Tara Kaddouh
Senior Contracting Officer
Privy Council Office
Email: T••••••••@•••••••.••.ca
Phone: (613) 947-0418
ADVANCE CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE (ACAN) # 20181376
An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities.
If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.
BACKGROUND
The Government of Canada has recognized that it must innovate and find new ways to address persistent problems that traditional approaches have failed to solve. This commitment includes improving the impact of existing programs, scaling up and spreading knowledge of “what works” across government, and building skills and capacity within the public service to make it more agile, results-driven and responsive to Canadians.
Established in 2017, the Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU) works with departments and agencies through the Government of Canada’s Impact Canada Initiative (ICI) providing access to new policy instruments, exchanging promising practices, supporting implementation, and engaging in collaborative and systematic learning and rigorous evaluation in the design and delivery of outcomes-based policy initiatives in the Canadian context. The IIU works in a wide range of policy and program areas.
In addition to its work under ICI, opportunities arise in which departments ask the IIU to help support unique and challenging problems of longstanding programs and policies. In response to this need, the IIU applies a “what works” approach to improving the way governments and partners generate, share and adopt credible evidence for decision-making, thereby supporting more effective and efficient policies, programs and services.
PURPOSE
The purpose of the work is to support the IIU’s commitment to strengthening evidence-based decision-making using new technologies that support more effective, efficient design, management, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs. A stronger evidence base supports improved policy design, enhanced management, targeted and timely monitoring and, ultimately, better and more lasting policy outcomes.
Through this contract, the contractor will provide strategic advisory services, programmatic support as well as access to a standardized measurement and reporting system that enables benchmarking and predictive data.
More specifically, the contractor will provide an evidence-based platform to allow policy analysts and decision-makers to research outcomes, program components and beneficiary profiles in a policy context. In addition, the contractor will identify the most effective evidence-based outcomes and strategies to guide a portfolio’s design and to inform social policy investment decisions. An option to create new or build on existing logic models or impact frameworks linked to evidence is also required.
In support of evidence-based decision-making, the contractor will provide an assessment of potential funding recipients by using a funding recipient’s historical data aligned with priority outcomes followed by an assessment of the likely impact for a given investment. Reports for project impact and expected return on investment for each prospective funding recipient along with recommendations to optimize a program portfolio given the desired investment allocation. A user-friendly reporting tool focused on recipient efficacy, cost-effectiveness and benchmarking data for each desired outcomes is also required to support decision making.
The contractor will also need to provide an online tool to help improve the quality of evidence. This will include providing intuitive evidence-based data collection tools, implementing partner capacity building support to support the use of these tools, and conducting a rigorous and ongoing assessment of the data quality.
Finally, analysis of the impact data is required to generate program and portfolio-level reports that can be used to understand portfolio progress towards outcomes, the factors that drove their success, and return on investment so departments and agencies can understand which programs are most effective, as well as the broader impact they are having across the social sector.
CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT
Proven track record standardizing, taxonomizing, and assessing social impact programs
Leveraging of a significant number of research studies and grey literature for each social policy outcome area
Extensive experience providing evidence-based policy design, management, monitoring and evaluation support
Completion of related projects in over 40 social sector policy areas
Experience working within complex partnership models involving governmental and non-governmental collaborators
TRADE AGREEMENTS
This procurement is subject to the following trade agreements:
World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP),
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),
Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA),
Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT),
Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA),
Canada-Columbia Free Trade Agreement (CColFTA),
Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement (CPanFTA) if it is in force.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERY
While MM holds the intellectual property rights for the IGP and its related tools, the Government of Canada will have ownership of the deliverables that provided through the services in question.
JUSTIFICATION FOR THE PRE-IDENTIFIED SUPPLIER
Mission Measurement, Inc. (“MM”) provides data-driven support and measurement tools to governments, philanthropies, corporations, and non-profits. In 2012, MM developed the Impact Genome Project® (“IGP”), the world’s largest coded evidence-base in the social sector. Leveraging data from more than 10,000 academic studies and meta-analyses, the IGP helps decisionmakers identify effective intervention strategies and maximize their return on investment in social change. The IGP is based on proprietary algorithms, meta-data taxonomies, artificial intelligence technology, and coding protocols.
Some of the unique elements of the IGP are highlighted below:
Standardized Taxonomy of Impact Data. The IGP has developed comprehensive frameworks, using research literature and program evaluation data that capture features of social impact programs. These frameworks include the intended outcomes of programs, the activities carried out within programs, and the context surrounding programs. Aligning data to these frameworks translates them into a common “language,” revealing the common elements of programs that may seem unique at surface level. This creates a powerful dataset that can be used to analyze strategies, compare or benchmark programs, and develop predictive models.
These taxonomies include:
Outcomes: 190 outcomes across 45 areas of social impact, including definitions for what it means to achieve each outcome based on 618,000+ data points
Program Strategies (or “genes”): A five-level taxonomy with categorized activities and mechanisms used in each program. These “genes” can be analyzed and statistically correlated to successful outcomes.
Beneficiaries and Contexts: This taxonomy includes common beneficiary characteristics and operating environments (e.g., demographics, socio-economic status, setting, geographic location, etc.). This enables more accurate matching for program analysis and design.
Coded Evidence Base. The IGP is the first comprehensive evidence-base of social science research that is categorized by outcome. The evidence base is comprised of published and “grey” literature that is coded by the IGP taxonomy and enables policymakers to search the research base by outcome, strategy, or program design feature.
Predictive ROI Models. The IGP meta-data, combined with empirical evidence, enables policymakers to evaluate potential programs, ex ante, and estimate their likely social impact (e.g. efficacy rate, cost per outcome, and expected results for a given investment). Working with academic partners at the University of Chicago, MM is also now developing “return on investment” analyses that factors in the economic value of an outcome achieved.
Benchmarks and Reporting. Building off the IGP taxonomies, the IGP includes a universal reporting platform that enables policymakers and practitioners to report the impact of their programs using evidence-based measures, benchmark their results with peer organizations, and determine the return on investment for short-term outcomes.
CONTRACT PERIOD
The contract period shall be from date of award of Contract to March 31, 2020.
ESTIMATE OF COSTS
MM prices contracts on a deliverable and time basis, based on the needs of each engagement.
The estimated maximum value of the contract is $300,000 CAD including of all applicable taxes.
SUPPLIER NAME AND ADDRESS
Legal Name: Mission Measurement, Inc.
Office Address: 240 Richmond Street W, Toronto, ON M5V 2C5
Mailing Address: PO Box 9789, STNA, Toronto, ON M5V1V6
SUPPLIERS RIGHT TO SUBMIT A STATEMENT OF CAPABILITIES
Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the services/goods described herein, may submit a Statement of Capabilities in writing, preferably by e-mail, to the contact person identified in this Notice on or before the closing date and time of this Notice. The Statement of Capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.
CLOSING DATE
The closing date for a submission of a Statement of Capabilities is October 31, 2018 at 14:00 Eastern Standard Time.
CONTRACTING AUTHORITY
Tara Kaddouh
Senior Contracting Officer
Privy Council Office
Email: T••••••••@•••••••.••.ca
Phone: (613) 947-0418
