SPECIAL NOTICE
R -- Sustainable WASH Systems - Sustainable WASH Systems BAA
- Notice Date
- 1/20/2016
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Agency for International Development, Washington D.C., USAID/Washington, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 7.10-006, Washington, District of Columbia, 20523, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20523
- Archive Date
- 2/25/2016
- Point of Contact
- Nathaniel Scott, Phone: 202-712-0321, Shannon White, Phone: 2025675009
- E-Mail Address
-
washsustainabilitybaa@usaid.gov, shwhite@usaid.gov
(washsustainabilitybaa@usaid.gov, shwhite@usaid.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The USAID Broad Agency Announcement for Sustainable WASH Systems I. Overview A. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking opportunities to co-create, co-design, co-invest, and collaborate in the research, development, piloting, testing, and scaling of innovative, practical and cost-effective interventions to address the sustainability of WASH service delivery in focus countries. Eligible organizations, companies, and individuals are invited to provide feedback or submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) in response to this Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) The purpose of this project is to develop and test a systems based methodology that provides support to USAID missions to improve the sustainability of WASH service delivery programs by strengthening program design, implementation, and ongoing learning. B. Federal Agency Name: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) administered through the Bureau of Economic Growth, Education and Environment - Water Office C. Opportunity Title: Sustainable WASH Systems D. Announcement Type This BAA serves to inform the public of the opportunity for potential funding from USAID to address the sustainability of WASH service delivery. The BAA includes specific requirements for evaluation criteria and administrative information, such as formatting and deadlines. E. Opportunity Number: BAA-OAA-SWS-2016 F. Authority: This BAA is issued under Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 35.016 (c). This is not a FAR Part 15 Procurement. G. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 98.001 USAID Foreign Assistance Programs for Overseas H. This BAA can be downloaded from http://grants.gov and https://www.fbo.gov I. Question and Answers Questions about this BAA may be submitted by email only to washsustainabilitybaa@usaid.gov with the subject “SWS BAA Questions”. The deadline for question submission is Wednesday, January 27, 2016. USAID will release answers to questions received by the deadline through an addendum to this BAA. J. Issuance of this BAA does not make any commitment on the part of USAID. Further, USAID reserves the right to reject any or all requests for funding, at any stage in the selection and negotiation process. II. Collaboration The intent of the BAA is to allow co-creation and co-design to the maximum extent to create high quality, effective partnerships with great efficiency in time and resources. The types of collaboration include: 1. Co-creation. Co-creation occurs after an Expression of Interest is approved, but before the concept is developed. The potential partner, the Government, represented by the Activity Manager, and potentially others work together to write and/or revise the Concept Paper, and jointly present the Concept Paper to USAID’s Peer and Scientific Review Board. 2. Co-design/development. Co-design/development occurs after the Peer and Scientific Review Board recommends the project for further development, and the Contracting Officer or Agreement Officer has determined the proposer to be an Apparently Successful Partner. At this point, the Contracting Officer or Agreement Officer may determine the general nature of the award type or the specific award type, depending on the nature of the project, to facilitate project design. During co-design, the Apparently Successful Partner and the Activity Manager will design the technical approach, general resource requirements, and management control of the project under the guidance of the Contracting Officer/Agreement Officer. 3. Co-invest. Co-invest refers to the Government’s strategic aim that the partnerships resulting from the individual BAA awards represent opportunities to achieve mutual or complementary development goals of the Partner, USAID, and potentially other resource partners, and therefore embrace shared responsibility, shared risk, and shared resourcing. Shared resourcing may be accomplished through funding by both parties, either through cash resources or the exchange of other resources, both tangible and intangible, such as in-kind contributions, expertise, intellectual property, brand value, high-value coordination, and access to key people, places, and information. Co-investing does not require equally shared resourcing (such as 1:1 leverage), but rather resource contributions that are appropriate to the specific project’s objectives, considering the comparative advantages brought by the participation of each party and the award type. III. Specific Rights Reserved for the Government under this BAA The Government reserves specific rights, in addition to rights described elsewhere in this document or by law or regulation, including: 1. The right to award multiple awards, a single award, or no awards. 2. The right to make award without discussions, or to conduct discussions and/or negotiations, whichever is determined to be in the Government’s interest. 3. The right to accept proposals in their entirety or to select only portions of proposals for award or co-investment. 4. The right to select for award an instrument type that is appropriate to the specific development context, partner relationship, and proposal selected for award. Instruments types include but are not limited to contracts, grants, cooperative agreements,, Inter-Agency Agreement, Government to Government Agreement, Donor to Donor Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding or alternative agreement type, depending upon the nature of the work proposed, the required degree of Government involvement, and other factors. 5. The right to co-create projects with one or more proposers under the BAA, when it is in the best interest of the Government. 6. The right to request any additional, necessary documentation upon initial review. Such additional information may include, but is not limited to, a further detailed proposal, budget, and representations and certifications. 7. The right to fund or co-invest in proposals in phases, with options for continued work at the end of one or more of the phases. 8. The right to award instruments under this BAA that do not commit or exchange monetary resources. 9. The right to remove proposers from award consideration should the parties fail to reach agreement on award terms, conditions, and cost/price within a reasonable time, the proposer fails to timely provide requested additional information, or the Government believes it is in its best interest. IV. Problem and Challenge Statements PROBLEM: USAID and other development organizations struggle with the sustainability of their WASH sector investments. Over the last 20 years, failed hand pumps in Africa represent a total lost investment of between $1.2 and $1.5 billion, with 30-40% of rural water systems failing prematurely, and more than half of all subsidized toilets are unused, misused or abandoned. Fewer than 5% of WASH projects are visited after project conclusion. USAID defines sustainable WASH as being “achieved when country partners and communities take ownership of the service and there are local systems to deliver inputs needed to maintain results and deliver impacts beyond the life of USAID projects.” CHALLENGE: USAID recognizes that achieving and sustaining development outcomes depends on the contributions of multiple interconnected actors from all parts of society - governments, civil society, the private sector, universities and individual citizens. The Local Systems Framework, developed by the Bureau for Policy Planning and Learning, outlines USAID’s approach to supporting the transformation of innovations and reforms into sustained development ( https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/LocalSystemsFramework.pdf ). Five key factors that contribute to sustainability in the WASH sector have been identified: financial, institutional, environmental, technical and social. These factors serve as a framework for considering sustainability in program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. USAID seeks a partner or multiple partners to help build upon this framework and provide USAID with an improved approach to ensuring sustainable WASH programming as well as on the ground stakeholder coordination. Through the BAA process, USAID seeks to address the lack of sustainability of WASH programming by partnering with one or more organizations with advanced technical knowledge of the WASH sector and systems analysis. This partnership will design, develop, and test a new methodology for using systems analysis, multi-stakeholder initiatives and continuous learning and information dissemination to improve the impact and sustainability of USAID WASH programming. The Performance Objective is to develop and test a systems-based methodology for improved sustainability in WASH programming that will be used to better understand and engage the local system in their WASH activities. To achieve the goal of improving the sustainability of WASH programs, this activity will: 1) Develop approaches to analyze WASH sustainability: USAID and other development organizations have struggled with the sustainability of their WASH sector investments. Therefore, USAID seeks to define a suite of approaches and guidance on how these approaches are applied, delivered (and by whom), and practically used by local stakeholders both during activity design and implementation. 2) Provide support for applications of the sustainability approaches : USAID missions will likely require support in applying the approaches developed in order to better understand the local system and where USAID’s activities are designed to intervene. These efforts at sustainable programming are likely to be more granular than national coordination level efforts and would focus on a municipality or district, depending on the mission’s programmatic focus, ideally resulting in recommendations and guidance for local stakeholders. 3) Learn and disseminate information on a continuous basis: Continuous learning to assess and revise the approaches developed will be important. There is currently a gap in understanding of the sustainability of USAID’s WASH programming and a lack of knowledge of how to provide useful, timely feedback between learning and programming decisions. V. General Criteria for Consideration A. Submissions are not evaluated against other submissions, but solely against the evaluation criteria from the BAA. B. Impact: USAID seeks approaches that are likely to have a significant impact (i.e. breakthroughs, not incremental improvements) at scale. The proposed approach has a high likelihood of significantly increasing the impact and sustainability of USAID’s WASH programs. C. Idea/Approach: Soundness and creativity of the idea/approach and its relevance to the problem articulated above, and solutions sought (Section II). Proposed approaches to USAID’s pursuit of sustainable WASH programming are based on sector knowledge, available evidence, and analysis. D. The qualifications and operational experience of the applying organizations in sustainable WASH programming and of the individuals proposed to participate, and the organizations’ experience in working as a partner in similar ventures or consortia. E. Ability to Participate: One or two key, experienced individuals from the submitting organization must be available to participate in meetings in [Estimated date] in Washington D.C., to develop the ideas presented while working alongside USAID staff and other organizations selected to participate. Please note that costs of participation by selected organizations in the co-creation workshop will not be paid for by USAID. VI. Award Stages. The amount of resources made available under this BAA will depend on the concepts received and the availability of funds. Some award types may not include any funding. The award process under this BAA has the following steps: Stage 1 Expression of Interest : Please submit an expression of interest in accordance with Section IX. Expressions of Interest must indicate the research or development idea which will work towards discovering potential solutions to the Problem and Challenge Statement(s), by increasing knowledge and understanding of potential solutions, exploiting scientific discoveries or improvements in technology, materials, processes, methods, devices, or techniques, advancing the state of the art, or using scientific and technical knowledge in the design, development, testing, or evaluation of a potential new product or service (or of an improvement in an existing product or service). Note that due to the large number of Expressions of Interest, USAID is unable to provide detailed information to those EOIs that are not selected to move forward. Stage 2 Development of the Concept Paper. For Expressions of Interest which are deemed to have merit by USAID and pass criteria/eligibility stated within the BAA and/or specific addenda, USAID will issue an invitation to collaborate to the potential partner to participate in a co-creation workshop, conference, meeting, or the method designated by USAID to work together with all invitees to further develop the idea presented in the expression of interest. Working together, USAID and the potential partner will collaborate on a Concept Paper. It is during this phase of co-creation and co-design that the parties will begin to determine additional partners and resources to complement the project. The Concept Paper, generally 5-10 pages, will further detail and explain the project as initially provided in the Expression of Interest. Additional Partners/Resources. During the project co-creation and co-design, both the Apparently Successful Partner and USAID will identify additional partners and resources, and whether additional mechanisms are necessary to implement the project. All potential partners may not move forward to Stage 3. Stage 3 Review by the Peer and Scientific Review Board. Concept Papers developed during State 2 will be reviewed by the Peer and Scientific Review Board, comprised of experts from USAID, partners, and/or outside parties. The Peer and Scientific Review Board will review Concept Papers and recommend which applicants should be considered Apparently Successful Partners. Using its technical expertise, the Peer and Scientific Review Board will recommend whether to move forward with the project including revisions/additions to the project, and potential partners and resources. All potential partners may not move forward to Stage 4. Stage 4 Contracting/Agreement Officer Determination. The Contracting/Agreement officer will review the Peer and Scientific Review Board’s recommendations and consider other information, such as resource availability, preliminary partner responsibility assessment, and Agency priorities, and will make a determination that the respondent is an Apparently Successful Partner. The Contracting/Agreement Officer may also make or narrow down the anticipated instrument type to facilitate project design. Request for Additional Information. USAID will work with partners identified by the Peer and Scientific Review Board, and co-design the project and assist the partner to provide additional information with respect to the proposer’s technical approach, capacity, management and organization, past performance, and budget, as well as representations and certifications, as needed. Final Review and Negotiation. The USAID Contract/ Agreement Officer will engage in final review, negotiation, and determinations of instrument type, responsibility cost reasonableness, etc., and will craft an award instrument with the Apparently Successful Partner. If the Apparently Successful Applicant and USAID cannot arrive at a mutually agreeable arrangement, the Contract/ Agreement Officer will cancel the project at no cost to the Government. Award. Where USAID determines that the award of an instrument is appropriate, the USAID Contract/ Agreement Officer will award the instrument. VI. Award Information Number of awards could vary and may not mirror the number of expressions of interests or invitees to co-creation. A. Awards under this BAA will be made to Apparently Successful Partners on the basis of their ability to further USAID’s goals of improving USAID’s WASH service delivery sustainability. USAID is seeking new applications of science, innovations, and partnerships that provide the best value to the Government and have the potential to substantially contribute to these goals. B. Proposals identified for negotiation may result in a contract, grant, cooperative agreement, Inter-Agency Agreement, Government to Government Agreement, Donor to Donor Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding or alternative agreement type, depending upon the nature of the work proposed, the required degree of Government involvement, and other factors. The Government Contracting/Agreement Officer will determine award instrument type and negotiate instrument terms and conditions with selectees. USAID may select the award instruments it deems appropriate. C. Eligibility Information. Public, private, for-profit, and nonprofit organizations, as well as institutions of higher education, public international organizations, non-governmental organizations, U.S. and non-U.S. governmental organizations, multilateral and international donor organizations are eligible under this BAA. All organizations must be determined to be responsive to the BAA and sufficiently responsible to perform or participate in the final award type. D. Standard Clauses and Provisions of Award. The standard clauses or provisions for awards are generally prescribed by law and regulation and will vary considerably by award type. Information regarding clauses and provisions will be offered to the proposer when the award type is identified. E. Organizations are encouraged to consider providing reasonable cost sharing, leverage, or other exchange of resource arrangements, and are encouraged to suggest creative approaches to resourcing projects. VIII. Information Protection: USAID’s goal is to facilitate the research and development that will lead to innovative, and potentially commercially viable, solutions. Understanding the sensitive nature of submitters’ information, USAID will work with organizations to protect intellectual property. Expressions of interest should be free of any intellectual property that submitter wishes to protect, as the expressions of interest will be shared with USAID partners as part of the selection process. However, once submitters have been invited to engage in further discussions, submitters will work with USAID to identify proprietary information that requires protection. Therefore, organizations making submissions under this BAA grant to USAID a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable right to use, disclose, reproduce, and prepare derivative works, and to have or permit others to do so to any information contained in the expressions of interest submitted under the BAA. If USAID engages with the organization regarding its submission, the parties can negotiate further intellectual property protection for the organization’s intellectual property. Organizations must ensure that any submissions under this BAA are free of any third party proprietary data rights that would impact the license granted to USAID herein. IX. Submission Instructions for Expressions of Interest : A. Be in English B. Be submitted electronically to washsustainabilitybaa@usaid.gov C. Be up to 3 pages in length, no smaller than 12 point font; D. Contain a header with the following information (included in the page count): a. Respondent Name/Group and Contact Information; b. Response Title; c. BAA Addendum Name/Number; d. Contain one optional graphic that fits on an 8.5”x11” or A4 piece of paper (included in the page limit); e. Respondents may provide links to related studies or reports (will not count to the 3 page limit). E. Be in.pdf,.docx, or.odf format Organizations should submit their Expressions of Interest no later than Wednesday, February 10, 2016.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/363737e1aeb20efb39b9d644fc2c2a59)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Washington, District of Columbia, United States
- Record
- SN03996205-W 20160122/160120234511-363737e1aeb20efb39b9d644fc2c2a59 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |