Enduring Results Study 4.0 at Catholic Relief Services

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Catholic Relief Service (CRS), under the LASER Buy-In: Building the Evidence Base on Effective Private Sector Engagement Phase 2 Project, is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for an international company or organization to conduct a global Enduring Results Study 4.0 from any country. The attached RFP contains all the necessary information for interested Bidders.

The global LASER Buy-In: Building the Evidence Base on Effective Private Sector Engagement Phase 2 Project is a 4-year project funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

1. Background

USAID has pursued an increasing number of partnerships with the private sector, aiming not only to achieve better results for target beneficiaries, but also to achieve enduring results. As USAID continues to develop its expertise in private sector engagement, it aims to create more partnerships with enduring results. That is, development outcomes that are sustained over time (and in some cases scaled up) as a result of the private sector’s long-term vision and commitment to specific markets and communities.

However, little is known about whether or how USAID’s PPPs actually achieve the intended goal of enduring results. After engagements come to an end, USAID has been limited in its ability to collect data on ongoing activities and outcomes or their long-term development impacts beyond its investment or direct engagement. Further, there has been little research into how to design and implement partnerships with sustainability in mind.

As a result, USAID launched a biennial Enduring Results Study (ERS) “Private Sector Partnerships: Achieving Enduring Results”), with Dalberg’s support in 2016, to begin developing frameworks and best practices that help partnership practitioners promote enduring results in PPPs. The first year’s study, Enduring Results 1.0, looked at approximately 40 USAID private sector partnerships (all of which were Global Development Alliance (GDA) partnerships) that ended in FY2014, and provided a deeper level of analysis for 20 of them. The second year’s study, Enduring Results 2.0, considered a broader set of (117) partnerships ending in FY 2015, with deeper analysis on 30 of these partnerships. The second study expanded the scope of private sector engagement approaches to consider Development Credit Authority (DCA) credit guarantees and Development Innovations Ventures (DIV) grants, in addition to GDAs. The third study, Enduring Results 3.0 (https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ers_3.0_summary_report_final_09.10.20_2_1_2.pdf) , considered a set of 29 GDA partnerships for detailed analysis. The recommendations and insights generated in the first three iterations of the ERS should be continuously tested and refined with new data.

Overall, this ongoing initiative seeks to (i) understand which activities and outcomes endured after USAID’s funding ended; (ii) assess the extent to which enduring results are due specifically to private sector partners’ involvement; and (iii) develop recommendations/tools to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of future partnerships.

Specific objectives for ERS 4.0 include:

• Continue assessing the extent to which enduring results are due specifically to private sector partners’ involvement in the program
• Refine and build on the recommendations, tools, and frameworks developed in ERS 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of future partnerships Continue testing and adapting the approach for this study, so that it can be replicated periodically (e.g. biennially)
• Review ERS methodologies used to date to assess private sector partnerships to assess strengths and challenges of different approaches with recommendations on future studies
• Add data to the existing longitudinal dataset; and
• Conduct deep-dive analysis into specific partnerships, geographies, or sectors.

2. Scope of Work

To complete ERS 4.0, CRS will engage a contractor to:

1. Refine and build upon the recommendations, tools, and frameworks developed in ERS 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0, to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of future partnerships. In addition, the contractor will review the effectiveness of methodologies used to date in ERS studies to provide recommendations on evaluating private sector partnerships going forward. The contractor should propose criteria they will use and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches.
2. Conduct in-depth assessments of partnership activities and outcomes that have endured after USAID funding has ended (limited to those partnerships that ended in calendar year 2019 and which have sufficient available data and access to people involved with those partnerships in order to conduct the research). Detailed assessments for selected partnerships will include desk review of USAID and other documentation, as well as interviews with parties to the partnerships, as available.
3. Assess the extent to which enduring results are due specifically to private sector partners’ involvement in the program, using and refining the frameworks developed in ERS 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. The framework used in ERS 3.0 is publicly available at: (https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ers_3.0_summary_report_final_09.10.20_2_1_2.pdf).

Similar to the ERS 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0, the scope of this effort will have certain limitations:

• This study will not be a comprehensive examination of all of USAID’s PPPs. Each ERS examines data of partnerships which ended in two years prior, which does not guarantee a large enough data set to generate statistically significant findings (nor is the intent to do so).
• This will not be a comparison between partnerships that involved the private sector with those that did not. The study will not assess whether private sector partnerships produce more enduring or better results than partnerships that do not involve private sector partners.
• This study will examine whether or not results are sustained and scaled, but will not speak to the quality of the results themselves. This study will not be an impact assessment of the partnerships; it will focus narrowly on the sustainability and scalability of the results.

3. Notes on Methodology

· Interviews will be conducted remotely, no travel is anticipated**

· Frameworks from previous ERS studies will be provided, the contractor is expected to review and justify any improvements to the methods proposed. If needed, the contractor may interview PSE Hub or other staff involved with ERS 1.0-3.0**

· Of the 200-250 potential partnerships that ended in calendar year 2019, a subset will be selected for deep-dive data collection of 10-15partnerships. Criteria need to be explicitly stated as well as data limitations.**

· The contractor will lead the process of obtaining contact information for all involved parties and documentation from deep-dive partnerships by working closely with USAID PSE Hub staff and USAID partnership points of contact **

· Partnerships that have sufficient data and access to involved parties (private sector partner, implementing partner, and USAID) will be included in the evidence base, others will need to be replaced to make up a sufficient sample. The Bidder will work closely with USAID PSE Hub staff to determine a sufficient sample size.

4. Deliverables

Internally-Facing Deliverables

1. Inception Report / Detailed Workplan: A detailed workplan outlining the Bidder’s timeline for completing the deliverables below and required intermediate steps.
2. In-depth report: A publishable report which brings together all the relevant research, findings, and recommendations in digestible, narrative document (20-25 page Word document) to promote building more sustainable and scalable partnerships. Final report must be ADS 508 compliant.
3. Final dataset with partnership categorizations, points of contact from partners, and notes from interviews.
4. ERS Series Methodology Review and Recommendations: A short report examining the methodologies deployed in ERS 1.0-4.0 to summarize evolution and make methodological recommendations for future studies of this nature (5-10 pages).

Externally-Facing Deliverables

1. Externally-facing summary report: A brief report (10-15 pages) which summarizes top-line findings written for a more general development audience.
2. Externally-facing summary deck: A short presentation deck (10-15 slides) summarizing the study methodology and findings (content should be in-line with the external report).
3. Dissemination events: The contractor will present the study and the findings at both an internal (to USAID staff) and an external (to the broader development/private sector community) event.

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