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PRGI/MyFedAccess
Contract Activity & Project Profiles: Africa - Sierra Leone

1.    Acquisitions & Assistance Training Course for Cognizant Technical Officers (CTOs)
2A. Displaced Children & Orphans Fund -- 2B. Patrick J. Leahy War Victims Fund


Contract Activity:    Acquisitions & Assistance Training Course for Cognizant Technical Officers (CTOs)


Background:    The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) routinely enters into contracts with vendors to acquire a variety of goods and services in support of its development projects and initiatives. When requirements that need to be fulfilled are identified, the requesting Program/Project Office submits its Scope of Work (SOW) to a Contract Officer. In turn, the Contract Officer incorporates the SOW into the resultant Request for Proposals/Quotations (RFP/Q).

To help ensure the agency receives responsive Proposals/Quotations, the SOW and RFP must clearly describe the technical requirements, as well as the rules and regulations that must be followed by all vendors. The next critical step in the Acquisitions & Assistance process is evaluating the Proposals/Quotations that are submitted by prospective vendors. Finally, after a contract is awarded, a Cognizant Technical Officer (CTO)--historically known as the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative--oversees the actual delivery of the goods and/or services that were procured.

Certain procurement policies are subject to change, and there is a constant turnover of Contract Officers and CTOs; hence, ongoing training must be provided in all phases of the Acquisition & Assistance/Procurement process to ensure compliance with the prevailing procurement policies.

Project Profile:    Professional Resource Group International, Inc. (PRGI) was contracted to design a curriculum and training manuals, provide Subject Matter Experts, and Professional Facilitators to assist government procurement personnel in delivering the Acquisition & Assistance training course for Contract and Cognizant Technical Officers from Sierra Leone and other countries throughout Africa, Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, Latin America (including the Caribbean Basin), and the Middle East. Case studies, audio-visual materials, small group discussions, and other tools were used to enhance the effectiveness of the overall training presentation.

The course included instructions and guidance on how to write a comprehensive Scope of Work and how to evaluate responses to Request For Proposals/Quotations.

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Contract Activity:    Displaced Children & Orphans Fund


Background:    An estimated 135 million children living in developing countries lack the support and protection of parents or suitable guardians. These most vulnerable children are usually innocent victims of dire social and economic distress, disease, or conflict. The number includes perhaps more than 400,000 unaccompanied refugee or internally displaced children, 200,000 child combatants, more than 100 million street children and 34 million children who have lost one or both parents to disease or other causes.

With support and encouragement from Congress, the U. S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF) began to address the needs of orphans in 1989. Its mission is to strengthen the capacity of families and communities to provide care, support, and protection for orphans, unaccompanied minors, and war-affected children. The fund works through nongovernmental organizations (NGO) in developing countries to develop models and implement programs that provide direct service to children and support local organizations so that work can be sustained beyond the length of the grant.

Displaced Children and Orphans Fund was Active in 25 Countries

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*Democratic Republic of the Congo-Kinshasa


Support programs for displaced children and orphans fall into the following categories:

• Children Affected by War - With no fewer than 25 civil conflicts being waged at the present time, more than 500,000 children are thought to be unaccompanied or separated from their families. Some 300,000 are thought to actually be fighting in these conflicts.
  
  

• Children Orphaned by AIDS - In just the 23 countries included in USAID's study, Children on the Brink, the number of children orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic will increase from under 25 million in 1990 to over 41 million in the year 2010.
  
  

• Street Children - An estimated 100 million children work or live on the streets of the developed and developing worlds. They are the innocent victims of family financial distress, and social, economic and political upheaval. Over the past decade, the problem has worsened, leaving a tremendous loss of human potential and a detrimental impact on economic and social development.
  
  

• Children with Disabilities - Stigmatized by cultural values and religious beliefs, they are hidden in back rooms or placed in government institutions, displaced from communities and society. DCOF is supporting community-based approaches to provide care and training in life skills.
  
  

Project Title in Sierra Leone:    War Affected Youth Support (WAYS) Project

Cooperating Agency in Sierra Leone:    UNICEF

Background:    Thousands of children have been killed or injured in the war in Sierra Leone. In Freetown alone, approximately 3,700 children are separated from their families, and an additional-perhaps larger-number of children are currently separated from their families and serving with the rebel or civilian defense forces. In 1997, at least half of the estimated 6,000 rebel soldiers were thought to be children.

The psychological impacts of war on former child soldiers are harder to detect, and potentially more debilitating, than physical trauma. These impacts appear to be greatest when a child's war experience undermines his or her social connections.

Project Description in Sierra Leone:    The project seeks to reunite and reintegrate unaccompanied children with their families and communities; develop long-term arrangements for unaccompanied children who cannot be reunified with their families and communities; ensure that unaccompanied and other vulnerable children have access to basic education, primary health care, and safe water; strengthen the capacity of the Child Protection Network, which guides the demobilization and social reintegration of child soldiers, including the capacity of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs to sustain quality follow-up of war-affected children; and produce a compendium of best practices on interim care, reunification, and reintegration of war-affected children.

Project Profile:    Professional Resource Group International, Inc. (PRGI) was contracted by USAID to administer these funds and provide Technical, Logistical, and Administrative Support Services for displaced children and orphans in more than 20 countries, including Sierra Leone. Since 1989, DCOF has contributed more than $74,000,000 to programs in these countries. Funds were used to expand support of activities in four new countries while the DCOF was being administered by PRGI.

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Contract Activity:    Patrick J. Leahy War Victims Fund (WVF)


Background:    The War Victims Fund supports programs that provide for the improved mobility of people with disabilities by providing accessible, appropriate prosthetic services. With a renewed focus on quality of service, the fund added patient follow-up and monitoring as part of its projects. Special programs that upgrades medical and surgical services for victims of accidental detonations of unexploded ordnance has been successful in some countries (like Laos) and is being replicated in other countries.

Historically, war victims and other people living with disabilities face daunting obstacles in gaining access to education, training, and employment opportunities. Appropriate policies and construction codes for barrier-free accessibility for people living with disabilities can help overcome these obstacles. Toward this end, an innovative program of assistance in Vietnam that began with a focus on barrier-free accessibility has resulted in passage of a comprehensive national disabilities law. This legislation was drafted with the assistance of Americans who participated in efforts to pass and implement the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Patrick J. Leahy War Victims Fund was Active in 20 Countries

1. Afghanistan	6. El Salvador	11. Laos	16. Philippines
2. Cambodia	7. Ethiopia	12. Lebanon	17. Sri Lanka
3. Colombia	8. Guatemala	13. Nepal	18. Sudan
4. Costa Rica	9. Honduras	14. Nicaragua	19. Uganda
5. Congo*	10. Kenya	15. Panama	20. Vietnam

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*Democratic Republic of the Congo-Kinshasa


Improved economic conditions and the ability to increase earned income are essential to the health and welfare of all individuals, including those living with disabilities. The fund has supported a variety of innovative approaches to increase income-generating opportunities for war victims and their families. Lessons learned from these approaches can be used to develop similar programs in other countries.

As the fund evolved, its agenda became more challenging. Plans were made to include people with disabilities in planning and implementing programs; improved training; expanded community-based rehabilitation; development and production of appropriate wheelchairs; and increased coordination with other donors.

Project Title in Sierra Leone:    Emergency Assistance for P&O in Sierra Leone: Training and
    Components Provision

Cooperating Agency in Sierra Leone:    Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation

Background:    Sierra Leone's eight-year civil war between government and rebel forces has been marked by particularly brutal attacks on civilians by both sides. In a particularly horrific campaign of intimidation, rebel troops brutally cut off the arms of men, women, and children. On May 18, 1999, rebel and government forces signed a cease-fire agreement, which allowed negotiations to take place, and in July both sides signed the Lome agreement, which guarantees humanitarian aid organizations safe and unhindered access to all people in need. Madame Sadako Ogata, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, appealed for aid to Sierra Leone in August, making a special appeal for help for people who have lost limbs. She cited her visit to a rehabilitation center in Sierra Leone as "one of the most shocking experiences of my eight years as High Commissioner."

The French NGO, Handicap International (HI), now provides help, including occupational and psychosocial counseling, for nearly 200 amputees and other war-wounded in Freetown. On October 1, 1999, USAID began funding Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF) to second a prosthetist to HI. The prosthetist is assisting HI in fitting limbs for those on a waiting list, as well as establishing and overseeing a program to train four nationals as prosthetic technicians.

Patrick J. Leahy War Victims Fund
Provides Accessible and Appropriate Prosthetic Services

Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation
Emergency Assistance for P&O in Sierra Leone: Training and Components Provision

Project Description in Sierra Leone:    Objectives are to provide short-term technical assistance to the Handicap International rehabilitation workshop to increase immediate provision of rehabilitation assistance to war-wounded living in and around Freetown. Develop a training program and train nationals as prosthetic technicians. Assess need for prosthetic assistance in other regions of Sierra Leone and address longer-term delivery of rehabilitative assistance in 2-3 locations outside of Freetown.

Project Profile:    Professional Resource Group International, Inc. (PRGI) was contracted by USAID to administer these funds and provide Technical, Logistical, and Administrative Support Services for civilian victims of war in more than 20 countries, including Angola. The Patrick J. Leahy War Victims Fund (WVF) compliments the Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF), both were under the administration of PRGI. Each year, through the efforts of its collaborating partners and the dedicated and professional commitment of their local and international staff, the U.S. Agency for International Development's Patrick J. Leahy War Victims Fund provides assistance to thousands of war victims, their families, and other people living with disabilities.

Since 1989, the Patrick J. Leahy War Victims Fund has worked in war-affected developing countries to provide a dedicated source of financial and technical assistance for civilian victims of war. The fund has now provided over $60 million in more than 16 countries, including Sierra Leone. The fund serves people who suffer from mobility-related injuries, including those with land-mine injuries, and those who suffer from polio as a result of interrupted immunization services.

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Please Click Here to read a Letter from the Principal