Increasing Local Capacity Activity in the Eastern and Souther Caribbean

The summary for the Increasing Local Capacity Activity in the Eastern and Souther Caribbean grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Dominican Republic USAID Santo Domingo, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.
Increasing Local Capacity Activity in the Eastern and Souther Caribbean: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission to Eastern and Southern Caribbean (ESC) based in Barbados is performing this market survey to determine if there are local and regional (within the Eastern and Southern Caribbean region) companies or organizations interested in,and capable of implementing and managing a multi-faceted activity aimed at increasing the capacity of
local development entities in the Southern and Eastern Caribbean region through the USAID’s Local
Capacity for Local Solutions Activity.

USAID/ESC provides development assistance to organizations and nation states in the Eastern and
Southern Caribbean (which comprises Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St.
Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago) and
Grenada. Overall, this development assistance seeks to (1) reduce youth involvement in crime and
violence; (2) reduce risks and adapt to the impacts of global climate change; and (3) achieve epidemic control of HIV/AIDS throughout the region.

Additional information on the regional USAID strategy can be found at:
https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1862/ESC%20RDCS%20Public%20Ver.%2
0UPDATED%206-12-15%20CAR.pdf

B. Purpose/Objective

The purpose of the Local Capacity for Local Solutions Activity (LC4LS) is to increase the capacity of selected non-profit and non-governmental organizations to expand and sustainably provide services throughout the CARICOM region. To achieve this purpose, USAID plans to finance a select number of
development grants through an Implementing Partner (IP) for activities proposed by local and regional organizations that meet capacity and eligibility criteria while providing initial and on-going administrative, organizational, and management training and support.

The LC4LS Activity hopes to achieve its purpose through successful and creative implementation
approaches as well as skills building to be managed by a selected IP capable of providing the regional multi-faceted assistance and supervision of the Activity will require. The tasks fall into three general areas:

A. Managing grants. The selected local or regional company or organization would serve as USAID’s Implementing Partner (IP) and would lead in identifying, mentoring and strengthening local and regional organizations capable of designing and managing programs that further the USAID/ESC
Mission strategy in the areas of youth development, improving the region’s resilience and
adaptation to global climate change, and achieve epidemic control of HIV/AIDS. The
compendium of projects to be financed would provide alternative approaches not covered by
the Mission’s signature projects but it will be critically important that they are coordinated with the Mission’s lead activity in each thematic area. The achievement of the development aims of
each grant will be one measure of success.

B. Building Institutional, Administrative, and Managerial Capacity and Sustainability of emerging
development non-governmental organizations and institutions (NGOs)1 that receive a grant
under the Activity. The IP will be responsible for carrying out an institutional needs assessment
and designing a capacity strengthening program for each participating institution, including
milestones. It is expected that capacity building will be achieved through a combination of
formal, non-formal, build on-the-job, and other capacity building methodologies. Thematic
areas will include but are not limited to 1) Individual Capacities (leadership and staff
development); 2) Organizational Capacities; 3) Resource Mobilization Capacities; and 4) External
Relations Capacities.

C. Capacity Strengthening of Non-grant Receiving Organizations and Institutions. The IP will be
expected to design, deliver, and evaluate effectiveness of capacity building activities, likely in conjunction with Section B activities, for non-grant receiving NGOs working in USAID/ESC’s assistance areas. The goal will be to strengthen institutions able to design and manage projects; conduct proper organizational planning, budgeting and management; monitor and evaluate
their project portfolios; and build a capacity to develop sustainable sources of funding for any
current or future USG investments.

Together, execution of these three tasks listed above will fully implement the Local Capacity for Local Solutions Activity (LC4LS).

The IP will be responsible for the capacity-building initiatives and soliciting, reviewing and ultimately awarding and monitoring the grants described above. Successful implementation will address the objectives and goals of USAID’s regional development and cooperation strategy, as well as contribute to achieving the technical services mandate of each proposing organization in the technical areas covered by the USAID strategy, as described. Proposals/applications to undertake the tasks mentioned herein may be solicited through several potential mechanisms such as Annual Program Statements, Request for
Proposals (RFP), and/or Requests for Application (RFA), among others. At an early point in the selection process, each emerging development organization submitting a proposal will be assessed for administrative, financial management and technical capacity as well as its prospects for achieving organizational, financial and technical sustainability. The IP will be a full partner and potentially lead this assessment process.

USAID’s anticipated development outcome for the LC4LS activity is multiple regional development
institutions capable of continuing to supply high quality services2 after completion of the USAID activity and into the future.

D. Services Sought

USAID is seeking information and expressions of interest from sources interested in applying to become USAID’s Implementing Partner (IP) for this Activity. The IP may be a local or regional institution or company. It may be a for-profit or not-for-profit entity. It may also be a consortium of organizations or a
joint venture of businesses or companies capable of operating regionally.

For the Activity, the IP will provide the full gamut of support, management and technical assistance services outlined in Sections A and B above, for the emerging development organizations selected to participate in the LC4LS Activity. In addition, the IP will fulfill monitoring and valuation requirements, perform technical and administrative assessments, ensure coordination with the Mission’s lead activities under each of the Mission’s objective areas, and provide technical, financial, procurement, and
administrative oversight training. Moreover, as sustainability of each emerging organization is an
important result, the IP will help selected organizations to build or strengthen their fund
raising/development capacity to assist them to move to financial, as well as technical, organizational and managerial, sustainability.

Implementation of the Activity will require that the IP perform management services for USAID. One
such service will be to assist in identifying emerging development organizations that might be
considered for inclusion in the Activity. A second is to assist selected emerging development
organizations to strengthen their administrative, financial and management services. The third is to
assist grantee organizations to become sustainable so that they can evolve into capable development partners to the development organizations and governments of the region. This might include international development organizations, regional development entities, world and regional development banks (e.g., CDB), or private companies operating in the region, among others.

Illustrative Tasks to be undertaken in conjunction with USAID/ESC include:
1) Solicitation Phase
i. Defining the methodology and selection criteria for funding and participation proposals.
Criteria will include both requirements for proposals and qualifications of the
organizations requesting funding.
ii. Identifying local and regional organizations with potential for receiving grants as well as
potential for progress toward sustainability.
iii. Formalizing the methods for soliciting proposals in the region.
iv. Identifying non-grant receiving local and regional organizations to receive capacity
strengthening support.

2) Award Phase
i. Developing post-submission selection methodology. This will necessarily include an
initial phase of proposal evaluation to develop a “short list” of qualified proposals based
on criteria and relevance to Mission priorities and a “short list” of non-grant receiving
participant organizations.
ii. Conducting initial due diligence of the proposing organizations in the short list.
iii. Formalizing the selection system for awards with USAID/ESC. This will require some
form of proposal evaluation and ranking of the proposals and the organizations based
on criteria in the solicitation for proposals.
iv. Completing a full due diligence assessment for the organizations selected for funding.
This will include finalization of the award documents to include reporting requirements,
work plan, key personnel, etc. Awards will be made and administered by the IP.
v. In conjunction with the ESC Mission, conducting the final selection of awards.
vi. Processing the awards for proposals to be funded.
vii. Conducting required reviews for environmental compliance approval by USAID/ESC for
selected awards.

3) Implementation Phase
i. The IP will manage all approved LC4LS activities, including oversight of financial,
administrative, and technical status, and regular monitoring and evaluation reporting.
The IP will provide the Mission with regular report updates. The IP should have sufficient
administrative and technical resources available to conduct this requirement.
ii. In order to ensure that the NGO organizations that receive funding and capacity building
move toward sustainability, the IP will provide innovative, high quality capacity-building
including organizational, managerial, administrative and financial system development,
fund raising methods, programmatic expertise including activity design and implementation, advocacy and public involvement, etc. Activities and training will be opened to additional USAID grantees outside of the LC4LS grantee group.
It is expected that the overall capacity-building approach and methodologies will be
developed through new USAID procurement and collaboration instruments (e.g. Broad
Agency Announcement (BAA)) intended to accelerate USAID’s ability to discover, test
and scale game-changing innovations by co-creating and co-designing a development
solution. Only those organizations and individuals willing to engage in this approach
should respond to this Sources Sought activity.
iii. The IP will develop and implement the LC4LS activity M&E Plan, in conjunction with the
M&E Officer USAID/ESC Mission. This plan must also address the requirements and
technical areas of the Mission’s Performance Management Plan (PMP). Activity outputs
will be clearly defined with benchmarks to be reported based on progress and timephased
reporting periods demarcated.
iv. The IP will ensure that all funded proposals have work plans and timely reporting
requirements that include financial reviews, environmental requirements, progress
evaluations, and end of activity close out procedures defined.

4) Lessons Learned that are Adaptable to other USAID Mission Activities
i. USAID/ESC has principal projects in each of the sectoral areas addressed by the LC4LS
activity (youth development, health, and climate change). Over the course of
implementing the various grants approved under the Activity, the IP shall identify
methodologies and activities that are successful in building sustainability and
institutional capacity that could be replicated by the Mission’s principal projects. This
should be documented as “lessons learned” in the periodic reports of the IP. The IP will
be expected to provide camera-ready beneficiary-focused success stories on various
aspects of the program.
ii. As the Mission may be looking for potential new partners to work under various
elements of the principal activities, the IP shall also identify organizations that have
become stronger and are considered to have improved their sustainability. These
identified organizations may be presented to the region for consideration by other
regional development supporters for future partnerships.

E. Anticipated Period and Place of Performance
The anticipated period of performance is for five years (2016-2020) for a total estimated amount of up to US$16,000,000.00, subject to funds availability. This estimate includes all funding for activity management, funding for proposals, technical assistance, training, and reporting.

Programs and grants may be implemented in all ten countries served by USAID/ESC (Antigua and
Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago) and Grenada. However, this activity is not required to
work in all countries in the region. Rather, the Mission is seeking out a select set of development
organizations or foundations with the goals, vision and potential to become strong sustainable
organizations in their sector and to contribute to that sector and as a contributing member of civil society at the national and regional level.

Submission Guidelines
Interested organizations should submit a statement describing the capabilities of the organization as they relate to the purpose and requirements outlined above and respond to all of the following questions based on the information provided in this document:
 Each potential IP should prepare a summary background statement that summarizes its
understanding of the capacity of local emerging development organizations in the Eastern and
Southern Caribbean region, briefly identifying constraints to the development of such
organizations.
 Potential IPs should evaluate the illustrative tasks indicated and address how its organization
might seek to accomplish them. In addition, each IP is encouraged to add additional tasks or
provide alternative strategies in its response that address the challenges faced by potential
grantee organizations.
 Each potential IP should propose an organizational structure, complete with skill sets and
locational information that will achieve the tasks indicated or suggested.
 Each potential IP should address how it has incorporated innovative, pioneering, cutting edge
methodologies, approaches, or concepts into its work with particular attention paid to working
in a geographically dispersed setting. In-house developed innovations are of particular interest.
 Finally, potential IPs should outline any additional or other approaches they feel would be
important to the achievement of the results outlined for this project.
USAID/ESC is looking for creative, well-grounded, knowledgeable responses to the issues raised and
tasks outlined in this Sources Sought notice. IP responses to this Sources Sought may be incorporated into subsequent procurement documents should the Mission decide to go forward with the Activity.
Responses may also be used to help create a short list of potential IPs that will receive subsequent
procurement documents.
Statements sent in response to this notice should not exceed six (6) pages (including attachments and charts) using an 11-point font size minimum. The statement must include the following information: 1)Organization name, address, email address, Web site address, telephone number, and size and type of ownership for the organization; and 2) Tailored capability statements addressing the particulars of this effort, with appropriate documentation supporting claims of organizational and staff capability. If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, organizations
should address the administrative and management structure of such arrangements.

The statements may be sent electronically in Microsoft Word or Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf)NLT February 12, 2016, at 5:00 p.m. to José Luis Núñez, Acquisition and Assistance Specialist, at [email protected].
All responses must be received by the specified due date and time.

Disclaimer and Important Notices

This notice does not obligate USAID to make an award 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 pre-solicitation synopsis and
solicitation may be published on the Federal Business Opportunities website, www.fedbizopps.gov or Federal Grants Opportunities, www.grants.gov. 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. USAID reserves the right to use any non-proprietary information in any resulting solicitation(s).

Footnote:
1 For the purposes of this Sources Sought, emerging development NGOs are defined as those organizations that
already have a demonstrated capacity to implement projects and activities that contribute to the achievement of the
objectives of the ESC Regional Development Strategy yet require organizational, administrative, and managerial
capacity-building to ensure longevity and sustainability.

2 These services will seek to (1) reduce youth involvement in crime and violence; (2) reduce risks and adapt to the impacts of global climate change; and (3) achieve epidemic control of HIV/AIDS throughout the region.
Federal Grant Title: Increasing Local Capacity Activity in the Eastern and Souther Caribbean
Federal Agency Name: Dominican Republic USAID Santo Domingo
Grant Categories: Other
Type of Opportunity: Other
Funding Opportunity Number: SOL-538-16-000001
Type of Funding: Other
CFDA Numbers: 98.001
CFDA Descriptions: USAID Foreign Assistance for Programs Overseas
Current Application Deadline: Feb 12, 2016
Original Application Deadline: Feb 12, 2016
Posted Date: Jan 22, 2016
Creation Date: Jan 22, 2016
Archive Date: Mar 13, 2016
Total Program Funding:
Maximum Federal Grant Award: $16,000,000
Minimum Federal Grant Award: $16,000,000
Expected Number of Awards:
Cost Sharing or Matching: No
Category Explanation
Local Capacity Development
Applicants Eligible for this Grant
Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)
Additional Information on Eligibility
Local and regional organizations in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean.
Grant Announcement Contact
Jose Nunez Acquisition Assistance Specialist Phone 809.368.7566
Jose Luis Nunez

Dominican Republic USAID-Santo Domingo YOUR NUMBER
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