Implementation of the CLA Agenda and Implementation Plan In collaboration with USAID, the Contractor must develop an annual collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) Agenda and Implementation Plan at the start of each year. The Agenda must include a schedule of all learning events planned for the year both internally for USAID and externally among implementing partners and other key stakeholders. The Contractor must implement the activities agreed upon in the CLA agenda, through the provision of planning and logistics, facilitation, and follow up on outstanding action items. The Plan will be updated on a quarterly basis.

Opportunities for knowledge sharing must be built into the CLA Agenda and Implementation Plan.

Illustrative examples of learning events include:

● Implementing Partner (IP) meetings

● Learning workshops

● Pause and reflect sessions

● Donor coordination meetings

● Routine direct beneficiary feedback collection and response at community, municipal, and nationals levels

● Community of practice meetings

Task 2.4 Develop and Assist in Key Knowledge Sharing Practices and Facilitate Sectoral and DO-Level Pause and Reflect Sessions or Feedback Loops with USAID, IPs, Program Participants, GOG, and Other Key Stakeholders The Contractor must conduct and support events, learning fairs, workshops, and seminars that promote collaboration and learning among USAID, IPs, GOG, and other stakeholders, including beneficiaries.

Workshops and learning fairs will provide a forum for sharing best practices, summarizing lessons learned from evaluations and analyses, discussing changes to the development context in Georgia related to the critical assumptions outlined in the CDCS, reviewing progress towards the achievement of DOs, determining whether the CDCS and DOs remain relevant in light of the changing development context, discussing sector-level challenges and gaps, and brainstorming solutions.

The Contractor must also facilitate periodic meetings with partners, learning networks, and/or other stakeholders to facilitate learning and knowledge sharing at sector- or sub-sector levels. The Contractor must organize logistics for the events, covering costs of non-USAID participants, providing a venue, facilitation and soliciting and organizing content (such as presentations, round table discussions, technical discussions, contests, networking opportunities etc.) from among participating stakeholders. The Contractor must document and make available in useful form analytic results, studies, evaluations, meeting notes, decisions made, and follow up from learning engagements.

The contractor must also produce a collaboration and learning e-newsletter on a quarterly basis. The Contractor must also propose other innovative knowledge sharing products.

C.5.3. Workstream 3: Adapting

The Mission considers adaptation as both an outcome of and input to decision-making. The Contractor must support USAID’s ongoing processes to assist in adapting to decisions made by USAID based on Workstreams 1 and 2. This may include but is not limited to facilitating communities of practice, training events, capacity building courses, etc. at the mission and IP level,as well as providing short term technical assistance to the Mission in the areas of strategic planning, programmatic design, research, program management, monitoring and evaluation, and other fields specific to the program cycle.

Task 3.1 Support Communities of Practice at the Mission and IP Levels USAID communities of practice are smaller voluntary working groups or learning networks focused on exploring challenges, successes, and opportunities relating to specific cross-cutting topics. Communities of practice give members the opportunity to learn from one another, explore shared challenges, and, importantly for USAID’s work, develop working relationships across the Mission’s portfolio that can lead to unexpected opportunities for cross-cutting collaboration. USAID/Georgia currently operates internal communities of practice among its staff on a range of topics. In addition, USAID/Georgia’s staff run two external communities of practice for implementing partners, one focused on private sector engagement and another - on positive youth development, with plans to add additional communities based on the results of surveys and conversations with implementing partners.

The Contractor must support the Mission, including USAID technical advisors, to organize and facilitate community of practice meetings, as well as maintain engagement with the communities of practice in the interim between in-person or virtual meetings.

Task 3.2 Develop and Deliver Training Courses for IPs USAID/Georgia occasionally has the need for one-off or ad hoc training courses for implementing partners. This can be in response to changing requirements from Washington or changing priorities within the Mission as it aims to improve the quality of its own processes. Examples of previous and possible training events include but are not limited to:

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) plan writing using standardized MEL templates, rollout of new PMP and F indicators, guidance on indicator collection methodologies, capacity building for data collection and entry, understanding performance indicator reference sheets, etc. The Contractor must prepare, organize, and deliver relevant training events as requested.

Task 3.3 Deliver Annual Georgia 101 Training Course for New Hires and Incoming Staff USAID/Georgia, as part of its ongoing organizational strengthening efforts, has recently developed a New Employee Orientation Training that leverages existing resources and Mission capacities. This training focuses on preparing new staff ahead of and upon their arrival to Georgia. The purpose of this onboarding training is to impart critical contextual knowledge about Georgia to incoming and recently arrived personnel, most of whom will be in leadership positions and have a high degree of engagement with a wide array of stakeholders in Georgia as part of their duties.

USAID/Georgia has developed a training course, including training curriculum and training material, on contemporary Georgian politics, economy, and society. The Contractor must deliver the Annual Georgia 101 course at least once per year, drawing on and/or updating the material already available and developed. In delivering this training, the Contractor must bring together qualified and well-regarded lecturers, specialists, researchers, and/or activists with knowledge of Georgia, the Caucasus, and the broader geopolitical context. This group of experts must be diverse, and it must include a mix of Georgian and non-Georgian, as well as minority voices to ensure a balance between a diverse and inclusive range of all perspectives. The proposed teaching team must have a proven track record of delivering fact-based, well-balanced training courses using advanced methods and tools in adult learning and training design and delivery.

Lectures will include essential topics such as understanding Georgia’s political history, transitions, and current status; U.S.-Georgia history and relations, with a focus on USAID programmatic history; geopolitical dynamics, including Georgia’s complicated relationship with Russia; economy; human rights; geography, religions, cultures, and ethnic diversity;

society, customs, and attitudes. This intensive examination of the political, historical, economic, social, and cultural features of Georgia will provide a pertinent analytical account of Georgia’s current political and developmental challenges and opportunities. After delivery, the contractor must conduct a feedback survey.

The contractor must continue to refine the curriculum based on participant input, as well as changes to USAID/Georgia’s operating context within the county to ensure that incoming staff in the future are receiving accurate and up-to-date information upon their arrival. In the case of substantive changes to the curriculum, the Contractor must work with international and local experts to ensure a nuanced and high-quality product.

Task 3.4 Develop Knowledge Retention and Transfer Practices for Staff Onboarding and Offboarding Due to USAID’s frequent turnover of U.S. Direct Hire (USDH) staff, it is essential to develop regular processes for the capture and transfer of knowledge, both explicit and tacit. Strong knowledge management processes are a key enabling condition for effective collaboration, learning, and adapting.

USAID/Georgia, as part of its ongoing organizational strengthening efforts, has recently developed a New Employee Orientation Training that leverages existing resources and Mission capacities to improve the onboarding experience for new staff. The Contractor must support these knowledge transfer efforts while developing better processes for capturing knowledge from outgoing staff ahead of their departures to prevent the loss of important institutional memory.

While explicit knowledge is more easily surfaced, managed, documented, and shared, special care must be taken to surface, synthesize, and share important tacit knowledge before USDH staff depart to their next posts. Tacit knowledge refers to the knowledge, skills, and abilities staff acquire through experience. USAID’s forthcoming Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning policy states that, rather than trying to make it explicit, tacit knowledge can be more meaningful when shared in context and via peer-to-peer discussion.

In developing knowledge retention and transfer practices, the Contractor must take into account both types of knowledge.

Task 3.5 Develop and Deliver Core Capacity-Building Sessions for USAID Staff In order to successfully strengthen the organization as a whole, one must strengthen the people who comprise it. USAID/Georgia has a talented staff with many specialized skills.

Building core capacities among them will increase the capacity of USAID overall and allow for better collaboration, learning, and adapting.

Examples of skill development areas include but are not limited to:

● Facilitation skills

● Public speaking

● Meeting management

● Inbox management

● Google suite

The contractor must develop and deliver capacity-building sessions on a range of workplace skills that will increase staff effectiveness through a deeper personal awareness of individual behaviors, a shared understanding of interpersonal and team dynamics, and a combination of improved hard and soft skills.

Task 3.6 Provide Short-Term Technical Assistance (STTA) Services to USAID The Contractor must address critical gaps that USAID/Georgia experiences in staffing and subject-matter expertise. USAID/Georgia occasionally requires high-skilled, short-term and medium-term technical advice. The Contractor must ensure that USAID/Georgia receives the support required to accomplish its strategic objectives. However, the consultants contracted would not perform inherently governmental functions while serving in, or on the behalf of USAID/Georgia. Areas of needs include strategic planning, programmatic design, research, program management, monitoring and evaluation, and other fields specific to the program cycle. The Contractor must be able to provide consultants in a timely manner and in coordination with USAID needs, timeframes, and preferences.

C.5.4. Workstream 4: Collaboration and Capacity While collaboration and capacity building are cross-cutting elements throughout all interventions, they are listed separately under this workstream to maximize the benefits of targeted, discrete collaboration mechanisms and performance-improvement efforts.

Learning and adapting require collaboration and communication with an array of stakeholders (ranging from Mission staff and IPs to GOG counterparts, private sector, and beneficiaries), as well as continuous improvements in the human and institutional capacity/performance of the Mission’s strategic partners.

The Contractor must develop and utilize effective mechanisms for multi-stakeholder collaboration and support the Mission’s select strategic partners with performance improvement services.

Task 4.1 Organize and Facilitate Regular Organizational Development Pause and Reflect Sessions (Retreats) at the Mission, Leadership, and Office Level Through experience, the Mission believes that combining all-staff, team-specific, and senior staff pause and reflect sessions as part of a Mission-wide approach to organizational development has proven fruitful in achieving the Mission’s CCLA objectives at various levels across the organization, by creating a culture of continuous learning that leverages and build interpersonal and professional relationships.

The Contractor must organize and facilitate such pause and reflect sessions. In designing the organizational development pause and reflect sessions, the Contractor must propose a process by which key data related to organizational dynamics, team issues, and Mission-wide issues are used to inform organizational development priorities for action. This may also include a survey, focus group, informant interviews (or other tools) that requires minimal time commitment from staff, while providing critical input into agenda design.

Across all aspects of the organizational development pause and reflect sessions, USAID/Georgia requires:

● Utilization of the DiSC Model (or similar), including completing initial surveys and ensuring the accompanying analysis for all staff, including those that have joined since the tool was last offered in April 2023;

● A schedule prioritization of activities/interventions to enable follow-up and operationalization of any action items, individual or shared commitments made during the sessions;

● A particular focus on inclusion, ensuring all voices are heard, including those that may be more reticent or contrary;

● Facilitating a candid but constructive and appreciative dialogue among staff, with an emphasis on problem-solving, individual responsibility, team spirit, mutual respect and empowerment;

● Consistent reinforcement of the Mission's (and Agency's) emphasis on leadership behavior and development and explicit values, such as DEIA and inclusive development.

Specific activities for each session would be designed based upon initial consultations with Mission leadership and team leads and the proposed needs assessments and/or diagnostics as proposed by the facilitator(s) to gather additional background information on potential issues and areas for further development.

The contractor must work with the Mission's Executive Office (EXO) to coordinate all organizational development session logistics and preparations and ensure all necessary materials and audio-visual equipment are on-site for the successful execution of each scheduled organizational development session.

Task 4.2 Provide Logistical Organization for Interventions The Contractor must provide all logistical support for learning events, training activities, stakeholder consultations, and other meetings, whether in person or virtual. This may include renting out space to hold meetings either on a one-off or long-term basis, providing refreshments/office supplies/etc., and facilitating training/learning events/co-creation events. This may also include providing data storage solutions or other digital logistics. While the majority of interventions will solely occur in Georgia, there may be a need for some limited regional logistical support for learning and collaboration events.

Task 4.3 Provide Human and Institutional Capacity Development (HICD) Services to the Mission’s Strategic Partners The Contractor must provide HICD/performance improvement services to a select group of the Mission’s strategic partners, including government, nongovernmental, and private sector entities. In consultation with USAID/Georgia, the Contractor will identify the recipients of performance improvement services based on rigorous selection criteria. The list of selected institutions and related tasks will feed into the Contractor’s work plan, updated on a quarterly basis. The Contractor must also retain the capacity to respond to the Mission’s ad hoc requests for performance improvement support.

Examples of performance improvement tasks USAID may direct the Contractor to conduct include but are not limited to the following:

- Holistic assessments of partner entities’ institutional performance to identify critical gaps;

- Designing relevant and effective solutions to resolve identified institutional performance gaps;

- Developing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and other relevant metrics to gauge progress toward improved performance;

- Developing and institutionalizing internal tools and mechanisms for iterative and continuous learning;

- Strategic and action planning;

- Communication strategy development;

- Improved human resources systems, policies, and practices.

Task 4.4 Develop a Young Development Professionals Program for Georgian Youth The Contractor must develop a young development professionals program that offers Georgian youth opportunities to gain professional experience in international development.

The Contractor must work with Mission staff to design and plan the program, including the identification of timelines, schedules, as well as roles and optimal tasks.

The young development professionals will be affiliates of the contractor and detailed within USAID/Georgia facilities, working with its technical or core offices, to advance the Mission’s development objectives. USAID anticipates that it will be able to host up to three young professionals at any given time. The contractor must work with the Mission to ensure candidates for the program pass a background investigation conducted by the Regional Security Office prior to employment.

The Contractor will offer the young development professionals a living stipend to offset the cost of employees living and commuting in Tbilisi. The purpose of the stipend is to allow the Contractor to recruit from communities outside of Tbilisi, including historically marginalized communities. The Mission must concur on the level of compensation for the detailees.

Task 4.5 Provide Exchange Visitor Support Services The Contractor must provide exchange visitor (EV) support services to all of the Mission’s IPs. Every year, USAID/Georgia supports a number of EVs to undertake training activities in the United States. The Agency uses the Training and Exchanges Automated Management System (TEAMS) to process and support EVs who visit the United States on a USAID J-1 visa.

The Contractor must designate an R1 Initiator and R2 Award Verifier who will work with the nominated EVs, relevant IPs, and Mission staff to process all EV-related data in accordance with the requirements of ADS 252, ADS Reference 252maa, and TEAMS User’s Manual.

C.6 Operations and Management

C.6.1. Office Requirements

The Contractor must establish an office and operations in Tbilisi and maintain them through the period of contract. The Contractor must have office space in downtown Tbilisi (Vake, Vera, Mtatsminda, Rustaveli, Freedom Square) that can accommodate large meetings (40-50 people) and provide flex space for at least three USAID staff members that wish to work downtown between meetings.

C.6.2 Staffing

The Contractor must have a combination of core staff to manage regularly scheduled work and deliverables and bring in additional…