Request For Application 2012 - USAID: Kenya Arid Lands Disaster Risk Reduction - WASH Program

Posted by Unknown Thursday, July 26, 2012 0 comments
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) East Africa is seeking applications to fund one organization through a Cooperative Agreement for a two year program entitled “Kenya Arid Lands Disaster Risk Reduction-WASH Program” as described in Section I of this RFA. The authority for the RFA is found in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended.

This is a full and open competition, under which any type of organization, large or small, commercial (for profit) firms, faith-based, and non-profit organizations in partnerships or consortia from geographical code 935, are eligible to compete. In accordance with the Federal Grants and Cooperative Agreement Act, USAID encourages competition in order to identify and fund the best possible applications to achieve its program objectives.

The purpose of this Request for Application (RFA) is to disseminate information about the USAID/Kenya and USAID/OFDA’s joint Arid Lands Disaster Risk Reduction Program, to ensure that interested parties will have a fair opportunity to submit applications for funding. This RFA describes USAID’s assistance to disaster risk reduction in the water sector and explains the process and criteria for evaluating applications.

Issuance of this Request for Application does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the U.S. Government, nor does it commit the US Government to pay for the costs incurred in the submission of a proposal. Further, the U.S. Government reserves the right to reject any or all applications received and to negotiate separately with an applicant if such an action is considered to be in the interest of the U.S. Government.

USAID anticipates awarding at least one assistance instrument (grants or cooperative agreements – herein referred to as grants) from applications submitted in response to its Arid Lands Disaster Risk Reduction Program Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) RFA. All applications must be submitted by the above closing date. It is anticipated that grants will be funded for amounts between $4,000,000 and $8,000,000. Due to limited funding levels, proposals for larger grant programs than stipulated are not eligible. Successful programs may be eligible for follow-on awards if additional funding is available, and the program objectives and outcomes continue to be consistent with USAID’s priorities.

Funding for this RFA comes from two sources. One half of the funding is through the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005—these funds must be utilized to improve human health through the rehabilitation/improvement of existing water sources utilized for drinking water, increasing access to improved drinking water supply, improving hygiene behaviors, and increasing access to improved sanitation. The other half of the funding comes through the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). The OFDA funding is flexible, though it must clearly be utilized for either direct emergency response or as “disaster risk reduction” programming and should seek to improve resilience to future drought in arid regions of Kenya and/or reduce the need for future emergency WASH response activities.

Any questions concerning this RFA should be submitted in writing to the Procurement Administration Assistant, Charity Igweta, via email at cigweta@usaid.gov with copy to the Agreement Officer, Charles Signer at csigner@usaid.gov by the date stated above. Questions sent to any other e-mail address will not be responded to. The e-mail transmitting the questions must reference the RFA number and title on the subject line of the e-mail. The deadline for submitting questions is July 27, 2012 09:00 a.m. Nairobi-Kenya Time. If there are problems in downloading the RFA from the Internet, please contact the Grants.gov help desk at 1.800.518.4726 or support@grants.gov for technical assistance.


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