[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 71 (Thursday, April 11, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16164-16167]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-9005]
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UNITED STATES INFORMATION AGENCY
Academic Year Program NIS Administration Components
ACTION: Notice--Request for Proposals.
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SUMMARY: The Division for the NIS Secondary School Initiative, Office
of Citizen Exchanges, of the United States Information Agency's Bureau
of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces an open competition for
an assistance award to conduct a package of administrative components
for the Academic Year Program. Public and private non-profit
organizations meeting the provisions described in IRS regulation 26 CFR
1.501(c)(3)-1 may apply to develop a package of various components for
the 1997-98 Academic Year Program (AYP), as spelled out below, for
1,000 high school students from the 12 New Independent States (NIS) of
the former Soviet Union. This RFP is only for this package of
components; grants for the placement and supervision of the students in
the United States on this program and other components will be competed
separately. Final award of a grant or grants is subject to the
availability of funding.
Overall grant making authority for this program is contained in the
Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, Public Law 87-
256, as amended, also known as the Fulbright-Hays Act. The purpose of
the Act is ``to enable the Government of the United States to increase
mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the
people of other countries * * *; to strengthen the ties which unite us
with other nations by demonstrating the educational and cultural
interests, developments, and achievements of the people of the United
States and other nations * * * and thus to assist in the development of
friendly, sympathetic and peaceful relations between the United States
and the other countries of the world.'' The funding authority for the
program cited above is provided in part through the Department of State
from the Agency for International Development.
Programs and projects must conform with Agency requirements and
guidelines outlined in the Solicitation Package. USIA projects and
programs are subject to the availability of funds.
ANNOUNCEMENT TITLE AND NUMBER: All communications with USIA concerning
this announcement should refer to the above title and reference number
E/P-96-33.
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DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: All copies must be received at the U.S.
Information Agency by 5 p.m. Washington, D.C. time on May 31, 1996.
Faxed documents will not be accepted, nor will documents postmarked May
31 but received at a later date. It is the responsibility of each
applicant to ensure that proposals are received by the above deadline.
The grant period will begin on or about August 1,1996 and run for one
year until July 31, 1997. The grant is subject to renewal if deemed
successful by the Agency.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
The NIS Secondary School Initiative (E/PY), Room 320, U.S. Information
Agency, 301 4th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20547, telephone 202-
619-6299, fax 202-619-5311 to request a Solicitation Package containing
more detailed award criteria, required application forms, and standard
guidelines for preparing proposals (called ``Project Goals, Objectives
and Implementation'' or ``POGI''), including specific criteria for
preparation of the proposal budget.
TO DOWNLOAD A SOLICITATION PACKAGE VIA INTERNET: The Solicitation
Package may be downloaded from USIA's website at http://www.usia.gov/ or from the Internet Gopher at gopher://gopher.usia.gov. Select
``Education and Cultural Exchanges'', then select ``Current Request for
Proposals (RFPs).'' Please read ``About the Following RFPs'' before
beginning to download.
Please specify USIA Program Officer/Specialist Diana Aronson on all
inquiries and correspondences. Interested applicants should read the
complete Federal Register announcement before sending inquiries or
submitted proposals. Once the RFP deadline has passed, Agency staff may
not discuss this competition in any way with applicants until the
Bureau proposal review process has been completed.
SUBMISSIONS: Applicants must follow all instructions given in the
Solicitation Package. The original, two fully tabbed copies and ten
copies with Tabs A-E of the application should be sent to: U.S.
Information Agency, Ref.: E/P-96-33, Office of Grants Management, E/XE,
Room 326, 301 4th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20547.
Applicants must also submit the ``Executive Summary'' and
``Proposal Narrative'' sections of the proposal on a 3.5 diskette,
formatted for DOS. This material must be provided in ASCII text (DOS)
format with a maximum line length of 65 characters. USIA will transmit
these files electronically to USIS posts overseas for their review,
with the goal of reducing the time it takes to get posts' comments for
the Agency's grants review process.
DIVERSITY GUIDELINES: Puruant to the bureau's authorizing legislation,
programs must maintain a non-political character and should be balanced
and representative of the diversity of American political, social, and
cultural life. ``Diversity'' should be interpreted in the broadest
sense and encompass differences including, but not limited to
ethnicity, race, gender, religion, geographic location, socio-economic
status, and physical challenges. Applicants are strongly encouraged to
adhere to the advancement of this principle both in program
administration and in program content. Please refer to the review
criteria under the ``Support for Diversity'' section for specific
suggestions on incorporating diversity into the total proposal.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Overview
The Academic Year Program (AYP)--known also as the FREEDOM Support
Act Program--has been sponsored by USIA since 1992. The 1997-98 AYP
will be the fifth cycle of the program. It provides an opportunity for
high school students aged 15-17 from the 12 NIS countries to live with
an American host family for eleven months and attend one full year of a
high school. The scholarship covers all aspects of their program--
recruitment and selection, travel, orientation, placement and
supervision, maintenance, cultural and educational enhancements, and
follow-up upon return to their home countries. Placement, supervision,
maintenance and enhancements are not part of the package covered by
this solicitation. For budgeting purposes, applicants should assume
that the number of participants will be 1,000, with about 50% coming
from Russia, 20% from Ukraine, and the remaining 30% from the other ten
countries (details can be found in the ``Project Objectives, Goals and
Implementation'' guidelines referred to above).
Applicants must address the complete package of components outlined
below and may bid on one or more of the following four regions of the
NIS: (A) Russia and Belarus; (B) Ukraine and Moldova; (C) The Caucasus
(Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan); (D) Central Asia (Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan).
The objectives of the Academic Year Program are:
1. To foster interaction between young people from the United
States and the former Soviet Union and greater understanding of one
another so as to contribute to our common future through our greatest
resource, our youth.
2. To provide high school students from the former Soviet Union an
opportunity to live with American host families, attend school, and
learn about American society, history, cultural, and the economic and
political foundations of the United States.
3. to integrate the people of the former Soviet Union into the
global citizenry by assisting young people of the NIS countries in
building a new and open society and by promoting democratic values and
the development of democratic institutions from the grass roots level.
4. To provide opportunities for youth from the NIS to acquire
values and skills and enhance those personal qualities that will make
them successful citizens and future leaders of their societies.
Eligibility
Applicants may be public institutions or organizations that are
legally incorporated and recognized by the IRS as not-for-profit.
Applicants may be single organizations or one or more organizations
working in consortium. For consortia, each organization should submit a
separate proposal for its components and indicate clearly how these
dovetail with the other consortium member(s).
Guidelines
The package of components for this solicitation encompasses the
following:
1. Recruitment and selection of student finalists.
2. Documentation--assistance with passports, visas; assistance to
USIA with preparation of IAP66 forms on finalists and alternates.
3. Medical screening and clearance to ensure that the students are
healthy; immunizations as necessary.
4. Orientation--Programming for all participants prior to departure
from the NIS and/or upon arrival in the U.S.
5. Travel--Ticketing and all arrangements from the students' homes
to their host communities and return.
6. Communications and liaison with the students' families during
the program year.
7. Information management--Tracking and database maintenance on all
applicants through their selection as finalists, their placement, and
travel.
8. Tracking of, support for and follow-up programming with alumni
upon their return home.
The following considerations apply to these responsibilities:
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1. The ongoing communications with natural parents, followup
activities with alumni, and relations with foreign government officials
all require that the grantee organization(s) maintain a year-round
presence in the NIS countries. The grantee should seek to conduct these
functions efficiently and cost-effectively but without necessarily
having an American staff or permanent offices in every country or in
all regions of the large countries.
2. All on-the-ground operations in the NIS of this administrative
machinery must be staffed by non-US Government personnel in such a way
to ensure that USIA and American embassy personnel are not encumbered
by the day-to-day functioning of the program.
3. The aim of the program is to select students who have the
personal qualities, motivation, and the academic language and social
skills to be successful on the exchange. Recruitment and selection must
be conducted on the basis of merit and be free of political influence
and corruption; to accomplish this, the process must be under the
overall direct control of Americans at all times. Selection of
finalists should be conducted in the U.S.
4. Selection must reflect the cultural, ethnic, national and
geographic diversity of the NIS. The recruitment process must be open
in allowing and making it possible for any student who meets the
eligibility criteria to apply. A serious effort must be made to include
students with physical disabilities. Intensive English training may be
offered for a small percentage (no more than 5%) to ensure that the
weaker language qualifications of students from more remote areas is
not an excluding factor in their selection. [Such training is completed
separately.] It is not necessary or even possible, given budget
constraints, to cover every oblast. The grantee should focus its
recruitment on major population areas, while keeping the process open
to applicants from all areas.
5. Uniform arrival orientation for all AYP students is essential,
because it reinforces their identity as participants in a government
scholarship program and enables the dissemination of information,
policies and procedures critical to the students' success.
6. What happens to participants once they return home is critically
important to ensuring the program's success in fufilling its
objectives. The grantee organizations are responsible for ensuring the
tracking of alumni, data collection/reporting, and follow-on activities
to reinforce the transfer of the American experience to the NIS.
Please refer to program specific guidelines (POGI) in the
Solicitation Package for further details.
Participants travel on J-1 visas. As the sponsor is USIA, IAP66
forms are prepared using the Government program designation number. As
noted above, the grantee is responsible for assisting USIA in the
preparation of these forms.
Timetable
The recruitment and selection process must be concluded by March 1,
1997, so that finalist applications can be disseminated to the
organizations responsible for placing the students in host families and
schools. Travel to the US is expected to take place in July/August,
1997, in conjunction with the needs of the placement organizations.
Return travel should be similarly undertaken in June/July, 1998. All
components should be planned in accordance with the dates and deadlines
set by the needs of the program (e.g., the date by which students need
to apply for passports, the timing of arrival in the host families, the
conclusion of the school year).
Proposed Budget
The per capita cost of this whole package of components excluding
Travel and Orientation must not exceed $2,500 per finalist. Travel must
be arranged in compliance with laws on the use of American flag
carriers.
Applicants must submit a comprehensive line-item budget for the
entire package of components. There must be a summary budget as well as
a break-down reflecting both the administrative and program costs.
Cost-sharing is encouraged, cash contributions and in-kind. Please
refer to the solicitation package and POGI for complete budget and
formatting instructions and for allowable costs.
Grants awarded to eligible organizations with less than four years
of experience in conducting international exchange programs will be
limited to $60,000.
Review Process
USIA will acknowledge receipt of all proposals and will review them
for technical eligibility. Proposals will be deemed ineligible if they
do not fully adhere to the guidelines stated herein and in the
Solicitation Package. Eligible proposals will be forwarded to panels of
USIA officers for advisory review. All eligible proposals will be
reviewed by the program office, as well as the USIA Office of East
European and NIS Affairs and the USIS posts in the NIS countries.
Proposals may be reviewed by the Office of the General Counsel or by
other Agency elements. Funding decisions are at the discretion of the
USIA Associate Director for Educational and Cultural Affairs. Final
technical authority for assistance awards (grants or cooperative
agreements) resides with the USIA grants officer.
Review Criteria
Technically eligible applications will be competitively reviewed
according to the criteria stated below. These criteria are not rank
ordered and all carry equal weight in the proposal evaluation:
1. Quality of the program idea: Proposals should exhibit
originality, substance, precision, and relevance to Agency mission and
design outlined above.
2. Program planning: Detailed agenda and relevant work plan should
demonstrate substantive undertakings and logistical capacity. Agenda
and plan should adhere to the program overview, timetable and
guidelines described above.
3. Ability to achieve program objectives: Proposals should clearly
demonstrate an understanding of the program's objectives stated above
and how the organization will achieve them.
4. Support of Diversity: Proposals should demonstrate substantive
support of the Bureau's policy on diversity. Achievable and relevant
features should be cited in both program administration (e.g.,
staffing, program venue) and program content (especially selection of
participants and orientation).
5. Institutional Capacity: Proposed personnel and institutional
resources should be adequate and appropriate to achieve the program or
project's goals. The proposal should clearly explain how the
organization will make use of and coordinate with other related NIS and
US operations it may be conducting. Proposals should reflect
substantial area expertise, a grasp of cross-cultural issues, the needs
of the hosting community (including the American host schools and the
placement organizations), and a thorough understanding of how to work
effectively with NIS authorities and complexities of the environment.
6. Institution's Record/Ability: Proposals should demonstrate an
institutional record of successful activities that are relevant to this
program; also responsible fiscal management and full compliance with
all reporting requirements for past Agency grants as determined by
USIA's Office of Contracts. The Agency will consider the past
performance of prior recipients and the demonstrated potential of new
applicants.
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7. Project Evaluation: The proposal should include a plan to
evaluate the success of the organization in achieving the stated
objectives. The grantee will also be expected to cooperate with USIA in
evaluating the program under the requirements of the Government
Performance and Results Act (GPRA). Proposals should reflect an
understanding and grasp of these responsibilities.
8. Cost-effectiveness: The overhead and administrative components
of the proposal, including salaries and honoraria, should be kept as
low as possible. All other items should be necessary and appropriate.
9. Cost-sharing: Proposals should maximize cost-sharing through
other private sector support as well as institutional direct funding
and in-kind contributions.
10. Value to U.S.-Partner Country Relations: Proposed projects
should receive positive assessments by USIA's geographic area desk and
overseas officers of potential impact and significance in the partner
countries.
Notice
The terms and conditions published in this RFP are binding and may
not be modified by any USIA representative. Explanatory information
provided by the Agency that contradicts published language will not be
binding. Issuance of the RFP does not constitute an award commitment on
the part of the Government. The Agency reserves the right to reduce,
revise, or increase proposal budgets in accordance with the needs of
the program and the availability of funds. Awards made will be subject
to periodic reporting and evaluation requirements.
Notification
Final awards cannot be made until funds have been appropriated by
Congress, allocated and committed through internal USIA procedures.
Dated: April 5, 1996.
Dell Pendergrast,
Deputy Associate Director for Educational and Cultural Affairs.
[FR Doc. 96-9005 Filed 4-10-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8230-01-M