Attachment 3 Q and A from ARCO Bidders Conference tm.pdf

Request for Proposal 72052322R00002 Alliance for Root Causes and Opportunities (ARCO) Activity

ARCO Potential Bidders’ Conference April 11, 2022

Attachment 3 – Questions and Answers

1. Is there a government counterpart that the contractor would be working with in the three Central American countries? For example, Sembrando Vida is carried out by Bienestar.

Response: AMEXCID is the Mexican government counterpart. Note that Bienestar does not implement programs in Central America, only AMEXCID does. If work is necessary with the government counterparts in Central America, then the bilateral mission will facilitate this through USAID/Mexico.

2. For the targeting on migration, can you talk more about sources and data to get there?

Response: There is no expectation on the contractor to target—that information comes from AMEXCID. AMEXCID uses information from host country governments— i.e.

labor institutions, security institutions, and coordinates this information through the Mexican embassy in each country.

3. Is there an illustrative list of activities that AMEXCID implements on the ground— as to not avoid duplication.

Response: SV and JCF are the only two that are being implemented. In terms of the on the ground activities, there are two tracks for assistance —for both SV and JCF. These include cash transfers and technical assistance.

Cash transfers are limited to eight months. AMEXCID works with financial institutions to transfer directly from Mexico to the beneficiary. For SV, beneficiary information is taken upon enrollment and then after qualifying they get access to cash transfers based on agreement that they do not migrate and comply with the other criteria, and in JCF they must complete apprenticeship, in addition to other criteria. Some money goes to savings from the cash transfers. This takes people who aren’t banked and gets them into the formal financial system. For JCF, they receive job training and access to job centers. For SV, AMEXCID hires extensionists much like USAID—many are former USAID consultants from implementing partners. They provide the whole package of agriculture technical assistance—access to organic fertilizers, support for tree nurseries, etc.

Essentially, SV provides help on production and gets yields up—but they don’t provide long term commercial relationships for these farmers. That is an area USAID sees potential. SV works largely with informal intermediaries come with cash on the spot — no long-term relationship is being built right now.

Request for Proposal 72052322R00002 Alliance for Root Causes and Opportunities (ARCO) Activity

4. Bank accounts and savings previously mentioned in question 3—what happens to the money? Do they keep that to use in the future?

Response: Yes, that’s correct. The Government of Mexico flagship programs Sembrando Vida (SV) and Jovenes Construyendo el Futuro (JCF) consist of doing cash transfers to the beneficiaries for up to eight months in addition to technical assistance and tools, and skills development in work centers respectively. AMEXCID works closely with Banco del Bienestar to make the cash transfers to the beneficiaries. Banco del Bienestar in Mexico transfers the money through the banks in El Salvador and Honduras. Also, see the SV and JCF Transfer information attached to Amendment 4.

5. Regarding indicators-the implementer for ARCO would not be responsible for targeting per se, but what would the relationship with indicators be for this contract?

Response: Capacity indicators are not included at the moment—the ones included are aligned with what USAID is required to measure. These align to the Root Causes Strategy. ARCO will not be the only organization generating results for the framework.

It will have linkages with existing programs—so bilateral missions will be responsible for reporting those results but ARCO will bring that into the M&E framework.

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