FINAL Mozambique FY22 RFSA RFA (revised version following Q&A period).pdf

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA

Issuance Date: Monday, August 9, 2021 Deadline for Questions: Monday, August 23, 2021 (10 days from the final RFA’s posting) Closing Date: Wednesday, October 27, 2021 CFDA Number: 98.007 Closing Time: 11:59 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time)

Subject: Request for Applications for a Resilience Food Security Activity in Mozambique

Title: Fiscal Year 2022 Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activity in Mozambique

Funding Opportunity Number: 720BHA21RFA00001

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) is seeking applications for funding for a Resilience Food Security Activity in Mozambique.

Private voluntary organizations or cooperatives, including U.S. and non-U.S. nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), may apply. Public international organizations are also eligible to apply.

Subject to the availability of funds, under this Request for Applications (RFA), BHA plans to make up to the number of awards as described in detail in the Program Description. Please refer to the Program Description for a complete description of possible locations and activities.

USAID reserves the right to use any assistance mechanism available to this Agency (e.g., grant, cooperative agreement, leader with associates award) and to adjust the number of awards, funding levels, sources of funding, and/or procedures. The funding source will be Title II Funds.

The applicant’s activity designs inform funding levels, but BHA sets funding levels for successful applicants. BHA will notify successful applicants of any changes or updates, accordingly.

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.

BHA cannot make final awards until funds have been fully appropriated, apportioned, allocated, and committed. While BHA anticipates that these procedures will be successfully completed, BHA hereby notifies potential applicants these requirements and conditions for award.

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

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA

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: FY 2022 Refine and Implement APPENDIX IV: Relevant Maps

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 BHA website. In the event of any inconsistency between the information posted on www.grants.gov and the BHA website, the information on www.grants.gov takes precedence, 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 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 several weeks to complete. Therefore, applicants are encouraged to begin registration early in the process.

Please send any questions to the email address identified in Section IV. The deadline for questions is Monday, August 23, 2021 (10 business days from the final RFA’s posting).

Applicants should refer to the Resilience Activity Application Guidance on the Resilience Activities section of the BHA website, including the BHA Guidance for Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting and the BHA Guidance for RFSAs Operating in COVID-19 Affected Operating Contexts, and the RFA Solicitation Briefing Recording.

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/ http://www.grants.gov/ http://www.grants.gov/ https://www.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/partner-with-us https://www.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/partner-with-us https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1866/bha-guidance-monitoring-evaluation-and-reporting-rfsa https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1866/bha-guidance-monitoring-evaluation-and-reporting-rfsa https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/352986/External_Guidance_for_DFSA_in_COVID-19_FINAL_508_Compliant.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/352986/External_Guidance_for_DFSA_in_COVID-19_FINAL_508_Compliant.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p1kbaPdWlo

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA

In the event of any inconsistency between this RFA and the documents referenced in the RFA, the RFA takes precedence over any referenced documents, except statutes 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/

Matthew Nims Agreement Officer

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA

Section I – Program Description

This RFA provides information on funding opportunities for Resilience Food Security Activities (RFSAs), formerly known as Development Food Security Activities (DFSAs). Resilience activities are mandated in the Food for Peace Act. The Food for Peace Act, as amended, authorizes this funding opportunity. 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, 22 CFR 211 – Transfer of Food Commodities for Use in Disaster Relief, Economic Development and Other Assistance, USAID/Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance Functional Policies (BHAFP), 22 CFR 216 - Agency Environmental Procedures as well as the additional requirements found in Section F. More specific information on the objectives, interventions, geographic locations targeted within the countries, 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 Country Fact Sheets page of the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) website, as applicable.

The application process may include two phases. The first phase is the submission and review of an initial application (technical application and cost application). Successful first-phase applicants may also receive letters of invitation to present their applications orally or by video teleconference, and to address topline issues identified during the initial review of their applications. If they occur, oral presentations will constitute the second phase of the technical review process and will be a condition of the award, additional details on oral presentation format will be provided to applicants invited to provide a presentation. After discussions have concluded, the Apparently Successful Applicant(s) will receive a final issues letter, if necessary, and will be required to submit final technical and cost applications.

1. BHA Resilience Food Security Activities

BHA provides life-saving humanitarian assistance—including food, water, shelter, emergency healthcare, sanitation and hygiene, and critical nutrition services—to the world’s most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach people. BHA is the lead federal coordinator for international disaster assistance, harnessing the expertise and unique capacities of other U.S. government entities to effectively respond to natural disasters and complex crises around the world.

Through BHA, USAID supports multi-year resilience food and nutrition security activities to improve and sustain the food and nutrition security of vulnerable populations. USAID defines resilience as the ability of people, households, communities, countries, and systems to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and facilitates inclusive growth. These activities work at the individual, household, community and institutional levels to address the underlying causes of food insecurity, malnutrition and strengthen transformative opportunities. This includes a focus on improving food access and incomes through agriculture and other livelihoods initiatives; enhancing ecosystem services through natural resources management; combating under-nutrition, especially for children under 2 and pregnant and lactating women; and reducing and mitigating disaster impact https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=0f8eda4e84404f0ba37f4479def4c738&mc=true&node=pt22.1.211&rgn=div5 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=0f8eda4e84404f0ba37f4479def4c738&mc=true&node=pt22.1.211&rgn=div5 https://www.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/partner-with-us/bha-emergency-guidelines https://www.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/partner-with-us/bha-emergency-guidelines https://www.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/mozambique https://www.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/mozambique https://www.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/mozambique

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA through early warning and community capacity building and preparedness activities. BHA Title II RFSAs are intended to strengthen resilience in populations vulnerable to both acute and chronic hunger, malnutrition and recurrent shocks, stresses and crises, and to reduce future need for ongoing or emergency food assistance. These activities are increasingly integrated with other USAID efforts to promote resilience and reduce extreme poverty.

Since Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, Food for Peace (now part of BHA), has awarded resilience activities under a post-award co-creation model known as Refine and Implement (R&I), which is intended to improve the activity’s design, fit to context, and implementation planning. R&I includes multiple stages.

During initial refinement, new awardees may carry out a number of interventions, including traditional start-up tasks and additional activities which may be, but are not limited to:

● Pre-implementation formative research and analysis that addresses evidence and knowledge gaps, particularly building a refined understanding of how the available evidence applies to the local context;

● Activities explicitly designed to both understand the complexity of behaviors the activity will address and inform their prioritization;

● Small-scale operational research, piloting promising implementation strategies, and start-up of proven, evidence-based implementation strategies;

● Meaningful community engagement to 1) enable two-way feedback and participation around the planned activity, interventions and refinement period, 2) enhance understanding of local needs, opportunities and aspirations, and 3) ensure mutual accountability, including in decision making processes1;

● Participatory stakeholder engagement for strengthened local partnerships, capacity development and coordination;

● Refining the Theory of Change (TOC) and implementation plans; and

● Preparation for implementation through hiring, staff training, and procurement of goods and services.

At the end of the Refinement Period, the Recipient and BHA will agree on a refined TOC and implementation plans, and on the activity social and behavior change strategy. The awardee should continue employing principles of adaptive management and ‘refinement’ approaches throughout the life of the award.

Any extension beyond the initial five-year award is subject to the Determination to Restrict Eligibility (DRE) approval process in USAID Automated Directives System (ADS) 303.

See APPENDIX III: FY 2022 Refine and Implement for more detail on the R&I approach.

Community briefings and consultative processes should take place in every community, while more extensive community visioning sessions should be carried out in a robust subset of communities.

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA

2. BHA Goals and Objectives

The mission of BHA is to save lives, alleviate human suffering, and reduce the physical, social, and economic impact of rapid and slow-onset disasters, including support for at-risk populations to build stable foundations for their Journey to Self-Reliance. BHA is fully committed to implementing USAID’s mandate as the lead U.S. Government coordinator for international disaster response.

BHA brings together the vast expertise and resources of USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and the Office of Food for Peace (FFP) - each with more than half a century of experience - into one influential voice on humanitarian assistance, enabling USAID to deliver life-saving assistance more efficiently and effectively. BHA achieves its mandate in coordination with affected populations, host governments, other USAID Bureaus, U.S. Government agencies and offices, other donor governments, Public International Organizations, local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector.

● BHA Principles and Commitments

In its role as a global leader in the international humanitarian system, BHA is committed to supporting principled humanitarian action and to promoting reforms that will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian programming. For BHA and its partners, these commitments translate into work on the ground that models principled humanitarian action while moving reform efforts forward. BHA pursues efforts aligned with the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence. BHA is also committed to advancing Grand Bargain reforms to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian assistance, including through improved linkages between humanitarian and development planning, when appropriate.

Through RFSAs, BHA is also committed to supporting USAID’s Journey to Self-Reliance through early recovery, risk reduction, and resilience to complement humanitarian assistance. BHA focuses its early recovery, risk reduction, and resilience efforts where it can leverage existing humanitarian and development investments or where it can reduce existing humanitarian need; in contexts prone to recurrent crises and/or with pre-existing vulnerability and risk; and where investments have potential for measurable outcomes and/or impact.

BHA is committed to responding to and mitigating the effects of natural disasters and complex crises while building human and institutional capacities to withstand recurrent shocks and stresses. By providing a solid platform for further investments, BHA creates and advances opportunities for transformative and lasting change, thus enabling countries and populations to effectively prepare for, respond to, and recover and transition from rapid-onset and chronic humanitarian crises to more long-term development outcomes.

● Key Policy and Legislative Frameworks https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/J2SR_Fact_Sheet_June_2020.pdf

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA

BHA brings together responsibilities of the former OFDA and FFP. While the BHA strategy is being finalized, the Policy for Humanitarian Action and the Food Assistance and Food Security Strategy may serve as general guides in the interim.

As BHA moves forward, strategy and programming may reflect central legacy OFDA and FFP strategies and policies such as the USAID Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy 2014-2025; USAID’s policy and program guidance “Building Resilience to Recurrent Crisis;” USAID’s policy on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment; USAID’s policy on Youth in Development, and USAID’s Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Strategy.

Legislative and Funding Authorities for BHA include Section 491 of the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) and Title II of the Food for Peace (FFP) Act. BHA is authorized to undertake “non-emergency” food assistance programming that aims to alleviate the causes of hunger, promote economic and community development, promote food security, and build resilience to mitigate and prevent food crises and reduce the need for future emergency assistance.

In addition to these guidelines, BHA issues functional policies, technical reference and guidance documents, and other resources to support applicants and partners. Many of these focus on specific technical areas or humanitarian sectors and may include technical requirements for all award applicants.

BHA considers early recovery, risk reduction, and resilience (ER4) to be an integral component of humanitarian assistance and is in the process of finalizing its ER4 Strategic Framework. The document will articulate BHA’s approach to ER4, describing BHA’s Goal and Strategic Objectives within ER4, and its commitments and guiding principles. Descriptions and definitions of ER4 categories, as well as linkages and alignment with broader USAID policies and strategies and international frameworks, will be detailed to reflect BHA’s priorities. The ER4 Strategic Framework will also provide parameters and criteria for ER4 programming and operational details to guide BHA planning and programming.

● USAID Mozambique Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS)

USAID Mozambique has recently completed the CDCS process. One of the three Development Objectives (DO 3) focuses on vulnerable populations in northern and central Mozambique and on the specific shocks/stresses of natural disasters, food insecurity, and violent extremism. DO 3 contributes to the overall CDCS goal of a Mozambique whose overall economy, governance systems, and ability to finance self-reliance are more resilient to a broad range of shocks. This activity will support DO 3, and specifically, Immediate Result (IR) One, which seeks to increase household food security and nutrition. This activity will also play an important role in the entirety of the CDCS, across DO’s, as the Mission seeks to integrate social accountability, improved governance, improved health and well-being, and focus on the most vulnerable populations, including women and youth. Given the strong linkages between health, agriculture, food security, nutrition, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), DO 3 activities will be coordinated and, where appropriate, layered and sequenced with health and education activities under DO 1 and agriculture and local governance activities under DO 2.

https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1866/Humanitarian%20Policy%20Framework_digital.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1867/FFP-Strategy-FINAL%2010.5.16.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1867/FFP-Strategy-FINAL%2010.5.16.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/1865/GenderEqualityPolicy_0.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USAID_GenderEquality_Policy_MT_WEB_single_508.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USAID_GenderEquality_Policy_MT_WEB_single_508.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USAID_GenderEquality_Policy_MT_WEB_single_508.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/Youth_in_Development_Policy_0.pdf https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/democracy-human-rights-and-governance-strategy https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/democracy-human-rights-and-governance-strategy https://www.usaid.gov/ads/policy/faa https://www.usaid.gov/ads/policy/faa https://www.agriculture.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Food%20For%20Peace%20Act.pdf

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA

Under DO 3, with an express focus on the Journey to Self Reliance, USAID Mozambique will target resilience programming through intentional sequencing, layering, and integration, which will build capacity at the household, community, and systems level to withstand key shocks.

Building on lessons learned, USAID’s efforts will concentrate on building resilience tools and capacities in the areas of household food security and nutrition, access to clean water and sanitation, sustainable natural resources management, resistance to conflict and violent extremism, and natural disaster preparedness.

Within targeted vulnerable communities and households, USAID will prioritize building resilience for women and young people, who often have lower incomes, fewer assets, poorer nutrition, and less social capital from which to draw in the event of a shock. Women in Mozambique—and particularly in the Northern and Central regions—generally marry young, and give birth to an average of five children who face an uphill battle for survival due to poverty, poor nutrition, and lack of clean water. Given these challenges, USAID will prioritize activities that reduce vulnerability gaps between men and women at the household, community, and system levels. This will include supporting women to increase household income through sustainable intensification of natural resource-based livelihoods, as well as improving the health and nutrition of their families through access to diverse diets, clean water, and sanitation. Together these investments will increase women’s incomes, access to resources, decision-making opportunities, and protection from violence and exploitation.

● Key Government of Mozambique Policies and Programs

The Government of Mozambique (GRM) has a number of key policy objectives that are pertinent to this solicitation. This activity supports plans and priorities of the GRM as articulated by key national health, social protection, and food security strategies. They include:

Multi-sectoral Action Plan for the Reduction of Chronic Undernutrition (PAMRDC)

PAMRDC is a master document in the implementation of nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions in Mozambique. It was approved in 2010 with the commitment of key ministries that would provide an enabling environment for appropriate nutritional intake of Mozambican populations.

Food and Nutrition Security Strategy (ESAN III)

Under the tutelage of the Technical Secretariat for Food and Nutrition Security - SETSAN, this strategy will be an important tool in the implementation of key activities in nutrition (2020- 2030). It is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal number two - Zero Hunger, and it also embraces the activities outlined in the Multi-sectoral Action Plan for the Reduction of Chronic Malnutrition, PAMRDC, which ended in 2020. This strategy is based on a holistic and integrated approach to malnutrition encompassing the enabling environment (political guidelines/common commitments), strategic vision (nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive actions and programs), and operationalization (multi-level and multi-stakeholder interventions).

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA

Scaling Up Nutrition Movement (SUN Movement)

The SUN Movement is a multi-country platform created in 2010, aiming at working collaboratively to end malnutrition in all its forms. Mozambique has been part of this global movement since 2011, and has implemented a range of nutrition interventions engaging both public and private sectors (civil society, the United Nations, donors, businesses and researchers).

The Investment Case for Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH), supported by the Global Financing Facility (GFF)

To accelerate progress on RMNCAH in Mozambique, the Ministry of Health (MOH) developed an RMNCAH Investment Case to be funded by the Global Financing Facility, also supported by USAID. Adopted by the MOH as the leading strategic document to guide sector-wide programming and investment in the areas of reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child, and adolescent health, the National Strategy for the Improvement of Quality and Humanization of Health Services, 2017-2023 lays out the GRM’s strategic vision for establishing a national system to improve the quality of health services, focusing on both clinical quality as well as the patient-centered aspects of “Humanization.” While the strategy is focused at the health facility level, improving the quality and humanization of health care services within clinics and those provided by community health workers, it will be important that critical changes in behavior are also made by Mozambicans in the realms of RMNCAH.

SUSTENTA

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADER)’s SUSTENTA aims to improve the quality of life of rural households by promoting sustainable agriculture (social, economic and environmental). SUSTENTA is a national policy for the integration of family farming in productive value chains. SUSTENTA's actions are in line with the five major priorities guidance from the MADER: food security, family income, employment, social inclusion, and production, and productivity. SUSTENTA establishes the links between other actors in value chains, namely those who provide inputs and create market and market linkage opportunities.

Social Protection and Cash Transfers:

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Action (MGCAS) and the National Institute of Social Action (INAS), which respectively are responsible for policy and implementation of non-contributory social protection. They are also responsible for the design, implementation, supervision, and collaboration on a number of different multi-purpose cash transfer activities, including the Basic Social Subsidy Programme (PSSB), Direct Social Support Programme (PASD), Direct Social Support Programme in Emergencies (PASD-PE), a Child Grant Program with UNICEF, COVID-19 support to impacted HHs, and others. Assistance to particularly vulnerable households is a key priority of the Government.

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA

3. Goal and Objectives

BHA intends to award one cooperative agreement in Zambezia Livelihood Zone (LHZ) 5. This LHZ is part of USAID Mozambique’s Resilience Focus Zone, and the objectives of this RFA will contribute to the Mission’s CDCS in partnership with other Mission activities. This RFA covers the following districts within Zambezia Province: Alto Molócuè, Derre, Gilé, Gurué, Ile, Lugela, Mocuba, Morrumbala, Mulevala and Namarroi. While the aforementioned districts are the primary focus of the activity, during the seven months of the refinement period process, if the awardee, in consultation with BHA and the Mission, determines the need to expand the geographic scope to contiguous districts in Zambezia and Nampula to tailor the activity and resources to the context, a request will need to be submitted for USAID/BHA review and Agreement Officer approval in accordance with BHA Functional Policy 20-02.

The cooperative agreement will follow the R&I approach. Subject to the availability of funds and commodities, applicants must request in-kind Title II commodities. Applicants must only request from commodities BHA defines as specialized nutritious foods (SNFs) in the table below. In order to make CSB+ a complete specialized nutritious food, applicants will need to program it with fortified vegetable oil that is purchased locally. Applicants should not plan to import vegetable oil.

Ready to Use Foods (RUFs) Fortified Blended Flours (FBFs)

Medium Quantity - Lipid Nutrient Supplements for Pregnant and Lactating Women (PLW) - (MQ-LNS)

Corn soy blend plus (CSB+)

Small Quantity - SQ-LNS for PLW Corn soy blend plus plus (CSB++)

SQ-LNS for children

BHA’s most recent list of Title II commodities can be found in the BHA Fiscal Year 2021 Commodity and Ocean Freight Price Estimates document. Note that BHA does not intend to prescribe the amount of in-kind Title II commodities applicants must propose or the time frame during which they must be programmed. These decisions will depend upon each applicant’s activity design. Applicants may also request up to 50 percent Title II Section 202(e) funding to support local and/or regional procurement of food commodities, cash transfers, food vouchers and/or other allowable 202e expenses. Uses of Section 202(e) funding fall into two general categories: 202(e) and 202(e) Enhanced. Internal Transport, Storage, and Handling (ITSH) funds can only be programmed in conjunction with commodities sourced from the United States. ITSH funds cannot support costs associated with commodities procured locally, regionally and/or internationally. Other types of funding and monetization are not authorized.

All resource requests must be appropriately justified.

https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00X1FT.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1866/commodity-and-ocean-freight-price-estimates https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1866/commodity-and-ocean-freight-price-estimates

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA

Background:

In Mozambique, chronic malnutrition rates are very high among children under 5 years of age.

In Zambezia, the chronic malnutrition rate is 45 percent, above the national average of 43 percent.2 These rates are higher nationally in rural areas (46 percent) compared to urban areas (35 percent). These numbers indicate that approximately half of the children in Zambezia have stunted linear growth which is associated with a host of negative outcomes, including higher morbidity and mortality, impaired child development, and decreased work capacity and eventual earnings, amongst others. Poor nutrition in early childhood has long-term consequences for the economic and social development of households and communities in Mozambique. According to “The Cost of Hunger in Africa”, Mozambique loses more than 10.9 percent of its annual GDP (1.6 billion USD) due to chronic malnutrition.3

A number of factors contribute to higher stunting rates in Zambezia, including:

Sub-optimal maternal nutrition:

● 14 percent of women with Body Mass Index (BMI) < 18.5 (highest in Mozambique)

● 61.7 percent of women with anemia (highest in Mozambique)4

Sub-optimal infant and young child feeding practices:

● Established cultural norm of breastfeeding (20.4 month median duration), but only 1.4 month average duration of exclusive breastfeeding

● Minimum acceptable diet (MAD) achieved by 30.9 percent of children

● Minimum meal frequency (MMF) achieved by 56.2 percent of children

● Minimum dietary diversity (MDD) achieved by 42.2 percent of children5

The total fertility rate in Mozambique is 5.4 with only 25.3 percent of women using a modern form of contraception. The median age at first sex is 16.8 years and age of their first marriage is 18.2 years of age6. The HIV prevalence rate in Mozambique is 12.7 percent with cases more heavily centered in urban areas7. Mozambique’s maternal mortality ratio stands at 443 per 100,000 live births, one of the 20 highest in the world. Just over half of women attend more than four ante-natal clinic visits, are attended by a skilled birth practitioner, and give birth in a formal health facility, but these numbers have stagnated over time and vary widely between urban and rural populations8. The most significant barriers to institutional delivery in Zambezia Province are delays in reaching care as well as delays in seeking care (due to gender/cultural

2 https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1864/Mozambique-Nutrition-Profile-Mar2018-508.pdf 3 https://scalingupnutrition.org/news/mozambique-losses-due-to-chronic-malnutrition/ 4 Inquérito Populacional de Base para avaliar o programa: "Melhorando o Estado Nutricional das crianças (0-59 meses de idade) nas províncias de Zambézia e Nampula“ UNICEF, 2020.

5 Inquérito Populacional de Base para avaliar o programa: "Melhorando o Estado Nutricional das crianças (0-59 meses de idade) nas províncias de Zambézia e Nampula“ UNICEF, 2020.

6 https://www.dhsprogram.com/countries/Country-Main.cfm?ctry_id=61&c=Mozambique 7 https://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/mozambique 8 https://www.dhsprogram.com/countries/Country-Main.cfm?ctry_id=61&c=Mozambique https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1864/Mozambique-Nutrition-Profile-Mar2018-508.pdf https://scalingupnutrition.org/news/mozambique-losses-due-to-chronic-malnutrition/ https://www.dhsprogram.com/countries/Country-Main.cfm?ctry_id=61&c=Mozambique https://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/mozambique https://www.dhsprogram.com/countries/Country-Main.cfm?ctry_id=61&c=Mozambique

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA barriers). Zambezia also has the highest infant mortality rate in the country at 64 per 1,000 live births and has some of the worst maternal and child health outcomes overall. Poor availability of health services, distances to the services, and low quality of care also drive a spectrum of poor outcomes. Infant mortality stands at 64 and child mortality at 95, both at per 1,000 live births9. Both indicators dropping steadily over time, surely in no small part due to improvements in malaria prevention, control, and prompt treatment. While progress in Zambezia has not been ideal, nationally, major progress has been made in children sleeping under a mosquito net with 73 percent of children reporting sleeping under a bednet the previous night. This data is also in keeping with a drop in the prevalence of fever and a remarkable uptick in the prompt treatment of fever. However, malaria continues to be a challenge. In the last Malaria Indicator Survey, 44 percent of children aged 6-59 months tested positive for malaria in Zambezia, the fourth highest in the country10.

Approximately 62 percent of the population in Zambezia lives in poverty, and according to SETSAN, between 6-10 percent of households face acute food insecurity.11 The main determinants of wealth in Livelihood Zone 5 (LHZ 5) are the size of land cultivated, area under cash crops, and livestock ownership. Poorer and less educated households also have poorer health outcomes, including stunting. Fifty-one percent of children from the poorest households experienced stunting. However, even households in the highest wealth quintile have 24 percent of children still experienced stunting.12

Within LHZ 5, typical households earn a small amount of supplemental income selling a portion of their staple crop and, to a lesser extent, sale of various small scale cash crop production.

Households within LHZ 5 are largely dependent on rainfed agriculture for their own consumption, as a source of income from crop sales, and labor demand.13 The production system is heavily based on maize and cassava, limiting options to ensure nutrient-dense, diverse diets from their own production. Maize constitutes the majority of poor households diets, with variable and limited consumption of other food groups, such as oils/fats and green leafy vegetables, which are consumed as infrequently as 2-3 days per week, resulting in insufficient micronutrient intake. 14 While productivity is low in Zambezia, staple crop production in Zambezia is still generally adequate to meet minimum daily energy requirements.

However, a typical household does not produce or is not able to afford a nutritious diet.15 The situation is acute in Zambezia, where a nutritious diet is almost three times the cost of an energy-centric diet.16 Further, the most vulnerable households in Zambezia fail to produce a

9 https://www.dhsprogram.com/countries/Country-Main.cfm?ctry_id=61&c=Mozambique 10 https://www.pmi.gov/docs/default-source/default-document-library/malaria-operational-plans/fy20/fy-2020-mozambique-malaria-operational-plan.pdf?sfvrsn=6 11 World Bank Poverty Assessment, April 2018 12 https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1864/Mozambique-Nutrition-Profile-Mar2018-508.pdf 13 https://fews.net/sites/default/files/documents/reports/MZ%20LHdescriptions%20August%202013%20en3.pdf 14https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1864/Mozambique-Nutrition-Profile-Mar2018-508.pdf 15https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP- 0000100126/download/?_ga=2.164917439.1094842950.1604041652-1301212854.1599814319 16https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP- 0000100126/download/?_ga=2.164917439.1094842950.1604041652-1301212854.1599814319 https://fews.net/sites/default/files/documents/reports/MZ%20LHdescriptions%20August%202013%20en3.pdf https://www.dhsprogram.com/countries/Country-Main.cfm?ctry_id=61&c=Mozambique https://www.pmi.gov/docs/default-source/default-document-library/malaria-operational-plans/fy20/fy-2020-mozambique-malaria-operational-plan.pdf?sfvrsn=6 https://www.pmi.gov/docs/default-source/default-document-library/malaria-operational-plans/fy20/fy-2020-mozambique-malaria-operational-plan.pdf?sfvrsn=6 https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1864/Mozambique-Nutrition-Profile-Mar2018-508.pdf https://fews.net/sites/default/files/documents/reports/MZ%20LHdescriptions%20August%202013%20en3.pdf https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000100126/download/?_ga=2.164917439.1094842950.1604041652-1301212854.1599814319 https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000100126/download/?_ga=2.164917439.1094842950.1604041652-1301212854.1599814319 https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000100126/download/?_ga=2.164917439.1094842950.1604041652-1301212854.1599814319 https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000100126/download/?_ga=2.164917439.1094842950.1604041652-1301212854.1599814319

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA sufficient variety of foods to meet even their food security requirements. Improving rainfed staple crop production is inhibited by numerous structural and systemic barriers, beyond what is possible to sustainably address in this activity.

Nationally, only 24 percent of Mozambican households have access to basic sanitation, and in rural areas almost half of the population (47 percent) practices open defecation. In Zambezia, 72 percent of the population practices open defecation.17 Only 30.6 percent have access to safe water.18 The hygiene situation is also quite poor, with only 12 percent of the population having basic access, defined as having soap and water available on their premises.19 Further, 78 percent of households had the presence of animal feces on the ground around homes; 63 percent of children 12-23 months observed eating dirt20; and a 15 percent prevalence of diarrhea (0-5 years old)21. In addition to a high prevalence of poverty, stunting, and chronic food insecurity, many households in Zambezia rely on unsafe water sources.

Gender, age, and other diversity factors play a key role in understanding Zambezia’s high rates of chronic malnutrition. Gender inequalities and social norms have consistently been found as a barrier to progress. For example, intra-household food allocation often means that women and children do not have access to key nutritious food, including proteins, on a regular basis.

The nutritional requirements of an adolescent girl are the most expensive for a household to meet, averaging about 33 percent of a household's total budget; pregnant and lactating women

17 WHO/UNICEF JMP 2015. https://washdata.org/data.

18 https://www.unicef.org/mozambique/en/water-sanitation-and-hygiene-wash.

19 https://washdata.org/data#!/dashboard/872) 20 https://washdata.org/data#!/dashboard/872) 21 Mozambique DHS, 2011

Figure 1: Percentage of the total cost of the nutritious diet for each household member (national average). Source:

https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files /resources/WFP-0000100126.pdf https://washdata.org/data#!/dashboard/872)

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA are the second most expensive family member to feed (figure 1)22 and 46 percent of Mozambican adolescents become pregnant before reaching adulthood.23 24

Given long-held gender norms and the lack of progress in advancing conversations on household decision-making, the majority of adolescent girls are under-nourished. Other drivers of poor nutrition for children, adolescents, and young women include: poor secondary education and livelihood opportunities; early marriage and pregnancy, poor access to and control of resources, limited autonomy, and high rates of gender-based violence (GBV) and other protection risks. HIV prevalence among youth is also a factor, further exacerbating time and unpaid care burdens for women and girls in particular.

Goal: Improve Nutrition Outcomes for Children under 2 Years of Age in Zambezia Livelihood Zone (LHZ) 5

USAID is not only looking to improve suboptimal food intake, but also the measurable health outcomes related to growth and development. Accordingly, this RFA presents two initial primary objectives for applicants to address. Equally important, through “Additional Objective(s) To Be Proposed by Applicants” the RFA provides space for applicants to conduct assessments and suggest additional objective(s) that will complete a theory of change and strengthen the sustainability of program outcomes. This framing is intended to maintain a focused program, while ensuring that key constraints identified through deep contextual analysis may be addressed holistically.

The first objective focuses on addressing the intergenerational nature of stunted linear growth combined with the unique vulnerability by lifestage. The cyclical pattern whereby stunted children grow into adolescents and young women who are more likely to have stunted children themselves is a distinct development challenge posed in this RFA. The available evidence supports intervening meaningfully by using a life cycle approach, focusing on critical windows of time. Research from neighboring Malawi quantified the cumulative difference in stature between Malawian children and the World Health Organization (WHO) growth standard median, attributing 20 percent of the difference in stature to growth (or lack thereof) in utero, 20 percent in the first six months after birth, 50 percent during the 6-24 month complementary feeding period and some 10 percent thereafter.25 This is a stubborn cycle to disrupt, and with finite reach and resources, it demands a thoughtful, strategic approach that looks as much at when to intervene in addition to how.

22 https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/WFP-0000100126.pdf 23https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP- 0000100126/download/?_ga=2.164917439.1094842950.1604041652-1301212854.1599814319 24 2015 Malaria Survey (IMASIDA) 25 Dewey KG & Huffman SL. Maternal , infant, and young child nutrition: combining efforts to maximize impacts on child growth and micronutrient status. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 2009, vol.30, (pg. S187-S189) https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/WFP-0000100126.pdf https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000100126/download/?_ga=2.164917439.1094842950.1604041652-1301212854.1599814319 https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000100126/download/?_ga=2.164917439.1094842950.1604041652-1301212854.1599814319

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA

The second objective for applicants to incorporate is the appreciation that growth and development are impacted by the host’s environment and only a part of that environment pertains to how they are fed and cared for. A child’s relative capacity to utilize the nutrients biologically available to their body for growth and development is impacted by a confluence of factors specific to their context and environment. Similarly, a household’s capacity to provide care and feeding in a way that supports the health of the child can be impaired by a host of factors. Applicants are challenged to maintain the focus of their activities upon the goal at hand while appreciating the complexity of a child’s environment to seek a mix of nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive activities that look to maximize the resources available.

In assessing the unique biological, social, environmental, and cultural factors that challenge improvements in nutritional outcomes, applicants will find that additional objective(s) are necessary to address the most limiting factors holistically and sustainably. A complementary mix of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programming will be necessary and sufficient to ensure sustainable programmatic outcomes. Proposed objective(s) must maintain the activity’s focus on sustainably improving nutrition outcomes for children under two years of age in LHZ 5.

Objective I: Sustainably improve women’s nutrition including in the face of shocks

Based upon an established independent relationship between fetal growth restriction (FGR) and stunting and wasting across regions, and the link between fetal life and child growth and nutritional status, successful applicants will focus on improving women’s nutrition as a key lifecycle approach to disrupting the cycle of undernutrition.26 A mix of biology, economic, social and cultural norms combine to disproportionately raise the vulnerability of women to nutritional deficits, making the improvement of women’s nutrition a priority for work in Zambezia’s LHZ 5.

Disparate nutritional demands by lifecycle stage, and how those demands might be met, must be understood within the social and cultural norms in a community. Paradoxically, adolescent girls and women have some of the most elevated nutrient needs as compared with other demographic groups, and yet, they frequently receive a disproportionately low share of nutrient dense foods within a household compared with other family members. This appears to hold true across Zambezia LHZ 5. From a biological perspective, women’s need for specific vitamins and minerals as well as macronutrients accelerate when they begin menstruation and during their adolescent growth period, but also if and when they become pregnant and the needs of the rapid growth and development of the fetus become their own. These heightened needs are not unique or confined to a period of adolescence, however, and persist through childbearing years. Interventions designed to improve nutrition during pregnancy have the potential to positively impact women’s nutrition status, reduce low birth weight (LBW), reduced

26 Christian P, et al. Risk of childhood undernutrition related to small-for-gestational age and preterm birth in low-and middle-income countries, International Journal of Epidemiology, 2013, vol. 42, (pg. 1340-1355)

FY 2022 USAID Bureau or Humanitarian Assistance Title II Resilience Food Security Activities in Mozambique RFA incidences of small for gestational age (SGA), and preterm birth (PTB).27 A growing body of evidence supports the importance of mitigating these adverse outcomes as a means to disrupting the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition. Meta analyses on supplementation programs during pregnancy, both multiple micronutrient supplementation as well as supplementary feeding programs28, have shown the ability to substantially reduce the risk of SGA and in some cases reduce stunting in children born to mothers of those programs.29 Successful applicants will demonstrate a strong grasp of the available evidence in this domain as well as the translation of that evidence into programming activities that can reasonably be expected to have success in Zambezia’s LHZ 5 communities.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to demonstrate understanding of the ability or inability of the normative behavior in Zambezia LHZ 5 to account for pregnant and lactating women’s increasing needs and to think through approaches to close gaps in consumption. Appreciation for sociological components are key to creating meaningful and sustainable change, and applicants are encouraged to work to promote lasting social change that appreciates the constructs of gender, age and other factors that contribute to identity within a community in addition to the behaviors at individual and household level.

As a pregnant woman transitions to become a mother of a newborn, assuming that she commits to breastfeeding, her body’s demand for micro and macronutrients accelerate to support the demands of lactation. Her capacity to maintain her own health as well as her milk production necessitate significant increases in food consumption.