B08_-_ATT_2_-_Statement_of_Work_Description_-_DIC_Evidence_2023-2026.pdf

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service International Affairs, Division of International Conservation

Strengthening the Service’s capacity to assess, build and use evidence for international conservation Statement of Work Description

1. GENERAL

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (hereafter, the Service) is dedicated to the conservation, protection, and enhancement of fish, wildlife and plants, and their habitats. It is the only agency in the federal government whose primary responsibility is the management of these important natural resources. The Service’s International Affairs (hereafter, IA) program coordinates domestic and international efforts to protect, restore, and enhance the world’s diverse wildlife and their habitats with a focus on species of international concern, and has international responsibilities under some 40 treaties and U.S. laws and regulations.

In order to improve the Service’s international partnerships and program delivery, IA seeks to strengthen its capacity to assess, build and use evidence. Increasing program capacity and partnerships will support the Department of the Interior (DOI) and Service’s responsibilities created by Congressional legislation and associated OMB guidance by building and using different types of evidence to understand and improve agency results.

2. BACKGROUND

The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (also known as the “Evidence Act”) was enacted by Congress to advance data and evidence-building functions in the Federal Government. The

Evidence Act creates a series of new requirements, most of which fall on OMB and the 24 agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990. CFO Act agencies, including DOI, are required to develop a multi-year evidence-building plan (also known as a learning agenda) that addresses priority questions relevant for decision-making, and an annual evaluation plan that describes key questions for each significant evaluation study planned for the next fiscal year. The Evidence Act builds upon the

Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2016 (FATAA), which directs agencies to develop monitoring and evaluation guidelines for grants and other forms of assistance in foreign countries, as well as a series of federal laws and executive actions since 1990 that have established requirements for agencies to build and use different types of evidence and performance information to understand and improve results.

Since 2018, the White House, OMB and independent federal agencies have provided guidance that directs and supports Federal agencies and programs to develop high-quality evidence, use that evidence in agency decision-making, and ensure sufficient capacity is available to do both. The Government

Accountability Office (GAO), for example, has developed key practices that “can help federal leaders and employees develop and use evidence to effectively manage and assess the results of federal efforts. The key practices are distilled from hundreds of actions identified in GAO’s past work as effective for implementing federal evidence-building and performance-management activities” (GAO-23-105460).

Practices are grouped by their primary focus (see figure below), including:

• Planning for results https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105460

• Assessing and building evidence

• Using evidence

• Fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement

The Service’s IA Program has undertaken initial steps to plan for results and to foster a culture of learning and continuous improvement (e.g., building capacity by creating a Program Evaluator position, defining goals via program design and logic modelling). To build upon past efforts and related contracts, IA now seeks to contract external services to better assess, build and use evidence, including GAO-recommended practices for federal agencies and programs to assess the sufficiency of existing evidence, identify and prioritize evidence needs, generate new evidence, use evidence to learn, apply learning to decision-making, and communicate learning and results (see GAO Figure 1 above). The anticipated contract scope and length is four years to synthesize the evidence for up to eight questions, that if answered (or advances were made to answer), would increase the impact and efficiency of the Service’s international conservation activities. Contract activities and outputs will be reported to the DOI Office of

Planning and Performance Management (PPP) and Service’s Division of Budget and Performance as part of annual reporting related to implementation of the Evidence Act, FATAA, and associated OMB guidance. See DOI’s Evaluation Policy 309 DM 4 for definition of key terms and additional background:

https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/elips/documents/309-dm-04.pdf

3. WORK TO BE PERFORMED BY CONTRACTOR

This contract is to support evidence-based decision making and policy development in the Service’s IA https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/elips/documents/309-dm-04.pdf program, helping the Department meet its Performance Goal (2.2.1) to protect and conserve domestic and international species under the FY2022-2026 Strategic Plan (weblink) and its commitment to building and using evidence for effective program management and strategic decision making (see additional details at https://www.doi.gov/performance/evidence-doi).

The focus of the contract is the development and framing of up to eight learning questions relevant for IA program delivery, and the synthesis of the evidence relevant to answering these questions. Questions and syntheses should adhere to international standards for environmental evidence assessment (e.g., protocols developed by the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence, and/or expert assessment of the documented evidence for the effectiveness of actions with processes developed by Conservation

Evidence) and provide the basis of the IA’s contribution to the DOI Learning Agenda and Annual

Evaluation Plan, including stakeholder engagement with the academic community and external subject matter experts to develop and/or refine learning questions where appropriate. For each learning question, outputs should include one or more of the following: (1) systematic reviews, which provide a summary of the best available evidence to support decision making; (2) systematic maps, which document how much and what type of evidence exists; or, where appropriate to the learning question,

(3) collaborative evidence-related activities (e.g., research collaborations, technical workshops) that results in new frameworks, tools, templates and/or classifications to facilitate evidence assessment, generation and use. In general, the questions are anticipated to be developed in parallel (in contrast to stepwise development), although the schedule will ultimately depend on the specific questions developed. The contractor will work in collaboration with Service IA staff, and other relevant collaborators, on the following tasks for each question:

1. Scoping and Coordination of Evidence Activities (10%). Coordinate and support initial meeting or teleconference to commence the contract and to provide feedback on the scope of the questions and, where appropriate, search strings and search strategy. Specific questions, approaches (e.g., evidence synthesis, workshop, tool development) and coordination needs will be determined in consultation with the Service’s IA Division of International Conservation, and other technical partners and potential sub-contractors where relevant. A s specific deliverable related to the task includes a scoping document. Create advisory committee(s) for learning questions as needed. Work with the Service to identify members for key advisory committee(s), including potential sub-contractors as relevant, and engage them throughout the process to ensure that the evidence-related activities are relevant and technically sound.

2. Evidence assessment (50%): Serve as a technical expert to develop a protocol for each evidence assessment, synthesis or learning question. Use technical expertise to apply the protocol, which may include searching for, collating and annotating relevant evidence in electronic databases and collections, Service-supplied financial assistance materials, and from participants in online or in-person workshops. Specific deliverables related to the task include

(a) a protocol for each scoped question; and (b) where appropriate, electronic databases of all search results, Service-supplied financial assistance materials, electronic collections of the sources in the database, annotated case studies, and reported findings.

3. Research Collaboration for Evidence Use and Generation (30%): Serve as a coordinator for technical partners, including potential sub-contractors where needed, to develop tools, templates, processes, research, and/or classification frameworks to facilitate evidence use and generation. In consultation with the Service, specific deliverables related to the task may include (a) action classification or taxonomy for conservation evidence work (e.g., classification frameworks to better name actions or interventions to facilitate evidence assessment); (b) a process for evidence assessment of individual studies; (c) evidence-based guidance documents for international wildlife conservation stakeholders; (d) conservation effectiveness testing.

https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/u.s.-department-of-the-interior-fy-2022-2026-strategic-plan.pdf https://www.doi.gov/performance/evidence-doi)

4. Communicate Learning and Results (10%): Synthesize evidence as a systematic review, map, report or publication where appropriate. Edit and review scientific manuscripts prior to submission to a peer review journal (e.g., Environmental Evidence). Specific deliverables related to task include evidence synthesis, a manuscript draft, and sharing of findings via a webinar or workshop for FWS team members and other stakeholders.

Contracts awarded under this announcement will be funded, in whole or in part, through a Participating Agency Program Agreement (PAPA) between the US Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation (DDI). The Activity Title of the Agreement is Critical Capacity Partnership signed on August 17, 2021. Section 632(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended (FAA), 22 U.S.C section 2392 (b).

Recipients are subject to the PAPA’s special terms and conditions, attached separately.

4. GOVERNMENT-FURNISHED MATERIALS/SERVICES

IA Division of International Conservation will:

• Provide direction and clarification on tasks throughout the duration of the project, as required.

• Provide direction and clarification on which PAPA special terms and conditions are applicable to contract activities.

• Arrange meetings with Service staff, as required.

• Approve selection of sub-contractors.

• As appropriate, serve on advisory committee and provide input on additional members.

• As appropriate, provide a copy of Service financial assistance materials.

• Participate in online and/or in-person meetings to share findings.

5. QUALIFICATIONS

• The Contractor shall adhere to the “Guidelines for Systematic Reviews in Environmental Management” by the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE), where relevant and appropriate to the learning question. Contractor must provide resume(s) of key personnel demonstrating at least 5 years of experience applying CEE Guidance and Standards, including affiliation with a CEE Centre (https://environmentalevidence.org/cee-centres/).

• The Contractor must have access to relevant databases (e.g., Web of Science, Scopus) and the peer-reviewed literature (e.g., through interlibrary loan and institutional subscriptions).

• The Contractor shall adhere to Federal standards for evaluation activities defined in OMB M- 20-12 and DOI Evaluation Policy 309 DM 4, including relevance and utility, rigor, independence and objectivity, transparency, equity, and ethics.

6. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

• January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2027.

7. DELIVERABLES

Support to the Service’s Divisions of International Conservation. An annual report is due on July 31 for each year of the contract, including a summary of progress and challenges, and finalized outputs completed since the previous annual report, in addition to a final report submitted at the end of the https://environmentalevidence.org/cee-centres/ period of performance. Additional deliverables for each learning question will be determined by the IA technical liaison, and may include:

• Revisions and comments on the draft Protocol for each scoped synthesis question shall be sent to the Service via email in Word format.

• Electronic databases of all search results and a list of included articles with bibliographic information, or Service grantmaking materials, shall be sent to the Service’s IA program electronically.

• Electronic collections of the sources in the database (PDFs) shall be provided in digital format to the Service.

• Electronic database of case study meta-data shall be sent to the Service via email in an appropriate format.

• Revisions and comments on the draft products shall be sent to the Service via email in Word format.

• Each learning question output should include at least one opportunity for Service technical review, followed by the Contractor addressing feedback, followed by a second Service technical review and Contractor addressing feedback on the revised output, before finalization.

• A recorded webinar will be delivered on a mutually agreeable date to have the contractor present findings to the FWS team and other stakeholders.

Scholarly publications and outputs of collaborative research activities produced with contract funds should be publicly accessible without an embargo on their free and public release, in alignment with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Memo (August 25, 2022) Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research.

8. PROJECT COMPLETION/DELIVERY SCHEDULE

The deliverables for this contract will be provided on an ongoing basis with all deliverables completed by the end of the contract’s period of performance. The following tasks are expected to be completed in Year One: (1) scoping of evidence questions, (2) creation of advisory committee(s). The following tasks are expected to be completed after Year One: (3) evidence assessment, (4) research collaboration, and

(5) communicate learning and results. Although the specific schedule for each learning question will ultimately depend on the specific questions developed, the Contractor must submit an annual report on July 31 for each year of the contract, including a summary of progress and challenges, and any completed outputs, to align and sync with the Service and DOI’s evidence reporting in August and September, in addition to a Contractor final report at the end of the period of performance.

LOCATION OF WORK

Location of work for this contract is expected to be responsive to telework and remote work situations and needs, and will be determined by Contractor, collaborators and key personnel identified by Contractor and the Service technical liaison.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-Access-Memo.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-Access-Memo.pdf mailto:matt_muir@fws.gov