Food for Progress Questions and Answers week of March 22, 2023.pdf

Food for Progress FY2022 Notice of Funding Opportunity

Questions and Answers

Questions received to PPDED@usda.gov through March 23, 2023

NOTE: Questions are answered in the order received. FFPr recommends using the document

“Find Text” function to find specific items.

1. Q: When will the recording of the March 23, 2023, Public Meeting be published?

A: The recording of the March 23, 2023, Public Meeting will be published as soon as editing and formatting are complete. Further instructions about accessing the recording and copies of the slides will be published on Grants.gov.

2. Q: In the Food for Progress NOFO, page 21, Section 4. Content Guidance, d.

Organizational Capacity and Staffing, bullet point, Subrecipient Letters of Commitment: Will USDA accept letters of support from relevant stakeholders and other supporters?

A: No. Only Project-Specific Commitment Letters from anticipated subrecipients are requested. Additional letters of support will not be reviewed and should not be included.

3. Q: Would USDA please clarify if grants, cooperative agreement, or contracts that ended within the last five years be acceptable to address NOFO page 21, Section 4.

Content Guidance, d. Organizational Capacity and Staffing, bullet point Past Performance Reviews?

A: Yes, grants, cooperative agreement, or contracts that ended within the last five years would be acceptable as long as the applicant provides the necessary information from CPARS or completes Appendix F for those previous awards and submits it to ppded@usda.gov by the closing date of the NOFO on May 24, 2023.

4. Q: Would USDA please clarify if the subrecipient’s Past Performance Review should be in addition to the applicant’s three Past Performance Reviews as requested in NOFO pages 21-22, Section 4. Content Guidance, d. Organizational Capacity and Staffing, bullet point Past Performance reviews, states, “Applicants should identify references for at least one and no more than three grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts implemented by the organization… if a proposed subrecipient will receive 20% or more of the proposed operating budget for the project, the Applicant must submit one Past Performance Review from a reference for the subrecipient…”

A: Yes – the one Past Performance Review from a reference for the subrecipient is in addition to the “at least one and no more than three” requested of the primary applicant.

5. Q: NOFO page 21, Section 4. Content Guidance, d. Organizational Capacity and

Staffing states, “Applicants are encouraged to include U.S. minority- and women-owned small businesses.” However, there is no information about how applications that include small businesses will be evaluated in the criteria listed on pages 32 -33.

Would USDA please clarify how minority- and women-owned small business inclusion will be evaluated? Would USDA please provide the definition of U.S.

minority- and women-owned small businesses?

A: The inclusion of minority- and women-owned small businesses is not an evaluated criteria.

For the list of evaluation criteria please refer to Section E. Application Review Information.

The qualifications for the designations of minority- and women-owned small businesses can be found at SBA.gov.

6. NOFO page 42, Appendix A-Applicant Content Checklist, as described in this appendix, each section of the application should be entered in the FAIS system individually.

Please confirm that USDA does not require applicants to upload full applications with all the content forms (in a single document) and should only upload the individual sections.

Answer: Please see Section D. Application and Submission Information, section 2.

Application Package, beginning on page 16, for instructions on submitting the application.

7. Country Specific Questions – Côte d’Ivoire NOFO page 52, Appendix B.2 Component 2 – Strengthen Access to Finance Across the Value Chain, states “In addition, the use of matching grants can be used to assist farmers reduce the barriers of entry to the acquisition of key productive assets.” Would USDA please clarify if using the term “matching” here is consistent with the definition in 2 CFR 200.1 and requirements in 2 CFR 200.306, Cost Sharing or Matching?

Answer: Food for Progress uses the cost sharing or matching as defined in 7 CFR 1499.2 and

2 CFR 200.306

8. Or is “matching” a general term intended to encourage contributions from participating grantees to demonstrate their commitment to the grant’s success but not necessitating “cost share or matching” requirements?

https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-assistance-programs/small-disadvantaged-business

Answer: see above.

9. Would USDA please clarify if those proposals that include leverage or other contributions outside of cost share or matching as defined in 2 CFR 200.1 will receive up to three bonus points within the budget score?

Answer: No. leverage or other contributions that do not fall under the definition of cost sharing or matching in Food for Progress’ guiding regulation will not be awarded bonus points.

10. For Togo, the NOFO reads: “Applicant is expected to develop a minimum of three detailed analyses of the potential value chains to demonstrate that the proposed project aligns with the food and nutrition security objectives of USDA and GoT.” Can USDA clarify if the applicant should develop and present a detailed overall multi-crop analysis of each of the three “categories” (leafy, fruit, roots/tubers) or whether the applicant should develop and present an analysis of three specific crops (e.g., parsley, turnips, and watermelon)?

Answer: Applicant should develop and present an analysis on three specific crops that will demonstrate the economic feasibility of the decision.

11. Will USDA accept letters of support from project stakeholders?

Answer: Only Project-Specific Commitment Letters from anticipated subrecipients are requested. Additional letters of support will not be reviewed and should not be included.

12. Question regarding Attachment A – Detailed Budget Template.

• Taking into consideration that the Admin budget tab, and the Activity (n) budget tab show full details of the budget, is another detailed budget tab required?

• If a detailed budget tab is required, kindly provide guidance if each line item should be summarized on one row or each line item should be presented as separate rows. For example, COP presented in one row (to represent total % combined and summarized for the project at 100%) or several rows to show the different allocation % across the admin and either summarized activities or additional rows for each activity?

• Option1:

Item Type of

Unit Cost Quantity Percent

Allocated Total

COP Months $ 12 100% $

• Option2:

Item Type of Unit

Cost Quantity Percent Allocated

Total

COP

Admin

Months $ 12 25% $

COP

Activity 1

Months $ 12 25% $

COP

Activity 2

Months $ 12 25% $

COP

Activity 3

Months $ 12 25% $

• Please confirm that USDA will allow applicants to include additional tabs in the budget template such as travel inputs tab, and summary Labor input tab showing percentage allocation of administration and activity LOE, for ease of review?

• Please clarify what is meant by “n” as indicated in the Activity tab.

• Should the activity detailed tab reflect the summarized costs of total activities or detailed costs per activity? Assuming a detailed budget per activity is required, how does USDA prefer activity budgets presented? For instance, each budget category (Salaries) would have a separate row per activity, or does USDA prefer a detailed budget (per cost category) per each activity?

ANSWER: Please see the provided template and updated instructions in Amendment 1 to the NOFO in Section D, Item 4 (g) Budget on page 30.

13. Question regarding Appendix D – Budget Narrative Example, page 81. Is budget narrative limited to 12 font type?

Answer: Please see font information in the Content and Form of Application Submission section under a. Application Format on page 16 of the NOFO.

14. Please confirm that the project budget breakdown summary tables: 1) By activity,

2) by project awardee/subrecipient, and 3) by activity and awardee/subrecipient are not required in the budget narrative?

Answer: Confirmed. These summaries are now located in the detailed budget document.

15. Please confirm that narratives explaining staff roles, for example, the COP role, are not required in the budget narrative.

Answer: Please see instructions for Organizational Capacity and Staffing, beginning on page 20 for instructions on explaining staff roles and responsibilities. The budget narrative should explain in greater detail the justification for unit rates for each cost category proposed with supporting information to clearly identify the bases of all costs.

16. For equity across bidder organizations, we kindly request the Local Compensation

Plan (LCP) and scale for all countries listed in the solicitation, Bangladesh, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Lesotho, Mauritania, Nepal, and Togo.

Answer: There are publicly available resources applicants may choose to utilize to inform local compensation, including those at https://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/salaries_allowances/salaries/gsumoja.htm and https://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/salaries_allowances/salaries/gsumoja.htm.

17. There appears to be a discrepancy between the projected “Estimated Total Award Value” and the “Anticipated Operating Budget (Monetization + CCC Admin)” for each of the priority countries listed in the final Food for Progress FY-23 NOFO; the cost recovery (under Monetization) states 70% or higher cost recovery for monetization but, for example, the Togo country description estimates $29,665,180 for Total Award while estimating the Operating Budget at $13,800,000. This will bring the cost recovery well below 50%.

Answer: To clarify, the monetization plan needs to ensure that the monetization proceeds reach the operational budget per the country guidance. The estimated award level is to allow for the flexibility to respond to commodity and freight price volatility. The final award may be adjusted to account for current market realities. The monetization plan should be developed within the estimated award value to reach the project budget, taking into consideration a highly volatile commodity market and the relatively high cost of U.S. flagged vessels. Cost recovery is based on the actual transaction.

18. Would you please clarify whether FAD plans to revise the cost-recovery projection (70%+) or will the estimated operating budget, for each of the priority countries, be revised?

Answer: The 70% threshold is a reporting requirement in the Farm Bill. See answer Question 17:

The estimated award level is to allow for the incorporation of commodity and freight price volatility. The final award may be adjusted to account for current market realities. The focus of https://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/salaries_allowances/salaries/gsumoja.htm https://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/salaries_allowances/salaries/gsumoja.htm the plan should not be cost recovery. Cost recovery will be calculated based on final sales of the commodities.

19. Question: On Page 16, 3.A Application Format – USDA specifies Applicants must use 12-point font. Is the applicant allowed to use any font style they prefer to use, as the NOFO did not specify a style?

Answer: Applicants are advised that readability is of paramount importance and should take precedence in choice of application format, including selecting a legible font type and size for use in the application.

20. Question: On Page 19 under the heading “b. Strategic Analysis (15 pages),” the guidance states that “The Applicant...should convincingly describe how the Applicant proposes to achieve the Goal and Priorities (see section X of the Country Guidance), detailing the results to be achieved and the methodology employed.

Applicants must identify what needs to be addressed within the priority arear.

Applicants must also provide a clear, cost-effective strategy on the proposed interventions and why those interventions are important for achieving the objectives of the project.” Please confirm that proposed interventions and methodologies belong in the Strategic Analysis section and not in the Plan of Operation.

Answer: The Strategic Analysis must identify what needs to be addressed within the priority country and thematic area and why the proposed interventions are important for achieving the objectives of the projects. The Plan of Operation and Activities must expand on how the interventions and methodologies will be implemented to meet the needs identified in the Strategic Analysis.

21. Question On Page 22, Past Performance Reviews the NOFO states that “If a proposed subrecipient will receive 20% or more of the proposed operating budget for the project, the Applicant must submit one Past Performance Review from a reference for the subrecipient.” Can USDA clarify if the one subrecipient reference is in addition to the 1-3 references for Applicants or included in this count?

Answer: Applicants should identify references for at least one and no more than three grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts implemented by the organization and may have up to one (1) Past Performance Review for each subrecipient receiving more than 20% of the proposed operating budget. For example, if an applicant were to propose one (1) subrecipient who will receive more than 20% of the proposed operating budget, the applicant could have up to four (4) total references submitted for the application.

22. Question: Page 81 – Do applicants need to write out formulas in the budget narratives?

Answer: The detailed budget must be submitted in US Dollars (USD) and present figures using no more than two decimal places. Formulas and references must be visible, and the budget must not contain hidden or otherwise inaccessible cells. Applicants are not required to write out formulas in the budget narrative, but narratives should clearly reflect the detailed budget calculations and totals across all budget documents must match.

23. Q: Can USDA provide clarification on the larger than usual gap between Estimated

Total Award Value and the Anticipated Operation Budget? Is this due to anticipated rises in freight costs across the life of the projects, or is there additional factors that applicants should be aware of?

A: Similar answer to Question #17: The award has been constructed to allow for the incorporation of commodity and freight price volatility. The final award may be adjusted to account for current market realities.

24. Question: How many modifications are applicants allowed to make to the template?

For Example: Are applicants allowed to make changes to the structure found in the template?

A: Applicants are encouraged to follow the structure provided in the template.

25. Q: Are applicants allowed to add additional tabs that help in calculating totals and formulas?

A: Formulas must be visible, and the budget must not contain hidden or otherwise inaccessible cells.

26. If an applicant wishes to create a grant fund, which Subtotal Section should that be placed?

A: The allocation of a grant fund is at the discretion of the applicant. In the detailed budget, applicants may use the professional services/contractual line item under the related Activity tab.

27. Question: Could USDA please confirm if the following interpretations of the detailed budget template in Attachment A are correct: the ‘Detailed Budget’ sheet would be a consolidated budget capturing all costs across admin and activities?

Answer: Correct.

28. The ‘Admin’ tab would be only the detailed line items allocated to Admin, with one copy of this sheet for Admin-Monetization costs and another for Admin-CCC/Cash costs?

Answer: No. The budget should consist of one Administration budget with all costs accounted for on one sheet, labelled Admin. There is no need for a separate tab for Administration- Monetization and Administration-CCC/Cash, however the budget narrative should include a note on how much of the Monetization Proceeds will be allocated for Admin.

29. The copy of the ‘Activity n’ tab would be created for each activity proposed to capture the costs specific to those activities?

Answer: Correct.