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The Encompass Team maintains continuous access to all areas within Syria including Syrian Government, HTS-controlled, Turkish-controlled, and Kurdish-controlled. We conduct TPM site visits in all areas under existing contracts utilizing field program staff and long-standing relationships with existing partners.

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The Encompass Team can start work on the ground immediately after contract signing. There will not be gap between the end of SHMPII and the start of SHMPIII. Members of the Encompass Team know the BHA grantees, understand their programs, know the geographic locations where they are implemented, and are able to continue with ongoing MEL work seamless from SHMPII to III.

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Intimate Familiarity with humanitarian MEL

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Intimate Familiarity with humanitarian MEL

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The Encompass Team has significant experience conducting TPM and evaluations in remotely managed programs specifically for BHA and BHA grantees. We have worked directly with BHA in Syria....and we have worked directly all of BHA's grantees in Syria.

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Encompass maintains an organizational strength in programmatic learning.  Encompass's sub, Proximity International, has worked as the primary sub for SHMPI and SHMPII. Encompass is uniquely positioned to capitalize on Proximity's involvement on SHMP since 2015 and extract programmatic lessons learned since that time. These lessons can be programmatic (focusing on the Syria portfolio), operational (identifying challenges and creative problem solving to deliver programs amidst an insecure backdrop), and thematic (lessons learned for TPM programs across multiple program iterations, etc.) in nature. Only the Encompass Team maintains a longitudinal perspective across multiple SHMP programs and combines that perspective with a focus on programmatic learning.

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SHMPII has a program office in Amman with a DCOP located in southern Turkey.  I'm not sure if it has anyone in Irbil, Iraq (which could make sense under SHMPIII).  My understanding is MSI doesn't have anyone on the ground in Syria.  Only Proximity does.

We shoudl discuss in more detail how to structure the team.  Nicole may have more thoughts.

Main program team - Jordan
COP - Jordan
DCOP-ish position - Erbil, Iraq
DCOP-ish position - Gaziantep, Turkey
Main program staff - Amman Jordan

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What's the current thinking for # of COPs, profile and locations?

I'm 1 DCOP who manages Area Leads based in Erbil and Gaziantep.  Nicole may have other thoughts....

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I think our competition is coming from three different players:
1.  MSI - by process of elimination, I think they've partnered up with Ecodit. Keep in mind this team has NO reach into the community level in Syria.  We'll need to play that up in our win themes.
2.  Bixal - I'm not sure if they're pursuing.  I recently heard they experienced a lot of (bad) turnover on their BD team which puts them in a difficult place to pursue.
3. Encompass.

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BHA has grantees working in all parts of Syria.  Therefore, BHA requires a TPM team with access into all parts of Syria.  Access to project sites is negotiated through regional (SANES, Turks, HTS, etc) governorate, and local levels. Physical access requires longstanding relationships on the ground, an understanding of the work (to ensure non-interference by stakeholders like HTS), and permissions (like tkhrough the SANES humanitarian affairs office)

We should create a text box that speaks to the following:
Areas of Control - ability to access - most recent access
1.  HTS - Yes - Ongoing (4/1/2023
2.  Turkish - Yes - Ongoing (4/1/2023)
3.  Kurdish - Yes - Ongoing (4/1/2023)
4.  Government - Yes - Ongoing (4/1/2023)

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Would be good to talk through the latest names we've received for the COP.  In my mind, the COP needs to be the following (in descending order):
1. Strong Manager
2. COP experience
3.  MEL experience
4.  Syria experience

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As noted in the win themes, our strength will be that we are able to monitor and verify BHA grantee activities in all areas throughout the country with no gap for registering, recruiting, hiring etc. I think we can also highlight Proximity's strengths in TPM practices and policies that we've honed since we were founded (working in teams of 2 in areas that FMs are from to ensure appropriate cultural context and safety, layers of data quality assurance and checks with the data collection software we use, that we have a BIS license in place that enables us to us this technology from day 1 etc.)

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Perhaps another point is that since 2015, Proximity has been the go-to partner for the USG to conduct TPM of humanitarian activities for BHA in Syria. We know what works and what doesn't, we are experienced and familiar in all aspects of the TPM cycle, and we can say that we've seen how Syria programming has evolved since 2015.

Also, one thing we can state here is that Encompass and Proximity have worked together on TPM programming in the region (Lebanon) strengthening our ability as a consortium to hit the ground running from day 1 as well.

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DQA analysts will be conducting the DQA remotely presumably so it will be important to hire the right team members who understand, are trained, and have conducted DQAs in the past. I think the other thing will be ensuring the right indicators are selected, and that the number of indicators is feasible. Also spending time with the IPs/grantees so they understand the purpose of the DQA, and that the program team can really understand the program objectives, their indicator definitions etc, and then having learning sessions with the IPs once the DQA is concluded.

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I'm sure Encompass has a standard approach to conducting DQAs, there is a fair bit of literature about conducting DQAs, best practices, and humanitarian specifics online (and Im sure you know all of this!) We have a process as well that we've utilized on our USAID Syria stabilization projects MEL platform

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Nothing major comes to mind...perhaps just ensuring the right access (aka if the warehouse is in Iraq or Turkey so making sure we can operate there) and that the data collection tools are tailored to the type of goods the warehouse is storing

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Proximity has conducted TPM on warehousing practices, both on the current program we monitor warehousing practices with specific tools focused on the condition of the warehouse, emergency and security procedures, management of equipment and materials, storage protocols and conditions, quality control, inventory, tracking and accountability of goods with site visits documented with photos. On our SRTF program, Proximity monitors warehouses for fixed assets and consumables as part of inventory tracking. Previously, in our role as the third-party monitor on the Food for Resilience in Syria program, we served as the TPM agent on food assistance programs in Northeast Syria.
One thing we can say we have data collection tools tailored specifically for warehouse monitoring already, we understand the need to consult with technical experts as necessary to ensure awareness of requirements to store specific items like medicine of medical supplies.

Also our staffing will be set up to support the ability to conduct TPMs on these warehouses (i.e. by having personnel in Turkey, or Iraq wherever grantees have their warehouses)

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With special studies, one challenge is ensuring the main program team outside of Syria has strong research analysts. We've noticed a cap in this capacity in Jordan so this might need to be augmented with TCNs or the project should identify strong Jordan researchers in advance.

Also, there have been many research assessments and studies conducted on Syria, I think for new special studies its important for the program to fully consider and review the extent of the publications completed so that it isn't duplicating research that's already been done.

Another would be making sure we fully understand USAID's goals for the special study. We've seen in the past on other MEL platforms that often there are many USAID stakeholders interested in research that are coming from different angles or perspectives so it can be a bit tricky to nail down what exactly USAID wants from a research study. We've navigated this with close client communication meetings proposing the key research questions, methodologies, and laying out for the client very clearly with these types of research questions the final product will answer XYZ or look like this to ensure it would meet their expectations prior to conducting the research.

Also the general challenge of conducting remote research and ensuring strong enumerators on the ground, strong tools, and tools training to ensure the data received is what the research team needs to draft the special study.

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We have a deep experience conducting research in Syria so I think we can cite our strong network of field researchers, understanding of the dynamics on the ground, and ability to conduct thorough research remotely. I think if we can identify strong Syria and humanitarian research experts, that could help enhance the bid if we name them as STTA. Also, we can talk about our other research capabilities like GIS mapping, spatial analysis etc.

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For this one, I think barriers include developing a virtual TPM platform that is easy enough for IPs to use that it isn't a burden, and also that there is a benefit to the IPs for using the system as well. It also shouldn't take a ton of time to set up and needs to be user friendly for USAID and other stakeholders as well.

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We've utilized DevResults in the past for this purpose, Encompass may have as well. I think it's important for us to create an interactive dashboard that will be a one-stop shop for USAID to track its portfolios financial and programmatic performance. If the system can map the interventions against the development objectives, have downloadable data sets that can be used for mission reporting, and setting different levels of access for the dashboard so IPs can see their data and program performance. Also I believe there have been discussions on incorporating these features into PLANK'D too.

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It'l be important to ensure that the trainings are developed at the appropriate level for the partners and that the trainings are providing valuable information to the IPs.
I also think it's important for the MEL platform to dedicate time to building a collaborative and positive relationship with the IPs. Often a TPM provider or MEL platform can be seen as the "gotcha" or "policing" other IPs and especially in conflict and non-permissive environments I think IPs can feel this way. Its important from the beginning to be super clear about the intentions of the MEL support and TPM and dedicate time and effort to building those strong collaborative relationships.

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We've provided MEL support/capacity building trainings to IPs under our MEL platform and many other trainings on MEL but I'm sure Encompass has experience with this as well. I'd be curious in Encompass's perspective but perhaps some element of the IP trainings can be not only what USAID identifies as a priority but topics that the IPs themselves are interested in?