Revised Attachment J.1 Statement of Objective (SOO).pdf

WOMEN AND MEN IN AGRICULTURE STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES (REVISED)

I. PURPOSE

USAID seeks to procure technical assistance and services through the Women and Men in

Agriculture (WAMA) Activity, henceforth referred to as the “Activity” or “WAMA.” The purpose of the Women and Men in Agriculture (WAMA) activity is to improve food security for all Afghans, and expand women’s empowerment and benefit by supporting sustainable agricultural livelihoods.

WAMA will focus on private sector-led broad-based market systems development to reactivate the rural economy and preserve the gains of USAID’s investments in agriculture over the last two decades.

The core of Afghanistan's economy is agriculture. For rural households, it provides the primary source of income, a means of reducing poverty, ensuring food security, and ultimately serving as a major catalyst for inclusive economic growth.

Women contribute a significant portion of the labor force for agriculture, particularly in the dairy, animal fiber, saffron, horticulture and honey value chains but still remain in the periphery with limited access to productive resources and have increasingly been subjected to different types of social and economic exclusion.

Afghanistan’s pathway to self-reliance, economic growth and development requires inputs from all productive members of society. When women benefit and are economically empowered, they re-invest in their families and communities, producing a multiplier effect that spurs economic growth and contributes to global peace and stability (WGDP, 2019).

Women’s economic empowerment is a priority of the U.S. Government. USAID has developed a strategic framework aligning with the U.S. government’s broader foreign policy priorities that is designed to save lives, prevent economic collapse and defend human rights, especially for women and girls.

The goal USAID/Afghanistan has set for itself is to “Advance the resilience of Afghan people, especially women and girls.” The Mission intends to meet this goal through Special Objectives

(SpOs), that articulate broad lines of effort to deliver basic services; mitigate further impoverishment; and defend human rights, especially for women and girls.

The proposed USAID Women and Men in Agriculture (WAMA) activity will contribute to the

Mission’s strategic framework Special Objectives 4 (SpO 4) Livelihoods, to improve livelihoods with particular focus on women and youth, specifically IR 4.1: Enhance Food Security through

Climate-resilient Agriculture; IR 4.2: Increase Economic Opportunities for Vulnerable Communities, Especially Women; and IR 4.3: Strengthen Local Partnerships and Regional Linkages.

The USAID framework incorporates four cross-cutting priorities: advancing gender equity and equality, opportunities for youth, catalyzing and supporting localization, and mitigating climate change while addressing its impacts.

Working creatively with the private sector, national and international NGOs, and the Afghan people, USAID will improve livelihoods and enhance women’s role in the economy to foster private sector-https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JRJZHiI5vBkKMOPbWTnQsbByAK-Y5x7e/view?usp=sharing driven economic growth that creates the conditions for social and economic improvements for women.

This SOO allows offerors to propose and price a solution that achieves the outlined objectives and contributes to measurable improvements in food security, women economic empowerment, livelihoods enhancement, and productivity factors that will strengthen agricultural value chains.

The Activity will combine and transition the best practices, successes and lessons learned of select activities from USAID’s Agriculture and Economic Growth programs, including the Agricultural

Marketing Program (AMP), Afghanistan Value Chains Crops (AVC-C) Activity, Afghanistan Value

Chains Livestock (AVC-L) Activity, Afghanistan Value Chains Program (AVCP), and the

Afghanistan Competitiveness of Export-Oriented Businesses Activity (ACEBA), that represented a substantial USAID commitment to support food security and livelihoods, job creation, support for women, and use a market based approach and private sector engagement to achieve results (see

Annex 1 – Table 1 - Conclusions and recommendations from Evaluations and Final Reports under these activities).

II. SCOPE

This Statement of Objectives (SOO) describes the objectives of USAID/Afghanistan for an acquisition that will build resilience of Afghan people through sustainable livelihoods, with a particular focus on sustaining and improving food security and the empowerment of women in agriculture.

The Activity will contribute to improving food security, building household/community resilience to climate change shocks, especially water stress, and generating income for households with a particular focus on women’s (especially women headed households, farmers and women-owned and led businesses) participation in and benefit from the agriculture sector.

When possible, the Activity will also support farmers and communities who transitioned away from poppy cultivation to sustain this transition to USAID supported value chains, as well as recent returnees seeking livelihood opportunities in the agriculture sector.

To foster the shift from recovery to growth, the Activity will have an economic growth component to support increase in income from farming activities, job creation in agro processing firms and the viability of businesses in agricultural related value chains to improve food security.

An Opportunity Response Mechanism (ORM) will address emerging agricultural or economic growth issues within the Activity’s control or to the extent possible. For example, climatic, disease outbreaks and other contextual shocks impacting the agriculture sector in response to the fluid and restrictive nature of the operating environment could utilize the ORM.

Fundamental objectives include:

● Objective I: Food Security Improved through Increased and Inclusive Resilience, Productivity, Diversification and Stability of Agricultural Value Chains

● Objective II: Enhanced Communities’ Resilience to Climate Change-induced Shocks, specifically Water Stress

● Objective III: Women’s Economic Empowerment strengthened, and

● Objective IV: Selected Emerging Agricultural or Economic Growth Issues and Challenges are Addressed Across Afghanistan (this is an Opportunity Response Mechanism (ORM) and offerors are not expected to propose activities for this objective at this stage).

End of Activity Results:

Achievements from current and former USAID activities were considered when defining the expected results of WAMA.

The following results must be reached over the life of the award, and by the end of the Activity to achieve the above objectives:

● At least 50,000 households (50 percent women) benefitted by new agriculture and alternative development activities

● At least 30,000 individuals, (50 percent women) participating in USG food security programs.

● At least 35,000 individuals in the agriculture system who have applied improved management practices or technologies with USG assistance

● $75 million value of annual sales of producers and firms receiving USG assistance

● 6,000 individuals engaged in community work aimed at increasing access to water such as rehabilitating irrigation infrastructure, and building installing, cleaning and rehabilitating small scale water managements structures in their communities.

● Approximately 100,000 MT of food crops produced with the Activity’s assistance.

● A minimum of 5,000 women apprentices placed with anchor firms operating in the livestock and crop value chains

● $6,000,000 million in new USG commitments and private sector investment leveraged by the

USG in the agricultural sector to support food security and nutrition

● 5,000 full-time equivalent employment created with the Activity’s assistance

● $2 million in lending to agribusinesses and/or farmers

● At least 20,000 individuals supported by the USG to adapt to the effects of climate change

● 10,000 individuals in the agriculture system who have applied climate smart practices or technologies with USG assistance

● 50 women owned or led agribusinesses supported by USG assistance

● 30,000 women farmers with increased access to quality inputs and production techniques as a result of USG assistance

● At least 30 women owned or led agribusinesses participating in trade promotion activities

● $600,000 agriculture-related financing accessed women owned or led agribusinesses as a result of USG assistance

● An average 20 percent increase in profits for women-owned or led agribusinesses.

This SOO does not state how the work is to be accomplished but provides potential offerors with the flexibility to develop cost-effective solutions and the opportunity to propose innovative approaches to meet the stated objectives and results. Based on this SOO offerors will submit a Performance

Work Statement (PWS) which describes a market-based and transaction-driven approach to achieve the objectives of the activity and economic impact of interventions. The PWS must enable USAID to assess the performance of the work against specific, clear, and measurable performance standards

(i.e., in terms of quality, quantity, timeliness, etc.) and show the method of assessing contractor performance against the performance standards.

III. CONTRACT LENGTH AND PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

a) Period of Performance: WAMA’s period of performance is five years from the date of contract award with a Total Estimated Cost (TEC) of $60,000,000.

b) Place of Performance: The geographic focus of this activity will be between 10-14 provinces across Afghanistan. We encourage the Offerors to consider areas where development programs will achieve the highest impacts keeping in mind feasibility and safe access. In unforeseen circumstances such as, but not limited to, context changes, crisis, or emerging economic challenges during implementation of this activity, the offerors should allow for a flexible and safe implementation. The activities could be implemented in other regions and provinces subject to USAID’s review and approval during the activity implementation stage.

IV. BACKGROUND

Afghanistan is traditionally and remains primarily an agrarian country with approximately 80 percent of the population engaged in agriculture. Even after the August 2021 fall of the Government of the

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Taliban, agriculture remains a backbone of Afghanistan’s economy and a key productive sector and source of livelihoods for the majority of the population.

Despite the prominent role of agriculture in Afghanistan’s economy, its potential to fully contribute to food security and poverty alleviation is yet to be realized. Low agricultural production, heavy reliance on natural resources, and limited alternative livelihood opportunities in rural areas has contributed to the overexploitation of resources, internal displacement, and extreme poverty.

In recent years, Afghanistan has experienced numerous hazards including natural, political, socio-economic and significant economic turmoil.

Food Insecurity. The compounding impacts of these challenges during prolonged dry conditions imposes tremendous pressure on the agriculture sector, escalating an already alarming food security scenario. A third of the population of Afghanistan is classified in a food security crisis level or worse

(IPC (2023), ‘Afghanistan: Acute Food Insecurity Situation for October 2023 and projection for

November 2023-March 2024). This situation is driving families deeper into poverty and desperation, as the country continues to face an exceedingly fragile economy and one of the world’s worst food insecurity and malnutrition crises.

Other key issues in the agriculture sector include: 1) gender challenges; 2) need for alternative livelihoods for poppy farmers and communities after the Taliban 2022 ban of poppy cultivation, and the influx of Afghan returnees from neighboring countries; and 3) the on-going emerging needs/threats focused on climate and disease outbreaks.

Gender Challenges. The specific challenges that Afghan women in agriculture face today include, but are not limited to the following:

Unpaid workers: Women constitute around 43 percent of the agriculture sector's workforce, but systemic and cultural constraints limit their participation in and benefit from the sector. Female acceptable roles in agricultural value chains include cultivation, irrigation, weeding, removing stones from the land, bundling crops, threshing, cleaning seeds, harvesting on the family plots for household consumption, and minimal processing such as drying and packing raisins and almonds. Other activities include care providers for small livestock involving all activities from breeding, raising small animals, milking, spinning wool, tailoring and carpet-weaving. Though labor intensive, these activities are considered part of household chores (home based activities) and therefore their work is unpaid and often unrecognized. 67.4 percent of women employed in the agricultural sector work as unpaid family members (ALCS, 2019).

Limited access to markets: Disadvantages of home-based activities include isolation from other key players in the value chains. Requirements of a mahram for travel and in places where women’s only markets have been closed, have disconnected women from markets and curtailed women’s physical access to resources and services required to be successful. Furthermore, areas such as access to extension services, training and credit (whose selection is based on land ownership) disadvantages women who don’t normally own land. (Netherlands Enterprise Agency, 20161).

Limited access to education: The 2022 edicts limiting women’s education to the sixth grade, impedes basic academic advancement and women’s productive capabilities. As a result, with little or no access to quality improvements and quality control knowledge, the productivity capabilities of women are severely diminished, frustrating women’s efforts to sustain their households.

Food insecurity: Female-headed households are disproportionately more food insecure compared to those headed by men making female headed households more susceptible to food and nutrition insecurity. Women in male-headed households also need support as their access to resources and services, including credit, training, extension, inputs, and trading and marketing networks is also severely curtailed. Women in Afghanistan continue to have one of the lowest qualities of life ratings in the world (CDCS, 2018).

Unemployment crisis: The ongoing economic crisis has impacted most of the population in

Afghanistan, and specifically women. About 25 percent of female employees lost their jobs because of the Taliban’s edicts and restrictions on women, impacting their ability to generate income and their movement in public spaces (International Labour Organization (2023), ‘Women bear brunt of

Afghanistan job losses’).

These gender inequalities deny women working in the agriculture sector the ability to increase their productivity and income, ultimately adversely affecting the level of food security and nutrition of households and communities. The highly restrictive nature of women’s participation in the Afghan economy comes at a great cost to Afghanistan’s ability to increase productivity, develop its economy and improve the overall wellbeing of its population.

Climate change. Another key factor affecting the growth of the agriculture sector is climate change and water stress. Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. Climate projections for Afghanistan suggest a future of higher temperatures, reduced rainfall, and higher evapotranspiration with an increased frequency of extreme events such as floods, droughts and storms. Climate impacts have downstream consequences for vulnerable communities, ecosystems and water resources for livelihoods, drinking, and food security. Water stress and increasing salinity is preventing many farmers in both crops and livestock value chains from scaling up their economic activities.

Ban on poppy cultivation. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) survey on

Afghanistan Opium in 2023 reveals a dramatic reduction in opium poppy cultivation. Nationally, the

1 Netherlands Enterprise Agency (2016), Addressing the obstacles for Afghan SMEs to employ women and support their economic empowerment.

cultivation area declined by 95 percent, a clear adherence to the ban announced by the Taliban in

April 2022. The income generated from opium had supported the wider licit rural economy, benefitted local businesses and provided seasonal jobs. To deter farmers from poppy cultivation, it is imperative to provide alternative livelihood support to those transitioning away from opium cultivation.

Afghan’s returning home. The recent influx of Afghan returnees from neighboring countries presents another crisis with an estimated 770,000 Afghans expected to return by July 2024.

Returnees are most likely to cite lack of employment opportunities as one of the biggest problems upon return as more people are reaching working age and entering the labor force, while the capacity of the labor market to provide jobs for them cannot keep up. A significant portion of 2023 returnees identified themselves as unskilled laborers and cited employment/livelihoods as their primary needs.

By supporting the resilience and stability of agricultural value chains, and the empowerment of women in agriculture, the WAMA Activity will achieve positive and measurable impacts on food security, enhanced women’s livelihoods, and inclusive and sustainable growth of agricultural value chains.

V. STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES (GOAL, DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS,

RESULTS AND OBJECTIVES)

The overarching goal of this Activity is to improve agricultural livelihoods of Afghans, particularly women, youth, and minority groups.

The development hypothesis behind this activity is: IF food security and inclusive resilience, productivity, diversification and stability of agricultural value chains are improved, and communities’ resilience to climate change-induced shocks, specifically water stress, is enhanced and women economic empowerment strengthened; THEN agricultural livelihoods of Afghans, particularly women, youth, and minority groups, will be improved.

In pursuit of the activity’s overarching goal, the Contractor must achieve the following performance objectives identified by USAID.

(1) Food Security Improved through Increased and Inclusive Resilience, Productivity, Diversification and Stability of Agricultural Value Chains

(2) Enhanced communities’ resilience to climate change-induced shocks, specifically water stress,

(3) Women Economic Empowerment strengthened, and

(4) If applicable, selected emerging agricultural or economic growth issues and challenges are addressed across Afghanistan (Opportunity Response Mechanism (ORM)).

In many cases, a given activity will contribute to more than one objective.

Objective 1: Food Security Improved through Increased and Inclusive Resilience, Productivity, Diversification and Stability of Agricultural Value Chains

This objective supports activities expected to result in increases in productivity, commercial viability and growth of agribusinesses, and private sector-driven services, with direct positive effects on food security and the creation and sustainability of agriculture-based livelihoods. WAMA will partner with relevant private sector partners to address constraints of the productivity and growth of agricultural and livestock value chains.

Activities will maximize impact and may focus on leverage points such as input suppliers, traders linked to large wholesalers, processors, and farmer associations, depending on the identified binding constraints, strategies and interventions to achieve project objectives.

This component will consider the fundamentals of sustainable economic growth by blending humanitarian and development implementation models to respond to the food crisis and needs of women in the agriculture sector and involve economic interventions that are geared towards a more longer-term economic growth and stability of agriculture value chains. WAMA activities will be inclusive and will also target and respond to the immediate needs of vulnerable farm households, especially women, farmers who transitioned away from poppy cultivation and returnees, and implement development assistance interventions to strengthen value chains.

Objective 2: Enhanced communities’ resilience to climate change-induced shocks, specifically water stress.

Afghanistan is increasingly vulnerable to severe climate-related events which are exacerbated by on-going environmental degradation and climate change. Recently, Afghanistan has experienced multiple recurrent natural hazards due to climate change. Resilience to climate shocks and environmental degradation is often lowest among the rural poor, farm families, and other marginalized groups who have few resources and minimal power. If unchecked, these external shocks may cause large-scale population displacements, destruction of crops and livestock often resulting in food insecurity and poverty.

The Contractor must implement activities to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change and water stress on livestock and food crop value chain actors, build the resilience of communities to deal with environmental shocks, and integrate adaptation activities that will allow for climate-smart agriculture and inclusive community-based natural resource management.

Objective 3: Women Economic Empowerment strengthened.

This objective focuses on the integration and empowerment of women in agriculture. It supports the creation and growth of women-owned or led businesses to successfully operate and succeed in the agriculture sector. The component also provides a pathway for women’s employment through market-driven technical skills building, training, internships and apprenticeships. Farm and home-based activities for women will be supported to bolster self-employment which increases family income, elevates women’s value to the family and promotes women’s empowerment and self-reliance.

Conducting comprehensive initial needs assessments to understand the context and assess the needs, which are crucial for developing effective livelihood interventions aligned with women’s needs, capacities, cultural norms, market demand and the environmental conditions will be required.

Objective 4: Selected emerging agricultural or economic growth issues and challenges are addressed across Afghanistan (Opportunity Response Mechanism).

An Opportunity Response Mechanism in the amount of $5,000,000 of the total award budget will be set aside to be able to respond to emerging, unanticipated, and unforeseen opportunities and challenges in Afghanistan’s fluid political environment within the scope of this PWS. Examples of interventions may include, but not limited to climatic, disease outbreaks, and other contextual shocks impacting the agriculture sector. The ORM will give USAID the flexibility to quickly and efficiently respond to problems or to design activities to address unforeseen events or opportunities that constrain attainment of the Contract objectives. The ORM, in the entire amount of $5,000,000, will be subject to available funding and identified opportunities and/or challenges. Both the Contractor and USAID may initiate an activity request under the ORM in the implementation stage.

All ORM requests must be submitted for Contracting Officer’s approval and will be supported by the

Contractor’s separate budget and an activity description for the ORM activity(ies). All requests to utilize the ORM must contribute to attainment of one or more of the three primary Contract objectives defined above. If the ORM, or a portion of the ORM, is not utilized by the end of

WAMA’s third year, the COR or the Contractor may request that the ORM be realigned into the standard program funding partially or in full, subject to funding availability and with the final approval authority of the Contracting Officer. Not all of the ORM must be used at one time and multiple interventions can be considered.

VI. PARTNERSHIP APPROACH – GRANTS UNDER CONTRACT

The Contractor will be authorized to use Grants Under Contract (GUCs) to issue grants to support the activities under the relevant components of the WAMA Activity. The Contractor must reserve a minimum of$10 million for grants under contract to locally registered for-profit and nonprofit organizations. USAID must be significantly involved in establishing grants guidelines and selection criteria and must approve the grant recipients. All requirements that apply to USAID-executed grants in ADS 302.3.4.13, will also apply to grants executed by the contractor. USAID does not authorize contractors to execute or administer agreements on its behalf.

The Contractor must set-aside funds for grants under contract and subcontracts to support activities under the four objectives of the Activity. Grants benefiting for-profit firms should be market driven, inclusive, competitive, and require a significant cost share contribution from a benefiting company or organization, when appropriate.

VII. OPERATING CONSTRAINTS AND GENERAL CROSS-CUTTING

REQUIREMENTS

a. Security: The security environment in Afghanistan continues to be challenging and will have an impact on implementation of the Activity. The PWS must incorporate a description of how the implementation methodology has been developed to mitigate, to the extent possible, the constraints that the security situation places upon implementation.

b. Budget: Activity funding will be approved annually through the USAID/Afghanistan

Operational Plan (OP). The activity will be expected to provide adequate budget, narrative, and results information to meet the planning and reporting demands of the Mission Strategic

Framework.

c. Community-level buy-in and do no harm: To operate in any district, the Activity must get the green light from existing local governance structures (e.g., meeting with the Rais Shura) and/or gain support through multiple actors (e.g., religious leaders, elders, male family members, community leaders, and Afghan businesses) for women’s engagement in the sector2.

After community-level buy-in, culturally appropriate messaging through respected community leaders will invite male family members to understand the family’s economic benefit through women’s engagement in the agricultural ecosystem. This is not new – Afghan women have always been involved in agriculture – the key is adapting women’s engagement within the newly established social structure at community level.

d. Local Capacity/Sustainability: USAID emphasizes the importance of the utilization of local systems. Emphasis must be placed on the human and institutional capacity development of local institutions/companies by taking a facilitation role and delivering the majority of assistance through existing local business associations, local community structures, business service providers, education institutions, and academia. Partnerships with local and/or local institutions and advisors must be used to the greatest extent possible. Sustainability must be considered a top priority. WAMA partners and beneficiaries must be empowered and have the capacity to take ownership of development processes and maintain the activity’s results and impacts beyond its life. The contractor must also work with business service providers and associations to strengthen their capacities to develop a sustainable mechanism for Afghan businesses to receive business advice related to their operation and activities as needed in the future without donor help.

e. Coordination: The Activity must consistently and effectively coordinate with USAID and other donor funded activities as well as relevant local and private sector players to the greatest extent possible to ensure complementarity, create synergies, and maximize impact. The

Contractor must actively look for opportunities to join efforts with other donors involved in the sector and ensure that program interventions generate synergies and avoid duplication of efforts.

f. Innovation: USAID promotes innovation in the design and implementation of interventions to enhance development impact enhancing public-private partnerships, new technologies, utilization of local Afghan human and institutional expertise, and other innovative initiatives.

g. Environmental Best Practices: The Contractor must comply with USAID and USG environmental procedures. Throughout the life of the WAMA activity, the Contractor must work with the Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and the Mission's Environmental

Officer (MEO) to ensure that proper mechanisms are in place to monitor environmental compliance of WAMA interventions where appropriate.

h. Gender Integration and Inclusive Participation: Ensuring that agricultural interventions consider and address gender disparities, while fostering the active involvement of all stakeholders regardless of gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status, will contribute to

2 Since the USG, along with the rest of the world, does not recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government, USAID’s strategy entails providing basic needs assistance directly to Afghans through international and national NGOs, public international organizations, such as UN agencies, multi-donor organizations, such as the World Bank, and leveraging the private sector. This approach will require USAID to find new local partners and try different approaches to discover what works and what doesn’t in achieving its objectives. It also requires diligence in ensuring that funds are not supporting the

Taliban or sanctioned groups and individuals and that it safeguards its programs from Taliban interference or diversion.

building a more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive agriculture sector in Afghanistan. This must be integrated into every activity. It is not an after-thought but should be baked into every approach.

USAID has emphasized commitment to gender equality in all aspects of its development programs. Interventions under this activity must address gender equality and women’s empowerment. The activity must seek ways to engage men’s support in any economic empowerment opportunities aimed at women to avoid unintended consequences.

The Contractor must incorporate a detailed Gender Analysis and Gender Action Plan into the annual Work Plan that will demonstrate a gender assessment of each intervention and how it has the potential to affect men and women differently. Under this framework, the Contractor must periodically review and update these assessments as the annual Work Plan is updated and must include them in decision-making with the COR regarding which intervention to focus on.

This must be incorporated into the Activity Monitoring, Evaluation, Collaboration, Learning, and Adaptation Plan (Activity MECLA Plan) and must include indicators to measure the impact of interventions on men and women beneficiaries, entrepreneurs, and farmers.

i. Youth Integration: The Contractor must focus on enabling youth to access economic and social opportunities, share in economic growth, live healthy lives, and contribute to household, community, and national well being. The activity will build upon results of current and past

USAID agriculture and economic growth activities and will address both demand and supply side of youth employment.

j. Market Systems Development (MSD): The activity must promote private sector partnerships approaches. These approaches are more sustainable than others since they foster long-term change driven by local system actors that are aligned with market-based incentives, including empowering the most economically and socially disadvantaged people.

k. Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA): The Contractor must incorporate a collaborating, learning and adapting approach that: a) generates, captures, shares, and applies information and knowledge to support and improve development outcomes; b) promotes collaborative learning and exchanges with relevant institutions, stakeholders, and development partners; c) coordinates efforts to increase synergies and encourage innovations and sound resource management; and d) supports sharing lessons learned and best practices and using innovative methods to reach stakeholders (e.g. virtual knowledge management platforms.