request for proposal (rfp) for rural household survey in

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REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)

For Rural Household Survey in Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India

Issue Date March 11, 2020

RFP No. 001

Closing date for receipt of Proposal March 24, 2020

RFP Title Rural Household Survey in Bihar and Eastern Uttar

Pradesh, India

PART I: INSTRUCTIONS AND PROCEDURES

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Activity- Abt Associates Inc, invites qualified organizations to submit a proposal to carry out

the “Rural Household Survey in Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India” as specified in Annex A

“Statement of Work” of this RFP. This RFP is issued under Work Order INV-003679 issued under a

Master Services Agreement between Abt Associates Inc. and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation

effective June 29, 2018. Abt anticipates awarding a firm fixed price Subcontract as a result of this

solicitation. Resulting awards will be subject to the Terms and Conditions included in Part III of this

RFP. Issuance of this solicitation does not constitute an award commitment on the part of Abt

Associates, nor does it commit Abt Associates to pay for any costs incurred in the preparation or

submission of a proposal. Abt Associates reserves the right to reject any and all offers, if such action

is considered to be in the best interest of the agreement.

1.2 RFP Content. This RFP contains the following Sections (1) Part I, Instructions and Procedures, (2) Part II, Statement of Work, (3) Part III, Annexes. All of the foregoing are fully

incorporated herein and form an integral part of this RFP.

1.3 Definitions and Headings. Except as otherwise specifically provided herein, all time

periods specified shall be consecutive calendar days. The term RFP is used throughout this RFP to

refer to the entire document, including all attachments. Any headings contained in the text of the RFP

are for reference only, and do not alter, limit, or waive the content of the full provisions.

1.4 Review of RFP. Proposals should be directly responsive to all items, terms, conditions,

specifications, and other documents referred to in this RFP. Any resulting award will be subject to the Terms and Conditions in Section 3.

1.5 Language. All documents submitted in response to this RFP, as well as all correspondence in connection with the RFP, shall be in the English language.

1.6 Questions or Inquiries. Any inquiries must be sent by email, directed to Attention: RFP

Rural Household Survey in Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India RFP no. 001 email: [email protected] by March 13. Responses to questions may be issued as an amendment to

this RFP and made available to all interested prospective bidders. However, given the tight timeline

there will likely be no responses to inquiries.

2.0 INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPERATION OF THE PROPOSAL

mailto:[email protected]

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2.1 Form and Content of Proposal.

(a) All proposals must be in writing, in the English language, and signed and dated by an authorized

employee of the bidder. If provided, Bidders must use the Forms provided in Annexes of this RFP.

(b) The proposal validity period should be at least sixty (60) days following the RFP Due Date. This

should be clearly mentioned in both technical and cost proposal.

(c) All documents should be sent in Microsoft word, Microsoft excel, or pdf format unless otherwise specifically mentioned.

2.2 Submission and Handling of Proposal.

(a) Proposals are to be delivered by email to: [email protected]. The Subject line to state

“RFP for Rural Household Survey in Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India” RFP no. 001

(b) In order to be considered, the original bid must be received at the above email no later than

March 24, 2020 (the “Due Date”) New Delhi, India time.

(c) Proposals shall be submitted in two separate documents, one marked “Technical Proposal” and

the other marked “Cost Proposal.” Once received, they will be held secure and intact.

(d) Technical Proposal. The Technical Proposal typed with each page numbered consecutively can

be in word document, pdf or power-point presentation format. The maximum number of pages or

slides for each component of the technical proposal is given in the table below under Technical Evaluation Section. The Technical Proposal shall include:

(i) Cover Page (Maximum: 1 page or 1-2 slides)

1) State that the proposal is made to Abt Associates Inc. in response to RFP Rural Household

Survey in Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India

2) The full legal name, address, telephone number, fax number, website and email of contact

person of the organization submitting the proposal.

3) Date of submission

4) Signed and dated by an authorized signatory of the organization

5) Bid validity period of at least 60 days

(ii) Technical Proposal (Maximum: 10 Pages or 20 slides)

A complete and comprehensive narrative or outline presentation describing how the Statement of

Work will be implemented and desired outcomes, accomplished. The technical approach should be organized along the technical selection criteria listed in 3.1 and should include timeline

showing the dates when activity milestones will be met and deliverables will be submitted for

approval.

(e) Cost Proposal. The Cost Proposal shall be typed with each page numbered consecutively. The

Cost Proposal shall include:

(i) Transmittal Letter

A statement indicating that the proposal remains available for acceptance by Abt Associates for a minimum of sixty (60) calendar days after the closing date of this RFP. The transmittal letter must

mailto:[email protected]

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include a summary of the offer and its price and be signed by an individual authorized to commit

the bidder.

(ii) Budget: The Budget shall be provided in Indian Rupees (INR). Formulas should be used for

calculating costs rather than calculating costs elsewhere and typing values into cells.

(iii) Budget Narrative: The budget narrative shall provide a budget narrative or budget notes

further explaining the method of calculating costs listed in the budget. The cost narrative should

include any methodology or algorithm used for calculating the proposed cost. Please use template provided in Annex B.

(iv) The Cost proposal must be realistic for the work to be performed, reflect a clear understanding of the technical requirements, and must be consistent with the methods of

performance and materials described in the technical proposal. Please note that the Bidder may be

asked to verify/substantiate the proposed costs.

(f) Proposals may not be altered, corrected, or withdrawn after the Due Date, except that Abt

Associates, at its sole discretion, may permit correction of arithmetic errors, transposition errors, or

other clerical or minor mistakes, in cases in which Abt Associates deems that both the mistake and the intended bid can be established conclusively

3.0 EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS

3.1. Evaluation of Proposal

(a) Proposals received after the Due Date will not be considered. Abt Associates may reject any

bid that (1) is not signed and dated by authorized signatory (2) is not substantially responsive to the

terms and conditions of the RFP, (3) is incomplete, including and without limitation, does not have

requested supporting documents, and (4) is otherwise not generally in order. Such proposals shall be deemed inadmissible.

(b) Proposals received in response to this RFP will be evaluated using the evaluation factors set

forth in this Part. (b) In evaluating proposals, Abt Associates will follow a best value or tradeoff

selection process. The award will be made to the offeror whose final offer represents the best value

using a combination of cost/price and technical or non-cost price factors. The cost proposal will be

evaluated separately with all factors other than cost or price, when taken together, are of more

importance than cost or price.

(i) Technical Proposal Evaluation. The technical proposal is evaluated on the basis of

its responsiveness to the Scope of Work (SOW) as follows:

No Evaluation Criteria Sub- criteria

Points

1. Technical Approach (5 pages or less)

1a Operational approach to run and manage rural

household survey

h ccccoverage coverage

15

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1 b Plan for conducting household survey, including

enumerator team size, number of interviews daily, total

time to complete all interviews, how to reach farmers,

how to ensure farmer availability, any necessary

permissions, and data quality checks.

20

1c Timelines 05

2. Expertise of Firm & Personnel (Capability Statement)

(5 pages or less)

• Record of high quality performance, as indicated by

references.

• Experience conducting agriculture-related surveys.

• Demonstrated flexibility when implementing surveys

in rural settings.

• Experience with Computer Assisted Personal

Interviews/ mobile data collection/ODK and ONA systems

preferred but not required.

• Experience in developing and carrying out robust field

implementation and training plans.

• Experience in developing survey sampling design and

calculating survey weights.

• Experience receiving any required local

approvals/ethics approvals to conduct research

Familiarity with ISO 27000 or NIST CSF cybersecurity

frameworks, preferred

2a Experience and Past Performance of the firm in rural

agricultural surveys

20

2b Existing infrastructure for survey management and

deployment 15

2c Organization profile and capabilities

Qualification and experience of

Supervisors

Field managers (if any)

Survey enumerators

25

Total Technical Proposal 100

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(ii) Cost Proposal evaluation will be based upon the cost proposal and the supporting

narrative provided by the offeror. The cost proposal will be evaluated but will not be assigned a

rating. The evaluation of cost will include a determination of cost realism, completeness, and

reasonableness.

(1) An analysis of the proposed cost will be conducted to determine the validity and

the extent to which it reflects performance addressed in the technical proposal.

(2) Cost/price evaluation will be performed to determine whether the proposed

cost/prices are realistic for the work to be performed, reflect a clear understanding of the

requirements, and is consistent with the unique methods of performance set forth in the

offeror’s technical proposal and budget narrative.

(3) A cost realism analysis may be performed to determine whether the proposed

costs and level of effort are realistic for the work to be performed under the RFP, reflects

a clear understanding of the requirements, and is consistent with the unique methods of

performance set forth in the offeror’s technical proposal and budget narrative. This

evaluation is conducted with the expectation of adequate cost/price competition and will

rely heavily on market forces to determine whether the proposed cost/price is fair and

reasonable. The comparison of proposed cost/price in response to this solicitation is the

preferred technique for this evaluation. Abt may also compare the proposed cost/price to

historical cost/price paid for the same or similar services or independent estimates. Other

techniques and procedures if deemed necessary, may be used to ensure proposed

cost/price is fair and reasonable.

(c) Abt Associates will determine the overall proposal score by using the tradeoff method to

select the best value offer taking into consideration the evaluation for the technical and cost proposals

(d) Abt intends to make the award without discussion however if discussion are necessary Abt

may establish a competitive range composed of the most highly rated proposals and request final

offers.

3.2 Post-RFP and Iterative Negotiation. Abt Associates reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to conduct negotiations in accordance with Abt and/ donor’s policies and procedures and to

request additional information from prospective Bidders to supplement or clarify any aspect of the

proposal documents and to make non-fundamental revisions to the Sub-Agreement if such revisions will be in the interest of our programs. However, Bidders are strongly encouraged to submit their best

offers as Abt Associates may not exercise its right to conduct any negotiations.

3.3 Responsibility. A successful bidder may be required, in order to be awarded an Agreement

pursuant to this RFP, to demonstrate to the satisfaction of Abt Associates that it is a responsible firm

with regard to the specific transaction described in this RFP. In order to be determined responsible, a

bidder must (1) have adequate personnel, financial resources, equipment, and material to perform the Sub-Agreement, or the ability to obtain them; (2) be able to comply with the required or proposed

delivery schedule and, (3) have a satisfactory record of performance, business ethics and integrity.

Abt Associates reserves the right to request additional information relevant to responsibility at any time prior to award.

3.4 Rejection or Award.

(a) Abt Associates is not bound to accept the lowest priced or any proposal and reserves the right

to accept any proposal in whole or in part and to reject any or all proposals. Circumstances in which rejection of all proposals may occur include, without limitation, the following: (1) Supplier is

ineligible to tender under this RFP on any grounds laid down by our donors’ procurement laws,

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regulations and policies, (2) the bid is not accompanied with the required supporting documents, (3)

the bid is not substantially responsive to the terms, conditions and specifications in the RFP, and (4) the bid is not otherwise generally in order. A decision by Abt Associates regarding whether or not to

reject any bid that is or may be inadmissible shall not be subject to question by any Bidder whose bid

is not itself fully responsive and admissible.

PART II. STATEMENT OF WORK

The statement of work is attached as Annex-A Statement of Work

PART III: TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE SUBCONTRACT

The resulting award will be subject to Abt’s standard terms and conditions and applicable Prime

Contract terms and conditions. They are available by request. Data rights and ownership will be

finalized at time of contract.

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Annex-A Statement of Work

Rural Household Survey in Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India

Background:

Abt Associates Inc. (www.abtassociates.com) is a mission-driven, global leader in research and program implementation in the fields of health, social and environmental policy, climate change, and international development. Known for its rigorous approach to solving complex challenges, Abt

Associates is regularly ranked as one of the top 20 global research firms and one of the top 40

international development innovators. It has multiple offices in the U.S. and program offices in more than 40 countries.

Abt Associates is recruiting a survey firm to conduct household-level surveys to support an

impact evaluation of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Agronomy Project, a multi-year effort to increase early-sown wheat. The survey is expected to be conducted in June 2020.

Objective:

The objective is to assess the impact of adopting early-sown wheat on wheat yields and income for farmers in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh by comparing farmers that sow wheat early to

those who do not. The goal is to conduct a household survey in approximately 139 villages across

the state. The sample size is approximately 18 households per village to survey, for a total survey sample of around 2,500 households. The survey instrument will take place after the rabi harvest

and focus on rabi crop, sowing date, yield, input costs, sale quantity, sale price, household

income, with additional questions to gather farmer characteristics and past practices. It will also include questions on how farmers learned about the practice, when they first adopted it, their

motivations for adopting and continuing the practices, any challenges they have faced using it,

and whether the change has impacted their kharif planting practices and income. We will ask

farmers that are not practicing early wheat sowing whether they have heard of the practice and why they have not adopted it. The surveys will be approximately 90 mins each and require rosters

of household members and plots.

Tasks:

TASK 1: Project Management The subcontractor shall attend a kick-off meeting with the Team Leader to ensure that both parties

have a common understanding of the goals of the project and the approach to reaching them. At this

meeting, the subcontractor shall present its planned course of action, including an explanation of the schedule, team composition, key milestones, and deliverables.

The subcontractor shall submit weekly progress reports to the Team Leader when the survey is in the

field. The progress reports must include a description of the following:

1. All activities performed for each task during the week;

2. Problems encountered and proposed or enacted solutions;

3. Number of survey completions, partial completions and refusals;

4. Plans for the upcoming week;

5. A statement as to whether the Subcontract will be completed in accordance with the time frame

specified in the delivery schedule and within the budgeted amount.

6. A safety plan/travel risk mitigation plan for personnel.

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The subcontractor will communicate with Abt Associates Task Team Leader to discuss and resolve

general issues as necessary.

TASK 2: Questionnaire Testing Farmer Impact Survey: The subcontractor shall provide comments on the questionnaire developed

by Abt Associates based on their experience conducting agricultural surveys or other surveys in India.

The subcontractor shall also be responsible for translating the questionnaire into Hindi and other local

languages as needed. The survey will be based on an existing survey, so some of the questions are

already translated. The subcontractor shall ensure quality assurance on the translation by back-

translating the translated version into English, and clearly report on the errors in translation and fixes

made.

The subcontractor is expected to work with Abt Associates to integrate additional real-time quality

checks into the data collection process. For example, if a farmer says that he has 1 hectare of land and

has harvested 200 bushels of wheat, the programmed questionnaire will (1) automatically compute the

yield (2) find that the reported yield is unrealistic (3) prompt the survey administrator to ask

clarification questions to the respondent. Abt Associates will provide the contractor with a list of

required built-in, real-time data quality checks. The subcontractor shall field test the questionnaire

with at least 30 households. The purpose of the pretest is to ensure that farmers interpret the questions

clearly, ensure that the data collection procedure is working, and to provide enumerators with an

opportunity to practice interviewing households. Ideally, the pretest will take place currently with

enumerator training. All training and pretesting shall take place with an Abt team member present.

The main purpose of the field test is to ensure that questions are easily understood by the target

audience, to ensure that questions do not have measurement error (e.g. area of the plots) and to assess

the methodology of data collection (electronic or paper). The subcontractor shall be responsible for

any modifications to the questionnaire after the field test and should budget enough time to fully train

the enumerators with the updated questionnaire.

TASK 3: Survey Field Sample Design The subcontractor shall prepare and submit a complete description of the procedures for implementing

the survey. Farmer Impact Survey: The field implementation plan should include details on how the subcontractor

will achieve as close to a 100 percent response rate as possible.

Farmer Scale Survey: To support sampling for this survey, the offeror shall provide rosters of villages

within Bihar and selected districts of Eastern UP. If feasible, the offeror shall provide rosters of

villages for the sampled villages. The offeror should propose a field sampling plan that describes how they will achieve a random sample of 18 farmers from each village and how fidelity to the sampling

plan will be monitored. Such a plan could include obtaining the roster of villagers from the

appropriate office, or in the absence of such a list the use of a random walk.

The subcontractor shall submit a draft field sampling plan for comments and incorporate the comments and submit a final field sampling plan. This should include a plan for how to do proper

random sampling for the Farmer Scale Survey.

TASK 4: Field Preparations The subcontractor shall:

1. Develop preliminary scripting for fielding electronic data capture before the start of the enumerator training, and a final draft due before data collection starts.

2. Obtain any necessary permissions to meet with farmers in selected regions. It is possible the

implementer or funder will facilitate this process. Abt Associates will have U.S. based IRB

ethics approval prior to the study.

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3. Develop a Field Manual and Training Guide for Enumerators. This will be reviewed by the

Abt evaluation team and any comments are expected to be integrated into final draft. This must be completed BEFORE enumerator training begins.

4. Recruit sufficient interviewers and supervisory interviewer staff, including bilingual

interviewers and women interviewers necessary to complete data collection.

5. Prepare an "Interviewer Recruitment and Training Plan" which addresses: dates and locations of training sessions; number of interviewers attending each session; staff who will conduct

training; training methods; and other pertinent topics. The contractor shall submit a draft plan

for comments and submit a final plan after incorporating the comments. 6. Train all interviewers in the use of all data collection instruments. During on-site training,

special attention shall be given to: respondent selection, following protocol, interview

techniques methods for dealing with uncooperative/hostile individuals, and the consequences of falsifying data. Note that the pretest must be incorporated into the training plan.

7. Develop a list of personnel safety protocols for the enumerators which may be adapted to

specific areas and as the security situation in those areas changes.

TASK 5: Data Collection Subcontractor shall collect data by personal interviews at the respondent's place of residence, or farms or any reasonable location specified by the selected respondent. Subcontractor shall use appropriate

Information Communications Technology (ICT) tools for data collection to ensure preservation,

minimal recording error, ease of consolidation and use GIS devices to gather information on geographic coordinates. As a part of data collection, the subcontractor is responsible for:

1. Data Collection Quality Control Plan. This must include the number of backchecks, spot checks

and any other quality control mechanisms to be used during the data collection. This plan should also

outline the format and timeline of reporting on quality control efforts. 2. Response Rates; the contractor is expected to achieve as close to a 100% response rate as possible

for groups A, B and C for the Farmer Impact Survey. Data Collection Schedule

3. Data Security Plan to ensure confidentiality of all data collected.

4. Initial dataset submitted to Abt after the 1st week of data collected, along with providing Abt with ability to monitor incoming data daily for at least the first week (or alternatively, provide daily

datasets in the first week). This is an important quality control mechanism for both the Abt team and

the survey firm. The Abt team will review the data, along with the format and various elements of the data itself to ensure it is being collected correctly.

TASK 6: Data Management and Processing The subcontractor shall produce and submit to the Team Leader a "Data Management and Processing Plan". This plan must include, at a minimum, plans for data management – from receipt of completed

questionnaires through the basic analysis and development of re-coded variables. The subcontractor

shall submit the draft proposed tabulations and report structures for comments and submit a final draft after incorporating comments. The subcontractor shall also describe data entry/cleaning procedures

and software that will be used.

Subcontractor will also tabulate response and non-response by village or area and tabulate number of respondents by village or area.

TASK 7: Data Files and Documentation The subcontractor shall submit all the data as it is entered, and submit at the end of the data collection, a "Raw Data File" composed of all collected data, including partial responses and refusals to

participate, to the Team Leader along with an associated codebook. The raw data file and codebook

should include the variable labels in English. The data file and codebook shall be delivered electronically in .csv or other Stata-compatible format. In addition, the subcontractor shall submit an

“Analytic Data File” that includes the variables generated by preliminary analysis as well as a detailed

description of data weights and any other relevant documentation, when applicable. All datasets must be submitted in a format compatible with STATA (.dta or .cvs) under the following guidelines:

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Data must be structured in “wide” format for household level data and “long” format for

modules collecting roster data. Please see the link below for an explanation of how STATA

defines long and wide formats. http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/modules/reshapel.htm

All variables labels must contain the survey question number and/or letter, as well as the

question itself.

All datasets must be labeled in a consistent manner, clearly showing the modules for which it

has data.

Survey Documentation and Final Report The subcontractor shall produce and submit to the Team Leader full documentation on the

implementation of the survey, documenting the entire methodology used in the survey and adherence

or deviations from the planned schedule and composition of the survey team (this deliverable is primarily a compilation of sections from other task-specific deliverables). The

contractor shall submit a draft report outline, followed by a draft report after the outline is approved

and a final implementation report after incorporating comments.

Deliverables and Timeline:

The Subcontractor shall provide to Abt all reports, documents, and plans mentioned above in Section

II “Services to be Performed.”

Payment will be tied to the approval of designated deliverables. The subcontractor shall

provide the deliverables listed in the below table at the completion date listed in the below

table. Payment will be made within 30 days of the Team Leader’s approval of the

deliverables.

# Deliverable Completion Date Payment % of Total

Subcontract Value

1 Comments on the questionnaire May To be determined by negotiation (TBD)/10% 2 Workplan May

3 Communications Plan May

4 Draft translation of the questionnaire into

the local language

May TBD/10%

5 Draft field sampling plan and quality

control plan

May

6 Draft enumerator recruitment and training

plan

May

7 Draft data management, processing and

cleaning plan

May 11

8 Preliminary script for electronic survey

instrument

May

9 Draft field manual for enumerators and

enumerator training guide

May

10 Final field manual for enumerators and final

enumerator training guide incorporating comments from Abt evaluation team;

May TBD/15%

11 Final enumerator recruitment and training

plan incorporating comments from Abt evaluation team

May

12 Pre-test of survey instrument (both paper-

based and electronic versions) and revised

scripting of electronic survey instrument

May TBD/15%

13 Enumerators training event held and initial

field tests June 1-5

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14 Final data management, and processing plan

incorporating comments from Abt evaluation team approved

June TBD/15%

15 Final implementation plan and quality

control plan incorporating comments from

Abt evaluation team

June TBD/15%

16 Final version of translated questionnaire

incorporating necessary revisions after field

test and final script of survey instrument

(electronic and paper version)

June

17 Submit initial dataset (1 day of data

collection) June 15

th – after

first day of field

collection.

18 Weekly field reports and data sets with detailed updates of implementation

progress,

June 19, 26th, and

July 3rd

.

19 Successful execution of data collection (i.e., the survey) and quality control plan

July

20 Execution of data management and

processing plan, including raw data with

documentation according to Abt’s specifications (e.g. survey design variables)

July (one week after

completion of

fieldwork)

21 Documentation of any data manipulation

that has happened (via dofile, excel

spreadsheet etc)

July

22 Draft field report, including final survey July/August TBD/20%

23 Final data collection report, including final survey

July/August

(The payment schedule above maybe negotiated after selection of the apparent winning bidder)

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Annex-B Budget Template

Budget

Name: Date: Period of Performance: Project Name:

Total Cost

Cost Category Unit Unit Cost Quantity Required (C)

(A) (B) (A x B) =C

1. Salaries (Name, Position)

John, Researcher Days 100.00 0 $0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

Sub-total, Salaries $0.00

2. Fringe Benefits

$0.00

Sub-total, Fringe Benefits $0.00

3. External Consultants

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

Sub-total, External Consultants

$0.00

4. Travel and Transportation

A. Airfare Trip $0.00

B. Ground Transportation $0.00 B. Per diem & incidental

expense Day $0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

Sub-total, Travel & Transportation

$0.00

5. Other Direct Cost

A. Communications $0.00

B. Other expendable goods $0.00

C. Printing & duplication $0.00

D. $0.00

Sub-total, Other Direct Cost $0.00

6. Equipment

$0.00

$0.00

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$0.00

Sub-total, Equipment $0.00

7. Fee (%of cost)

$0.00

Sub-total, Fee $0.00

$0.00

TOTAL

request for proposal (rfp) for rural household survey in

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