Request for Information - USAID Haiti Education and Resilience Activity.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

USAID/Haiti Education and Resilience Activity

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Mission in Haiti is in the process of designing a new Education and Resilience Activity. This $14 million activity will address the education needs of learners aged 5 to 18 years, focusing on the resilience focus zones. The target population will include urban youth at-risk for gang recruitment. Given the critical nature of this activity, USAID/Haiti is reaching out to all local stakeholders and interested parties, to obtain comments/suggestions in order to incorporate new, innovative solutions on how to improve equitable access to quality education, including ensuring the continuity of learning for all children in Haiti, by reinforcing the resilience of the education at the learner, school, institution, and institution levels. Please see Attachment 1 - Questions For Response. By issuing this Request for

Information (RFI), USAID/Haiti aims to consult with the broad community of private sector actors, public institutions, development partners, non-governmental organizations, industry associations, think tanks and academia, concerned with improving learning and resilience in Haiti.

Your comments will be used to develop a design document that is clear, maximizes development impact, facilitates coordination with existing and planned USAID and other development partner programs, as well as aligns with the Government of Haiti’s priorities.

DISCLAIMER

The information contained within the RFI is intended solely as a thought-piece; ideas may change significantly during the activity’s design and approval process. In addition, this RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes. It does not constitute a Notice of Funding Opportunity

(NOFO)/Request for Applications (RFA), an Annual Program Statement, a Request for Proposal, a Request for Quotation, an Invitation for Bids, a Solicitation, or an indication that USAID/Haiti will make an award from this RFI. Responses to this RFI shall not be portrayed as applications and will not be accepted by the U.S. Government (USG) to form a binding agreement. This RFI is not to be construed as a commitment by the USG to issue any NOFO or ultimately award of an agreement on the basis of this RFI, or to pay for any information submitted as a result of this request. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI.

It is the respondent’s responsibility to monitor www.fbo.gov or www.grants.gov for the release of any further subsequent procurement. Note that responding to this RFI will not give any advantage to any firm or organization in any subsequent procurement and will not lead to an organizational conflict of interest. Responses will strictly be held confidential.

INSTRUCTIONS

Responses (comments, suggestions, and enhancements) to this RFI must be in Microsoft Word or

PDF format and submitted by February 22, 2021 3:30 P.M. To expedite our review and also be considerate of your time, please keep responses to no more than 4 pages in length, 12 pt font.

Responses may be submitted in English, Haitian Creole, or French. Please number each page consecutively. While the limit on the length of submissions is 4 pages, we value concise, issue-specific comments.

http://www.fbo.gov/ http://www.grants.gov/

Please send responses to this RFI via email to port-au-princeusaidoaa@usaid.gov and copy to Edel

Perez at eperez@usaid.gov and Sabrina Silva at ssilva@usaid.gov with the subject title “Request for Information (RFI): USAID/Haiti Education and Resilience Activity”, no later than the date/time stated above. You will only receive an electronic confirmation acknowledging receipt of your response. No feedback or debrief will be provided on comments received. Phone calls or hard copy responses will not be accepted.

Thank you for your assistance and interest in USAID/Haiti programming.

Sincerely, for Edel Perez

Agreement/Contracting Officer

USAID/Haiti

Attachment: Questions for Response mailto:port-au-princeusaidoaa@usaid.gov mailto:eperez@usaid.gov mailto:ssilva@usaid.gov ssilva Text Box usaidhaitioaa@usaid.gov

Attachment 1: Questions for Response

BACKGROUND

Since 2018, Haiti has faced constant political unrest and economic uncertainty. School closures have become a regular occurrence in Haiti due to these constant stressors and shocks. The effects of such a generalized viral outbreak on the country’s already struggling education system will be severe and long-lasting. With all schools having closed from March 20, 2020 until August

17, 2020, and with limited distance learning tools widely available, most learners missed classes for five months. Extended absences from regular instruction now demands additional effort and innovative approaches to reverse its impact on student learning. Likewise, the mental, physical and emotional stress associated with being severed from school routines, (which can include social isolation, hunger caused by a cessation of school feeding programs, increases in clinical anxiety and depression, and exposure to abuse, violence, or exploitation), will cause Haitian students trauma that could negatively affect the rest of their academic and professional careers.

Haitian teachers, families, caregivers, and communities will also suffer from the multiple, and accumulating, stressors of worrying about their families’ health, livelihood, and safety in the context of a crumbling national economy. After the peyi-lock, UNICEF and the MENFP estimated that 30 percent of the student body will have great difficulty returning to school and

COVID-19 closures only added to that percentage. Since the return to learning, many organizations have seen a significant decrease in student enrollment and noticed an upward trend in early pregnancies. These consequences, at national scale, are likely to drive a contraction in the country’s human resource base, an increase in the number of citizens living in extreme poverty, and, potentially, rising levels of alienation and civil unrest.

In the country’s economy, there are 11.1 million people living on less than $1.90 per day and 59 percent, or approximately six million people, live below the national poverty line of $2.41 per day

(Coordination Nationale de la Sécurité Alimentaire 2017). Non-public schools represent 80% of schools in Haiti and a greater part of the various education systems, while serving 70% of the total student body. Parents have to pay tuition in addition to paying for uniforms, school supplies, textbooks, and school lunches if possible while earning low wages. Economic hardship remains the primary barrier for students to access quality education and to stay in school without interruption. Before civil unrest began in July 2018, 1 million youth were at risk of dropping out every year and 72 percent of at-risk youth in the 1st and 2nd cycles of primary education (1st through

6th grade), were between the ages of 10 and 15 (Analyse Sectorielle, 2019). The educational experience for at-risk youth is an obstacle course that culminates in 50 percent of students dropping out during the 1st cycle of primary education (1st through 4th grade).

THEORY OF CHANGE

IF:

● Building the capacity of diverse stakeholders to deliver and use distance learning that is flexible and multi-modal and provides educational continuity, whether schools are open or closed;

● Supporting schools, when they are able to open, in recruiting, retaining students into safe environments that deliver high-quality face-to-face instruction;

● Building community assets and capacities to participate in and promote high-quality learning opportunities that strengthen essential skills, and;

● Strengthening the technical and managerial capacity of both the Ministry of

National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP) and non-state education system actors to plan, develop, deliver, and monitor both distance-based and face-to-face instruction in foundational skills.

THEN:

Haitian learners, families, schools, and communities benefit from an education system that is increasingly resilient, responsive, and adaptive in strengthening students’ foundational skills.

Resilience is a key cross-cutting theme across the theory of change.

LIST OF QUESTIONS:

● Given the budget and geographic focus, what are the most strategic outcomes to focus on over a five-year period?

● How can a potential activity achieve outcomes for both children and out of school youth ages 5 to 18?

● What existing evidence-based interventions or innovations already exist in Haiti that achieve these stated outcomes?

● What experience does your organization have in achieving these outcomes?

● What are identified risk factors of a potential activity?

● What measurable results can still be achieved if the Ministry of Education (MoE) has not the capacity to pursue collaboration on the potential resulting activity?

[END OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION]