Consolidation and Enhanced Livelihoods Initiative (CELI) - Northern Region

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) intends to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) on or about the fourth quarter of FY 2010 (July - September) for an anticipated five-year cost plus fixed-fee award. The award of this effort will be based on an evaluation for a USAID/Colombia Consolidation and Enhanced Livelihoods Initiative Northern Region (CELI-Northern). The proposed contract will assist the Government of Colombia (GOC) to establish State presence in stragecially-critical municipalities located in the Nudo de Paramillo-a region that straddles southern Cordoba and Northern Anitoquia (also known as Bajo Cauca Antiqueno). Both of these Regional Coordination Centers have defined a strategy based on the following lines of work: 1) security and justice, 2) social development 3) economic growth 4) institutional development 5) access to property and 6) communications (roads, electricity, and cell-phone). The other principal region is Catatumbo (northern Norte de Santander). Once the GOC has guaranteed a minimum level of permanent security for target communities, the CELI contractor will supprort the GOC's efforts to utilize an integrated approach for consolidating peace, security and development gains which will require a robust effort to create thousands of licit economic opportunities, to strengthen and link public and private organizations, to promote citizen participation, and to support institutional strengthening at the municipal and departmental levels to ensure good governance and improve local service delivery. In transition zones where the GOC has only recently established minimum security, the contractor will emphasize immediate, short-term activities to meet urgent economic and social needs with the goal of demonstrating the presence of the State and to help the target areas recover quickly from the effects of the conflict and eradication. Small, quick-impact projects will help to create confidence in the GOC, provide the opportunity to build relations between communities and local government, and respond to local dynamics and urgent needs. In areas where security is better established, the contractor will support longer-term interventions in coordination with the government, private sector and civil society with a particular emphasis on accompaniment and the provision of technical assistance to permanently consolidate State presence. The CELI-Northern contractor will also coordinate closely with any ongoing USAID program in the area and will coordinate with the Public Policy program to implement pilot activities in collaboration with the public policy implementer to address policy constraints to consolidation of state presence.