- INTRODUCTION
The United States Energy Association, headquartered in Washington, DC, is an association of public and private energy-related organizations, corporations, and government agencies. USEA represents the broad interests of the U.S. energy sector by increasing the understanding of energy issues, both domestically and internationally.
Through a cooperative agreement with the USAID Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3), USEA implements the Energy Utility Partnership Program (EUPP), available to all USAID-assisted countries and USAID Missions. EUPP supports the efforts in USAID-assisted developing countries to increase environmentally sustainable energy production and to improve the operational efficiency and increased financial viability of their utilities and related institutions, with the goal of increasing the access of these countries to safe, reliable, affordable and environmentally sound energy services.
- BACKGROUND
Lack of reliable, and affordable power is a fundamental constraint to economic growth in Afghanistan. Data from the 2017 World Bank Doing Business Report shows that Afghanistan gets the lowest possible score on “reliability of supply and transparency of tariff” (a score of 0 out of 8) and for “quality of supply” (0 out of 8).
The primary contributors to Afghanistan’s power sector challenges are insufficient supply to meet growing demand, a financially weak utility, and inadequate sector governance and management. Among USAID’s chief priorities is to “build the capacity of Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) to operate as an effective, financially sustainable, and transparent national utility.”
To respond to these challenges USEA will deploy a team of international energy consultants to develop an assessment of Afghanistan’s energy sector, focusing on governance and management issues. The assessment will also include recommendations for improving the country’s energy sector institutions and processes to support the large-scale private investment and improved commercial performance needed to power the country’s economic growth.
The purpose of this RFP is to solicit proposals from various candidate organizations or individuals, conduct a fair evaluation, and select one (1) local logistics and administrative support specialist deemed most suitable to provide assistance to USEA and its team of consultants deployed to Afghanistan within the framework of this activity.
