USAID/Uganda Environmental Threats and Opportunities Assessment

The USAID/Uganda Environmental Threats and Opportunities Assessment (ETOA) Activity
seeks to determine 1) the actions necessary to achieve sustainable management of tropical forests and conservation of biological diversity, and 2) the extent to which the Mission’s ongoing and proposed programming meets the needs identified in part 1 herein. The USAID/Uganda ETOA will also inform USAID/Uganda strategic planning and priorities, and provide a primary level of analysis on relevant, proposed areas of development programming.

For the specific purpose of conducting the USAID/Uganda FAA 118/119 Assessment, also known as the ETOA, issuing a directed Request for Task Order Proposal (RFTOP) for ECODIT, a small-business consortium IDIQ holder was preferred. All Task Orders valued at $1,000,000 and below are set aside for Restoring the Environment through Prosperity, Livelihoods and Conserving Ecosystems (REPLACE) small business consortia, and the total estimated cost of this assessment was approximately $200,000. The corporate capabilities of ECODIT, which include significant experience in conducting Environmental Assessments, ETOAs, environmental evaluations and Tropical Forest and Biodiversity (FAA 118/119) Assessments, gave it a clear advantage over the other small business consortia.

A directed RFTOP for ECODIT would allow USAID/Uganda to procure this statutorily mandated assessment efficiently and effectively so that its findings and recommendations may be used to inform the Mission’s CDCS in a timely and useful manner. Since this was an urgent need, seeking competition would result in unacceptable delays. USAID/Uganda is already in the process of drafting its CDCS 2016-2020, hence the Fair Opportunity Exceptions in section (b)(1) were invoked.