GH Tech Pre-Solicitation Conference Notes.pdf

Global Health Technical Assistant Project 8(a) Competitive Contract

Pre‐Proposal Conference

RFP# SOL‐OAA‐12‐000025

Friday, March 2, 2012 Global Health Fellows Program (GHFP) Annex

1201 Pennsylvania Ave, Suite 200 Washington, DC 20004 9:30 am to 12 Noon

Meeting Notes

1. Welcome

Speaker: Mauricio Vera, Director, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business

Utilization

OSDBU is pleased to support small business growth through this 8(a) contract.

Outreach event: June 5th – Annual Small Business Conference. Registration opens in the next few weeks. All are encouraged to attend.

Speaker: Patricia Bradley, Office of Acquisitions and Assistance

Patricia will be the main negotiator on this contract.

Reviewed the agenda and handouts; reminded participants to use the sign‐in sheets.

1. GH Tech Overview

Speaker: Bob Emrey, Global Health Bureau

(Handout for this session: Slide Deck Titled, “Global Health Technical Assistance

(GH Tech) Contract (RFP# SOL‐OAA‐12‐000025); Pre‐Proposal Conference

Summary of Requirements)

Slide 1. Title Slide

Slide 2. Purpose of the Contract

The purpose of this contract is set out by USAID’s Global Health Bureau.

Slide 3. Operating Context

Section C.2 of the RFP introduces GHI, Foreign Assistance Framework, and USAID Forward, and other aspects of the operating context for this contract.

Slide 4. USG Global Health Initiative (GHI)

7 principles of the GHI and the Health Elements

Slide 5. History of this Contract

This contract plays a critical role in the Global Health Bureau. It is the sole contract that does this type of work. It is also a source for creating new programming, through the evaluations and assessments it conducts. Previous iterations of the GH Tech contract date back 30 years.

Slide 6. Operating principles (RFP Section C.3)

a. Impartiality is critical for this contract because it involves evaluating other

USAID programs and projects.

b. The contract awardee will cooperate with other USAID contracts and projects and increase local capacity through the utilization of local resources when possible.

c. “Inclusion of USAID staff”: An example of this would be a participatory evaluation team that includes USAID or other USG staff.

Slide 7. Five Contract Components (Section C.4 & L.10)

a. The numbers on this slide are estimates; in practice these figures will vary.

b. Technical assistance can include specialized studies of a particular health area (but not an assessment, evaluation, or design).

c. Mission support: This contract provides generalist USAID health talent to support missions when staff needs it. For example, if Mission personnel suddenly have to leave, this contract might provide consultants to play temporarily play those roles.

d. Conference/meeting support: This constitutes a small percentage of work for this contract because there are other USAID contracts that do this type of work.

Slide 8. Program and Project Evaluation

a. Section C.4.2.1 is a skill area. It is important that the contract provides high quality and transparent evaluations. We encourage potential bidders to review the agency’s new regulations on evaluations.

a. It is critical to make sure there is no conflict of interest when performing these evaluations.

b. The contract awardee will review all scopes of work to make sure methodologies for evaluations are appropriate. The awardee will also keep record of all evaluations conducted (there is special attention to this in USAID’s new evaluation regulations).

Slide 9. Contract Staffing

a. Section C.5: We invite suggestions for additional staff the contract might require which are not captured on this slide. Consultants are very important to this contract, and it’s critical to have competent, available consultants to do this work. This contract is responsible for finding new candidates to fill roles and keeping track of previously used consultants.

Slide 10. Contract management

a. Section C.6: Accurate financial record‐keeping and funds‐tracking is important because clients buy into this contract from across the Bureau and Missions around the world.

Slide 11. Cycle of Typical Assignment Responsibilities (Section C.6.4

a. Sections L.10 and C.4 also address this cycle. USAID (the GH management team) receives requests and reviews scopes of work to determine that they fit under the scope of the GH Tech contract. If approved by the project’s manager in GH (COR, contract officer’s representative), the request is passed to the GH Tech contract for implementation.

b. After reviewing and finalizing the scope of work, the GH Tech contract identifies and recruits candidates.

c. After consultant recruitment, the GH Tech contract will circulate a Technical Directive Memo (which is an agreement between client, COR, and contract) and make logistical arrangements are made and consultant(s) begin work.

d. After the work is completed, the GH Tech contract will assess the consultant and assignment in order to improve future performance.

Slide 12. Organizational Conflict of Interest

a. Section H.11‐H.15 (Slide #12): Organizational Conflict of Interest: Please see a separate Q&A document, posted in an amendment to the RFP, which addresses questions and concerns on OCI issues.

2. Proposal Requirements

Speaker: Patricia Bradley, OAA:

The RFP closing date is nonnegotiable.

Please email 24 hours in advance for hand deliveries of proposals

Make sure to read and follow instructions in Section L.

Proposal page limit is 50 pages. Proposals over 50 pages will not be evaluated.

Figures and charts are included in this page limit.

It is important to provide detailed budgets.

Section M.4 is the only criteria on which proposals will be evaluated.

Section M.5 describes how costs will be evaluated. Costs must be allowable, allocable, reasonable, and realistic.

All handouts from this conference will be posted as amendments.

3. Break

4. Q&A Session

Please see separate document containing all questions and answers asked by email and at the conference.

5. Wrap‐Up

Questions/Answers and handouts from this conference will be posted in an

Amendment to the RFP.