RFI for ModAg Activity_72069622RFI00001.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

RFI Number: 72069622RFI00001

Issuance Date: April 1, 2022

Due Date and Time: April 15, 2022, 17:00 (CAT, i.e. Rwanda time)

SUBJECT: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Rwanda

Modernizing Agriculture Activity (“ModAg”) Activity

Dear Interested Parties, The United States Agency for International Development’s Mission in Kigali, Rwanda (USAID/Rwanda) posts this Request for Information (RFI) to collect written information for an upcoming USAID/Rwanda

Activity entitled “Modernizing Agriculture Activity (ModAg)”.

This RFI is issued solely for information-gathering and planning purposes. This is not a Request for

Proposal (RFP) or a Request for Application (RFA) and is not be construed as a commitment by the

United States Government (USG) to issue any solicitation or Notice of Funding Opportunity, ultimately award a contract or assistance agreement on the basis of this RFI, or pay for any information voluntarily submitted as a result of this request. Responses to this RFI must not be portrayed as proposals and will not be accepted by the USG to form a binding agreement. It should be noted that responding to or providing comment on this RFI will not give any advantage to any organization in any subsequent procurement(s), if such a procurement(s) is released. USAID will not provide answers to anything submitted in response to this request. USAID posts its competitive business opportunities on www.beta.sam.gov or www.grants.gov. It is the potential offeror’s/applicant’s responsibility to monitor these sites for announcements of new opportunities. Responses to this RFI may be used by USAID without restriction or limitation.

Responses to this RFI must be addressed to the Contracting/Agreement Officer Mr. Benjamin Lawrence at blawrence@usaid.gov and submitted by email to the Sr Acquisition and Assistance Specialists Ms.

Galina Ponkratova, at gponkratova@usaid.gov not later than the date and time shown above. Please include RFI Number 72069622RFI00001 in the subject line. Responders will not receive individualized feedback. All inquiries concerning this RFI must be directed only to the email addresses identified above.

Hard copy submissions will not be accepted nor will phone inquiries be entertained.

Thank you for your interest in USAID/Rwanda’s programs and we look forward to your comments.

Best regards, Benjamin Lawrence

Contracting/Agreement Officer

Office of Acquisition and Assistance (OAA)

USAID Rwanda and USAID Burundi http://www.beta.sam.gov/ http://www.grants.gov/ mailto:blawrence@usaid.gov mailto:gponkratova@usaid.gov

RFI Number 72069622RFI00001

Attachment 1: How to Submit a Response

Interested parties wishing to participate should submit their responses to the questions listed in Attachment 3 electronically to Ms. Galina Ponkratova, at gponkratova@usaid.gov. Responses to this RFI will be accepted within the due date stated above. You will receive only an electronic confirmation acknowledging receipt of your response but will not receive individualized feedback or suggestions.

Responses may contribute to upcoming activity design(s). However, this RFI will not be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government (USG) to issue any solicitation, award any grant, or pay for any information submitted as a result of this request.

No basis for claims against the U.S. Government shall arise as a result of a response to this RFI or from the

USG’s use of such information. USAID/Rwanda will not respond to any telephonic or other inquiries regarding this notice.

Mandatory Instructions for Industry Response

Please limit Microsoft Word submissions to one per organization, which must not exceed 5 pages in Times

New Roman 11 Point Font 1.5 spaced. USAID will not read any content that surpasses the page limitation.

These submissions must not include corporate capability statements or any marketing material. If an organization poses specific questions or comments, it is highly encouraged to also propose answers and solutions.

The submitted response should include:

1. Heading:

● Reference Number: 72069622RFI00001

● Name / Email

● Affiliation/ Organization

● Address

2. Responses to questions presented in Attachment 3 mailto:gponkratova@usaid.gov

Attachment 2 - Background and Technical Context

Section 1: Introduction

The Modernizing Agriculture Activity (ModAg) will support increased agriculture productivity and income, access to finance and markets, and access and consumption of nutritious food products in Rwanda, while increasing the resilience of the agriculture and food systems to the changing climate. ModAg will use a facilitative approach to support market actors from the public and private sector1 to develop Rwanda’s agricultural sector.

Section 2: Background

2.1 Country and Sector Context

Rwanda’s agriculture sector is a longstanding backbone of the national economy. It is the second-largest contributor to the National GDP with 26% share in 2020 after the Services sector which represented 46% of total GDP that year.2 Agriculture accounted for 52% of national incomes from exports in 2016 and employs 66% of the working population.3 In the last decade, the agriculture sector has gone through a commendable transformation, achieving consistent annual growth of 5% along with increase in post-harvest and processing capacities. The sector contributed to national food security, reflected by a decrease of acute malnutrition, with only 1% of children wasted in 2019.4 Over the last few years chronic malnutrition has decreased from

38% to 35%, while these gains are laudable, recent unpublished work points to possible backsliding on nutrition, as a result of COVID-19. This demonstrates that more work remains to be done. While the agriculture sector was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, it was able to grow by 1% in 2020, demonstrating resilience in comparison to other sectors that experienced a negative growth (IFPRI, May 2021).5

Rwanda has 1.43 million hectares of arable land, which is 60% of total land area. There are multiple agro-ecosystems, farmer typologies and farming systems, including subsistence farmers, small-scale commercial farmers and larger scale commercial farmers who produce staple foods such as cassava, bananas, sweet potato, potato and maize and high-value crops including horticulture, coffee, tea, as well as other crops for different purposes. Producers in different typologies have access to different technologies, resources and inputs.

1 According to the USAID Private Sector Engagement Policy, (page 6, box) the private sector is large and diverse, and encompasses the part of the economy run by individuals and companies for profit and is not state-controlled. More discussion of who these partners are or could be in Rwanda will take place later in the document.

2 National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, Rwanda Statistical YearBook 2020 National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, Rwanda Household Survey 2019/2020

Government of Rwanda, Demography and Health Survey 2019-2020

5 IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) Rwanda Strategy Support Program, Progress Report May 2021.

https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1865/usaid_psepolicy_final.pdf

While Rwanda has made significant strides, there is still great potential for improvement.

Current production is only at 45% of actual potential6. Rwanda has set its sights on increasing agricultural income and productivity. The Government of Rwanda’s agricultural policy is framed by the Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation 2018 - 2024 (PSTA 4), which envisions a knowledge based and value creating agriculture that contributes to the national economy and ensures food and nutrition security by 2024 in a sustainable and resilient manner.7 While coffee and tea are traditional agricultural exports that represent 74% of Rwanda’s formal agricultural exports, additional high-value crops are being introduced into production systems and exports such as vegetables, fruits, and flowers, amongst others.

Despite substantial growth in agricultural production over the past 10 years, the sector is still facing many challenges such as food insecurity and malnutrition among vulnerable households.

In fact, 38.6% of Rwandan households are marginally food secure and 18.7% experience food insecurity seasonally.8 Amongst children between the ages of 6-59 months are 35% stunted, 17% of children between the ages of 6-23 month do not consume a Minimum Acceptable Diet and only 37% meet the Minimum Dietary Diversity. Modernizing the agriculture sector offers the potential to create additional economic opportunities and improve food security and nutrition outcomes for rural households, while also contributing to the country’s overall economic growth.

A high-level analysis of the challenges faced by Rwanda’s agricultural sector identified the following challenges: Limited production due to inefficient production systems, along with low productivity (caused by factors such as infertile and eroded soils along limited land, and limited access to and use of improved inputs), poor market linkages and information, a weak private sector with limited investment, low resilience to climate change, limited human capacity and farmer services, limited access to finance, and a poor enabling environment.

Horticulture value chains offer the prospect for much higher returns than traditional value chains, which is particularly important for small-scale commercial land holders, as they can gain a greater economic return on their limited plot sizes by focusing on higher end value chains.

However, in order to reap these benefits, improvements in the sector, including access to high quality inputs, knowledge, markets, technologies, and information parity, are needed to help the sector get there.

2.2 Relationship to USAID/Rwanda Strategy

The overarching objective of the 2020-2024 USAID/Rwanda CDCS is: Rwanda has strengthened human capital, robust private sector and accountable institutions required to advance self-reliance. ModAg will fall into Development Objective 3 which is to Increase

Inclusive and Sustainable Private Sector-Driven Growth.

Malabo - Montpelier Report. Connecting the Dots: Policy Innovations for Food Transformation in Africa. July, 2021.

7 Ministry of Agriculture, PSTA4-Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation 2018-24 8 National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, CFSVA-Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis, 2018 http://www.fonerwa.org/sites/default/files/Rwanda_Strategic_Plan_for_Agriculture_Transformation_2018.pdf https://www.statistics.gov.rw/publication/comprehensive-food-security-and-vulnerability-analysis2018

ModAg will support all sub-IRs under DO 3.2: Agriculture modernized as a driver of growth.

ModAg will also work with private sector and Government of Rwanda entities involved in agriculture by supporting DO 3.1: Enabling Environment for Private Sector Strengthened.

Through addressing these sub-IRs, ModAg will contribute to the overall CDCS DO3 goal of increasing the inclusivity and sustainability of private sector-led growth.

2.3 Geographical Focus

The ModAg activity will work with farmers, businesses and entrepreneurs in rural, urban and peri-urban areas across Rwanda in response to market supply and demand. The Activity will continue to center its work in the current Feed the Future (FTF) Zone of Influence (ZOI), but have flexibility for the Activity to also include areas outside of the ZOI when that will support the development of markets, technologies and practices within the ZOI as well. The FTF ZOI is currently Bugesera, Burera, Gakenke, Gatsibo, Karongi, Kayonza, Ngoma, Nyabihu, Nyamagabe, Nyamasheke, Ngororero, Rubavu, and Rutsiro districts.

Section 3: Purpose and Theory of Change (ToC)

The USAID/Rwanda Modernizing Agriculture (ModAg) Activity will seek to address the following overarching problem: Rwanda’s agricultural sector is unable to realize its full potential to drive inclusive growth, food security and nutrition because it lacks strong linkages to profitable markets and sufficient financing, and experiences inadequate use of production-enhancing technologies and inefficient farmer support services, and operates in a constrained enabling environment that disincentivizes private-sector investment and engagement.

The theory of change for this activity is:

In order for Rwanda to improve agriculture productivity, resilience to climate change, and increased profitability it must have access to improved inputs, knowledge, technologies, practices, finance and markets, along with policies that enable and incentivize private-sector investment in growth. These elements will ensure inclusive economic growth, nutrition and food security.

Section 4: Proposed Outcomes and Results

The overall Modernizing Agriculture Activity Objective is to increase incomes and improve nutritional outcomes, by sustainably increasing agricultural productivity, and strengthening domestic consumption and markets for high-value and nutritious agricultural products. The

Activity Objective has four intermediate results, with sub-intermediate results beneath them, as described below.

Intermediate Result (IR) 1: Sustainably Increase Agricultural Productivity. Under IR 1, ModAg will focus on improving practices through access to knowledge and information as well as improved inputs and technologies that will help to increase productivity, while also focusing on promoting sustainable agriculture and addressing resilience to shocks, such as climate change.

This IR has five sub-intermediate results:

● 1.1: Improve land management practices

● 1.2: Improve access & use of quality inputs and technologies

● 1.3: Increase access & use of high quality services such as extension services (public and private) and production related information (e.g., weather-related apps, pest management apps, early warning notices)

● 1.4: Improve farmers resilience to production shocks (climate change and biotic stresses)

● 1.5 Increase availability and use of genetic material for bio-fortified foods

Intermediate Result 2: Access to Finance for Farmers & Agribusinesses Increased. Under IR 2, ModAg will facilitate access to finance for farmers and agribusinesses. The agriculture sector has an inherently high level of risk in comparison to other sectors, and the lack of familiarity with agriculture by many in the finance sector as well as a limited application of financial instruments in Rwanda, in comparison to other countries in the region, to determine risk and investment potential, has limited access to finance in Rwanda’s agriculture sector. ModAg will also improve farmers and agribusiness financial literacy skills, so that they are better able to understand how to access and manage finance to grow production. In addition, further engagement with the private sector to increase value chain financing will increase investment opportunities for farms and agribusinesses to grow. This IR includes three sub-intermediate results:

● 2.1: Financial products and services focused on the agriculture sector improved

● 2.2: Farmers and agribusinesses financial literacy skills improved in a socially inclusive manner

● 2.3: Increase value chain financing via the private sector -- i.e. second tier lending

Intermediate Result 3: Improve Producers’ Market Outcomes. Under IR 3, ModAg will expand farmers’ access to markets while increasing access and availability of safe and nutritious food for

Rwandan consumers. Most Rwandans have limited knowledge and access to safe and nutritious food within their budget. At present, Rwanda’s agriculture sector is limited by market inefficiencies, including farmers' access to information regarding products demanded by the market and the prices offered at the market for the products they grow.

In regards to nutrition, the average consumer in Rwanda has limited dietary diversity, with access to few nutritious food products within their budget. The Activity will work to promote increased availability and consumption of nutritious foods, by using a market systems approach to support the private sector to develop and promote nutritious products and to generate demand by helping to educate consumers on the benefits of consuming these products.

● 3.1: Improve farmers’ access to profitable markets

● 3.2: Improve access and use of PHH technologies and infrastructure

● 3.3: Increase availability and demand for nutritious food products

● 3.4 Improve value additions capacity for food processing that supports healthy diets

IR 4: Strengthen the Enabling Environment to Foster Market Driven Agriculture

ModAg will work closely with other USAID/Rwanda PROSPER Implementing partners to help strengthen the enabling environment, with a focus on facilitating the development and implementation of policies that help support the GOR’s role as an enabler and the private sector as the main driver of agriculture production and growth in Rwanda. In order for this to happen, there needs to be improved communication and dialogue between the two sectors, so that the

GOR can better harness and support the private sector to invest in and lead systemic changes that modernize the ag sector and drive inclusive growth.

● 4.1: Dialogue between the GOR & the private sector strengthened and improved

● 4.2: Internal coordination and coherence between GOR institutions to support the agricultural sector improved

● 4.3: The development of policies and regulations conducive to increased private-sector agricultural engagement and investment.

High Level Outcomes

At the highest level, the activity expects to achieve ecologically sustainable and climate-smart practices; improve profitability of domestic markets; increase access to finance; and expand production and promote local demand for high-value and/or highly nutritious agricultural products by Rwandans. Drawing from the Feed the Future Indicator Handbook, high level expected results for the Activity include the following (A final list to be determined in coordination with successful bidder/applicant and their proposed monitoring, evaluation, and learning plan):

● 800,000 individuals in the agriculture system who have applied improved management practices or technologies with USG assistance (EG.3.2-24)

● 500,000 Ha of land under improved management practices or technologies with USG assistance (EG.3.2-25)

● 500,000 farmers using climate information or implementing risk-reducing actions to improve resilience to climate change as supported by USG assistance (EG.11-6)

● $15 million in Agriculture-related financing accessed as a result of USG assistance

(EG.3.2-27)

● At least 40% increase in dietary diversity through increased availability of nutritious food products in rural and peri-urban areas (EG 3.3-10: Percentage of female participants of

USG nutrition sensitive agriculture activities consuming diet of minimum diversity)

Section 5: Approach

The Activity will take a market systems approach, engaging and working through existing market actors (both public and private sector actors) and structures to facilitate inclusive, locally driven systems change rather than creating independent structures of support or providing goods and services directly. Modernizing Agriculture will work with commercial agriculture and focus on supporting commercially viable small-scale producers to enter and increase their role in commercial agriculture production. The Activity will focus on improving the provision of inputs, advisory services, technologies and services to improve productivity, access to markets and finance, as well as improve the enabling environment for private sector led agriculture in

Rwanda.

The Market Systems approach puts into practice the adaptive management outlined in USAID’s recently revised Program Cycle guidance in ADS 201

(https://usaidlearninglab.org/programcycle-overview-page). Three key principles of this guidance are:

1. Apply analytic rigor: Make strategic choices based on conclusions supported by evidence;

2. Manage adaptively: Make adjustments in response to new information and context changes;

and,

3. Promote sustainability: Generate lasting changes that can be sustained by local actors.

Within the system strengthening approach, Modernizing Agriculture will engage local partners across the spectrum: GOR counterparts will be key partners on activity strategy and policy work;

private sector input suppliers and distributors, food processors, service providers (such as agricultural extension/advisory services), cooperatives, associations, umbrella organizations, and other relevant firms will be key partners for modernizing the agriculture sector; and farms and agribusinesses who are committed to investing in their own expansion will be the primary beneficiaries of interventions oriented towards modernizing agriculture.

Modernizing Agriculture will employ a grants fund to achieve objectives across activity components. These grants will apply a market-systems approach and be demand-driven, competitive, and performance-based. The overall purpose of the grant fund is to support different private sector actors, including agro-input dealers, technology suppliers, advisory services, food processors, agri-preneurs etc. to test and apply new market-based approaches for improving agricultural productivity, processing, marketing, and the provision of advisory services. These grants will help to “buy-down” risk, but will be leveled in such a way to realistic cost sharing and the potential for long-term financial sustainability. The grant investments will be used for a number of purposes depending on the needs of the specific partner.

Section 6: Activity Parameters & Cross-cutting Principles

Activity Parameters:

https://usaidlearninglab.org/programcycle-overview-page

Target Beneficiaries: The activity will work with a broad set of relevant actors in generating opportunities in the agriculture sector, but will place special emphasis on small-scale commercial farmers and organizations that succeed in creating viable commercial agricultural opportunities particularly for small-scale farmers. In addition, the Activity will increase the participation and benefits of women and youth (defined as between the ages of 16-30), with a secondary focus on persons with disabilities, who participate or could participate in agriculture. While no groups will be excluded from participation, bidders should propose ambitious but achievable targets for participation for each of the emphasized beneficiary groups which must be equal to or greater than their share of the general working-age population.

Balance Between Productivity, Markets and Nutrition: The Activity will seek to strengthen and improve agriculture productivity, but utilize access to markets and improved nutritional outcomes as a means to improve economic well being as well as improved health. For example, increased productivity and access to improved genetic resources under IR 1 should link with IR 3 to improved access to markets for nutritional food products, helping to increase access in rural and peri-urban areas to crops and nutritious processed foods grown and produced in Rwanda.

Bidders should propose how to link productivity with increased access to markets and improved nutritional outcomes.

Partnership with the Government of Rwanda: The Modernizing Agriculture activity will ensure close alignment with the National Strategy for Transformation (NST) and sector strategies and policies: Strategic Plan for the Transformation of the Agriculture (PSTA IV), the MINICOM

Industrialization policy, and other relevant GOR’s agencies and Ministries policy and strategies.

Maximizing the value for money of its interventions, the activity will be flexible, strategically responsive to Government of Rwanda’s regulatory changes and requests for technical assistance to its agencies and programs aimed: improvements in technical and soft-skill educational provision; access to business development and advisory services to enable growth in employment; and improvements to the regulatory framework to promote the inclusion of women, youth, and persons with disabilities into current and future employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. MOUs with motivated GOR partners will be established at the start of implementation, but key partners may include: Rwanda Agriculture Board; and the Ministry of

Agriculture and Animal Resources.

Relationship with other USG-funded Activities: The Modernizing Agriculture Activity will complement ongoing USAID/Rwanda investments in agriculture, economic growth, health, and education. More in-depth parameters for partnership will be determined after award, but illustrative areas of complementarity with key Economic Growth office activities include:

working with Nguriza Nshore to promote access to finance and identify points where

Modernizing Agriculture can build on NN’s work and/or to facilitate access to finance for E&E sourced businesses working in agriculture; linking to and expanding upon Hinga Weze’s work in the agriculture sector; building on value chain development work done by Hinga Weze and

Orora Wihaze by building upon market relationships established by Orora Wihaze. Modernizing

Agriculture will work closely with the Employment and Entrepreneurship activity to link entrepreneurs with innovative ideas to increase agriculture productivity, food processing or access to markets. The Activity will collaborate and work closely with Kungahara Wagura

Amosoko to improve productivity and quality of high value and nutritious crops with potential for domestic consumption for high value nutritious crops that already have an international market, thereby increasing and diversifying market opportunities for high value agriculture.

Modernizing Agriculture should complement and create synergies with the Health Office’s

Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development Activity, which is focused on increasing awareness on the importance of consuming nutritious food products.

Modernizing Agriculture will also collaborate with the upcoming Rule of Law program from the

USAID/Rwanda Democracy and Governance office to identify advocacy points of mutual interest and approaches to jointly move those forward.

Lastly, the Modernizing Agriculture Activity should also seek to incorporate lessons learned from soon-to-be closing and recently ended USAID/Rwanda activities such as Hinga Weze and the Private Sector Driven Agricultural Growth (PSDAG) Activity.

Coordination and Collaboration with other Development Partners and Stakeholders: The activity will ensure and contribute to facilitate strategic coordination with activities funded by other development partners. Modernizing Agriculture will be responsive to the donor landscape over the period of implementation, but will collaborate and coordinate with other agriculture and market systems activities funded by other donors.

Management/Implementation Approach: The Activity will take a market systems approach, engaging and supporting existing market actors (both public and private sector actors) rather than creating independent structures of support. The market system approach improves overall functions and services available in the local market, thereby ensuring more sustainable results.

Modernizing Agriculture will support the agriculture system.

Cross-Cutting Principles

Private Sector Engagement: The activity will provide technical assistance and use a market systems development approach to support agri-businesses and complementary agriculture and food security market segments (i.e. finance, advisory services, input suppliers, etc.) to add greater value to the economy through increased use of inputs, technologies and services that will drive productivity and access to markets.

Women’s Empowerment, Gender Equality, Positive Youth Development, and Social Inclusion:

The activity will work to target and support youth, women, and persons with disabilities to qualify for and obtain employment opportunities in the agriculture sector. The Activity will seek to increase inclusivity in services and products oriented towards these target groups to ensure that they are able to increase their benefits and incomes from their participation in agriculture. To ensure target groups are included at or above their share of the working age population, all data collected will be disaggregated by sex and age, and gender standard or custom indicators will be used where appropriate.

Digital Information Systems and Tools Integration: The Modernizing Agriculture activity will work to integrate and undertake development of innovative, cost effective and flexible digital systems and tools to administer training, technical assistance, advisory services, and other relevant interventions, in line with USAID’s principles for digital development. Digital tools can expand the reach of Modernizing Agriculture interventions, for example, virtual meetings enable the participation of attendees across the country rather than mandating in-person attendance, and can be used to extend the reach of advisory services to reach farmers and provide them with support on a regular basis and at lower cost. However, given limited and biased access to digital resources, these interventions have the potential to further alienate participation by women, youth, and persons with disabilities so interventions need to work to counteract that.

COVID-19 Adaptations: The employment and entrepreneurship enabling environment has changed considerably within the last year since the onset of COVID-19. In a survey conducted by USAID/Rwanda more than 80% of firms reported having to either lay-off, reduce hours, or cut their employees' pay due to a reduction in market demand and business cash flow. The market will likely continue to change due to medium and long-term impacts to tourism and trade as a result of COVID-19. In order to support the ecosystem to adapt to continued changes, E&E interventions must be flexible and responsive and incorporate a risk mitigation/adaptation lens for the current COVID-19 recovery and any future pandemic emergence.

Section 7: Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

The Modernizing Agriculture activity’s Work Plans will incorporate these principles, and life-of-activity and annual Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plans will test the efficacy of the implementation of this approach. The MEL Plan must take into consideration the measurable and verifiable set of deliverables that will be developed under each objective. USAID encourages innovative approaches to monitoring and evaluating activity achievements as part of the proposal. The MEL Plan will cover one year of programming and be reviewed, updated, and expanded each year as annual work plans are developed.

The contents of the MEL Plan will be proposed by the contractor in collaboration with the COR.

The COR will have authority to determine the appropriate format of the MEL Plan and the

Contractor must coordinate with the COR prior to drafting the MEL Plan. If revisions to the

MEL Plan are necessary or desirable within a fiscal year, the Contractor must report any suggested significant MEL Plan changes or revisions to the USAID COR, and must obtain the

USAID COR’s approval prior to implementing or undertaking such changes or revisions. MEL

Plans should not be submitted to USAID’s DEC.

Modernizing Agriculture will pursue a learning agenda which is aligned with the Activity goals and with the Mission’s Performance Management Plan (PMP). Key learning questions from the

Mission PMP which the Activity will be expected to contribute to include:

● What agricultural production strategies have been effective at increasing incomes for target beneficiaries? To what degree was this due to support through PROSPER and to what degree can it be attributed to external factors? (PROSPER Learning Agenda) When increased incomes lead to improved nutritional outcomes, what are the supporting factors that can be attributed to nutritional outcomes? (PROSPER Learning Agenda)

● What are the policy gaps and constraints that must be addressed to accelerate private-sector growth? What is the best role for USAID to facilitate this? (PROSPER Learning

Agenda)

● What evidence exists to demonstrate the current zone-of-influence strategy is effective in best attaining PROSPER's goals? What evidence of alternative strategies exists for reaching beneficiaries that exceeds current impact of USAID’s ZOI strategy?(PROSPER

Learning Agenda)

● What are the policy gaps and constraints that must be addressed to accelerate private-sector growth? What is the best role for USAID to facilitate this? (PROSPER Learning

Agenda)

● How are the Mission’s investments contributing to gender equality and women’s empowerment? (access to, control over, and benefit from resources, wealth, opportunities, and services - economic, socio-cultural, political) (Gender and Social

Inclusion Learning Agenda)

CLA: Just as supporting Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation (CLA) within USAID’s portfolio is an objective, CLA must be embedded within the Activity’s day-to-day work and operations, as CLA is crucial for the successful implementation of the Activity.

Adaptive management will require an intentional approach to making decisions and adjustments in response to new information and changes in context. The successful implementation of a market systems approach relies on quick feedback loops to identify the results of actions taken by the activity, as well as the ability to generate lessons learned for pivoting towards successful actions and understanding what and why other actions have failed to deliver results. As such, data collection that will inform implementation decision points/milestones will be necessary throughout the life of the Activity, while leaving room for unexpected ‘pause and reflect’ moments prompted by contextual shifts and/or other triggers to occur outside what may be anticipated. The ability to promote internal reflection and learning within the implementation team as well as share lessons learned with other actors in Rwanda and beyond are critical for promoting and demonstrating success as well as learning from failures.

A key focus in effectively targeting groups, achieving results and measuring impact is the use of behavioral science to determine the effectiveness of interventions. The Activity will use behavioral science methods to better understand incentives and motivations for creating positive outcomes, including promoting positive behavioral change in nutritional habits, as well as understanding motivations for current dynamics between market actors and how this can inform interventions to improve market functions and outcomes.

Attachment 3: Requested Information/Questions

Taking into consideration the information presnetated in Attachment 2, USAID/Rwanda is interested in gathering feedback on the following questions:

1. Level of Industry Interest

a) How interested are you in this development opportunity using the below scale:

○ 1 = Zero Interest

○ 2 = Limited Interest (20% probability we will submit an offer/application)

○ 3 = Moderate Interest (50% probability we will submit an offer/application)

○ 4 = High Interest (75% probability we will submit an offer/application)

○ 5 = No Doubt (100% probability we will submit an offer/application)

b) Is your organization interested in implementing as a prime or sub? If so, what specific capacities does your organization bring to addressing the Activity objectives?

2. Similar Programming

○ Interested organizations are encouraged to discuss how its mission, programs, or activities - as they relate to the activity overview - merit federal support.

Specifically, please share your experience in implementing a market systems approach and discuss how funds would assist the interested organization to implement its program vis-a-vis third parties (e.g., partner government institutions, local organizations, target beneficiaries, etc). This discussion should not exceed 250 words.

3. Under what type of mechanism (i.e., contract or cooperative agreement) have you previously implemented a market systems activity with USAID? In your experience, was this the most effective mechanism to achieve the goals under it? Please do not provide a recommendation for mechanism-type for this specific activity.

4. Please note whether USAID should consider technological advancements that if incorporated in this activity could lead to exponential development gains?

5. What are the most significant opportunities or challenges in achieving these results related to the impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic, climate-related weather events, and other challenges?

6. Are the results as described in the logic model and theory of change clear and appropriate for the objective as articulated? Is anything missing or not essential? Are the results that the activity is seeking to achieve within the timeframe and context realistic?

7. How do you anticipate that a market systems approach might look different across IRs based on the IR scope and the context?

8. Lessons Learned: If not addressed in previous questions, based on the interested organization's implementation of similar programs and activities, please provide some lessons learned that

USAID should consider as it refines this requirement, especially in terms of technical solutions that worked (and why), solutions that did not work (and why), risks associated with similar operational environments, and other opportunities/constraints that would impact success in this instance.

9. Target populations - Are the target audiences for agriculture (including small-scale commercial farmers with a minimum of 0.50 hectares of land, or farmers working on consolidated land exceeding 0.5 ha) – commercially viable while being as inclusive as possible?;

10. How would you ensure effective learning and adaptation of such an activity?

11. Do you have other questions or issues to take into consideration for successful implementation that you would like to share?

No other documents or information are requested at this time. USAID/Rwanda asks respondents to not send any additional information other than what is requested above.

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