HEA_U JnA for Other than Full and Open Competition_apporved.pdf

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION (J&A)

TO: Deborah Broderick, Agency Competition Advocate

FROM: Demeke Eshete, COR

SUBJECT: Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition

(J&A)

1. This document sets forth the facts and rationale justifying the use of other than full and open competition, in accordance with AIDAR 706.3:

This document was prepared by USAID/Ethiopia’s Office of Relief and Resilience (R2).

2. The nature and/or description of the action being approved:

This is a request to approve a sole source modification to Save the Children Contract No.

#72066320C00003 Household Economy Activity-Utilization (HEA-U) to extend the completion date from December 15, 2022 to September 15, 2023 and increase the total ceiling by $600,000 from $1,333,806 to $1,933,806. Under this action Save the Children will support the use of Household Economy Approach data and analysis for humanitarian decision making in Ethiopia.

The existing contract was awarded in January 2021 for Save the Children as a sole source using the authority given under Expedited Procedures Package for responding to Outbreaks of Contagious Infectious Diseases, and it was extended four times for a total 11.5 months’ additional time under the same authority. USAID/Ethiopia has a new follow-on HEA-U activity in the pipeline, but due to delays associated with the conflict and COVID-19, it has not yet been solicited and will not be online until mid to late 2023 at the earliest.

This cost extension will extend the current HEA-U activity through the 2023 humanitarian needs planning cycle to ensure that the millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars supporting humanitarian food assistance in Ethiopia reach the people in need without interference and that very vulnerable people in need of humanitarian food assistance to survive are not missed due to lack of reliable data on the severity of needs at the local level.

3. Description of the supplies or services required, including an estimated value:

The services performed under this cost extension will strengthen and consolidate utilization of HEA capacities, analytical tools, and products for humanitarian decision support. Services to be provided include:

- Technical support to EDRMC, the Food Security Coordination Office, the United Nations

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Program (WFP), the Shock Responsive Safety Net Technical Working Group, and the Food Cluster to use HEA results during the 2023 Humanitarian Planning Cycle.

- Seasonal assessment training and debrief for the mehr 2022 and belg 2023 assessments.

- Technical support to the Government of Ethiopia (GOE), United Nations, and other partners to utilize the 2022 mehr results for the 2023 Humanitarian Needs Overview/Humanitarian Response Plan (HNO/HRP), and the 2023 belg results for the Mid-Year Review of the

HNO/HRP.

- Technical support to the GOE, the World Bank, and other partners to utilize HEA results for the quarterly early warning dashboard, Drought Response Action Plan (DRAP) and Strengthen Ethiopia’s Adoptive Safety Net additional financing.

- Technical support to the GOE and other partners to utilize HEA tools and results for the Disaster Risk Finance Strategy.

- Technical support to the Food Cluster to support prioritization and targeting of food assistance to allocate scarce resources based on severity of needs.

- Generate projected food needs through December 2023.

- Training: Herd Dynamics (40 people), HEA data repository (40 people), Livelihoods Early

Analysis & Plan/Livelihoods Impact Analysis Spreadsheets (LEAP/LIAS) (50 people).

- Engage the GOE and partners to assess capacity and requirements for regular monitoring systems to support updates to humanitarian needs every quarter.

- Actively engage and contribute to the development of multi-hazard/multi-year early warning systems.

The total estimated value of the increase is $600,000.

4. Statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is the Agency for International Development Acquisition Regulation (AIDAR) Section 706.302-70 subsection (a)(2): (“Full and open competition need not be obtained when it would impair or otherwise have an adverse effect on progress conducted for the purposes of foreign aid, relief, and rehabilitation.”) and subsection (b)(5) (“An award for the continued provision of highly specialized services when award to another resource would result in substantial additional costs to the Government or would result in unacceptable delays.”)

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition that requires use of the authority cited:

The services to be added under the cost and time extension are inextricably linked to the work underway by Save the Children under the HEA-U activity. The HEA-based humanitarian food assistance planning system is under unique and unprecedented pressure. Not extending would impair or otherwise have an adverse effect on the delivery of relief. Without HEA data, USAID-funded humanitarian food operators would lose the evidence base upon which to target and prioritize the allocation of $1 billion in humanitarian food resources. Save the Children is the only source reasonably available without resulting in unacceptable delays that would result in substantial additional costs in terms of money but also human lives. No other implementers in Ethiopia currently have the capacity to conduct the same level of impartial analysis that will be used by key stakeholders.

The cumulative effect of conflict and climate shocks that began in 2020 has been record levels of humanitarian need in Ethiopia in 2022, and the U.N. Drought Response Plan for Ethiopia identifies

24.1 million people in need of humanitarian food assistance due to drought alone. A fifth poor rainy season is currently underway. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) estimates that four to five million people in southern and southeastern Ethiopia are likely to face crisis or worse levels of food insecurity through January, of which up to one million are projected to face catastrophe levels of acute food insecurity. A further six to seven million people in northern Ethiopia face crisis or worse levels of food insecurity as a result of the conflict, including up to 750,000 likely to face outcomes of catastrophe.

Over the past seven years, USAID/Ethiopia has worked with the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC) to build HEA analytical tools into government systems at the federal and regional level to generate timely, reliable, depoliticized estimates of food needs and prioritize scarce resources to meet urgent food needs. The system serves both humanitarian and development actors. The Food Cluster and humanitarian food operators use HEA data and analysis to make budget requests and target food assistance. USAID’s Joint Emergency Operations Program (JEOP) recently used HEA data to support reprioritization of its food assistance based on severity of needs. The World Bank’s $350 million additional financing for food through the shock responsive safety net component of the Productive Safety Net Program also uses HEA data to inform prioritization and allocation of resources in the Drought Response Action Plan (DRAP).

Without continued USAID support to HEA, the system will cease to function. There will be no evidence-based estimates of food needs across the country, and prioritization decisions will revert to being opaque and highly politicized. The disbursement of the World Bank’s additional financing will also be put at risk, because it is predicated upon HEA data and analysis being available to power the early warning dashboard and inform the DRAP. The evidence base this activity generates also underpins USAID’s development and emergency food assistance, including the

$550 million Resilience Food Security Activities, about $500 million provided to WFP and $1.0 billion provided to JEOP. It is also used to estimate the number of people in need of food for the HRP. Without ongoing support, the GOE and other partners cannot administer LEAP/LIAS effectively during this multiple shocks and complex crisis period and the gains towards evidence-based decision-making made over the past 15 years will be lost.

6. Description of the efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable, including whether a notice was publicized as required by

FAR 5.2 [AIDAR 705.2].

As required by FAR 5.201, on November 15, 2022, a Notice of Intent (NOI) for this proposed action was publicized for 15 days in SAM.gov, in an effort to ensure that offers were solicited from as many potential sources as practicable.

7. A determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable:

The Contracting Officer determines that the anticipated price(s) will be fair and reasonable based on the historical cost of the existing activity, an independent government cost estimate, and other similar awards.

8. Description of the market research conducted, and the results or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted:

Market research was conducted for the current contract and has been determined by the Contracting Officer to remain current. Further, given the fact that the contractor is already on the ground implementing the activity, it is in USAID’s best interest to use the same contractor for this bridge extension until the follow-on mechanism is in place.

9. Other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition:

This cost and time extension is necessary to avoid Ethiopia’s humanitarian food system ceasing to function. Full and open competition to continue USAID/Ethiopia’s engagement will not be completed before this activity ends. Without this extension to the HEA-U activity, there is a risk of financial injury to the U.S. Government and a threat to human lives.

USAID is currently providing more than $1 billion in funding for food assistance in Ethiopia.

Despite this generous support from the U.S. taxpayer, resources are insufficient to meet the scale of the food needs in Ethiopia, and tough prioritization decisions need to be made that are at high risk of becoming politicized. The allocation of these resources based on severity of needs relies upon the HEA data and analysis. Without this data and analysis there is a high risk that the decision making around the use of these resources will be hijacked by political interests. In addition to the financial injury to the U.S. Government from the potential waste of humanitarian food resources, there is also a risk of harm to human lives if humanitarian food resources do not meet those most in need.

A follow-on award is in the process of being competed, with Mission Office of Acquisition and Assistance (OAA) colleagues estimating that the follow-on activity will be finalized by July of 2023.

The Mission’s intention was to complete this follow-on competitive procurement process so as to finalize the award by December 1, 2022, which is the date on which the current award expires.

However, the R2 Office was unable to complete this action as planned in the midst of managing an extremely complicated Disaster Risk Management (DRM) portfolio, which in the last two years has been impacted directly by sanctions-related spending restrictions, an Authorized Departure for COVID-19, and an Ordered Departure due to concern that the conflict was approaching Post in Addis Ababa.

To frame the urgency of this issue, without the HEA-U activity the USAID Mission will have no hard data upon which to build its humanitarian response planning. This essential activity will allow USAID more effectively and efficiently prioritize more than $1 billion in resources in Fiscal Year 2023.

Moreover, the United States government is currently pressing the government of Ethiopia (GOE) to reinstate Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) processes, which the GOE formally suspended against the collective will of the donor community in Ethiopia in 2021. As HEA-U serves as a pillar of informing the internationally recognized IPC process, allowing this activity to end will undermine the United States’ own advocacy on this key humanitarian response issue. As the services to be added under the cost and time extension are inextricably linked to the work underway by Save the Children under the HEA-U activity, no other source could practicably compete for the requirement without unacceptable delays that would result in harm to the Government's foreign assistance objectives.

10. Sources, if any, that expressed an interest, in writing, in the acquisition:

As outlined above in Section 6 and as required by FAR 5.201, on November 15, 2022, a Notice of Intent (NOI) for this proposed action was publicized for 15 days in SAM.gov, in an effort to ensure that offers were solicited from as many potential sources as practicable. No expressions of interest were received.

11. The actions the Agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required:

USAID/Ethiopia is in the process of fully competing the new HEA-Utilization activity. It is anticipated that the new HEA-Utilization activity will be awarded in mid/late 2023.

USAID/Ethiopia’s R2 Office will prioritize work on the new procurement award to ensure that no further non-competitive time or cost extension will be required after this one.

12. Technical or Requirements Personnel Certification:

In accordance with FAR 6.303, I hereby certify that the technical statements included above and which form a basis for the justification are complete and accurate.

I 12/01/2022 Date

13. Contracting Officer Certification:

In accordance with FAR 6.303, I hereby certify that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

__2022-12-05_______ Date

14. Approved:

- Digitally signed -

Deborah Broderick Agency Competition Advocate