Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs: Endowment and Afghan Scholarships

Note the place of performance is Kabul, Afghanistan. This posting represents what may become a requirement in the future. This is currently not a bona fide Request for Applications (RFA) or a request for proposals (RFP), and does not commit the government to posting a solicitation or making an award for the tasks discussed below. Organizations that respond to this announcement will not be reimbursed for any costs associated with preparation of their submittals.

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR INVESTING THE ENDOWMENT AND MANAGING THE WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM IN AFGHANISTAN

​USAID seeks expressions of interest (EOI) from financially sound, nongovernmental U.S. for-profit and non-profit organizations with a track record of experience in organizational development and/or investment management for two separate but related tasks (further described below).

TASKS
1.) To establish, manage, and invest a permanent, “evergreen” endowment in the U.S. for the purpose of funding university level scholarships for Afghan women on a financially self-sustaining basis. It is anticipated that up to $50 million would be made available to establish and capitalize the endowment; and
2.) To identify and build capacity, as needed, of an Afghan institution to oversee and manage the scholarship program in Afghanistan, including financial management of the scholarship program, potentially on an ongoing basis (organizations expressing interest in either or both of the above tasks hereinafter are an “interested organization” or “IO”).

BACKGROUND and CONTEXT
Given the highly uncertain nature of the political economy in Afghanistan along with the current uncertainty regarding identification and development of a local institution to manage the scholarship program, this EOI seeks to better understand both the endowment management and investment experience and/or the program-management capabilities of interested organizations.
Currently, USAID is providing funding under a grant agreement with an international non-profit organization to develop an Afghan women’s scholarship program. This grant agreement potentially may run through the year 2020. A major task under this agreement with USAID is to develop local Afghan capacity to establish, operate, and manage the program to award university level scholarships to Afghan women and girls.

For this EOI, the short-term objective is for the interested organization to build upon the institutional development work of the current international non-profit USAID grantee and to continue this work as necessary to fully establish, invest, and manage an evergreen endowment in order to generate current capital gains and other income to finance the university scholarship program. The long-term objective is for the local organization to assume full responsibility for management of the scholarship program, awarding and managing scholarships, and managing the periodic income generated by the endowment (but not the endowment fund itself which would be invested and managed by the interested organization in the U.S.)

CAPABILITIES and EXPERIENCE of INTERESTED ORGANIZATIONS
This EOI seeks to gain information regarding the endowment-related and program development and management-related capabilities and experience of interested organizations.

1) ENDOWMENT INVESTMENT CAPABILITIES: USAID desires to identify interested organizations with experience in establishing, investing and overseeing a core investment fund portfolio to generate sufficient income on a continuing basis to finance both the operations and management of a scholarship program management institution in Afghanistan and the university scholarships awarded to qualified Afghan women. The interested organization would perform this investment management task itself with in-house capabilities and experience or, if in-house investment capability is not present, out-source the investment function to a qualified investment manager and manage this relationship to meet the investment policy statement objectives of the endowment. The endowment funds would pay reasonable costs of establishing, investing and overseeing the endowment. The interested organization would use the income generated from the invested endowment to pay the costs of identifying, selecting, and supporting qualified women and girls as scholarship recipients. Further, the interested organization would disburse funds either through the international non-profit organization currently working on the program or potentially directly to chosen educational institutions the scholarship recipients would attend. As the investment portfolio generates returns, a portion would be used to cover the continuing costs of operating and overseeing the investment portfolio, with the remainder going to fund scholarships or to remain in the core investment fund for further investment, depending on demand for and pace of award of scholarships. Further, the organization managing the investment portfolio in-house, depending on its capabilities and experience, may need to coordinate other TBD tasks not directly related to the investment management task and work with the current international non-profit until at least 2020.

2) PROGRAM MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES: The second task embraces a core set of capabilities that relates to the scholarship program, including experience in establishing a cost-effective approach for soliciting and selecting scholarship recipients, disbursing funds to chosen educational institutions, and otherwise managing the use of scholarship funds by recipients and participating educational institutions. The interested organization may need to implement these and related tasks as a “bridge” until a capable Afghan institution is identified that can assume management of the scholarship program. The interested organization should have the capability to continue building the capacity of the local organization if one is identified prior to 2020. Alternatively, if a local organization is not identified or deemed ready to manage the scholarship program then the interested organization will need to identify and build the capacity of a new local organization to manage the program. In this regard, the IO may be required to coordinate program management functions with the current USAID grantee which began development of the scholarship program in 2016.

USAID’s long-term objective is to support a partner in the creation of a permanent, self-sustaining mechanism for the funding of women’s scholarships. The expectation is that, by 2020, the endowment will be fully operational, invested in the US and foreign publically traded markets and generating income, and the scholarship award functions will be transitioned to and housed in a new organization, preferably an Afghan one based and operating in Afghanistan.

Expressions of interest are sought from organizations interested in performing either or both of the tasks described in this EOI. Responders should clearly indicate if they are interested in performing both tasks or just task one or just task two.

Please respond with your expression of interest including a description of your endowment-related and program management capabilities by 5:00 PM EST August 19, 2016. Please keep your response to 5 pages or less. Please use Sans Serif font size 11 or larger in your response. Any pages beyond 5 and any separate attachments will be discarded and not read. Questions regarding this EOI will be entertained through 5:00 PM EST August 5, 2016.
Please note that no decisions regarding the type of agreement instrument for the two tasks have yet been made. Also, note that your response to this EOI will not be considered as an offer or an application to form a binding agreement with USAID. The EOI also is not a request for pre-qualification information or data. There also will not be a separate pre-qualification process to select organizations to receive requests for applications or proposals (RFA or RFP). USAID plans to undertake a formal procurement process of full and open competition through issuance of an RFA or and RFP, or both, depending on the expressions of interest received from interested organizations.

This posting represents what may become a requirement in the future. This is currently not a bona fide Request for Applications (RFA) or a request for proposals (RFP), and does not commit the government to posting a solicitation or making an award for the tasks discussed below. Organizations that respond to this announcement will not be reimbursed for any costs associated with preparation of their submittals.