Attachment_J.1_Statement_of_Objectives.pdf

ATTACHMENT J.1 STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES (SOO)

Program Title: Capacity Building Activity (CBA)

1. SCOPE

This Statement of Objectives (SOO) describes the objectives of the U.S. Agency for International Development/Afghanistan (USAID/Afghanistan) for an activity that will build the capacity of the Ministry of Education (MOE) to deliver higher quality education services to the Afghan people. This SOO is provided in lieu of a U.S. Government (USG) written statement of work (SOW). An SOO does not state how the work is to be accomplished, but provides potential offerors with the flexibility to develop cost-effective solutions and the opportunity to propose innovative approaches to meet the stated Objectives.

Based on this SOO, a Performance Work Statement (PWS) must be submitted that describes an approach that will achieve the objectives of the activity. The PWS must enable USAID/Afghanistan to assess the performance of the work against specific, clear, and measurable performance standards (i.e., in terms of quality, quantity, timeliness, etc.). The PWS must also clearly explain the method that USAID/Afghanistan will utilize to assess contractor performance against the performance standards.

2. PURPOSE

The purpose of this activity is to provide technical assistance and services through Capacity Building to the Ministry of Education.

The purpose of this capacity building activity is to improve governance and accountability in the education sector in Afghanistan. Interventions will improve systems and accountability, which results in the MOE delivering higher quality education services to the Afghan people, with a focus on three to five provinces where capacity building activities can be implemented. The systems, policies, procedures, and materials developed under this contract will be available to the MOE and donors to be used as models to implement similar activities in additional provinces and districts throughout Afghanistan.

3. BACKGROUND

At the London Conference on Afghanistan in December 2014, Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) officials outlined their strategies to improve governance and reduce corruption.

Those strategies include strengthening enforcement and systems to reduce opportunities for corruption.

The GIRoA officials also stated their commitment to strengthening and improving sub-national governance, transparency, and speed of administrative procedures. This activity supports these GIRoA priorities in the education sector.

In spite of the gains made in the education sector in Afghanistan over the past several years, significant weaknesses remain. Corruption, ineffective administrative systems, policies, and procedures, and poorly trained staff are a few of the problems that impede the MoE from providing better quality education services to the Afghan people. The purpose of this contract is to address and mitigate some of those weaknesses.

The basis for the design of this contract is the realization that capacity building programs designed centrally in Kabul without extensive consultation with provincial and district MoE officials and other local stakeholders often are not fully effective because they do not address the cultural, political, and security differences that exist between villages, districts, and provinces throughout Afghanistan. This

Request for Proposal (RFP), SOL-306-16-000041 Capacity Building Activity (CBA)

Attachment J.1 Statement of Objectives (SOO) contract is designed to allow the contractor the flexibility to conduct needed assessments to inform the final design of activities and milestones in partnership with local MoE officials and other local stakeholders. This will allow local conditions to be factored into the design and implementation of capacity building activities under this contract.

4. STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES (SOO)

The overarching objective of this capacity building activity is to improve governance and accountability in the education sector in Afghanistan.

4.1 PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

The Capacity Building’s PWS must specifically address the following Objectives and Intermediate Results. In pursuit of the activity’s overarching objective, USAID has identified two Objectives:

Objective 1: Improved MoE systems and procedures that lead to better provision of education services

Intermediate Result 1.1: Improved EMIS system that leads to greater accuracy of education system performance data

Intermediate Result 1.2: Improved teacher recruitment, with greater gender parity, that leads to sufficient number of qualified teachers who are fairly selected and equitably deployed

Intermediate Result 1.3: Improved payroll system that leads to greater accountability and less corruption

Objective 2: Greater transparency and accountability of national and sub-national MoE systems

Intermediate Result 2.1: Regular, effective audit systems used

Intermediate Result 2.2: Effective resource planning, allocation, and execution in the education sector strengthened

Intermediate Result 2.3: Community and civil society oversight and accountability at national and sub-national levels increased

4.2 ACTIVITY APPROACH AND MAIN COMPONENTS

COMPONENT 1 (CLIN 0001) (80% of contract)

Objective 1: Improved MoE systems and procedures that lead to better provision of education services

Objective 2: Greater transparency and accountability of national and sub-national MoE systems

The PWS must incorporate interventions to: 1) meet each of the two specific performance objectives and intermediate results, and 2) achieve the stated overarching objective. The PWS must provide creative and innovative solutions to address the weaknesses of the education sector discussed above. The PWS must propose any interventions considered best able to contribute to meeting each of the two performance objectives within the operating constraints and the contract period, budget, and security environment.

The PWS must include aspects from assessments, technical assistance to the MoE to build capacity and include a clear transition plan to MoE implementation and ownership of reforms.

The contractor must provide a proposed structure that includes staffing categories that can provide technical assistance to the MoE in a province, district, or at the central MoE level for additional capacity building activities that may be identified during assessments. The PWS must identify simultaneous activities such as assessments and interventions that will enable the contractor to achieve quick wins or address issues identified through prior assessments. Activities not identified in the PWS to meet the overall objectives require CO approval through ordering under the technical assistance CLIN.

An on-budget program will provide the possibility of G2G assistance to central MOE offices, Provincial Education Directorates, and District Education Offices if they meet milestones linked to the off-budget Capacity Building Activity. The contractor must consult with MOE officials to establish these milestones, and to identify the uses of the G2G assistance should it be earned by meeting the milestones. The G2G assistance will be provided directly to the particular central MOE office, Provincial Education Directorate, or District Education Office that achieves the milestone(s). This G2G assistance is intended to provide an incentive for MOE officials and their staffs to fully engage in the capacity building activities and to strive to meet the milestones.

COMPONENT 2 (CLIN 0002)

Special Programming Mechanism: (20% of contract)

This contract anticipates that additional areas may be identified during the initial assessments that are not listed in the results section of this RFP. Therefore, USAID is including a Special Programming Mechanism to the Capacity Building Activity to complement and supplement its planned technical and financial assistance. The Supplemental Technical Assistance (STA) will be a line-item Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) designed to provide USAID maximum flexibility in responding to time-sensitive, unanticipated, or compelling needs and opportunities to provide assistance to strengthen MoE’s capacity, education systems and enhance strategic collaboration. To enable STA to be available and to respond to changing circumstances within the PWS, STA may be ordered by CPFF Term Level of Effort (LOE) Task Orders under the IDIQ Cost Line Item Number (CLIN) of the contract. Two separate CLINs will be utilized – one for the completion portion of the basic contract and the other for the IDIQ portion of the contract. Task Orders will be ordered if and when the need arises. When the STA is needed, the CO will place Task Orders in accordance with FAR 16.505 and as required in the contract.

5. GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS

The entirety of this activity will take place in Afghanistan. The majority of the capacity building activities will be implemented in three to five provinces that will be identified by the contractor through assessments, negotiations with USAID and the MoE, consultations with other stakeholders, and the identification of reform champions or viable partners during the initial or inception phase of implementation. USAID/Afghanistan expects that most capacity building activities will be performed at the Provincial Education Directorates and District Education Offices in those three to five provinces. As necessary to support the activities in those three to five provinces, the contractor will also operate at the MoE central level in Kabul.

6. GRANTS UNDER CONTRACT

The contractor will be authorized to use Grants Under Contract (GUCs) to issue grants to non-governmental partners to support the activities under the relevant components of the Capacity Building activity. Groups not registered with the Government of Afghanistan, specifically non-governmental organizations not registered with Ministry of Economy, will not be eligible for Grants Under Contract (See ADS 302.3.4.12). USAID must be significantly involved in establishing grants guidelines and selection criteria and must approve the grant recipients. All requirements that apply to USAID-executed grants in ADS 303 will also apply to grants executed by the contractor. USAID will retain, within the contract, the ability to terminate unilaterally any grant activities under extraordinary circumstances.

The total number of grants made to NGOs under this provision will not exceed 10% of the total contract cost. Grants made under this contract will be made to carry out activities that are consistent with the Objectives in the SOO. Grants may be made under CLIN 0001 or CLIN 0002 of the Capacity Building Activity.

7. SUSTAINABILITY CONSIDERATIONS

Sustainability of the activity’s results will be monitored throughout the entire period of the activity’s implementation and will constitute one of the focal points of its interim and final evaluations.

Contractors must include measures that promote sustainability as part of their proposed set of interventions. Illustrative approaches to sustainability may include the following types of interventions:

Using locally available and appropriate technologies and ensuring that these solutions are cost effective and can be supported by the host ministries.

Using, to the greatest extent possible, local organizations to implement interventions, either through sub-grants or sub-contracts.

Engaging local organizations to implement technical assistance and training whenever possible.

Strengthening the capacity of targeted government ministries and local organizations to conduct their own training and to develop internal processes with assistance from USAID’s implementing partner that increase their ability to address capacity building. This will likely require longer periods of time and increased resources to achieve these results.

All activities will be conducted in close cooperation and partnership with local counterparts to ensure their full ownership and transition, future sustainability, and growth of targeted sectors. The assistance must—whenever possible—be designed to favor long-term solutions that could be performed by or later taken over by existing Afghanistan institutions and organizations. Particular attention should be given to activities that support USAID Forward’s emphasis with those interconnected sets of actors— governments, civil society the private sector, universities, individual citizens, and others—that jointly can produce outcomes related to efficiency and accountability of affected Afghanistan public systems.

8. CROSS-CUTTING REQUIREMENTS

In addition to addressing the Performance Objectives above, the PWS must address and integrate each of the following cross-cutting requirements throughout:

(a) Consistent with USAID Mission strategic goals: USAID/Afghanistan’s top-line goal in the Strategy for Transformation 2014-2024 is: Afghan-led sustainable development. Building capacity in the MOE at the national and sub-national levels contributes to achieving this goal by enabling the MOE to sustain and build upon gains already made in the education sector. This activity will fall within the Mission’s Development Objective (DO) 2: Gains in Health, Education, and the Empowerment of Women Maintained and Enhanced. Results from this activity will contribute to Intermediate Result (IR) 2.2: Equitable Access to Quality, Relevant Education Services Increased, and Sub-IR 2.2.2:

Education Systems Strengthened to Prepare Afghans for Employment.

(b) MOE Ownership: The PWS must address how the technical approach supports USAID Forward objectives, as appropriate. One component of USAID Forward is Implementation and Procurement Reform, which calls for streamlining USAID’s business processes, building the capacity of local organizations and institutions, and, where appropriate, using host country systems. USAID designed this award in close collaboration with the GIRoA and, in particular, the MOE to ensure that the activities respond to the country’s needs and strategic priorities as outlined in the third National Education Strategic Plan and have institutional support and participation. In accordance with USAID Forward, the Project will strengthen the capacity of the relevant Afghan MOE institutions.

(c) Gender: USAID has an explicit commitment to gender equality in all of its development activities.

The offeror is required to develop a strategy and carefully monitor activity implementation to ensure that women and men are equitably benefiting from the activities administered under this Contract.

Interventions and approaches must be adapted to ensure women’s equitable access to resources and increase women’s participation in the education sector.

(d) Security: The PWS must incorporate a description of how the implementation methodology has been developed to mitigate, to the extent possible, the constraints that the security situation places upon implementation

5. PERFORMANCE STANDARDS AND QUALITY ASSURANCE AND MONITORING AND

EVALUATION PLAN

The PWS must be accompanied by a robust set of performance standards for each intervention proposed, establishing the performance level and/or acceptable deliverable for that activity that will help meet or exceed USAID’s Objectives. Such standards must be relevant to the work performed, measurable, credible and verifiable, in order to allow for an objective assessment of performance.

In addition, the PWS must also be accompanied by a Performance Monitoring Plan (PMP) that includes Objectives, Results and sub-results, and indicators that will measure progress towards meeting the Performance Standards of validity, reliability, timeliness, precision and integrity, and be disaggregated by gender as appropriate and feasible. Once the activity begins, the PMP will be further refined. The contractor and USAID will agree upon the final choice of performance indicators useful for timely management decisions.

The contractor must include a draft plan to conduct a baseline study for major project activities. USAID will use third party monitors and contractors to audit and verify data collected and submitted to USAID.

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