Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition for the USAID/Uganda Feed the Future Inclusive Agricultural Markets (IAM) Activity Contract Number 720161719C00007

Pursuant to AIDAR 706.302-70(b)(5), USAID does not require competition when the USAID can justify that the contractor provides highly specialized services and that granting an award to another resource would result in substantial additional costs to the Government or will result in unacceptable delays. The following describes the facts and rationale justifying the used of the AIDAR exception 706.302-70(b)(5): Open Competition for this action would result in substantial additional costs: There is significant potential loss of momentum gained during close to two years of implementation already completed; and the human resource effort to be devoted to a full and open competition process; the time period it would take to procure and make a new award; and/or the potential complexity and management burden that comes with implementing two parallel but similar programs. The Mission estimates the US Government would incur over $5 million in startup expenses including ground truthing assessments of the new proposed technical approaches in the proposed contracts. It would also result in delays in implementation and achieving subsequent development objectives.