USAID Africa Trade and Investment Partnerships Opportunity: 

USAID Zambia Addendum

 

Funding Opportunity Title:                               ATI Partnerships in Africa Trade and Investment in the                                                                                           Market Systems Activity 

Announcement Type:                                        Annual Program Statement

Funding Opportunity Number:                         APS-ATI-001

Issuance Date:                                                    December 8, 2023

Deadline for Questions:                                     N/A – accepted on rolling basis

Closing Date Concept Papers:                         July 31, 2024 5:00PM - CLOSED

Submit Concept Papers to:                               USAID Africa Trade and Investment Initial Plan  

Addendum:                                                          USAID Zambia Tradeboost APS Addendum

INTRODUCTION

The USAID Africa Trade and Investment (ATI) program is designed to bolster the U.S. Government’s ability to boost trade and investment to, from, and within the African continent. The continent-wide program is USAID’s flagship effort in support of the Prosper Africa initiative and will expand and accelerate two-way trade and investment between African nations and the United States.

Driven by market demand, ATI embraces innovative approaches to achieve its goals. ATI is designed as a small, core set of centrally coordinated technical and institutional support activities and a large, flexible performance-based subcontracting and grants under contract facility designed to support the needs and opportunities that USAID Missions and the private sector identify.

PURPOSE AND BACKGROUND

The overall goal of TradeBoost is to increase trade and investment that generates inclusive growth, particularly to women and youth, through climate-friendly approaches to: increase access to market development and information; facilitate trade deals and provide targeted technical assistance; and, improve access to finance and investment opportunities. To respond to the current economic environment, USAID, the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ), and other stakeholders are working with TradeBoost to design and set up a flexible and responsive trade and investment platform that will easily pivot to new challenges and opportunities. TradeBoost is also providing targeted, firm-level, and investor assistance to reduce transaction costs and/or information asymmetries to catalyze developmentally beneficial and gender-equitable investments. TradeBoost provides needed technical assistance to identify and address market challenges impeding the pro-poor and inclusive growth of Zambia’s economy. The program seeks to partner with small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), financial institutions (banks and non-banking institutions), investors, exporters/importers, as well as larger, catalytic private sector partners.

Objectives

The objectives of this activity are to:

  • Increase exports and domestic trade;
  • Improve access to trade finance;
  • Conduct market research, intelligence, and development;

Activities

To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the partner will implement the following illustrative activities, but are not limited to:

  • Assist existing businesses in developing, expanding trade, and attracting investment (B2B).
  • Support innovative concepts to enhance access to climate finance for other Zambian partner firms.
  • Support enterprises with technical assistance that leads to increased trade and investment.
  • Boost the facilitation of investment in gender-inclusive agriculture information services including infrastructure and equipment (no construction will be funded through ATI).
  • Support the establishment of a fund that will attract additional investment to expand external trade
  • Support initiatives that seek to identify gender-equitable trade facilitation and promotion interventions
  • Establish a stronger footprint regionally by expanding operations in export trade activities, and confirmation of export orders.
  • Support the enhancement of inclusive market access for Zambian small-to-medium-scale farmers.
  • Establish and demonstrate increased gender equal access to market information by the SMEs
  • Identify and boost deal pipelines generated to increase export and domestic trade sales.
  • Aggregate grain commodities and grain storage (i.e., maize, soya beans, wheat, ground nuts, sunflower, etc.).
  • Implement trade finance for consolidated exports from Zambia especially for SMEs

 Selection criteria:

The concept should indicate the following:

  • Ability to support smallholder farmers in Zambia to increase access to markets for their produce both domestically and internationally
  • Demonstrated co-investment by the organization
  • Demonstrated commitment to women and youth employment within the firm's workforce and expected activity outcomes.
  • Demonstrate ability and experience in executing activities within the Zambia context

General Implementation Structure

Upon selection and award, ATI will work closely with the awardee(s) to determine the contract structure including final timelines, deliverables, and associated costs. Additionally, ATI and USAID will also work closely with the awardee(s) on the overall learning agenda, including the appropriate cadence for reporting, communications, and other general ongoing project management activities, as well as be a resource to help the awardee achieve overall objectives.

Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (ME&L)  

DAI will work closely with the subcontractor to define appropriate indicators for the overall interventions based on applicable ME&L indicators as identified by ATI and the USAID stakeholders. ATI will work with the subcontractor to develop the ME&L plan at the kickoff, edit as needed during implementation (e.g., if additional transactions are added), and will collect and review data from the subcontractor for requisite reporting to USAID throughout the life of the activity. The subcontractor will be required to reasonably maintain and report on relevant data as part of the periodic check-in process. DAI will conduct data quality assessments as necessary. In many cases, the subcontractor must be willing to share results for at least a six-month period following the completion of their subcontract for ATI and USAID to accurately capture results (e.g., an investment that closes after the period of performance but was facilitated during the contracted support).

Place of Performance 

The place of performance is in Zambia and potential applicants should anticipate the need for frequent in-country visits. Potential applicants should provide details on their approach to working in relevant countries as the activity requires. The selected firm(s) will report to the ATI team members based in Nairobi and South Africa and work closely with USAID Zambia.

Implementation Timeframe

The activities outlined above are estimated to take place over a 12-month period, although potential applicants should propose a timeline commensurate with their technical approach. To respond to this request, potential applicants may propose their own alternate timelines, work plans, and level of effort associated with the various components of the activity in line with their proposed approach.

Information on Applying:  CLOSED

Powered byFormsite