Alvera Reichert; USAID Contracting Officer; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Department of State; Washington, D.C. 20521-6120

R -- DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RECIPIENT'S PROGRAM DESCRIPTION FOR A QUALITY IMPROVEMENT COMPONENT OF A NEW FAMILY PLANNING AND HEALTH SERVICES PROGRAM IN BANGLADESH SOL RFA-96-P-002 DUE 051696 POC Carrie M. Williams, USAID-ANE/ORA/O. Submit written requests for a copy of RFA to Carrie M. Williams, USAID-ANE/ORA/O; Room 3313 N.S.; 2201 C St., N.W.; Washington, D.C. 20523-0087. Questions about RFA, contact Alvera Reichert, USAID/Bangladesh; Department of State, Washington, D.C. 20521-6120. Telefax No. 880-2-883648; Telephone No. 880-2-884700, Internet areichert@usaid.gov. USAID/Bangladesh seeks a qualified organization(s) and/or institution(s) to develop a program description for the quality improvement component under a new customer focused initiative in family planning and health in Bangladesh. The purpose of this component is to ensure that the integrated family planning and health services and information provided under the service delivery component meet appropriate quality standards. The scope of activities under this component will be decided during the development of the recipient's program description during the design stage. The activities will need to be consistent with the USAID/Bangladesh's strategic objectives, and USAID/Washington's Guidelines for Strategic Plans, Technical Annex A: Population, Health and Nutrition. Illustrative strategies to achieve the desired results of the quality improvement component could be: national service delivery standards and technical guidelines which are updated and revised on a regular basis, establishment of a comprehensive quality assurance program applied in local health facilities, certified clinical/quality of care training programs suited to local-level service providers, certified performance-based training programs for managers and service providers of integrated family planning and health services. USAID intends to award a cooperative agreement for the collaborative development (USAID, Government of Bangladesh, other successful applicants) of the recipient's program description and results packages during the design stage. The selected partner(s) should be prepared to commence collaborative development of its program description immediately upon signature of the initial award o/a September 30, 1996. Subject to the availability of funds, USAID will amend the award several months later for a program not to exceed $9M, covering an implementation period of approximately seven years commencing o/a July 1, 1997. Issuance of this notice does not constitute an award commitment on the part of USAID. RFA will be available o/a February 29, 1996. A pre-application conference will be held on April 4, 1996 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The preferred method of distribution of USAID procurement information is via the Internet or by request of a solicitation on a 3.5'' floppy disk (Wordperfect 5.1/5.2 format). This CBD notice can be viewed and downloaded using the Agency Gopher. The RFA, once issued, can be downloaded from the Agency Gopher. The Gopher address is GOPHER.INFO.USAID.GOV. Select USAID PROCUREMENT AND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES from the Gopher menu. From there, choose the heading USAID PROCUREMENT and then DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE USAID APPLICATIONS. The RFA can be also be downloaded via Anonymous File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The FTP address is FTP.INFO.USAID.GOV. Logon on using the user identification of ''anonymous'' and the password is your e-mail address. Look under the following directory for the RFA: pub/OP/RFA/3889602/3889602.rfa. Receipt of the RFA through INTERNET must be confirmed by written notification to the contact person noted above. It is the responsibility of the recipient of this application document to ensure that it has been received from INTERNET in its entirety and USAID bears no responsibility for data errors resulting from transmission or conversion processes. (0040)

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