U.S. Information Agency, International Broadcasting Bureau, Contracts and Procurement Division, B/PA/AC, Room 2517, 330 C St, SW, Washington, DC 20547

B -- AUDIENCE SURVEY IN ZAMBIA SOL B/PA-98-28 DUE 080498 POC Lorraine Mullen, (202) 260-2933 This public notice is also a written Request for Quotation (RFQ) No. B/PA-98-28 pursuant to procurement of the required services described below using the "Simplified Acquisition Procedures" specified in Part 13 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Price quotations submitted in response to this RFQ that exceed the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (as specified in FAR Subpart 2.101, Definitions) will not be considered as responsive to this RFQ. The U.S. Information Agency's International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) has a requirement, subject to the availability of funds, for a contractor to obtain quantitative data on the size, composition, and media habits of the audience for Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts in Zambia. Quoters are herein requested to submit written price quotations and technical capabilities/experience information for conducting a national survey as outlined below. SECTION A: SURVEY REQUIREMENTS 1) Nature of Survey. Audience data shall be obtained through a national survey of Zambia that is designed to obtain the most accurate possible information about: the number of regular (i.e., weekly) and occasional listeners to VOA's broadcasts; the demographic characteristics and geographical distribution of the audience; the size of the regular and occasional listening audience for other international and domestic broadcasters; and general patterns of media use. The interviews will be face-to-face and they will be conducted in the home of the respondent by a trained interviewer. IBB will require demographic information on each respondent including gender, age, native language, ethnicity, education, occupation, and area of residence. 2) General Responsibilities of Contractor. The contractor shall be responsible for the project design, translation, formatting, pretesting, adaptation, and printing of IBB supplied questionnaires; developing the Sampling Plan; training interviewers; supervising fieldwork; cleaning and encoding survey responses; entering and processing the survey data; ascertaining the representativeness of the sample and weighting the data, if necessary; preparing cross-tabulations in data-books; submitting data on diskettes; and communicating all necessary information and results to the Contracting Officer in a timely manner. 3) Sample Design. Interested quoters are herein requested to submit price quotations for samples of 1,500 and 2,000 adults, age 15 or older, representative by ethnicity, gender, region (urban vs. rural), age, and education of the national population. Approximately half of the interviews shall be carried out in urban regions in order to allow more precise estimates of media use patterns in those areas, with final allocation of the sample to be determined jointly by the contractor and Contracting Officer. Weights shall be derived and applied to the survey data by the contractor in order to adjust for this disproportionate sample allocation (in addition to any other post-stratification weights employed to bring the sample into conformity with the demographic characteristics of the population). If, in the professional judgement of the quoter, certain regions of the country cannot be surveyed for logistical or security reasons, the quoter's price quotation shall so state, providing the Contracting Officer with specific reasons for the proposed exclusion of these regions and the quoter's written estimate of the size of the population that would be excluded from the survey. The sample shall be drawn using recognized probability methods, all the way down to the selection of the individual respondent at the household level. Only one individual per household shall be selected, and at least three attempts shall be made to interview selected respondents before any substitutions for the respondents are allowed. A detailed "Sampling Plan," including stratification criteria, description of the sampling frame, listing of anticipated Primary Sampling Units (PSU), approximate number of interviews in each PSU, procedures for selecting households within PSUs, and procedures for selecting individual respondents at the household level, shall be submitted to and approved by the Contracting Officer prior to commencement of any fieldwork. 4) Questionnaire. The Contracting Officer will provide the contractor with a set of questions prepared by IBB for an interview of approximately 45 minutes, consisting of approximately 70 questions, in English, up to 5 of which may be open-ended questions. This questionnaire will be provided to the contractor in draft form for suggestions and comments, based on the contractor's knowledge of local cultural or political sensitivities. Following receipt of the contractor's comments, IBB will finalize the text of the questionnaire for translation by the contractor into any vernacular languages that are agreed upon by the Contracting Officer and the contractor as being required for successful administration of the survey. The contractor shall prepare translations of the questionnaire in all languages agreed upon and the contractor shall submit these translations to the Contracting Officer for his/her approval prior to the contractor's conducting a pretest. The contractor shall be responsible for compiling a comprehensive list of both local and international broadcast media available in the local environment in the areas to be surveyed. This information will be used to compile a precoded list of stations on the survey and shall be submitted to the Contracting Officer for approval prior to finalization of the questionnaire. Following IBB's review of any contractor comments and the Contracting Officer's final approval of the translations of questionnaires, the contractor shall prepare final versions of the questionnaire in English, and other languages as agreed to, in a form suitable for use by interviewers. 5) Pretest. The questionnaires shall be pretested by the contractor prior to the commencement of the fieldwork. At least 25 pretest interviews shall be conducted by the contractor. The contractor shall provide the Contracting Officer with a written report of the results of the pretest, along with details of any problems encountered and any suggested remedies, prior to the commencement of any fieldwork. 6) Fieldwork. Interviews shall be conducted by experienced field workers who shall be thoroughly briefed by the contractor prior to commencement of any fieldwork. The contractor shall ensure that interviewers are thoroughly familiar with household and respondent selection procedures, call-back procedures, and the structure of the questionnaire, including routing and filtering. Interviewer training shall include practice sessions in administering the questionnaire. A minimum of 10% of the interviews shall be back-checked and 5% of the interviews shall be accompanied by a team supervisor. Quoter's responses to the RFQ shall include a description of the professional qualifications of the proposed interviewers, and a description of the specific training that shall be provided to interviewers to ensure their proper understanding of the survey instrument. 7) Data Processing. The contractor is responsible for data entry, cleaning, and processing. The contractor shall provide printed tabulations of survey results, including percentage responses to all questions, broken down by gender, age group, education level, and urban/rural status. Tabulations shall show the weighted and unweighted base for each question. The contractor shall supply data to the Contracting Officer as an SPSS portable (*.por) or SPSS for Windows (*.sav -- Version 6.1 or lower) file with a complete data dictionary of variable names. The contractor shall also supply raw data on computer diskettes in ASCII fixed format with an accompanying codebook identifying the locations of all variables and the coding scheme. There shall be one data-record for each respondent, and the records shall be of fixed length. If weights are used, weighting factors shall be in the same position on each record, with their location specified in the codebook. Each record shall include a unique respondent ID number, interviewer ID number, PSU ID number, and codes for the precise location and date of each interview, and whether the interview location was categorized as urban or rural. Each record shall include demographic information about the respondent, including: gender, exact age, education level, occupation, and ethnicity. In addition to exact age, the record for each respondent shall be coded by age-group as follows: 15-24; 25-39; 40+. This coding scheme shall be the age categories used in the printed tabulations mentioned above. 8) Technical Appendix. When delivering printed tabulations and raw data, the contractor shall provide a "Technical Appendix," which shall include the following items: -A complete Sampling Plan, including list and maps of PSUs and individual sampling points and the number of interviews conducted at each sampling point -Details of response rates -Interviewer instructions -A brief report on survey operations, including any practical difficulties encountered by the contractor in conducting the survey -The estimated sampling error -The weighting scheme, including details of how the weighting factors were developed and applied by the contractor, as well as the demographic data on which weights were based. 9) Summary of Deliverables See the preceding paragraphs for detailed descriptions of specific requirements for each contract Deliverable. The four Deliverables to be provided to the Contracting Officer by the contractor under this contract are as follows: a. Raw data from the survey compiled on computer diskettes. b. A complete data-set of all survey responses formatted as a SPSS file. c. Printed tabulations of all survey results. d. A Technical Appendix per Subsection A.8. 10) Delivery Schedule. The contractor shall perform the work under this contract in accordance with the following Delivery Schedule: a. Provision of the detailed Sampling Plan to the Contracting Officer within 2 weeks of the contractor's receipt of confirmation of contract award. b. Submission of translated questionnaires within 2 weeks following the contractor's receipt of IBB's draft questionnaire. c. Pretesting to be completed and a Pretest Report submitted to the Contracting Officer within 2 weeks of the Contracting Officer's approval of the questionnaire translations. d. After pretesting and the Contracting Officer's approval of the contractor's Pretest Report, interviewing fieldwork shall begin within 2 weeks and shall be completed by the Contractor within an additional 8 weeks. e. Cleaned, verified, and processed data, and the "Technical Appendix" shall be delivered to the Contracting Officer not later than 6 weeks after conclusion of all fieldwork (See Subsections A.6, Fieldwork, and A.8, the Technical Appendix). SECTION B: SUBMISSION OF RESPONSES TO THE RFQ (i.e., PRICE QUOTATIONS AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION) In the event that all price quotations for the work specified in this RFQ significantly exceed IBB's budget, IBB reserves the right to reduce the scope of the work specified herein. This action could include reduction in the overall sample size and/or restriction of the geographical universe covered during the survey. Each quoter's response to this RFQ shall include sufficient quantitative information on the following technical items to enable IBB to objectively evaluate the quoter's capabilities/experience to successfully perform the work specified in above Section A of this RFQ: a. A detailed description of the proposed research methodology to be used by the quoter for this work, including a specific listing of organizations the quoter shall use for performing fieldwork (if sub-contractors are to be used by the contractor); b. Current information on the qualifications of the quoter's office and field staff who will participate in performing the work specified in above Section A of this RFQ; c. Specific information on the quoter's past experience in conducting media research and survey research in Zambia and East and Central African countries. d. A detailed description of the proposed fieldwork plan, including the quoter's proposed "Sampling Plan" and sampling procedures, the number and type of sampling points and the manner in which interviews shall be allocated across the population of the region covered in the survey; and e. A schedule showing the time required for each phase of the project, consistent with the "Delivery Schedule" specified in above Subsection A.10. SECTION C: SPECIFIC TIMETABLE Upon contract award, the Contracting Officer will provide the contractor with a specific "Timetable," including the contractor's Delivery Schedule prepared in accordance with above Subsection A.10, for the contractor's use in completing all phases of the work; as agreed to between the Contracting Officer and the contractor; and also including the exact dates when each portion of the work shall be completed. This Timetable will be based on the schedule submitted by the contractor (as specified at Item e. of above Section B) with its price quotation, with any modifications to this Timetable being mutually agreed upon by the contractor and the Contracting Officer. If delays in the work are required due to circumstances beyond the contractor's control, the reasons and anticipated length of such delays shall be immediately reported to the Contracting Officer. Unless written approval is granted by the Contracting Officer, all Deliverables shall be received by the Contracting Officer by the dates specified in the Timetable. SECTION D: SELECTION CRITERIA A contract (i.e., Purchase Order) award will be made by the Contracting Officer based on: A) the quoter's Technical Capabilities/Experience (for which there are five (5) equally weighted subcriteria); and B) the quoter's Price quotation. Of the two Selection Criteria, Technical Capabilities/Experience is the significantly dominant criterion over the Price criterion. The Technical Capabilities/Experience subcriteria are as follows: 1. Demonstrated experience in conducting quantitative and/or qualitative research on broadcast media. 2. Demonstrated experience in conducting survey research and/or focus groups in Zambia and other East and Central African countries. 3. Quality of the proposed sampling technique. 4. Quality of the proposed procedures for data collection, entry, and verification. 5. Ability to complete the project in a timely manner by complying with Subsection A.10, Delivery Schedule. Each response to this RFQ shall also include a schedule showing the key project milestone dates (i.e., project start-date; completion date; dates of key events within a project activity; beginning/ending dates, etc.). In addition to specifically addressing the above-stated technical items, a quoter's response to this RFQ shall also provide technical details on any proposed subcontractors who would be engaged to work on this project. Omission of any of the information requested in above Section B pertaining to the quoter and/or any subcontractors proposed by the quoter in performing this contract, will weigh against the quoter during the Contracting Officer's evaluation of the quoter's responseto this RFQ. Firms interested in the above described work are requested to submit their responses to this RFQ (i.e., Technical Capabilities/Experience and Schedule information, and Price quotation) by the close of business (5:00 p.m. EST), Tuesday, August 4, 1998, and they shall reference this RFQ No B/PA-98-28 in their transmittal letter to the Contracting Officer. All questions (technical or otherwise) by a prospective quoter regarding this RFQ shall be in writing. Any questions and the quoter's complete written response to this RFQ shall be sent directly and only to the Contracting Officer for this procurement, Lorraine Mullen, via facsimile at (202) 205-1921. The Price quotation submitted as part of a quoter's response to this RFQ shall be on a separate page from the above-requested Technical Capabilities/Experience and Schedule information. In addition to the quoter's proposed Total Contract Price, the quoter's Price quotation shall be further broken down into the following component prices: a) preparation work; b) fieldwork; c) data processing; d) report preparation, and e) miscellaneous. The Contracting Officer has found and determined that this proposed work is appropriate for an "unrestricted" procurement pursuant to FAR Subpart 19.502 (Setting Aside Acquisitions). All responsible sources may submit a quotation which will be considered. Posted 07/14/98 (W-SN223057). (0195)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0020 19980716\B-0002.SOL)