Sources Sought Notice_PCS.pdf

SUBJECT SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE - Small Business Only

USAID PROGRAM CYCLE SUPPORT (PCS)

ISSUANCE DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 2023

RESPONSE DUE DATE: Wednesday, December 25, 2023

SUBMISSION EMAIL: bmoody@usaid.gov and hdang@usaid.gov

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE Vietnam

NAICS CODE 541990 – Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services.

This Sources Sought Notice is a part of USAID/Vietnam market research effort to determine the capability, interest and availability of small businesses, as per FAR 19.2, that can provide high quality services as specified below. This is a market research tool being utilized for informational and planning purposes. Your responses will assist the Government in the development of its acquisition strategy for a possible Request for Proposal (RFP), to be issued at a later date, and in determining whether any type of small business set-aside is possible for this procurement or whether full and open or other competitive procedures should be utilized. If full and open or other competition is ultimately pursued, responses to this synopsis will be used to aid in establishing small business subcontracting goals.

This is a Sources Sought Notice only. This is not an invitation for bid, request for proposal or other solicitation; and in no way obligates the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to award a contract. This Sources Sought will not be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government (USG) to issue any solicitation or pay for any information submitted in response to this request. Responders are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or restricted information contained in their responses. No basis for claims against the U.S.

Government shall arise because of a response to this Sources Sought or from the USG’s use of such information. Specific questions about this Sources Sought should be directed only to the email addresses identified above. This office will not respond to any telephonic or other inquiries regarding this notice.

Please note USAID is not seeking technical or cost proposals currently. Do not submit any proposal in response to this Sources Sought.

I. BACKGROUND

The USAID/Vietnam Mission seeks to implement a robust support mechanism that will increase the effectiveness of development investments across the USAID Program Cycle by tracking performance and adapting our programs, generating evidence, creating a feedback loop, and mailto:bmoody@usaid.gov mailto:hdang@usaid.gov strengthening partnerships with local stakeholders in order to achieve our Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) development objectives.

In recent decades, Vietnam has undergone a dramatic economic transformation to become a lower middle-income country. However, a variety of challenges continue to undermine the country’s inclusive growth and global integration. The goal of the current 2020-2025 CDCS is to help support Vietnam to become a more open, prosperous, and secure country that is effective and inclusive in tackling its own development challenges. Under USAID/Vietnam’s current CDCS, USAID/Vietnam’s programs help facilitate trade and economic development; promote good governance and higher education reforms; prevent and control infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and pandemic and zoonotic disease; overcome war legacies by remediating dioxin/agent orange, helping identify human remains, and providing support for vulnerable populations; and improve environmental security by promoting biodiversity and clean energy, combating climate change and reducing pollution. USAID seeks to systematically orient its programming toward building its partner countries’ capacity to plan, finance, and manage their own development. This mandate requires defining clear outcomes for development assistance, routinely measuring and tracking our progress, working with relevant partners to efficiently adapt our programs to reflect new information and findings, and also developing strong partnerships with host country governments and other key stakeholders. The Mission is implementing its 2020-2025 CDCS and needs to continue to closely track progress, adapt our current and future programs, prepare for the next country strategy development and position the Mission and our partners to implement it. This task has become even more significant with the recent diplomatic upgrade to a Strategic Comprehensive Partnership between the U.S. and Vietnam, announced on September 10, 2023 during President Biden’s visit to Vietnam, opening a new chapter of cooperation between the two countries.

USAID/Vietnam awarded a Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) and CLA support mechanism, i.e. USAID Learns, for the period of 2019-2024. This Activity aimed to strengthen the use of data at all levels and stages of the USAID Program Cycle in order to support projects and activities in achieving intended results, and building capacity on MEL/CLA for both USAID staff and implementing partners (IP). This mechanism has supported USAID/Vietnam and our partners in project and activity management and implementation through training, direct technical assistance on MEL/CLA, sharing lessons learned, and conducting surveys, assessments, and performance evaluations. Building on these successes, the proposed Activity will play an important role in supporting the strategic intent of the current CDCS, as well as in the design and implementation of the next CDCS. It will help all technical and support offices better understand the development environment and adapt our current and future projects and activities to achieve key development results.

The Activity seeks to support USAID/Vietnam staff and partners to become more efficient, effective, and transparent in achieving program results through the use of evidence, performance management techniques, and CLA practices. The Activity will prioritize (1) the core tasks of the Program Cycle, i.e. Design, Performance Tracking, Evaluation, and Research; and (2) capacity building for USAID/Vietnam staff and partners.

https://www.usaid.gov/vietnam/cdcs

The Activity has the following objectives:

1. To support the achievement of program development results through the use of evidence, performance management techniques, and CLA practices, focusing on the core tasks of the Program Cycle, including design, performance tracking and evaluation and research.

2. To strengthen USAID/Vietnam staff and partners’ capacity to achieve expected development results. The capacity building interventions under this Activity will range from MEL/CLA, contextual analysis or system updates, or other performance-related topics and other implementation-related topics to general organizational development and capacity building.

II. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:

Interested and qualified small businesses should submit a tailored capability statement to bmoody@usaid.gov and hdang@usaid.gov with the subject title “Sources Sought Notice - PCS”, no later than the date and time stated in the cover page of this document, with the information requested below as applicable.

A. Cover Page with Business Information – does not count in page limit

1. Company/organization name and website

2. Affiliate information: parent company, joint venture partners, and potential teaming partners

3. Year the firm was established and number of employees

4. Two points of contact (names, titles, phone numbers and email addresses)

5. UEI / SAM number and CAGE Code, as registered in the System for Award Management

(SAM) at http://www.sam.gov/

6. Does your company have experience providing Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL), local contractor/grantee capacity building, foreign assistance strategic program design, and institutional support services?

a. Yes

b. No

7. Has your company ever provided services internationally?

a. Yes

b. No

8. Does your company qualify as a Small Business under NAICS 541990?

a. Yes

b. No

9. Small Business designation/status (must correlate with SAM registration):

a. Small Business

b. Small Disadvantaged Business

c. Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business

d. HUBZone Small Business

e. 8(a) Small Business

f. Women-Owned Small Business

g. Veteran-Owned Small Business

h. Other:

mailto:bmoody@usaid.gov http://www.sam.gov/

i. Not Applicable

10. Is your company eligible to receive awards under the 8(a) Program?

a. Yes

b. No

11. After careful review of the information described in Section I of this document, do you intend to submit an offer if this solicitation is posted?

a. Yes, as a Prime

b. Yes, as a Sub-contractor

c. No

12. Is your company currently under a GSA Schedule, OASIS, or IDIQ mechanism with a relevant

SOW.

B. Organizational Capacity Questions (Please limit responses to 2 pages)

Provide a brief summary (two pages) describing your organizational core technical and structural capabilities by providing examples of the relevant projects within last 5 years describing:

The above examples should include the following information:

• Populations served

• Geographic locations

• Models of implementation

• Financial management

• Organizational capacity

• Staffing

• Monitoring programmatic performance

• Strengthening the capacity of local entities

• Experience with USG funding including size, lengths and type of awards, and relationship (sub or prime awardee)

The Government will not review any information, including attachments, more than two (2) pages.

Capability statements will not be returned.

Sincerely, Bryan Moody Contracting Officer