Inactive 8(a) Set-Aside (FAR 19.8)

1. General Statement of Purpose of the Contract The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is Ethiopia's largest bilateral donor and operates one of the largest and most complex de... 1. General Statement of Purpose of the Contract The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is Ethiopia's largest bilateral donor and operates one of the largest and most complex development portfolios in Sub-Saharan Africa. Foreign assistance priorities are in the areas of humanitarian assistance, food security, economic growth, health, education and democracy and governance. The Senior Learning Advisor will be USAID Ethiopia's subject matter expert in building collaborative relationships, generating organizational learning, and supporting adaptive program management. USAID's terminology is Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) and will be used hereafter in this solicitation. CLA is USAID's approach to improving development programming through cultivating collaborative partnerships, both within USAID/Ethiopia and in the wider development community; generating and capturing knowledge across a variety of sources and making it widely available to development practitioners and local stakeholders; and making decisions and adjustments in response to new information and changes in context. More specifically, CLA: a. Reduces duplication through coordinating efforts and sharing knowledge with other development actors. b. Improves the effectiveness of USAID's development programs by grounding them in evidence and proven or promising practices. c. Enables adaptive course corrections through continuous learning during implementation to shorten the path to goals and improve overall effectiveness. d. Facilitates country-led development and local investment in development initiatives and shared learning. By being systematic and intentional in the application of CLA practices to development programming, USAID will be more effective in planning, implementing and managing its development portfolio. A top priority for USAID is to promote Ethiopia's self-reliance, which will require systems thinking and integrated approaches, partnerships, and flexible interventions given changing contexts. NOTE: While desired, it is not required that the applicant has specific experience with CLA under USAID. 2. Statement of Duties to be Performed Major Duties and Responsibilities: • Serves as a subject matter expert and fosters an organizational culture that supports and actively integrates CLA principles in development programming. • Advises the Mission Management Team (MMT), technical and support offices, working groups, as well as external stakeholders in the development of technical strategies, projects and activities with a CLA lens. • Proactively and masterfully builds and facilitates strategic and collaborative relationships within the Mission and beyond, e.g. senior management, technical offices, working groups, Government of Ethiopia counterparts, implementing partners, and other donors. • Supports and advises on quality and rigorous designs of qualitative and quantitative learning methodologies to generate knowledge, e.g. research, after action reviews, special studies, assessments, evaluations. • Gathers, synthesizes and disseminates evidence-based findings and works with staff to adapt programming, e.g. supports staff with establishing feedback loops to enable continuous learning and adaptation, organizes learning events. • Communicates effectively to expert and non-expert audiences about CLA practices and expands their adoption in the Mission community and among development partners. • Provides leadership in the development of the Mission's learning agenda and supports staff on the development of CLA action plans. • Plays a focal point and connecting role across the Mission, identifying linkages and synergies across technical portfolios, activities, and other contextual factors. • Works closely and collaboratively with Monitoring and Evaluation Specialists and the Mission's Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Platform to connect data, learning, knowledge management, and organizational behavior. • Convenes development practitioners, facilitates pause and reflect discussions and mid-course stock taking. Spurs creative thinking on how USAID and the broader development community can implement programs more effectively. • Supports the Program Office in strategic development, project design, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, and public outreach through a CLA lens. • Supports the Executive Office in the planning and implementation of Organizational Development events. 3. Supervisory Relationship: The Senior Learning Adviser reports to the Supervisory Program Officer, or designate, but plays a focal coordination point across the Mission and will be delegated the responsibility and authority to plan, schedule, and carry out major CLA-oriented activities. 4. Supervisory Controls: The incumbent will be expected to lead USAID's CLA working group, offer technical guidance and professional coaching to Mission staff in practices and techniques for cultivating organizational learning about USAID's development hypotheses and associated theories of change, results, and capacities to conduct special studies, learning reviews and/or evaluations. The incumbent may provide oversight and/or supervision of permanent/temporary staff or TDYs to Ethiopia as appropriate and related to CLA. Exercise of Judgment: The incumbent works with a high level of independence in advancing USAID Ethiopia's CLA agenda. S/he uses considerable judgment in developing ideas and proposals as well as coordinating the efforts of staff members. 10. AREA OF CONSIDERATION: For USPSC: • Be a U.S. citizen or U.S. Permanent Resident ("green card holder"); • U.S. resident alien means a non-U.S. citizen lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States; • Submit a complete application as outlined in the solicitation section titled APPLYING; • Be able to obtain facility access authorization; • Be able to obtain a Department of State medical clearance; • Be willing to travel to work sites and other offices as/when requested; • Employment is subject to funds availability and all the required approvals obtained. 11. PHYSICAL DEMANDS: The work requested does not involve undue physical demands. 12. POINT OF CONTACT: Supervisory Executive Officer, Shelby Hunt and HR Specialist, Fekadu Tamirate at addisusaidjobs@usaid.gov. Note: No in-person appointments or telephone calls will be entertained, unless you are seeking more information about this solicitation. II. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED FOR THIS POSITION Applications will be initially screened by the Human Resources Office to determine whether applicants have met the advertised minimum qualifications. A list of qualified applicants will be referred to the hiring office for further consideration and screening. EDUCATION: Minimum master's degree, with strong preference for areas such as organizational behavior, change management, management sciences, knowledge management or other clearly related field. WORK EXPERIENCE: A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible, professional level experience in organizational learning and adaptive management or clearly related work experience. Extra points will be assigned for skills that are related to a background in facilitation and coordination, a firm command of learning tools and methodologies, and a strong background in working with a variety of stakeholders. III. EVALUATION AND SELECTION FACTORS The following evaluation factors for evaluating applications are established. The Technical Evaluation Committee will establish the competitive range/cut-off points per the evaluation factors listed below. Applicants are encouraged to provide a narrative for each selection criteria listed below in this section. This information will be used for evaluating and scoring each criterion. The TEC will conduct interviews with all offerors in the competitive range and provide the final rating and ranking of the offerors based on the interview and satisfactory professional reference checks. Be sure to include your name and the solicitation number at the top of each page. EDUCATION (10 points) Minimum master's degree, with strong preference for areas such as organizational behavior, change management, management sciences, knowledge management or other clearly related field. Extra points will be assigned for an educational background that supersedes the minimum qualifications. WORK EXPERIENCE (10 points) A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible, professional level experience in organizational learning and adaptive management or clearly related work experience. Extra points will be assigned for skills that are related to a background in facilitation and coordination, a firm command of learning tools and methodologies, and a strong background in working with a variety of stakeholders. Interview (60 points): The candidate will be asked a series of hard and soft skills questions. The candidate must demonstrate strong interpersonal communication skills and a firm command of organizational learning and adaptive management topic areas, as well as a more general understanding of the economic, social, cultural and political characteristics of developing countries. Writing Sample (20 points): The candidate must demonstrate professional-level writing skills. The writing sample will also be used to assess the candidate's knowledge of the subject matter and/or an case scenario. Selection will be based on the following criteria (Maximum of 100 Points Available): Education: 10 points Work Experience: 10 points Interview: 60 points Writing Sample: 20 points IV. APPLYING For your application to be considered, the following documents must be submitted: 1. Eligible offerors are required to complete and submit the offer form AID 309-2,"OfferorInformationforPersonalServicesContractswithIndividuals,"availableathttp://www.usaid.gov/forms. 2. Offers must be received by the closing date and time specified in Section I, item 3,and submitted to the Point of Contact in Section I, item 12. 3. To ensure consideration of offers for the intended position, Offerors must prominently reference the Solicitation number in the offer submission. 4. Letter of Application and current resume. 5. To ensure consideration of offers for the intended position, Offerors must prominently reference the Solicitation number in the offer submission. 6. Application must be submitted ONLY via addisusaidjobs@usaid.gov and the email subject must say -: 72066319B00001, Senior Learning Advisor 7. Please submit the application only once; and 8. Late and incomplete applications will not be considered; the application must be submitted before or on the closing date at local Ethiopia time 5 p.m. (Local Ethiopia, Addis Ababa Time). V. LIST OF REQUIRED FORMS FOR PSC HIRES Once the CO informs the successful Offeror about being selected for a contract award, the CO will provide the successful Offeror instructions about how to complete and submit the following forms. 1. Medical History and Examination Form (Department of State Forms) 2. Questionnaire for Sensitive Positions for National Security (SF-86), or 3. Questionnaire for Non-Sensitive Positions (SF-85) 4. Finger Print Card (FD-258) VI. BENEFITS/ALLOWANCES As a matter of policy, and as appropriate, a PSC is normally authorized the following benefits and allowances: a. BENEFITS: b. Employer's FICA Contribution c. Contribution toward Health & Life Insurance d. ALLOWANCES: Section numbers refer to rules from the Department of State Standardized Regulations (Government Civilians Foreign Areas) U.S. resident-hire PSCs are not eligible for any fringe benefits (except contributions for FICA, health insurance, and life insurance), including differentials and allowances. VII. TAXES USPSCs are required to pay Federal income taxes, FICA, Medicare and applicable State Income taxes. VIII. USAID REGULATIONS, POLICIES AND CONTRACT CLAUSES PERTAINING TO PSCs USAID regulations and policies governing USPSC a wards are available at these sources: 1. USAID Acquisition Regulation(AIDAR),Appendix D, "Direct USAID Contracts with a U.S. Citizen or a U.S. Resident Alien for Personal Services Abroad," includingcontractclause"GeneralProvisions,"availableathttps://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/aidar_0.pdf. 2. Contract Cover Page form AID309-1availableathttps://www.usaid.gov/forms. 3. Acquisition and Assistance Policy Directives/Contract Information Bulletins(AAPDs/CIBs) for Personal Services Contracts with Individuals available at http://www.usaid.gov/work-usaid/aapds-cibs. 4. Ethical Conduct. By the acceptance of a USAID personal services contract as an individual, the contractor will be acknowledging receipt of the "Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch," available from the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, in accordance with General Provision 2 and 5CFR2635. See https://www.oge.gov/web/oge.nsf/OGE%20Regulations. END OF SOLICITATION EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY: The U.S. Mission in Ethiopia provides equal opportunity and fair and equitable treatment in employment to all people without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, political affiliation, marital status, or sexual orientation. USAID/Ethiopia also strives to achieve equal employment opportunity in all personnel operations through continuing diversity enhancement programs. The EEO complaint procedure is not available to individuals who believe they have been denied equal opportunity based upon marital status or political affiliation. Individuals with such complaints should avail themselves of the appropriate grievance procedures, remedies for prohibited personnel practices, and/or courts for relief.