U.S. Agency for International Development, M/OP/B/LA, Room 7.09-114, RRB, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20523-7100

R -- THIS CONTRACT IS A MULTIPLE-AWARD TASK ORDER-BASED INDEFINITE QUANTITY CONTRACT IQC SOL RFP No. M/OP-00-509 DUE 032900 POC Joseph Schmidt, Tel: 202-712-0619, Fax: 202-216-3134, Contracting Officer, Roy Plucknett WEB: http://www.info.usaid.gov/procurement_bus_opp/procurement/announce/cbd, http://www.info.usaid.gov. E-MAIL: http://www.info.usaid.gov, jschmidt@usaid.gov. The Contracting Officer will determine the number of awards based on a best-value determination. The purpose of this contract is to acquire quick-response short-, medium- and long-term technical assistance and support for environmental policy analysis, dialogue, design, implementation, and evaluation and related institutional strengthening in USAID-assisted countries, and for U.S. Government technical assistance to support multilateral environmental agreements with collaborating countries. USAID anticipates that a primary focus of technical assistance activities will involve the participation of host-country institutions and cooperating country nationals. This contract is intended to complement other USAID partnerships that focus on environmental policy, institutional strengthening, natural resource management, energy supply, demand, efficiency, sector restructuring, provision of urban environmental services, and sustainable economic growth. The USAID Global Bureau Center for Environment (the Environment Center) is charged with managing programs to protect the environment, providing technical leadership, and providing support to USAID's field missions in USAID-assisted countries, Regional Bureaus, and Department of State (DOS). In providing technical support to missions, regional bureaus, and DOS, the Center responds to requests for assistance. Thus, it is not possible to define concisely the environmental policy and institutional strengthening agenda for technical support in advance. Therefore, a mechanism is needed that can provide responsive technical support to missions, regional bureaus, and DOS as well as contribute to the Center's role in providing technical leadership in environmental policy and related institutional strengthening. The mechanism must be able to provide technical expertise in a relatively new and evolving field, possess an institutional capacity to identify the types of activities and approaches most appropriate in developing country situations, transboundary issues, and multilateral environmental agreements, and flexible enough to respond to requests for technical support from a variety of sources. USAID has realigned its programs to manage for results. Task orders under this IQC will be performance based to the maximum extent possible. The SIC Code for this IQC is 8742. USAID encourages the participation, to the maximum extent possible of US small, small disadvantaged, woman-owned small, and HUBZone small business concerns. This RFP requires that there be a minimum small business goal of at least fifteen- percent (15%), and a Small Business Subcontracting Plan is required. It is anticipated that the prime contractor will make maximum practicable use of such entities. Small business subcontracting plans, pursuant to FAR 52.219-9, are required to be included in submitted proposals. To help identify potential subcontractors, a list of all organizations requesting a copy of the solicitation will be attached to the RFP. However, USAID does not endorse the listed organizations as being capable of carrying out the work, nor does USAID verify the claimed status of the organizations. The list will contain the names and addresses of those organizations known prior to the issuance of the solicitation. Organizations are encouraged to indicate whether they are small businesses (i.e. small, SDB, small woman-owned and HUBZone), so that their status may be indicated on the list. Interested parties may request a copy of RFP No. M/OP-00-509 by submitting a written request addressed to: US Agency for International Development, M/OP/B/LA, Room 7.09-114, Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20523-7100, Attn: Joseph Schmidt. The RFP will be issued not less than fifteen (15) calendar days from the date of this notice. 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 6.0 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 the following screen, select "Download Available USAID Solicitations." 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. Questions must be directed in writing to Joseph Schmidt, Contracting Officer, US Agency for International Development, M/OP/B/LA, Room 7.09-104, Washington D.C. 20523-7100. The closing date above of March 29, 2000 is an estimated date. The actual opening and closing dates will be reflected in the RFP. Posted 02/08/00 (W-SN423161). (0039)

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