Issuance Date: April 12, 2010
Deadline for Receipt of Questions: April 23, 2010
Closing Date for Submission of Applications: May 25, 2010
Closing Time for Submission of Applications: 16:00 Budapest, Hungary local time
Subject: USAID/Bosnia and Herzegovina Request for Applications (RFA) Number 168-10-010
Strengthening Independent Media (SIM) Activity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through Regional Service Center, Regional Contracting Office in Budapest is seeking applications from qualified U.S. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) for a cooperative agreement to fund a program entitled “Strengthening Independent Media”. The authority for the RFA is found in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended.
Pursuant to 22 CFR 226.81, it is USAID policy not to award profit under assistance instruments. However, all reasonable, allocable, and allowable expenses, both direct and indirect, which are related to the agreement program and are in accordance with applicable cost standards (22 CFR 226, OMB Circular A-122 for non-profit organization, OMB Circular A-21 for universities, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 31 for-profit organizations, and the Mandatory Standard Provision “Allowable Costs (DEC 2003) for public international organizations), may be paid under the cooperative agreement.
Applicants under consideration for an award that have never received funding from USAID will be subject to a pre-award audit to determine fiscal responsibility, ensure adequacy of financial controls and establish in indirect cost rate.
Subject to the availability of funds, USAID intends to provide approximately $5,700,000 in total USAID funding to be allocated over a five (5) year (three years plus two years extension) period. USAID reserves the right to determine the resulting level of funding for the award. One award is anticipated as a result of this RFA, although USAID reserves the right to fund any or none of the applications submitted.
Eligible organizations interested in submitting an application are encouraged to read this RFA thoroughly to understand the type of program sought and the application submission and evaluation process.
To be eligible for award, the applicant must provide all required information in its application, including the requirements found in any attachments to this Grants.gov opportunity. This RFA consists of this cover letter plus the following Sections:
1. Section A – Instructions for Application Format;
2. Section B - Selection Criteria;
3. Section C - Program Description;
4. Section D - Certifications, Assurances, and Other Statements of Applicant/Grantee;
5. Section E - Annexes
This funding opportunity is posted on www.grants.gov, and may be amended. Potential applicants should regularly check the site to ensure they have the latest information pertaining to this RFA. Applicants will need to have available or download Adobe program to their computers in order to view and save the Adobe forms properly. If you have difficulty registering on www.grants.gov or accessing the RFA, please contact the Grants.gov Helpdesk at 1-800-518-4726 or via email at for technical assistance.
It is the responsibility of the recipient of this RFA document to ensure that it has been received from Grants.gov in its entirety. USAID bears no responsibility for data errors resulting from transmission or conversion processes associated with electronic submissions. Any questions concerning this RFA should be submitted in writing to Ms. Martha L. Aponte, via email to and Ms. Viktoria Hollosy, via email to . The deadline for submission of questions on this RFA is April 23, 2010. Responses to questions will be furnished to all prospective recipients through an amendment to this RFA.
Issuance of this RFA does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the Government, nor does it commit the Government to pay for costs incurred in the preparation and submission of an application. In addition, final award of any resultant cooperative agreement cannot be made until funds have been fully appropriated, allocated, and committed through internal USAID procedures. While it is anticipated that these procedures will be successfully completed, potential applicants are hereby notified of these requirements and conditions for award. Applications are submitted at the risk of the applicant; should circumstances prevent award of a cooperative agreement, all preparation and submission costs are at the applicant's expense.
Sincerely,
Martha L. Aponte
Agreement Officer
RSC/RCO Budapest
Page 2
RFA No. 168-10-010
SIM Activity in BiH
TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE
SECTION A - COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT APPLICATION FORMAT……………………….. ……………...... 4-13
SECTION B - SELECTION CRITERIA……………………………………………………………………...... 14-17
SECTION C - PROGRAM DESCRIPTION……………………………………………………………….. …………18-36
SECTION D - CERTIFICATIONS, ASSURANCES, AND OTHER STATEMENTS OF THE RECIPIENT……...37-44
SECTION E – ANNEXES………………………………………………………………………………………….... 45-58
SECTION A – INSTRUCTIONS FOR APPLICATION FORMAT
1. PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
The federal grant process is now web-enabled, allowing for applications to be submitted on-line. Instructions to submit applications electronically on-line in response to this RFA are found on Grants.gov in the “For Applicants” section – under “Apply For Grants”.
If your organization decides to submit an application, it must be received by the closing date and time indicated at the top of the cover letter. The applicant must provide all required information in its application, including the requirements found in any attachments to this RFA. Applicants should retain for their records one copy of all enclosures which accompany their applications.
If applicants shall choose to submit hard copies, the submission of one (1) original and three (3) hard copies of the technical and cost application will be accepted no later than the closing date and time indicated on the cover letter, at the location designated below:
By Air Courier or Hand Delivery:
Viktoria Hollosy
Acquisition and Assistance Specialist
Regional Services Center, Regional Contracting Office
Szabadsag ter 7-9, Bank Center, Granite Tower
1944 Budapest, HUNGARY
Tel. 361-475-4626
The hard copies of applications and modifications thereof shall be submitted in sealed envelopes or packages addressed to the office specified above, with the RFA number, the name and address of the applicant, and whether the contents contain technical and/or cost applications noted on the outside of the envelopes/packages. Applications must be in English language.
To be eligible for award, the application should be prepared according to the structural format set forth below in (2) Technical Application Format and (3) Cost/Business Application Format. Applications which are received late or are incomplete run the risk of not being considered in the review process. Late applications will be considered for award only if the Agreement Officer determines it is in the Government’s interest.
USAID will consider only applications conforming to the format prescribed below. All applications received by the closing date and time on the cover letter will be reviewed for responsiveness and programmatic merit in accordance with the specifications outlined in these guidelines and the application format. Section B addresses the selection criteria and procedures for the applications. As part of the application, applicants shall acknowledge receipt of any amendment to this RFA by signing and returning the amendment with the application.
Applicants who include data that they do not want disclosed to the public for any purpose or used by the U.S. Government except for evaluation purposes should:
(a) Mark the title page with the following legend:
"This application includes data that shall not be disclosed outside the U.S. Government and shall not be duplicated, used, or disclosed - in whole or in part - for any purpose other than to evaluate this application. If, however, a grant is awarded to this applicant as a result of - or in connection with - the submission of this data, the U.S. Government shall have the right to duplicate, use, or disclose the data to the extent provided in the resulting grant. This restriction does not limit the U.S. Government's right to use information contained in this data if it is obtained from another source without restriction. The data subject to this restriction are contained in pages TBD”; and
(b) Mark each sheet of data it wishes to restrict with the following legend:
"Use or disclosure of data contained on this sheet is subject to the restriction on the title page of this application."
2. TECHNICAL APPLICATION FORMAT
Technical applications must not exceed 30 pages, utilizing Times New Roman 12-font size, single spaced, typed in standard 8 ½”x11” paper size with one-inch margins both right and left, and each page numbered consecutively. Cover letter, dividers, table of contents, annexes (e.g performance monitoring and evaluation plan, personnel resumes, past performance information, certificates, forms, etc) will not count toward the page limitation. Any pages that exceed the page limitation will not be furnished to the Evaluation Committee. There is no page limit on attachments or cost application.
The technical application will have more significant importance than cost application in the selection of a successful applicant. It should demonstrate the applicant's capabilities and expertise with respect to achieving the goals of this program. Therefore it should be specific, complete and presented concisely. It should take into account and be arranged in the order of the technical evaluation criteria specified in Section B.
Application Contents: The technical application, at a minimum, shall contain the following:
A. Cover Page: A single page with the program title and RFA number, the names of the organizations/institutions involved, and the lead or primary Applicant clearly identified. Any proposed sub grantees (or implementing partners) should be listed separately. In addition, the Cover Page should provide a contact person for the prime Applicant, including this individual’s name (both typed and his/her signature), title or position with the organization/institution, address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address. State whether the contact person is the person with authority to contract for the Applicant, and if not, that person should also be listed with contact information. If applicable, the TIN and DUNS numbers of the Applicant should also be listed on the cover page.
B. Table of Contents: Listing all parts of the technical application, with page numbers and attachments.
Following are more detailed instructions on the two technical application sections:
C. Executive Summary (not to exceed 2 pages): Briefly describe technical and managerial resources of the Applicant. Briefly describe the proposed goal, purposes, key activities and anticipated results. Describe how the overall program will be managed.
D. Technical Approach Section:
In this section, applicants are not to merely repeat what is already described in this RFA. Applicants should focus on describing how they propose to achieve the program objective(s) and how the program will make a significant contribution towards achieving the strategic objectives and areas for action identified in the program description. Applicants shall elaborate in their technical approach the most effective way to develop and realize the objectives of this project including the reasonable course of action and tasks that are relevant to the current needs of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Applicants are expected to provide a thorough and concise analysis of targeted sector. They should present a convincing and compelling articulation of their technical approach.
At a minimum, the approach shall address the following:
· Discussion on sector constraints and opportunities;
· Results and interventions they believe should be prioritized and why;
· Describe how SIM will affect the BiH’s alignment with the EU accession requirements;
· Discussion of the concrete proposed results and how they will be achieved;
· Discussion on the coordination with other relevant USAID activities. Applicants should provide specific examples on how to capitalize on possible synergies with other USAID implementing partners, and therefore strengthen the impact of SIM project.
· Discussion on how the Grant Fund will be structured and utilized;
· Strategy for the phase-out and sustainability of project activities and impact;
· Substantive attention on how they will incorporate any significant gender considerations and other cross-cutting themes under the USAID Mission Strategy into the implementation of the program.
· Timeline for implementation.
· Plan for effective rapid launch of activities.
As an annex to this section, applicants shall submit a draft Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (PMEP). The plan must explain how the applicant proposes to monitor the program and assess program impact. The PMEP must include results, indicators, targets, consisting of data sources, frequency of data collection, collection methods, data verification, and responsible parties of data collection, baseline information, and benchmarks. The applicant must discuss the ways in which the collection, analysis and reporting of performance data will be managed under the project. All data collected must be disaggregated. In designing the overall PMEP, applicants should consider the human and financial resources necessary for its implementation.
It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that all costs related to the implementation of the PMEP are included in the cost proposal.
E. Management Approach:
This section shall address the following:
Composition and organizational structure of the proposed project team and a description of each long-/short-term key or non-key team member’s role, technical expertise, estimated amount of time to be devoted to the activity for each person, and how the structure will ensure program effectiveness and efficiency, in order to achieve maximum benefits and results at minimum cost. This shall also explain partners, and effective management systems and procedures for personnel, sub-contracts, commodities, training and information technology solutions. Within the management approach, Applicants should demonstrate:
– Utilization of Bosnian professionals for country project staff; and
– Capability to mobilize short-term technical assistance in areas that are within and those not included in the illustrative areas of technical assistance.
F. Key Personnel Qualifications and Experience
The Applicants shall propose key personnel to include a Chief of Party and two Local Professionals, one for broadcast media and one for print media.
Chief of Party: should have 15 years of progressively responsible media development experience. Previous experience as a proactive COP with a strong reputation for developing excellent collaborative working relationships with counterparts, other Applicants and international organizations and donors. Long-term, overseas media development experience preferably in Eastern Europe, Balkans, and/or Former Soviet Union. Candidate must have a successful track record in supervising, designing, managing, and implementing technical assistance for donor-funded media projects and proven ability to develop and monitor work plans, training plans, and procurement plans; manage a large national staff and international consultant teams; manage grants; and ensure quality and timely project reporting.