MR. WHERRY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ross Wherry. I am the senior reconstruction adviser for the Asia and Near East Bureau of USAID, and it's my pleasure this morning to welcome you to the prebid conference for the Iraq Community Action Program.
This is a procurement activity, primarily, and we want to consult with you on the program and to collect questions that you may have.
Before introducing the panelists that will be here this morning, I need to lay down a couple of ground rules so that we're all on the same page. What the meeting is: This is a meeting for people who represent nonprofit organizations under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. If you are a for-profit company, you will not be able to apply for this grant or cooperative agreement.
This is not a meeting for procurements of any other type. If you are looking for subcontracts or contracts of any kind, this is not the meeting you should be in. This is not a policy forum. I'm not going to be able to answer policy questions today and we will have to refer you to other appropriate sources for those kinds of questions.
What it is is a clarification of the request for applications that's published on our Web site. We want to be able to tell you how that community action program fits into our reconstruction efforts in Iraq. This is a place to ask questions. If we can't answer the question here, we'll take it in writing and we will make sure that all questions, and all the answers to those questions are distributed to everyone who has left us contact information, because that's how the procurement rules work.
I would like to introduce you to the people who are here today. I've introduced myself. In a moment, we'll have Elaine Scott who is the Lebanon desk officer, speak to you about how this program worked in Lebanon. We have Mr. Rafael Jabba on the telephone. Rafael is currently in Kuwait City and he will be able to give you information in Kuwait and talk to you in that respect.
Mr. Fred Schieck, who is the deputy administrator, will be down to speak to us briefly, about 10:15, 10:20, depending on how he can escape from his office, and Nick Higgins, who is the person who's actually managing the RFA, will talk a little bit about the community action program, and then at that point we will take your questions.
We hope to have at least an hour for questions and answers, so that you can deal with whatever it is that's on your mind.
Up here in the corner, this is Mr. Mike Gushue. Mike is the grants officer for this activity and he will be keeping us on the straight and narrow and also assuring that we've made appropriate answers and not gone beyond our writ in talking to everyone.
I'd like to give you two minutes on where we are in reconstruction in Iraq. I presume that all of you have visited our Web site and have looked at the programs that we have in place now.
USAID has been requested by the administration to administer a series of activities in Iraq relating primarily to infrastructure, which is our first strategic objective, the restoration of that infrastructure.
We are dealing with social services and health and education. We're working with the United Nations in those activities. We are working with economic revitalization, specifically economic institutions [inaudible] micro credit, and those sorts of things, as well as agriculture, and we are going to be working in governance, participatory local governance, and that's where this community action program officially lives.
We call it a governance program primarily because it's going to be working with the people in Iraq who actually run communities. It is much more than a simple governance program as you've seen in the RFA.
Without going further into details that you already have, I'd like to turn the microphone over to Elaine, so that she can give you a little background on why we think the community action program might be the most appropriate way to go into Iraq.
Elaine.
MS. SCOTT: Good morning, everyone. My name is Elaine Scott and I'm the acting Lebanon desk officer from USDAID.
Our program in Lebanon took on a cluster approach. We teamed with five NGOs on the ground, who had facilitated the program for Lebanon. First, they would contact key personnel within the country, making sure to try and work with different people from different levels. We had representatives from local municipalities, agribusiness cooperatives, clubs, union members, local NGOs on the ground, who participated in the cluster approach.
Next, we would identify priority projects, keeping in mind that what, on the ground, we already have--we had personnel who would--Did they have a back hoe, if they [inaudible] to, if they decided that the program that they wanted to do was to dig a ditch? Did they have enough resources, financial resources, to participate in this particular activity?
The next step was for them to identify projects that were most vital to the community development and revitalization. Then would come contract and bidding. Then, finally, implementation, again, once they worked on permits and made sure they had the correct paperwork in place. Basically, that's the process. That's it.
MR. WHERRY: As Elaine mentioned, we've been working with the program in Lebanon, where it was actually started. We've taken this same approach into Serbia and into the Fergana Valley of Central Asia. We like the approach because it also has a strong characterization of conflict resolution, where people working with the NGOs who participate, are actually finding a solution to their own problems and are facilitated by the NGOs that are there.
We also need to mention that in addition to the resources available under this request for applications, you should know that our local governance contractor, the health contractor and the education contractor would all have the capacity to make subgrants to local NGOs to help facilitate these activities. So there's a wide range of resources available to you.
I have to check the technology, but I need to make sure that Mr. Rafael Jabba is on the telephone from Kuwait, and he's going to give us a summary of how things are out there, and I hope we can keep him on the line through the presentation that that he would be able to respond to questions when they come.
Okay, Rafael, can you hear me?
No. I think we've lost him.
MR. : Put it on the speaker.
MR. : Speaker? I don't see anything here. We've lost him. Okay, one of the difficulties with working halfway around the world. We'll see if we can get him back and we'll go on from there, and if we can get him back part-way through the meeting, then we'll go ahead with his presentation.
Rafael has things like labor rates and how to handle visas and transit, and those sorts of things.
We've been on the ground in Kuwait City, now, since about the 16th of March, with a team of nearly 30 people, and we've been in and out of Kuwait itself since mid February. We understand that there have been difficulties with NGO entrance in the country. We understand the other sorts of logistical challenges that are there, and we want to be able to address those as we go forward in the program.
Some of them have not been fixed yet and we need to know what your concerns are about that.
Okay. Are we going to get him back soon?
MR. : I'm trying.
MR. : Okay. All right. You should know that we have been working with contingency planning for what might happen in Iraq for a number of months. We've been talking to Interaction and other NGO groups over the last couple of months, to foreshadow as much as we could what was going to be coming up.
I know that there's a great deal of concern about the unsettled nature of the country and how it would work.
We also know that there are very few NGOs who've been able to work inside of Iraq, and that's a particular concern because we'll be setting things up as well as trying to implement programs and there are special requirements that will come up, that are not ordinarily in other activities.
Do we have him?
MR. : Yes.
MR. WHERRY: All right. We have found Mr. Jabba and I'm going to introduce him only as the man who knows much more than I do about what's going on in Iraq.
Rafael, I'm going to put you on the speaker.
MR. JABBA [on speaker-phone]: Thank you. Hello, my name is Rafael Jabba and I'm currently based in Kuwait City and I have spent approximately two consecutive weeks inside Um Qasr, which has been identified as the first town in Iraq to be liberated, and is currently considered the first town also to start a democratic process as they have identified a council of ministers.
Before I go into any further detail, I'll briefly talk about the Jordanian community action program, some of the problems that we have there, and how I don't expect to see these replicated inside Iraq. The Jordan program was funded by US, USAID. However, the funds went to the Ministry of Planning. This made the program quite bureaucratic, and one problem that we had there was that the geographical coverage was not given to one specific area. The three NGOs working there covered the entire country, and that was quite problematic.
We also had problems with sales tax exemptions because the government, meaning the government of Jordan, was not willing to give any of the NGOs sales tax exemption, nor were they willing to have the NGOs pay for the sales tax because they didn't want it to come out of programmatic funds, and this resulted in two to three months of delay of implementing the program.
There was also a question in Jordan on Project Ownership. The ministry wanted to make sure that if the NGOs that were running the program ran into some problems, or if they were not using the funds appropriately, that they would have some control over this, so they tried to build in mechanisms where the ministry had ownership of the projects, and that caused some problems and time delays in implementation of the activities.
In Jordan, 90 percent of the matching contributions came from land and the other 10 percent came from the equipment.
So overall, the program was fairly successful, it's ongoing, and the ministry, since this is their first time conducting such an activity, has done a fairly decent job and they are moving up the learning scale on this activity.
Now in Iraq, I'd just like to provide you some information that I think that might be helpful. Labor rates in Jordan for unskilled labor are approximately $1.50 a day. Labor rates for semiskilled are running about $2.00 a day, and the British forces are paying between 32 to $40 a month for returning port workers, and they have several hundred.
Now this is only in Um Qasr and as the coalition forces declare certain areas permissive, we will see further activities and have additional information, but right now it's only focusing on Um Qasr.
Regarding materials in the country, everything is in a limited supply. We have been told that we expect sanctions to be lifted and the shadow ministry of Treasury has proposed that there be a 90-day tax holiday to allow the importation of goods coming into Iraq at a fairly brisk pace, so we expect that to occur soon.
One issue that I think we need to look at, and it's a concern of mine, is the necessary [inaudible] licenses that must be obtained from Iraqi institution. Right now, there really are no Iraqi institutions. They are slowly emerging. You could say that the senior layer of management, which was all Baath Party, have disappeared.
There is now a plan to play $20 to the civil servants to go back to work and we expect that to occur within the next month or so. At that time we should probably have a better understanding of what's going to be in place. So I know that in the scope of work we talk about regulations regarding land use, rights of way, that we have to follow all local guidance.
But right now, there isn't much local guidance that we can get from any of the Iraqis. When it comes to demining, this is a very serious [?] issue, there is a report that's put out by the Army Corps of Engineers on a daily basis. There is a Web site called "A good pylae to start" and you can get to the information off that Web site, and this covers mines and all unexploded ordnance. But this is the areas that they know of, and we've been told there's over 10 million mines in the country, and they're not all listed, and they're not sure where everything is, so attention really must be made, when you are working, any time you're off of a hard surface.
On the management information system, I notice that it said that there'd be a common system that's independently developed, and that possibly it will be both [inaudible] using the Internet.
Right now, 95 percent of the land lines are down. They're not sure when they will be up and running. There are no cell phones except in the area of Basra, which is--actually, in the area of Um Qasr and they're going to try to extend it up to Basra, which means that only 50 kms. inside from Kuwait, in the southern part of the city, has access to cell phones.
The military is expecting to have private cell phone service, and Suriyah [ph] service does work. So whatever type of communication system that you are envisioning, please bear in mind that there are no land lines and there are very few cell phone services available, except in the area of Um Qasr and possibly in Baghdad, with the military's approval.
The most challenging part that I envision, that we're going to encounter, is the cluster approach, and I think that's clearly stated in the scope of work, because when we're looking at the regional issues that we're going to face, we have seen very strong religious involvement by Shiite clerics in the South, they're very aggressive, they want to be involved, and they want control.
On a much more positive note, I have found the men and women in the community to be very dynamic, to be very aggressive. I'm sure that gender will not be--gender, we had to be very gender sensitive, but these people have come out and said that they democracy, the women are in the streets, they will talk to you, they are willing to form groups. They want to be a part of the up-and-coming society.
I found that the town council that emerged was quite professional. They were concerned about being transparent. They addressed their needs in a very systematic way and they did a very good job at prioritizing their needs as well, and I found them to be extremely energetic and willing to not only develop the infrastructure but know that they need to develop their own internal resources, that education is key, and that they were very willing and supportive of coalition forces coming in, and the support that US, USAID is giving. They're very appreciative of it and the have been, you know, willing to work with us. So that's what I have to say and if you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.
MR. WHERRY: Okay. I'm going to ask you to hold your questions for a couple of minutes.
Mr. Fred Schieck has walked into the room. Fred is the deputy administrator from USAID, and as an indication of how important we believe this program is, he wanted to come down and speak to you as part of the presentation this morning.
Fred.
MR. SCHIECK: Good morning, and good morning, Rafael.
MR. JABBA: Good morning.
MR. SCHIECK: First of all, we're all very pleased that such a good group could come here today. I'm not an expert, exactly, on everything that's going on in Iraq, or what we're interested in having you to do, but my purpose in coming is basically to emphasize to you, as a group, and to the NGO community, the importance that we in AID, and the U.S. Government give to your participation in the reconstruction process in the country.
From the very beginning, when we were sitting here in AID trying to conceptualize what kinds of needs there might be, in the event that there was an intervention by the United States there, the NGO role was always there with us in terms of trying to think through areas in which you could make a real contribution to the effort.
Over the months, we've had a number of meetings with various groups and the leadership in the NGO community, and trying to emphasize our interest and desire to have your participation, and so I think from our standpoint, certainly, that's very clear.
I know our mission--I don't know whether you understand the structure, but we have a mission director, Lou Luc [ph], who is a career AID employee, who had retired a year ago, and we asked him to come back and he hesitated for around three seconds, and said, "But of course," and so Lou has been out in Kuwait for three months or so, and we've been trying to staff up a group to work with him. At some point they will move into Iraq. We don't know exactly when that will happen.
Lou is working in a broader team headed by Jay Garner, who we got to know a little bit here before he went out, and he is trying to coordinate the reconstruction effort. We clearly see direct linkages between ourselves and Lou, and the activities of what AID will be financing out there, which is not to say that Lou isn't listening to Jay Garner also. He's a part of that team. But we very much see a direct, as I said, a direct line between us and Lou and the AID mission and their activities out there, and we are in constant communication directly with the mission over what they need, and what they think, and trying to identify what might have to be done.
As you all have been reading in the newspapers, there's been great interest, and I guess, in one sense, consternation being expressed by many groups and individuals in this country about a process which AID is following, awarding some large contracts to private firms.
These contracts were identified--I mean the need for these contracts were identified a long time ago, and we knew, though, that our usual contracting process was not going to service, the usual contracting process is, you know, people say six months but I get complaints that it takes longer than that, and we couldn't afford that kind of process.
So we followed abbreviated procedures, which are provided for, clearly, in the federal acquisition regulations, but we've been--you read in the papers, people think this has been a secret process or that somehow we have not followed the law, and we have followed the law.
So all this has been going on and at the time when we really don't know, or didn't know what was going to be needed, and things are becoming clearer now, and I guess we're putting out this--What do you call it?--I don't know all the terminology.
MR. : Community action program.
MR. SCHIECK: Yeah, community action program, but it's the request for applications, I guess, and that's why all of you are here, and I hope that this morning our staff will be able to answer many of your questions on what this is all about.
But the bottom line here is is that we value your assistance, we think it's critical. There's very much a concern on the part of the President, and on down, that we be able to demonstrate to the Iraqi people improved conditions of their lives within a relatively short period of time.
Certainly there's been damage caused by the military aspect of what we've been doing but there is also big problems in Iraq that just occurred from many years of neglect of the infrastructure, of institutions, and we have to deal with that as well. I don't know, Ross, how you wanted to go it, but I'll be happy to stay a little bit and see if there are any questions, and where we go from here. Thank you.
MR. WHERRY: Thank you, Fred.
In view of your schedule, shall we take questions to you now, and then hold off for five or so minutes until we do the actual--
MR. SCHIECK: Why don't we do that.
MR. WHERRY: Okay. Where the microphone is, you have to stand up again.
Okay. We'll take a couple of questions and then we're going to have to let him go back to his day job. Yes, ma'am? I'm sorry. In order for everyone to hear, you have to go to that microphone, and I need you to identify who you are and what organization you work for.
MR. SCHIECK: I can't guarantee answers.
QUESTION: That's a good way to start.
I'm Dr. Penny Keradaigee [ph] with Kurdish Human Rights Watch. Kurdish Human Rights Watch is a United States-based NGO and we have been providing services both in the United States and in northern Iraq. We recently received State Department, that was last year, a grant to provide shelter in areas that are covered by licenses, OFAC licenses in the north, according to regulations of the Department of Commerce.
My question is you mentioned the firms that had--and of course everybody in the NGO community, including the Iraqi expatriate community, has been wondering about this huge contract that have been awarded. Now we all know that at some point ,you know, the sales of the oil revenues of Iraq will be used to generate resources for the people of Iraq, and as such, there is a huge expatriate community with lots of resources, and human resources, and--
MR. : [inaudible].
QUESTION: Well, that's where I'm going, because he said he doesn't know the answer to, so I have to give him the backup.
My question is when you're giving all these contracts to organizations and contractors, and for-profit companies, are you taking in consideration that Iraqi expatriate communities' expertise, and also NGOs that have worked in the region for the last ten years since the no-fly zone has been established in north, for instance, and how much involvement do you see of that?
Actually, I would like to go a little further and require, as, you know, an Iraqi expat, Kurdish-American citizen, that you require in your RFPs and RFAs, that they work with NGOs that are ethnically and culturally sensitive to the needs of the Iraqi people. Thank you.
MR. SCHIECK: You're discussing and raising, I think, important things, because there are real resources in this country, people with knowledge, well, they originally came from the area, and people who are dedicated to improving the conditions of their country, or former country.
These initial contracts, let me say, were done to try to address some immediate needs, but we have not yet signed that big contract which has been all in the newspapers. This is the one for reconstruction, where, for instance, if there's damage to a hospital somewhere, we can give an order to that firm and say, "Fix that hospital."
What will happen, I'm sure, is they'll contract with Iraqi firms, or any in-country capabilities of getting things done, and we would like to see a lot of this money spent in Iraq, because obviously there's employment aspects and all these other things that come from it.
So these contracts are not viewed as a long-term proposition. They're viewed as a means for us to get in place, today, or tomorrow, but no later than next week, the capability to be able to respond to needs as we see them.
For instance, there's big concerns about water supplies, and so we want to make sure we can call on experts, right away, to get in there and try to fix whatever problem there is with the water supply systems. But that doesn't mean that's going to solve water for the whole country but it's sort of an emergency type response to some things.
We've tried to procure these--no, not tried. We have procured these contracts on a competitive basis, meaning that we have asked a number of firms to respond. What we did not do was to do the usual thing of a publication and wait 45 days or 60 days, or whatever it is, to get proposals in from any firm in the country, but, rather, try to identify firms which, through experience, and others, we clearly felt could get the job done in a short period of time, and asked six or seven firms for their proposals and bids, and then select the best from those.
So it's competitive, it's provided for under the federal acquisition regulations. We have not--maybe we did one sole source. Did we? Ross is really--
MR. WHERRY: [off-mike.]
MR. SCHIECK: Yes. We signed a "body shop" contract with a firm here, which is only to be able, if we need an expert to help us on our staff, we say to them: Get us a civil engineer, they'll go out and get a civil engineer and send the guy out to the mission to work with us.
But they're not actually doing anything other than a mechanism for hiring people immediately, because if we have to go through a contracting process ourselves, we won't get people out there immediately.
So that was the only contract where we even contemplated sole source, and like I said, that firm doesn't really do anything other than hire people are our request.
All of the others have a competitive thing. Whether or not we could put into the competition, or the scope-- or the tenders, that you have to hire Iraqi groups or Kurdish groups, I tend to doubt we're going to do something like that.
QUESTION: [Off-mike].
MR. SCHIECK: Right.
QUESTION: [inaudible].
MR. SCHIECK: That's right.
QUESTION: [inaudible].
MR. SCHIECK: No. It's a valid point. Well, you're saying we have, in one of our contracts, that provision. So we did--
QUESTION: [inaudible].
MR. SCHIECK: Okay. Well, it's a good point, and I'll take that back with me. Okay. Anything else? Yes?
MR. SPENCE: Hi. I'm Rick Spence with International Relief and Development. One of the key successes about the CRDA types of programs in the Balkans and in Central Asia, has been the longer-term commitment to community development programming. Now this RFA is issued just for one year with the potential of two additional one-year follow-ons.
So certainly, in our view, it seems like the commitment is going to be there from USAID for this to be essentially a three-year program, but can you speak to that and maybe give a little bit more veracity, that USAID is going to be making a commitment beyond just the one-year time frame.
MR. SCHIECK: Right. Well, I think all of us believe that this work isn't going to end in one year, but we are working under certain conditions of uncertainty. Basically, the funding situation, we've got a supplemental, there's a fair amount of money in that supplemental, but there's a lot of demands as well.
What'll happen in the next budget request, how much money we're going to get, how all that will be structured, is still not clear, and so I assume the reason why we've done it the way we've done it is because we don't know where we'll be standing next year in the way of funding.
It seems to me, however, though, that the types of activities that you all are interested in and want this propo--request for proposals covers, is something which would be long term. It's something which goes down to the countryside, to the villages. It's a type of program which AID has typically done in other countries. We're doing them in Afghanistan, and I am confident that we will be with this for some time to come, but this first RF--I don't know what you call--
MR. : RFA.
MR. SCHIECK: --RFA is being done under real conditions of uncertainty, as I mentioned, and in terms of the funding, and whatever demands are going to be on us, et cetera. But I am confident that this is the type of activity which would be high on our priority list to continue.
Yeah?
QUESTION: Hi. I'm Rob Turner with ACVI/VOCA [ph], and I was wondering if you could give us any guidance about when sanctions and official legal restrictions about working in Iraq might be lifted, because we have concerns about our insurance carriers and other subcontractors and things, and it's something that--
MR. SCHIECK: Well, it's a good question.
I think there was something in the paper today. Actually, this is an area which we're not engaged in. This is a State Department thing. But there was something in the paper today about the U.S. going to move to the U.N. to get the sanctions removed, and I know that's something we want to get accomplished as soon as possible, but I honestly don't have a feel of when that might be, might happen, and I don't know whether you've gotten involved in that at all, Ross.
MR. WHERRY: [Off-mike.]
MR. SCHIECK: But people are pressing to get it done. We want to get it done.
Okay. All right. Thank you very much.
MR. WHERRY: Mike, I know we have to take the OFAC thing under advisement and get back to everybody.
Thank you very much, Fred, for taking some time out of your day.
Okay. We have approximately 50 minutes left here. I will poll the crowd. Do you have questions on the RFA, as it stands, that Nick needs to answer, or do we want to just go directly to questions from the floor, specific to your own needs? In favor of AID giving five minutes on what the RFA is about.
Okay. Nick Higgins is the person who has been responsible for the drafting and approval of this request for applications and is the best person in the room to speak from AID's point of view on what's involved in this document that you've gotten off the Web site.
Nick.
MR. HIGGINS: Good morning. I'd like to talk, briefly, about the program's purpose, its implementation and the application process. First, the program.
CAP is designed to promote democratic practices at the grassroots level, and to prevent conflict by empowering individuals across gender, ethnic, and religious lines. CAP is intended to assist 250 communities and to benefit approximately 5 million Iraqis. CAP will be implemented throughout Iraq by NGO partners and will mobilize communities by creating committees that identify projects to improve infrastructure, generate employment, and promote responsible management of the environment.
Second. CAP's implementation. Soon afterward, USAID will convene a start-up conference to identify the geographic areas of operation for each implementing partner.
Within 90 days of award, recipients will identify 50 communities, form community committees, and complete rapid impact activities within each of those communities.
We feel that the quick-start character of this program is essential for the success of the activity.
CAP will be a 12-month program and recipients--related to Mr. Schieck's comments--and recipients should expect to fully implement all aspects of the program during the 12 months, with the possibility of the two extension years.
The application process. Applications are due by April 28 and we plan to issue the awards by May 19th. In preparing applications, particular emphasis should be given to the skills and experience of your proposed staff and the organization, and methodology for identifying communities and forming the community committees, and I'll be happy to take any questions that you have.
MR. : [Off-mike].
MR. WHERRY: Okay. We're going to pen the floor to questions. Nick and Elaine and Mike are available to do that. if it's a broader question relating to reconstruction, you'll get me.
As I said, we will make sure that everyone who has requested an RFA, given us information on how to contact them, will receive the question and the answer, and if we haven't got a full answer today, then we will put a full answer in the document that goes back out.
We would like to also emphasize that yes, we do expect people to work with local NGOs. We are hoping that it will be groups of NGOs rather than one big one, that comes in for the application, because this, it's a tremendously large job and the fact that the reconstruction needs to go forward quickly rather than slowly adds a twist in here where we're not sure whether we are in emergency or whether we are development, but we're going to have to do both at the same time.
We're going to have to move along as fast as we can with these activities.
All right. For questions, you have to stand up at the microphone. You can queue up if you want but I need you to leave the camera free so they can see who's actually answering the question.
QUESTION: My name is Adrienne Paul and I'm with WorldVision and my question regards the staffing plan. I'd like to know--you have mentioned in the RFA, that you identify up to five key staff of those positions that we propose in our proposal. However, do you require us to submit CVs for any proposed staff that may be identified as key staff, and what exactly is entailed in your staffing plan? Thank you.
MR. HIGGINS: On the CVs, yes, we would like you to submit CVs for your five key staff. The key staff would include a chief of party and experts, possibly in the areas, the various functional areas of the activity, but again, we'll look to you to present the team that you feel is most appropriate to implement the activity successfully.
The same goes for the rest of your staffing plan. We'll look to you to present what you think would be the most successful team.
MR. WHERRY: We'd like to emphasize that we are playing by grants and cooperative agreement rules in this. That means that you will have independence to operate these things. We expect you to be self-starters, to do this in the same spirit that you would take on any other NGO program in any other country.
So to the extent that you would modify your ordinary way of doing business, please don't. That's the reason that you are the preferred provider for these sorts of services.
Sir?
QUESTION: Kevin Gary [ph], World Relief.
One of the areas of your initiative is income producing and business development, and you say that specifically, you do not want to fund credit programs. Would a business development initiative where a loan fund was funded with other, say, private funds, perhaps as the matching contribution, be acceptable?
MR. : [inaudible].
MR. WHERRY: The difficulty that we have on credit funds is that we don't have enough money to make a substantial effect with lendable capital. So we're not against the idea of putting out loans but we will not be able to capitalize the entity that makes those loans.
QUESTION: But the services would be permissible?
MR. WHERRY: The services would be permissible--
[Simultaneous conversation.]
QUESTION: [inaudible].
MR. WHERRY: --but we can't give you $10 million to lend to somebody; or a million dollars. That's the constraint.
QUESTION: My name's Mark Engman [ph]. I work for Christian Children's Fund. I'd just like to highlight two points that have already been made. One is on the 12 month. I understand the funding constrictions but CCF has been putting together community groups for 60 years, and we have found that you do all the work to put together a community group and then have to leave before it's really solidified, you can do a lot of damage to a community.
Then the other question is on the OFAC licenses. If sanctions don't get lifted, it'd be nice to know that there's a way to deal with the OFAC licenses as part of the application in a word process. Okay. A quick question.
Mr. Wherry, maybe you can address this. that a lot of NGOs have a lot of concern about working under military control, whatever that means, and I was wondering if you could address that.
MR. WHERRY: Okay. Of the four things there, let me deal with the easy ones first, OFAC and sanctions. For all of the other partners with whom we are implementing the reconstruction program, if we can't get these sanctions and OFAC under control, then they'll have the same problems that you will.
So that my understanding, and as I said to Fred a few minutes ago, I know just enough to be dangerous about this. I understand that most of the OFAC problems are about to go away, if they haven't by this morning. The sanctions, however, are a United Nations piece and the United States is attempting to get those sanctions lifted, since the person who caused those sanctions to be put in place is no longer there.
We agree with you on the one-year requirement. It makes planning very difficult for all of us.
The Congress has appropriated enough money for approximately a year. So we're not allowed to go beyond that, although we've left elasticity in the program to go further, should funds become available, but we don't wish to lead you down the garden path and say it's a big long program until we know that the resources will be there. So, for the moment, we're looking at one year with the possibility to extend, and acknowledging that it's probably more than a one-year activity.
It was more than a one-year activity ten days ago and since they got done looting the place, it's really going to be a way. We've lost Rafael in the midst of all of this.
Okay. On the business of dealing with the military, I work for Andrew Natsios, Andrew Natsios works for Colin Powell. Colin Powell is the Secretary of State. The United States Government has chosen to coordinate the activities in Iraqi reconstruction through an entity that happens to work for the Secretary of Defense, but in the activities that you would be dealing with, you will be working with USAID in the same modalities, the same kinds of things that you would ordinarily do.
We do depend on the military for a great deal of information on security. We depend on the military for a great deal of information on the business of where the mines, where are the pockets of people who really don't like Americans, those sorts of things. But the grant would come from USAID and it would operate in the same manner as any grant that you have received from USAID in the past. There are some people I know, based upon when we did the post-mortem on the Afghanistan experience, there were some organizations that were philosophically uncomfortable with being that close to uniformed services of whatever nationality, and if that causes a major difficulty for your organization, then this may not be the program that you want to be involved in.
On the other hand, we are committed to ensuring that we follow the grant rules that AID has always worked with, so that you have the chance to do what you do best in what is, admittedly, a very difficult and uncertain circumstance.
So we understand the difficulty. We will do our very best to ensure that you are able to work the way that you ordinarily would.
Yes, ma'am?
QUESTION: Penny Keradaigee with KHR, Kurdish Human Rights Watch. I have several tiers to my question. One is, you know, that RFA is quite broad and it covers different areas.
Do you see that agencies, applicants need to cover all those areas, or can they focus on one specific area?
B. If an agency wants to apply in several areas, will that agency have to submit separate proposals or just one proposal but with tiers of services?
Then how many grants are you foreseeing to award, or cooperative agreements, and if I can clarify a little bit on the OFAC license. I think USAID, just like the State Department, has an umbrella OFAC license, because we've been getting all of these briefings on the Iraq working group.
MR. WHERRY: Part of the concern on OFAC is what about the people who aren't getting money from us and would like to run a program with someone else's funds.
QUESTION: That's true.
MR. WHERRY: Okay. Are those all your things?
QUESTION: Yes.
MR. WHERRY: Okay.
MR. HIGGINS: I was on the phone, so I didn't get the first couple points, but on the number of CAs, we anticipate making five awards, and subject to the final level of funding for this activity and the review of the proposals, and so forth, but we estimate there'll be five awards.
QUESTION: [off-mike].
MR. WHERRY: Is it breadth [?] versus a single sector? The geographic versus the--
MR. HIGGINS: Right.
MR. WHERRY: --overall approach?
MR. HIGGINS: Yes. The intention is to--it's a similar design to the one in Serbia--is to take specific geographic regions and assign those to an NGO, or a consortium of NGOs, and that that single NGO or group will deliver all of the services under this award.
QUESTION: [off-mike].
MR. HIGGINS: Well, the regions would--what we had in mind was to do this through a collaborative process, had the program start-up, which would be to come together with the recipients and collaboratively to identify the geographic regions.
QUESTION: [off-mike].
MR. WHERRY: As far as additional questions or things, those have to be submitted to Mike, because he is the grand sheikh of how the procurement process runs. We would need those questions to come pretty quickly, though, because we have to send them out to everyone.
QUESTION: [off-mike].
MR. GUSHUE: I'll give you my e-mail.
MR. WHERRY: Okay. Mike says that he will provide e-mail to the people who need that to pass in other questions.
Sir?
QUESTION: Dave Garms [ph], IFDC. The last few comments actually were related to my question as far as regions.
There's reference in the RFA to various regions clustering and then maybe four or five grants being awarded, and then there's also the indication that maybe a specific consortium or a specific group would take a region, and depending on how you define a region, could have a lot to do with the success of the project, and after the awards are made, coming at that point to identify what the regions are might be a bit difficult to do, because the specific organization might choose to focus on a particular region in the country where they have expertise, and you could cut it almost, you know, many different ways.
If you're looking at an administration region, that probably won't make any sense.
You could cut it by ethnic groups. You know, the most logical thing would be to follow the river systems, the Euphrates and Tigris River systems, you know, thousands of years of hydraulic history. That would seem to make more sense, in following market centers, and so on, and linking those into some kind of a region or cluster.
So I mean, the RFA's kind of general in that regard, and I just wondered, you know, is there going to be any more clarification on that, because having that kind of information would be certainly useful, sooner rather than later, I would think. Thank you.
MR. HIGGINS: I'll answer that and maybe if Rafael has some additional points he would like to make about the identification of geographic regions. But we intentionally left it broad. We would like to have an open discussion about it with different characteristics and factors that we should take into account in identifying geographic regions.
We felt strongly that geographic regions were a better way to organize the program rather than going by sectors.
We thought it's important that you, as the recipients, developed relationships with the communities. They are the organization that maintains that relationship. The community doesn't have several different providers under this activity.
Rafael?
MR. JABBA: Sure. USAID envisions to be based on Basra, to be based in Baghdad, and to be based in Mosul. Population centers are approximately 10 million in the southern part of the country, south of Baghdad, going down to Basra, and there's also a population band of approximately 10 million north of Baghdad. If you take a look at the rivers, there's approximately 5 million people running up on the Tigris River and another 5 million that are running close to the Euphrates River in southern Iraq.
I haven't been up to northern Iraq but the reports that I have are that it's fairly similar in geographic and the typography of the area, and similar type of economic activities, and southern Iraq, you can look at cities ranging from a half million up to 1.3, 1.4 million.
The areas that we've seen, 80 to 90 percent of the people are unemployed right now. When they go back to work under the--I mean, when the civil administration comes back into play, we expect that to drop down and you'll see only 60 percent of the people unemployed.
How it's going to be broken up, that's going to be determined once the awards are made, but the differences between the various towns are not that great.
From what we've been able to see ,there's very strong religious dominance from the Shiites throughout the south and the economic activities, whether they be along the Tigris or Euphrates, are running both the same.
As it stands now, there are major issues with water and with power and with fuel. Most of the areas in southern Iraq do not have potable water. They're drinking basically brackish water out of the Shaat al-Arab. The power grids are down, and the fuel to run these goods is not available in the country.
So it's a fairly desperate situation throughout the entire area and they'll all basically in the same situation. It's different up in the north but I do not have any details, at this time, of what's going on there, so I can't help you on that.
MR. WHERRY: Okay. A comment on the business of one sector or another sector. Essentially what we're looking for in your proposal is how to handle the needs of an area.
We used to call it integrated rural development or things of that nature, and those terms have all gone by the board. But we're not looking for a sector-based approach of only water or only training, or something like that.
We're looking for a group of NGOs who would be able to come into an area and essentially work with the local people to handle a wide range of needs. So that's part of the reason that the RFA is as broadly written as it is.
Sir?
QUESTION: Hi. Paul Majorowitz, Mercy Core [ph]. Two questions. One is under the RFA, is it allowable to have sub agreements with third country NGOs or other entities, that is, NGOs not based in the U.S. or Iraq?
Secondly, a question relating to security and to review of local contractors and such.
I understand, due to security concerns in Lebanon, the USAID mission has to vet all employees and contractors for security's sake and does a background check on all of these. Will this be the same case in Iraq?
MR. WHERRY: We would actually encourage applicants to consider bringing in third-country NGOs, third-country partners. You do have to respect the fact that there's a restricted list, so if you have a Libyan NGO or a Cuban NGO or North Korean NGO, that's probably not going to be acceptable. But we are hoping that this will not be something with necessarily a single flag on the top. There are many countries with capacity to work together, and we would be very pleased to see you include partners in your application that are not necessarily American.
As far as security vetting, because this is a grant, it's pretty much up to you who's going to work for you, because we will make the grant to the NGO. Am I square with this, Mike? If it were a contract, then, yes, we would get very picky about who it is that you're hiring. On the other hand, if you hire someone that you trust and they do a good job, then you don't need us in the way. If you hire someone that runs off with your money, then that's a problem you have to deal with with your own board of directors.
MR. WHERRY: Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Hi. Rob Turner with ACDI/VOCA. I have a few sort of in-country budgeting and administrative questions. First, I suppose, we are implementers under the Serbia CRDA project. And it was originally thought that it would be a central office space that all implementers would use in Belgrade. I'm wondering if that's something that you're considering for Baghdad as well.
MR. : Is that it?
QUESTION: No, no.
MR. : Go ahead, and what I'll do is give you a wrap-up for all of these things.
QUESTION: Okay. The other question is in terms of the current state of the banking system, are we going to be able to wire funds directly into Iraq? Is that going to be a problem for us?
What will the danger pay differential and per diem be for Iraq, if that's known now?
And if you have any guidance on--you've talked about unskilled and skilled labor right now, but do you have any information on professional salaries, program staff, that sort of thing?
MR. WHERRY: Rafael, I'm going to give all of these to you.
MR. JABBA: All right, but we're going to have to repeat them because it was sort of breaking up. I can tell you right now, the danger pay, you know, the hazardous--the differential is, I believe it's 25 and 15. That's 40 percent. We are told that it's going to go to 25 and 25. So we expect that to be 50 percent.
On security issues, the military has a security briefing with us on a daily basis. We are advised whether or not there are such things as Ba'ath Party elements in certain areas, and whatever is not classified, this information can be provided to the grantees on a daily basis.
As for having shared office space, I think that's a very good idea. Right now we have not identified--well, we have identified where we're going to be in Basra, and we are identifying where we're going to be in Baghdad. I would suggest that since it's going to be a secure compound, we will see if we can set up an office inside the compound for NGOs that are interested in working with us, just to at least have a representative office. I'll see how much space there is, and then I'll get back to USAID Washington on that issue.
But security is a major issue here. As I said, there are a lot of revolutionary guards, a lot of Ba'ath Party members. We have noticed that there has been a bit of revenge attacks--not on people, but on equipment--to disrupt services, and that does exist around. And people have to be extremely vigilant in this arena.
The phone call was a bit broken up, so if there are any questions that I haven't answered, if you would like to repeat them, I'd be happy to answer them.
MR. : Rafael, we need to know what to budget for professional salaries. We've got the unskilled and semi-skilled. What would you guess a professional would cost?
MR. JABBA: I would say $75 a month for an expert. Now, if you want English-speaking, you're talking $100 a month right now. But as more people come in and as the supply dwindles, you'll see that price rise. You'll see people jumping from various institutions. But we do envision that there's going to be a lot of labor coming back. And what happens is, if we get a lot of foreign experts coming back in, then it will be a couple of thousand dollars a month, it won't be $100 a month. so it depends. If you want to have an Iraqi that's been living in Iraq, a teacher's salary was $30 a month, engineers were at $50 a month. As the demand increases, we're looking at something probably close to $100 a month. If it's an Iraqi that's been living outside the country, he's going to demand something 10 times that rate.
MR. : I'd like to add, for those of you who are familiar with Afghanistan and the bidding wars for professional staff that took place there, where the NGOs lost their staff to the U.N., the U.N. lost their staffs to the bilateral donors, the bilateral donors lost their staffs to the contractors--you'll wish to decide how you're going to handle that. I'm not sure how the budget analysts on our side will handle that, but we know that that will be a problem here again.
QUESTION: There was no answer to the banking system--is it possible to wire money to--
MR. : The banking system is broke right now.
MR. JABBA: You would have to wire your funds to Kuwait City.
QUESTION: Karen Sherman, Counterpart International. I have a question about cost share and whether the community's contribution will count towards the cost share requirement. I've seen it both ways, in Serbia and Central Asia [inaudible]. Could you speak to that, please?
MR. HIGGINS: Yes, we--recognizing the situation in Iraq, we were able to [inaudible] communities contribute to the cost share. But I think that however you think that you can work that out would be justified in your application. I recognize that they used that, they used community contributions very successfully in Serbia and with the help of the community to take ownership of the activities. And if that could be the case in Iraq, then we would like to see that, yes.
MR. WHERRY: We'd like to share with you one cultural point that has been driven home to us three or four times by people coming to the field. The assistance that we are providing, it has truly to be assistance. This is not something we're doing for them, this is not something we're doing to Iraqis, because they do have a very strong sense of national pride. So we're going to be working with them, because it's their country and they have to live with all of this once we are gone.
Sir?
QUESTION: Scott Yenner [sp], with CHF Interest. I just have a few questions here. What will be the source and origin requirements for procurement, and also the types of flexibility there will be for waivers?
Also, what is the location of the May 30th meeting? And for the monitoring and evaluation contract, has it been selected? And given the phone system in its current state, do we anticipate it will be actually up and running at some point within the first year and how would you advise going about procuring equipment to accommodate this linked information system?
And also, is there any way the decision of the ICAP will be made here in Washington, or out in the field?
MR. WHERRY: The ICAP?
QUESTION: The cap for the RFA. Will it be made here or is it out in the field, or where will it be handled?
MR. : Let me do the easy ones and I'll give Nick the hard ones.
The source and origin code for Iraq is 935. That's everybody, including Iraq, that is not on the restricted list. We recognize that in Iraq there are a lot of pieces of machinery that came from many different places. Some of them were dilapidated and have to be completely replaced, and other things will simply require spare parts. But if we were to say you have to buy it in the United States, then the United States hasn't been a big supplier to Iraq recently.
Monitoring and evaluation contract is not yet out. We expect that to come probably within the next 30 days, something like that. But quite frankly, we left the monitoring and evaluation aside while we pushed for other things that actually brought tangible benefits to people.
The May 30th meeting, I'm going to kick to you, Nick. I presume that's a budget question, to make sure that we have the appropriate amount of money to get people to that meeting. I mean, if you hold it someplace that's really out of the way, then it can be a difficulty.
Telephones, I understand that there will be some sort of telephone service within a year. I don't know how much telephone service there will be within 90 days, so we're looking at thoria and patchwork sorts of things there, that we had to do in Afghanistan until the [inaudible].
We also believe that you ought to strongly consider incorporating GPS technology so that you know exactly where you are, just in case something bad happens or so that you can also do a really good job of reporting what you are doing and where, because the coverage will be an issue if this is going to be a nationwide program.
Okay, May 30th I'm going to kick to you.
MR. : [Inaudible.].
MR. : Approximately where?
MR. HIGGINS: I'll jump in here, too. We explained that the May 30th meeting, or the start-up meeting, will be in Kuwait City or some other location if everything's moved to another location. But I'd plan on Kuwait City. I'll ask Rafael to comment here, too, if he has a comment.
And on the location decision, that will be made, as you said, collaboratively as an organization. It's not a defined geographic area where that decision gets made. And Rafael, it's all yours.
MR. JABBA: Yeah, Nick, the cost of hotels in this area is fairly high. With per diem, it runs approximately $325 a day. Alternatives are to have it in Amman, Jordan, where the costs would be half of that. The transportation into Iraq right now, there are military flights into Baghdad on a very infrequent basis, and most of the people are going overland via Kuwait City and into the southern part of the country. We have not set up an office in the northern part of the country yet, and we do not have a [inaudible] for that.
What else can I say? In regard to the previous question regarding setting up office space inside Baghdad, I would think that that office would not have the chief of party, that the chief of party would be needed in the geographic area that he would be working in, and that at the representative office you would have a staffing person that would just be able to provide reports to USAID on an as-needed basis. I expect that there will be a lot of issues that will occur in the field. Given the number of grants and the size of the population, you're talking possibly dealing with roughly 3 million people in a give area, and that the chief of party really should be in that geographical area.
MR. WHERRY: One of the difficulties is guessing where we're going to be 60 to 90 days from now. It's something that I've lived with, it's something that USAID in producing the application for the grant will also have to deal with. You should know that AirServ is currently flying in the area. We don't know when commercial air is going to come back. We don't know at what time and to which airfields that it would come back, and those sorts of things.
You can count on the United States doing its best to bring Iraq back to a functioning economy and Iraqi control as quickly as we can, but there is no timetable that I'm aware of as to exactly when that would happen.
Yes, sir.
QUESTION: I'm Michael Miller, with [inaudible] Development Foundation. A couple of questions that relate more or less with regard to the budget. One is regard to sometimes the USAID uses interchangeably "matching"/"cost-share," but I assume we're talking about the same thing here, as being the same.
The other question I have is you suggest a rate of 25 percent as the amount that you're looking for for the desired rate. Secondly, when you look at the evaluation criteria for the proposals, the evaluation criteria seem to be based upon the technical proposal and not that of the cost proposal. Does that mean that these things will not be taken into account, or only after, indeed, the technical applications that are approved?
The third point I would have is that we have the budget for this project is set at $70 million, but we assume there'd be five contractors. Should we look at our budgeting there'd be a natural division of that, sending it to $14 million, or is it how you [inaudible] because we are indeed happily USAID's main partner for the CIDA program in Serbia, so we're somewhat familiar with that.
Those were really, I think, be the big questions I have at this time. The people just before me covered a few of the others I had very well.
MR. : Okay, I can handle the cost-share/ownership issue, and then I'm going to punt to you, Mike, on the rest of it.
The thing that we are after on cost-sharing is that we need to ensure that this is not a foreign project. There has to be substantial local buy-in, and generally that's reflected somehow in local investment either of time or of land or of materials. But if this is a foreign project with a foreign flag, then that flag will come down and that project will fail as soon as the foreigners leave. So to be successful, we need some buy-in from the local folks. And some of the way that we would measure that attempted buy-in is through the contribution that somehow is elicited from them.
Mike, I'm going to let you handle the procurement stuff.
MR. GUSHUE: I think you had two cost-related questions. One is what's the relative weight of the cost portion of your proposals, of your applications? It's true that the technical criteria and the technical portion of your application is significantly more important than cost. The cost criteria, there are only two. One is cost-effectiveness and efficiency; and then the cost-sharing. You know, there's a minimum required cost-share of 15 percent for this.
And cost-effectiveness and efficiency is just what it says. We expect to see reasonable and realistic budget that will match what your technical application is providing as a program. So that's overall what we're looking for on the cost side. But technical is--it's obviously going to be more important than the cost. The cost needs to be both effective and efficient.
QUESTION: One more follow-up point, if I could. At the very beginning of the meeting, you identified how indeed this RFA is set out for NGOs, and 501(c)(3) NGOs, not not-for-profit. There's been some practice with some NGOs using for-profit firms as subcontractors or sub-recipients, where indeed those contractors have drawn fees for the project. Does USAID have a disposition toward that? Is this going to be where no fees can be collected on the project for those organizations that may wish to use for-profit firms as subcontractors?
MR. : Subject to correction by the procurement officials, we intend to make the grant to a non-profit. How the non-profit puts together its team to work in the country is up to the applicant. That would have be an internal negotiation that you would have to do. If it's a sub, AID doesn't have privy to subs, so you'd arrange that to suit.
QUESTION: The last is not a question, but it is a comment. Indeed, this model that you've chosen for Iraq, you've based it off of the work done in Lebanon and many other countries, including Serbia, where we're working, I want to tell you I think is an excellent model and well-suited for what you're doing, and congratulate you on that effort.
MR. : Thank you.
MR. WHERRY: We're down to 10 minutes, so if you have questions, you're going to have to form them and get them into us. Ma'am?
MS. : Thank you. [Inaudible] with KHRW. I have several comments, and maybe if Ralph hears me, because if Ralph's--if he made the salary scale that he just mentioned are going to be a way that, you know, the proposals are going to be ranked, based on, you know, somebody coming in, but I just want to caution that U.N. is paying very high salaries, and if U.N. is going back-- Skilled workers for us in the north, we pay the salary ranges of an NGO in the north. But even that is very low compared to the U.N., but it's also lower. So how would that work, if you submit a proposal with the current salaries that NGOs are paying in the north, which would be applicable in the center and the south of Iraq, but then you have different guidelines from the people in the field. So I just think that $25 is very low.
Now, again, the dinar had gone down significantly. But before '91, three dinars were--three dollars were a dinar. So by what standards are we going? And again, from now on we have to really deal with the dollar. And $25 a month for a teacher, or $100, is not going to be enough. In the north, they're paying way more than that.
MR. : Okay. For those of you who've dealt in these situations up to now, do be aware that you're going to be in a competitive salary system. I'm going to give you Rafael here.
MR. JABBA: Well, first, let me give you the current rate. I don't know if this will be helpful or not, but I'll give it to you anyway. The Swiss dinar is 7.3 to the dollar; the Saddam dinar on the market is approximately 4,000 to the dollar. And if labor rates will be lower in the south than in the north, as was stated earlier, once the U.N. comes in and everyone is fighting for quality people, yes, the prices are going to go up. So all I can say is budget accordingly. I don't have any information at this time on labor rates in the northern part, only in the south. But it's--this is going to be an issue, and I would say budget accordingly and just use that as your lowest estimate, the rates that I gave you for the southern part of the country.
MR. WHERRY: Okay, we have identified another significant uncertainty that you'll have to deal with as you make your application. We know that it's going to be a problem. We know that the cannibalization of staff is something that's going to be out there. Think about how you'll address it, and put it in.
Sir?
QUESTION: Yes, Rick Spencer with IRD. Two questions. The first goes back to cost-share. I think we're almost there, at least as far as I'm concerned. The cost-share, is AID expecting that it will be required to come from both communities and the applicant? So in other words, does IRD itself have to provide a cost-share and then, additionally, obtain cost-share from the community? The second question is a follow-up to Mr. Miller from ADF about the overall relative budgeting. If you could just address that--to shoot for $14 million.
MR. : Mike, do you have-- Nick? Who's the best one?
MR. HIGGINS: On the cost-share, again, that's up to you guys how you want to present that. You know, if you included some contribution by the community, from your own organization, a contribution from a private foundation, however you organize that, what we would like to see is that there is a cost-share in the 15 to 25 percent range.
Regarding dividing up the $70 million, we had in mind that each CA would be approximately $14 million.
QUESTION: Kevin FitzCharles, with CARE. Just a quick question. We submitted some written questions. How will they be answered? And maybe leading into the follow-up from this, will there be an amendment or will there be--
MR. GUSHUE: They will be answered in an amendment to the RFA, along with any other questions I receive, as long as I receive them post haste, in a timely fashion. No later than Monday.
It's mgushue@usaid.gov.
And again, yeah, if you want your question answered, this coming Monday at the latest.
MR. WHERRY: And I understand that the questions which have been taken in this session will be transcribed, as well as the answers. And I know CARE has brought one list of questions that we received this morning, and they will get answered. And anything you send in, in order to make sure that it's a fair and open competition for these grants, then please do have it done by Monday.
Are we doing close of business Monday, or 10 o'clock Monday? Close of business in Washington, D.C. on Monday, please. I've run into that before. It was close of business where?
Yes, sir.
QUESTION: I'm sorry, just one last quick question. Within the RFA there was identified four specific areas--citizen participation, economic development, infrastructure, and environment; then additionally in the RFA there was a fifth that had addressed inter-community cooperation. Could you just provide a little bit of definition on what is going to be of relative importance, so that will help us structure our response?
MR. : The RFA--I mean the full [inaudible] of the community mobilization activities, including the committees and the community cluster committees, the infrastructure activities, the employment generation and income generation activities, and environmental management activities. The five functional areas at the start of the RFA, really, the first two fall under the one category of community mobilization. And that will include not just the community committees and how they're formed, the cluster committees and how you identify which communities will come together as a cluster, but also health- and education-type community activities. For example, it could include preschool activities, you could put on there, and a sports day event at a school. Those kinds of activities we see all under the community mobilization civic action first functional area.
And then there's the other three as well. So even though there are five functional areas to start with and there are four areas later on, in the case of the first, we wanted to elaborate a little more on the community-level mobilization and then the inter-community conflict management aspects of the program as well. And we see that the conflict management aspects are key to the success of the program. So we want to emphasize that, and then later on combine the four areas for program delivery.
QUESTION: One quick--
MR. WHERRY: I'm sorry, I need to be able to sign off the Web cast now because we have a limited time. Those of you who wish to stay and continue speaking, we have the room until 12 o'clock.
I'd like all of you who have come today and shown an interest in all of this. Those of you who are listening and I can't see you, I'm glad that you are there. We're looking forward to receiving a large number of high-quality proposals so that the best assistance that the United States can provide through the NGO community can be mobilized for Iraq in a very, very quick fashion.
Okay, that concludes the broadcast portion of what we're doing this morning. If there are other questions, we'd be happy to take them.
Last updated:
Wednesday, 23-Apr-2003 12:11:31 EDT
