Ethiopia FY20 DFSA RFA FINAL July 5_508-compliant (1).pdf

Issuance Date: July 8, 2020

Deadline for Questions: September 11, 2020 Closing Date: September 25, 2020

CFDA Number: 98.007

Closing Time: 11:59 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time)

Subject: Request for Applications for Development Food Security Activities in Ethiopia

Title: Fiscal Year 2020 Request for Applications for Development Food Security

Activities in Ethiopia

Funding Opportunity Number: 72DFFP20RFA00006

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) is seeking applications for funding for development food security activities (DFSAs) in

Ethiopia.

Private voluntary organizations (PVOs) or cooperatives, including U.S. and non-U.S.

nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), may apply. Public international organizations (PIOs) are also eligible to apply.

Subject to the availability of funds, under this Request for Applications (RFA), BHA plans to award up to four cooperative agreements with the goal of “Improved food security of vulnerable households in targeted Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) communities, contributing to a sustained reduction in rural poverty” in up to three regions of Ethiopia: Oromia, Amhara, and Tigray. Subject to availability of funds, the anticipated awards will be a total of approximately $550 million over a five-year period. Please refer to Section 1- Program Description for a complete description of possible activities.

Applicants are not limited to targeting only one region.

Issuance of this RFA does not constitute an award commitment on the part of USAID, nor does it commit the U.S. Government to pay for any costs incurred in the preparation or submission of the comments/suggestions or an application. Applications are submitted at the risk of the applicant. All preparation and submission costs are at the applicant’s expense. This includes the completion of all required documents for USAID awards.

RFA Merit Review, Co-Creation, and Refine & Implement (R&I) Process

Please be aware that this RFA follows a multi-stage review process, including a Co-Creation and

Award phase.

FY 2020 Development Food Security Activities for Ethiopia RFA

Phase I: Applicants will submit an Initial Application. After review of the Initial Application, those submissions with the highest evaluation scores will be invited to participate in Phase II.

Phase II: Applicants with the highest evaluation scores from Phase 1 will be invited to participate in an oral presentation of their proposed approach in Washington, D.C., with possible video-conferencing. The oral presentation may also be held virtually. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of the oral presentations by letter after the completion of all oral presentations.

Co-Creation Phase: Applicants who best meet the objectives of this funding opportunity based on the selection criteria contained herein and selected from Phase II will be the

Apparently Successful Applicant(s) (ASA).1 The ASA(s) will be selected to participate in a joint co-creation workshop which may include, USAID staff and the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) (See Appendix III: Co-Creation, Refine and Implement, and DFSA Handover Guidance). This workshop will be hosted by USAID in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia or may be held virtually. USAID reserves the right to change the venue if the co-creation workshop is not conducted remotely.

The details of the co-creation workshop will be outlined to the ASA(s) after the oral presentation. Following the co-creation workshop, the ASA(s) will continue to work remotely to refine key parts and revise the Initial Application and accompanying cost-application to submit a final and full Application after the conclusion of the co-creation workshop.

Final Application Phase: USAID will review the final full technical and cost application(s) and may request additional clarification at this final review stage.

Award Phase: Per USAID’s requirements, the final full technical and cost applications will be reviewed and incorporated into resulting cooperative agreement(s). An award will be drafted and submitted to the ASA(s) for review and execution.

Refine and Implement Phase: During the post-award Refine and Implement (R&I) phase, new awardees will be expected to carry out traditional start-up tasks and additional R&I related activities as detailed in Appendix III: Co-Creation, Refine and Implement, and DFSA Handover

Guidance. During implementation year one, it is envisioned that awardees may be expected to coordinate transition of responsibilities with DFSA I implementing partners. Awardees will have sufficient time to coordinate handover and delivery of core PSNP activities. More details on implementation year one handover, piloting, and assessments are in Appendix III: Co-Creation, Refine and Implement, and DFSA Handover Guidance.

Final awards cannot be made until funds have been fully appropriated, apportioned, allocated, and committed. While it is anticipated that these procedures will be successfully completed, potential applicants are hereby notified of these requirements and conditions for award.

1 Per 2 CFR 700.1, Apparently Successful Applicant(s) means the applicant(s) for USAID funding recommended for an award after merit review, but who has not yet been awarded a grant, cooperative agreement or other assistance award by the Agreement Officer. Apparently Successful Applicant status confers no right and constitutes no USAID commitment to an award, which still must be executed by the Agreement Officer.

For the purposes of this award, the RFA consists of this cover letter and the following:

SECTION I – PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

SECTION II – FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION

SECTION III – ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

SECTION IV – APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

SECTION V – APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION

SECTION VI – FEDERAL AWARD AND ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

SECTION VII – FEDERAL AWARDING AGENCY CONTACTS

SECTION VIII – OTHER INFORMATION

APPENDIX I: Definitions APPENDIX II: Past Performance Reference Questionnaire

APPENDIX III: Co-Creation, Refine and Implement, and DFSA Handover Guidance

APPENDIX IV: Essential Supporting Documents APPENDIX V: Map of Current USAID Food Security Activities in Ethiopia

APPENDIX VI: Ethiopia Operational Timeline

APPENDIX VII: June 2020 DRAFT Government of Ethiopia Protective Safety-Net Program (PSNP) V Logical Framework

To be eligible for the award, the applicant must provide all required information in the application, including the requirements found in any attachments to this opportunity on www.grants.gov. Any future amendments to this RFA can be downloaded from www.grants.gov. This information may also be posted on the USAID website. It is the responsibility of the applicant to use the most up-to-date versions of all of the documents related to this RFA.

USAID may not award to an applicant unless the applicant has complied with all applicable unique entity identifier and System for Award Management (SAM) requirements detailed in

Section IV. The registration process may take many weeks to complete. Therefore, Applicants are encouraged to begin registration early in the process.

Please send any questions to FY20-DFSA-RFA-Ethiopia@usaid.gov. The deadline for questions is September 11, 2020.

Applicants may also refer to the Development Activity Application Guidance on the USAID website, including Technical References and the Monitoring and Evaluation Policy.

Per 2 CFR 200 and 2 CFR 700, USAID regulations do not award profit under assistance instruments. However, all reasonable, allocable, and allowable expenses, both direct and indirect, which are related to the agreement activity and which are in accordance with applicable cost standards, may be paid under the agreement.

USAID may (a) reject any or all applications, (b) accept applications for reasons other than cost, or (c) accept more than one application (see Section V - Application Review Information). USAID intends to award predominantly cooperative agreements but reserves the right to award any other form of assistance agreement. USAID may waive informalities and minor irregularities in applications received.

http://www.grants.gov/ http://www.grants.gov/ mailto:FY20-DFSA-RFA-Ethiopia@usaid.gov https://www.usaid.gov/food-assistance/what-we-do/development-activities

In the event of any inconsistency between this RFA and any other supporting documents including documents referenced in the RFA, the RFA takes precedence over any referenced documents (including the Technical References), except statute and regulations. In the event of an inconsistency in the RFA documents or in the text of the RFA, it will be resolved at the discretion of the Agreement Officer (AO).

Thank you for your interest in USAID programs.

Sincerely, /S/

Taylor Garrett Acting Director, Office of Africa

Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance

SECTION I - PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

1. Overview

This RFA provides information on a funding opportunity for a multi-year DFSA in Ethiopia.

Development activities are mandated in the Food for Peace Act and are aligned with the USAID 2016-2025 Food Assistance and Food Security Strategy. The resulting award will be subject to 2 CFR 200 – Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit

Requirements for Federal Awards, and USAID’s supplement, 2 CFR 700, as well as the additional requirements found in Section F. More specific information on the objectives, interventions, geographic locations targeted within the country, and/or funding levels and types covered by this RFA may be found in the Program Description section. In addition, BHA posts market analyses, Climate Risk Profiles and other related resources on the USAID website, as applicable.

BHA intends to award up to four cooperative agreements with the goal of “Improved food security of vulnerable households in targeted PSNP communities, contributing to a sustained reduction in rural poverty” in up to three regions of Ethiopia: Oromia, Amhara, and Tigray. Subject to availability of funds, the anticipated awards will be a total of approximately $550 million over a five-year period. Applicants may request variable funding levels over the life of the activity.

Since FY 2016, BHA has been awarding its development food security activities under a post-award model known as Refine and Implement (R&I) which is intended to improve the activity’s design, fit to context and implementation planning. Given the complexity of related designs, USAID will utilize both a pre-award co-creation workshop and a post-award R&I model. (See Appendix III: Co-Creation, Refine and Implement, and DFSA Handover Guidance.)

https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1867/FFP-Strategy-FINAL%2010.5.16.pdf

RFA Merit Review, Co-Creation, and R&I Process

Please be aware that this RFA follows a multi-stage review process including a Co-Creation and

Award phase.

Phase I: Applicants will submit an Initial Application. After review of the Initial Application, those submissions with the highest evaluation scores will be invited to participate in Phase II.

Phase II: Applicants with the highest evaluation scores from Phase 1 will be invited to participate in an oral presentation of their proposed approach in Washington, D.C., with possible video-conferencing. The oral presentation may also be held virtually. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of the oral presentations by letter after the completion of all oral presentations.

Co-Creation Phase: Applicants who best meet the objectives of this funding opportunity based on the selection criteria contained herein and selected from Phase II will be the Apparently Successful Applicant(s) (ASA).2 The ASA(s) will be selected to participate in a joint co-creation workshop which may include USAID staff and the GoE (See Appendix III: Co-

Creation, Refine and Implement, and DFSA Handover Guidance). This workshop will be hosted by USAID in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia or may be held virtually. USAID reserves the right to change the venue if the co-creation workshop is not conducted remotely. The details of the co-creation workshop will be outlined to the ASA(s) after the oral presentation. Following the co-creation workshop, the ASA(s) will continue to work remotely to refine key parts and revise the Initial

Application and accompanying cost application to submit a final and full Application approximately after the conclusion of the co-creation workshop.

Final Application Phase: USAID will review the final full technical and cost application(s) and may request additional clarification at this final review stage.

Award Phase: Per USAID’s requirements, the final full technical and cost applications will be reviewed and incorporated into resulting cooperative agreement(s). An award will be drafted and submitted to the ASA(s) for review and execution.

Refine and Implement Phase: During the post-award Refine and Implement (R&I) phase, new awardees will be expected to carry out traditional start-up tasks and additional R&I related activities as detailed in Appendix III: Co-Creation, Refine and Implement, and DFSA Handover Guidance. During implementation year one, it is envisioned that awardees may be expected to coordinate transition of responsibilities with DFSA I implementing partners. Awardees will have sufficient time to coordinate hand over and delivery of core PSNP activities. More details on implementation year one handover, piloting, and assessments are in Appendix III: Co-Creation, Refine and Implement, and DFSA Handover Guidance.

2 Per 2 CFR 700.1, Apparently Successful Applicant(s) means the applicant(s) for USAID funding recommended for an award after merit review, but who has not yet been awarded a grant, cooperative agreement or other assistance award by the Agreement Officer. Apparently Successful Applicant status confers no right and constitutes no USAID commitment to an award, which still must be executed by the Agreement Officer.

2. USAID Global Strategy and DFSA Background Information

The Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), in the U.S. Agency for International Development is the U.S. Government lead operating Bureau overseeing international food assistance. BHA works to reduce hunger and malnutrition and assure that adequate, safe, and nutritious food is available, accessible, and well-utilized by all individuals at all times to support a healthy and productive life.

Development Food Security Activities

Through BHA, USAID supports multi-year development food security activities (DFSAs) to improve and sustain the food and nutrition security of vulnerable populations. Particular sectoral or activity focus under DFSAs are context dependent, but broadly encompass food access, livelihoods, formal safety nets, agriculture, natural resource management, early warning and disaster preparedness and mitigation, health, WASH, nutrition, and local systems building. These activities work at the individual, household, community and institutional levels to address the underlying causes of food insecurity and strengthen transformative opportunities. DFSAs are intended to strengthen resilience in populations vulnerable to acute or chronic hunger and recurrent shocks, stresses, and crises to reduce future need for development or emergency food assistance. These activities are integrated with other USAID efforts to promote resilience and reduce extreme poverty.

Strategic Priorities

In FY 2017, USAID launched a new Food Assistance and Food Security Strategy 2016-2025

(USAID Strategy) which laid out priorities for the future around sustainability, systems approaches and a new set of cross cutting areas of focus addressing gender equity and youth empowerment, social cohesion, and social accountability. In seeking improved and more sustained food and nutrition security for vulnerable populations, USAID Strategy works through two parallel objectives: to protect and enhance lives and livelihoods while strengthening and transforming communities and institutions.

The USAID Strategy’s Results Framework is a global framing of the work, outlining what is considered within USAID’s mandate, as well as what is expected as the skill sets and capacities of our implementing partners. At the field level, the exact parameters of a program will depend on context, need, available resources, and the skills, capacities and roles of other food and nutrition security actors working in the same space. This RFA is also grounded in

USAID’s Local Systems Framework3, which emphasizes a “systems approach” that focuses on multiple interconnected actors and relationships.

BHA Strategic Objectives

SO1: Lives and livelihoods protected and enhanced BHA works to protect and enhance the lives and livelihoods of those affected by crisis, and those vulnerable to crisis due to chronic poverty and hunger. In acute emergency situations, 3 USAID (2014). Local Systems: A Framework for Supporting Sustained Development. Available:

https://www.usaid.gov/policy/local-systems-framework https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1867/FFP-Strategy-FINAL%2010.5.16.pdf this may be by meeting immediate food and nutrition needs of those most vulnerable to food deficits through direct resource transfers accompanied by complementary programming to maximize the impact of those resources. In recovery and development settings, the emphasis may shift more strongly towards improving the lives of the most marginalized and protecting development investments through capacity building, knowledge transfer, household asset-building, or other productive investments contributing to improved food and nutrition security outcomes across a range of sectors.

SO2: Communities and institutions transformed

Even in the most acute crisis, an important foundation for transformative change includes assistance that does no harm and succeeds in strengthening local systems - including both social dynamics and formal and informal institutions. Under SO2, BHA works to strengthen communities and institutions that serve as catalysts for greater and more sustainable change in emergency response and long-term development settings alike. SO2 provides a pathway to address root causes and drivers of food insecurity through efforts at the community level and, where appropriate, up to national policy and planning levels, in ways that strengthen the capacity of both formal and informal institutions, reduce risks, and provide engines of growth, opportunity and change.

● USAID Strategy Intermediate Results

The SOs in the BHA Results Framework (RF) are each supported by four Intermediate Results (IRs) that address social protection, nutrition, environmental management and increasing incomes and assets. The IRs under SO1 focus on the individual - and household-level capacities required for positive change, while those under SO2 address the community and institutional capacities required to promote, support and sustain those changes.

Across all IRs, USAID’s strategy calls for a broadened concept of risk management that, in addition to natural hazards such as drought and flooding, addresses risks posed by fragility, conflict, pandemic disease and climate change, as well as idiosyncratic shocks, such as the death of a household head. Working at multiple levels, efforts to protect and enhance the lives and livelihoods of individuals and households while also strengthening local systems, creates synergies between the two SOs and the IRs under them. It also increases the need for

USAID and its partners to sequence, layer, and integrate activities within BHA programs, as well as with other USAID, local government, and other donor-funded efforts.

BHA Strategy Cross-cutting Intermediate Results

A set of cross-cutting IRs underpin the SOs and IRs to support the empowerment of women and youth, enhance social cohesion, and strengthen social accountability. They are intended to bring new focus and clarity to work to positively influence the local systems – including both social dynamics and formal and informal institutions – in which BHA emergency and multi-sectoral development food security activities are implemented.

BHA Strategy Corporate Objectives

The BHA strategy also includes three Corporate Objectives relevant to BHA and partners alike. These are designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of USAID’s work through strengthening partnership and influence, capacities of staff and institutions, and the evidence base underlying work in food and nutrition security.

Other U.S. Government and USAID Strategic Priorities

The USAID Strategy and programming contribute to countries’ Journey to Self-Reliance, by improving capacity and commitment of government and local systems, and USAID’s mission to end extreme poverty and promote resilient democratic societies; and to the DCHA Bureau’s strategic objectives, notably “Supporting areas of recurrent crisis to become more resilient.”

BHA’s Strategy also contributes to and reflects the USAID Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy

2014-2025, USAID policy and program guidance for Building Resilience to Recurrent Crisis, USAID’s policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment; USAID’s policy on Youth in Development, the U.S. Government’s Advancing Protection and Care for Children in

Adversity strategy, USAID’s Local Systems Framework, and USAID’s Democracy, Human

Rights and Governance Strategy. Notably, through BHA’s development food security activities, the Strategy also contributes to the U.S. Government Global Food Security

Strategy, 2017-2021, launched in October 2016.

The BHA Ethiopia DFSA Conceptual Framework (sub-Section 3 below) aligns with the USAID

Ethiopia Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) 2019-2024 with the goal:

“Ethiopia transitions to a more democratic, resilient, and prosperous country with accountable institutions and private-sector led growth.” In particular, this RFA is expected to jointly align with the CDCS Development Objective 1: Disaster risk management strengthened, as well as Development Objective 2: Resilience of vulnerable populations to key shocks increased. Furthermore, BHA aligns with and supports the Global Food Security

Strategy (GFSS) Ethiopia Country Plan with the goal: “Sustainably reduce poverty, hunger and malnutrition in the Feed the Future Zone of Influence.”

https://selfreliance.usaid.gov/ https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1867/USAID_Nutrition_Strategy_5-09_508.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1867/USAID_Nutrition_Strategy_5-09_508.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/USAIDResiliencePolicyGuidanceDocument.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1866/USAID-DRG_fina-_6-24-31.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/Youth_in_Development_Policy_0.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/Youth_in_Development_Policy_0.pdf https://www.childreninadversity.gov/strategy https://www.childreninadversity.gov/strategy https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/LocalSystemsFramework.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1866/USAID-DRG_fina-_6-24-31.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1866/USAID-DRG_fina-_6-24-31.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1866/USAID-DRG_fina-_6-24-31.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1867/USG-Global-Food-Security-Strategy-2016.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1867/USG-Global-Food-Security-Strategy-2016.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/ethiopia/documents/cdcs-2019-2014 https://www.usaid.gov/ethiopia/documents/cdcs-2019-2014 https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1867/Ethiopia_GFSS_Country_Plan_WS_Edits_9.21.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1867/Ethiopia_GFSS_Country_Plan_WS_Edits_9.21.pdf

In addition, BHA development food security activities are expected to align with planned BHA

Emergency activities and USAID Ethiopia Mission activities particularly in the areas of Livelihoods, Nutrition, and Health.

3. Background and Country Context

Over the past 20 years, Ethiopia has made significant progress in improving health, nutrition, education, and other human development indicators. Life expectancy has risen dramatically, while the percentage of the population living in poverty and hunger has fallen by a third in the last 10 years. Sustained economic growth and strong pro-poor spending by the GoE have been critical to this success, supported by the commitment of development partners such as USAID to support Ethiopia’s aspirations in poverty reduction. Yet for millions of Ethiopians, the combination of poverty, vulnerability, and food insecurity erode community and household resilience. These factors are exacerbated by climate change4, conflict, and other acute and chronic shocks and stresses. Poorer areas of rural Ethiopia are characterized by small and often uneconomical agriculture plot sizes. Population density is high, and a large proportion of these households are without access to sufficient land and other productive assets. Excessive cultivation over the years also has depleted soils, resulting in poor productivity.

As a result of these factors, Ethiopia continues to have a significant segment of its population in need of food assistance. The country’s Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) is the primary vehicle for identifying humanitarian need and securing resources to support those affected by drought and other drivers of transitory food insecurity. In 2016, the country was heavily affected by impacts of the El Niño-induced drought, which was the most severe in 50 years;

more than 10 million people depended on humanitarian food assistance during the drought, which negatively affected household and community resilience, and increased vulnerability. In

2017, another drought occurred in south and southeastern Ethiopia, and 8.5 million

Ethiopians needed relief food assistance. In 2019, the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) estimated that 8.2 million people were in need of emergency food assistance (8 million reached), which included three million conflict displaced IDPs. Due to COVID-19, the revised

2020 HRP estimates that an additional 7.8M people will require emergency food assistance in addition to the 7.2M identified in the 2020 HRP. The U.S. Government continues to be the largest humanitarian donor for food assistance, which has averaged about $400 million annually in recent years. The USAID Joint Emergency Operations Program (JEOP) is the primary vehicle for providing humanitarian U.S. food assistance to more than 1.4 million transitory food insecure beneficiaries in 86 woredas/districts. USAID also supports food and nutrition assistance through the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) across the country.

The PSNP began in 2005 to try and break a perpetual cycle of hunger brought about by recurrent and prolonged drought and other shocks. The objective was to support chronically food-insecure households and enable them to overcome vulnerabilities without eroding their assets, and over time, to support households to build their productive asset

4 USAID conducted a Climate Risk Profile (CRP) for sub-national Ethiopian country contexts described in the RFA, located on the USAID food assistance Ethiopia country page, and on Climatelinks.org, at:

https://www.climatelinks.org/countries/ethiopia.

https://www.usaid.gov/ethiopia/economic-growth-and-trade https://www.usaid.gov/ethiopia/nutrition https://www.usaid.gov/ethiopia/global-health https://www.climatelinks.org/countries/ethiopia bases. The PSNP is a GoE-led program, with assistance from multiple development partners.

It is now in its fourth phase, covers nearly eight million people in more than 350 woredas, and has been widely studied; multiple studies have shown that the PSNP has positively impacted food-insecure households. The public work, resource transfer, livelihood, and other components of the PSNP as outlined in the PSNP Program Implementation Manual (PIM), which detailed guidance and requirements, have played an important part in smoothing consumption, buffering shocks, and preventing degradation of, and restoring, natural resources. The PIM is the final source of guidance on program concepts, objectives, principles, and procedures for the PSNP.

Although smallholder agriculture will remain an important feature of rural livelihoods in the Ethiopian highlands, large scale improvement in the standard of living will require a shift to alternative livelihood options for a substantial portion of Ethiopia’s rural population.

Consistent with the goal of promoting alternative livelihood opportunities that offer sustainable pathways out of poverty, various adjustments in the PSNP, which will be reflected in the revised PIM, are currently under discussion by the GoE. These include firm commitments to:

● Increase poor households’ savings and ownership of productive assets;

● Enhance the capabilities (financial literacy, life skills and job relevant skills) of PSNP beneficiaries; and

● Help poor households take advantage of formal and informal employment opportunities.

Although the longstanding practice of providing conditional resource transfers to build community assets will continue in the PSNP, alternative conditionalities are also under consideration. For example:

● Food and or cash/vouchers for training, which currently is allowed to promote nutritional outcomes, might be authorized for other skills development objectives

(e.g., job relevant skills); and

● Conditionalities that are designed to help prepare households for alternative employment, including enterprise development; off-farm employment/skilled labor; and agricultural livelihoods for those with access to land.

These DFSA activities will support the GoE-led PSNP 5. There are several noteworthy shifts expected in PSNP 5, which will be outlined in the revised PIM:

● Poverty, and not food insecurity, will be the principal indicator for targeting. This focus should result in more woredas being included in PSNP 5, but in many cases fewer households in a woreda (the eight million beneficiary caseload is anticipated to remain unchanged) may be targeted.

● Resource transfers and other processes are being changed/streamlined to allow for more timely and predictable transfers of both food and cash. Additionally, modernizing the infrastructure and processes of the PSNP will include digitizing cash transfers.

● Recognizing that transforming livelihoods and providing new opportunities will require a robust set of interventions, USAID will finance activities that go beyond those included in the PSNP Program Implementation Manual (PIM).

● PSNP 5 seeks to operationalize a more robust “continuum of response” —a scalable safety net—that links the PSNP to the humanitarian response system in order to respond to shocks more effectively.

● And finally, USAID has advocated for and expects greater engagement afforded to

DFSA Implementing Partners in carrying out activities, e.g., greater say in the planning process at the local level, targeting clients, designing public works, and other processes. Partners implementing the DFSAs are expected to actively participate and positively influence the design and selection of public works, targeting PSNP households. In addition, Partners should be proactive to increase their engagement in building capacity and systems for improved targeting, planning and implementation of

Public Works.

This section does not attempt a comprehensive review of the PSNP. Instead, it focuses on specific contextual factors that are relevant to key features of this solicitation. Applicants are encouraged to consult the substantial literature on patterns of poverty and food insecurity in

Ethiopia. Some key references are included in Appendix IV: Essential Supplemental

Documents.

4. Conceptual Framework

BHA has developed a high-level Conceptual Framework to guide applicants in their design and ensure harmonization across possible multiple awards. Further refinement of the design will take place during the R&I period post award. This Conceptual Framework includes the strategic objectives (SOs) and intermediate results (IRs) that BHA believes will lead to the activity goal of sustained poverty reduction in targeted PSNP households and communities.

Based on contextual and geographic appropriateness, BHA encourages Applicant(s) to challenge the provided Conceptual Framework and suggest alternative Intermediate Results

(IRs). In suggesting new or additional IRs, Applicant(s) should consider their comparative advantage, maintain the strategic focus outlined in this RFA, and not duplicate or replicate ongoing activities. While aligning with PSNP, the framework encourages partners to go beyond activities specified in the PSNP 5 PIM to further strengthen the program, provide room for innovation, and test models that could be scaled up in a government system. The conceptual framework must be used to build the Theory of Change (ToC), and as such, must be used as the ToC Purposes and Sub-Purposes. Applicants are encouraged to use the language as closely as possible, but USAID is open to re-wording but may take up significant discrepancies in the issues letter process.

Goal: Improved food security of vulnerable households in targeted PSNP communities, contributing to a sustained reduction in rural poverty

The Government of Ethiopia (GoE)-led Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) started in 2005 and financed by 10 donors, has been a successful model for targeting food and cash resources to millions of chronically food insecure households across Ethiopia. There have been four iterations of the PSNP to date, phased across implementation periods that (generally) are three- five years in length. Additionally, the PSNP has played an important longer-term role in preventing the need for more costly emergency assistance interventions.5

Each iteration of PSNP has learned from previous experiences and has incorporated improved linkages with activities that promote better nutrition and livelihoods. The end goal of the PSNP has been to graduate recipients from needing assistance.

Despite the important risk mitigating influence of the PSNP, many rural households in highland Ethiopia remain trapped in poverty. The purpose of this activity is to identify pathways toward graduation from poverty. This activity’s poverty reduction goal is consistent with PSNP 5, the GoE’s poverty reduction strategy, USAID Ethiopia’s CDCS, and USAID’s

Journey to Self-Reliance.

The activity’s core approach will be to help layer a robust poverty alleviation program onto the PSNP’s core social protection platform. To do so, BHA will maintain its food assistance consumption smoothing support through in-kind food transfers, which has been a core element of the PSNP since its inception. It will also build on and strengthen innovative elements of PSNP 4 that focused on helping the rural poor accumulate economic assets, increase essential skills, and transform their livelihood strategies. This activity will also link with other actors and complementary initiatives designed to reduce malnutrition, increase employment opportunities for the poor, and support efforts to strengthen Ethiopia’s financial sector.

SO 1: Vulnerable Households and Individuals Have Sufficient Quantity, Quality, and Diversity of Food at All Times

BHA supports multi-year development food security activities to improve and sustain the food and nutrition security of vulnerable populations. These activities work at the individual, household, community, and institutional levels to address the underlying causes of food and nutrition insecurity and strengthen transformative opportunities. This includes ensuring synergies between improved food access to, availability and utilization of quality foods, income entitlements, agriculture and other livelihoods initiatives to help improve nutrition outcomes.

IR 1.1 Consumption Smoothed for Vulnerable Households

Consumption smoothing is a core-component of the PSNP and a necessary first step in supporting households along the pathway to graduation. It is key to ensuring basic household needs are met, achieving basic food security outcomes, and minimizing episodic/seasonal food deficits at the household level to avoid negative coping strategies. The PSNP transfer covers approximately 20% of the consumption requirements over 12 months for the poorest

5 A USAID report (2018) estimated that the “transfer” part of safety net programming, along with resilience building, and an early humanitarian response could have saved the US Government $1.2 billion over 15 years (2001-16), a savings of 35% of total USG emergency outlays.

https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1867/economics-resilience-drought-ethiopia-analysis https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1867/economics-resilience-drought-ethiopia-analysis households which is inline with the international benchmark for adequacy in social protection transfers.6

IR1.2 Access to, Availability, and Utilization of Quality Nutritious Foods Improved

Insufficient availability and access to nutrient dense food is a widespread problem in the Ethiopian highlands and is particularly acute among poor rural households that have insufficient productive capacity, purchasing power and/or entitlements. Food availability varies by locality, season, and year. Even when animal source food (ASF) is in demand, the availability and access to ASF for rural, poor households are very limited. Dietary diversity in general is low resulting in high caseloads of acute and chronic malnutrition. Spot shortages and seasonal food deficits often occur in drought years, further impairing year-long food and nutrition security.

IR 1.3 Optimal Infant and Young Child Feeding Behaviors Practiced

Nutrition social behavior change interventions that aim to improve maternal diets, nutrition during pregnancy, optimal breastfeeding practices, and infant and young child feeding practices7 are critical for PSNP households, especially Temporary Direct Support (TDS)8clients. Existing interventions in the Ethiopian highlands to promote optimal nutrition behaviors have been unable to overcome the significant socio-cultural barriers that keep

Pregnant and Lactating Women (PLW) and children from practicing improved behaviors.

SO 2: Vulnerable Community Members’ Livelihoods Transformed

USAID recognizes that household livelihoods among PSNP beneficiaries are fragile and that markets available to PSNP households are fragmented. PSNP households are disproportionately affected by weak market systems that limit their income potential and exacerbate their downside exposure to shocks and stresses. With limited diversification options, PSNP households are often forced to work in less productive sectors that are vulnerable to system-wide shocks. Most PSNP households lack access to formal financial services which limits their risk appetite and skills acquisition, trapping them in cyclical poverty.

Achieving sustainable pathways out of poverty at the household level requires enhancing household savings and accumulating and protecting productive assets. Maximizing the productivity of these assets requires increasing human capital (financial literacy, life skills, job-relevant skills); and a precondition for overcoming barriers to entry into the marketplace and for optimizing economic opportunities. As appropriate, interventions should leverage existing local systems.

6 World Bank Adequacy Analysis based on 2016 Households Consumption and Expenditure Survey

7 Early childhood stimulation is an important part of optimal feeding practices for infants and young children and applicants may include plans for its promotion in their applications but it is not a required outcome.

8 TDS clients include pregnant and lactating women (up to one year after birth) and a primary caregiver with malnourished children are eligible for at least one per person food transfer for the household without a public works requirement.

IR 2.1 Household Assets Increased and Protected

Helping poor households protect and accumulate privately-owned economic assets is a key element of resilience building, and a necessary step in supporting households along the pathway to graduation from chronic poverty. This activity seeks to measurably increase asset ownership on the part of poor individuals and households. The accumulation of liquid assets (savings and other stocks of value) enhances households’ ability to cope with shocks and enables them to plan for the future. Acquisition and improvement of privately held productive assets enables the rural poor to increase their productivity and income, and to leverage access to credit and other financial services.

IR 2.2 Individuals and Households Resilience Capacities Enhanced

Helping the rural poor acquire basic capabilities became a key element of the PSNP in its fourth phase. This activity seeks to help PSNP participants acquire life skills, financial literacy and job-relevant skills, and adopt behaviors and personal attributes necessary to cope with and recover from shocks and stresses. In addition to targeting poor households, successful applicants will include gender and youth appropriate approaches in their application.

IR 2.3 Vulnerable Individuals and Households Sustainably Engage in Diversified

Livelihoods

Through diversifying livelihoods and economic activities, households can reduce their overall risk of shocks and build resilience. This could include supporting households in moving toward a mixed livelihood strategy that includes on- and off-farm activities. Livelihood diversification activities must consider the differences for women and youth in livelihoods and opportunities to strengthen entrepreneurial and work-related skills. Ensuring households are able to withstand shocks improves resilience and promotes pathways out of poverty.

SO 3: PSNP Systems Deliver Accountable, Effective, and Shock-Responsive Services

PSNP beneficiaries are immensely vulnerable; these households require a high level of support from the GoE to sustain themselves above the survival threshold. Given their fragility, PSNP households require adequately planned and timely service provisions to improve their household consumption and considerable support in mapping their way out of poverty. Local government systems that deliver essential PSNP services are overburdened, often inefficient, and hamstrung by lengthy processes and procedures. As a result, current DFSAs face an estimated average 44 day delay in providing transfers, which forces DFSA beneficiaries to adopt negative coping strategies.

USAID’s DFSAs will support improvements in the effectiveness and accountability of PSNP services to ensure they are provided on-time and according to the PIM. DFSAs will work closely with clients, communities, and local governments to improve the prioritization and delivery of community assets. Moreover, DFSAs will consider how to improve the integration of services provided by the PSNP with those outside of the PSNP, such as essential health services and basic education services that promote a healthy and engaged citizenry.

IR 3.1 PSNP Systems Improve Planning, Construction and Management of Community

Assets

Public works assets created under the PSNP have experienced issues in the past related to the type of assets chosen, lack of inclusive beneficiary targeting, implementation quality, inequitable access to the benefits of public works provided to communities and households, and post-completion sustainability. If designed and implemented with community involvement and long-term exit strategies, however, the creation and rehabilitation of public works can catalyze community transformation. With a holistic, inclusive approach to the site selection and planning processes that consider community needs, and operations and maintenance capacity, public works creation presents an opportunity to revitalize a community’s natural resources, improve access to services, and provide communal economic benefits.

Since its inception, the PSNP has used cash and food assistance and savings promotion to help poor rural households build and protect privately-owned assets. In its next phase, applicants are encouraged to consider additional approaches that will help PSNP participants improve the management and increase the value of their productive assets. USAID’s involvement in community engagement in the selection of public works among its DFSAs has been relatively limited. Applicants are encouraged to propose new approaches for engaging with woreda officials to better align and prioritize community asset building activities with individual households’ asset creation efforts. Food for work activities that substantially increase poor people’s time burden without producing any clear and direct benefit for the participant other than the transfer itself should not be proposed.

IR 3.2 Referral and Linkages to Essential Services and Institutions Improved

The DFSAs will align, link, and layer programming with that of other actors and activities that are enhancing access to, and providing essential services (e.g., nutrition activities such as Alive and Thrive; Community-based Health Insurance (CBHI); Education; Financial Services) to promote the integration and uptake of PSNP services.

IR 3.3 Systems for PSNP Service Delivery Improved

Local accountability for the timely delivery of PSNP services is lacking and the verification processes are overly complex. Additionally, citizen input into the prioritization of local public work projects is often missing. PSNP communities lack client-centered financial service products and services that are inclusive and reflect the unique needs of PSNP households.

There are strong opportunities to improve accountability and strengthen social cohesion through community feedback loops and accountability mechanisms. Supporting efforts to streamline PSNP services with local officials will improve reliability.

IR 3.4 GoE and Community Early Warning, Preparedness, and Shock Responsive

Capacities Improved

The Government of Ethiopia’s rural safety net operations are comprised of the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), which provides social protection to a stable caseload of chronically food insecure households, and the Humanitarian Food Assistance (HFA) crisis prevention and response mechanism. The GoE has recently committed to reforms that will link and harmonize these two systems so that, by working together, they are better able to scale up humanitarian assistance in times of shock, while at the same time ensuring predictable transfers to core PSNP clients who require continuous assistance. Applicants should anticipate that National Disaster Risk Management Committee (NDRMC) policies, administrative procedures and institutional arrangements may change over the course of this activity, and that they will be called upon to adapt to and support this reform process.

5. Programming Principles

● Design for People-Centered Approaches

USAID is committed to keeping the interests and the voice of the most vulnerable at the center of its work, and to crafting development responses based on the strengths, priorities, risks, and needs of the target population. Creating opportunities for vulnerable populations suffering from extreme poverty and food insecurity requires working in partnership with other stakeholders, and understanding their unique resources and capacities, as well as the broader systems that support or impede their ability to effectively use those resources. A people-centered approach also considers formal and informal institutions, and social dynamics that support or impede the development of vulnerable populations. Applicants should pay particular attention to existing community tensions, conflict, and exclusion related to ethnicity, livelihoods, gender, age, religious beliefs, social class, disabilities, and political affiliation.

● Prioritization, Focus, and Context-Specific

A highly complex set of determinants affects food availability, access, and utilization. In low resource environments, the myriad context-specific needs and opportunities can easily exceed the capacity of any one activity to respond comprehensively and effectively. Additionally, there are limits to the relative level of change in knowledge, attitudes, and practices that individuals, households, and communities can absorb.

Effective programming requires prioritization. Applicants should prioritize the most limiting factors for action in their design application. This will ensure responses are feasible, catalytic in nature, and tailored to the needs of each target subpopulation.

BHA encourages partners to address the most limiting factors of each desired outcome sequentially—i.e., the most limiting factor is targeted first, the second most limiting factor is targeted second, and so on. In supporting the GoE-led PSNP and advocating for interventions that go beyond those detailed in the PIM, BHA seeks to extend the depth of programming to facilitate household movement on a pathway to graduation from extreme poverty.

● Strengthen Systems to Improve Sustainability9 Innovation and learning can be more systematically brought back into the PSNP to improve the overall system. Implementing Partners have a unique ability to engage directly with communities and with the operational levels of government. These relationships and lessons learned will be instrumental in helping to inform the overall

PSNP system and develop the local capacity required for sustainability in the long

9 Sustainability: The degree to which services or processes continue once inputs (funding, materials, training, etc.) provided by the original source(s) decreases or discontinues.

term. There must be adequate feedback loops in place to help synthesize innovations and learning between DFSA implementers and the PSNP in order to ensure lessons are systematically brought forward within the wider PSNP process.

Equitable, inclusive, and participatory community engagement, along with DFSA support for…