OD ADDENDUM.pdf

Organizational Development Activity (ODA)

Addendum #0000001 to

Broad Mission Announcement for USAID/Ethiopia for Improved Development Outcomes

72066320BMA00001

Background: USAID/Ethiopia and USAID/Djibouti – Organizational Innovation and

Learning

The increasingly dynamic nature of development contexts requires faster, more flexible, and forward-leaning development organizations to achieve long term results. Often, the primary focus of employees and leaders is on achieving the what of their work. For example, we ask: What will be our development objectives? Which project will we invest in? Which activity will we design?

Which geographic area will we operate in? Which projects and activities should be integrated?

How much money should we invest? However, the how of our work does not always receive the same level or consistency of attention. These include things like establishing a shared sense of vision and common organizational culture, leadership and employee development, strengthening operational processes and systems, and monitoring and managing organizational performance;

all of which ultimately influence an organization’s ability to achieve the what. These kinds of topics are what USAID/Ethiopia and the Country Program in Djibouti have grappled with and have used management consulting firms to support their ability to reach the next level of organizational performance.

USAID/Ethiopia has approximately 240 staff members, including 40 direct hires, 160 Foreign

Service Nationals (FSNs), and 30 contractors. Djibouti has 2 direct hires, and 10 FSNs. While the country program in Djibouti is a separate development program, it relies on USAID/Ethiopia for program, procurement, legal, and HR support services. From 2017 to 2019, USAID/Ethiopia and the associated Djibouti Country Program (hereafter “the Mission”) procured management consulting services to support its Organizational Development (OD) and sought support to:

● Enhance organizational culture, orienting new staff to the Mission’s values and behavioral expectations, while encouraging ongoing organizational development;

● Increase staff effectiveness through deeper personal awareness of individual behaviors and shared understanding of interpersonal and team dynamics;

● Strengthen leadership behaviors, skills and approaches of all staff, to exemplify a desire to develop a “Mission of Leaders”;

● Support continuous strategic planning, communication, and operational improvement efforts.

● Boost staff morale and cohesion through informal off-site interaction; and

● Provide support to USAID/Djibouti, a limited presence country program.

As the Mission continues to grapple with shifting operational and programmatic priorities, brought into sharp focus in the recent months by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to build upon these efforts, and to continue investments in people and in nimble systems and structures that effectively support Mission objectives.

As such, the Mission seeks to identify and implement a private-sector oriented, research-based, innovative approach to creating and sustaining a dynamic, forward-leaning, results-oriented and learning development organization to stay ahead of the curve of a dynamic development context.

Problem Statement:

While USAID/Ethiopia has made significant progress in introducing OD concepts to staff and have helped employees understand the organization’s vision to do their jobs more effectively, the

Mission now must amplify efforts to further strengthen organizational and operational effectiveness.

USAID/Ethiopia’s development context is dynamic, and the Mission has experienced various (and sometimes turbulent) organizational shifts over the last two years, including the launch of a highly integrated strategy to break down stove-pipes and to maximize development impact through multidimensional interventions. Large-scale and unprecedented Ethiopian political reforms have required more nimble and adaptive approaches to planning and executing development programs; a shift to more flexible, fluid, and cross-functional ways of working within a matrix management structure has required a shift in mindset and process; and unforeseen events such as COVID-19 have prompted the Mission to move to a new (temporary) operational model, utilizing telework exclusively to accomplish its work. With staff scattered across multiple time zones, restricted or non-existent movements to oversee projects and activities, and limited interactions with implementing partners, there is a growing need to enhance existing or build new structures, skills, and tools that help Mission staff to remain connected, organized, and accountable to its priorities and tasks.

In the Djibouti Country Program, the development context has evolved more slowly as a result of changing regional dynamics, and the operational environment has presented challenges to

USAID programming. Moreover, USAID/Djibouti has undergone significant management transitions during the last two years. USAID/Djibouti faced similar operational and management constraints due to COVID-19. Traditionally supported by USAID/Ethiopia’s Program Office, Office of Acquisition and Assistance (procurement support), Office of Financial Management, and

Resident Legal Officer, the Djibouti country program is exploring greater engagement with Addis technical offices as well.

Solutions Sought:

While USAID/Ethiopia and the Djibouti Country Program have made progress in building more flexible approaches to operational management and development programming, structures and approaches can still be rigid and restrictive when attempting to innovate and pursue outside of the box thinking. The Mission is looking to tap into cutting edge thinking and research, and private-sector oriented approaches, that improve efficiency and productivity in the workplace. Specifically, understanding organizational psychology and behavior, reorienting systems and processes, leveraging technology, and strengthening staff skills to achieve goals and objectives. Hence, through this Addendum, the Mission is seeking new and innovative, research-based and evidence-based approaches to OD that (1) renew a common and omnipresent organizational ethos that effectively guides individual and team behaviors to support broad-based Mission goals and objectives; (2) facilitate the planning, implementation, and institutionalization of appropriate

Mission technology, systems and structures in relation to Mission challenges and context and (3) improve the identified hard and soft skills that enhance the Mission’s ability to achieve its goals and objectives.

For the purposes of this Addendum, USAID seeks new perspectives through co-creation with a diversity of partners, to address its organizational development challenges. The Mission requires support with addressing both its immediate operational challenges at the time of award, as well as longer-term support for organizational development planning and implementation.

The Mission has grouped its OD needs into the following three broad areas (pillars). It is important to note that the three pillars and the activities listed under each pillar are ILLUSTRATIVE only.

Pillar 1: Renew a common and omnipresent organizational ethos that effectively guides individual and team behaviors to support broad-based Mission goals and objectives.

*Please refer to the Ethiopia Leadership Charter and Insights tool that the Mission has used to help support Mission culture at Attachments 1 and 2. NOTE: The Mission is not wedded to these tools and welcome applicants to suggest other tools or methodologies.

Illustrative Activities

● Enhance the ability of Mission leadership to develop and communicate vision.

● Establish the Mission’s identity and brand that clearly articulate core values.

● Support the Mission’s onboarding process and use culture as an “aligning force” that helps employees assimilate and succeed.1

● Strengthen the understanding of and connections between individual roles and responsibilities and the Mission’s vision.

● Revisit and confirm common values and behaviors that are needed to enable the

Mission to succeed within its operational reality.

1 Seven Reasons Why Organizational Culture is important https://blog.jostle.me/blog/why-is-organizational-culture-important

Pillar 2: Facilitate the planning, implementation, and institutionalization of Mission structures and systems that maintain accountability and improve organizational effectiveness.

● Support the Mission’s ability to determine suitable technology, organizational systems, processes, and structures based on operational realities.

● Support the Mission with pinpointing underlying organizational challenges and facilitate and monitor remedial interventions.

● Facilitate change management efforts by working through the Mission

Management Team (MMT) and Support Offices.

● Establish a systematic approach to organizational analytics and measurement to monitor OD impacts on Mission performance; equip leaders with accurate and timely information to make correct remedial decisions; and consistently inform

Mission staff, in concrete terms, about the progress made against OD objectives.

● Establish accountability frameworks that ensure follow-through on OD initiatives.

Pillar 3: Improve identified hard and soft skills that enhance the Mission’s ability to achieve its goals and objectives.

*Please refer to the Integrated Roles and Responsibilities Guidance document at Attachment 3, which articulates the Mission’s approach to integrated development programming.

● Performance management and developing talent.

● Support the Mission’s ability to identify the needed skills and abilities that strongly correlate with achieving the Mission’s goals and objectives.

● Strengthen the Mission’s ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances and unusual operational realities that require drastic changes in approach to continue its work.

This includes more virtual approaches to working, including, but not limited to, virtual management, collaboration, and information sharing that could be an after-effect of that extends well into the future, even after the event that precipitated it has abated.

● Strengthen the knowledge and ability of supervisors and employees to succeed within a matrix management structure.

● Provide coaching to strategic positions within the Mission to more effectively support the Mission’s goals and objectives.

The Mission appreciates that there are other organizational development methodologies that may address its needs better; it does not seek to be hindered by ‘not knowing what it does not know’.

The overarching goal for the Mission is to identify and implement research-based, evidence-based, innovative approaches (that incorporate USAID’s principle of Collaborating, Learning and

Adapting) to its organizational development efforts. The Mission maintains an open mind with respect to how (i.e., management approach) it receives OD support. While it is exploring an embedded adviser model, it is not wedded to this approach and looks to industry partners to be creative and innovative in how they propose to implement the ODA.

Lastly, the Mission seeks partners to engage in a co-creation process to achieve its objectives.

This process could potentially result in one or more activities that contribute to innovative approaches to OD interventions at USAID/Ethiopia and USAID/Djibouti. The Mission has budgeted $2.5 million over two years for this activity.

Submission Instructions

Please submit your Expression of Interest (EOI) indicating the research or development idea which will work towards discovering potential solutions to the Solutions Sought, above, by increasing knowledge and understanding of potential solutions, capitalizing on scientific discoveries or improvements in technology, materials, processes, methods, or techniques, advancing the state of the art, or using scientific and technical knowledge in the design, development, implementation, testing, or evaluation of organizational development activities.

Please describe your idea for innovative OD approaches for solving the Mission’s challenges and highlight your group’s value to the partnership. Organizations are encouraged to consider collaborating with peer organizations that bring differing perspectives and/or comparative advantages.

Submitted EOIs will:

● Not exceed 1,000 words, excluding Header, Summary Budget and optional graphic(s)

● Contain a Header with the following information (not included in word count):

○ Respondent Name/Group and Contact Information

○ Response Title

○ BAA Addendum Name/Number

● Be in .pdf or .docx format

● Contain the following:

○ Idea/approach to ODA, including brief identification/summary of supporting evidence (the evidence itself does not have to be submitted, but should be made available to USAID if requested)

○ Talent and other resources you are willing to dedicate to this collaboration

○ Your organization’s unique perspectives and capabilities, as well as your ability to harness the comparative advantages of other parties

● Contain a Summary Budget with the following information (not included in the word count):

○ Table listing major cost categories and showing a total figure to give the Mission an idea of the magnitude of the work effort.

○ A brief (a paragraph or two) discussion of budget line items and structure, as applicable. Details are not necessary at this time.

EOI preparation costs will not be reimbursed by USAID.

Review of Submissions

Eligibility: Unrestricted.

Evaluation Criteria:

Submissions are not evaluated against other submissions, but solely against the criteria below.

The following criteria (in descending order of importance) will be applied to the evaluation of all

EOIs:

1. Overall Scientific and Technical Merit of the Idea/Approach: In evaluating the idea/approach, USAID will focus on how the EOI presents fresh, informed and realistic thinking, and how it uses supporting evidence and analysis. The Mission will base its decision on the available evidence, data, and resulting analysis. The Mission seeks targeted solutions that will achieve significant impact on its organization.

2. Potential Contribution and Relevance to USAID’s Mission: Strengths of your group as a partner, including the talent your organization would bring to the discussion to advance the Mission’s objectives.

3. Experience: The managerial and technical ability of the person or team of people engaged in the proposed endeavor; their past performance and experience.

4. Cost Realism and Reasonableness: Note that cost realism and reasonableness shall also be considered to the extent appropriate, although the selection of proposals is primarily a technical decision. This criteria will be considered only when evaluating Full Proposals.

Information Protection

USAID’s goal is to facilitate the research that is required to lead to innovative and potentially commercially viable solutions. Understanding the sensitive nature of submitters’ information, when it is a possible concern, USAID will work with organizations to protect intellectual property.

Expressions of interest should be free of any intellectual property that the submitter wishes to protect, as the expressions of interest will be shared with USAID partners as part of the selection process. However, once submitters have been invited to engage in further discussions, submitters will work with USAID to identify proprietary information that requires protection.

Therefore, organizations making submissions under this Addendum hereby grant USAID a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable right to use, disclose, reproduce, and prepare derivative works, and to have or permit others to do so to any information contained in the expressions of interest submitted under the Addendum. If USAID engages with the organization regarding its submission, the parties can negotiate further 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.

Selection Process

USAID will review and select EOIs submitted in accordance with the guidelines and criteria set forth in this Addendum. USAID reserves the right to disregard any EOIs that do not meet the guidelines.

Stage 1: For EOIs that are deemed to have merit by USAID and pass the criteria/eligibility stated above, USAID will issue an invitation to collaborate to the potential partner(s) in a (very likely virtual) co-creation workshop/session. Working together, USAID and potential partner(s) will collaborate on a Concept Paper(s). It is during this time that the parties will determine additional partners and resources to complement their proposed activity. The Concept Paper(s), generally

5-12 pages, will further outline the concrete programmatic plan, focus areas, goals, timelines, etc.

Neither co-creation participation costs nor Concept Paper preparation costs will be reimbursed by USAID.

Stage 2: All Concept Papers will be reviewed by an Internal Review Board (Board) which may include but not limited to USAID experts, partners, and outside development or other experts. The

Board will recommend which Concept Paper(s) authors should be invited to develop Full

Proposal(s). Using its technical expertise and in accordance with the specified evaluation criteria, the Board will recommend whether to move forward with the activity including any revisions/additions, and potential partners and resources. Please note that being identified to submit a Full proposal is not a guarantee of award or funding from USAID.

Stage 3: The Contracting Officer (CO) will review the Board’s recommendations. Considering these recommendations and other information, the CO will make an Apparent Potential Partner(s) determination. The CO may determine the anticipated instrument type to facilitate activity design and/or may advise the co-design team on possible instruments and relationship types, and/or may determine the instrument at a later time in the co-design process.

Stage 4: USAID will work with the Apparent Potential Partner(s) to co-design the activity and will assist the Apparent Potential Partner(s) in preparing a Full Proposal, which will be approximately

30 pages in length. The Full Proposal(s) will fully describe the Apparent Potential Partner’s(s’) technical approach, management approach, organizational capacity, past performance, fully-costed budget, as well as representations and certifications. Note that the addition of new partners in the co-design phase will require the approval of the CO. Full Proposal preparation costs will not be reimbursed by USAID.

Stage 5: All Full Proposal(s) will be reviewed by the Board. Using its technical expertise and in accordance with the specified evaluation criteria, the Board will recommend whether to move forward with the Full Proposal(s). The CO will consider this recommendation and make a final decision whether to move forward to negotiations. The CO will determine instrument type and responsibility, analyze cost reasonableness, etc. and craft an award instrument with the Apparent

Potential Partner(s). If the Apparent Potential Partner(s) and USAID cannot arrive at a mutually agreeable arrangement, the CO will cancel the activity at no cost to the Government.

USAID is not obligated to issue a financial instrument or award as a result of this Addendum.

Response Date

Please submit your expression of interest in English to caddis@usaid.gov no later than 17:00

Ethiopian Time, September 17, 2020.

Questions?

Please submit your questions (if any) via email to caddis@usaid.gov no later than 17:00 Ethiopian

Time, August 3, 2020. Responses to all timely questions will be posted as an amendment to this addendum.