FAQ_Indonesia-BAA-DIA-revised_dtd_02102016.pdf

USAID/INDONESIA

DEVELOPMENT ACCELERATOR FOR INCLUSIVE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

FAQ QUICK LINKS

THE CO-CREATION PROCESS

ELIGIBILITY AND PARTICIPATION

APPLICATION

FUNDING

TIMELINE

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

TARGET POPULATION

THE CO-CREATION PROCESS

How does it work? Once the participants are selected, they will be convened in Jakarta (and remote participants will be connected via video-teleconference) and will be professionally guided through an idea generation and sorting session that will help participants connect to others with related ideas. These groupings may then be used to enable smaller working groups that can each develop solutions. Multiple meetings may be required before a fully-formed idea is generated. USAID will review the ideas and will work with the groups with particularly promising ideas to jointly develop a Concept Paper. This Concept Paper will be submitted to a review board, which will make the recommendation to USAID’s Procurement Office and USAID’s senior management about whether to fund it.

ELIGIBILITY AND PARTICIPATION

Who is eligible to participate? Individuals, academic institutions, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, governments at all levels, and international organizations from anywhere in the world—including outside Indonesia—are able to participate. All interested must send a short Expression of Interest outlining their idea for workforce development, which should adhere to the criteria outlined in the announcement.

If governments participate, can they receive funding? We warmly welcome the participation of government entities, as they can bring important knowledge to the co-creation process. USAID will view such entities as experts in the co-creation process. At this time, USAID cannot provide direct funding to Government of Indonesia entities, but USAID is willing to explore other creative ways to cooperate.

What if I’m in another country? Will USAID fly me to Indonesia? Successful Expressions of Interest submitted from outside Indonesia will be connected to the co-creation process via Video Teleconference. As we are focused on using our funding to maximize development outcomes, we regret we are unable to support international travel.

What if I’m a small CSO in Indonesia and I don’t have funding to travel to Jakarta? We warmly welcome the participation of local CSOs and we will reach out to those submitting successful Expressions of Interest to explore how to involve them in the co-creation process.

Do we have to work or partner with an American company? No. We warmly welcome the participation of private sector, as they can bring knowledge and expertise to the co-creation process regardless of country of origin.

APPLICATION

Is there a limit to the number of Expressions of Interest from one organization? No, though to make the process easier for interested parties, we suggest describing multiple ideas in one Expression of Interest.

There are three purposes listed in the Addendum. Should one Expression of Interest propose solutions to all three, or can it focus on one or two? Expressions of Interest should focus on at least one of the purposes.

Does the Expression of Interest have to apply to all six target provinces? No, it can focus on one or more of the target provinces.

Must the proposed solutions reach USAID’s target of 200,000 people? No, the proposed idea can target fewer than 200,000 people, but we encourage solutions that reach as many people as possible in a significant way.

We also encourage targeted solutions that may initially be limited, but can be rapidly scaled for larger impact.

Regarding the section on “Partnership Expectations and Value,” should submitters provide letters of support from their partners? Letters of support from partners are not required at this stage. What we are hoping to learn from the EOIs is whether an applicant already has partners that it is bringing with its EOI submission (some groups are bringing in private sector partners with their EOI, for example). If the applicant is proposing a solution for Indonesia that is already being implemented in another context, we’re interested to know which (if any) partners were involved.

Should I bring in lots of partners on my Expression of Interest? We encourage applicants to bring in partners they wish to work with, including the private sector, but to also be flexible during the co-creation stage— you may start with an idea, but you should be willing to work with multiple new partners, as ideas are likely to evolve (or perhaps become something else entirely). It’s good to not be so wedded to certain partners before the process begins that it precludes your involvement in an alliance that may develop during the co-creation process.

Is it okay to include partners that may not be involved in this kind of work? We welcome the inclusion of partners who may have unconventional backgrounds and new perspectives.

I’ve never done this before. Can you help me to write my Expression of Interest? Unfortunately, for reasons of equity and fairness, we are unable to help submitters to write their Expressions of Interest, but we are very happy to provide guidance.

Can I be a partner on someone else’s Expression of Interest and also independently submit an Expression of Interest? Yes, absolutely.

Can/Should we add on annexes with budgets, CVs, letters of support, or any other material? No, please adhere to the 4-page maximum Expression of Interest. What we are looking for at this stage are well-articulated ideas and a short description, if applicable, of prior relevant experience. The process was intentionally simplified to encourage a broad range of applicants.

FUNDING

What do I win? This is not a typical challenge, with a prize to a single winner. The goal of this process is to bring together bright minds to develop new solutions to difficult problems. If USAID determines that the co-created solution should be funded, it will be – whether by USAID or other participants in the co-creation process. While it is possible that one participant’s idea will be funded, it is more likely that the most successful ideas will be those involving a range of actors who have collaboratively co-designed an idea.

How much money is set aside for this? USAID/Indonesia has budgeted US$55 million for the 5-year life of the Workforce Development project. This Development Challenge activity is only one part of the project.

What is the cap on the amount of money per activity? USAID may or may not fund activities resulting from this co-creation process. When the determination is made that USAID will fund an activity, the funding will be set based on the needs of that specific activity. In other words, there is no specific cap.

If governments participate, can they receive funding? We warmly welcome the participation of government entities, as they can bring important knowledge to the co-creation process. USAID will view such entities as experts in the co-creation process. At this time, USAID cannot provide direct funding to Government of Indonesia entities, but USAID is willing to explore other creative ways to cooperate.

Why would assistance awards be made, not acquisitions (contracts)? The Development Innovation Accelerator is a form of Broad Agency Announcement. The authority that allows the Government to use the Broad Agency Announcement for acquisition awards (contracts) is under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 35. This authority prescribes policies and procedures of special application to Research and Development (R&D):

“Applied research” means the effort that (a) normally follows basic research, but may not be severable from the related basic research; (b) attempts to determine and exploit the potential of scientific discoveries or improvements in technology, materials, processes, methods, devices, or techniques; and

(c) attempts to advance the state of the art. When being used by contractors in cost principle applications, this term does not include efforts whose principal aim is the design, development, or testing of specific items or services to be considered for sale; these efforts are within the definition of “development,” given below.

“Development,” as used in this part, means the systematic use of scientific and technical knowledge in the design, development, testing, or evaluation of a potential new product or service (or of an improvement in an existing product or service) to meet specific performance requirements or objectives. It includes the functions of design engineering, prototyping, and engineering testing; it excludes subcontracted technical effort that is for the sole purpose of developing an additional source for an existing product.'

Since the addendum is not specific or limited to R&D by the definition of FAR Part 35, we cannot use this authority for acquisitions. As the R&D limitation does not apply to assistance awards (grants and cooperative agreements), USAID may consider making assistance awards if appropriate.

Can USAID pay for construction activities? USAID funds are allowed to be used for construction activities, but there are specific requirements that need to be met before construction activities may be approved. We would welcome an EOI that includes construction elements, but which is not exclusively for construction activities.

Here is a link for USAID Implementation of Construction Activities, https://www.usaid.gov/ads/policy/300/303maw.

Key elements are:

- the construction activities can be only a portion of all award activities, and

- the estimated cost of construction activities at a single project site is less than $500,000 and

- the total aggregate estimated cost of construction activities under the award is less than $10,000,000.

TIMELINE

When is the deadline for submission of Expressions of Interest? The deadline is September 30, 2015. We may have additional co-creation opportunities on Workforce Development after the conclusion of this specific challenge.

When will we be notified if we were selected to participate? USAID will review all Expressions of Interest following the closing date and will aim to notify participants by the beginning of November 2015.

When will the co-creation process be held? The co-creation process (which might require several iterations) will be held between December 2015 and February 2016.

When will activities be funded? If USAID decides to fund activities, this will likely happen in mid-2016. If other organizations involved in the co-creation process decide to fund activities, those organizations will determine when they can make funding available.

When does this Inclusive Workforce Development program end? The timeline for this program is the same as our 5-year strategy, which ends in 2019. You can find our 5-year strategy (the Country Development Coordination Strategy, or CDCS) here: https://www.usaid.gov/indonesia/cdcs.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

How can I protect my intellectual property in this process? Expressions of Interest should be free of any intellectual property that the submitter wishes to protect. However, once submitters have been invited to engage in further discussions, submitters will work with USAID to identify proprietary information that requires protection. We understand that part of the co-creation process means working with others to pull together elements of ideas, expertise, and technologies to create something new, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. In doing so, you may determine that it is not possible to preserve the integrity of your intellectual property to the degree you wish, and you are welcome to leave the process. USAID/Indonesia may decide to pursue a partnership with your organization, separate from the Development Innovation Accelerator process, if USAID determines that your intellectual property has the ability to accelerate positive development outcomes on a major scale.

If we go through the co-creation process, can we commercialize the resulting product/service/idea at a later stage? For IP that is developed under the award, generally, USAID’s standard terms and conditions apply - the partner has full rights, but USAID will have a license to use and sublicense. The partner will have the ownership rights they need to commercialize.

Standard Terms and Conditions: Organizations making submissions under the BAA Addendum hereby grant USAID a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable right to use, disclose, reproduce, and prepare derivative works, and to https://www.usaid.gov/ads/policy/300/303maw https://www.usaid.gov/indonesia/cdcs have or permit others to do so to any information contained in the expressions of interest submitted under the BAA Addendum. As noted above, if the Development Innovation Accelerator engages further with the organization regarding its submission, the parties can negotiate intellectual property protection for the organization’s intellectual property.

Organizations must ensure that any submissions under the Addendum are free of any third party proprietary data rights that would impact the license granted to USAID herein.

TARGET POPULATION

Why are you focusing on ages 18-34, rather than younger people? As Inclusive Workforce Development is a five-year project focused on more immediate impacts on the workforce, we have chosen to focus on this particular segment. While there are certainly benefits to helping those under 18 to become “work-ready,” we decided to help the population that should already be part of the workforce. We will consider working with those under 18 to the extent that the workforce development activities include vocational training.

Does the target population have to have already completed secondary school? No.

How do you define “poor and vulnerable?” The poor are defined as the bottom 40% of the population, earning less than $2 per day. We are focusing on the ages 18-34. The vulnerable are those who are at high risk of falling below this line, as well as women, youth, and people with disabilities.

What about areas outside the six provinces USAID has targeted? USAID is focusing on North Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Sulawesi, and Papua. While we believe that some of the ideas that are piloted through this process could be beneficial in other provinces, we are only focusing on these six in this challenge.