USAID/South Africa, Pretoria, Department of State, Washington, D.C. 20521-9300

R -- SOUTH AFRICA BASIC EDUCATION RECONSTRUCTION (SABER) PROJECT NO. 674-0314 SOL RFP 674-97-P-004 DUE 051097 POC Contact Point- Hilary Louters. Contact Point -- Hilary Louters, Regional Contracting Officer -- John P. McAvoy, USAID/South Africa, Department of State, Washington, D.C. 20521-9300, FAX (27)(12) 323-6443, Tele No. (27)(12) 323-8869, 9th floor, Arcadia Center, Beatrix & Church Strs. Pretoria 0007, South Africa (P.O. Box 55380, Pretoria, South Africa). USAID/South Africa plans to issue a full and open competition solicitation under the South Africa Basic Education Reconstruction (SABER) Project, to obtain a contractor to provide (a) long- and short-term technical assistance based on level-of- effort at the national, provincial and NGO levels for a period of five years, (b) short-term, in-country training for a period of three years, and (c) grants management services, for a period of five years. 1. The majority of technical assistance required under this contract will support Phase III activities with the national and provincial Departments of Education, although some technical assistance will also be provided to strengthen the capabilities of certain NGOs working in the sector. 2. The Contractor shall provide 20 person months of support to basic education NGOs working in the areas of pre- primary/primary, and possibly secondary, education, as well as to those involved in the implementation of the PEI. 3. The Contractor shall provide support in the areas of program design, applied research, and evaluation within both the RSA and NGO structures. 4. The Contractor shall provide short-term, in-country training in the areas of pre-primary/primary, and possibly secondary education through workshops and seminars. (Any required long-term or participant training for the Project will take place through a separate training "buy-in.") 5. The Contractor will provide Grant Management support for existent grants, including new grants under the PEI, and assume some of the support responsibilities for ongoing grant activities. The Contractor shall also monitor the impact of all SABER-funded grants on the education sector strategic objective andrelevant intermediate results, and in so doing, assist USAID/South Africa with its performance monitoring and reporting requirements, as reported in a document entitled Results Review and Resource Request (R4). USAID encourages the participation to the maximum extent possible of Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business, and Women-owned concerns in this activity as prime or subcontractors in accordance with Part 19 of the FAR. In this respect, it is anticipated that the prime contractor(s) will make every reasonable effort to identify and make maximum practicable use of such concerns. To help identify potential subcontractors, a list of all organizations requesting a copy of the solicitation will be included with each solicitation issued. By providing the list, USAID does not endorse the listed organizations as being capable of carrying out the activity, nor does AID verify the claimed status of the organizations. Necessarily, the list will contain the names of only those organizations known prior to the issuance of the solicitation. 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 (Word Perfect 5.1/5.2 format). All prospective offerors must notify the contact person in writing if they wish to receive a copy of the RFP and specify if they prefer a hard copy, a diskette, or if they prefer to be notified via Internet when the RFP is ready for downloading. This CBD notice can be viewed and downloaded using the Agency Gopher. The RFP, 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 PROCUREMENTS and then DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE USAID SOLICITATIONS. The RFP can also be downloaded via Anonymous File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The FTP address is FTP.INFO. USAID.GOV. Logon using the user identification of "anonymous" and the password is your e-mail address. Look under thefollowing directory for the RFP: pub/OP/RFP/67497P004/67497p004.rfp. The file name will be made available at the time of issuance. Receipt of this RFP through Internet must be confirmed by written notification to the contact person noted above. It is the responsibility of the recipient of this solicitation 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. Solicitation is anticipated to be released on or about February 20, 1997. All responsible sources may submit a proposal which shall be considered by the Agency. (0016)

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