U.S. Agency for International Development, Ronald Reagon Building, Office of Procurement, M/OP/ENI/DGSR, Room 7.09-081, Washington, D.C. 20523-7900

R -- PROFESSIONAL, ADMINISTRATIVE, AND MANAGEMENT SUPPORT SERVICES SOL HEALTH.RFA POC Contact Point: Ben C. Vogler, (202) 712-5188, Contracting Officer, Mercedes Eugenia, (202) 712-5115, Fax: 202-216-3396 USAID intends to issue, in the next few weeks, a Request for Applications (RFA) to manage and facilitate a new health partnerships program in the NIS. The program will be implemented through five (5) cooperative agreements (CAs): one covering NIS regional activities; one covering Russia; one covering Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine; one covering Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan; and one covering Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. All five (5) CAs will be awarded to the same winning organizations/recipient. The five (5) CA structure is in keeping with USAID's overarching policy of delegating to its field missions, the authority and capability to respond to the changing developing needs in particular countries and sub-regions. The new NIS Health Partnerships Program seeks to establish and promote sustainable U.S./NIS partnerships which foster more effective and efficient delivery of health services in the NIS. "Partnerships may include a variety of implementors such as hospitals, healthy communities, universities, professional associations, state or local public health departments, non-governmental organizations, managed care organizations, etc." USAID believes that viable partnership programs normally should survive, independent of USAID after 3-4 years of financial support. Under the new partnership program, USAID envisions "Sustainability Grants," to support country-specific health strategies, as well as to support cross-cutting regional initiatives. These sustainability grants may be awarded to those present partnerships whose applications are accepted, as determined, by the recipient. As stated above, USAID may make multiple awards from this RFA to one (1) responsible applicant whose application conforming to this RFA offers the greatest value to the government. It is USAID's intent to provide a pre-proposal conference for this RFA on or around the date of 04/16/1998. The exact location, date, and time of the pre-proposal conference will be announced via the CBD and Internet within the next 30 days. 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 Web Site. The RFA, once issued, can be 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 notification to the contact person noted above. It is the responsibility of the receipient 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. USAID anticipates the issuance of the RFA on or about 3/31/1998. (0082)

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