Y -- Strategic Provincial Roads-South and East Afghanistan (SPR-SEA)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is issuing this Notice of Intent to issue a Request for Applications (RFA) for one or more cooperative agreements for a development activity centered upon a regional roads program for Strategic Provincial Roads-South and East Afghanistan (SPR-SEA). Eligible prime recipients are for-profit and nonprofit nongovernmental organizations in USAID Geographic Code 935 (any area or country including the cooperating country, but excluding foreign policy-restricted countries) and public international organizations. The prime recipient would not receive profit or fee, but for-profit entities could receive profit or fee as sub-recipients. Each cooperative agreement program would include development assistance components such as roads construction and rehabilitation, capacity building and community development, along with the sustainability and appropriate technology objectives of local contractor development and community based maintenance programs. Central to the program will be the construction of all-weather, gravel-surfaced roads. Each successful prime awardee/recipient will be responsible for all aspects of its agreement program, including site security and de-mining. USAID hopes to increase the number of partners working in Afghanistan. Interested potential prime and sub-recipient entities are encouraged to form teams that will help to achieve this objective, while at the same time providing strong technical, capacity building and community development capabilities. Additionally, USAID recognizes that many prominent for-profit infrastructure service providers might not be completely familiar with the Federal assistance business arena envisioned by the USAID Automated Directives System 303 and 22 CFR 226. This early alert should allow for research time. In this context, it is suggested that entities might also find it advantageous to familiarize themselves with topics like “corporate social responsibility” since USAID might eventually decide that cost sharing or leveraging will be appropriate evaluation and selection process factors due to their proven ability to extend the development impact of USAID-direct funding. USAID anticipates providing an estimated USD 400 million over the course of approximately two to three years for this program. Interested parties should monitor the www.grants.gov website for issuance of the RFA, which is expected to occur in the near future. Organizations interested in participating in the SPR-SEA program should submit an expression of interest via email to the Point of Contact below. The email expression of interest should have SPR-SEA as the subject, and provide the name of the organization, contact name, and email address. USAID intends to compile a list of organizations expressing interest in response to this Notice, and will furnish the list to each interested party for the purposes of facilitating partnering arrangements. Point of Contact: [email protected].