R -- Intent to Award Contract Sole Source

Notification of Intention to Award a Sole Source Contract. The Agency for International Development?s Mission to Ghana is planning to award a contract without competition to Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International to manage the Ghana Responsible Mining Alliance. The basis for this award is the FAR 6.302-1: Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirement. I. Background On May 24, 2006, USAID/Ghana entered into a global development alliance (GDA) with Gold Fields Ghana Limited (Gold Fields) and Newmont Ghana Gold Limited (Newmont). The Alliance is called the Ghana Responsible Mining Alliance. The Alliance joins the industry and development expertise, experience, and resources of the two companies and USAID in a commitment to build prosperous, healthy and lasting communities in the mining areas of Asutifi and Wassa West districts of Ghana, and develop a roadmap for responsible mining. Through the Alliance, Gold Fields and Newmont, with USAID, are moving beyond contributions to investments in sustainable development, including local government technical capacity to support local economic growth, and improvements in how they do business in mining communities. II. Discussion To develop the initial work plan for the Alliance?s activities, Gold Fields contracted with RTI. Gold Fields selected RTI for the contract based on RTI?s sound, technical expertise. For one, RTI had intimate knowledge of local government and community participation dynamics in Ghana. RTI had participated in the Government Accountability Improves Trust (GAIT II) project from August 1, 2004 ? April 30, 2006, leading the local government segment of the GAIT II project. GAIT II works both in Asutifi and Wassa West districts. Therefore, RTI had worked closely with each of the local governments and had a good sense of the community make up and the various stakeholders involved. As a result, RTI had extensive knowledge of both the targeted districts and the peculiar dynamics of each. Secondly, RTI brought a general knowledge of mining to the table. Being aware of USAID?s discussion with Gold Fields and Newmont in 2005, RTI had presented to USAID thoughts on how the Alliance could be developed in Ghana; what elements it would contain; and how it could be managed. In their submissions, they demonstrated a real knowledge of the sector and the challenges that the Alliance would face. Thirdly, RTI had also already conducted Environmental, Social, and Governance Analysis of Gold Mining more broadly, developing a short issues paper that demonstrated their technical knowledge of the sector. Their analysis drew on issues addressing the sector more broadly and demonstrated a breadth of knowledge on the sector. Finally, the technical adviser RTI proposed and fielded had been the local government adviser for the GAIT project for 1 ? years and also had extensive local government experience in the US, including working for local governments that had to deal directly with mining issues. The draft work plan that RTI developed was technically sound and satisfied the requirements of each of the Alliance partners. The Alliance was able to use it to articulate the vision of the Alliance to all relevant stakeholders. As the next step in the Alliance development, Newmont contracted with RTI to assist in the organization of three stakeholder workshops, one in Accra, one in Asutifi, and one in Wassa West. These workshops were used to present the vision of the Alliance to all the concerned stakeholders and seek their technical input to allow the Alliance to finalize the work plan and begin implementation of activities envisioned under the Alliance. Newmont contracted RTI based on the same reasons articulated above for the initial work plan coupled with knowledge that RTI had further acquired through the development of the draft work plan. RTI had already provided a number of critical insights in their development of the work plan and was able to bring this expertise in planning and delivering the stakeholder workshops. The three work shops were held in September 2006 and generated significant engagement and input from stakeholders. They brought a number of stakeholders into the discussion; highlighted the need to put local government in the lead and explicitly tie them to the Alliance; and identified a number of issues that had not been fully addressed in the Alliance that would need further study and consideration to allow the work plan to be finalized. Newmont modified their contract with RTI to ask RTI to pull all the issues together that emerged from the workshops and put them together in a comprehensive workshop report that could be shared with all stakeholders and be used as the basis for follow-up work on the Alliance. This included refining an organogram for the management of the Alliance and thinking about how the Alliance would be managed. RTI put together an excellent workshop report that succinctly captured all the issues emerging from the three work shops and proposed a possible structure for the future management of the Alliance that would put local government in the lead. All of the Alliance partners are very pleased with the workshop report and have been impressed by the technical leadership that RTI has demonstrated thus far. Based on RTI?s performance to date, the Alliance partners are unanimous that RTI has unique skills and knowledge that make them the one responsible source to manage the activities of the Alliance. Through its work to date under the Alliance funded by Gold Fields and Newmont respectively, they have established this position and have the full confidence of all the Alliance partners. USAID?s Alliance partners do not believe that any other organization has comparable knowledge and expertise required to manage the Alliance in a way that would allow it to get going quickly and smoothly in a way that would be mindful of all stakeholder concerns. The Alliance partners have agreed that USAID should contract for the management of the Ghana Responsible Mining Alliance. The two mining companies agree that USAID has the knowledge and the expertise required to execute and manage the contract. The value of USAID?s contract with RTI will be less than $450,000. The mining companies will each provide additional funds through separate contracts with RTI that will be referenced in an addendum to the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). RTI will be asked to perform the following: 1. Manage day-to-day Alliance performance, operations, communication and reporting. 2. Lead efforts to engage local government, civil society and other critical stakeholders to ensure broad buy-in to Alliance activities. This would include helping to engage and seek avenues for resolution of issues that would come up as the Alliance moves forward. 3. Serve as implementing partner, including provision of technical leadership and delivery of activities for Objective 3 (promotion of best practices) and some activities under Objective 1 (local governance), as defined by the Alliance Secretariat. 4. Technical guidance for set-up and ongoing operation of Asutifi and Wassa West District Teams and Alliance Technical Advisory Committee 5. Support to the Alliance Secretariat and Steering Committee, including technical guidance for set-up and ongoing operation. Includes: ? Preparation and monitoring of Alliance work plan and associated activity schedules and performance plan ? Development and technical assistance to support implementation of an Alliance communication strategy for internal and external communication, considering at minimum news media relations, print publications, use of the web ? Identification of opportunities for technical collaboration, joint work with the Ghana development community (examples: GTZ and World Bank) Expected Results and Activities Activities will be designed to support the following expected results in Asutifi and Wassa West Districts. Results are organized by Alliance objectives 1-3. Objective 1: Strengthened Local Government 1. Strengthened two-way communication mechanisms 2. Strengthened local problem-solving mechanisms 3. Integrated District Assembly budget 4. Local action on the Extractive Industries Transparency Index (EITI) Objective 2: Enhanced economic opportunity through local private sector 1. Conduct external evaluation of the following programs in Asutifi District: Livelihood Enhancement and Community Empowerment Program (LEEP), Ahafo Agribusiness Growth Initiative (AAGI), and SME Linkages 2. Conduct external evaluation of the following program in Wassa West District: Sustainable Community Empowerment and Economic Development Program (SEED) Objective 3: Promotion of responsible mining practices 1. Improved practices for community participatory monitoring 2. Improved practices for supporting Voluntary Principles on Human Rights and Security 3. Improved practices for Awareness and Preparedness for Emergencies at the Local Level RTI has extensive knowledge of the Alliance coming into this activity and coupled with the tremendous amount of experience and insight that RTI has gathered in developing the draft work plan, leading the three stakeholder workshops, and compiling the results from the workshops into a comprehensive document, makes RTI the one responsible source able to manage the activities under the Alliance. The Alliance is a complex arrangement that bring together two mining companies and USAID. It is a delicate partnership that brings together people from very different corporate cultures. Mutual trust and a strong working relationship are critical to its success. RTI has demonstrated thus far that they have the unique skills and expertise required to manage the Alliance and have the full confidence of each of the three Alliance partners. It is extremely unlikely that USAID could get another contractor that enjoyed this same level of confidence from the three partners. Going with another partner could cause USAID to risk losing the estimated $8.75 million in contributions that the mining companies have committed to investing in the Alliance at this point as the Alliance partners may be reluctant to invest these level of resources with a manager that they do not trust. It is extremely likely that a competition would ultimately lead to the Alliance partners selecting RTI as there is no other contractor with comparable experience and expertise in this area. The competition would simply delay the Alliance activities getting underway and as a result, risk alienating both critical stakeholders.