Attachment J.1 - Statement Of Objectives (SOO) Amendment No.2.pdf

Attachment J.1

FEED THE FUTURE INSTITUTIONAL AND SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING ACTIVITY

STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES (SOO)

1. Purpose

The purpose of this Feed the Future Institutional and Systems Strengthening (FTF-ISS) Activity is to build the capacity and strengthen the processes of Government of Uganda (GOU) ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), and industry apex organizations1 that are vital to driving inclusive agriculture-led economic growth. The Activity will support these entities to improve their internal processes and strengthen structures critical for sectoral coordination to enable them to fulfill their mandates better. This will create a more conducive environment for market actors to productively engage in the agriculture sector, and contribute to the Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) Uganda Country Plan goal of reducing hunger, malnutrition and poverty as well as the USAID/Uganda Country Development

Cooperation Strategy’s 2(CDCS) 2016 – 2021 five-year goal of strengthening Uganda’s systems to accelerate inclusive economic, health, and education outcomes. A grants program and related communications strategy will be an integral part of the FTF-ISS activities targeting industry apex organizations.

2. Overview

The FTF-ISS Activity will help select MDAs and industry apex organizations improve their performance and relationships to become more responsive to market actors' needs and effectively support coordinated agricultural sector growth. The Activity will focus on, among others, the following institutions: the

Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), Ministry of Trade, Industry and

Cooperatives (MTIC), and Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), the Uganda

National Meteorological Authority (UNMA), the Uganda Seed Traders’ Association (USTA), the Uganda

Cooperative Alliance, and Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU).

The Activity is part of the USAID/Uganda’s GFSS Country Plan. The Country Plan uses a market systems approach and is partnership-based. It involves working with and through the public and private sector to help market actors see and realize the changes they want, build trust and win-win relationships, convene and connect to market opportunities, and solve their problems. This approach promotes ownership of the change process, enhances sustainability, and discourages creating structures that require ongoing donor funding to survive.

Applying a facilitative approach, the Contractor shall build trust and partnerships, helping organizations address and overcome institutional constraints, thus increasing local ownership in planning and managing development. To achieve this, the Contractor shall focus its interventions on building the capacities of both national-level government ministries and industry apex organizations that are vital to drive agricultural growth and reduce hunger and malnutrition. The Contractor shall identify and work with individuals in the target institutions keen to adopt the change process.

1 Apex industry organizations are national level umbrella bodies comprising private sector members in a particular field or sector. They serve as the voice of members at the national level as well as international level.

2 https://www.usaid. gov/Uganda/CDCS

3. Background

Strong GOU MDAs and industry apex organizations are vital for achieving Uganda’s Vision 2040 goal of a modern and prosperous country. Fully developed and functional MDAs and industry apex organizations should provide effective services, including finance, information, and regulation, supporting sustained and inclusive agriculture-led economic growth. The agriculture sector provides the primary source of livelihood for most Ugandans and contributes significantly to Uganda’s export earnings. Between July and August 2019, export earnings grew by 1 percent from $318.4 million3 to $321.7 million mainly due to increased earnings from maize, coffee, fish, and sesame.

Agriculture is central to Uganda’s economic growth and poverty reduction goals. The draft National

Development Plan (NDP) III prioritizes investment in agriculture as one of the five priority development areas that have the greatest multiplier effect on the economy, and emphasizes strengthening agricultural institutions for effective coordination and service delivery. The NDP III recognizes the critical role of coordination by both state and non-state actors in agriculture and complementary sectors that are crucial for agricultural development, like trade, standards, information, infrastructure, and technology. These include MAAIF but also semi-autonomous agencies under MAAIF, and other MDAs, such as UNMA, MTIC, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Uganda National Bureau of

Standards, Office of the Prime Minister/Ministry for Karamoja Affairs (MfKA), Ministry of Health, and

Uganda Revenue Authority, to name a few. Other actors include the private sector and farmers, financial institutions, civil society organizations, academia and research institutions, and development partners.

3.1 USAID and Donor Institutional Support to the Agricultural Sector

USAID has supported the policy development process for several years. In a recent example, through the

Enabling Environment for Agriculture Activity, USAID supported public institutions such as MAAIF and

MTIC and the private sector to improve the enabling environment for agricultural development, trade, and climate change adaptation. While past activities developed various policy instruments, FTF-ISS will focus on strengthening public and private sector institutions' capacity to implement and enforce policies.

USAID has also partnered with different institutions to achieve various specific objectives. For example, USAID currently supports the Uganda Bureau of Standards to manage annual agriculture and household well-being and nutrition surveys. It has provided hardware and training assistance to MAAIF to collect and use its data and other data for decision-making. Between October 2014 and August 2017, USAID collaborated with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) to support UNMA to establish

23 automated weather observation stations in 16 districts. However, the final evaluation report in 2018 noted that capacity gaps still exist for UNMA to improve station network coverage for weather and climate data collection, data analysis and dissemination, resource mobilization, and cross-sector coordination and collaboration.

USAID also works closely with MfKA to improve data-driven decision making and the Ministry’s coordination among central GOU, local government, and development partners in Karamoja. It has worked with the East Africa Grain Council to improve its tracking of formal and informal grain trade flows, and with the Uganda National Farmers Federation to improve its capacity to provide services to its members on climate change adaptation. While past USAID interventions worked with various institutions to enhance their capacities at different levels, FTF-ISS is the first USAID activity to fully focus on broad and deep institutional capacity-building for key organizations.

The United States, World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO) are among the largest development partners in Uganda’s agricultural sector. The

World Bank has a large value chain project that works on maize, rice, and cassava in selected agro-

3 September 2019 Performance of the economy report www.finance.go.ug http://www.finance.go.ug/ ecological zones. The World Bank also recently carried out several influential analytical studies, including the agriculture sector public expenditure review. The AfDB’s activities focus on constructing irrigation infrastructure, value chains development, and export promotion; FAO’s interventions largely focus on crops, livestock, fisheries, forestry and their interaction with the environment, climate change and building resilience. Other significant donors include the European Union, the Danish International

Development Agency, GIZ, the Netherlands, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

4. Problem Statement

Uganda’s National Development Plans have brought about some progressive improvements in the institutional frameworks that govern the agriculture sector. Some of the reforms have focused on public financial management initiatives and modern management practices. Despite these gains and engagement by USAID and other development partners, key MDAs and industry apex organizations critical to driving improvements in Uganda’s agricultural sector still face capacity-related challenges that constrain their ability to function effectively in major service delivery gaps that negatively impact the market.

4.1 Sector Ministries, Departments and Agencies

MDAs involved in the agricultural sector routinely experience budget uncertainty and shortfalls and often allocate their funds towards goals not aligned with national and sector plans. Alongside these budget challenges, there is a proliferation of poorly coordinated parastatals and parallel structures that create confusion, duplication, and wastage of public resources, and reduce trust and coordination across MDAs.

Additionally, despite development partners' efforts, most MDAs cannot use available data for evidence-based decision-making.

MDAs also have weak policy enforcement processes. While many relatively high-quality policies and strategies have been developed, most of them are not well implemented. There is a lack of clearly structured implementation approaches, resulting in overlap of roles by the participating MDAs. Public institutions are also characterized by human resources challenges, including long-term vacancies and employees who do not have adequate skills to effectively undertake their functions. In addition, although public functions are meant to be implemented across the nation or at the district level (or lower), in many cases, MDAs lack the capacity and incentives to effectively coordinate across the 134 plus districts to ensure adequate public service delivery.

The national-level MDAs that USAID’s FTF-ISS Activity will prioritize face specific challenges.

Capacity and skills gaps limit MAAIF’s ability to perform its roles and responsibilities as the lead entity for agricultural development, including coordinating among the government agencies and private sector actors working in the agriculture sector. Capacity gaps in the form of inadequate equipment, software and skills also limit UNMA’s ability to collect, analyze, forecast and disseminate accurate weather and climate information. Estimates put the accuracy for short-term weather prediction in the range of only

40% - 50%. This is a significant service delivery gap that adversely affects various actors' ability to engage in agriculture-led economic growth productively. MTIC’s capacity to effectively coordinate all the other MDAs and industry players involved in Uganda’s trade sector is constrained by inadequate resource allocation, unclear mandates for implementing the various trade-related strategies, and poor coordination with other MDAs to advance Uganda’s trade competitiveness. MOSTI has the potential to play a significant role in promoting the adoption of science, technology, and innovation (STI) as a catalyst for development. However, the Ministry, created in 2016, is still in its nascent stages and has limited capacity to harmonize the sub-sector strategies of agencies that were subsumed under it. MOSTI faces the challenge of developing a comprehensive strategy and better linking with other MDAs to lead, coordinate, and support all the STI work in the sector.

This list is not a definitive of either MDAs or capacity gaps. The Activity is expected to identify other relevant national-level MDAs with which it will engage, and a more expansive set of institutional challenges to address.

4.2 Industry Apex Organizations

Industry apex organizations should play a pivotal role in the growth and development of their respective members. Effective apex organizations can promote good governance and business development principles and models, and advocate for relevant reforms and enforcement to create an enabling environment for the private sector to flourish. Unfortunately, most industry apex organizations face several capacity challenges that limit their ability to play this critical role. As a result, they have low membership, which affects their financial resources to deliver services, further dampening membership, a vicious cycle. Additionally, many lack adequate organizational and governance structures necessary for service provision and accountability to their members. In some cases, they are controlled by people looking out for the best interests of particular firms. Most apex organizations are structurally weak, inhibiting their ability to drive the self-regulation of their industries. For example, the Private Sector

Foundation of Uganda serves as the focal point for private sector advocacy and capacity development but lacks the human resources to organize fora for productive dialogue between the private sector and GOU on issues important to its members. In another example, the purpose of the Uganda Seed Trade

Association is to coordinate and oversee the development of a vibrant seed industry. It must also engage with GOU to provide the required policies and incentives that foster seed production, conditioning, marketing, and extension of quality seed. However, the organization does not have adequate capacity to ensure a well-organized seed industry, resulting in sub-standard agro-inputs on the market, and enormous profit opportunities missed. This is not a definitive list of either industry apex organizations or capacity gaps. The Activity is expected to identify other relevant apex organizations with which it will engage, and a more expansive set of institutional challenges to address.

5. Scope

The goal of the FTF-ISS Activity is to improve the accountability, responsiveness and performance of key national-level MDAs and industry apex organizations. The Activity will enable these organizations to fulfill their mandates better, creating a more conducive environment for market actors to engage in the agriculture sector productively. Supporting this higher-level goal, the purpose of the Activity is to provide technical assistance to build the capacity and strengthen the processes of key MDAs and industry apex organizations vital to driving inclusive agriculture-led growth. The Contractor shall work with key MDAs including, but not limited to, MAAIF, MTIC, UNMA and MOSTI. The Contractor shall work with industry apex organizations including, but not limited to, the Uganda Seed Traders’ Association, Private

Sector Foundation Uganda, and the Uganda Cooperative Alliance, to improve their internal processes, making them more responsive to the needs of their constituents. The Contractor shall also strengthen vertical and horizontal linkages among these organizations and others to work together more effectively to achieve their goals. The Activity is about convening and building trust, helping organizations address and overcome institutional constraints, and ultimately increasing local ownership in planning and managing development.

The Contractor will undertake analyses at activity inception and throughout implementation. Consistent engagement is fundamental to the Activity’s success. Together with its partner institutions, the Activity will engage in an iterative process of pursuing reforms and investments with MDAs and apex institutions to stimulate systems-level change. The Contractor shall be flexible, such that if the context or circumstances for an intervention require, the Activity will use a lighter or heavier touch. Even after an intervention concludes, the Activity will remain engaged with the partner institutions to monitor success and sustainability of outcomes.

In selecting partner institutions, the Contractor shall prioritize MDAs and industry apex organizations that are important players for other USAID-managed market activities, but face capacity or structural weaknesses that inhibit their ability to drive inclusive agriculture-led growth. During the partner identification phase and throughout implementation, the Contractor shall apply a political economy lens to understand and manage the political realities and their effects on incentives and relationships among the targeted public institutions and apex private sector organizations.

FTF-ISS is expected to work in concert with other activities (outlined below) to achieve

USAID/Uganda’s CDCS goal of strengthening Uganda’s systems to accelerate inclusive economic, health, and education outcomes.

6. Theory of Change

The overall theory of change for the Activity is:

If USAID investments facilitate MDAs and industry apex organizations that are vital to driving inclusive agriculture-led economic growth to improve their functional capacities and strengthen linkages between and among them, then these institutions will better fulfill their mandates and create a more conducive environment for market actors to productively engage in the agriculture sector. This will contribute to more pathways to prosperity for the people of Uganda.

Assumptions:

● There will be political will and buy-in to support the institutional reforms among selected MDAs and political leadership (see required political economy analysis below).

● There will be a willingness by the industry apex organizations to embrace reforms.

7. Objectives

The goal of USAID/Uganda’s current CDCS is to contribute efforts that result in Uganda’s systems accelerating inclusive education, health and economic development. There are three Development

Objectives (DOs) under the CDCS. This Activity contributes to DO3: Key Systems More Accountable and Responsive to Uganda’s Development Needs, and is authorized under the Market Systems

Strengthening Project. The goal of the Market Systems Project is that Markets consistently and inclusively provide competitive goods and services demanded by actors.

CDCS DO3 Results Framework:

Results Framework for Market Systems Strengthening Project:

The goal of the FTF-ISS Activity is to improve accountability, responsiveness and performance of key national-level MDAs and industry apex organizations that will enable them to better fulfill their mandates, creating a more conducive environment for market actors to productively engage in the agriculture sector.

The Activity’s objectives are:

● Obj 1: Improve the internal processes of selected MDAs and industry apex organizations, making them more responsive to the needs of their consumers, members and the general public.

● Obj 2: Strengthen key capacity elements of select MDAs and industry apex organizations to perform their mandates.

● Obj 3: Improve the policy framework that supports the functionality of selected MDAs and industry apex organizations.

● Obj 4: Strengthen the “structures” or key vertical and horizontal linkages within, between and among institutions to work together more effectively to achieve their goals.

● FTF-ISS Objective 1: Improve the internal processes of selected MDAs and industry apex organizations, making them more responsive to the needs of their consumers, members and the general public.

● FTF-ISS Objective 2: Improve policy framework that supports the functionality of selected

MDAs and industry apex organizations.

● FTF-ISS Objective 3: Strengthen key capacity elements of select MDAs and industry apex organizations to perform their mandates.

● FTF-ISS Objective 4: Strengthen the “structures” or key vertical and horizontal linkages within, between and among institutions so that they work together more effectively to achieve their goals.

The table below provides a crosswalk among the CDCS, the Market Systems Strengthening Project, and the FTF-ISS activity.

CDCS Market Systems

Strengthening Project

FTF-ISS Activity

CDCS Goal:

Uganda’s systems are accelerating inclusive education, health and economic development

CDCS Market Systems

Strengthening Project

FTF-ISS Activity

CDCS DO 3:

Key systems’ accountability and responsiveness to Uganda’s development needs improved

Markets Project Goal:

Markets consistently and inclusively provide competitive goods and services demanded by actors

FTF-ISS Activity Purpose:

To build the capacity and strengthen the processes of GOU ministries, departments and agencies, and industry apex organizations that are vital to driving inclusive agriculture-led economic growth.

CDCS IR 3.1:

Leadership in development supported

CDCS IR 3.2:

Citizens actively participate in development

Markets Project Obj 2:

Goods and services are affordable and distributed in response to demand

N/A

CDCS IR 3.3:

Key elements of systems strengthened

Markets Project Obj 1:

Appropriate goods and services produced

N/A

Markets Project Obj 3:

Quality business services available and used by market actors to produce, buy, or sell goods and services

FTF ISS Obj 1:

Improve the internal processes of selected MDAs and industry apex organizations, making them more responsive to the needs of their consumers, members and the general public.

FTF ISS Obj 3:

Strengthen key capacity elements of select MDAs and industry apex organizations to perform their mandates.

Markets Project Obj 4:

Formal and informal rules

FTF ISS Obj 4:

Strengthen the “structures” or key enhance market system function vertical and horizontal linkages within, between and among institutions so that they work together more effectively to achieve their goals.

CDCS IR 3.4:

Enabling environment that supports functional systems improved

Markets Project Obj 4:

Formal and informal rules enhance market system function

FTF-ISS Obj 2:

Improve the policy framework that supports the functionality of selected MDAs and industry apex organizations.

8. Results

This Activity will be a success if it brings about capacity and systems transformation generated and sustained over time within the key MDAs and industry apex organizations critical to a well-functioning agriculture sector to enable them to better fulfill their mandates. The transformation should be generated, guided and sustained by the institutions and their staff, members, and leaders. Institutions that fulfill their mandates can effectively coordinate the sector (as relevant), use data for decision making, effectively develop and implement policies and strategies, and provide valuable services to their consumers, members and the general public. Such institutions readily adapt to changing circumstances – for example, if there are budget cuts, trade sanctions, changing political priorities, etc., they can still achieve their targets. They collaborate effectively both at the intra-agency and inter-agency levels. They have the necessary structures so that services cascade down from the national to the local level, and policy implementation and enforcement occur.

The FTF-ISS Activity will work with the institutions to assess capacity and system improvements using the Participatory Institutional Capacity Assessment and Learning (PICAL) Index which assesses improvements in four dimensions - Organizational learning capacity, Administrative capacity, System strengthening capacity and Demand for institutional performance.

8.1 The Activity is expected to achieve the following results:

(a) Improved responsiveness and performance of key MDAs and industry apex organizations

FTF-ISS Objective 1: Improve the internal processes of selected MDAs and industry apex organizations, making them more responsive to the needs of their consumers, members and the general public.

FTF-ISS Objective 1 supports CDCS IR3.3 “Key Elements of the System Strengthened,” and Market

Systems Project Objective 3 “Quality business services available and used by market actors to produce, buy, or sell goods and services.”

This result speaks to the institutional management capacity required to be effective, including developing the right institutional governance and administrative systems as well as strengthening financial operations and accounting mechanisms to ensure transparency and sustainability.

Mandatory performance indicator:

Performance Indicator Title Standard or

Custom

Indicator

Number

Baseline Target

Percent USG-assisted organizations with improved performance (disaggregated by market actor type, management type)

Standard CBLD-9 0 30%

FTF-ISS Objective 2: Strengthen key capacity elements of select MDAs and industry apex organizations to perform their mandates.

FTF-ISS Objective 2 also supports CDCS IR3.3 “Key Elements of the System Strengthened,” and Market

Systems Project Objective 3 “Quality business services available and used by market actors to produce, buy, or sell goods and services.”

This result includes supporting institutions and organizations to develop and maintain a capacitated human resource pool capable of executing or implementing tasks and supporting improvement in institutional ability to collect, analyze, and disseminate data and information useful to the agricultural sector (such as climate/weather information).

Performance Indicator Title Standard or

Custom

Indicator

Number

Baseline Target

Number of individuals in the agriculture system who have applied improved management practices or technologies with

USG assistance (disaggregated by value chain actor type, further disaggregated by sex, age, management practice or technology type)

Standard EG 3.2-24 0 1,000

FTF-ISS Objective 3: Improve the policy framework that supports the functionality of selected MDAs and industry apex organizations.

FTF-ISS Objective 3 supports CDCS IR3.4 “Enabling environment that supports functional systems improved,” and Market Systems Project Objective 4 “Formal and informal rules enhance market system function.”

The result focuses on supporting institutions and organizations to strengthen their ability to implement and enforce policies. It relates to supporting institutions’ capacity to analyze and improve existing policies as well as develop new policies and strategies based on prevailing conditions.

Performance Indicator Title Standard or Custom

Indicator

Number

Baseline Target

Number of institutions with improved capacity in policy, legal and regulatory framework custom n/a 0 5

(b) Strengthened linkages and collaboration among MDAs and industry apex organizations

FTF-ISS Objective 4: Strengthen the “structures” or key vertical and horizontal linkages within, between and among institutions so that they work together more effectively to achieve their goals.

FTF-ISS Objective 4 supports CDCS IR3.3 “Key Elements of the System Strengthened,” and Market

Systems Project Objective 4 “Formal and informal rules enhance market system function”.

This result speaks to improving relationships, and building trust and increasing transparency within and across the institutions. It comprises developing and strengthening vertical and horizontal relationships including those between institutions, within institutions, and with the private sector for joint planning, and enforcement of policies, and strategies. It also speaks to addressing corrupt behaviors within institutions, building trust across agencies, and addressing the barriers to cooperation across organizations.

Performance Indicator Title Standard or Custom

Indicator

Number

Baseline Target

Number of milestones in improved institutional architecture for food security policy achieved with

USG support (disaggregated by level and institutional architecture policy element)

Custom

(GFSS

indicator)

EG.3.1-d 0 10

In addition to the indicators listed above, the following indicator is required for any activity funded with

FTF money.

Mandatory Performance Indicator:

Performance Indicator Title Standard or

Custom

Indicator

Number

Baseline Target

Number of individuals participating in USG Food

Security Program (IM level) (disaggregated by sex, age, type of individual)

Standard EG.3-2 0 1,000

8.2 Results pathways

USAID recognizes that relationships, roles, and influences are highly complex and interconnected in any market system. The behaviors of market actors are influenced by other actors’ decisions and rules, incentives, socio-economic factors, and geography. This interconnectedness is reflected in interlinked pathways that may be direct or indirect, strong or weak, and certain or uncertain. Throughout the life of

Activity the Contractor must develop, monitor, and revisit its results pathways and adjust interventions accordingly. The Activity’s results pathways will link interventions to higher-level outcomes as described in the Theory of Change, including indicators to show progress along the pathway and allow for learning whether the pathway is viable. The monitoring process should also capture aspects of why and how tactical actions (inputs) translate, or do not, into outcomes along the pathway. The Contractor should use innovative approaches to measure systems dynamics that underpin the results pathways such as leadership, new or improved relationships, and shifts in informal rules, including norms, attitudes, and behaviors.

Offerors are encouraged to propose indicators, baselines and targets derived from the DEC reports of previous USAID agriculture programs in Uganda

(https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/search/FusionSearchResults.aspx?q=Commodity+Production+and+Marketing+

+Activity). Links to the relevant reports are included in Section J of this solicitation. This contract is intended to be a continuation of previous Feed the Future USAID activities.

The Contractor must propose baselines and targets corresponding to its proposed Performance Work

Statement. Final baselines and targets, and any adjustments to them, will be validated during implementation in consultation with the Feed the Future Institutional and Systems Strengthening (FTF-

ISS) Activity, which supports USAID/Uganda to build the capacity and strengthen the processes of

Government of Uganda (GOU) ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), and industry apex organizations that are vital to driving inclusive agriculture-led economic growth.

9. Place of performance

The Activity will seek to work with those GOU national level MDAs critical to driving inclusive agricultural-led growth. The initial target MDAs are: MAAIF, MTIC, UNMA and MOSTI, and others to be identified during activity inception and implementation. The Activity will work with industry apex organizations, including Uganda Seed Traders Association, Uganda Cooperative Alliance, and Private

Sector Foundation Uganda and others to be identified during activity inception and implementation.

10. Coordination with host country counterparts and other implementers

The Activity shall coordinate both programming and learning with other development partners and

USAID activities to achieve the CDCS goal. It will coordinate and work with the Inclusive Agricultural

Markets (IAM), Strategic Investments Activity (SIA) and the Integrated Community Agriculture and

Nutrition Activity (ICAN). These three activities will work in concert with one another and other FTF activities to drive systemic change at high, medium, and low levels of the market system as illustrated in the table below.

https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/search/FusionSearchResults.aspx?q=Commodity+Production+and+Marketing++Activity https://dec.usaid.gov/dec/search/FusionSearchResults.aspx?q=Commodity+Production+and+Marketing++Activity

USAID’s Inclusive Agricultural Markets (IAM) activity conducts interventions that create efficiencies in cross-market functions through three key lower/local level market entry points: agribusinesses, market actor organizations, and GOU institutions. With IAM is focusing on firm-level interventions and working with MDAs at the lower government levels, FTF-ISS will place its attention on the national-level MDAs and industry apex organizations. FTF-ISS and IAM will therefore be complementary to each other to enable systemic change in the agriculture sector. Illustratively, IAM will support the capacity development of producer organizations and their individual members to engage as viable business entities in the sector while FTF-ISS contractor may work with the producer organizations’ apex organization, the

Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA), to build its institutional capacity and governance structures so that

UCA can provide efficient services to its members (the producer organizations). This could include developing a member code of conduct and advocating for relevant policy reform. In this way, FTF-ISS is a higher level, complementary Activity whose success has a direct bearing on the success of IAM. IAM and FTF-ISS must collaborate to ensure synergies are maximized throughout activity implementation.

USAID’s Strategic Investment Activity (SIA) activity will facilitate domestic and international investments by unlocking commercially driven capital. While SIA will focus on facilitating transactions, investments, and relationships between the investor and investee, FTF-ISS will conduct interventions to build investment-related MDAs and apex industry organizations' capacity and systems. Where SIA will provide due diligence services for identified investors in potential sectors, FTF-ISS will work with, for example, the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) to build the capacity of its after-care division to ensure that UIA provides the required levels of technical support to those investors who have invested in-country. FTF-ISS complementary support to SIAs interventions will help ensure investments' sustainability, thereby incentivizing other potential investors to invest in the country.

USAID’s Integrated Community Agriculture and Nutrition Activity (USAID ICAN) sustainably enhances vulnerable households' resilience in select districts by increasing economic opportunities for poor households, improving nutrition for women and children, and strengthening local governance. ICAN is underpinned by multi-sectoral interventions to build the next generation of self-reliant Ugandans. ICAN works through existing community groups to maximize economic opportunities for vulnerable households, stabilize their access to and consumption of a diverse and nutritious diet, and increase social capital by reinforcing relationships between local systems and the communities they serve. FTF-ISS will complement ICAN activities through for example, supporting the implementation of crucial agriculture-related policies and strategies which have a direct bearing on ICAN beneficiaries, thereby enabling them to profitably engage in economic activities in the agriculture sector. This will not only improve the households’ economic livelihoods but also their consumption of a nutritious diet.

11. Collaboration, Learning and Adapting

Development work presents many opportunities to collaborate and engage with a broad set of stakeholders to learn from both evidence and experience and adapt iteratively to unexpected results or context changes. This is why USAID places “Collaborating, Learning and Adapting” at the center of its

Program Cycle, both as a connector between, and an integrated part of the components.

Approaches that incorporate learning and adapting will be critical to the success of the Activity, and the

Contractor must build adaptive learning into program implementation. Driving and monitoring the

Activity’s effectiveness will require the Contractor’s careful consideration of what types of short, focused studies and methods for providing rapid program feedback would be suitable and provide evidence for making program course corrections and decisions. These types of action-learning, monitoring and program reflection methods used to measure program effectiveness in complex implementation environments, are now well documented. They include participatory methods such as stakeholder feedback and network analysis that can reveal informational flows and relational dynamics of ‘who decides and who benefits’ and make program adjustments based on responsive program feedback that can foster more practical, problem-driven iterative adaptation.

11.1 Collaboration enables sector integration, convergence, and effective interventions to maximize development resources and enhance development results. The Contractor will collaborate with USAID-supported activities under the Mission’s Market Systems Strengthening project and engage with stakeholders (defined collaboratively with USAID COR) to facilitate delivery of integrated services to achieve the project’s outcomes.

11.2 Learning is intentional, systematic and resourced. Sources for learning include data from monitoring, portfolio reviews, findings of research, evaluations, analyses conducted by USAID or third parties, knowledge gained from experience, stocktaking exercises, and from other sources. The documents produced by USAID will be shared with the Contractor by the COR for consideration in the learning phase of CLA.

These sources will be used to develop and implement plans, be used in adaptive management, and contribute to the USAID/Uganda knowledge base in order to improve development outcomes. A collaborating, learning, and adapting focus helps to ensure that programming is coordinated, grounded in evidence, and adjusted as necessary to remain relevant and effective throughout implementation.

Knowledge generated by learning will be applied throughout programming to implementation approaches, processes, and stakeholder engagement. Knowledge generated by learning should also be disseminated to the Activity stakeholders, partners, and collaborators in appropriate I and format (like learning questions, reports on the Activity’s findings etc) so that it may be translated into decisions and actions that enhance the success of approaches and interventions designed to achieve common intermediate results.

The Contractor will share information and knowledge generated by monitoring data, portfolio review results, research findings, evaluations, analyses, and experiences with other USAID implementing partners and other Development Partners. The Contractor will apply actionable information and knowledge gained from collaborating partners from activity implementation in order to improve results.

USAID implementing partners will convene on a periodic basis to reflect on actions taken, exchange analysis, and propose decisions that affect implementation.

11.3 Adapting: The Contractor will demonstrate adaptability that is informed by knowledge gained through learning and recognize behaviors and incentives necessary to create change. Knowledge gained through learning will influence decision making, resource allocation, and adaptation to contextual shifts.

Application of new knowledge to implementation decisions will be reflected in the Annual Work Plan and Activity Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Plan. Decisions to adapt may be based on but not limited to, the following:

⮚ Extraneous changes in the operating environment (i.e. emergency or natural disaster; national policy changes)

⮚ Financial and human resource constraints

⮚ Evidence that signals targets are unmet

⮚ Emerging evidence that interventions are not working or could work better if adapted

Any changes to the scope of the contract must be approved by the Cognizant Contracting Officer in a modification to the contract. Changes in the technical approach may be approved by the COR by way of the COR’s authority to provide technical direction and approve Annual Work Plans.

12. Guiding Principles

The Activity must incorporate the following guiding principles in all aspects of its work.

12.1 Apply a holistic approach to Collaborating, Learning & Adapting: The Contractor shall collaborate and coordinate both programming and learning with others to achieve better results. This

Activity is part of the GFSS Country Plan and the Mission’s Market Systems Strengthening project. For mutual benefit, the Contractor must actively seek out others with whom to strategically coordinate and jointly facilitate where substantial gains can be realized. Through CLA, the Activity shall continuously re-evaluate actions and assumptions to minimize risk, eliminate what does not work, and test and scale-up what is practicable. The approach to CLA shall also support transparency and accountability.

12.2 Demonstrate broad and inclusive stakeholder engagement that enables Ugandan leadership:

The Contractor will engage broadly with partners at the national level. These stakeholders shall inform the design and participate in the implementation and monitoring of activities throughout the Activity lifecycle. This engagement should identify promising leaders/actors that are receptive to reform and can adapt change processes. The desire to effect the change must come from within the public institutions and apex private organizations.

12.3 Be problem-driven and focused, while ensuring all program approaches analyze and adjust to the local context: The Activity must maintain a problem-driven focus, with appropriate analysis to understand and adapt to the local context. The Activity should address the root causes of institutional and systems constraints.

12.4 Employ a market facilitation approach: The Contractor will work with and through market actors and target activity resources to partner with actors who demonstrate a commitment to investment and a willingness to change. Traditional direct delivery approaches that insert the Contractor into the system as a market actor are generally not appropriate.

12.5 Infuse and prioritize inclusive development – including but not limited to women and youth empowerment: The Contractor must employ a gender-conscious lens to consider traditional gender roles and dynamics between men and women, as well as girls and boys. The Activity must pursue interventions that create opportunities for women, youth and other marginalized groups to invest in the market and also obtain appropriate products and services. The Activity will hold MDAs and industry apex organizations accountable through the Gender certificate for MDAs’ (Public Finance Management Act) and UNDP

Gender Equality Seal certification systems that verify their investments in gender equality. The Seal assesses a company’s business strategy from a gender perspective and helps it to understand how decisions affect both female and male staff and clients. It also analyses how different issues affect gender roles in the workplaces. These issues might relate to gender related pay gaps, work life balance, communication, and sexual harassment in the workplace. It will ensure participation of women and youth in all capacity building processes, including local farmer or employee training programs, battling the assumption that knowledge is passed from participant men to non-participant women. It will gather gender-disaggregated data before, during, and after the implementation of the Activity and undertake a

Gender Capacity Assessment of the institutions involved in the Activity.

13. Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning

Institutional and systems strengthening activities contribute to improved economic and social outcomes through various complex pathways that are both interconnected and independent. Given this complexity, innovative approaches to monitoring and evaluation need to be used to capture changes for learning and refinement of Activity interventions and performance and ensure that the Activity goals are met. The

Contractor should prepare and maintain an up-to-date map of Uganda’s political system and the institutional environment that connects partners and interventions to Activity-level results, purpose, and goals described in the Theory of Change. This will include the articulation of results pathways for the interventions. Change along these pathways should be monitored using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The Contractor will design a monitoring and evaluation system that utilizes innovative approaches to measure how the Activity is changing relationships between and among institutions. Of interest is the quality of the relationship and the definition of a strengthened relationship. The Contractor will also develop approaches that measure institutional operational transformation. The Activity must work closely with the USAID/Uganda’s Learning Activity to measure its contribution to the Market

Systems Strengthening project goals and objectives and to implement its learning agenda.

USAID/Uganda recognizes that the success of the Activity will depend on the contributions of actors directly and indirectly engaged with the Activity, as well as institutions and processes beyond the manageable interests of the Contractor. While some of the Activity’s interventions may on their own be sufficient to result in a change in practice or behavior at the individual or institutional level, other interventions may be necessary but not by themselves be sufficient to effect the desired change. The

Contactor should make all efforts to understand and articulate the way its intervention contributes to a results pathway and define all the relevant contributors to a results pathway, even if they are outside ISS’ direct control

14. Environmental review

All USAID funded activities must comply with 22 CFR 216. USAID has recommended A

CATEGORICAL EXCLUSION for the proposed FTF-ISS Activity, which includes providing institutional capacity building technical assistance that improve execution of institutional functions, budgeting, planning and implementation and enforcement of policies, as well and systems strengthening technical assistance that includes developing stronger vertical and horizontal institutional linkages to improve relationships. This indicates that these activities are expected to have no significant adverse effect on the environment. The FTF-ISS Activity has no attached environmental management conditions.

15. Climate risk management

USAID supports strengthening development outcomes by integrating climate change into Agency programming, learning, policy dialogues and operations. The Automated Directives System (ADS) 201 requires climate risk assessment and management for all new projects and activities across sectors to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of project and activity objectives in the face of extreme weather and climate events.

Per ADS 201 and the climate risk screening process detailed in the mission’s approved CDCS, climate risk analysis has been conducted for the FTF-ISS Activity. The analysis established that climate risks are low for all of the planned interventions. Further, the Activity presents opportunities to reduce climate risks. The interventions will include capacity building for UNMA to collect, analyze and disseminate accurate weather and climate information and establishing relationships for institutions to coordinate better to share weather and climate information, and identify and manage climate risks in the agricultural and other development sectors. Per ADS 201 and the climate risk screening process detailed in the mission’s approved CDCS, no further climate risk analysis or action is required for the FTF-ISS Activity.

16. Grants Under Contracts

The Contractor will design and manage a grants program and related communications strategy. Targeted recipients of the grants program will be industry apex organizations. The Contractor must submit a grants manual no later 30 days after the award, detailing the process for identifying, evaluating, vetting, awarding and monitoring grant activities. All potential grantees will justify the contribution of their proposed activities to achieving the key results. The total value of grants under contract will be no more than $2.5 million. The FTF-ISS Activity will grant Transition awards to one or two industry apex organizations, which will take on the facilitative role providing some of the capacity building and systems strengthening support to other MDAs and industry apex organizations during the Activity’s implementation and after it concludes. The transition awards will enable Uganda to develop local capacity and become more self-reliant.

17. Response to USAID/Policy Framework and Agency-wide Initiatives

17.1 Journey to Self-Reliance

The GOU recognizes that existing capacity gaps in the MDAs affected the implementation of National

Development Plan (NDP)-II. To address this, under NDP-III the GOU has committed to improve the public sector’s response to the needs of the citizens and the private sector. Aligned with this, the Activity will work with the MDAs and industry apex organizations to identify priority capacity building and systems strengthening needs and jointly develop the interventions to address them, giving them lead and ownership of the process, thereby stimulating long term changes. This will enable the MDAs and industry apex organizations to build resilience and lasting self-reliance.

C17.3 Use of Local Systems

Increasing the performance of multiple actors and the effectiveness of their interactions is necessary for sustainable development outcomes. The Market Systems Strengthening Project, of which ISS is an integral part, recognizes a systems approach is necessary to improving the functioning and inclusiveness of the agriculture market. To ensure inherently sustainable capacity building and systems strengthening results, the FTF-ISS Activity will jointly work with the GOU MDAs and industry apex organizations to develop the necessary transformative interventions and reforms, The Activity will realize improved outcomes by working with and through the GOU and private sector systems; increasing the performance of the target multiple MDAs and industry apex organizations as well as the effectiveness of their interactions.

17.4 Private Sector Engagement

USAID recognizes the value of engaging the private sector in development and humanitarian assistance to help shape solutions that achieve sustained impact. The private sector is both an indirect beneficiary to and a partner for FTF-ISS interventions.