USAID Sectoral Consultations
Transcript: Higher Education And Development Conference
MS. PETERSON: Good morning. I am Dana Peterson with USAID's Asia and Near East Bureau, and I am serving as a Deputy Reconstruction Adviser for Iraq.
Thank you for coming to the prebid conference for our higher education program, officially titles, Higher Education and Development Program for Iraq.
I would first like to introduce our Assistant Administrator, Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin, to help provide an overall context for this important program. Thank you.
AMBASSADOR CHAMBERLIN: Thank you very much, Dana.
I'm delighted to see that there is so much interest this morning. We in AID believe that this portion of our reconstruction strategy is extremely important. As most of you know, Iraq had had at one time a very exulted position in the Middle East in terms of its higher education, its social institution, its education, its economy, et cetera, that has eroded over the last couple of decades, but there's no reason why it can't reclaim its position within the Middle East as one of the leading countries in the area. And your program, the program that you all are here to express an interest in, is certainly a way to get there.
There are at least 18 institutes of higher education, 22 institutes of higher education in Iraq, and a great deal of work to be done.
I promise not to take too much of your time. All of you know the difficulties in the program over there. This is important work. It's not easy work. The piece of university to university cooperation is extremely important. There are many ways to do it, and I know that you will be creative in your proposals as you submit them to us.
Some of the areas that I hope you will consider, as we are considering, will be creative uses of information technology, not only as a subject itself, but as a means for delivery of programs. Secondly, to build on the wealth of culture. The deep history that Iraq offers the world and has offered the world, is something that universities or institutes of higher education are uniquely qualified to assist. The archaeology and the history and the cultural heritage of Iraq is something that is certainly worth developing.
Anyway, thank you for coming. Thank you for expressing your interest. This is an extremely important endeavor and my only last word is really the first word, and that is, what this program and what all the other elements of the USAID program in Iraq is really about, is the people of Iraq, to restore to them their birthright, reclaim their country, their participation in their country, their participation in their education and higher education systems. Their cultural heritage is something that is a gift that we hope to help them reclaim, and you will be playing a role in that.
So thank you very much, and I'd like to turn this back to Dana, who will offer you much more specific advice on the technical aspects of it. Thank you very much.
MS. PETERSON: Thank you, Ambassador Chamberlin.
As you know, the request for applications for this program was posted last Thursday, May 29th. This morning's session is an opportunity to highlight how this program fits within the overall reconstruction effort for Iraq and to collect questions that you may have.
We see this program as a valuable opportunity to incorporate the expertise of U.S. higher education institutions and international consortia, as that is deemed appropriate into our overall reconstruction efforts. The establishment of partnerships with Iraqi institutions of higher learning provides a critical avenue to strengthen intellectual diversity in Iraq and prepare Iraqi youth for leadership and employment opportunities in a competitive global economy.
We presume that many of you have already visited USAID's website and looked at our overall reconstruction portfolio. As you know, USAID is undertaking vital work to rehabilitate economically critical infrastructure including in the power sector, major transportation routes, water and sanitation systems, and important public buildings, such as schools and health facilities.
We are addressing the delivery of essential services, particularly health and education, and in this effort we are working closely with United Nation organizations including Unicef and WHO. We will be helping to expand economic opportunities throughout Iraq and improving the efficiency and accountability of government, particularly at the local level.
Before turning this conference over to my colleagues, I would like to highlight that this section is focused solely on the solicitation for the Higher Education and Development Program. We are not addressing other Iraq reconstruction procurements in this session. In addition, this is not a session to speak to broader administration policy issues in Iraq.
I would like to now introduce my colleagues who are here with me today. Mr. Martin McLaughlin is an Education Development Office with USAID in the Department of Education. Mr. McLaughlin will address the programmatic components of the solicitation, highlighting how the rationale behind this program and some priority areas for USAID and the U.S. Government within the program.
Sheila Bumpass and Erika Eam are with USAID's Office of Procurement, and are here to help clarify any issues with respect to the guidelines and provisions in the solicitation.
Again, we appreciate the interest of those of you here in USAID's reconstruction effort.
I would just like to highlight also that this is being broadcast live on the Web, so the structure and format is--it's important that those who are asking questions speak into the microphone so that those who are not present physically can hear what is being said.
So, please, Martin? Thank you.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Thank you, Dana.
Again, I'm Martin McLaughlin, Education Officer for USAID and also the Department of Education. I'm here to shed some light on technical issues involved with the RFA.
I'd like to talk briefly, so that we have time, ample time for questions, about the program's purpose, its implementation and the application process.
The purpose of the program, as many of you probably already know if you've looked at the RFA on the website, is to establish partnerships between U.S. and Iraqi colleges and universities to invigorate and modernize Iraq's institutions of higher education. And this will be done through activities that establish tertiary level collaborations that promote national, regional and international partnerships, prepare Iraqi youth for leadership and employment in the competitive market economy, expose universities to modern administrative practices, provide rapid impact grants to enable Iraqi colleges and universities to replace antiquated equipment and rehabilitate educational facilities and libraries.
Moving on to the implementation, the closing date for the applications will be June 30th of this year which gives you slightly under a month. And we realize that this is a very short amount of time to design a program, especially with as much--well, the lack of information that we have about Iraqi universities. It will be a difficult process. However, if you'll notice in the RFA, successful applicants will be responsible for furthering knowledge and understanding of appropriate interventions once in country to identify Iraqi higher education partners and specific objectives with critical time-linked indicators resulting in a work plan.
So we realize that the initial application that you provide at the end of this month will be probably somewhat general in nature, but we expect that the successful applicants will have time after the award to refine their application, their objectives and goals with their Iraqi partners.
Following the receipt of the applications and the evaluation of these and the awards, one month after the signing of the agreements, USAID, the awardees, including your Iraqi partners, will conduct a joint review of each work plan, and this joint review, I imagine will be conduct in Kuwait City. However, it may be conducted in Baghdad. I think that remains to be seen, conditions permitting.
And as far as the application process, well, it's fairly straightforward. The application is on our website, and it is I believe complete and thorough. If you have any questions about it, please let me know.
At this point I'm done with my prepared comments. I'd like to turn it back to Dana, and we'll be answering questions afterwards. Thank you.
MS. PETERSON: Sheila Bumpass with our Office of Procurement, please.
MS. BUMPASS: Good morning.
I would like to address the closing date. I realize that it is somewhat short. We tried to make the process as easy as possible, and it is short because of the time we need to implement this program. If, however, you find that you are having problems putting your application together, please let us know and we will consider an extension. We're not saying we're going to extend but we will consider it if you're really having problems. But we'll have to balance that with the importance of getting this program up and running. And I also would like to emphasize if you have any procedural questions regard the process and the RFA, please send your questions by e-mail to Erika Eam. Her address is on the application, the face sheet of the application. We would like to get those questions as soon as possible so we will have an opportunity to answer those questions, and they will be posted on our website as well.
Thank you.
MS. PETERSON: I guess we would like to open this up to those in the audience, and please, if you would like to raise any comments, questions, issues, like to address those here as well.
[No response.]
MS. PETERSON: It's going to be an exceptionally short meeting.
[Laughter.]
MS. PETERSON: Please. And if you are able to come to the microphone, that would be helpful.
MR. : Are you looking primarily for interactions between institutions here and many universities, or one university or how do you envisage this?
MS. PETERSON: We are open to sort of the creativity and innovation of those putting the proposal together. We've highlighted the key objectives that we'd ultimately like to achieve. We envision this program supporting the four overarching objectives that I mentioned in USAID's reconstruction effort. But we really look to the institutions here to provide the most appropriate sort of methodology they think could be the most effective in achieving those objectives.
It would be helpful if people could identify themselves and their organization too. I'm sorry. I didn't request that earlier.
So again, we have written this request for applications in a broad sort of flexible manner, and really look to the institutions to identify what they consider to be the most appropriate partnerships, et cetera.
MS. BREMO: I'm Jennifer Bremo [ph] with the University of North Carolina. I have a couple of questions, but I'll try to keep it brief. I'm sure other people will have questions.
It states that you expect that with the exception of senior U.S. personnel, that one would be assigned to the program full time, but it also talks about teaching exchanges, and I'm wondering whether given the wide range of programs that are looked for, whether in fact it--you know, that is a rigid requirement or whether there's some flexibility there to be able to involve, for example, other faculties in the region on a short-term basis or to bring in special expertise in IT or other nonfaculty technical level people on the short-term basis. I think it would be very difficult to assemble the package of professionals that would be required entirely on a full-time basis and a U.S. basis.
MS. PETERSON: Okay. And if other colleagues have input? Essentially it would be balancing the need for continuity of personnel and trying to really establish strong and effective relationships, and by having sort of continuity of personnel, you get to that with bringing in critical expertise and value added on a short-term basis from colleagues and from an array of institutions. So I think there's receptivity to both approaches, particularly if it's well justified in the proposal.
MS. BREMO: Okay. I'm also wondering is your intention to make a single award or multiple awards? Can you give us an idea? I might have missed that in reading the proposal or the RFA, but how many awards?
MS. PETERSON: Would you like to address that? If you want to address that?
MS. : Actually, it is in the RFA. We're anticipating multiple awards, somewhere between three and six.
MS. BREMO: There's a reference to having the work plan ready within, you know, a month of the selection, but then it also--that the meeting ends later or that which it is. Is that going to be a collective meeting of all of the grantees, and would then the work plans be submitted before that, and how would that interaction work?
MS. PETERSON: Martin, would you like to speak to that please?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Okay. Yes, the work plan would be submitted before the meeting, and we're not--I believe that we would like to have the meeting include all of the partners at the same time, not in every meeting, where you--you know, we would have individual meetings with each university and its partners, and then perhaps a couple overall meetings where we would try to find links and potential collaborations between the multiple awardees. So it would sort of be a combination of the both, but definitely with more attention on your individual project and your partners.
MS. BREMO: Because it would obviously be a lot of advantages in collaborating, not only in promoting collaboration between the Iraqi universities but also among the partners.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: That's right, that's right.
MS. BREMO: Two more questions real quick.
MS. PETERSON: [Inaudible]?
MS. BREMO: Okay, sure. They're short.
With regard to the grants for procurement of equipment and material and so forth by the universities, would those grants then, would they manage the procurement of that, or would the U.S. universities be managing the procurement and then granting them, in effect, in kind, and if they are managing it, would they be expected to follow U.S., you know, you say procurement regulatory procedures, et cetera?
MS. BUMPASS: Naturally the recipient has overall responsibility for the entire program. So, yes, you're going to have some responsibility. And yes, there is a flow-down responsibility, so the grantees are responsible for adhering to our rules and regulations as well, and that's also identified in the RFA as well.
MS. BREMO: But the grantees would do the procurement or the universities, you know, the U.S. universities would do the procurement?
MS. BUMPASS: I'm really not certain. We'll have to get back with you on that one.
MS. BREMO: Okay. And I guess--I had another question, but I can't remember it, so I'll give someone else a chance.
MS. PETERSON: One thing I just wanted to add. In one of the inquiries there was reference to the broad scope of this RFA, and while we have highlighted the four overarching objectives in envisioning this overall program supporting all of the objectives, the proposals, individual proposals do not necessarily need to address all of the different sectors. I think what is envisioned is various institutions of higher learning here will bring to bear their expertise and comparative advantages in particular sectors and look at establishing partnerships, bringing in international consortia, et cetera, to address a given area, such as cultural archaeological work, things along those lines. So I just wanted to clarify while some proposals may want to address the entirety, we're really looking to draw upon particular expertise and strengthen sectors along those lines.
Please?
MR. CUMMINGS: William Cummings, George Washington University. The first question I had is the--I understand that there are multiple applicants. As I read it, the prime applicant should be a U.S. university as opposed to some NGO or a nature.
Okay. Now, I somehow have the impression that the different awards would be--I don't know where I've gotten this--would be in the range of $3 million apiece. If it's six, that's 18. What would happen if a consortia of several universities puts forth a proposal of a larger amount? How do you make judgments on the actual magnitude of these proposals?
MS. BUMPASS: Actually, you got your information from the RFA. It states that we're going to--we plan to award anywhere from 3 to 5, and that depending on the number we award, I think the total estimate amount would be anywhere from 3 to $5 million. So there will be three to six awards, 3 to $5 million. Now, I'm sure that the panel, the evaluation panel will consider all creative proposals or applications, so if you or if someone else is interested in submitting an application that is beyond an amount, you are not limited to that amount. I think the RFA--we tried to convey that the panel is looking for creativity, so certainly you should not restrict your application necessarily to that dollar amount that we put in there. It's in there as a guide.
MR. CUMMINGS: One other question. This is not very creative, but it wasn't clear to me. I mean an important way that universities link across the distances is having scholars from Iraqi universities come and interact with colleagues either in the United States or elsewhere. Is that type of activity within the scope of this? In other words, scholarly exchange, is that within the scope of this RFP?
MS. BUMPASS: From a procurement perspective, yes, it is. We are looking for creativity. It may not seem so to you, but we are looking for creativity. As far as the technical team is concerned, they may have a different opinion, but the RFA actually did indicate creativity. Martin might want to speak to that in a little more detail.
MR. CUMMINGS: What I'm trying to say is does it have to be 100 percent creative?
[Laughter.]
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Yes, we would welcome exchanges that brought both Iraqi scholars, professors and Iraqi students to the United States for training and education.
MR. CUMMINGS: And in that mode, if an RFP is highlighting new programs or departments or educational objectives for Iraqi universities that reflect a needs-based request from Iraqi partners, that also would be within the scope? In other words, to develop a new program in business administration or a new program in public health or whatever?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Yes, that's exactly what we're looking for. We're looking for you to work with the Iraqi partners both during your application process, and then also, if you're given an award during the development of the work plan and subsequent, let's say, goal strengthening, to do a thorough needs assessment because the needs are many and the needs are not clearly known, all of them, and so that's something that we would expect you and your Iraqi partners to work on, yes.
MR. CUMMINGS: And with 22 institutions in Iraq, it might be appropriate for one U.S. consortium institution to focus on certain of those institutions and another to focus on others? In other words, would it make sense for somebody to take on all 22 or it would not be better to have a more focused approach on this set and so on? In other words, strong partnerships as opposed to weak ties?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Yeah. I don't want to limit any consortia here to what you plan to propose, but it would seem logical that it would probably be too much to try to partner with too many, and where your expertise or where your affiliates' and members' expertise lies, that you would try to team with Iraqi universities that shared those areas of interest or need.
What I mean, we're looking for a high-quality proposal and the one that makes most sense as far as we've identified the need and the partners here, our strengths and expertise. This is how we wanted to bring it together. That would be the approach.
MR. CUMMINGS: Thank you.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Thank you.
MS. PETERSON: One second. Just to add a couple thoughts toward the recent inquiries. These proposals we would really envision the proposed approach responding to Iraqi-led initiatives. This effort is to really help strengthen Iraqi institutions of higher learning, and as they identify their needs, obviously in partnership with U.S. institutions of higher learning, then the program would unfold and support those initiatives. But we really envision Iraqis helping to shape and determine what the priorities will be for this program.
Secondly, we are looking at Iraqi institutions of higher learning at large, not just universities, but colleges and other institutions there that serve in similar roles. So I just wanted to qualify a couple of those questions.
Please?
MS. BETHNEIL: My name is Lynn Bethneil [ph] and I'm the Associate Director of the Washington Kurdish Institute. And I was wondering, I do want to follow up on that since our contacts and associations are with deans of universities in the northern part of Iraq, wanted to be clear on whether if we were to offer--we're an NGO, so we would be offering our services to say, a university or consortium, that they wouldn't need to cover the whole country, that they could focus on a program for the three main universities in the north. That's correct?
MS. PETERSON: We are receptive to proposals that again draw upon the particular expertise of given institutions and what is the most logical partnership in Iraq given the context and different geographical regions and sectors, et cetera.
MS. BETHNEIL: And it didn't seem to specify. Are you including or excluding the law parts of the university or medical schools associated with the universities, or it that--
MS. PETERSON: That is inclusive.
MS. BETHNEIL: It's included. Great.
MS. PETERSON: In fact, in the RFA, in the parentheses, those were illustrative particular sectors that could be considered. But, Martin, if you'd like to add.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Actually, I'd like to take this opportunity to stress two areas that we're particularly interested in. We probably didn't stress quite so much when we wrote the RFAs as we would like to stress it now. For those of you watching the webcast or otherwise, we will be issuing an amendment clarifying areas of priority, one area of priority.
And it was already listed actually as an illustrative area, but we just--we want to highlight the fact that this is a very important area for partnerships, would be in the area of archaeology, antiquities, Iraqi culture and history.
And the other area in which we're particularly interested in receiving applications on is in health. Speaking to your question about medical schools, yes, health, sanitation, those areas, preventative health.
And as always, the other four--well, the four main areas that we're looking for collaborations and the illustrative activities still stand as areas of need and areas in which we would like to receive applications.
MR. AHMAD: Samir [ph] Ahmad [ph], the University of New York. The way the RFP is written gives the impression of looking for somewhat broad responses, but maybe that's a misimpression. Would it be okay to focus on one specific area with one institution, say, if that can be shown to be very effective and important for some national need, such as those mentioned by the ambassador, information technology, for instance?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Well, I believe if you look at the selection criteria, the most important criteria is the quality of personnel, and I also believe the way that that personnel meets the need of the Iraqi institution. So if there was a, as you said, narrow but important significant need at a particular university or within a particular discipline at one of several universities or institutes of higher learning, and you wrote a high-quality proposal, I think that proposal would be read favorably. We're most interested in the need, the quality of the partnership and the quality of the personnel, and whether the proposal is broader, as the gentleman from the association mentioned earlier, or more narrow as yours, I think both of those proposals would be valid.
MR. AHMAD: I'm not saying we're going to put in a narrow one. I was just wondering if one can do that and--
MR. McLAUGHLIN: You very well can, yes.
MR. HARRINGTON: My name's Larry Harrington with MAP, representing Institute of Van Price [ph], a business school in Madrid.
In terms of the consortia, I gather that when you say "international consortia," that indicates that non-U.S. school can be, if not the lead members of a proposed consortium, and I'd like to clarify if that's the case, and if that is the case, what sort of restrictions on the procurement side might be included in terms of can USAID funds flow to non-U.S. participants in the consortium, or any other issues related to the participation of a non-U.S. school in a consortium.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: I'm going to let Sheila take this question.
MS. BUMPASS: To answer your question, yes, it can be. We do envision actually partners with non-U.S. institutions of higher learning. However, the non-U.S. institutions of higher learning are subjected to the same restrictions as the U.S. institution. So you would be held accountable and you would be responsible in the same manner.
MR. : May I?
MS. PETERSON: Yes, please.
MR. : I'm representing a company called TQ in the UK, so we're not even American, but we hope to be associated with this project. We have a history of 30 years history in Iraq, supplying educational equipment especially to the universities, but also the technical training institutes, and more recently, 20 million euros of equipment under the Oil for Food Program. So we have immense experience in supplying equipment to Iraq very successfully. And that's going on with the Oil for Food Program. That will run on for a little while.
But I just wanted to say, you will eventually announce the awards to whatever it is, three to six universities in the USA. Is it possible for a very experienced UK body to--as a subcontractor to these people, because the initial announcements on the request for applications talk about very antiquated equipment and the need to replace this. But is it possible for the Brits to come in, as it were, as a long coalition partner?
[Laughter.]
MR. : And bring their huge expertise to bear on the equipment front? Equipment is very important.
MS. PETERSON: Yes. On a technical substantive level we envision U.S. institutions of higher learning partnering internationally, drawing on expertise internationally on working with Iraqi institutions of higher learning.
MR. : Of course we have the only ground knowledge of working with these people.
MS. PETERSON: Exactly. What I would like to receive clarification, and the Office of Procurement can address, is the degree to which the partnerships and sub relationships can go beyond institutions of higher learning in terms of the nongovernmental community, private sector firms, et cetera. So maybe Sheila can possibly address this now, or we can note that inquiry and--
MR. : And does this proposed assistance apply to technical training institutes? Because one of TQ's grants, not just all universities, but is also Baghdad Oil Training Institute, which has been totally looted and evacuated or all equipment supplied, including a huge simulator for running oil plants. But is this valuable initiative by USAID, does it cover the technical training institutes, or just really higher education?
MS. PETERSON: Martin, would you like to address that actually? One thing I would like to just add on the inquiry about the subpartnership relationships, page 19 for the request for applications does allow U.S. institutions of higher learning to partner with NGOs. What we need to clarify is the private firms as well. And so we have noted that inquiry and that response will come in a formal amendment or up on the web page.
MR. : We'd love to offer services to all six successful bidders. I've taken enough time. Thank you.
MS. PETERSON: Thank you. Martin can address the training institutes, please.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Okay. I'd like to make a note here that any questions that you have that we don't answer today, it's obviously not that we're trying to dodge questions, but that we really just want to give you the correct answer and not create any confusion. So actually, your question about the technical institutes, I have an inclination to say that, yes, they would be eligible. But look at the amendment on our website for the definitive answer to that, and I'm going to talk with the rest of the team that's in Kuwait City and make sure that I understand this correctly.
MR. COFFEY: I'm Joe Coffey [ph], representing a group of universities interested in agriculture and particularly distance education. And I guess the question I have is, you know, do we build in to our proposal creating the Internet for Iraq or are you--is there under some other program basically going to hook these people up in some way where we're just going to be responsible for saying, you know, the Internet's there, but they may have to have some PCs and other connections within, say, the agricultural colleges. But that's kind of my question. It seems to me distance education, you know, has a major role to play, not only in agriculture where I'll be dealing, but you know, lots of places. So I'm just curious as to how we can get information about what assumption should we make about access to the Internet?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: I'd like to turn this question Dana partially, but one thing that I can say that we'd like to reiterate is the need for the applicants to try to reach out to Iraqi institutions in the subsequent month, in this coming month, and to--and we'll give you some assumptions right now, but to try to find the need, as much need as you can during this month, and then post-award there will also be more time given to ground truthing(?) basically a lot of these assumptions. I know that the Iraqi communication network is in very poor condition, but AID may have a larger strategy for dealing with that.
MS. PETERSON: The main point to add there I guess would be depending on what sort of discipline sector partnership is being proposed, trying to look out in the context of the overall reconstruction effort as well. So we are moving forward in restoring economically critical infrastructure and in a range of areas, and working in the health and education sector, primary and secondary, with respect to the education sector at this point, but drawing upon the work that other implementing partners are undertaking, as well as likely other donors as well in helping to support whatever you are envisioning. So I don't--and please ask the question again if I'm not getting directly to your question. But I don't know if you need to necessarily envision addressing the totality of a given need, let's say, because there will be many resources applied to that need likely from other donors and partners, et cetera.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: If I could just follow up a little bit more on that. As you do your investigation, you'll see that there will be a wealth of, let's say, contractors and vendors interested in providing services, and we've already seen some of that, satellite phones, satellite modems, and I guess I would suggest investigating some of those possibilities and seeing which ones would seem more appropriate to the actual program that you're proposing and the need that you're encountering. It seems that there will probably be many options and potential solutions as we go forward with reestablishing communications within Iraq.
MR. HILL: Thomas Hill from Columbia University. Two related questions. One is that the RFA is rather explicit in speaking to the importance of developing connections between U.S. institutions and Iraqi institutions, somewhat less so about the importance of developing or networking between Iraqi institutions themselves. And I was wondering first if that is in fact a priority of the program?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: It's not a priority in the sense that we have points within the selection criteria associated with establishing partnerships between Iraqi universities. However, it is definitely something that we would welcome, especially where appropriate. We all know of course that within the United States relationships between universities are a very powerful means of exchanging knowledge, and so we would definitely welcome that in the Iraqi context.
MR. HILL: Related to that then is the question of geographic focus. Is there some inclination one way or another in terms of the awards, whether or not they would be focused on certain geographic areas, in other words, encouraging some institutions to partner with areas in one area of the country, and other institutions to focus on other areas of the country.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Personally, I'd like to save that question for the amendment. I don't have an answer to that question right now unless one of my colleagues does.
MS. PETERSON: We can expand on an answer in a formal amendment, but again I would say that those proposals which highlight the particular expertise in a given discipline, in partnering with institutions of higher learning in Iraq and looking at, depending on that discipline, what is the logical or most appropriate geographical area of the country to delve into that or what institutions of higher learning in Iraq have identified as their priority in a given locality, et cetera, and bringing to bear the expertise of the institutions here to that. Those proposals will be very well received. So we do not have in mind at this point specific geographical areas. We are envisioning overall with the program a national coverage in some form or another, again, not necessarily each proposal necessarily having to have a national coverage, but when the totality of effort with the individual cooperative agreements, et cetera, are taken into account, you have a wide impact with also very targeted assistance within each of those cooperative agreements. Does that help? Okay.
MR. HILL: Thank you.
MS. PETERSON: Thank you.
MR. : Hi. My name is Kato [ph] Sablah [ph], chairman of INF Incorporation. I would like to mention one thing as an Iraqi who graduated from Iraq University, been in America for 13 years. One important thing, we need to involve Iraqis in this issue. It is very important. I was in Iraq last month. I spent a lot of time. I know many of these NGOs and universities, they are going to write a proposal to USAID and it's going to be on the paper, about how we're going to physically, you know, work on the ground. It's very important to get advice from Iraqis before you write any proposal.
Education in Iraq has been--I mean I can say totally down. You see professor is driving a cab on the street, and go on and on. So please, I would advise, you know, not to dismiss, you know, I mean Iraqis' capability. We can help. We can identify, and we can give solution to many cultural problems and other problems. It's not a matter of you taking a piece of a computer or other piece to a lab for one university, but we have bigger problem. We also want to mention that in the proposal.
So this is just, you know, I mean, I'm requesting anyone who write a proposal, for sake of our people in Iraq, to take our advice. Thank you.
MS. PETERSON: Thank you very much for that helpful input.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: I'd like to say that that input is very welcome, and you know, I think you obviously definitely know what you're talking about. And this is something that we believe should be a critical element in any proposal is the involvement. And if you'll notice, there's a cost-sharing component to the RFA, and part of the reason that we encourage or require cost sharing is to ensure that this is not a foreign project. As you were saying, there has to be substantial local buy in, and generally that's reflected in either in local investment of time, land, materials, planning, effort. So it's--we encourage it, and as the previous speaker has noted, it's really critical to making this will, and we'll look for it in your proposals. Thank you.
MR. : Have you envisaged or would you encourage teaming up with other local, regional entities such as the Kuwait Institute in Kuwait or any other, maybe an Egyptian institute, to team up in the proposals? Would you encourage such a thing?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Yes, I would. In the RFA it mentions collaborations with international institutions of higher education, and so where you find a partner that is especially appropriate or has expertise that stands out in the field, by all means access and include that expertise. But of course the primary relationship that we're trying to develop here is between U.S. universities and Iraqi universities, and even among, as we suggested earlier, among Iraqi universities. So that's still our primary focus, but if there is an international partner that brings expertise or personnel to bear that cannot be had within the U.S. or within Iraq, by all means include it.
MR. : I was just thinking--I don't know if you've discussed this with the Kuwaitis, but they might be inclined to throw in [inaudible] themselves as part of their participation. Might be worth looking into.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Well, we welcome ingenuity in proposals.
DR. THOMAS: Good morning. My name is Dr. Arthur Thomas. I'm representing Dr. Frederick S. Humphries, the president and CEO of NAFEO, the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, the organization that represents 118 historically and predominantly black colleges and universities in the United States and the Virgin Islands. We understand the importance of concentrating on Iraq. We also have expertise out of necessity over many years at doing more with less, and we welcome the opportunity also to encourage those that are here to consider a partnership with our organization. Those that are interested could contact me at 301-650-2440, extension 130, or athomas@nafeo.org. Thank you very much.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: We do have--well, we have about 40 minutes left, but if we could first go through questions, and then afterwards, when we're not on public time, share contact information. Thanks.
DR. ALATAR: MY name is Dr. Ali Alatar [ph]. I am with Iraq Reconstruction and Development Council, which is the body that works for Ambassador Bremer in Baghdad.
This council has presentations for different ministries in Iraq, and one of them is the Ministry of Higher Education. And I don't know if USAID has contacted this body of experts, which gives advice and suggestions to rehabilitate the higher education system in Iraq, along with other aspects of Iraqi life, Ministry of Health, Agriculture and others. And this was based in Crystal City here in Washington, and works under the auspice of the DOD. And the team for the higher education actually is leaving to Baghdad--part of it is in Baghdad right now, and the other part will leave on Monday.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Okay. I'm sorry. Your question?
DR. ALATAR: My question is, is there any contact between USAID and this body, which is going to identify the needs for the Iraqi higher education right now? This is one.
Second, as far as the medical education, I think there is some overlap between the Ministry of Higher Education and Minister of Health in putting the curriculum and those aspects of the higher education for the health part, which is health and public health. The IRDC is working very closely with Ambassador Bremer, and actually part of the IRDC members are consultants for the ministries back in Baghdad, and they are identifying the need for each ministry.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: To answer your question, I would hope that USAID is in contact with your--yes, we are. We are. And also with the Ministry of Higher Education as well.
MS. BREMO: Jennifer Bremo with the University of North Carolina again. Following up on some of the earlier contacts, I mean, I think it is obviously very important to get the input and really some of the priorities, prioritization from the Iraqi side, and I'm wondering, given that it's extremely difficult to communicate with these universities at this point, both because of the communication problems but also because of the state of disorganization that's resulted on the ground, and I'm wondering, in the spirit of creativity, if there's some possibility of setting up something with the Ministry of Higher Education on their side that would bring together some of the university leaders on that side with some of us to be able to have some kind of an open conversation. Because I'm concerned that it will be very difficult to get real serious communication, given that there have been limited contacts of course between U.S. universities and Iraqi universities in recent year. So I'm just asking if there's something or if there is other kinds of information that you would have or be able to make available from the Iraqi side that gives some indication of their priorities and their interests and so forth that could facilitate the communication?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: I think that's an excellent suggestion, and we will look into it. As of right now, we don't have anything set up, but I agree that a very important part of this going forward will be facilitating communication and identifying need. It's critical, obviously, and thanks for that. We will look into that. And if we are able to arrange anything, we will post it to the website.
MS. PETERSON: USIA may have set up their video conference links or someone else may be able to make something available, military or somebody on the ground that would facilitate from their side.
MR. HURD: My name's Robert Hurd [ph]. I'm from the Institute of International Education. Earlier you mentioned exchanges as an activity that could be funded under the RFA or included in a solution to provide assistance to Iraqi universities. But I wasn't sure how practical it was at this point in time to bring Iraqi professionals or Iraqi university people to the United States, and I wasn't sure if there was a possibility of a consular office in Baghdad or if it's possible to move people to Kuwait, or if you all knew how practical that was or when a solution might be in place to actually have an actual exchange take place.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: That's an area that we'll have to answer in an amendment. Good question.
MR. ANDERSON: Jim Anderson, the Mississippi Consortium for International Development. I wanted to get a little bit better idea of the timeframe for the impact of these activities. Are you looking for something that is going to produce results, measurable results within the next three years, or are you looking really for impacts beyond that? When you're talking about university to university relationships, the output tends to be over the longer term, and I just wanted to get a sense from you.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Well, I believe we're looking for both really. The United States, obviously, has a very great interest in short-term, as it says interested RFA, revitalization of the Iraqi higher education system. There's a great glaring need for immediate inputs and collaboration and results. As some of our other questioners have noted, there's a lot of equipment that's been stolen. There's a lot of equipment that's out of date, library resources, laboratory resources, even including knowledge and training as well.
So we envision a very strong short-term impact because we do have an interest in short-term objectives. However, we recognize that the United States also has a long-term interest in the stability of Iraq and we would obviously be very interested in long-term collaboration and long-term results.
But this is a one-year award and you will be responsible for quarterly reports and a final report. And we're hoping for additional years of funding, but at this point we are definitely looking for results in the near term.
MR. : I guess you envision also that--I'm from City University of New York--and you envision there is more of--it is project led by the Iraqi universities, which probably will require interaction in Iraq with the folks there. You envision that there is a permanent office going to be there for the folks, more like EXPAT [ph], sitting there full time, or is it interaction back and forth? How do you see--because there is also a reference to a point about the full-time personnel. How many do you envision out of that? I mean the range is so wide. So could you give us some guidance here?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Well, you know, I believe, as we've answered many of these questions earlier, the--and it's in the selection criteria under "Proposed Approach and Implementation." I think that's what that would fall.
We certainly envision people being in Iraq on a regular basis and personnel on a full-time basis in Iraq. However, how many of your people are there and how often they are there really depends on the need that you've identified and the particular intervention that you propose. I would imagine that in some instances having people there more frequently would be more appropriate than in other instances. So definitely we expect a strong presence in Iraq on a full-time and also on a regular, periodic basis. However, how much that will be depends on the proposal itself.
MR. : Just a follow-up question then. Also, you mentioned something about the local also being hired. Again, that probably might be a cost item that might not be clear. In other words, how would we structure the salaries? And in other words, how can we relate to the operation being run literally in Baghdad or Iraq?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Okay. I'm going to turn this over to my colleague from procurement.
[Laughter.]
MS. BUMPASS: This is a very difficult problem, and I wish we had access to Kuwait by telephone, because they could provide us with the latest information on professional and nonprofessional salaries.
If you check the website though in the previous webcast that was had, there was some information there, or at least a projection that you could use as a guide for estimating professional and nonprofessional salaries.
Okay, thanks. I have a transcript here. They were nice enough to provide me with a transcript. Right now they're estimating about $75 a month for an expert. However, if you would like to have an English-speaking expert, you're talking about approximately $100 per month. You have to use that as a guide. We understand that that is going to be flexible. Things are going to change as other entities come in there, more NGOs come in there, when the UN starts. We understand that there may be a challenge with personnel, that you may be interested in going from one contractor to another's recipient, to the UN, to other NGOs. So it's going to be very difficult for you to price that out, but at this point that's the only guidance that we can give you right now unfortunately.
MR. : [Inaudible]?
MS. BUMPASS: No. Erika, at some point after questions and before we close, would like to give you some information regarding logistic support that USAID can provide you with, and that may also help you with your cost proposal.
MR. WILSON: Brett Wilson with Capstar. We're part of private industry with the affiliations to other institutions of higher learning. But our core strengths are in distance learning and creative uses of technology for training and education.
My question has to do with your selection process. If you're going to be awarding three to six contracts, is it your desire to pull together three to six entities that constitute the entire requirement, the best of the breed of your criteria? Or is it your process that you seek to find the three to six best players that encompass all of your criteria? Put more simply, should we be seeking to team with some of the institutions who are also present here that have high credentials in higher education?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: A clarification, of course, that this is actually not going to be a contract. It's going to be an agreement. So it's a little bit different. And the other clarification is we will award a maximum of six grants. We could award zero. There is a responsibility of the applicant to provide a technically acceptable proposal, so we may make one award, two awards. We're envisioning three to six because we do expect high-quality proposals. Now, as far as who you should team with, our interest--and if you could look at how the selection criteria are stacked--our interest is more on the quality of the personnel and the quality of the relationship. And we addressed this a little bit earlier, that there are some very large consortia that could write sort of a massive proposal, and there are smaller, single universities who have a very narrow focused area of expertise, and see an Iraqi partner that also has that same area of need and expertise. And so we are expecting a variety of proposals from large to small, and we are hoping for high quality proposals that we're able to fund both at the narrow focused level and somewhat at the larger more macro level.
So I believe, to answer your question, for your organization, where would you fit in best? What are your strengths that you would bring to bear? Because I've bene on several of these review committees and we do get examples of subcontractors or partners that just seem to be tacked on, and you wonder, well, this expertise doesn't really seem to match the need, and it doesn't make any sense to us. But when we see a partner that's identified that has the people, that has the resources, that has the experience, past performance exactly tied to what the need is, you know, those are the things that we award points for.
MR. WILSON: Thank you. I have just one more question. In terms of timing, I understand the 30th you'll be accepting the applications. Then I presume there will be some review and awards process that you'll go through, followed with the work plan, followed with the review meeting. Can you go over the calendar timing of that once more, please?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Okay. Well, this is going to be a rough estimate I would say because we don't know how many proposals we will be receiving, and the more we get, the longer it will take. But again, the closing date is the 30th.
Do we have any estimate on--yeah, kind of depends on how long it takes us to go through them, and then we'll make the awards. There is--we're definitely experiencing the need to get things done, so I don't want to promise you anything, but we'll be working as fast as we can to make these awards.
MR. HILL: I understand. Thank you.
MS. PETERSON: Just to follow up on that inquiry, for planning purposes, I would say that institutions that submit proposals should envision being able to mobilize by end of July, if not earlier in some form. I mean I think we envision moving on this rather quickly, given the needs and our interest in providing support.
MS. BREMO: Jennifer from the University of North Carolina. One quick clarification. The 3 to $5 million applies to the full three-year period; is that correct? Or is that for the first year--it says you're supposed to budget for the two extensions. So I was assuming that the 3 to 5, as a guidance, applied to that.
MS. PETERSON: The 3 to $5 million roughly is for one year of a programming.
MS. BREMO: The first year.
MS. PETERSON: Correct.
MS. BREMO: But you're suppose to budget it says for the two one-year extensions. And so the guidance level for that is?
MS. PETERSON: Do you want to answer that, Sheila?
MS. BUMPASS: If I were going to prepare an application, I would use the same guidance for the first year as the out years.
MS. BREMO: So 3 to 5 for the first year and for each of the subsequent, as a notional planning.
MS. BUMPASS: As a guide, and it is an estimate. And I emphasize that that is our government estimate.
MS. BREMO: Right. And I come from a business school, so this is maybe perceived as self-serving, but I'm wondering if the two priority areas were indicated by the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education? Because I'm guessing, frankly, that those would not have been the priorities that they would have selected.
MS. BUMPASS: They have been identified by leadership in Iraq in various forms.
MS. BREMO: They pick cultural over economic or engineering?
MS. PETERSON: We can clarify, again, building on your question about consulting with the Ministry of Higher Education. But those are two areas that through consultations with various stakeholders, et cetera, have been identified as to particularly valuable areas to address.
MS. BREMO: Okay.
MR. : [Inaudible]. I'm sorry, I missed that.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: If I could just clarify. The way that I meant to phrase this--and perhaps I wasn't specific enough--you should consider these as invitational priorities rather than absolute priorities. So we're not awarding any extra points. There aren't going to be any points associated with--and the two areas again were antiquities, archeology, and then public health. So we are basically--it's an invitational priority, which is just sort of to highlight that we would really appreciate receiving proposals on those two areas. However, those proposals that focus on those two areas will not receive any more points for having done so, than a proposal that focuses on our other--like I said, those other critical areas are still critical areas, engineering, business, public administration. Those other four sections still stand and are given the same points.
MS. PETERSON: Excuse me. I just wanted to follow up on a couple of responses we've provided to date and clarify. In terms of reporting, I think we highlighted that the recipients of the awards would be providing quarterly reports. They're also expected to provide monthly reports, so that is in the RFA, but I just wanted to clarify that on the record as well.
And in terms of the inquiry related to having staff in country, again, I think we are looking for proposals that target the staffing and the methodology, et cetera, to meet the need and the objectives. So we are open to a range of proposed approaches in strengthening partnerships, disciplines, et cetera, and that there are obviously numerous possibilities in terms of staffing, location of staff, et cetera. So we are open to innovation and creativity and cost effectiveness in achieving those different objectives. Thank you.
MR. : If you collaborate with other local, regional institutions, that's what [inaudible] under a subcontract of some kind?
MS. BUMPASS: A subcontract? It could very well be a subcontractor relationship. It could be a partnering relationship as well, or another type of partnering relationship.
MR. : And what is the visa situation as far as U.S. citizens and other citizens, the visa situation?
MS. PETERSON: In terms of visas for Iraq, to get into Iraq?
MR. : Yes.
MS. PETERSON: The way it has worked is for most of our implementing partners to date, they have been applying for visas to Kuwait, and then getting approval to go into Iraq from Kuwait.
MR. : [Inaudible].
MS. PETERSON: Correct, correct.
For those who are viewing from the webcast, there was a clarification that the visa applications are going to the Embassy to Kuwait. Then also Jordan is another route as well. For our implementing partners to date, the focus has been from Kuwait.
What I'd actually like to do is turn this--in light of the time, and for those viewing on the webcast, we have indicated this will terminate at 11:30. So I'd like to have Erika discuss the logistical support that could be provided, and then there can be some follow-on questions as well. We have approximately 15 minutes left.
Thank you.
MS. EAM: Good morning. My name is Erika Eam. I'm the contract specialist on this request. I want to give you some information in reference to the logistical aspects of it. There is a logistics contractor available for support in these countries. The support is warehouse and inventory services, including the requirement to receive and store and issue materials and supplies, and maintain a daily, monthly and quarterly inventory management, and control systems for receipt, storage and issue in all storage areas, maintain documentation for all incoming cargo and outgoing shipments to the missions and other designated places of performance, resulting in a zero tolerance balance.
And what I can do is I can supply this information on the fed. grants as well as the USAID Iraq's website, which will have the full documentation of the information if you are unable to write it down.
Secondly, arrange and implement customs clearances procedures for storage and re-export.
Thirdly, provide freight-forwarding services for commodities as they are requisitioned by arranging for long and short-haul trucking as needed, including arrangements for straight truck, semi-trailers as appropriate, air and seaport freight services, and outgoing custom documentation. Contractor determines the border crossing requirements to deliver commodities to the Iraq border. Logistics contractor arranges and implements an Internet tracking control system for all shipments to ensure that commodities are not lost, misplaced or destroyed, and are able to be cleared expeditiously for customs in the receiving country.
USAID is requiring that all Iraq contractors with the need for these three specific services coordinate through the logistics contractor for them. USAID is funding(?) these three logistics requirements directly through the logistics contractor permissions needed and the contractor needs alike.
The logistic contractor performs a wide-ranging variety of services, some of which your vendor may wish to access. Contractors may contact a logistics contractor directly and negotiate subcontracts with a logistics contractor for those logistic support requirements not mentioned or covered above.
So again, I will post this information so that you have a written documentation of this.
And if you have any other questions that we have not addressed here, please forward me questions via e-mail so that I can coordinate with the technical office and have those questions answered and posted on our website as petty(?) grants, as well as petty grants.
Thank you.
MR. : Is this different from the education that you mentioned right now, logistic, or this is related to the same issue that we've been--
MS. PETERSON: This is for--this is to make those who are submitting proposals aware that there is another contract the USAID has that can provide services along those lines of warehousing, warehouse customs clearance.
MR. : Can we get information about that later?
MS. PETERSON: Yes. She will ensure that is posted on the fed. grants and the RFA web page, correct.
Please?
MR. : I guess I didn't quite get it. Is what I heard that for procurement processes, the university involved delivers, if it's books or other equipment, to the border of Iraq, and then this is turned over to a kind of a single contractor that USAID has arranged, who then would take these items on into Iraq, and therefore, the prices that this contractor, this logistic contractor has determined, are the prices that are to be built into the proposal of the U.S. university?
I'm just not really understanding what you're saying.
MS. PETERSON: Do you want to clarify that, Erika or Sheila?
MS. BUMPASS: Actually, no, that's not what we're saying. What we're saying is we do have a logistics contractor in place that can help facilitate some customs and other types of impediments that you may encounter, or you may not encounter, but just for information purposes in preparing your application. If you think that you might need these services, we thought it might be wise to let you know that we do have a contractor in place that can help you through that process. And again, we will post this information as we have it, via amendment, on the web page of fed. grants so that you can review it.
And if you think you need it, and if you need additional information regarding the contractor, let us know, but it's just for information purposes only. It's not to imply that you need to expand your RFA in any way.
MR. : And there is a single logistics contractor there that USAID has identified, or is it multiple ones?
MS. BUMPASS: As far as I know, it's a single one, but we'll make that clarification in the amendment.
MS. PETERSON: Are there any additional questions?
[No response.]
MS. PETERSON: Thank you very much for your time. We look forward to getting your input at the end of June. Thank you.
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