B -- AUDIENCE MEDIA HABITS OF THE AUDIENCE FOR VOICE OF AMERICA (VOA) BROADCASTS IN KENYA

Notice Date

August 23, 2001

Contracting Office

Broadcasting Board of Governors, International Broadcasting Bureau, Office of Contracts (CON), 330 C Street, SW, Room 2500, Washington, DC 20237

ZIP Code

20237

Solicitation Number

RFQ CON-01-0080

Response Due

September 10, 2001

Point of Contact

Mr. Wayne Greene, via facsimile at (202) 205-0683 or email at wgreene@ibb.gov

E-Mail Address

Click here to contact the contracting officer via (wgreene@ibb.gov)

Description

This is a written Request for Quotation (RFQ CON-01-0080) pursuant to procurement of the required services as 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 Broadcasting Board of Governors/International Bureau of Broadcasting (BBG/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 Kenya. Quoters are herein requested to submit written price quotations and technical capabilities/experience information for conducting an audience survey as outlined below. SECTION A: QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH. (1) Nature of Survey. Audience data shall be obtained through a national survey of Kenya that is designed to obtain the most accurate possible information about: the number of listeners to VOA's broadcasts; the characteristics of the audience; the size of the audience for other broadcasters; and general patterns of media use. The interviewing shall be face-to-face and conducted in the home of the respondent by a trained interviewer. ( 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 data; ascertaining the representativeness of the sample and weighting the data, if necessary; preparing cross-tabulations in data books; submitting data on diskette; and communicating all necessary information and results to IBB in a timely manner. (3) Sample Design. Interested quoters are herein requested to submit price quotations for a sample of 2,000 adults, age 15 or older, representative by ethnicity, gender, age, and education of the population of Kenya. Approximately 500 of the interviews shall be carried out in the greater Nairobi region, with final allocation of the sample to be determined jointly by the contractor and the IBB. Weights shall be derived and applied to the survey data by the contractor, in order to adjust for this disproportionate sample allocation and as otherwise needed. 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 substitution is allowed. (4) Questionnaire. IBB will provide a set of questions for an interview lasting approximately 45 minutes consisting of approximately 70 questions (in English), up to 5 of, which may be open-ended. The questionnaire shall be provided in draft form for suggestions and comments by the contractor. Following receipt of the contractor's comments, IBB will provide a final version of the questionnaire for translation by the contractor into Swahili and any other vernacular languages that are agreed upon by IBB and the contractor as being required for successful administration of the survey. (5) Pre-test. At least 25 pre-test interviews shall be conducted prior to commencement of fieldwork. (6) 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 interviews shall be back checked and 5% shall be accompanied by a team supervisor. (7) Data Processing. The contractor shall be responsible for data entry, cleaning, and processing. The contractor shall provide printed tabulations of results, including percentage responses to all questions broken down by gender, age group, and educational level. Tabulations will show weighted and unweighted base for each question. The contractor shall provide data to IBB as an SPSS for Windows syntax file (*.sps) (SPSS version 8.0 or lower) file and as an SPSS "*.sav" file with a complete data dictionary of variable names and value labels. (8) Technical Appendix. When delivering printed tabulations and raw data, the contractor shall provide a Technical Appendix describing in detail fieldwork and sampling procedures. (9) Summary of Deliverables. The four (4) Deliverables to be provided to IBB by the contractor under this contract for Section A are as follows: (See preceding paragraphs for detailed description of requirements for each deliverable). (a) Raw data on computer diskette, with codebook. (b) A complete data set formatted as SPSS file (see description above under A.7). (c) Printed tabulations of results. (d) Technical Appendix (see description above under A.8). (10) Delivery Schedule. It is anticipated that fieldwork for this project shall begin around November, 2001. Cleaned, verified data file and technical appendix must be delivered to IBB no later than March 15, 2002. SECTION B: 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 six (6) 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) Professional qualifications of key project leaders; (3) Demonstrated experience in conducting survey research and/or focus groups in Kenya or other East African countries; (4) Quality of the proposed sampling technique; (5) Quality of the proposed procedures for data collection, entry, and verification; and (6) Ability to complete the project in a timely manner. SUBMISSION OF RESPONSES TO THE RFQ (i.e., Price Quotations and Technical Information): In the event that price quotations for the work outlined in this RFQ significantly exceed IBB's budgetary limitations, IBB reserves the right to reduce the scope of the work specified herein. This could include reduction in the overall sample size and/or a reduction in the length and complexity of the questionnaire. Each quoter's response to this RFQ shall include sufficient information on the following technical items to enable IBB to objectively evaluate the quoter's capabilities/experience to successfully perform the work specified in the above Section A of this RFQ: (A) A detailed description of the proposed research methodology, including specific listing of organizations the quoter shall use for fieldwork; (2) Current information on the qualifications of quoter's office and field staff; (3) Specific information on quoter's past experience in conducting media research and survey research in Kenya or other East African countries; (4) Detailed description of the proposed fieldwork plan, including sampling plan and procedures, number and type of sampling points and manner in which interviews shall be allocated across the population of the cities included in the survey; and (5) A schedule showing the time required for each phase of the project. This would include: (1) translation, pre-test, reporting of pre-test results and printing of final questionnaire; (2) completion of fieldwork; (3) completion of data verification, data entry, and codebook; and (4) delivery of data files and media environment/methodological report. 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 above-requested information pertaining the quoter and/or any subcontractors proposed by the quoter in performing this contract, will weigh against the quoter's proposal during the Contracting Officer's evaluation of the quoter's responses to this RFQ. Firms/individuals interested in the above described work are requested to submit their response to this RFQ (i.e., Technical Capabilities/Experience and Schedule information, and Price quotation) by the close of business (3 p.m. EST), Monday, September 10, 2001, and they shall reference this RFQ NO. CON-01-0080 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, Mr. Wayne Greene, via facsimile at (202) 205-0683 or email at wgreene@ibb.gov. The Price quotations 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. The Contracting Officer has found and determined that this proposed work is appropriate for an Aunrestricted@ procurement pursuant to FAR Subpart 19.502 (Setting Aside Acquisitions). All responsible sources may submit a quotation, which will be considered.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010827/BSOL005.HTM (W-235 SN50V8H9)