Clement J. Bucher, Contracting Officer, USAID/Haiti, 17 Boulevard Harry Truman, Port Au Prince, Haiti

R -- TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, MANAGERIAL AND TRAINING OVERSIGHT FOR THE DEMOCRACY ENHANCEMENT PROJECT, CIVIL SOCIETY COMPONENT SOL RFP HAITI 521-99-001 POC Contact Point: Clement J. Bucher, Contracting Officer, Tel: 509-22-5500, Fax: 509-23-9603, Internet: cbucher@usaid.gov USAID/Haiti (hereinafter known as USAID) is looking for the services of a U.S. firm/institution to serve as the primary implementing agency for the civil society strengthening element of the democracy enhancement project. The overall objective of civil society programs under the new strategy is that civil society organizations positively influence public policies. This is to be accomplished through the following three activity areas. 1) Capacity building. To increase citizen participation in the democratic process and to achieve greater inclusion of citizens in and by civic organization, it is essential that at least a core set of civil society organizations have the democratic skills and the organizational capacity to perform a constructive role. 2) Advocacy building. As part of exercising citizen rights and responsibilities, it is essential to ensure that constructive pressure for reform is consistently exerted by civic organizations. For this to happen, civil society must have the skills to advocateeffectively for members needs, must be able to form coalitions and network with like minded organizations, and must carry out advocacy campaigns, thereby modelling for decision makers and citizens, the constructive role to be played by civic organizations in democratic processes. 3) Democratic fora. To provide a context in which people can better learn about and exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens, as well as to enhance understanding about what is at stake in public decisions, democratic fora are critical and must be regularly fostered. By the end of this 18 month contract, USAID expects that the following outputs will have been achieved: 1) through participation in non-partisan fora, Haitians from all sectors of society have come to understand that they have open channels of communication and dialogue and have developed greater tolerance and respect for different points of view on issue affecting everyone such as social reconciliation, the role of government, and decentralization. 2) Civil society organizations have increased their capacity to function democratically (e.g. Elect their leadership, obtain formal legal recognition, regularly elicit opinions from membership) and to frame and present issues to their government within a democratic context of compromise and negotiation. 3) Local-level organizations act in concert with their communities to articulate and to address common problems, as sell as to develop greater mutual trust and respect in each other and in their government. In support of the above activities, the contractor will establish a project office in Port Au Prince. The office will have the managerial and administrative authority and responsibility to assure the satisfactory functioning of the contractor in haiti, not limited to but to include: serving as the principal interlocutor with USAID/Haiti; awarding, managing and monitoring all grants or subcontracts included in the scope of work; planning for and overseeing in-country training; procuring commodities; establishing, staffing, and managing civic actions centers; implementing financial accounting systems for us dollars and local currency; approving and arranging for all travel and support for long and short-term personnel. The project office will be staffed by a small complement of local-hire contractor program and administrative staff. The chief of party will manage the project office. 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 RFP, 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 te following screen, select"Download Available USAID Solicitations." Look under the following directory for the RFP: pub/OP/RFP/52199001/52199001.rfp. 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. USAID/Haiti anticipates issuing the solicitation for this procurement on/or shortly after October 23, 1998. Copies may be obtained only by written request to the Contracting Officer, USAID/Haiti (fax 509-23-9603). Requests should include complete mailing address, phone and fax numbers. Posted 10/21/98 (I-SN264166). (0294)

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