Description of Requirements

The United States government, represented by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Regional Development Mission Asia (RDMA) invites qualified companies/individuals to submit quotation of the services/items specified below. This is to support the operation of USAID/RDMA, Bangkok Thailand.

Proposal submission and questions regarding this Request for Proposal (RFP) shall be ONLY via email to BANGKOKUSAIDPROC@usaid.gov by the time/date specified above.

The award of a contract hereunder is subject to the availability of funds. Issuance of this RFP does not constitute an award or commitment on the part of the U.S. Government, nor does it commit the U.S. Government to pay for costs incurred in the preparation and submission of a quotation. Please be advised that all interested parties are required to be registered in Dun and Bradstreet and are subject to SAM registration before an award can be made. Information on obtaining the Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS), can be found at this website: http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform. Offerors are also required to register their business on the U.S. Government’s System for Award Management (SAM) at www.sam.gov. Information on this process for foreign vendors is available here. Prospective offerors are encouraged to register in SAM prior to the submittal of quotations.

I. Introduction

The U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Bangkok, Thailand plans to offer the following “soft skill” training courses: 

1. Creative and Critical Thinking 
2. Problem Solving and Decision Making

commencing on/about August 2-6, 2021.  Each class will consist of approximately 25 participants from USAID missions located in countries throughout the Asia region and possibly beyond, including Locally-employed staff (LES), Third Country Nationals (TCN) and American staff.  The training venue will be provided by USAID.  

II. Background

USAID is the lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential.  In the past few years, USAID has recruited and deployed additional staff, increasing its workforce dramatically and quickly.  The Regional Development Mission for Asia (RDMA) in Bangkok serves as a knowledge management platform that works closely with Washington headquarters to provide thought leadership for USAID programs throughout the Asia region and manages the Asia Regional Training Center (ARTC).  ARTC is a dedicated training facility to deliver skills-building and specialized technical training to USAID staff.

USAID has a very diverse, global workforce with many employees having less than five years of USAID experience, and nearly half as many eligible for retirement.  USAID is dedicated to strengthening its workforce by mentoring and empowering staff, and placing emphasis on the transfer of experience and knowledge.  The training outlined here is to better prepare tomorrow’s leaders.  

It is our intent to heighten employee performance and strengthen Agency capacity to manage assistance programs through offering two “Soft Skills” training courses: Critical thinking and Problem solving.    

III. Services Required

A. Approach

Training must incorporate teaching methodologies that take into account different learning styles and diverse team dynamics.  

The training shall incorporate the following principles:

• Highly participatory, interactive and experiential for all participants
• Incorporates current and best practices in self-development
• Takes into account/allows for adapting to USAID’s organizational culture
• Facilitates personalization/unique experiences for participants, and
• Sets the stage for ongoing self-development, providing forward-looking opportunity for skills, behaviors and supportive systems to continue to improve well after the training is completed.

Core content to be included in the training courses:

Creative and Critical Thinking: The training course should provide participants strategies to apply creative and critical thinking skills in the cooperation. The training should also give participants an insight into similarity and differences of creative and critical thinking, techniques to access creative and critical thinking, as well as application of the process to practical solutions. All participants should improve their ability to think critically and creatively. This training should consist of not less than three (3) days classroom work focused on learning to overcome the barrier of thinking process. The training should help participants:  

• Understand the concepts of creative and critical thinking
• Distinguish the differences and connection between creative and critical thinking
• Provide technique to access creative and critical thinking
• Identify the problems  and find the solution by using the techniques 
• Apply the strategies to practical situation
• Knowing how to provide constructive criticism toward standard practices/current procedures.

Problem solving and Decision Making: Problem solving training should provide participants with methods to identify and solve the problem effectively, improve strategy to identify the problems, and make effective decisions which can prevent or reduce consequent conflicts. This training should consist of not less than two (2) days classroom work. The training should help participants:

• Distinguish between Problem Solving and Decision Making  to Identify effective decisions
• Use techniques to identify the problems
• Recognize the uncertainty and include risk impact during the decision making process.
• Use counter arguments to review the decision.  
• Identify individual perception of decision making in order to reduce conflict
• Apply the techniques to practical situations and personal experience
• Generating alternative solutions to problems/challenges.

B. Deliverables

1) The contractor will deliver the leadership development course in the classroom style that covers one week, 40 hours, for up to 25 participants..  Any purchase and delivery of books and other printed training material to Thailand are the responsibility of the contractor, and must be included in the cost proposal.  USAID/ARTC will provide the training venue, and access to laptops and projector(s) for presentations.

2) Pre-program discussions with Mission personnel to tailor course material to meet the specific and diverse needs of the organization  

3) A training evaluation survey completed by course participants (after each course), with summarized metrics, will be provided to the ARTC Training Coordinator within three weeks of completion of the second training. This information will be used as feedback for similar future events that we may wish to undertake.

IV. Proposal Instructions

A) Technical Proposal (for each course)

The offeror shall include in the technical portion of the quotation:

▪           A brief summary of the topic and learning objective (maximum 1 page)

▪           A draft agenda for each of the courses (maximum 2 pages)

▪           Demonstrated past experience delivering (within the past three years) similar training to an overseas audience (culturally and generationally diverse) with three references (names and email addresses) (maximum 2 pages)

▪           Resume of proposed instructor(s) that describes expertise conducting similar training (maximum 2 pages); the scope of each course requires one instructor only.

B) Price Proposal (for each course)

Total fixed price quotation  – be sure to consider all costs associated with the delivery of these training courses, including but not limited to, preparation of course materials, preparation of course surveys, delivery of courses, airfare, lodging accommodations, meals and incidentals, local transportation, and transport of training materials by express courier.  Do not include the cost of the training venue and cost for access to laptops and projector(s) for presentations in your quotation.  Also separate the costs between training course curriculum and delivery and travel related costs.

The USAID Contracting Officer will select the successful contractor using a Best Value approach, both technical and price factors included.  The Contracting Officer, at the Government’s discretion, may enter into negotiations with one or more offerors to discuss improvements in the proposal and cost deduction. Upon successful negotiation with the vendor, a purchase order will be issued, and a lump sum payment made upon acceptance of all deliverables and within 30 days of receipt of invoice.