Questions and Answers Week of 6.8.20.pdf

FAS FY 20 McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program Notice of Funding Opportunity

Questions/Answers Week of 6/8/2020

1. What should new applicants who not been previous applicants to this McGovern- Dole do in light of the requirements for a specific letter of reference as stipulated in the

NOFO?

Please refer to Part D 3 c iv. Organizational Capacity and Staffing. Applicants are encouraged to select references with knowledge about the applicant’s past performance of projects that are of similar scope and size to the programming in the applicant’s current proposal, including those grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts implemented in the proposed country and/or specifically mentioned in the applicant’s Introduction and Strategic Analysis section of the proposal. References from past food aid programs are allowed but not required.

2. In the case of a consortium/network working in 4-5 countries with partners in each country, which entity’s credentials will be subject to your requirements and assessments?

One entity, with a distinct SAM.gov registration and DUNS number, should be identified as the Applicant. All other involved entities are proposed as subrecipients. Any subrecipient must have an active SAM.gov registration and DUNS number by the time a subaward is signed.

3. We are a consortium proposing to implement this NOFO in five (5) countries and we would like to exclusively procure and distribute food commodities from the respective countries and as close to communities as possible in order to be cost-effective and to boost local economies and promote project sustainability. Is this allowed and are there any specific conditions attached to this approach?

Applicants may propose local and regional procurement of commodities. However, U.S.

commodities are still an integral part of the McGovern-Dole Program.

4. Our consortium proposes to work in 5 countries and wondered whether the budget ceiling for our bid will be restricted to the ceiling of $25 million per a single application or there is flexibility based on the number of countries covered?

The maximum federal value of a proposal is $25 million.

5. We understand applications can be submitted for any country or countries, but that priority will be given to the five countries you have prioritized. However, this is a very heavy-lift application. Can we request some degree of assurance our efforts would not be wasted by submitting a 5-country bid if our application will not be accorded the same priority as the countries you have prioritized in the NOFO?

FAS will review all eligible applications. However, priority will be given to the priority countries listed in the McGovern-Dole NOFO. In a multi-country bid, the Applicant still must adhere to page limits and content guidance in the McGovern-Dole NOFO Part D 3. The FY 2020 NOFO was designed to award single country proposals.

6. Page 58 in the Country Specific Guidance for Madagascar, “Applicants should consider southern Madagascar while ensuring that both the need and likelihood of success are maximized”. Can USDA specify what areas in the southern region? The South East, Deep South?

USDA’s McGovern-Dole, in alignment with the U.S. Mission and USAID Madagascar and the Malagasy government school feeding prioritizations, has identified southern Madagascar as a priority region in fiscal year FY2020 for non-emergency school feeding activities. Thus, any area that geographically falls within southern Madagascar, and also meets McGovern-Dole targeting criteria (e.g., high food insecurity, etc.) as stated in the NOFO, would be considered for FY2020 McGovern-Dole funding.

7. What is the best way for two equal partner companies to proceed with an application? If one company is a foreign organization, is it automatically a sub-recipient?

Should I immediately register a new 50%/50% Illinois company and get a DUNS number and register in SAM? Or should I wait, and if our proposal is approved, is there an option at this stage to change the company name to a new company? Can 2 different companies be listed as the applicant, but with just one set of contact information?

One entity, with a distinct SAM.gov registration and DUNS number, should be identified as the Applicant. All other involved entities are proposed as subrecipients. Any subrecipient must have an active SAM.gov registration and DUNS number by the time a subaward is signed. A foreign organization is not automatically a subrecipient. Please see Part C Eligibility Information. A foreign organization can apply as a prime applicant, however please note an application may only have one prime applicant. Once submitted, a proposal’s Applicant may not change.

8. Can FAS provide information such as Annual Reports, Quarterly Progress Reports, Baseline/Midline/Endline Data Reports, Evaluations on the USDA-funded Food for Knowledge project that was implemented in Mozambique (launched in 2012) as part of the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program?

The food assistance evaluation reports that are cleared for publication are available publicly on USAID’s Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC). The public can most easily access these by following the link available on the FAS website, on each program’s page (here is the McGovern Dole program page, with the evaluations link available on the lower left side of the https://www.fas.usda.gov/programs/mcgovern-dole-food-education-program page). FAS may continue to upload reports in the coming weeks, so applicants may wish to check the DEC periodically. However, FAS is still in the process of clearing past evaluations for publication, so not all existing reports are currently available to the public. Other project documents, such as semi-annual reports, are internal documents and are not available for public use.

9. In developing the Project-Level Results Framework for McGovern Dole Food for Education proposals, may Applicants propose different Intermediate Results?

Yes. As stated on p. 25 of the NOFO, in their RF Applicants may “include any additional results that the proposed project intends to achieve, even those that are not already included in the Program-Level RFs.” Applicants should also “differentiate in the display the results that the proposed project will contribute to vs. the results the proposed project will not contribute to”, as described on p. 24.

10. In the case like Rwanda where existing literacy activities are implemented nationally by USAID, is there a minimum budget that USDA would like to see allocated to additional literacy activities implemented through McGovern-Dole to complement USAID’s literacy initiatives? How best should we plan to measure/evaluate the results of literacy activities within the new McGovern-Dole programming if the design is based more on alignment with existing national literacy initiatives? How should we include literacy within the results framework in the context of Rwanda where additional activities will be designed to complement USAID’s national literacy initiatives?

The NOFO does not list a minimum budget requirement for literacy activities. Applicants should propose contextually appropriate activities and related budgets. Applicants are encouraged to include appropriate justification for their proposed approaches and if feasible, must demonstrate strategic program coordination and complementarity in countries where both McGovern-Dole and USAID have active or planned activities.

As the results framework shows, literacy improvement is a high-level result that a variety of activities may contribute to. And as the NOFO describes in the results framework section, all applicants should distinguish in their graphical results framework between which results their proposed project will contribute to, and which results they will not contribute to, at all levels.

The accompanying results framework narrative and evaluation plan provide opportunities to explain or justify the proposed approach in the specific context of coordinating on literacy with

USAID.

11. Can FAS provide the estimated prices for “all Beef Packer Tallow” and “Salmon, Pink (Canned)”?

The canned salmon averages $4,500 to $5,000 per metric ton. All Beef Packer Tallow is an average of $700 per MT. The tallow is a bulk product not used for human consumption.