Local Evaluation Services Indefinite Quantity

Contract (IQC). The IQC was awarded to the following six South African

firms in July 2012 without a leader organization:

1. Khulisa Management Services,

2. DNA,

3. Southern Hermisphere,

4. University Research South Africa,

5. Grant Thornthon, and

6. Manto Management

This is a mechanism created to evaluate USAID/SA programs and help the

mission comply with the agency evaluation policy. The IQC provides

evaluation services for the Health Office , Regional Economic Growth

Office (REGO), Regional General Development Office (RGDO), Regional

HIV/AIDs Program Office (RHAP - including Lesotho and Swaziland), and

Botswana Office.

All new evaluation services under USAID/SA will be provided through this

mechanism provided the service required matches the IQC Scope of Work.

In line with the Evaluation Policy, evaluations are managed by the

Regional Program Office. The Program Office is finalizing clear guidance

on evaluations on the Mission Order for evaluations to be released soon.

The new guidance will explain the steps necessary to initiate an

evaluation under this IQC. Until that time, CORs are requested to

schedule a meeting with me or Erik Pacific or Lisa Campbell at least 5

months before the desired start date of your evaluation.

USAID/Southern Africa Evaluations Indefinite Quantity Contracts (IQCs) creates solutions for client missions that seek innovative approaches to address evaluation, assessment, and performance monitoring needs. The IQC will help missions comply with the new USAID Agency evaluation policy. The IQCs ensurs that evaluations conducted under these mechanism will serve two primary purposes: 1) providing accountability to stakeholders and 2) learning to improve aid effectiveness. All evaluations conducted under the Southern Africa Evaluation IQCs will be unbiased in measurement and reporting; relevant in terms of linking evaluation questions to specific future decision to be made by USAID leadership, partner governments, and other key stakeholders; based on best practices; oriented toward building local capacity; and transparent with a commitment to full and open disclosure of findings.

The objective of the regional IQCs is to strengthen the regions evaluation system to

1. Provide evaluation services for USAID/Southern Africa, which includes the USAIDs Bilateral and Regional Programs; the Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland PEPFAR-funded programs in a manner that permits timely access to appropriate evaluation expertise.

2. Support client missions in above-mentioned countries with an accessible evaluation mechanism.

South Africa has a large pool of well-trained and technically competent organizations that are capable of delivering the services required under the Regional Evaluations IQCs. In the past, USAID/Southern Africa has contracted with a number of local organizations and has received quality products and services. Additionally, utilizing local organizations may reduce language and culture related evaluation data quality problems which can bias the results. In addition to the above benefits, the use of local organizations are 1) consistent with USAID Forward reforms to engage local organizations, 2) more efficient in terms of time, administration and resource utilization and 3) can be more cost effective.

USAID Swaziland will buy into this mechanism to conduct a number of project evaluations over COP 13 including PACT.