RFP 7200AA21R00012 PATI for Posting.pdf

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Request for Proposals (RFP) No: #7200AA21R00012

Issue Date: January 4, 2020

RFP Questions Due: January 14, 2021 3:00 pm ET

Phase One Proposal Submission Due Date: February 3, 2021 3:00 pm ET

Phase Two Proposal Submission Due Date:

Written Proposal: DATE: 45 calendar days after NOTICE 3:00 pm ET

Oral Presentation: DATE: 55-70 calendar days after NOTICE 3:00 pm ET

Dear Prospective Offerors, Subject: Request for Proposals (RFP) Number #7200AA21R00012

Prosper Africa Trade and Investment (PATI)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking proposals to provide technical services to implement PATI and provide technical services for the Activity as described in the attached Request for Proposals (RFP).

This procurement will be conducted under full and open competition procedures pursuant to Part 15 of the

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), under which any type of organization is eligible to compete.

USAID anticipates the award of a Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee, Term-Type Contract for a five (5) year period of performance as a result of this RFP. USAID anticipates that the total estimated cost will be approximately $450-$500 million. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this solicitation is 541990 and the small business size standard is $16.5 million. The authorized geographic code for the prime contractor of this procurement is 935.

USAID reserves the right to amend or rescind this solicitation at any time. If substantive questions are received which affect the response to the solicitation, or if changes are made to the closing date and time, as well as other aspects of the RFP, this solicitation will be amended and amendments to this solicitation will be issued and posted on the U.S. government website: https://beta.sam.gov/

Interested offerors can register and use the Interested Vendor List (IVL) accessible through this solicitation on the FBO web page, so that firms can contact one another for consideration of teaming arrangements in response to this solicitation.

The Government intends to conduct the evaluation and selection process in two phases. This is a voluntary down select process as described in the solicitation. All offeror’s responding to Phase One are eligible to continue to Phase Two although Offeror’s will be advised after evaluation of Phase One proposals on whether or not they are considered viable and encouraged to continue. Please refer to

Section L for detailed information regarding the offeror's submission of proposals in Phase One and Phase

Two.

Failure to comply with the submission dates and times indicated above may result in a submission being https://beta.sam.gov/ ii deemed unacceptable, as such it will not be reviewed or evaluated. Faxed proposals are not acceptable, nor will they be reviewed or evaluated. Section M states the criteria by which proposals will be evaluated.

Offerors are encouraged to read the entire solicitation, which includes all pertinent technical sections and the terms, conditions and instructions required for submitting proposals. Any empty fill-in spaces in

Sections B through J will be completed by the Contracting Officer before final award.

This RFP in no way obligates USAID to award a Contract. Nor does it commit USAID to pay any cost incurred in the preparation and submission of a proposal. Award of a Contract under this RFP is subject to availability of funds and other internal USAID approvals.

Sincerely, Suhaib Khan

Supervisory Contracting Officer

M/OAA/SIDP

7200AA21R00012

SOLICITATION, OFFER AND AWARD

4. TYPE OF SOLICITATION2. CONTRACT NUMBER 3. SOLICITATION NUMBER

7. ISSUED BY CODE 8. ADDRESS OFFER TO (If other than Item 7)

ORDER UNDER DPAS (15 CFR 700)

6. REQUISITION/PURCHASE NUMBER

NOTE: In sealed bid solicitations "offer" and "offeror" mean "bid" and "bidder".

NEGOTIATED (RFP)

SEALED BID (IFB)

5. DATE ISSUED

1. THIS CONTRACT IS A RATED RATING PAGE OF PAGES

C. E-MAIL ADDRESS

EXT.NUMBERAREA CODE

B. TELEPHONE (NO COLLECT CALLS)A. NAME

10. FOR

INFORMATION

CALL:

CAUTION: LATE Submissions, Modifications, and Withdrawals: See Section L, Provision No. 52.214-7 or 52.215-1. All offers are subject to all terms and conditions contained in this solicitation.

(Date)(Hour) local timeuntildepository located in copies for furnishing the supplies or services in the Schedule will be received at the place specified in Item 8, or if hand carried, in the

SOLICITATION

9. Sealed offers in original and

PART IV - REPRESENTATIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS

OTHER STATEMENTS OF OFFERORS

EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD

INSTRS., CONDS., AND NOTICES TO OFFERORS

REPRESENTATIONS, CERTIFICATIONS AND

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS

CONTRACT CLAUSES

PART III - LIST OF DOCUMENTS, EXHIBITS AND OTHER ATTACH.

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M SPECIAL CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS

CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION DATA

DELIVERIES OR PERFORMANCE

INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE

PACKAGING AND MARKING

DESCRIPTION/SPECS./WORK STATEMENT

SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICES/COSTS

SOLICITATION/CONTRACT FORM

PART II - CONTRACT CLAUSESPART I - THE SCHEDULE

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SEC. DESCRIPTION PAGE(S) (X) DESCRIPTION SEC. (X)

11. TABLE OF CONTENTS

18. OFFER DATE17. SIGNATURE

SUCH ADDRESS IN SCHEDULE.

IS DIFFERENT FROM ABOVE - ENTER

15C. CHECK IF REMITTANCE ADDRESS

EXT.NUMBERAREA CODE

15B. TELEPHONE NUMBER

(Type or print)AND

ADDRESS

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OFFEROR

CODE FACILITY

16. NAME AND TITLE OF PERSON AUTHORIZED TO SIGN OFFER15A. NAME

DATEAMENDMENT NO.DATEAMENDMENT NO.

and related documents numbered and dated):

amendments to the SOLICITATION for offerors

(The offeror acknowledges receipt of

14. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF AMENDMENTS

CALENDAR DAYS (%)30 CALENDAR DAYS (%)20 CALENDAR DAYS (%)10 CALENDAR DAYS (%)

(See Section I, Clause No. 52.232.8)

13. DISCOUNT FOR PROMPT PAYMENT

designated point(s), within the time specified in the schedule.

by the offeror) from the date for receipt of offers specified above, to furnish any or all items upon which prices are offered at the price set opposite each item, delivered at the

NOTE: Item 12 does not apply if the solicitation includes the provisions at 52.214-16, Minimum Bid Acceptance Period.

OFFER (Must be fully completed by offeror)

IMPORTANT - Award will be made on this Form, or on Standard Form 26, or by other authorized official written notice.

28. AWARD DATE

(Signature of Contracting Officer)

27. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

25. PAYMENT WILL BE MADE BY

26. NAME OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)

CODE 24. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than Item 7)

ITEM

(4 copies unless otherwise specified)

23. SUBMIT INVOICES TO ADDRESS SHOWN IN

41 U.S.C. 253 (c) ( 10 U.S.C. 2304 (c) (

22. AUTHORITY FOR USING OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION:

21. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION20. AMOUNT19. ACCEPTED AS TO ITEMS NUMBERED

AWARD (To be completed by government)

CODE

REQ-AFR-21-000001

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7200AA

USAID M/OAA

Office of Acquisition & Assistance 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, UA Washington DC 20523-1000

1400 ET

Jamie Raile 202 jraile@usaid.gov

916-2795

PAGE(S)

Suhaib Khan

AUTHORIZED FOR LOCAL REPRODUCTION

Previous edition is unusable

STANDARD FORM 33 (Rev. 9-97)

Prescribed by GSA - FAR (48 CFR) 53.214(c)

12. In compliance with the above, the undersigned agrees, if this offer is accepted within ______________ calendar days (60 calendar days unless a different period is inserted

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RFP #7200AA21R00012

SECTION B - SUPPLIES OR SERVICES/PRICES

B.1. Purpose

The purpose of this contract is to provide technical services to implement the Prosper Africa Trade and

Investment (PATI) activity and thereby support an increase in mutually beneficial economic growth, trade, and investment between the United States and African countries, while also supporting USAID priorities, including Private Sector Engagement and Financing Self-Reliance.

B.2. Contract Type

This is a Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee (CPFF) term (level of effort) type contract which will provide field support and include mission funding. The contract will be centrally managed. The Contractor shall achieve the objectives and deliverables or outputs for the Results described in Section C and F. For the consideration set forth below, the Contractor must provide the level of effort described in Section F.4 to accomplish the goals and objectives set forth in Section C, provide all deliverables described in the contract, and comply with all contract requirements.

B.3. Estimated Cost, Fixed Fee and Obligated Amount

(a)The estimated cost for the performance of the work required, exclusive of fixed fee is [TBD]. The fixed fee, if any, for the period is [TBD]. The total estimated CPFF for this contract is [TBD].

(b) Within the estimated cost plus fixed fee amount specified in paragraph (a) above, the amount currently obligated and available for reimbursement of allowable costs incurred by the Contractor (and payment of fee, if any) for performance is [TBD].

(c) Funds obligated are anticipated to be sufficient for the period of performance from the effective date of the contract through [TBD]. The Contractor shall not exceed the aforesaid obligated amount unless authorized by the Contracting Officer pursuant to the clause of this contract entitled “Limitation of Funds” (FAR 52.232-

22). Funding for this contract will be on an incremental basis, subject to the availability of funds.

B.4. Contract Budget

The following summary budget sets forth the estimates for individual contract line items:

CLIN 00001 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE : $TBD

CLIN 00002 GUCS : $TBD

CLIN 00003 SUBCONTRACTS : $TBD

These amounts may not be adjusted without a written modification signed by the Contracting Officer. The contractor will not bill any amounts against this contract in excess of the amounts specified for each line item as illustrated above. Fixed fee shall not be charged on GUCs.

B.5. Indirect Cost

Pending establishment of revised provisional or final indirect cost rates, allowable indirect costs must be reimbursed on the basis of the following negotiated provisional or predetermined rates and the appropriate bases:

Description Rate Base Type Period

TBD % 1/ 1/ 1/

1/ Base of Application:

Type of Rate:

Period:

B.6. Advance Understanding On Ceiling Indirect Cost Rates And Final Reimbursement For

Indirect Costs

a) The Contractor must make no change in its established method of classifying or allocating indirect costs without the prior written approval of the Contracting Officer.

b) Reimbursement for indirect costs must be at the lower of the negotiated final (or predetermined) rates or the following ceiling rates:

Description 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

TBD % % % % % %

c) The Government will not be obligated to pay any additional amount should the final indirect cost rates exceed the negotiated ceiling rates. If the final indirect cost rates are less than the negotiated ceiling rates, the negotiated rates will be reduced to conform to the lower rates.

d) This advance understanding must not change any monetary ceiling, obligation, or specific cost allowance or disallowance. Any changes in classifying or allocating indirect costs require the prior written approval of the Contracting Officer.

B.7. Cost Reimbursable

The U.S. dollar costs allowable will be limited to reasonable, allocable, and necessary costs determined in accordance with FAR § 52.216-7, “Allowable Cost and Payment,” FAR § 52.232-20, “Limitation of Cost,” and FAR § 52.232-22, “Limitation of Funds,” if applicable, and AIDAR 752.7003, “Documentation for

Payment.”

B.8. Payment of Fixed Fee

Payment of fixed fee, subject to FAR 52.216-8, may be made upon receipt of a proper invoice.

B.9. Payment

The paying office is: (See Section G.4.)

B.10. Accounting and Appropriation Data

Determined at time of award.

Budget Fiscal Year:

Operating Unit:

Strategic Objective:

Amount Obligated:

[END OF SECTION B]

SECTION C - DESCRIPTION/STATEMENT OF WORK

Prosper Africa Trade and Investment (PATI) Activity

C.1. Purpose

In partnership with Prosper Africa, Feed the Future, and other initiatives, the USAID Africa Bureau, Africa

Regional Missions, and the Middle East Bureau are jointly establishing the Prosper Africa Trade and

Investment (PATI) Activity. The purpose of this Activity is to mobilize enterprise-driven solutions that increase trade and investment in Africa, including North and Sub-Saharan Africa. It will strengthen Africa’s markets by developing new trade and investment relationships, particularly between the U.S. and Africa, and achieve development outcomes across all sectors in line with USAID’s Private Sector Engagement Policy and the USG Prosper Africa initiative.

Driven by market demand, the Activity will embrace innovative approaches to achieve its goals. The Activity is envisioned as a small, core set of centrally coordinated technical and institutional support activities, and a large, flexible performance-based subcontracting and grants under contract facility designed to support the needs and opportunities that missions and the private sector identify. The Activity will mobilize private sector resources and expertise, in conjunction with other USG interagency partners, resulting in the increased capacity, competitiveness and availability of businesses, investors and intermediaries that will drive future trade and investment efforts on Africa’s Journey to Self-Reliance.

C.2. Background

This Activity is shaped by at least two key trends: emerging trade and investment opportunities in Africa, and evolving Agency approaches to development programming that highlight the role of market forces as an essential catalyst to sustainable growth.

The context for trade and investment programming in the African continent has changed dramatically over the past decade. Despite many of the well-known challenges to doing business in Africa, the continent offers enormous untapped business potential, particularly for American businesses. Africa’s rapidly urbanizing population is expected to grow from approximately 1.2 billion to 1.7 billion people by 2030, and with an estimated middle class of 350 million people, annual spending by consumers and businesses is expected to reach $6.6 trillion in 2030, up from $4 trillion in 2015. As a result, global investment in Africa has increased by 11% between 2017 and 2018, according to the UNCTAD World Investment Report. The ratification of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) will support easier trading across internal African borders, enabling businesses to more easily pursue regional and continental business opportunities. While the

COVID-19 pandemic has recently affected African and global trade flows and business activities, the crisis and its resulting economic effects have only underscored the importance of interventions that strengthen the continent’s economic recovery and its resilience to future shocks. COVID-19 also ushers in a variety of new trade and investment opportunities for the Continent.

USAID’s broader approach to development programming has also evolved in recent years. The 2018 Journey to Self-Reliance Policy Framework and Private Sector Engagement Policies represent dramatic shifts to the way the Agency views the role of markets and the private sector in development. To end the need for foreign assistance, countries need open, transparent markets with firms that are capable of creating jobs and delivering the goods and services needed to meet development needs in all sectors. The private sector is a critical stakeholder in this journey and a key partner for USAID, with the resources, expertise and need to invest in economic growth. Through partnering with the private sector, USAID can mobilize additional resources, stakeholders and enterprise-driven development solutions across all sectors necessary to achieve self-reliance.

As an additional catalyst to USAID’s new approach, in December, 2018, the U.S. Administration announced the Prosper Africa initiative, with the goal of advancing U.S. national security and advancing development objectives in Africa through transformative trade and investment. By significantly increasing two-way trade and investment between the United States and Africa, and establishing a more level playing field for

American businesses, Prosper Africa will increase U.S./African exports, create new American and African jobs and assist African countries on their journey to self-reliance.

Other key USAID and USG priorities that frame the context for this new mechanism include:

Financing Self-Reliance (FSR)

FSR seeks to improve countries’ ability to finance their own social and economic development. The approach builds on the premise that meeting the financing needs that countries face requires coordinated action spanning the public sector, private sector, and civil society. Holistic solutions that involve all of these actors can fuel growth and catalyze improvements across sectors, such as education, health, infrastructure, and livelihoods.

New Partnerships Initiative (NPI)

NPI will increase USAID’s programmatic impact, based on more collaborative and adaptive partnering, and country progress outcomes, by doing the following:

● Leveraging private development assistance to respond to the Administration’s priorities and strengthen long-term partners for the Journey to Self-Reliance;

● Equipping and empowering new and underutilized development partners to maximize the impact of American tax dollars;

● Supporting solutions to near- and long-term Administration priorities that will advance the

President’s National Security Strategy and support the Foreign Assistance Realignment;

● Identifying development solutions that will be country- and partner-driven for maximum long-term impact; and

● Creating incentives for expanding and diversifying USAID’s partner base so that we help to equip and fund more partners to support country-level progress.

Feed The Future (FtF)

Feed the Future is America’s initiative to combat global hunger. Led by USAID, the initiative brings partners together to address the root causes of hunger and poverty by boosting agriculture-led growth, resilience and nutrition in countries with great need and opportunity for improvement. Feed the

Future focuses on the following principles:

● Country ownership: Continuously empower partner country governments to create better policy and organization for food security and nutrition to ultimately help them move from vulnerability to self-reliance.

● Private sector partnerships: Work closely with the private sector to foster economic growth, reduce barriers to trade, and establish well-functioning, connected markets.

● Research and innovation: Support investment in research and innovation through a network of U.S. universities and international and national research centers.

● Resilience for the future: Bridge the gap between humanitarian and development efforts by helping vulnerable communities and regions build resilience to complex risks, including addressing the root causes of recurrent food crises.

Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP)

In February 2019, President Trump, established the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity

(W-GDP) Initiative, the first whole-of-government effort to advance global women’s economic empowerment. W-GDP seeks to reach 50 million women in the developing world by 2025 through

U.S. government activities, private-public partnerships, and a new, innovative fund. W-GDP has three complementary goals: 1) Women Prospering in the Workforce; 2) Women Succeeding as

Entrepreneurs; and 3) Women in the Enabled Economy.

Global Health (GH)

For over 50 years, USAID’s global health programs have saved lives, protected people most vulnerable to disease and promoted the stability of communities and nations, while advancing

American security and prosperity. USAID’s global health efforts are focused around three strategic priorities: 1) Preventing child and maternal deaths; 2) Controlling the HIV/AIDS epidemic; and 3)

Combating infectious diseases. Particularly in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic, trade and investment are critical tools for strengthening health systems and local medical supply chains.

USAID-State Joint Regional Strategy

The Joint Regional Strategy for Africa (JRS) articulates shared USAID/State priorities for the African continent. These priorities include mutually beneficial economic growth, trade, and investment between the United States and African countries as a key U.S. national security interest on the continent.

Power Africa

Power Africa is a U.S. Government-led partnership, coordinated by USAID, that brings together the collective resources of over 170 public and private sector partners to double access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. Power Africa’s goal is to add more than 30,000 megawatts (MW) of cleaner, more efficient electricity generation capacity and 60 million new home and business connections.

C.3. Problem Statement

Africa plays a marginal role in world trade. Its share of global exports has declined from 3.5 percent in 1970 to 2.4 percent in 2014. Even within the continent of Africa, intra-regional exports were only 16.6% of total exports in 2017, compared to 68.1% in Europe and 59.4% in Asia. The U.S. trade relationship with sub-

Saharan Africa has been declining since 2011. Currently, only 1.5 percent of U.S. exports are to sub-Saharan

Africa. Meanwhile, Africa’s trade with China, India and other emerging partners has tripled since 2000.

China is now Africa’s largest trading partner, and the U.S. ranks only fourth. A similar trend is emerging in

North Africa as China has been strategically ramping up engagement with countries such as Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco, which lie at the intersection of three key regions: the Middle East, Africa, and the

Mediterranean. The emergence of increased trade and debt by African countries with China is now recognized as a U.S. national security concern.

Despite strong commercial potential, doing business in Africa remains prohibitively expensive for many foreign investors for myriad reasons. For example, with notable exceptions, African capital markets are underdeveloped and shallow, which limits liquidity and exit options for investors. Coupled with longstanding investor wariness of the political and financial risks associated with African markets, these and other conditions tend to discourage foreign investment in the continent and raise the price of available capital for local firms and entrepreneurs.

The costs associated with investing in Africa are also exacerbated by generally weak financial intermediaries

(competitive lenders, fund managers, capital markets) and local investment facilitation ecosystems. Foreign investors, in particular, need access to substantial information in order to identify, vet and structure potential deals. Without a competitive market for the kinds of service providers and intermediaries that can provide this information—such as financial intermediaries, law and accounting firms, and management consultants— investors are often left with the choice of paying for these services at uncompetitive prices, doing this legwork in-house, or investing elsewhere. Without large, attractive markets that might persuade investors to absorb these high transaction costs, smaller economies in particular are often left with few options to attract capital other than predatory trade and investment partnerships that inhibit these economies from reaching their full potential.

Therefore, when promoting increased trade and investment, this Activity must also consider three underlying problems: (1) the high cost of doing business and accessing information on African markets and opportunities, which limits the number and size of transactions; and (2) the lack of competitive local markets of intermediaries and service providers needed to lower the costs of doing business on the continent; (3) the threats posed by non-sustainable economic development (public financial management/wealth distribution, non-sustainable natural resource utilization, gender/social inclusion, domestic resource utilization, inadequate social safety nets, etc.) on African nations’ growth. Given the Agency’s focus on fostering self-sustaining market systems, this Activity should target both underlying problems in order to help build trade and investment enabling environments that will drive future trade and investment efforts in Africa.

C.4. Development Hypothesis

The development hypothesis states:

● If the Activity can establish an efficient and flexible continental trade and investment platform that leverages and aligns USG and other resources; and

● If the Activity can improve the business climate and ecosystem for trade and investment, including increased access to finance, and facilitate new and existing business linkages, especially between

American and African enterprises;

● Then, a more transparent and supportive trade and investment environment in nations across Africa will be established, trade and investment will increase, in particular between Africa and the U.S., and these African nations' journeys to self-reliance will be strengthened.

C.5 Statement Of Work

The proposed ‘Prosper Africa Trade and Investment’ (PATI) Activity will catalyze trade and investment in

Africa, while improving development outcomes across all sectors in Africa, including Africa’s ability to respond to economic shocks, such as COVID-19. It will build on current and past USAID programming, including trade hubs, small and medium enterprise development activities and blended finance work across all four regions of the continent. Additionally, the Activity will leverage tools across the broader USG toolkit to facilitate a whole-of-government approach to trade and investment.

Geographical focus:

The Prosper Africa Trade and Investment Activity geographic focus area includes the entire continent of

Africa, both sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, including Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. The

Activity will have multiple strategically located offices designed to provide a critical interface for USG agencies and high volume business centers, including, but not limited to South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and

Morocco. It will minimize operating and overhead costs with a flexible approach to deploying technical experts and firms with niche expertise to any location as opportunities require, including through the use of local and regional private sector expertise. The Activity is expected to operate in English, French, Portuguese and Arabic. An efficient, service-oriented office in Washington, D.C. will be required to support Activity implementation, however, Activity resources must be primarily dedicated to field-based efforts to the greatest extent possible.

Activity Objectives:

The contractor’s interventions will be directed through four interrelated project objectives. These areas may overlap and are not mutually exclusive. Work on all four objectives will be informed by gender analyses to reduce gender gaps. The four objectives are: 1) increased trade, 2) increased investment, 3) improved business environment, and 4) programmatic and institutional support to USAID and the Prosper Africa

Secretariat. It’s anticipated that a significant portion of Activity resources will be directed to objectives one and two (increased trade and increased investment) and implemented through grants and sub-contracts.

Objective 1: Increased trade

This objective seeks to mobilize trade, including two-way between the U.S. and Africa, through a proactive approach that identifies and/or improves private sector awareness of opportunities, information sharing and direct facilitation of new and existing business relationships. This effort will require significant collaboration and creativity that leverages the combined resources of the USG, especially through engagement with U.S.

Embassy Deal Teams (working groups of USG interagency officers and staff at State Department overseas posts focused on helping U.S. companies do business in their markets) and the Department of Commerce to expand U.S. trade with Africa, as well as facilitating increased information sharing with the private sector to ensure programming is grounded in transactions and market opportunities that businesses and investors are specifically pursuing. Building on almost two decades of successful Trade Hub work, the mechanism will have a particular focus on supporting African exports, especially to the U.S. Activities must also accelerate implementation of existing Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) export strategies. The approach must empower companies to identify and directly manage these efforts rather than establishing a list of predefined service offerings and experts, and firms will be expected to co-invest in these activities.

Illustrative components under this objective can include but are not limited to: a) supporting new business and sourcing relationships, b) market intelligence, c) business-to-business linkages, and d) strengthening the capacity of trade facilitators/service providers.

1a. Supporting new business and sourcing relationships

This component is central to the success of the objective and therefore requires significant attention and resources. To achieve substantial increases in trade, the Activity will also focus on sectors, products and firms with the greatest potential for large scale growth over the next five years. This will include identifying large lead firms, in the United States, Africa and elsewhere, with identified sourcing needs and strategies and working creatively with the buyers and potential suppliers on cost-shared partnerships to realize the commercial potential. Specific efforts will be made to incorporate more women-owned businesses into local and international supply chains. To support matchmaking and the brokering of new buyer/seller relationships, a wide variety of interventions may be addressed, such as due diligence, cleaner production opportunities, supply chain financing solutions, addressing logistics challenges, aggregation of suppliers to meet buyer quantity requirements, or supporting suppliers to meet packaging, labeling, environmental/social certifications and other requirements necessary to fulfill buyer orders. These efforts will be coordinated with Deal Teams and Prosper Africa’s USG partner agencies to leverage their combined resources in an effort to foster new business opportunities. Strengthening the resilience of African businesses to market and other shocks they may incur that jeopardize these new relationships is imperative. The Activity can also work to identify potential shocks and help businesses to undertake risk-reduction measures that would help them absorb, adapt and recover in the face of shocks and stresses that could jeopardize the stability of these relationships.

1b. Market Intelligence

To encourage increased regional and international trade in SSA and North Africa, particularly with the U.S., the Activity will support the development of targeted, actionable market intelligence that identifies and supports new commercial trade and investment opportunities. Efforts to promote emerging business sectors will be identified and analyzed, including for potential U.S.-African commercial partnership and engagement.

In addition to deployment through interagency communications resources, market information and links to resources will be made readily available through appropriately designed platforms that effectively reach both women and men. Deal tracking will include the full range of potential opportunities, including expressions of interest, active deals, etc. Where appropriate, the Activity will promote gender lens investing and impact investing as well as more traditional investment approaches, ensuring women benefit equally. The Activity will support AGOA, Deal Teams and seek to take advantage of existing USG and other resources, and also develop cost-shared partnerships with corporations, business associations, law firms (including pro-bono resources) and multilateral development banks and institutions.

1c. Business-to-business linkages

This effort will support new and increased business relationships and commercial partnerships between businesses, both inter-African and between the U.S. and Africa. It will also seek to deepen business-to-business and business-to-consumer links through exploring new and existing partnerships around the expansion of firms, particularly those participating in e-commerce platforms, as well as other technology solutions that have the potential to connect large numbers of small and medium companies and consumers.

Likewise, emerging African business sectors, including those with high potential for increased market share of women-owned businesses, will be identified to establish new business linkages and outlets in the U.S. and other international markets, as well as to support linkages with American businesses looking to enter/expand trade in Africa. The Activity will partner with other USG agencies and U.S. State and local governments to facilitate trade and investment missions from the U.S. to Africa, and from Africa to the U.S., around identified opportunities for potential investments and sourcing partnerships. It will also seek to partner with business organizations in Africa, particularly local business associations and American Chambers of

Commerce in African countries. However, to substantially increase business relationships, it is imperative for the Activity to develop new and creative approaches to generate, package and promote deals to increase commercial opportunities and strengthen investment ties that go beyond just promoting awareness and participation at trade shows. Trade promotion activity involving U.S. exports must be coordinated with the

Department of Commerce’s International Trade Agency and its network of U.S. Export Assistance Centers.

Special efforts must be made to engage and incorporate women’s business associations, as well as to assist gender-neutral associations incorporate gender analysis and responsiveness into their work. The Activity can also work to strengthen the resilience of African businesses to shocks, helping them absorb, adapt and recover from market and other shocks and help businesses implement risk-reduction strategies to weather those potential shocks, or at least significantly reduce their negative impacts.

1d. Engagement with trade facilitators and service providers

This effort will target local, regional and continental trade facilitators/service providers and leverage their ability to identify, cultivate, structure and finalize gender-informed trade deals and build trade relationships.

Trade facilitators may include private sector partners, non-governmental associations, and U.S., African or multilateral government organizations. The objective is to build a network of trade facilitators that can extend the reach and supplement the resources available through the Prosper Africa Trade and Investment Activity.

By engaging with trade facilitators/service providers, the Activity will establish a network that can sustainably support trade activities after the Activity concludes. Efforts may include the development of gender-informed tools/resources that trade facilitators can use for tracking transactions.

Expected targets/outcomes for Objective 1:

● Trade is substantially increased, in particular between the U.S. and Africa, by the end of the five-year activity.

● Trade barriers are mitigated, particularly to facilitate specific U.S. export transactions in Africa.

● Relevant sector analysis studies are completed, impacts assessed, and courses corrected (where relevant).

● A user-friendly and multilingual web page, potentially as part of another or pre-existing USG information sharing platform, is developed that incorporates links to relevant USG and other sites that support trade and investment

● A minimum of three additional targets/outcomes to be proposed by the contractor and approved by USAID.

Objective 2: Increased Investment

To facilitate increased investment, this objective will identify and support a wide variety of external and internal sources of financing, including bank and non-bank sources, such as family offices, impact investors, debt and equity funds and facilities and, and angel investors. These efforts will require close collaboration with USG partner agencies and private sector sources of financing to leverage their unique strengths, while also exploring creative new approaches and mechanisms that can facilitate increased investment. Illustrative components under this objective include, but are not limited to: a) identifying, disseminating and promoting investment opportunities, b) transaction facilitation and deal structuring, c) developing new financing solutions, and d) strengthening the capacity of investment intermediaries/facilitators/service providers, including improvements in their internal gender balance of staff, managers, and officers.

2a. Identifying, disseminating and promoting investment opportunities

The transaction costs for investors to identify investment pipelines is a key constraint to scaling up investment flows to Africa. This component will identify, develop and disseminate pipelines of investment opportunities and support investor matchmaking. This will include both identifying and vetting firms and projects seeking financing and supporting business efforts to improve bankability of their firms and activities, including gender balance. It will also entail identifying potential investors, building their capacity to invest in different sectors and country contexts and connecting them to pipeline. Special attention must be paid to coordinating investment dissemination efforts with the Department of State’s Economic Bureau, which leads USG efforts to promote international investment opportunities to the U.S. private sector. The activity will employ brokering/match making, conferences, trade missions and other platforms for information sharing that identify and highlight actionable investment opportunities for U.S. and other investors. In male-dominated industries, investment preference will be given to firms committed to opening their doors to women. This component will also include engaging Deal Teams and other Prosper Africa partner agencies, including Ex-Im Bank, the

U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency

(TDA) as potential investors, service providers or sources of deal pipeline.

2b. Transaction facilitation and deal structuring

To prepare viable investment opportunities, the Activity will collaborate with businesses, investors, consultants, financial intermediaries and Deal Teams to identify needs or constraints and bring individual investment deals to close. Efforts to support and structure investment deals may include but not be limited to:

conducting feasibility studies, gender analyses, opportunity assessments; performing commercial, environmental and operational due diligence appraisals; conducting environmental and other required studies;

structuring global development alliances (GDAs); and implementing risk mitigation approaches. In facilitating transactions, the activity must cast a wide net in accessing tools and support, focusing first on deploying tools and resources in the marketplace, then engaging the full range of USG, multilateral and other donor tools. The Activity will also structure innovative performance-based partnerships that reward partners for realizing investment opportunities.

2c. Develop new financing solutions

The component will explore the development of new financial approaches, products, and structures, particularly those with potential to engage U.S. firms and investors, and increase access to finance for women-owned and men-owned African businesses and entrepreneurs. This may include expansion and uptake of existing but underutilized trade finance mechanisms, such as secured lending and factoring.

Introducing new sources of liquidity, patient capital, and financial expertise to the continent should be considered. Efforts may also include support for commodity and export financing vehicles, deepening/strengthening capital markets, partnerships with emerging African sovereign wealth funds and other local institutional capital such as pension funds and insurance companies, or developing new financial product offerings, including tailored products needed to reduce gender gaps. It’s anticipated that the U.S.

DFC will collaborate in these efforts.

2d. Strengthening the capacity of investment intermediaries/facilitators/service providers

Local and regional consultants, brokers and financial intermediaries frequently lack capacity or are prohibitively expensive to support most deals in SSA and North African markets; the sector also tends to be male dominated. This component will target investment intermediaries/facilitators/consultants (men and women) and strengthen their capacity to build relationships and to identify, cultivate, structure and finalize investment deals. The objective is to build a competitive market of service providers that can extend the reach and supplement the resources available through this Activity and support trade and investment beyond the life of this activity.

Expected Targets/Outcomes for Objective 2:

● Investment is substantially increased, particularly between the U.S. and Africa, by the end of the five-year activity.

● New investment mechanisms/solutions are developed and supported.

● Investment barriers are mitigated, particularly to support specific U.S. to Africa investment transactions.

● A minimum of three additional targets/outcomes proposed by contractor and approved by

USAID.

Objective 3: Improved Business Environment

The Prosper Africa Trade and Investment Activity will generally focus on a narrower set of interventions that are strategically and judiciously deployed when needed to unlock a potential trade or investment opportunity or to unstick an existing transaction and advance it to closure. In collaboration with the private sector and

Embassy Deal Teams, the Activity’s policy work will be driven by private sector requirements. With high-level host-country political buy-in, these targeted policy interventions must be linked to tangible, direct impacts on increased business opportunities. As with the other Activity objectives, the Activity’s enabling environment work should complement and supplement work driven by the private sector whenever possible, relying on their resources, expertise, demands, and market information. It will also incorporate gender analyses to identify and address any additional constraints experienced by women, which include business practices that adversely affect women as well as discriminatory laws and regulations. While the Activity will support policy work for significant Administration or Agency policy priorities, or for those issues prioritized by Deal Teams and the private sector, other business environment reform activities will typically be supported or augmented through other USAID bilateral/regional activities and USG partner agencies. In cases not specifically related to live transactions, the Activity’s interventions will provide supplemental/targeted assistance to unlock a business deal and/or when other USG resources are unavailable.

Business environment interventions could include a wide variety of tasks, such as addressing investment restrictions, intellectual property rights protection, regulation of the digital economy, customs/tariff or tax treatment, standards issues, product licensing and approval requirements, etc. Other interventions could support more streamlined and transparent African government procurement processes that provide American companies with improved access to these government procurement opportunities. Still others can focus on inappropriate business and employment practices. Interventions will be prioritized based on their direct relevance to unlocking significant new investments or trade flows. These interventions will leverage, where relevant and appropriate, the parallel efforts of other U.S. agencies (e.g., Treasury OTA Advisors, MCC threshold programs or compacts), as well as the efforts of other donors and multilateral finance institutions providing enabling environment assistance. For example, PATI can leverage USAID and African

Development Bank commitments to trade and investment facilitation and enabling conditions elaborated in the August 2020 Regional Development Objective Agreement. Similarly, interventions will leverage the recent efforts and commitment to establish the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.

The Activity should harvest lessons learned and suggestions on reforms that African governments can implement to further accelerate the ability to export and trade, including efforts to support the implementation of the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement and bilateral trade talks with the United States

(i.e. Free Trade Agreements or discussions as part of Trade and Investment Framework Agreements). Data and information should be distilled and packaged in targeted communications products designed to amplify successes that compel African governments to reform, and which stimulate the private sector to increase trade and investment and expand to new markets. For example, since American businesses are renowned for their advanced, state-of-the-art technologies, policy interventions should consider African government reforms that provide transparent opportunities to adopt the latest technologies, in particular, American technologies.

Expected outcomes for Objective 3:

● A supportive, inclusive business enabling environment that is responsive to market demands is established and operational in nations throughout Africa.

● African governments solicit PATI technical assistance and adopt PATI-recommended reforms, reflecting increasing understanding of the benefit of, and appreciation for the value-added dividends from, greater U.S. business involvement in their economic development.

● Targeted policy interventions, either development of new policies and/or implementation/improvement of existing policies, directly contribute to increased trade and investment. Such policies should be catalogued and used to inform options or discussions with host governments.

● The private sector is better informed and more knowledgeable of policies and regulations that impact trade and investment, including processes to comply with these policies and regulations, and reforms necessary to improve women’s economic empowerment in application of policies and regulations.

● The private sector is increasingly able to provide input and hold public officials accountable for policies and regulations that have impact on trade and investment.

● The contractor may propose three additional outcomes, subject to the approval of USAID.

Objective 4: Programmatic and Institutional Support to USAID and the Prosper Africa Executive

Secretariat

The aim of this objective is to provide USAID and the Prosper Africa Executive Secretariat (PAES), both in

Washington D.C. and in the field, with broad technical, logistical, and administrative support necessary to assist in tracking, managing, implementing and publicizing the Prosper Africa initiative. This support includes the following:

4a. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL)

The USAID Africa and Middle East Bureaus and the Prosper Africa Secretariat will rely on this Activity to meet most of their MEL needs on trade and investment programming across the continent. A robust, gender-informed MEL plan will be established to support Activity and PAES related impacts and results, including coordinating, consolidating and reporting on USAID and/or Prosper Africa goals, and informing stakeholders through quarterly newsletters or annual reports. The Activity will assist USAID in tracking the activities of, and coordinating with, Prosper Africa stakeholders, including Deal Teams and USG agencies engaged in the initiative, host country governments, non-governmental organizations, international development partners, multilateral development banks and other regional institutions, and the private sector. Efforts may also include the establishment and management of a knowledge management platform for information sharing that can be sustained at the conclusion of project activities.

4b. Communications and Outreach

The Activity will support all trade and investment related communications and outreach needs of the USAID

Africa and Middle East Bureaus and PAES. This will include maintaining information and communications tools such as websites, client management platforms and marketing materials, as well as supporting conferences and events. Additionally, the Activity will provide other communications and outreach support for the Prosper Africa initiative directed at the American public, U.S. Congress, African partners, and other stakeholders, such as USG agencies, the USAID Africa and Middle East Bureaus, and USAID regional and bilateral missions. Efforts may include organizing webinars, supporting the participation of the U.S.

government in pan-African conferences and other events, managing an interactive website or other platforms, for feedback from stakeholders during the implementation of the Prosper Africa initiative (blogs, chats, etc.), producing publications, periodic and regularly scheduled reports, PowerPoint presentations, weekly/monthly notes, briefers and success stories, magazine articles, and promotional and other materials highlighting the results of the initiative.

4c. Advisory Support to Missions and Embassy Deal Teams

USAID Missions and Deal Teams are the primary USG units for identifying and supporting transactions and partnerships, and for mobilizing the full range of USG tools and resources to support them. However, as many missions lack the technical capacity or resources to fully manage the work of sourcing, developing, packaging or evaluating potential deals, partnerships and programming, this activity will provide direct support to their efforts.