RFI Local Priorities and Partnership Activity 10 8 2021.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Issuance Date: October 8, 2021 Subject: RFI No: RFI-720617-22 Local Priorities and Partnerships Activity Title: USAID/Local Priorities and Partnerships Activity Office: USAID/Uganda, Program Office Submission date: Friday, October 22, 2021, at 5:00 pm Local Uganda time Submission email: kampalausaidsolicita@usaid.gov

Dear Interested Parties:

The United States Government represented by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Uganda is hereby issuing this Request for Information (RFI) for interested organizations/parties to provide statements, comments, opinions and recommendations on the approaches for the information presented as Attachment I below.

Note: This RFI is issued solely for purposes of gathering information and does not constitute a Request For Proposals (RFP) or Request for Applications (RFA) and is not to be construed as a commitment by the US government or USAID to issue any solicitation or Notice of Funding Opportunity or ultimately award a contract or assistance agreement on the basis of this RFI or to pay for any information voluntarily submitted as a result of this RFI.

This RFI was preceded by an RFI for the same activity in December 2019 and a request for concept notes in October 2020. This RFI is a survey to inform USAID/Uganda of available potential sources to determine if an adequate number of organizations are interested in and capable of implementing the proposed activity. Specific deliverables for the proposed activity are currently still under review and subject to change.

Respondents are advised that USAID/Uganda is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information, provide feedback to respondents or answer any questions with respect to information provided.

Please submit your statements as per guidance provided.

Thank you for your interest in USAID Activities.

Sincerely, Andreea Surdu Contracting/Agreement Officer USAID/Uganda mailto:kampalausaidsolicita@usaid.gov

RFI-720617-22

USAID/Local Priorities and Partnerships Activity

Attachment I

Background

USAID’s Local Works is a unique program designed to advance locally led development and enhance the Agency’s ability to empower local actors to take the lead in addressing their own development challenges. You can learn more by visiting the USAID Local Works page at https://www.usaid.gov/localworks. Local Works is one way through which the U.S. government and USAID recognizes that local leadership allows development work to be sustainable and effective through partnerships with local actors.

USAID’s Regional Coordination Initiative (RCI) in Uganda invests in valued partnerships at the district level and believes that it is important for local and regional actors to have the resources and means to evaluate their development assets, challenges, and progress. If local actors build strong, sustainable and inclusive organizations by listening and learning from local stakeholders, Ugandans will leverage their influence so that diverse development partners can be more responsive and more accountable to local priorities. The RCI efforts complement the Government of Uganda’s focus on equitable development as articulated in the third National Development Programme (NDP-III).

In three regions of Uganda (Northern Uganda (West Nile, Acholi, Lango), Southwestern Uganda (Kigezi and Ankole) and Karamoja), USAID has supported organizations, or “regional platforms'', which have brought together civil society organizations, local communities, district governments, academia, private sector partners, cultural and religious institutions and leaders, and other targeted stakeholders. Two of the regional platforms are registered as legal entities while the Karamoja platform is currently processing their registration.

USAID intends to work with and co-design a solution with potential implementing partners to build the capacity of regional platforms and establish sustainable local partnerships in Uganda.

Anticipated Activity Requirements

To successfully accomplish the proposed work, potential organizations and the implementing partner will need the capacity to work in multiple regions of Uganda simultaneously, at a grassroots and local level and with national and local counterparts. USAID expects potential implementing partner to successfully: interact and manage multi-component activities with numerous local organizations across a set of broad geographic locations; manage relationships between diverse stakeholders such as political, private sector, academic, and civil society actors; coordinate, collaborate, and de-conflict as necessary with other USAID and development partner activities, and;

select, award, and manage sub-grants to implement activities.

Expected objectives of the activity are:

1. Improve the administrative and technical capacity of regional platforms to engage, coordinate and manage stakeholders to collectively influence locally prioritized development.

2. Improve the leadership skills of individual members of the platforms.

3. Assist the regional platforms to attract and leverage private sector support and investments.

4. Strengthen research partnerships to inform local decision-making.

https://www.usaid.gov/localworks

RCI partnerships with local actors include partnerships with highly influential government and non-government partners. Civil society and private sector engagement and coordination is critical.

Organizations supporting these processes will need to liaise with diverse stakeholders to provide capacity building support by demonstrating political astuteness and an awareness of local, regional and national power dynamics. The project will be implemented in Uganda, and USAID may determine to focus on areas beyond the regions already described.

More information on USAID’s proposed activity can be found in the presentation provided at a workshop USAID held in October 2020 to discuss requirements and objectives of the activity. This presentation is attached separately as Attachment II in PowerPoint.

Potential instrument:

At this point, a decision has not been finalized as to whether the instrument type will be acquisition or assistance. Therefore, this RFI is being posted on both grants.gov and sam.gov.

Eligibility:

In accordance with the Local Works Legislation ‘‘Eligible entities’’ shall be defined as small local, international, and United States-based nongovernmental organizations, educational institutions, and other small entities that have received less than a total of $5,000,000 from USAID over the previous 5 fiscal years: Provided, that departments or centers of such educational institutions may be considered individually in determining such eligibility.

USAID/Uganda anticipates that this may further be restricted to Local entities.

Tentative Merit Review Criteria of Qualified Applications

● Technical Approach

○ Tentative staffing plan

○ Proposed deliverables and milestones

○ Expected results and outcomes

● Prior Experience

○ General Organisation information

○ Statement of Capabilities (including staff and technical resources)

● Past Performance

○ References for projects performed by the organization in Uganda the past 10 years including short descriptions

Submission Guidelines

Organizations should submit a statement no longer than two pages using maximum 11-point font size confirming and describing the following:

1. Information about your business status, i.e., whether you are a local/Ugandan-registered organization, NGO, etc.

2. Capacity of your organization, or partnership, to perform the work described above, including a sample technical approach to proposed activity.

https://sam.gov/

3. Description of relevant prior experience. Please include information about clients (governmental, non-governmental) and dates of work performed.

4. Confirmation that your organization has not received more than $5 million in direct funding from USAID since 2017.

(Please see USAID’s Local Works requirements on page 5:

https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Local_Works_Guidance_2021.pdf)

5. Name(s) of representative(s) from your organization who are business managers and can be contacted regarding future proposal development and submissions.

USAID requests statements to be sent electronically via email in Microsoft Word or Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf) by Friday, October 22, 2021, at 5:00 pm local Uganda time to kampalausaidsolicita@usaid.gov . Submission emails should be under the subject: “RFI-720617-22 USAID/Local Priorities and Partnerships Activity” to the attention of:

Ms. Anita Mbaziira Acquisition and Assistance Specialist USAID/Uganda

Disclaimer and Important Notes

This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes. This is a REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY to identify local organizations for above project requirements. This notice does not obligate USAID to award a contract, grant, or cooperative agreement, or otherwise pay for the information provided in the response. USAID reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Respondents are advised that USAID is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a solicitation may be published on the US Embassy website or grants.gov or sam.gov. It is the responsibility of the potential respondents to monitor these sites for additional information pertaining to this requirement. Organizations that submit a response may be invited to a pre-solicitation event or co-creation workshop with USAID and other interested organizations, not guaranteed though. Responses to this notice will not be considered responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality

No proprietary, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned. USAID reserves the right to use any non-proprietary information in any resulting solicitation(s).

mailto:kampalausaidsolicita@usaid.gov https://sam.gov/