RFI-613-19-00001.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

RFI Number: RFI-613-19-00001

Activity Title: Feed the Future Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience

Issuance Date: September 12, 2019

Response Date: October 4, 2019

Response Email Address: Michelle Shirley, Contracting Officer at mshirley@usaid.gov Theresa Peta, Acquisition Assistant at tpeta@usaid.gov

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to collect written information from all interested public and private parties, identifying innovative solutions to address the Global Food Security Strategy goal and U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Policy on Resilience to sustainably reduce global hunger, malnutrition, and poverty through inclusive and sustainable agricultural-led economic growth, strengthened resilience among households and systems, ensuring a well-nourished population, especially among women and children, and to empower women and youth in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Zimbabwe.

The information will be used to help make planning decisions and influence activity design to improve future development outcomes and is published in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 10 and FAR 15.201(e).

This is an RFI, not a Request for Proposals (RFP), and is not to be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government to issue any solicitation or ultimately award a contract on the basis of this RFI, nor to pay for any information submitted as a result of this request, nor does it commit the Government to pay for costs incurred in the preparation and submission of any comments.

Any funding proposals submitted in response to this request will not be considered. Responses to this notice must be received no later than the due date and time stated above in this notice. All information provided will become the property of USAID, will not be returned, and will not be released publicly. USAID reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for USAID’s own purposes. Proprietary information must not be sent.

Submission Instructions

Interested parties who consider themselves qualified to address the task areas described in this RFI are invited to submit a response in the form of the attached template (ATTACHMENT 1).

In addition to the questions, USAID is contemplating the use of Statement of Objectives (SOO) in the activity design and is requesting feedback on the draft SOO (ATTACHMENT 2). Please submit your response to the USAID/Zimbabwe Office of Acquisition and Assistance through the response email addresses and no later than the date and time listed above.

mailto:mshirley@usaid.gov mailto:tpeta@usaid.gov

Attachment 1: Request for Information (RFI) Response Template USAID/Zimbabwe

Name:

Title:

Organization:

Email:

In addition to receiving feedback on the SOO, USAID/Zimbabwe is also interested in responses to the following specific questions. (Respondents are encouraged to review the questions and include responses to the most relevant questions in their submissions. Respondents do not need to respond to all the questions listed below):

Additionally, USAID Zimbabwe has the following questions:

1. This activity seeks development solutions that will adopt a more demand-driven, private sector-led approach. How can private sector led investment be catalyzed in the FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience agro-ecological Natural Regions 3, 4, and 5 zones given the weak business enabling environment and the fact that the agricultural system is unstructured and disorganized? Specifically, what are the opportunities to catalyze investment for meat and dairy production to be productive to build household resilience and meet market demand with an improved quality product. What other specific market chains will stimulate MSME size farmers’ productivity to provide increased access, availability, and utilization of diverse nutritious foods.

2. Enabling access to capital has been shown to be a highly effective way of improving agricultural productivity to women and youth. What are methods to improve access to affordable capital, especially for smallholder farmers, small and medium enterprises in agriculture value chains, women and youth? Beyond debt financing, what opportunities exist to increase access to finance through mechanisms such as private equity, basket funds, or blended finance?

3. Microeconomic risks such as burdensome taxation, poor property rights and contract enforcement, corruption, and legal or regulatory underperformance contribute to many enterprises operating informally, constrain opportunities for growth and make Zimbabwean agricultural products less competitive in local, regional and international markets. It also hinders growth of value-added, post-harvest processing industries. How can USAID/Zimbabwe overcome or minimize these barriers in innovative ways?

4. Infrastructure challenges such as poor road conditions and lack of economical transport options, coupled with difficulties accessing a reliable electricity supply are significant constraints to economic growth. What are some innovative or private-sector led solutions to overcome these constraints, given the scale of the infrastructure challenges? To what extent is the electricity supply a binding constraint to growth in the agriculture sector? If needed, what strategic, practical opportunities exist to improve electricity/power supply for agricultural production or value chains?

5. What opportunities exist to promote integrated water management for agriculture production (crops and livestock) and household use (potable and WASH) in the FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience focus zones to mitigate against the potential negative impacts of prolonged drought? What are ways to coordinate these opportunities between FtF Zimbabwe and Food Security and Resilience activities with FFP DFSA activities that would build resiliency of households, communities, and systems?

6. Dissemination and adoption of agricultural productivity enhancing technologies (climate smart and conservation agriculture) is hampered by lack of timely quality inputs and information by weak government systems unable to provide extension and research services, especially to the widely dispersed smallholder farmers. What technologies have the most potential in terms of both improving agricultural productivity and adoption?

What are the best means to improve adoption of new technologies and disseminate the “Farming as a Family Business” model which provides incentives to increase production at the small-scale farming level?

7. Value chain development has the potential to stimulate economic growth and increase the competitiveness of the agricultural sector. What crops in the FtF Zimbabwe and FFP DFSA resilience focus zones (agro-ecological Natural Regions 3, 4, and 5) have the most potential for increasing farmer incomes, specifically taking into account smallholder farmers, women, youth, and micro, small to medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) and why? Are there any options to bring agriculture up to scale which can also benefit these MSMEs?

8. What are the main drivers of malnutrition in Zimbabwe and how can a nutrition-sensitive agriculture approach be applied to improving nutritional status? Paying special attention to local taboos, women, the extreme poor, youth, and marginalized communities, what crops offer the most potential for improving nutritional outcomes, particularly in USAID/Zimbabwe FtF Food Security and Resilience and FFP DFSA resilience focus zones and why?

9. Human and wildlife conflicts are increasing and wildlife populations in protected areas are decreasing which will have a devastating impact on Zimbabwe’s tourism industry that provides thousands of jobs in rural areas and towns. What are some innovative approaches that the new FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience program may use to reduce these conflicts and change the perceptions of farmers to value wildlife and not look at them as pests to protect the wildlife tourism industry to provide alternative livelihoods to build resiliency for those households and communities in the resilience focus zones?

10. What are some possible ideas to increase coordination with USAID/Southern Africa Regional Environmental and Economic Growth programs which are implemented in Zimbabwe to build resiliency for those households and communities in the resilience focus zones?

11. Multi-sectoral coordination has been shown to be vital to improving food security, nutrition indicators, and economic growth. What are the best methods based on experience and the literature to incorporate WASH, nutrition, gender and youth, and resilience in agricultural programming?

12. Working with women and youth groups requires a different approach that builds assets, decreases risks, and improves household resilience. What are the best means of improving access to agricultural and economic opportunities for these groups?

13. What are some strategies that could be implemented based on the Key Findings of the

USAID Resilience Evidence Forum Report dated October 2018 to build resilience in the FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience program?

14. What are some possible ideas to increase coordination with USAID Zimbabwe’s

Development Credit Authority (DCA) portfolio to assist beneficiaries and value chain actors to secure financing?

15. What are the best methods based on experience and the literature to ensure that youth are targeted in the establishment of village savings and lending schemes and as recipients of credit through loan guarantee facilities. Identify strategies how FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience activities will partner with local actors to co-create and test holistic, inclusive, and locally driven solutions that address the diverse challenges facing youth in meeting their social and economic needs and aspirations.

16. Fall Armyworm (FAW) is a major threat to maize production in Africa. Although it is known that FAW is present in Zimbabwe, minimal efforts have been made to assess the threat and control the spread. What steps need to be taken to assure that FAW is addressed in Zimbabwe in the planned FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience Activity? Who should be involved and why?

17. Are there are any other topics not listed above that USAID should address or consider in developing its agriculture programs?

Attachment 2: Draft Activity Description

Feed the Future Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience Activity

Background

Zimbabwe is endowed with diverse agricultural lands that have the potential to successfully support a wide range of crops, livestock, and wildlife. However, poor agricultural practices and a lack of access to affordable inputs have led to very low productivity throughout the agriculture sector. The majority of Zimbabwean farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture, making them acutely vulnerable to climatic shocks. Historically, these shocks occur once every four to five years, but Zimbabwe has experienced three droughts over the last four years, including two record-breaking droughts. An El Niño weather system during the 2018/2019 growing season resulted in another year of below-average rainfall and decreased agricultural productivity in Zimbabwe. Further challenges to agricultural productivity come from invasive pests such as the Fall Army Worm (FAW) that causes severe crop loss.

As a result of changing climatic patterns, erratic weather and the ongoing economic crisis, Zimbabwe’s humanitarian assistance needs are high. During the 2018/2019 lean seasons, 5.3 million people, more than a third of the population, were classified as food insecure. Of this number, an estimated 1.5 million people are in urban areas. The resiliency of Zimbabweans to deal with the long history of man-made and climate related challenges is remarkable. However, because the political, economic, and climatic situation has not improved, vulnerable households in Zimbabwe remain at risk.

In Zimbabwe, poverty is a major cause of food insecurity in both rural and urban areas. However, malnutrition is caused in part by poor dietary diversity. With a diet based mainly on maize and vegetables, the majority of rural Zimbabweans do not consume protein and vitamins in sufficient quantities. Even though the percent of income spent on food has increased, dietary diversity has decreased. Furthermore, low rates of exclusive breastfeeding negatively impact the foundational first 1,000 days of life growth of neurodevelopment. Stunting levels are decreasing but still remain high at 26 percent nationally.

As a Feed the Future (FTF) aligned and a Resilience Focus country, USAID/Zimbabwe has been investing in Zimbabwe’s households to accelerate and protect progress in the face of political, economic, and environmental shocks and stresses, with a focus on building resilience. FTF specifically targets: 1) Inclusive and sustainable agriculture-led economic growth; 2) Strengthened resilience among people and systems, especially to new and recurrent shocks and stresses; and 3) A well-nourished population, especially women and children.

The new Feed the Future (FtF) Zimbabwe activity will continue to support the successful commercialization of small-scale crop and livestock farmers begun under the FtFZ-CD and the FtFZ-LD activities. The FtF program will focus on providing capacity building and technical assistance to reduce rural poverty and improve household food security, livelihoods, incomes, and nutritional status for small-scale, commercially viable, crop and livestock households.

Activities will focus on low income and food insecure households with the potential to move from subsistence to small-scale commercial farming.

Geographic Focus

To view a copy of the Agro-Ecological Natural Regions Map please see the following link:

https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/7BFF49F0B55F020085257664007D5442-map.pdf

Areas of Recurrent Humanitarian Crises: Within the above-mentioned NR focus, USAID will focus further in the areas that have historically high and persistent levels of USAID humanitarian assistance. This is in line with USAID/Zimbabwe’s status as a USAID Resilience Focus Country (RFC). In this activity, the Economic Growth Office will prioritize areas with higher frequency of IPC Crisis +, including, specifically areas, beneficiaries and systems within the Resilience Focus Zone (RFZ) where Food For Peace (FFP) Development Food Security Activities (DFSAs) are implemented. These sub-national focus zones will be prioritized for support and investment to build resilience to recurrent and protracted crises and advance progress on the Journey to Self- Reliance. This geographic convergence of the Project’s humanitarian and development resources in resilience focus zones requires leveraging existing humanitarian-funded activities, such as food and cash for assets programming, when planning a range of cross-sectoral development investments to strategically sequence, layer, and integrate activities in the same

The proposed FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience activities will coordinate closely with the DFSA early recovery, humanitarian aid and development assistance (HA-DA) activities being implemented by USAID/Zimbabwe’s Humanitarian Assistance and Resilience (HAR) Office. The FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience activity must intentionally layer, sequence and integrate development assistance with the DFSA activities to proactively reduce, mitigate and manage risks and to strengthen the resilience of people and systems to adapt and recover from a wide array of shocks to end beneficiaries’ future need for humanitarian assistance and reinforce their journey to self-reliance. The DFSA activities are planned to work with communities in Manicaland, Masvingo, and Matabeleland North districts.

The development hypothesis of this Activity is that, If livelihood opportunities and incomes are expanded, nutrition is improved, and the means to manage risks are improved, peoples’ and systems’ resilience capacities are strengthened and targeted vulnerable people and systems will be more resilient to various anthropogenic and natural shocks and stresses.

I. Statement of Objectives

Offerors will determine how the following Objectives and Results will be met and must propose specific deliverables for each.

Objective 1: Livelihood opportunities and incomes expanded.

Objective 2: Improved availability, access, utilization, and stability of nutritious foods.

https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/7BFF49F0B55F020085257664007D5442-map.pdf

Cross Cutting Priority: Improved gender equity and empowerment of women and youth.

The Objectives and Results of this Activity are mutually reinforcing, and their concurrent implementation is expected to achieve the Activity Purpose. The end state of the means should be understood and oriented as a set of capacities and means by which self-reinforcing actions can lead to greater development and sustainability on beneficiary peoples’, organizations’ and systems’ journey to self-reliance.

Objective 1: Livelihood opportunities and incomes expanded.

Interventions must foster inclusive and sustainable agricultural growth, enhances resilience to climate change (resilient and ideally carbon-zero or carbon-negative), provides nutrition-rich value chains through support for agricultural enterprises and increased access to markets and finance, market-driven, culturally-sensitive, and both self-reinforcing and self-sustaining both during and after the life of the Activity. Results are linked to sources of resilience found in the Key Findings of the USAID Resilience Evidence Forum Report.1 Additionally, the Offeror should clearly propose intervention how they will coordinate with USAID Zimbabwe’s DCA portfolio to assist beneficiaries and value chain actors to secure financing.

Result 1.1: Productivity Enhanced

○ Propose interventions for sustainable intensification of land and other natural resources and inputs to increase productivity for commercialized, profitable and market systems-driven agrosilvopastoral production systems leading to increasing and diversified incomes and assets and complementary assets (quality and quantity), both of which are sources of resilience.

○ Propose interventions whereby livestock will be understood as economic assets, as well as social capital, and managed sustainably and effectively so as to mitigate negative impacts on the environment, and increase the quantity and quality of these assets, complementary assets and associated income per beneficiary.

○ Propose interventions to reduce production losses (ex. from spoilage, pests, diseases, etc.), to ensure proper food safety and minimize losses through improving post-harvest handling, processing and storage.

Result 1.2: Marketing and market linkages strengthened

● Propose interventions to remove key constraints and take advantage of opportunities to support greater efficiencies and market access, utilization, and stability for beneficiaries and their production, which will be self-sustaining.

● Propose interventions to build the capacity of market and other systems actors and organizations to strengthen governance that is participative, inclusive and representative, transparent and accountable, and to build bonding, bridging and linking capital among and around USG beneficiary partners.

● Explain how you will facilitate beneficiary participation in business and market

1 Resilience Evidence Forum Report, 2018 https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1867/resilience-evidence-forum-report https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1867/resilience-evidence-forum-report https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1867/resilience-evidence-forum-report opportunities such as various services, mechanization, inputs supply and access, initial processing and/or value addition, aggregation, marketing and cold chain.

Result 1.3: Access to finance enabled

● Propose interventions to improve financial inclusion and literacy, which are sources of resilience that may be defined as access to and understanding of formal and informal, useful and affordable financial products and services that meet the needs of low income and vulnerable groups delivered in a responsible and sustainable way.

● Propose interventions to reinforce savings, economic assets and other means of preparing for and withstanding shocks and stresses, as well as a means to invest in beneficiaries’ human capital, such as through education (including functional literacy and numeracy, and children’s education) and family members’ health care.

● Propose interventions to promote a “farming as a family business” model and financial literacy of families and organizations, where small-scale farmers learn about access to financial products and services to enhance entrepreneurship and self-sustaining growth of micro, small, and medium formal and informal enterprises.

Result 1.4: Employment and entrepreneurship skills increased

● Propose interventions to help beneficiary partners, especially women and youth, to improve vocational and business skills in agricultural, natural resources management and non-agricultural market systems and livelihood.

● Propose interventions that increase financial planning capacity to develop economically viable pathways to help these beneficiary partners step out of poverty, diversify livelihood risk, and continue development on their journey to self-reliance.

Objective 2: Nutrition outcomes improved

Result 2.1: Household dietary diversity and adequacy improved (links to result 1)

● Propose ways to ensure increased, sustainable and self-reinforcing adoption of and utilization of diverse products resulting from effective climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agriculture, including animal-sourced foods, which are culturally appropriate or can become so.

Result 2.2: Appropriate nutrition behaviours and practices adopted

● Propose culturally-sensitive social behavior change interventions to improve nutritional status, including optimal infant and young child feeding, healthy prenatal and maternal nutrition, control of micronutrient disorders, improved food safety, risks management leading to a decrease in environmental enteropathic diseases, phytosanitary control and post-harvest handling and storage.

Result 2.3: WASH behaviors strengthened

● Propose WASH and water security activities to ensure improved nutrition and increased absorption of nutrients, reduction of diarrheal and environmental and enteropathic diseases, and explain how you will collaborate with existing WASH activities.

Cross Cutting Priorities:

Improved gender equity and empowerment of women and youth

Gender: Gender issues affect equal participation of men and women. The Activity shall address key constraints to women’s economic opportunities and develop means to connect women and men to technical assistance, information, and services related to land and agriculture in an equitable manner. Activities must support women in leadership roles such as Lead Farmers and seek transformative change on gender roles by engaging men as gender champions and promoting men to take part in duties traditionally associated with women such as cooking and nutrition. Activities must promote gender equality by ensuring women’s voice and participation in all activities that build household assets and coping capacity, by increasing women’s access to finance, and by ensuring that women have access to training and inputs to increase productivity.

The Activity must clearly demonstrates how it contributes to the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative, which specifically targets: 1) Inclusive and sustainable agriculture-led economic growth; 2) Strengthened resilience among people and systems, especially to new and recurrent shocks and stresses; and 3) A well-nourished population, especially women and children.

Youth: Identify activities that contribute to USAID’s Positive Youth Development (PYD) policy, which seeks to empower youth to be better able to access and participate in civic/political, economic, educational, and social opportunities. Show how PYD approaches build skills, assets and competencies; foster healthy relationships; strengthen the environment; and transform systems. Explain how youth are targeted in the establishment of village savings and lending schemes and as recipients of credit through loan guarantee facilities. Identify how FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience activities will partner with local actors to co-create and test holistic, inclusive, and locally driven solutions that address the diverse challenges facing youth in meeting their social and economic needs and aspirations. The activity’s youth employment and entrepreneurship activities must facilitate a platform for young men and women to explore options for developing a cohesive support ecosystem that can assist, prepare, empower, and provide economic and social opportunities for Zimbabwean youth.

II. Guiding Principles

USAID expects this Activity to be implemented with a systems approach and adaptive management, so that interventions focus on the biases and incentives driving systems and behaviors, as well as foundational factors/rules of the game. USAID also recognizes the importance of developing tailored interventions. This SOO does not specify specific activities or interventions; however, the Contractor must consider the following elements in implementation of the Activity.

1. Relief to Development

This Project follows the Relief to Development approach, which accompanies beneficiaries along a continuum from receiving humanitarian assistance to becoming partners in development programming. This is reinforced by the collaboration between the FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience and FFP activities in the RFZ. The FTF Zimbabwe Food Security activity will work with as many FFP DFSA households and systems in the RFZ as possible whose capacity can be improved to be commercialized, organized, and developed while also representing an opportunity for other beneficiaries to participate and develop as well.

FFP activities will address the ability of the most vulnerable households to prepare for, respond to, and recover from shocks and stresses. Activities build (1) the absorptive capacity - the ability to minimize exposure to shocks and stresses through preventive measures and appropriate coping strategies to avoid permanent, negative impacts; (2) the adaptive capacity - the ability to adjust to potential shocks and stresses through proactive and informed choices about alternative livelihood strategies based on understanding changing conditions; and (3) the transformative capacity that relates to the governance mechanisms, policies and regulations, cultural and gender norms, community networks, and formal and informal social protection mechanisms that constitute the enabling environment for systemic change. Building these capacities will provide beneficiaries the means by which they can reduce their humanitarian need, saving lives, livelihoods, future potential, and social and economic losses, and preserving Zimbabweans’ dignity. It will also reduce poverty backsliding preceding, during and after shocks, speed recovery time from those shocks, preserve development gains, and reduce or eliminate beneficiaries’ poverty gap.

FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience activities will target households who already have productive assets and can improve links to the private sector to create greater market access, improve agricultural productivity, and increase incomes in the agriculture sector. Both FFP and FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience activities focus on improving savings and enabling financing, nutrition, natural resources management, and crop and livestock development.

Progress along the relief to development continuum will be achieved in this Activity through the coupling and close coordination of FFP and FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience activities.

The Offeror must articulate how they will ensure the close coordination and coupling of FFP and FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience activities, including by addressing the operationalization of applicable principles of Collective Impact. Additionally, in agro-ecosystem Natural Region 5, articulate how you will coordinate planned activities with South Africa’s Resilience Waters program to improve natural resources management and build resilience to climate change by enhancing integrated water management.

2. Private Sector Engagement

This activity will employ a “farming as a family business” approach. This internationally recognized approach supports smallholder farmers to envision their agricultural and livestock production beyond self-sufficiency and rather as a profitable source of income. The activity will focus on market systems that have the potential for the biggest impact on target beneficiaries and identify how production and marketing efficiencies can be improved.

With many young people moving from rural communities to urban and peri-urban areas to look for off-farm livelihood opportunities, the activity will also support youth to achieve self-reliance through improved livelihood opportunities and expanded incomes. The Activity will link young people to private sector opportunities and support youth employment and entrepreneurship using holistic, inclusive, and locally driven solutions that address the diverse challenges facing youth.

It will also strengthen partnerships with the private sector through the development of a youth social and economic support ecosystem. The Activity will try to foster and strengthen rural-urban linkages, including links to aggregators and/or markets, and beneficiaries’ management of remittances.

USAID promotes Private Sector Engagement2 (PSE) in supporting the journey to self-reliance.

Where possible, the Contractor must examine and program opportunities with the private sector for self-reinforcing sustainability of activities beyond the life of the activity. The contractor must consult the PSE policy and journey to self-reliance materials as inputs for a realistic and catalytic sustainability plan.

3. Inclusive Beneficiary Visioning

Visioning can be described as the development of a plan, goal, or vision for the future. In the past, FFP and FtF Zimbabwe activities have targeted the heads of household - often older, male figures - in planning for the use of family resources. By excluding women and children, activities have failed to obtain buy-in and ownership from all household members, allowing for setbacks in development gains. By working with entire families - including women and youth - the Activity will assist the family in setting goals and a vision for their individual and collective futures.

Upon determining their visions and setting goals, households will develop plans that help them on their path to achievement. Hope, aspirations and empowerment are sources of resilience that contribute to agency and the sustainability of development interventions. Community visioning is one tool to be used with USAID’s Local Systems Framework3 in support of the journey to self-reliance.

4. Sustainable intensification and landscapes

The Activity will work with partners to sustainably intensify agrosilvopastoral production systems and to develop sustainable landscapes to increase biodiversity and improve natural resources. To the extent possible, the Activity will employ an approach that is as carbon-zero as possible, especially given the intensification and increase in livestock flock and herd sizes. New

2 USAID Private Sector Engagement Policy https://www.usaid.gov/work-usaid/private-sector-engagement 3 Local Systems: A Framework for Supporting Sustained Development https://www.usaid.gov/policy/local-systems-framework https://www.usaid.gov/work-usaid/private-sector-engagement https://www.usaid.gov/policy/local-systems-framework https://www.usaid.gov/policy/local-systems-framework scientific research shows the impact of improved and changed diets for livestock and poultry leading to improved animal nutrition and decreases in methane and other greenhouse gasses.

Carbon sequestration, sinks and capture, as well as offsetting through forest protection and restoration can reduce or offset other greenhouses gasses generated by the Activity and its interventions such that the activity itself is not a contributor of greenhouse gasses, both during and as part of the sustainability of the activity. Various activities associated with sustainable intensification, preserving and restoring landscapes and natural resources and climate mitigation and management can themselves be sources of employment and income, such as through creation of plant and tree nurseries, collection and composting of fecal matter and other organic waste, rangeland and pasture management and restoration, and more. Secondary effects that can generate employment and income could be sustainable forestry, non-timber forest products and foods, and, down the road, REDD+ credits. A suite of interventions can restore natural resources and reduce the effects of climate change by reducing the risk and/or impact of disasters and environmental degradation.

5. Social and economic inclusion

This activity will include a wide array of partners but will especially seek out women and youth, which include people with disabilities,4 ethnic and religious minorities, the elderly, orphans, indigenous peoples,5 the ultra-poor and last-mile, displaced peoples, etc. Work with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer, Intersex (LGBTQI+) persons will follow the principle of Do No Harm.6

6. Systems Approach and Local Development

Vulnerable household need well-functioning systems, be they formal or informal, social, ecological, economic, governmental, or political to support them as they work toward their own development goals. If systems are resilient to shocks and if system actors have the capacity to learn and adjust in response to opportunities or challenges, the systems will help sustain development impacts over the longer term. Enhancing systems requires a facilitation approach, where USAID acts from outside the system to stimulate change and build capacities. This should result in self-driven actions by system actors that continue to occur after USAID support ends.

Work on institutions’ architecture, too, will help these proactively reduce, mitigate and manage risks, and help those institutions and systems adapt and recover from shocks and stresses.

7. Adaptive management, including shock response:

The Contractor will likely need to make adjustments in intervention tactics or design based on iterative learning, thereby customizing interventions throughout the life of the Activity.

Therefore, a six-month inception period will be granted for the Contractor to learn more about

4 Advancing Disability-Inclusive Development https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/democracy-human-rights-and-governance/protecting-human-rights/disability 5 USAID Draft Indigenous Peoples Policy, https://www.usaid.gov/democracy/indigenous-peoples-policy 6 LGBT Vision for Action, https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/democracy-human-rights-and-governance/protecting-human-rights/lgbti-inclusive-policies https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/democracy-human-rights-and-governance/protecting-human-rights/disability https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/democracy-human-rights-and-governance/protecting-human-rights/disability https://www.usaid.gov/democracy/indigenous-peoples-policy https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/democracy-human-rights-and-governance/protecting-human-rights/lgbti-inclusive-policies https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/democracy-human-rights-and-governance/protecting-human-rights/lgbti-inclusive-policies the operating environment and adapt approaches as necessary. During the inception period, necessary analyses and evaluations should be made, including a Political Economy Analysis.

The Contractor will use a comprehensive approach to measure the effectiveness of interventions in achieving the Activity Goal, and will use this evidence to inform an adaptive management approach to adjust interventions to achieve maximum results. The Contractor will also describe a contingency plan with trigger indicators for situations when implementation becomes more difficult or impossible due to conflict, disease outbreak, lack of gasoline or diesel fuel, etc. to be approved by USAID and used only after USAID approval of a decision to implement the contingency plan and adjust/relocate activities. Lastly, USAID will use the USAID Shock- Responsive Guidance and Adaptive Mechanisms7 with the Contractor to ensure the best flexibility in the event of a shock to households, systems and/or programming. Offeror must also take into account limitations imposed by the TVPA of 2000 and adapt to changing USG laws and regulations.

8. Coordination with Food For Peace, USG programs, and other Donor programs

The Contractor will need to identify areas of collaboration with USAID and USG activities, including and especially FFP’s Development Food Security Activities in the Resilience Focus Zones (RFZ), as well as other donor programs, local and international NGOs, CSOs, communities, and informal grassroots networks working on agricultural development throughout implementation to: 1) Seek input from key stakeholders to review emerging research, programmatic learnings, and best practices; 2) Develop a locally appropriate, sustainable method to build onto early recovery activities and reduce the need for humanitarian assistance; 3) Harmonize, enhance, and amplify agriculture and nutrition activities; and 4) Leverage resources from USG and non-USG organizations and projects with on-the-ground interventions to actively build an activity that increases the resilience capacities of vulnerable households and communities, and bridges the gap between humanitarian and development assistance.

This activity will layer, sequence and integrate with other USAID and USG humanitarian, development and peace activities to the maximum extent feasible. Such layering, sequencing and integrating must be addressed both in the proposal and later in more detail in work plans. This layering, sequencing and integration of activities shall follow the principles of collective action:

1) A common agenda; 2) Shared (resilience) measurement; 3) Mutually reinforcing activities; 4) Continuous communication; and 5) Backbone support organization.

The Contractor must coordinate with the Food for Peace Activities in the RFZs to ensure close coordination and proactively seek opportunities to leverage resources and achieve greater impact. In particular, the Contractor must coordinate where households, client firms, partners and systems overlap and complementary activity synergies can be layered, sequenced, and integrated to build resiliency. The same is true of coordinating and de-conflicting with, and complementing other donor and private sector activities in the RFZ.

Additionally, the FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience activity will benefit from layering, sequencing and coordinating with the USAID/Zimbabwe’s DOs 2 and 3 beneficiary people and systems.

7 https://usaidlearninglab.org/library/shock-responsive-programming-and-adaptive-mechanisms https://usaidlearninglab.org/library/shock-responsive-programming-and-adaptive-mechanisms

DO 2: Increased numbers of Zimbabweans live longer and healthier lives - DO 2’s activities in areas targeted by the FtF Zimbabwe Food Security and Resilience activity will contribute significantly toward the resilience purpose by improving the health and nutrition status of vulnerable populations, particularly children under the age of 5. Health, development and humanitarian assistance, and resilience activities collaborate in support of village health workers who complement food assistance through nutrition programming. The activity will also coordinate with the DO’s Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, Safe (DREAMS) activities that promote economic entrepreneurship support to adolescent girls. Youth entrepreneurship activities will continue to develop links with beneficiaries of the health portfolio.

DO 3: Improved accountable, democratic governance that serves an engaged citizenry - Accountable governance is a key factor in building resilience at local levels, and the Mission’s DO 3 activities that improve governance in the resilience focus zones will support achievement of the activity purpose. Due to the sensitive political climate of Zimbabwe, activities on the ground may have limited coordination with the democracy and governance (DG) sector.

However, within the Mission, the Economic Growth and Food for Peace teams closely coordinate with DG colleagues to determine and practice the best governance integration approaches and will follow the principles of Participation, Inclusion, Transparency, and Accountability (PITA).

USAID has a “whole of government policy” which may require coordination with other U.S.

Government (USG) Agencies (FEWS NET Zimbabwe). Under the direction of USAID, the Contractor may coordinate activities and exchange information with appropriate US Government Agencies. The contractor shall coordinate with other donors in the focus resilience zones to enhance program implementation and to share results and lessons learned.

In 2016, the U.S. Government passed the Global Food Security Act to reduce hunger, malnutrition and poverty around the world: Feed the Future (FtF) is a key initiative under that law and a USG interagency initiative which seeks to promote increased Food Security. The subject procurement is a Feed the Future activity. USAID/Washington, along with the Interagency USG partners, plays a very active role in regional programs related to FtF. The contractor will need to keep abreast of FtF requirements, monitor and report on FtF indicators and participate in occasional regional FtF meetings and activities.

9. Grants under Contract

The purpose of the Grants under Contract (GUC) is to stimulate private sector involvement to assist the small and medium farmers to market their livestock and crops to aggregate centers, build community resilience, and work with youth and gender organizations. The Contractor must submit a draft Grants Manual and include the grants under contracts activity description in the technical approach.

GUC funds will be used to refurbish and develop cold-chain, food processing, or other agro-processing related equipment, catalyze innovation, stimulate investment, and support the development of service-providers in critical agriculture value chain segments. The grant funds must leverage private sector investment (targeting at least a 1-to-1 match overall). The matching grants may support farmer associations and cooperatives, food processors, logistics firms, agro-input dealers, traders, and exporters in upgrading their operation with the goal of improving profitability and competitiveness.

Also GUC funds will be used to support sustainable use of Zimbabwe’s limited natural resources in agricultural production. The grant funds will be used to catalyze efforts to improve sustainable management of water use, and other natural resources in agricultural production (improved grasses and green manure) and processing, such as improved and innovative irrigation and drainage systems, and reduced pesticide and fertilizer usage. The grant funds must leverage private sector investment (targeting at least a 1-to-1 match overall).

Consideration will be given when feasible to American manufacturers of processing equipment and agricultural systems such as irrigation systems. Women-owned businesses, women and youth entrepreneurs with solid business plans will be encouraged to apply. Other minority-owned and minority-serving businesses are encouraged to apply, too. Lastly, Zimbabwean businesses are encouraged to apply.

III. Other Key Implementation Considerations

The following principles shall guide the Contractor in achieving the contract objectives.

1. USAID’s Involvement in Decision-Making

The Contractor must work in close consultation with the USAID Contracting Officer’s Representative. This includes in developing each implementation and work plan, contingency plans, and built-in collaboration, learning and adapting for any necessary course corrections. The Contractor must be accountable for achieving implementation plan and the contract objectives.

2. Synergies Across Objectives

While the objectives in C.5 are discrete, there will be many areas that either overlap or are complementary. USAID expects the Contractor to identify and leverage opportunities for synergy across objectives. For example, the sectors identified for work under Objective 1 must inform the linkages and connections developed in Objective 2 and the cross-cutting priorities.

The Contractor’s approach must be holistic as the progress made under one objective corresponds to progress under the others.

3. Inclusive Market Systems

USAID defines “inclusive market system” in the following way:

A market system is a dynamic space—incorporating resources, roles, relationships, rules and results—in which private and public actors collaborate, coordinate and compete for the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. The behavior and performance of these actors are influenced by other actors’ decisions, and by rules, incentives and the physical environment. Market systems are composed of vertically and horizontally linked firms and the relationships embedded in these linkages; end markets, input and support service markets; and the environment in which they operate, which may include socio-cultural, geographic and political factors, infrastructure and institutions.

Inclusive market systems are those that engage and benefit a range of actors including the ultra-poor, women, youth, ethnic and religious minorities, people with disabilities, the elderly and/or other marginalized groups who are often excluded—or even exploited—by traditional market systems. In inclusive market systems, such actors are able to acquire access to the opportunities, skills and resources to upgrade, and the capabilities to engage with and influence these systems to reap the benefits that arise from the upgrading process.

Designing activity interventions that work through—or strengthen—existing market systems must be an important feature of this activity. All interventions must increase the competitiveness, inclusiveness, or resilience of market systems in the activity’s target resilience focus zones.

4. Resilience

An overall guiding principle and objective of the Contractor’s work is building resilience to recurrent crises. The Contractor must design interventions so as to improve the overall resilience of targeted households in the resilience focus zones. 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.” Zimbabwe’s economic and political shocks in additional to climate change are having a serious impact on vulnerable households in the resilience focus zones. Interventions must prioritize risk diversification.

This is important for all Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) beneficiaries through GFSS Objective 2: Strengthened Resilience Among People and Systems8, but it is especially critical in areas of recurrent humanitarian crisis, where shocks and stresses compound and contribute to poverty backsliding for many of the world’s poorest people and some of the most marginalized.

Risk and its proactive reduction, mitigation and management should be explicitly addressed and understood by beneficiaries in all activities. Risks are not just limited to climate but are related to the various shocks and vulnerabilities people and systems face, including covariate and idiosyncratic shocks. These include conflict, health shocks, environmental shocks (drought, flood, plant/animal pests and diseases, etc.), political, economic and fiscal, price and other market shocks, and more.

The Contractor will be required to familiarize itself with USAID’s Shock Responsive and Adaptive Mechanisms9 in consultation with the Acquisition and Assistance Office to deliberate on the use of contingency planning and/or funding during Activity-affecting shocks and stresses.

8Global Food Security Strategy Technical Guidance Objective 2: Strengthened Resilience Among People and Systems, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LWqjleCU_W38FzbjNaXgGlbYIwHMU5NJ/view, and GFSS Technical Guidance - Diversifying Livelihoods, Resilience, and Pathways Out of Poverty, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n-iFmovzJHsPrW6DIGkAz4tX-zzXy9S9/view.

9 https://usaidlearninglab.org/library/shock-responsive-programming-and-adaptive-mechanisms https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LWqjleCU_W38FzbjNaXgGlbYIwHMU5NJ/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n-iFmovzJHsPrW6DIGkAz4tX-zzXy9S9/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n-iFmovzJHsPrW6DIGkAz4tX-zzXy9S9/view

A key part of USAID’s resilience strengthening approach is resilience measurement. This activity will use USAID’s and other resilience measurement to the maximum extent possible and feasible in addition to other required indicators. Lastly, the contractor will incorporate the findings in the 2018 USAID Resilience Evidence Forum Report to ensure resilience capacities are maximized.

5. Feed the Future:

As a Feed the Future aligned country, USAID/Zimbabwe’s agriculture activities are designed to follow the principles and approaches of Feed the Future, and seek the same goals. Feed the Future calls for government commitment to create an enabling environment for agriculture. Feed the Future emphasizes private investment as the engine of growth, and seeks to link farmers to markets. Feed the Future technical approaches must also be climate-smart.