Disclaimer: THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. The RFI is solely for information gathering purposes and is NOT a Request for a Proposal (RFP), a Request for Quotation (RFQ), an invitation for Bids, a Solicitation, or an indication that Social Impact (SI) will contract for the items contained in this RFI.

Project Background
Social Impact, Inc. (SI) is currently implementing the USAID/Mali Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Platform. The purpose of the five-year project is to provide MEL technical and advisory services to USAID/Mali. This contract will have three major components: 1) USAID/Mali monitoring support through a Third-Party Monitoring (TPM) mechanism; 2) Evaluation Services and Surveys; and 3) Collaborating, Learning and Adaptive Management and Communication Services.

The MEL Platform will assist USAID/Mali and its partners to generate empirical data and to foster learning and knowledge management through a participatory process to support stronger results and improve evidence-based programming. The principal customers for this MEL Platform contract will be USAID/Mali staff, other USG agencies, USAID implementing partners, Malian Government counterparts, and relevant offices in USAID/Washington.

Under this contract, SI is requesting information from firms to gauge interest in and qualifications for forthcoming solicitation for data collection and analysis services in Mali.

Service Explanation
The MEL Platform will provide analytical services that will lead to stronger programmatic results and improve evidence-based decision making across the Mission. During the contract period, SI and partners will fulfill the program objectives by providing services within the contract’s three major components. This RFI focuses on ESS, Component II of the MEL Platform. Under this component, SI will conduct various Surveys, Performance and Impact Evaluations, Assessments, and Special Studies.

• The surveys will consist of baseline, midline and endline at the Intermediate Results (IR) and Projects levels of the USAID Mali Country Development Cooperative Strategy (CDCS).
• The midcourse or final Performance Evaluations will focus on descriptive or normative questions exploring what a particular program or activity has achieved. SI will perform Performance Evaluations using qualitative and/or quantitative data collection and analysis methods.
• Impact Evaluations will measure the change in development outcomes attributable to a defined intervention or a set of interventions under the USAID Mali CDCS. They will be based on models of cause and effect and require a credible and rigorously defined counterfactual. The central objective being to control factors other than the interventions that might account for the observed changes.
• SI will carry out assessments and special studies and gather information on specific sectors that will help USAID Mali and its partners to understand the economic, social and political context under which the CDCS interventions operate.

Request for Information (RFI) Response Instructions
SI welcomes all locally or regionally-based data collection service providers or NGOs in Mali to reply to the RFI.

Firms interested in this work should provide three components: 1) a response no longer than four pages addressing the questions in the attached document. Responses should be accompanied by 2) an annex listing past work that demonstrates capabilities relevant to the above-described effort, and 3) an illustrative CV of a person you would likely propose to serve in a Senior Research Manager role, responsible for managing the overall effort. The past performance annex and CV do not count toward the page limit, and there is no limit to their length. We ask firms to provide this information in the format provided in Exhibit A to facilitate our review.

SI requests that all respondents examine the specific requirements contained in this Request for Information (RFI) and prepare responses pursuant to the terms of this RFI. All questions related to the RFI are to be submitted by February 13, 2023 and will be answered by February 17, 2023. The deadline to submit responses is February 24, 2023. Please refer to the full RFI in the website linked below for a detailed documentation of project background and scope of work.
https://socialimpact.com/rfp/si-seeks-data-collection-services-in-mali/

Points of Contact:
Abigail Price, Senior Program Manager, aprice@socialimpact.com

Joan Huai, Program Assistant, jhuai@socialimpact.com