Request for Information - USAID Niger (1) Revised.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

Non-Formal Education Activity

RFI-625-22-NFEA

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Mission in Niger is in the process of designing a new non-formal education activity. This $25 million activity will target out-of-school adolescents and youth, particularly girls and those affected by conflict and crisis, who do not have access to safe, equitable and contextually relevant learning opportunities needed to strengthen their resilience and contribute to their communities. USAID/Niger is reaching out to all local stakeholders and interested parties to obtain comments and suggestions in order to incorporate new, innovative solutions on how to improve access to safe, equitable and contextually relevant non-formal learning opportunities for adolescents and youth, particularly young women and girls.

Specific areas of focus anticipated include strengthening foundational skills in literacy, numeracy, social emotional learning (SEL)/soft skills, building resilience capabilities and assets, and strengthening pathways between non-formal to formal education. USAID/Niger is interested in learning more about local organizations that work with parents, caregivers and community leaders with experience in valuing and ensuring safe, equitable and contextually relevant non-formal learning opportunities. Please see Attachment-1 - Questions For Response.

By issuing this Request for Information (RFI), USAID/Niger aims to solicit input from the broad community of private sector actors, public institutions, development partners, non-governmental organizations, industry associations, think tanks, and academia concerned with improving learning outcomes among struggling students and building resilience and skills to continue with education in Niger. Comments will be used to inform a design document that is clear, maximizes development impact, facilitates coordination with existing and planned USAID activities and other development partner programs, and aligns with the Government of Niger’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 any indication that USAID/Niger 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.sam.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 November 28, 2022. 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 or French. Please number each page consecutively. While the limit on the length of submissions is 4 pages, we value concise, issue specific comments.

Please send responses to this RFI via email to Souleymane Mamadou Bachir at smamadoubachir@usaid.gov and copy to rtrimble@usaid.gov and hcisse@usaid.gov with the subject title “Request for Information (RFI): USAID/Niger Non-Formal Education 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/Niger programming.

Sincerely, Robert Trimble, USAID Agreement Officer

Attachment-1: Background and Questions for Response.

mailto:smamadoubachir@usaid.gov mailto:rtrimble@usaid.gov mailto:hcisse@usaid.gov

Attachment 1: Background and Questions for Response.

BACKGROUND:

Niger consistently ranks at the bottom of the United Nations Human Development Index. Low human capital is often attributed to the lack of access to quality social services such as education and health.

Seventy-two percent of the population has no formal education and 50 percent of the population ages

15–24 years cannot read or write. Factors that contribute to the low level of educational attainment include high dropout rates, high illiteracy rates, insufficient resources and infrastructure, unqualified teachers, weak local governance structure, and high vulnerability to instability.

The school enrollment age is seven years, with primary education mandatory, covering ages 7-12.

Each year, approximately 600,000 newly enrolled children enter Year 1 Primary.1 However, gross primary enrollment rates in Niger were at 72.5 percent in 2015, with boys (77.9 percent) fully 11.1 percentage points more likely to be enrolled than girls.2 Access to secondary education in Niger is low, with only 31 percent of girls and 42 percent of boys enrolled.3 The distribution of teachers shows some disparities across regions. While the student-teacher ratio is one to 36 pupils at the national level, it is as high as one to 45 pupils in regions like Maradi.

Niger has the most youthful population in the world — 58 percent of the population are under the age of 18 and 31.1 percent are aged 15 to 35 years4. Nearly 70 percent of Nigerien youth are neither in education, employment or training.5 In 2017, the out-of-school youth population was estimated at

1,647,273 children and 1,286,904 adolescents.6 The risk of dropping out is significant for those who are still in school due to poor retention conditions in schools.

At 76 percent, Niger has the highest child, early, forced marriage prevalence rate in the world.7 The average age of first marriage for females is 15.7 years in Niger and married girls remain invisible to many policymakers and development actors. Child marriage not only limits the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young girls but also influences their overall health, socio-economic well-being, the survival of their children, and the prosperity of their family and community.

Children and adolescent girls in Niger face numerous challenges in accessing education from persistent issues like early forced marriage, distance to school, poverty, and cultural practices to those directly related to the conflict. The escalation of violence and displacement in recent years has aggravated an already difficult education environment, with increased dropouts and low retention and enrollments. Many of these children have also been affected psychologically by experiencing and witnessing violence, fleeing their homes, and adapting to living in confined housing in host family internally displaced or refugee sites. There are persistent obstacles to increasing access and improving the quality of learning outcomes, and these have been exacerbated by the impact of the violent conflict.

THEORY OF CHANGE :

IF out-of-school adolescents have increased access to safe, equitable and contextually relevant

1 Niger FY2020 Full PPR.

2 Republic of Niger: Niger Service Delivery Indicators - Education 2015, World Bank, June 2017.

3 UNICEF https://www.unicef.org/niger/children-niger 4 UNICEF, Participatory survey of youth in Niger, 2018.

5 World Bank Statistics, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.NEET.ZS. Accessed 2021.

6 UIS, Niger Education System, http://uis.unesco.org/en/country/ne. Accessed 2021.

7 USAID Sahel Youth Analysis, 2017.

https://www.unicef.org/niger/children-niger https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.NEET.ZS http://uis.unesco.org/en/country/ne learning opportunities.

and IF parents, caregivers, and community leaders can better engage with, value and ensure safe, equitable and contextually relevant learning opportunities.

and IF the non-formal education system is strengthened through flexible pathways and increased coordination, THEN out-of-school adolescents, particularly young girls and conflict-affected learners, will strengthen their foundational skills and enhance their resilience to contribute to their communities.

LIST OF QUESTIONS:

1. Given the budget and programmatic focus to achieve improved learning and wellbeing outcomes among out of school adolescents and youth ages 10 to 18, particularly girls, through non-formal learning pathways, what are the most strategic outcomes to aim for in a five-year period? Which of these outcomes require engaging local groups and organizations and why?

2. What existing evidence-based interventions, experiences or innovations in Niger achieve learning and wellbeing outcomes?

3. Who are the key stakeholders for achieving these outcomes? (ex. local authorities, parents, NGOs, community-based organizations or associations?) How can they be better engaged in implementing interventions that would lead to these outcomes?

4. What opportunities to achieve learning and wellbeing outcomes for the target population are overlooked and who are the key stakeholders involved?

5. Based on your work in the education sector in Niger, what are best practices for successfully working in partnership with, collaborating and coordinating education activities with local organizations, associations, community-level groups and/or local NGOs in Niger?

6. Increasing support for children and adolescents- especially girls- to return to education may require targeted social behavior change initiatives. What approaches have proven contextually appropriate and effective at engaging communities to shift mindsets?

7. What are identified risk factors and potential adaptive management approaches that may be relevant to a potential education activity that works in partnership with local actors across Niger’s geographic areas, including in conflict-affected settings?

8. What practices have proven effective for ongoing monitoring to support collaboration, learning and adapting in the Niger context? What measurable results may still be achievable in less accessible, conflict-affected areas where pathways to public schools are not viable?

[END OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION]