Request For Proposals (RFP) under the USAID Visit Tunisia Activity / Chemonics International – Tourism Based Associations & Federations Strengthening Activity (RFP-VT-2022-003) عودة إلى الفرص

Instructions to Offerors 

Introduction

Chemonics, the Buyer, acting on behalf of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the USAID Visit Tunisia Activity (VT), under contract number AID-72066421D00003 is soliciting offers from companies and organizations to submit proposals to participate with USAID Visit Tunisia to carry out a Tourism Based Associations & Federations Capacity Building Strengthening Activity. 

The USAID-funded Visit Tunisia Activity is a 5-year project designed to enhance Tunisia’s tourism potential, with the goal of generating revenue and jobs, particularly for women and youth, and for populations in underserved regions of the country. The overall vision behind USAID’s investment in Tunisia’s tourism sector is to capitalize on Tunisia’s natural, cultural, heritage and historical sites to develop a more diversified and high-quality tourism sector that contributes to broad-based economic growth. Through this activity, USAID seeks to contribute to Tunisia’s growth and development to offset the negative economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.

Thus, the activity will have four objectives:  

1. Enhance Tunisia’s competitiveness as a tourism destination; 
2. Increase tourism-related investments and revenue;  
3. Improve the enabling environment for sustained growth in the tourism sector; and  
4. Private sector engagement to expand the offer and quality of alternative tourism.  

 The USAID Visit Tunisia Activity team working on enabling environment for sustained growth in the tourism sector is aware of the positive effect of tourism associations on strengthening the tourism sector, improving the product offerings of tourism providers, and tempering governmental regulations that might impede tourism. The federations and associations’ role in tourism advocacy is powerful, and when tourism federations and associations are facilitated to work collaboratively with each other, the potential to influence change grows even greater. To be effective, Tunisian tourism federations and associations must have strong internal capacities and sustainable presence, especially in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism and Handcrafts and other government institutions.

To build the capacity of tourism federations and associations, USAID Visit Tunisia proposes a phased capacity building and training program that combines in-person and online learning with technical mentoring to identify bespoke support interventions. 

Offerors are invited to submit proposals in response to this RFP in accordance with Section I Instructions to Offerors, which will not be part of the subcontract. The instructions are intended to assist interested Offerors in the preparation of their offer. Any resulting subcontract will be guided by Sections II and III.

This RFP does not obligate Chemonics to execute a subcontract, nor does it commit Chemonics to pay any costs incurred in the preparation and submission of the proposals. Furthermore, Chemonics reserves the right to reject any and all offers, if such action is considered to be in the best interest of Chemonics.

Unless otherwise stated, the periods named in the RFP shall be consecutive calendar days.

Chronological List of Proposal Events

The following calendar summarizes important dates in the solicitation process. Offerors must strictly follow these deadlines. 

RFP announcement 15/07/2022

Deadline for written questions 22/07/2022

Answers provided to questions/clarifications 29/07/2022

Proposal due date 05/08/2022

Subcontract award (estimated) 19/08/2022 

The dates above may be modified at the sole discretion of Chemonics. Any changes will be published in an amendment to this RFP.

Written Questions and Clarifications. All questions or clarifications regarding this RFP must be in writing and submitted to Procurement@VisitTunisiaProject.org no later than 17:00 on July 22, 2022. Questions and requests for clarification, and the responses thereto, will be circulated to all RFP recipients who have indicated an interest in this RFP. 

Only written answers from Chemonics will be considered official and carry weight in the RFP process and subsequent evaluation. Any answers received outside the official channel, whether received verbally or in writing, from employees or representatives of Chemonics International, the USAID Visit Tunisia Activity, or any other party, will not be considered official responses regarding this RFP.

Proposal Submission Date. All proposals must be received by the date and time and complying with the instructions as provided in Section I.3. 

Oral Presentations. Chemonics reserves the option to have select offerors participate in oral presentations with the technical evaluation committee. Interviews may consist of oral presentations of offerors’ proposed activities and approaches. Offerors should be prepared to give presentations to the technical evaluation committee at the USAID Visit Tunisia office within 2 days of receiving notification.

Subcontract Award (estimated). Chemonics will select the proposal that offers the best value based upon the evaluation criteria stated in this RFP.

• Source of Funding, Authorized Geographic Code, and Source and Origin

Any subcontract resulting from this RFP will be financed by USAID funding and will be subject to U.S. Government and USAID regulations. 

All goods and services offered in response to this RFP or supplied under any resulting award must meet USAID Geographic Code 937 in accordance with the United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), 22 CFR §228, available at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2012-title22-vol1/pdf/CFR-2012-title22-vol1-part228.pdf. 

The cooperating country for this RFP is Tunisia.

Offerors may not offer or supply any products, commodities or related services that are manufactured or assembled in, shipped from, transported through, or otherwise involving any of the following countries: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria. Related services include incidental services pertaining to any/all aspects of this work to be performed under a resulting contract (including transportation, fuel, lodging, meals, and communications expenses).

Any and all items that are made by Huawei Technology Company, ZTE Corporation, Hytera Communications Corporation, Hangzhou Hikivision Digital Technology Company, Dahua Technology Company will not be accepted. If quotes include items from these entities, please note that they will be deemed not technically responsive, and excluded from competition.

Validity Period

Offerors’ proposals must remain valid for 90 calendar days after the proposal deadline.

 Instructions for the Preparation of the Proposal

Cover Letter

The offeror shall use the cover letter provided in Annex 1 of this RFP, which confirms organizational information and consent to the validity of this proposal. 

Technical Proposal 

The technical proposal shall comprise the parts below. Please note that the proposal must be responsive to the detailed information set out in Section II of this RFP, which provides the background, states the scope of work, describes the deliverables, and provides a deliverables schedule. 

• Part 1: Technical Approach, Methodology and Detailed Work Plan responding to Annex 5. This part shall be between 5 and 10 pages long but may not exceed 15 pages.
• Part 2: Management, Key Personnel, and Staffing Plan. This part shall be between 2 and 4 pages long but may not exceed 5 pages. CVs for key personnel may be included in an annex to the technical proposal and will not count against the page limit.
• Part 3: Corporate Capabilities, Experience, and Past Performance. This part shall be between 3 and 5 pages long but may not exceed 7 pages.

Part 3 must include a description of the company and organization, with appropriate reference to any parent company and subsidiaries. Offerors must include details demonstrating their experience and technical ability in implementing the technical approach/methodology and the detailed work plan. 

Additionally, offerors must include 5 past performance references of similar work (under contracts or subcontracts) previously implemented as well as contact information for the companies for which such work was completed. Contact information must include at a minimum: name of point of contact who can speak to the offeror’s performance, name and address of the company for which the work was performed, and email and phone number of the point of contact. Chemonics reserves the right to check additional references not provided by an offeror.

Cost Proposal

The cost proposal is used to determine which proposals represent the best value and serves as a basis of negotiation before award of a subcontract.

The price of the subcontract to be awarded will be an all-inclusive fixed price. Nevertheless, for the purpose of the proposal, offerors must provide a detailed budget showing major line items as well as a budget narrative. Please refer to Annex 2 for detailed instructions and a sample cost structure.

No profit, fees, taxes, or additional costs may be added after award. Because Visit Tunisia is a USAID funded project and is implemented under a bilateral agreement between Tunisia and the U.S. Government, offerors must not include VAT and customs duties in their cost proposal.

Evaluation and Basis for Award

This RFP will use the tradeoff process to determine best value as set forth in FAR 15.101-1. That means that each proposal will be evaluated and scored against the evaluation criteria and evaluation sub-criteria, which are stated in the table below. Chemonics will award a subcontract to the offeror whose proposal represents the best value to Chemonics and the USAID Visit Tunisia Project. Chemonics may award to a higher priced offeror if a determination is made that the higher technical evaluation of that offeror merits the additional cost/price.

Evaluation points will not be awarded for cost, but for overall evaluation purposes of this RFP, technical evaluation factors other than cost, when combined, are considered approximately equal to cost factors. Cost will primarily be evaluated for realism and reasonableness. If technical scores are determined to be nearly equal, cost will become the determining factor.

In evaluating proposals, Chemonics will use the following evaluation criteria and sub-criteria:

Chemonics will award a subcontract to the offeror whose proposal represents the best value to Chemonics and the USAID Visit Tunisia Project. Chemonics may award to a higher priced offeror if a determination is made that the higher technical evaluation of that offeror merits the additional cost/price.

Evaluation points will not be awarded for cost, but for overall evaluation purposes of this RFP, technical evaluation factors other than cost, when combined, are considered approximately equal to cost factors. Cost will primarily be evaluated for realism and reasonableness. If technical scores are determined to be nearly equal, cost will become the determining factor.