Connectivity for learning RFI.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

Reference: Request for Information

Issue Date: February 25, 2021

Response Due Date: March 11, 2021

Title: Connectivity for learning

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. It is not a solicitation and is not to be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government or USAID to issue any solicitation or ultimately award a contract or assistance agreement on the basis of this RFI. The RFI is an attempt to reach out to the market in an effort to determine the scope of industry capabilities and interest and will be treated as information only.

Responses to this notice are not applications and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding agreement. Responses to this RFI are strictly voluntary and USAID will not pay respondents for the information provided in response to this RFI.

Responses to this RFI will not be returned and respondents will not be notified of the result of the review. If a Solicitation is issued, it will be announced publicly at a later date and all interested parties must respond to that Solicitation announcement separately from any response to this announcement.

This RFI does not restrict the Government’s approach on a future solicitation. USAID/KEA is in the process of designing these activities. No decision has been made regarding the type of instrument that will be used (e.g. acquisition or assistance). For this reason, this RFI will be posted on both Grants.gov and beta.SAM.gov.

INSTRUCTIONS

Responses to this RFI will only be accepted by e-mail to Eradeny@usaid.gov and are due not later than March 11, 2021. Responses must be in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat formats and clearly labeled on all pages with the name of the organization responding and, “Response to Connectivity for learning request for information.”

Please use the attached form when responding. Thank you for your interest in USAID programs and for taking the time to respond to this RFI. Note that there are multiple resource documents also posted along with the RFI.

Sincerely, Patrick Kollars

Supervisory Agreement/Contracting Officer http://beta.sam.gov/

a. Activity Background

Since the Government of Kenya (GoK) closed schools to help contain the spread of COVID-19 in early 2020, it has interrupted learning for over 17 million students, many of whom have no access to online or virtual learning. COVID-19 has underscored the need for more flexible learning options, like online or virtual learning, that build a more resilient education system that can handle unforeseen shocks and stressors. Unfortunately, not only do students lack access to virtual learning at home, many schools themselves (both public and low-cost private) do not have internet connectivity.

As an illustration, in 2020 a Kenyan NGO called Usawa reported that only 22% of Kenyan children have access to learning through the internet. The report also showed that children from a higher socioeconomic status and children who attend private schools are twice as likely to have access to digital lessons than pupils in public schools. The study also showed that less than 10% of learners in public schools have access to digital learning materials. Therefore, there is a great need to have flexible digital approaches to deliver quality education to Kenyan pupils in schools and in communities to respond to varying crises.

USAID/Kenya and East Africa (KEA) seeks to expand its distance learning programming toward more digitally relevant and impactful online learning solutions that are accessible to all types of pupils, especially the most marginalized. This interest comes as external shocks such as COVID-19, climate change, and ongoing conflict have severely disrupted education in Kenya. For example, chronic flooding has destroyed schools, and terrorist attacks against teachers in northeastern counties have led to the withdrawal of non-local teachers from their posts. Such shocks have made access to quality education services extremely difficult for affected children. USAID/KEA is interested in considering different technology options to support synchronous and asynchronous digital and virtual learning for students, especially children in the early primary grades, while taking into consideration barriers that limit digital learning such as lack of internet connectivity, digital learning tools and electricity.

USAID is looking for partnerships that would engage relevant stakeholders including the private sector, civil society, and the Ministry of Education and its parastatal institutions to deploy user-friendly, cost-effective, and sustainable technologies that support children with support from their teachers and families to safely access quality instruction from home or within their communities. Solutions might include leveraging existing digital tools supported by the MOE through the Kenyan Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). Solutions might also include promising new ways of supporting distance learning not yet explored by the Government of Kenya.

b. Activity Objective

With a variety of stakeholders, USAID/KEA seeks to bridge the digital divide and lack of internet connectivity in schools and communities while embedding the skills needed to help raise reading and social and emotional outcomes for all students in grades 1-3 through sustainable and user-friendly distance learning solutions and resources (both synchronous and asynchronous).

c. Activity Synopsis

The goal of the upcoming activity is to implement digital/online distance learning with support from the private sector (Kenyan, US, and international companies) to improve reading and social and emotional https://www.pd.co.ke/news/national/survey-majority-children-out-of-digital-learning-37082/ skills for all learners in grades 1-3 in a diverse array of Kenyan counties (ASALs, urban/rural areas, etc).

The activity will aim to improve reading and social and emotional skills while strengthening local capacity to support and manage distance learning, similar to other existing approaches offered in Kenya (EX:KICD).

The activity will have a unique focus on embedding caregivers and teachers with the knowledge, skills, and training to support learners in their homes, and ensuring that the intervention is sustainable beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

The theory of change is: IF (in select Kenyan counties especially those in the Northeast) (i) cost-effective and sustainable technology solutions to provide safe a/synchronous distance learning options for reading instruction and social and emotional skills are supported, (ii) capacity of local institutions is developed to implement an effective and sustainable distance learning modality focused on connectivity, and (iii) teachers, communities and households (especially caregivers) support reading and social and emotional skills outside of school; THEN (i) reading and social and emotional skills for learners in grades 1-3 will improve through distance learning and (ii) the basic education system (especially in Northeast Kenya) will become more sustainable and resilient to shocks through distance learning.

USAID would like to utilize “CLA” approaches: Collaborating intentionally with key stakeholders (particularly those working with and for learners in grades 1-3), including Kenyan actors and the broader development community, to share knowledge, reduce duplication of effort, and prioritize accordingly.

Learning systematically by drawing on evidence from a variety of sources engaged in comprehensive distance learning strategies, taking time to reflect on implementation, and supporting the capacity to develop, implement and monitor effective distance learning strategies within the Ministry of Education, schools, communities, local government, and other organizations and institutions engaged in the development of reading and social and emotional skills in young learners. Adapting strategically based on applied learning. USAID also seeks to enable CLA around innovative strategies to promote connectivity within schools and communities.

This activity will contribute to advancing Kenya on the Journey to Self-Reliance (https://selfreliance.usaid.gov/country/kenya) through capacity development and systems strengthening and will be consistent with the following USAID policies:

• USAID’s Education Policy

• Distance Learning Best Practices (focus on education in emergencies)

• MoE’s COVID-19 Response Plan

• USAID Implementation of Construction Activities

• 2020 GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT POLICY

• Local Systems Framework (https://www.usaid.gov/policy/local-systems-framework)

To achieve the activity objective, USAID is exploring the following key set of themes and approaches:

1) Low cost, sustainable provision of connectivity (particularly in remote, hardest to reach areas of the country) with a preference for locally tried and tested solutions

2) Appropriate modality(ies) to deliver reading and social and emotional skills content to learners (particularly those in the most hard to reach areas) https://www.usaid.gov/education/policy https://www.edu-links.org/sites/default/files/media/file/DELIVERING%20DISTANCE%20LEARNING%20IN%20EMERGENCIES.pdf https://www.education.go.ke/images/Kenya_basic_Education_COVID-19_Emergency_Response_Plan-compressed.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/303maw.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/GenderEqualityandWomensEmpowermentPolicy https://www.usaid.gov/policy/local-systems-framework

3) User-friendly, low maintenance hardware to deliver literacy and SEL content plus capacity building of school leaders, teachers, family, community members and students to connect to and use hardware provided regularly to enhance learning

4) Strengthening of partnerships/ local systems to support regular use of digital strategies (using connectivity and hardware/content provided)

d. Instructions for Responses to the RFI

Responses must be in Excel format (see Annex for template) and clearly labeled with:

• Responding organization/firm,

• Point of contact,

• Role of POC in organization/firm,

• POC email address/contact information, and

• links to any websites, summative and/or information materials.

Please indicate “Response to Kenya Connectivity RFI.” as a subject line. Responses to this RFI will only be accepted by e-mail to Enos Radeny at Eradeny@usaid.gov.

Comments/Questions (see Annex for response template)

Comments and questions will be accepted from all interested parties. All comments and questions will merely serve to inform the USAID/Kenya Mission on current trends and further refine the Statement of Work. Comments may include but are not limited to feedback on the Activity Synopsis, recommendations on contract type, anticipated demand in beneficiary geographic areas, other market considerations, etc. Note that respondents do not need to provide information to every question or sub-question; please only provide information to questions in areas with which you are most familiar. Please keep responses brief and focused.

USAID seeks feedback on the activity approach, including opportunities and potential pitfalls, and individual or institutional perspectives on programs, policies, research, data, activities, and/or development approaches that might be useful for the design, including past successes and failures, opportunities to leverage existing efforts and resources, gaps that need to be addressed, and young learner targeting focus.

In addition to comments on the Activity Synopsis, USAID is also seeking input from the development community and industry on the following:

1. What innovative options for internet connectivity are available and have been successfully piloted/implemented in Kenya (particularly in hard to reach areas like Northeast Kenya)?

a. Which of these may be useful within the context of education?

b. What type of physical infrastructure, if any, is required for innovative options for internet connectivity in Kenya (particularly in hard to reach areas)? What are associated costs?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18YCicFH71HYWfZr4VHp0h-qEo7c3lkWs/edit#gid=759267175 https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/303maw.pdf

c. What type of backbone infrastructure and or “last mile” options would be useful within the context of education?

d. Are there particular business models that have been found to be successful for sustainability of connectivity/digital innovations in Kenya (particularly hard to reach areas) Or in highly populated urban and/or rural areas?

2. What distance learning modality(ies) would be best for sustainably improving reading outcomes in Kenya?

a. What modalities have already been used and where?

b. How successful were they? What challenges were experienced/solutions found effective?

c. What sort of hardware would be required? Are there models available to reduce damage to/loss of hardware? How is maintenance of hardware best managed?

3. What innovations have been successfully implemented to increase school leaders’/teachers/caregivers/learners access to appropriate skills or training remotely?

a. Is there specific hardware that can be provided to support synchronous learning and remote delivery/assessment of reading content?

b. Are there particular models of training that can provide useful, consistent support to school leaders/teachers/caregivers as they teach remotely?

c. Are there particular interventions that can provide useful for appropriate community mobilization, especially in hard-to-reach areas like Northeast Kenya?

4. What partnership models can be useful to implement and build capacity around a strong digital teaching/learning strategy in Kenya?

a) How can collaboration with the private sector on a distance learning activity work around current NDAA 889 restrictions? What are possible routes to implement this without sacrificing learning outcomes? What USG resources can we use to assist this?

b) What is the best way to support county-level systems strengthening - to include local government, the private sector, and training institutions - to support a national distance learning strategy?

c) What is the best way to support crowdsourced learning platforms to build capacity around digital teaching and learning?

d) What is the best way to support county-level systems communications organizations like the Communications Authority of Kenya?

(End of RFI Notice) https://ca.go.ke/