Agency for International Development, USAID Mission to Ukraine, American Embassy Kiev, Washington, D.C. 20521-5080

L -- COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT FOR NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION SOCIAL SERVICE SUPPORT PROGRAM IN UKRAINE SOL USAID/KIEV RFA 96-02 POC Contact Molly Mort, Project Officer, USAID/Kiev, TEL: 380-44-462-5678; Fax: 380-44-462-5834. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking applications from U.S Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs) and/or qualifying U.S. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to carry-out the tasks as described. The main objectives of this two-year activity is to develop an effective indigenous NGO sector that can play a critical role in the private sector network of organizations providing social services to vulnerable groups during Ukraine's transition to a market economy and beyond. This activity will also provide assistance to indigenous advocacy NGOs and provide technical support to improve the legal and regulatory environment of NGOs in Ukraine. This program will promote concepts of individual worth, civic consciousness, volunteerism and democratic participation and governance which are basic to civil society and which can be effectively fostered through a viable and active indigenous non-governmental sector. There are three primary components of this activity. The first component provides broad support to indigenous NGOs by providing practical comprehensive training, technical assistance and small seed grants. This assistance will be directed to selected social services NGOs and advocacy NGOs. In addition, assistance under this component will also be directed to improve the legal and regulatory environment of NGOs in Ukraine. The second component will provide more intensive support to indigenous NGOs through U.S.PVO/Ukraine Partnerships focusing on developing their capacity to deliver needed social services to address the needs of priority vulnerable groups (e.g., elderly, disabled, pensioners). This component will include a program of slightly larger grants to local NGOs and more specialized technical assistance. The third, and smaller component, is a pilot matching grants effort to help stimulate corporate giving to NGOs working with vulnerable groups in Ukraine. The assistance for this program will be provided either directly by a Lead U.S. PVO (or consortium of U.S. PVOs) or through the three U.S. PVO partners sub-granted through the Lead U.S. PVO. The Lead U.S. PVO will carry out the broad support to indigenous NGOs and serve as the management umbrella for the anticipated three U.S. PVO/Ukraine Partnerships in their areas of priority social service concern. Both the Lead U.S. PVO and Partnership U.S. PVOs are expected to build upon and utilize local programs, personnel and facilities to the maximum extent possible, minimizing recurrent costs and increasing the prospects for activity sustainability. An office in Kiev is anticipated with possible smaller branch offices in one or two major cities in Ukraine. Applications will be evaluated and the selection will be based on the application that is most advantageous to the Government, considering the technical and cost factors stated in the evaluation criteria of the RFA. Further instructions regarding technical and cost proposal will be in the RFA. The RFA is anticipated to be issued not less than 15 days after this notice. 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 is GOPHER.INFO.USAID.GOV. Select USAID Procurement and Business Opportunities from the Gopher menu. The RFA text can be downloaded by the Anonymous Files 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/121602/121602.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 to ensure that it has been received from INTERNET in its entirety and USAID bears no responsibility for data error resulting from transmission or conversion processes. (0152)

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