McGovernDole Q A week of April 11 2022.pdf

McGovern-Dole FY2022 Notice of Funding Opportunity

Questions and Answers

Week of April 11, 2022

1. Q: Is milk a qualified agricultural commodity for purchase under the local and regional procurement component?

A: Yes, milk is a qualified agricultural commodity under the local and regional procurement component.

2. Q: Could USDA confirm that market studies are necessary if commodities are only purchased regionally?

A: Yes, the annual market study will be a requirement of all McGovern-Dole agreements, including for commodities that will be purchased regionally. Within the Commodity Management section of the proposal, Applicants must provide a preliminary analysis of the potential impact of proposed procurement(s) on markets in the location of the commodity origin and distributions in the project implementation area. Applicants should also provide a plan for conducting an annual market study of the impacts of procurement of commodities, such as unusual changes in commodity prices (page 38 of the NOFO). Further details on the market study requirement as part of the agreement is available under Part F, Section 5 (e) of the NOFO on “Other Agreement Requirements (page 52).

3. Q: Recognizing that participating in multiple applications gives local partners the greatest probability of direct participation in McGovern-Dole programs, does USDA have any policy, recommendations, or guidelines for local partnerships and teaming agreements? Does USDA encourage or discourage exclusive partnerships with local organizations at the bidding stage?

A: USDA does not have any policy, recommendations, or guidelines for local partnerships and teaming agreements. USDA neither encourages nor discourages exclusive partnerships with local organizations at the bidding stage. Applicants should reference the information within the NOFO on subrecipients, especially found under the content guidance on the Organizational Capacity and Staffing section under Part D, Section 3 (d) on Content Guidance.

4. Q: Can USDA please clarify if implementers can use a commodity in their food basket that is provided/procured by both of the two available mechanisms, USDA-donated and local and regional procurement?

A: Yes. Applicants could propose a similar commodity type that is both part of the list for U.S.

donated commodities and the list of locally and regionally procured commodities. For content guidance on the required information under the two lists, Applicants should review the Commodity Management section of Part D, Section 3(d) on Content Guidance.

5. Q: The NOFO specifies page limits for several sections, including the Plan of Operations and Commodities Management Section, that look like text box submissions on the FAIS application portal. Should/ is it permissible for these sections to also be uploaded as attachments, such that we could include diagrams, etc.?

A: Yes. Applicants should review closely the parts of the proposals that can be uploaded as Attachments. Appendix A Application Content Checklist of the NOFO provides clear guidance on which required content and forms should be submitted as attachments in FAIS.

6. Q: USDA has removed the requirement to organize evaluation questions around the OECD/ DAC criteria. Are programs free to design the scope of evaluations going forward with or without consideration of those criteria?

A: Applicants should consider the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) criteria when designing evaluations. Please review IFAD’s Monitoring and Evaluation Policy, which draws significantly from guidance established by the American Evaluation Association and the OECD/DAC, for information that will shape the evaluation plan. Page 5 of the policy states that “evaluations aim to assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and impact of a project or program”.

7. Q: In the McGovern-Dole Q&A for the week of March 7th, it was stated that "applicants may not request references from current McGovern-Dole branch staff".

However, USDA allowed references from current McGovern-Dole branch staff for the FY21 proposal submissions. Given last year's precedent, would USDA consider continuing this policy and allowing the usage of current McGovern-Dole staff for references?

A: No. USDA McGovern-Dole does not plan on reconsidering our FY 2022 policy of not allowing current McGovern-Dole staff to complete Past Performance Reviews. The USDA

McGovern-Dole NOFO does not prohibit applicants from requesting past performance reviews from former McGovern-Dole staff. Following the closure of this NOFO on May 6, USDA welcomes feedback on how the FY 2022 Notice of Funding Opportunity may be improved.

8. Q: Can USDA confirm that the Performance Indicator Table should be arranged by all Results-level indicators first, followed by all Activity-level indicators?

A: No. Each result the proposed project is working towards should have one or more corresponding indicators in the indicator table. All indicators should have both annual targets and life-of-project targets. Applicants are not required to align indicators with activities.

9. Q: Can applicants use smaller margins for the performance indicator table?

A: No. Per Part D, Section 3 (a) Application format, Applicants should use 1-inch margins. This is due in part to ensure that Applications can be clearly printed as part of the review process.

10. Q: On Page 26 paragraph 4, the NOFO it states that “The staffing plan should include a brief description of staff positions and levels of experience”. Given that this part is only 6 pages, we are wondering if the word “experience” is an error because typically USDA requires that the staffing plan includes the Level of Effort (LOE) rather than the “Level of Experience”.

A: No, this is not an error and the sentence “The staffing plan should include a brief description of staff positions and levels of experience” is correct. This instruction is unchanged from the FY 2021 and FY 2020 McGovern-Dole NOFOs.

11. Q: We are having trouble viewing the FY22 IFAD NOFO Public Meeting video.

A: Because of the large video size, USDA was unable to upload the video recording directly to Grants.gov. However, the video was successfully uploaded to the FAIS server and can be accessed through the NOFO Public Meeting Recording link located on the FAIS Home page.