Sources Sought Notice for Public Opinion Research Outside the United States

Sources Sought Notice for Public Opinion Research Outside the United States This is a sources sought notice about capabilities to conduct nationally representative in-home face-to-face interview surveys, nationally representative telephone surveys, and focus groups outside of the United States. The general requirements for each type of research are listed in the appendix. The U.S. Department of State (DOS), Office of Acquisition Management (AQM), is issuing this sources sought notice as a means of conducting market research to identify SMALL BUSINESSES having an interest in, the resources for, and direct experience in conducting public opinion research projects outside of the United States for the Department of State, Office of Opinion Research (OPN). Specifically, AQM is seeking firms with extensive on-the-ground experience conducting nationally representative face-to-face interview surveys, nationally representative telephone surveys, and focus groups overseas. The results of this market research will contribute to determining the method of procurement and assist DOS in developing and further defining upcoming procurement actions. This market research will identify all potential sources, including small business sources (including 8(a) business development participants, veteran-owned small businesses, service disabled veteran-owned small businesses, HUB Zone small business concerns, small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small business concerns, and economically disadvantaged women-owned small business concerns). The anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code assigned to this procurement is 541910 (Marketing research and public opinion polling). Interested firms must demonstrate in their qualification (capability) statements that they are qualified to perform the work outlined under the "Appendix" section. The anticipated acquisition strategy for each project would be to award a single firm fixed price purchase order by project and country. This is not a solicitation announcement. No contract will be awarded from this announcement. This request for capability information does not constitute a request for proposals and does not bind the U.S. Government (USG) to any agreement, written or implied. Submission of any information to this market survey is purely voluntary. The USG assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred by respondents. Feedback and/or evaluation information will not be provided to any firm regarding their individual capability statements in response to this the Sources Sought Notice. The general statements of requirements in the appendix of this Sources Sought Notice outline the specific level of support required for each type of research (face-to-face interview survey, telephone survey, and focus groups). Contractors should review the requirements and submit capability statements reflecting their companies' capabilities to provide the services described, giving specific details about their on-the-ground experience in each of the countries for which they wish to be considered. Note that the general requirements may change if a solicitation is issued; however, the core requirements will remain basically the same. The Government will consider all questions, recommendations, and comments received. If your company has the capacity to perform the services outlined in this notice, please provide the following information: (1) Organization name, address, email address, web site address, telephone number, point of contact, qualified small business category and certification, DUNS Number and Cage Code. (2) A detailed capability statement reflecting the firm's ability to perform the services requested in this notice. Indicate whether or not any portion of the work will be done by subcontractors, and provide the names of the proposed subcontractors for each country. Identify appropriate levels and types of expertise in a manner that demonstrates understanding of the requirements, to include the types of personnel that would be utilized in executing the requirements. (3) For each type of research and for each country in which your firm has experience, a detailed description of the relevant experience (what you did), past performance history (how you did it/how you performed) documenting ability to perform similar requirements. To the degree that this past performance included the use of subcontractors, identify the subcontractors in each country and indicate what specific tasks the subcontractors performed. Include information about the country and language expertise of your staff. The deadline for submitting capability statements in response to this Sources Sought Notice is 3PM (EDT) February 21, 2019. Responses are limited to 10 pages (excluding cover page and table of contents) PER RESEARCH TYPE AND THE RELATED COUNTRY, font size 12, and shall be submitted to Amanda Rajah, Contracting Officer, via email at RajahAM@state.gov and shall have the words "Public Opinion Research Outside the United States Response" in the Subject line. Sales brochures, videos and other marketing information materials will not be accepted. Telephone inquiries will NOT be accepted or acknowledged. APPENDIX GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR FACE-TO-FACE SURVEYS - Extensive on-the-ground experience within each survey country in designing nationwide representative probability samples of the adult population (typically ages 18+) for face-to-face in-home interviews; this includes demonstrated expertise in the data sources necessary to develop valid sampling frames for each survey country. - On-staff native fluency in the vernacular languages necessary for conducting surveys in each survey country, and the capability to provide accurate and colloquial translations of the questionnaire as well as backtranslations into English. - Experienced survey field teams in each survey country, including managers, fieldwork supervisors, quality control staff, and a sufficient number of trained interviewers to conduct fieldwork nationwide within a reasonable period of time. All interviewers should be native speakers of the languages necessary for the survey. The fieldwork will include cognitive interviewing and a pretest of the questionnaire. Experience with tablet administration of the questionnaire is preferred. - Experienced data management teams capable of entering and checking data and providing a clean, accurate data set. - Prompt communications with the client to provide regular updates on the status of the survey, and timely delivery of all deliverables, including translation and back-translation of questionnaire, cognitive interview report, pretest report, final field version of the questionnaire and show cards, marginal frequencies, data in ASCII and SPSS formats, codebook, detailed methodological report, contact sheets for selected interviewers, copies of 10 completed field questionnaires, and additional supporting documentation as necessary. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR TELEPHONE SURVEYS - Extensive on-the-ground experience within each survey country in designing nationwide representative probability samples of the adult population (typically ages 18+) for telephone interviews; this includes familiarity with cell and landline penetration rates and demonstrated expertise in the data sources necessary to develop valid sampling frames (including, where necessary, dual frames) for each survey country. - On-staff native fluency in the vernacular languages necessary for conducting surveys in each survey country, and the capability to provide accurate and colloquial translations of the questionnaire as well as backtranslations into English. - Experienced survey field teams, including managers, fieldwork supervisors, quality control staff, and a sufficient number of trained interviewers to conduct fieldwork nationwide within a reasonable period of time. The fieldwork will include cognitive interviewing and a pretest of the questionnaire. - Facilities to conduct CATI administration of the survey. - Experienced data management teams capable of checking data and providing a clean, accurate data set. - Prompt communications with the client to provide regular updates on the status of the survey, and timely delivery of all deliverables, including translation and back-translation of questionnaire, cognitive interview report, pretest report, final field version of the questionnaire, marginal frequencies, data in ASCII and SPSS formats, codebook, detailed methodological report, and additional supporting documentation as necessary. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR FOCUS GROUPS - Extensive on-the-ground experience within each survey country in designing and conducting focus group studies; this includes experience with recruitment procedures to reach general population groups as well as selected elites. - On-staff native fluency in the vernacular languages necessary for providing accurate and colloquial translations of the screening questionnaire and discussion guide as well as backtranslations into English. - Experienced focus group fieldwork team, including managers, recruiters, and focus group moderators. Facilities to conduct focus groups. - Prompt communications with the client to provide regular updates on the status of the project.