Technical Questions and Answers - Dec 24 2009.pdf

RFP No. SOL-514-09-000002 - Monitoring and Evaluation Program Questions and Answers I

Question 1. Are there any restrictions on consultants/experts of certain nationalities

Answer: No

Question 2. Is the $7 million estimated value listed in the Draft Statement of Work still a reasonable estimated value?

Answer: The only valid Statement of Work is the one published in this RFP in

Section C. In terms of potential government funding for this contract, see Pg. 60, Section L, Item 3 “Potential Government Funding.”

Question 3. Can you kindly verify that this is a new program? If there is any relevant incumbent contractor providing these services, will you please provide the contractor, contract number, award date, and award value?

Answer: Yes, this is a new program.

Question 4. The ‘Potential Government Funding’ (Section L, pg 60) is indeed correctly listed as: “between $8.0 million and $9.5 million to fund this activity over five years”? That amount appears to be low for the amount of work requested.

Answer: Yes, that is the correct range.

Question 5. USAID ‘anticipates receiving’ the above funding (Section L, pg 60).

USAID has not yet received funding for this project?

Answer: Funding for USAID projects is subject to availability of funding from the US Government.

Question 6. At www.FedBizOpps.gov, there is a list of interested vendors. I wonder whether it or any other registry is mandatory for all potential Offerors to register as a requirement to submit their proposals.

Answer: No, there is not a mandatory registry requirement for potential

Offerors interested in submitting proposals. Please follow the submission guidelines in Section L, starting on page 47 of the solicitation.

Question 7. Are the targeted activity level audits requested or programmed?

Answer: The activity-level audits will be requested on a case-by-case basis.

Question 8. Do all the documents need to be translated by official translators (e.g.

in the embassy)? Do signed documents that are translated to English need to be apostatized?

Answer: No & No. As long as documents are in English, it does not matter who translated them. All proposals should be in English, which is the official language for USAID contracting. Please refer to section L.2(c)(5).

Question 9. If the dollar falls or rises, will the sum of the contract change correspondingly, i.e. is there protection against macroeconomic shocks?

Answer: The dollar value of the contract does not change with currency fluctuations.

Question 10. The RFP notes that the budget is TBD (to be determined). What is the amount that you have used in your budget for this project for the first year? For the following years?

Answer: Please see page 60, Section L, Item 3 “Potential Government

Funding”. Each proposal should include its own budget that corresponds to the proposed work, per the instructions of the solicitation.

Question 11. Due to the small number of available working days in Colombia, we would like enquire into the possibility of extending the deadline for the

RFP.

Answer: The deadline for the RFP will be changed to January 14, 2010 at 4:00 pm Colombia time.

Question 12. Do we have to develop and analyze advanced econometric models or just provide the data/information for others to evaluate?

Answer: Offerors are expected to propose a suitable methodology that they would use to evaluate USAID programs’ impact.

Question 13. Can members of the professional work team have half time positions?

Answer: Core staff members (e.g., Chief of Party) will likely be employed full-time on this contract. The proposal shall include a proposed staffing plan, including specific position titles and indicating the level of participation for each position.

Question 14. What would be constrains for the M&E Program contractor regarding taking part or some responsibilities in the performance of other USAID contracts?

Answer: See Pg. 38, Section H, Item 25 “Avoidance of Conflicts of Interest.”

Question 15. The implementers are requested to have a record on the participants and beneficiaries among other specific information, which might not be necessarily reported to the Clearinghouse. To what extent is the feasibility of the implementers to share that basic information for analyzing data purposes?

Answer: Implementers will be asked to provide information on common results as per the USAID/Colombia performance management plan to the USAID/Colombia M&E Program. In the case of the impact evaluation, the implementers will be required to collaborate and facilitate the collection of impact/qualitative/survey information, which will be done directly by the USAID/Colombia M&E Program. If there is a need for more specific information from USAID implementers, this will be discussed and agreed on a case-by-case basis.

Question 16. Would it be possible to have access to the Universidad de Antioquia’s methodologies? – or further information about the contact points where we can search.

Answer: Universidad de Antioquia performs the following services: field verification of results, monitoring of activities and verification of environmental compliance of selected USAID activities. Field monitors are required to fill out a visit form developed by USAID –see attached, Annex 1.

Question 17. Other than the surveys mentioned in Result 6, will there be additional surveys conducted to evaluate other USAID funded programs, establish sector base lines, etc. in Result3?

Answer: Yes, the Mission-wide Activity-level M&E services mentioned in Pg, 14, Section C, Result 3, may include the implementation of surveys.

Question 18. Will there be M/E work in the area of democratic governance and local government strengthening?

Answer: Yes, the USAID/Colombia M&E Program will provide services to all

USAID/Colombia Assistance Objectives (AOs) as presented in the preliminary Strategic Framework (FY 2010 - FY 2013) -see Pg. 72, Exhibit 5. Democratic governance and local government strengthening are part of the Strategic Framework. An amendment to the solicitation will be issued in order to change the date on Exhibit 5, Pg. 72, from FY2009-FY2013 to FY2010-FY2013.

Question 19. Is there any list of suggested annexes to be submitted along the proposal?

Answer: There is not a particular list of suggested annexes. All the annexes that shall be included are described in Section L.10 “Proposal Preparation and Submission – Special Instructions.”

Question 20. Could you provide an estimate of the total number of municipalities and beneficiaries in the five proposed corridors?

Answer: This is not yet determined.

Question 21. In the delivery schedule (F.7.), there is no mention to deliverables on years 4 and 5. Is this correct?

Answer: An amendment to the solicitation will be issued in order to modify the deliverables schedule to include years 4 & 5.

Question 22. In the delivery schedule (F.7.), the numbering of the results is different to the one presented in Section C.5. Furthermore, there are only 5 results, whereas previously you present 6. Could you please provide an explanation?

Answer: An amendment to the solicitation will be issued in order to modify the deliverables schedule so the structure of sections C and F is internally consistent.

Question 23. Given the difficulties in communicating with Colombian staff and organizations during the Christmas holiday when many people are traveling and organizations are closed or working with reduced staff, offerors ability to effectively work with local resources will be seriously compromised during the two weeks prior to the due date of the proposal. We therefore respectfully request an extension of the due date for proposals by 2 weeks.

Answer: The deadline for the RFP will be changed to January 14, 2010 at 4:00 pm Colombia time.

Question 24. In addition, we respectfully request that you allow submission of the

Technical Proposal in PDF. It will significantly reduce the file size of submissions, as well as reducing the possibility for transmission errors.

Answer: Proposals in Portable Document Format (PDF) are accepted. Please refer to section H.4(b)(2)(iv).

Annex 1 – Universidad de Antioquia Field Visit Form-

INFORME DE VISITA

I. INFORMACIÓN DEL PROYECTO Y DE LA VISITA.

Código de proyecto:

Código de Proyecto del Partner:

Operador:

Nombre de proyecto:

Descripción del Proyecto:

Ubicación – Departamento:

Ubicación – Municipio y Veredas:

Observaciones de visita:

Técnico encargado del acompañamiento:

Fecha de visita:

Responsable Visita:

Cargo – Entidad:

Beneficiarios visitados:

BENEFICIARIO 1

Nombre:

Documento de Identidad:

Georeferenciación:

Observaciones:

BENEFICIARIO 2

Nombre:

Documento de Identidad:

Georeferenciación:

Observaciones:

BENEFICIARIO 3

Nombre:

Documento de Identidad:

Georeferenciación:

Observaciones:

II. MONITOREO AMBIENTAL.

I. ¿El proyecto esta bajo exclusión categórica ambiental?

Si No

Si su respuesta es si, pase a la sección III. Verificación de resultados.

II. Plan de manejo ambiental y medidas de mitigación. (Anotar las principales observaciones/hallazgos y recomendaciones)

A) Medida de Mitigación:

Observación en Campo:

B) Medida de Mitigación:

Observación en Campo:

C) Medida de Mitigación:

Observación en Campo:

D) Medida de Mitigación:

Observación en Campo:

III. Revisión del uso de plaguicidas (aplicación (aspersión), almacenamiento, disposición de sobrantes/residuos y envases vacíos).

IV. Plan de capacitación ambiental.

III. VERIFICACIÓN DE RESULTADOS.

I. ¿Recibió con anterioridad los planes monitoreo del proyecto, así como los avances reportados hasta la fecha?

Si

¿Por qué?

II. Complete la siguiente información con los avances reportados durante la visita.

ACTIVIDAD 1

Indicador:

Meta:

Avance reportado:

ACTIVIDAD 2

Indicador:

Meta:

Avance reportado:

ACTIVIDAD 3

Indicador:

Meta:

Avance reportado:

III. ¿Según lo observado durante la visita, hay cultivos ilícitos en los predios atendidos? ¿En el recorrido? Si afirmativo, por favor cuantifique/estime.

IV. ¿Según lo observado durante la visita y según las conversaciones que tuvo con los beneficiarios, podría usted afirmar que los beneficiarios están satisfechos con el proyecto? ¿Por qué?

IV. Por favor incluya otros hallazgos y recomendaciones relacionados con el desarrollo del proyecto.

ENCUESTA BENEFICIARIOS PROYECTOS PRODUCTIVOS - FORESTALES

ENCUESTAS BENEFICIARIOS VISITADOS.

Nombre beneficiario 1:

CC:

Nombre de la finca Municipio/Departamento

I. ¿El proyecto se esta desarrollando en el tiempo estimado? ¿Las actividades se están desarrollando en el tiempo en el que están previstas?

Si

II. ¿En términos generales como calificaría el proyecto?

Bueno Regular Malo

III. ¿Cuáles fueron las principales dificultades encontradas en el proyecto?

IV. ¿Qué sugerencias tiene para mejorar el proyecto?

V. ¿Considera usted que sus condiciones de vida han cambiado con el proyecto?

¿Por qué?

¿En qué aspectos?

Ingresos Subieron Igual Bajaron

Conocimientos Técnicos Mejoraron Igual Empeoraron Confianza con vecinos Fortaleció Igual Debilitó

Seguridad Mejoró Igual Empeoró

¿Otro aspecto?

VI. ¿Qué tipo de asistencia técnica recibe?

VII. ¿Cuántas visitas del técnico recibe al mes?

VIII. ¿Cómo le ha parecido la asistencia técnica?

Buena Regular Mala

IX. ¿Qué tipo de capacitaciones recibe?

X. ¿A cuántas capacitaciones ha asistido?

XI. ¿Cómo le han parecido las capacitaciones?

Buenas Regulares Malas

¿Recuerda algo que aprendió?

XII. ¿Qué tipo de bienes ha recibido con el proyecto?

Abonos Semillas Maquinas procesadoras Equipo de protección

XIII. ¿Desde que el proyecto comenzó ha mejorado la venta de sus productos?

XIV. ¿Si no recibe más asistencia/ayuda/apoyo del proyecto, la producción actual de su finca se podría mantener?

XV. ¿Su proyecto productivo se relaciona con otras actividades en la región? (Por ejemplo, cadenas productivas, programas de otras entidades, programas de Acción Social) XVI. ¿Recibe Ud. la asistencia/ayuda/apoyo a través de una asociación de productores u otro tipo de asociación o la recibe directamente del ejecutor del proyecto (MIDAS/ADAM)?

REGISTRO FOTOGRÁFICO