SOW_Workforce_Development_Consultant.docx

STATEMENT OF WORK

Workforce Development Specialist

Countries: Republic of Georgia, Lesotho, Indonesia and Multi-Countries

MCC-15-RFQ-0168

A. Introduction

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a Federal Corporation created under Title VI of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2004. MCC’s mission is to reduce poverty around the world through the promotion of sustainable economic growth based on the principle that aid is most effective when it strengthens good governance, economic freedom and investments in people. For more information on the Program, please consult the Senegal Compact, available at www.mcc.gov.

B. Background

The Human and Community Development practice group at MCC is responding to a rising level of interest by eligible countries in supporting workforce skills as linked to programs intended to build economic competitiveness. The following country initiatives are the main focus of this consultancy:

Lesotho

MCC is currently working with the Government of Lesotho (GoL) through the Lesotho Millennium Development Agency (LMDA) to develop a second Compact in the Republic of Lesotho. Lesotho’s international competitiveness is of critical importance for growth. Lesotho as an open, small and landlocked country has to be a better place to do business than its larger neighbors, to achieve similar rates of job creation and growth, because it has to offset other challenges. To target MCC’s resources towards areas where they may have the greatest impact on promoting private sector investment and entrepreneurship to create jobs, the MCC and LMDA teams undertook three studies to identify and contextualize binding constraints to growth in Lesotho (see Annex 1: Study Methodologies). The studies identified three binding constraints to private sector-led economic growth and poverty reduction:

1) Low human capital – both in terms of skills as well as the poor health of the general population

2) Poor land management allocation systems

3) Poor quality policy and regulatory structures

The studies also identified socio-cultural and legal factors affecting both the development of human capital and potential of the Basotho population, as well as general access to land for economic development. However, the most important underlying cause, which has been identified as a key syndrome in Lesotho, has to do with ineffective and weak government performance. The LMDA has begun its root cause analysis with employers, government agencies and education institutions and MCC staff, to understand the inability of the country to provide critical workforce skills and to provide equitable opportunities to Basotho. Based on this analysis, the LMDA has drafted a Concept Note entitled Strategic Investment Environment, designed to address issues that contribute to Lesotho’s inability to attract private sector investments and grow viable and dynamic local businesses; this project will potentially include a sub-activity focused on demand-driven workforce skills development including strengthening of governance and coordination mechanisms with private sector.

Republic of Georgia

In July 2014, MCC and the government of Georgia entered a Compact to improve the quality of education in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and increase the earning potential of Georgians through strategic investments from the start of a student’s general education to graduation from technical training and advanced degree programs. The compact includes a focus on increasing women’s participation in STEM professions. The $16.0 million Industry-Led Skills and Workforce Development project aims to improve the link between market-demanded skills and the supply of Georgians with those technical skills. The project consists of the following activities:

· Competitive Program Improvement Grants Activity: This activity will provide an initial investment in programs that develop, test and disseminate innovative and effective approaches to employment-oriented skills development through a competitive grants program.

· Strengthening Sector Policy and Provider Practice Activity: This activity will provide technical assistance to strengthen sector policy to support industry engagement in order to match private sector demand with labor supply.

Indonesia

In 2013, MCC and the government of Indonesia entered a Compact to strengthen the country’s economic competitiveness in the region and globally. The compact’s $332.5 million Green Prosperity (GP) Project is designed to increase productivity and reduce reliance on fossil fuels by expanding renewable energy, and to increase productivity and reduce land-based greenhouse gas emissions by improving land use practices and management of natural resources. To achieve its objectives, the GP Project aims to develop, finance, and implement green growth projects at the district level that promote entrepreneurship, strengthen district-level spatial planning, expand access to renewable energy, and improve environmental stewardship. The GP Projects’ main activities include:

· Participatory Land Use and Planning

· Technical Assistance and Oversight

· Green Prosperity Facility – grant financing

· Green Knowledge – knowledge sharing

The GK grant facility will award six to eight grants to implementing partners for a total of $15 million in the areas of workforce development and policy analysis/information dissemination in the fields of renewable energy and natural resource management.

C. Objectives

The objective of the short-term consultancy in Lesotho is to review LMDA’s assessment, to better understand the dynamics contributing to the potential skills mismatch, to consider the potential returns on investing in skills, to recommend alternative project options from a risk/reward perspective and to advise MCC and the Government of Lesotho on in-depth due diligence required by an incoming consulting firm and analysis required to inform project design. This short-term consultancy is intended to bridge a gap in services until a consulting firm is brought on board (estimated October 2015) to provide more comprehensive services.

The objective of the Georgia and Indonesia technical advisory support work is to conduct in-country and desk reviews to provide assurance that program activities are on track to meet agreed-upon specifications, schedules, milestones, and program budgets. The Consultant shall assist in identifying potential unforeseen implementation problems and provide recommendations for resolution.

For Georgia, technical supervision support to MCC team will center on the Competitive Program Improvement Grants activity, which is intended to expand private sector engagement with vocational schools on quality improvement activities. The facility overseeing implementation of these grants anticipates launching calls for proposals in June 2015, In addition, the MCA-Georgia and consulting firm finalizing a technical assistance support strategy with government counterparts, focused on aligning TVET policy development to workforce needs, financing mechanisms, strengthening of sector committees and of TVET provider/industry cooperation, and improving the sourcing, analysis and sharing of data. This Consultant will review the progress of this effort.

For Indonesia, the consultant will be expected to provide a similar type of technical oversight assistance to the MCC team on the Green Knowledge grant facility’s first year of programming, as is required for the Georgia competitive grants facility. The first round of grants for Green Knowledge are expected to be awarded by Fall 2015.

The Consultant may be requested to provide support on other MCC-eligible countries in Compact development or implementation stage with similar technical content.

D. Scope

MCC’s Human and Community Development Practice Group has a requirement for technical assistance from a Workforce Development Specialist with broad experience in Georgia Industry-led Workforce Skills Development, public-private partnership grant facilities, and institutional reform to due diligence the Lesotho proposals, to provide short-term support on early due diligence on a Compact project proposal (Lesotho, Liberia) and to monitor the implementation of Compacts in progress (Indonesia, Georgia), and to monitor the quality of the Indonesian Green Knowledge grant facility.

The Consultant shall provide advisory support to MCC, reporting to the Human and Community Development (HCD) unit at MCA-DC Headquarters Office and liaising with MCC’s Team Leader for Lesotho Compact Development, and the Georgia and Indonesia Resident Country Missions as necessary to set objectives, arrange for in-country work and to provide mission briefs. The Consultant shall not engage in implementation of MCA-Georgia and MCA-Indonesia’s programs but rather provide technical support to HCD’s oversight of the programs.

E. Country

Lesotho, Georgia, Indonesia, and any other MCC eligible country, if needed.

F. Tasks

The Consultant shall work closely with the project lead for the above MCC initiatives, and shall liaise as needed with MCA country teams, Implementing Entities and MCC and MCA contractors to carry out functional responsibilities. Tasks outlined below are general and would be applied across Compact development and Compact implementation countries, and will include:

Compact Development

The Consultant shall:

1. Review existing programs and recommendations for reform to identify priority focus areas for compact program development;

1. Review emerging program logic and provide advice to both MCC and LMDA teams as to how to strengthen logic;

1. Identify opportunities to leverage existing donor investments and successful programs, and note where there is potential for redundancy (expand on existing donor map);

1. Develop an alternatives assessment, including investment risk/reward scenarios and potential criteria for activity selection;

1. Provide input on tasks required by MCC due diligence firm(s) for the SIE project, assistance with onboarding of consulting teams as needed;

1. Identify and prioritize analytical work required to flesh out project design, input to project design scopes of work as needed; and

1. Other tasks, as requested by MCC.

Compact Implementation

The Consultant shall:

1. Assess quality of implementation of MCA’s competitive grants facilities and technical assistance efforts, to include:

0. quality of engagement with private sector;

0. oversight during shortlisting of grants;

0. oversight during due diligence of grant proposals and towards final selection

0. ensuring alignment of the project and specific grants with agreed project objectives and overall Compact objectives;

1. Contribute to MCC research questions for impact or performance evaluation for the Georgia program, review evaluators’ design report and baseline study, and support adherence to evaluation requirements as needed during start-up;

1. Assess progress against approved work plans, disbursement plans, and monitoring and evaluation plans;

1. Review select deliverables submitted by MCA for clearance;

1. Conduct project risk assessment to inform MCC portfolio reviews; and

1. Other due diligence tasks, as requested.

The Consultant may carry out other advisory tasks related to due diligence of Compact development and Implementation in other MCC-eligible countries as requested by MCC.

G. Deliverables

The consultant’s assignments will include the following:

· Work plans for each mission and trip reports;

· Review and recommend clearance on select Contractor and Implementing Entity deliverables;

· Project risk assessments submitted on a quarterly schedule provided by MCC;

· Presentations and ad hoc reports as required by COR/PM related to the scope and more specific tasks.

All reports are to be submitted in English by electronic copy using WINDOWS based MS-Office 2010 products including WORD for text, data tables in EXCEL, and appropriate MS-Office 2010 programs for exhibits. Digital photo files should be submitted in JPG format. Presentations should be prepared with PowerPoint. All work files shall be submitted to MCC along with PDF files.

Acceptance Criteria The deliverables will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

· Thoroughness and timeliness in complying with all of the elements in the tasks specified.

· Quality and clarity of analyses and work produced.

· Timeliness and efficacy of communications with relevant counterparts at MCC, MCA, and other relevant organizations.

· All reports are to be submitted in English in hard and electronic copy (in MS Word), with tables, data and calculations in MS Excel.

H. Period and Place of Performance

This consultancy maybe filled as a short or long term consultancy with a base period of performance of twelve months. The estimated level of effort for the first year is 700 hours to complete the tasks included in this scope of work. MCC does not guarantee this level of effort will not decrease.

All work under this contract will be completed between effective dates of the contract award for a one-year period, after which it will be re-competed based on emerging needs and funding availability.

The Workforce Development Specialist will perform the work under this Call Order at home office and/or MCC headquarters and in Georgia and other countries as assigned.

I. Conflict of Interest The consultant would be precluded from bidding on work and services (design, assessment, construction and supervision) to be procured by the local MCA accountable entity or using funds advanced under a Compact in the relevant country, unless the consultant submits a mitigation plan sufficient to ameliorate any conflict of interest pursuant to the rules applicable to the procurement process.

J. Subcontracting The consultant is authorized to subcontract data collection, data preparation, social and gender analysis, and related services as needed. The overall costs for subcontracting shall not exceed 25% of the consultant’s total negotiated unloaded direct labor cost.

K. Other requirements International travel will be required. The Consultant will be expected to be available for a one (1) mission to Lesotho in early Fall of 2015, three (3) missions to Georgia including the first in late August 2015, and up to two (2) missions to Indonesia in 2015-2016. A mission may be up to 3 weeks in length. The Consultant may be requested to mobilize on a short notice and will be expected to deliver high quality finished products in a timely manner.

L. Timing and Reporting All formal communication with MCC, including reports, will be submitted to the COR/PM. The COR/PM for this requirement will be identified via separate correspondence.

The COR/PM will have technical responsibility for monitoring the contractor’s performance. The COR/PM will review and evaluate the contractor’s performance, and also will coordinate any communications with relevant counterparts and other donor agencies and organizations.

Any changes in the terms of the Call Order will be made in writing and approved by the Contracting Officer. No representation of the COR/PM shall serve as a basis for an alteration in the general scope of this Call Order or of the terms and conditions of the Call Order unless confirmed in writing by the Contracting Officer. The contractor must communicate with the Contracting Officer on all matters that pertain to the Contract terms. Proceeding with the work without proper contractual coverage could result in nonpayment for that work.

The designated Consultant would be expected to coordinate with local authorities responsible for MCC Compact implementation as well as other donors, where relevant. However, designated Consultant would report directly to the designated COR/PM.