Added: Sep 10, 2008 5:15 pm
Modified: Sep 15, 2008 11:38 am
Track Changes
The purpose of this amendment is to incorporate the following Questions and Answers and to extend the due date to Tuesday, September 24, 2008 at 5:00PM (EST).
Q1: Under the Schedule of Supplies and Services, it states that The Peace Corps reserves the right to award a contract for services performed in one country or multiple countries subject to funding at the firm fixed price proposed by vendors. However, Attachment 1 clearly indicates that one of the three countries will be selected for evaluation activities. Please confirm whether the technical and cost proposals should cover one or three countries.
A1: One of the three countries will be selected. Vendors may propose one country or multiple countries.
Q2: The SOW, on page 4 and 7 indicates that Peace Corps will select the country in which the evaluation will be conducted. Given the different language requirements of the three countries, is the offerer expected to propose key personnel who would be able to work in any one of the three countries? In other words, do we have to propose personnel with Spanish and French language skills?
A2: Vendor should propose key personnel in accordance with RFQ.
Q3: On page 4 of the Attachment 1, it states that Peace Corps will conduct the pre-fieldwork activities, including drafting and finalizing the data collection instruments. On page 8, it indicates that the Contractor will be responsible for this same task. Please clarify which party will be responsible for the drafting and finalizing of instruments.
A3: As stated on page four, it is recognized that the contractor, in collaboration with Peace Corps, shall finalize the research design, methodology, standards of evidence, measures, and data collection instruments during the first week of the evaluation. Vendor shall draft and finalize the data collection instruments.
Q4: There is no Activity item for pilot testing the data collection instruments. We believe that this is a critical task, since making changes and improvements to the instruments after researchers have been trained and partway through the data collection process is very disruptive and inefficient. Could you please address this issue, indicating what the reasons were for not including a pilot test of the instruments?
A4: As stated in RFQ, work plan information was provided for illustrative purposes only. Vendors may propose alternate work plans.
Q5: The 3-5 weeks allocated for interviewer training and data collection are extremely tight. In order to be able assess the feasibility of this three week timeline for interviewer training and fieldwork, we would like to know the maximum number of communities within the country that the contractor and interviewer teams would be required to visit and gather data in.
A5: As stated in RFQ, work plan information was provided for illustrative purposes only. Vendors may propose alternate work plans. There is no maximum or minimum requirement for the number of communities the vendor shall visit. Peace Corps estimates that there are on average 40 Volunteers in each study country conducting HIV/AIDS activities and potentially using life skills in the implementation of their activities. There is generally one Volunteer per community.
All other terms and conditions remain unchanged.
