72061522RFI00001 - Scaling Inclusive Food Systems.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

Reference: Request for Information No. 72061522RFI00001 Issue Date: March 7, 2022 Response Due Date: March 28, 2022, 11.00 am, Nairobi, Kenya Time Title: Kenya Feed the Future Scaling Inclusive Food Systems

USAID/Kenya and East Africa (USAID/KEA)’s Office of Economic Growth and Integration is designing a new activity. The purpose of this RFI is to provide industry and stakeholders an opportunity to review, comment and suggest areas of enhancement to the attached RFI concept.

This Request for Information (RFI) seeks to solicit ideas related to the following:

● Innovative models to accelerate locally-led inclusive agriculture-led economic growth for food security, job creation, and prosperity in the Kenya Feed the Future Zone of Influence (FTF

ZOI).

● Strategic and sustainable approaches for strengthening the resilience of marginalized people and communities, and key production and market systems in the FTF ZOI.

● Effective approaches for sustainably improving the nutritional status of women and children in the Kenya Feed the Future Zone of Influence.

● Integrate important cross cutting issues such as the empowerment of women and adolescent girls, youth unemployment, access to water and sanitation services, access to energy including productive use of energy, climate change adaptation and mitigation among other issues.

The RFI is an attempt to reach out to the market in an effort to determine the scope of industry capabilities and interest and will be treated as information only. Responses (comments, suggestions and enhancements) to this notice are not applications and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding agreement. This is not a Request for Proposals (RFP) or a Request for Applications (RFA) and therefore should not be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government or USAID to issue any solicitation or Notice of Funding opportunity, or ultimately award a contract or assistance agreement on the basis of this RFI. Do not submit any proposal/application at this time in response to this RFI.

Responses to this RFI are strictly voluntary. USAID will not pay respondents for the information provided in response to this RFI. Information, comments, and suggestions received will be reviewed and may be incorporated into a future solicitation. Responses to this RFI will not be returned and respondents will not be notified of the result of USAID’s review, but this information will be held confidential. Responding to this RFI does not give any advantage to any firm or organization in any subsequent competition. USAID reserves the right to respond to any, all, or none of the comments and questions submitted. USAID’s responses (if any) will be posted on https://www.grants.gov and on https://beta.sam.gov. Please continue to monitor the two sites for any updates to this RFI.

This RFI does not restrict the Government’s approach on a future solicitation. No decision has been made regarding the type of instrument that will be used (e.g., acquisition or assistance). For this reason, https://www.grants.gov/ https://beta.sam.gov/

RFI No.72061522RFI00001 Kenya Feed the Future Scaling Inclusive Food Systems this RFI will be posted on the Federal grants website, https://www.grants.gov and the Federal Government Business Opportunities website at https://beta.sam.gov.

Please review Attachment 1 and 2 to this RFI and submit any arising clarifications as well as your organization’s final responses via email to Sandra Jansen at sjansen@usaid.gov with a copy to Wacu Kiragu at wkiragu@usaid.gov with the subject entitled: “RFI No.72061522RFI00001 Kenya Feed the Future Scaling Inclusive Food Systems.” If a Solicitation is issued related to this RFI, it will be announced publicly either on http://www.grants.gov or on https://beta.sam.gov at a later date.

Sincerely, /s/ Sandra Jansen, Contracting and Agreement Officer https://www.grants.gov/ mailto:sjansen@usaid.gov mailto:wkiragu@usaid.gov http://www.grants.gov/

Attachment 1 RFI Concept for

USAID’s Kenya Feed the Future (FTF) Scaling Inclusive Food Systems

Background

Despite decades of development efforts in Kenya persistent poverty remains a major development challenge, as evidenced by abuse of adolescent girls, youth unemployment, slowing growth, and chronic food insecurity. The proportion of Kenyans living on less than the international poverty line (US$1.90 per day in 2011 PPP) has declined from 46.8 percent in 2005/06 to 36.1 percent in 2015/16, according to the 17th edition of the Kenya Economic Update. Poverty rate has deteriorated due the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic1. Despite Kenya being classified as a Lower Middle Income country, hunger is classified as a serious problem with 23 percent of the population going to bed hungry while 650,000 children under five years require treatment for malnutrition (Global Hunger Index Report, 2021).

Recurrent shocks are widespread across all parts of Kenya and have included agricultural (crop failure and livestock deaths), natural hazards/climate change (floods, droughts), health, conflict (land, electoral violence), and financial shocks. In the northern arid lands and portions of the semi-arid lands, recurring droughts have resulted in repeated, large-scale humanitarian emergencies while in the western zone these have resulted in loss of livelihoods, poverty and high prevalence of HIV. To address these challenges, the Government of Kenya’s (GoK) has launched its Fourth-Term Medium Plan (2022-2027), Kenya’s Vision 2030, the President’s Big four Agenda, and the 2019 -2029 Agriculture Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS). USAID aims to contribute to the GoK’s efforts through its 2020 - 2025 Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) which has four objectives:

● Key systems such as health, governance, and markets improved

● Resilience of vulnerable populations and environments improved

● Economic growth opportunities, especially for young men and women catalyzed

● Kenya’s regional opportunities leveraged, and external risks mitigated

The CDCS calls for prioritizing locally led development that convenes the private sector, civil society, and government, partners with Kenyan communities to drive inclusive growth and well-being for Kenya’s self-reliance. The approach places citizens in the driver’s seat and calls for layering USAID’s activities in health, education, agriculture, energy, and food assistance. USAID will further contribute to the GoK’s priorities through its Feed the Future Program2 that will support and leverage the resources, expertise and experiences of local actors to:

● Promote inclusive agricultural-led growth with a focus on climate smart approaches that leverages the resources of the private sector, to create jobs, especially for youth, and catalyze investments in agricultural market systems development;

● Strengthen the resilience of people and systems by expanding economic opportunities, diversifying livelihoods, and building social capital and social safety nets; and

1 https://www.statista.com/statistics/1227076/extreme-poverty-rate-in-kenya/ 2https://cg-281711fb-71ea-422c-b02c-ef79f539e9d2.s3.us-gov-west- 1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2018/11/FTF_Kenya_Country_Plan_WS_Edits_9.21.pdf https://www.concernusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2021-Global-Hunger-Index.pdf https://www.concernusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2021-Global-Hunger-Index.pdf http://kilimodata.developlocal.org/dataset/3ed81f6d-3b3d-4494-b14e-382ab59c59f6/resource/a46e7a7c-78f6-4fea-b3a0-5d91764a8c86/download/moai-astgs-abridged-v.4.pdf http://kilimodata.developlocal.org/dataset/3ed81f6d-3b3d-4494-b14e-382ab59c59f6/resource/a46e7a7c-78f6-4fea-b3a0-5d91764a8c86/download/moai-astgs-abridged-v.4.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/kenya/documents/kenya-country-development-cooperation-strategy

● Improve nutrition, especially of women and children by expanding incomes, increasing the availability of diverse and nutrient-rich foods, empowering women and adolescent girls.

● Integrate important cross cutting issues such as the empowerment of women and adolescent girls, youth unemployment, access to water and sanitation services, access to energy including productive use of energy, climate change adaptation and mitigation, recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic’s long-term effects, as well as conflict mitigation, peacebuilding, and social cohesion to improve food security, nutrition, and resilience.

Geographic Focus: This RFI is targeting 17 counties (out of the 25 CDCS focus counties) which make up the Feed the Future Zone of Influence that have high poverty and malnutrition rates. The counties include: Taita Taveta, Makueni, and Kitui in southeastern semi-arid areas; Turkana, Marsabit, Isiolo, Garissa, Samburu, and Wajir in the northern arid areas; and Kakamega, Busia, Migori, Homa Bay, Kisumu, Vihiga, Bungoma and Siaya in the western high rainfall areas.

USAID investments aim to build resilience to shocks and reduce humanitarian assistance caseloads in the targeted arid counties (northern), strengthen resilience to prevent poverty backsliding to the targeted semi-arid (southeastern) counties, and eradication of poverty and malnutrition in the high rainfall (western) counties.

Next Phase of FTF Programing: USAID’s emphasis on locally-led development entails an intensification of partnerships with local actors and collaboration with county governments, ward level, the private sector, and civil society organizations to design and implement development interventions in the three areas of agriculture-led growth, resilience, and nutrition, described above.

USAID seeks to gather the information and views from local Kenyan actors about innovative local solutions and new ideas for increasing inclusive agriculture-led economic growth, building resilience, and reducing malnutrition in the target FTF counties. Respondents are invited to respond to one or all questions while specifying the county or geographic areas within the 17 counties they are commenting on.

End of Attachment 1 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Q4pEMY25DKMEdJpYtqTyHaO7oTuA-COfbcb7GOWS2kI/edit?usp=sharing

Attachment 2

INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPONDENTS FOR SUBMISSION

I. Eligibility: Although responses to this RFI may come from any source, USAID intends to restrict eligibility for any possible Solicitation to local Kenyan entities.

II. Submission of Responses: Responses (comments, suggestions, and enhancements) to this RFI are due to the USAID/KEA/OAA Points of Contact identified below by March 28, 2022, at 11:00 am, Nairobi time. Interested parties shall submit an electronic copy of their responses in either Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat formats. No Google documents will be accepted. The agency server is unable to accept *zip files and therefore respondents may not send any files in this format. Please email responses to Sandra Jansen at sjansen@usaid.gov with a copy to Wacu Kiragu at wkiragu@usaid.gov with the subject title, “RFI No.72061522RFI00001 Kenya Feed the Future Scaling Inclusive Food Systems.”

III. Pre-solicitation Conference: USAID/KEA, may at its discretion, hold a Pre-solicitation Conference at a later date to be determined by USAID after the Responses Due Date specified on the cover page.

IV. Preparation of Responses. Responses to this RFI must be limited to not more than 7 pages (12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, and with one-inch margins) and respond to the following questions:

a) Inclusive Agriculture-Led Economic Growth

● Describe three innovative ideas the local private sector, public sector and civil society can implement, either individually or collaboratively, to accelerate inclusive and equitable agriculture-led economic growth that leads to poverty eradication, increased incomes and food security, and prosperity at the community, Ward and County level where applicable.

● What are the three agriculture-based (crops and livestock) opportunities, including commodities/value chains and markets, which can lead to significant improvement in livelihood outcomes at the local level especially for local women and youth, and which can expand household food and income security while promoting prosperity at the community, Ward and County level, where applicable?

● From a systems approach, what actors are actively engaged in addressing inclusive agriculture-led economic growth in the community, Ward or county?

What would you suggest as the three main ideas for improving the local institutions, voice and participation of women, youth, adolescent girls and other vulnerable groups in achieving agriculture-led economic growth?

b) Strengthened resilience of people and systems

● Describe three innovative ideas which the local private sector, public sector and civil society can implement, either individually or collaboratively, to improve, shock-responsiveness, risk mitigation, and economic well-being of the vulnerable communities, households and individuals at community, Ward and County level, where applicable.

mailto:sjansen@usaid.gov mailto:wkiragu@usaid.gov

● Describe three successful tools and practices that can successfully reach, engage and provide agency to the marginalized segments of the population in a transparent and accountable manner in the county.

● What are the three most successful productive safety nets being implemented in the county? Are they successful? What are the most important issues that productive safety nets can make a difference in addressing?

● From a systems approach, what actors are actively engaged in strengthening the resilience of people and systems in the community, Ward or county? What would you suggest as the three main ideas for improving the local institutions, voice and participation of women, youth, adolescent girls and other vulnerable groups in strengthening the resilience of people and systems?

c) Improved nutrition, especially of women and children

● What do you consider as the three main community level nutrition sensitive issues for women and children at Ward and County level?

● Describe three innovative ideas the private sector, county government, and civil society can implement, either individually or collaboratively, to improve nutritional status at the Ward and County level.

● What do you propose as three main ways of coordinating institutions in or across county borders to enhance nutrition outcomes?

● What would you suggest as the three main ideas for improving the voice and participation of women, youth, adolescent girls and other vulnerable groups in the community, Ward and county level? What actors are actively engaged in these efforts?

V. Submissions Review Process

USAID KEA will review all responses to the RFI. The quality and depth of responses will help to inform USAID’s future procurement approach.

End of Attachment 2

END OF RFI