This announcement is issued for informational and planning purposes only. This Request for Information (RFI) is not a Request for Proposals (RFP) and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or otherwise pay for the information solicited. Responses to the RFI will not serve as proposals, bids, or offers, which could be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The Department of the Treasury?s Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD) is conducting market research to determine the availability of contractors to perform an educational program methodology assessment for an Inter-American Foundation (IAF) grant recipient in the Andean highland communities of Cusco, Peru. The IAF is an independent agency of the United States government, established as part of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1969. The mission of the IAF is to promote sustainable grassroots development throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. To that end, the IAF provides cash grants directly to grassroots and community based organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean to help them implement their own creative ideas for development and poverty reduction. The IAF defines "grassroots development" as the process by which disadvantaged people organize themselves to improve the social, cultural, and economic well being of their families, communities, and societies. This concept is based on the premise that the key to sustainable democracies, equitable societies, and prosperous economies is a people oriented strategy that stresses participation, organization, development, and networking to build the social capital needed to complement human and physical assets. As a pioneer in grassroots development, the IAF seeks to support projects that produce real improvements on a local level, but that also have the potential to offer lessons and inspiration to others. A project is being conducted by the Asociacion Cultural Ayllu Yupaychay YUPAY) to design, implement and evaluate a teaching methodology more appropriate for instructing indigenous youth in remote Andean highland communities of Cusco, Peru. This unique project introduces a teaching methodology that builds on the cognitive skills of indigenous children and is substantially different from traditional methodologies that require learning skills unknown to the children. The methodology employed during this Project utilizes the oral traditions and complex imagery that are part of Andean indigenous society and incorporates them into the cognitive exercises for the education of indigenous children. Therefore the contractor must demonstrate extensive knowledge and experience with multi-sensory instructional methods, especially when used with young people who have consistently underachieved with contemporary educational methodologies. The contractor must demonstrate expertise in the field of multiple intelligences through the authorship of refereed publications, evaluative reports, formal presentations, consultations, lectures or addresses before universities and organizations of professional educators or education administrators. The contractor shall provide all personnel and equipment to perform the methodology evaluation. The contractor must demonstrate technical knowledge, experience and good interpretative and writing skills. The contractor must possess field experience in the monitoring and evaluation of teaching methodologies that address the unique characteristics of the beneficiary group and the capacity to clearly and succinctly share findings with all interested parties. The Contractor will perform the following tasks: 1. Conduct two field visits to the communities participating in the project to observe the work of the technical staff at the community level. 2. Conduct interviews with parents of the students, educators and leaders in the participating communities to obtain their observations and opinions of the project. 3. Conduct at least one additional exchange with project staff to discuss the fundamentals of the methodology and the results of its application at the community schools. 4. Submit a written report upon completion of each visit, which will include observations, results of interchanges, conclusions on the progress of the project, recommended modifications and a comparison with other methodologies implemented under relevant circumstances. 5. Submit a final report containing conclusions and recommendations to be shared with the IAF and the Grantee, and upon concurrence, wider distribution to all parties observing the project. Please provide BPD with the following information within 5 days of this request: 1. The name and location of your company, contact information, and identify the company as one or more of the followings: 1) small business; 2) 8(a) business; 3) HUBZone small business; 4) small disadvantaged business; 5) woman-owned small business; (6) veteran-owned small business; (7) service-disabled veteran-owned small business, or (8) large business. 2. Provide information that clearly indicates your capability to meet the above requirements. The name and contact information for customers, current or previous, for which you have provided services similar to the ones that we require. Interested parties are requested to submit responses electronically to Richard Barlament at
[email protected], and
[email protected] E-mail responses requiring more than 5 megabytes of memory must be sent as separate files. No other information regarding this requirement will be provided at this time. Your response, while appreciated, is completely voluntary. If you have any questions, please contact Richard Barlament at 304-480-7181. Interested offerors may register at http://www.fedbizopps.gov to receive notification when the solicitation and any amendments are issued and available for downloading. Please note that the General Services Administration provides the notification service as a convenience and does not guarantee that notifications will be received by all persons on the mailing list. Therefore, we recommend that you monitor the FedBizOpps site for all information relevant to desired acquisitions.