Jay Bergman, Regional Agreement Officer, USAID/RCSA, Department of State, Washington, D.C. 20521-2170

R -- COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS TO FOSTER COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS AND STRENGTHEN SERVICE DELIVERY IN ZAMBIAN INTEGRATED HEALTH PACKAGE SOL RFA-690-98-002 DUE 013098 POC Jay M. Bergman, Regional Agreement Officer, USAID/RCSA, Department of State, Washington, D.C. 20521-2170, Tel: 267-324449, Fax: 267-324468, E-mail: jbergman@usaid.gov USAID Zambia, through the Regional Agreement Officer in Gaborone, Botswana, is seeking applications from qualifying U.S. Organizations for one or two Cooperative Agreements. USAID anticipates awarding up to two Cooperative Agreements, as follows: Cooperative Agreement No. One for Component 1) community partnership/IEC/behavior change, and will be closely integrated with USAID-supported social marketing activities funded under an existing separate agreement. Cooperative Agreement No. Two for Component 2) strengthening service delivery and NGO organizations. Funding for the first component is not expected to exceed $7 million. The second component is not expected to exceed $14 million in funding, of which a fixed amount of $6 million will be allocated to subgrants to PVOs/NGOs. Applicants may apply for one or both of the cooperative agreement opportunities, but must apply for each in a separate application. USAID reserves the option to combine the applications and award only one cooperative agreement. The recipient(s) of these cooperative agreements will be required to closely coordinate with other program elements being supported by USAID/Zambia. This includes coordination with the Contract being awarded under a separate RFP. The RFA will be issued after December 5, 1997. "USAID encourages the participation to the maximum extent possible of Small Disadvantaged Businesses, and Women-Owned Small Businesses in this activity as prime contractor or sub contractor in accordance with Part 52 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. In this respect, it is anticipated that the prime contractor will make every reasonable effort to identify and make maximum practicable use of such concerns. All selection evaluation criteria being found equal, the participation of such concerns may become a determining factor for selection. To help identify potential subcontractor, a list of all organizations requesting a copy of the solicitation will be sent with each solicitation document. Organizations are encouraged to indicate whether they are Small, Small Disadvantaged, or Women-Owned entities when requesting the solicitation and may indicate that they do not wish to be included on the list. By providing the list, USAID does not endorse the listed organization as being capable of carrying out the activity, nor does USAID verify the claimed status of the organizations. Necessarily, the list still contain the names of only those organizations known prior to the issuance of the solicitation document. 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 from the agency web site. The worldwide web address is http://www.info.usaid.gov. Select "Business and Procurement Opportunities" from the home page, then "USAID Procurements." On the following screen, select "Download Available USAID Solicitations." Receipt of this RFA through internet must be confirmed by written notificationto 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. (0336)

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