USAID Bangladesh RFI 72038823RFI00001 A2I.pdf

Request for Information (RFI)

Posting Date: October 24, 2022

Questions Due Date: November 6, 2022, 8:00am (Dhaka time)

USAID’s Response on the Questions: By November 17, 2022 (Dhaka time)

Submission Due Date from Interested Partners: December 5, 2022, 8:00am (Dhaka time)

Subject: Request for Information (RFI) Number: 72038823RFI00001 for the activity title:

"Inclusive Access to Finance"

Dear Partners:

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only as defined in FAR 15.201(e) to obtain information and stakeholder feedback. In addition to get broad stakeholder and market feedback as to the soundness and robustness of the conceptual design from interested organizations with relevant experience and capabilities.

The United States Government, represented by the United States Agency for International

Development (USAID) Bangladesh Mission, is issuing this request for information (RFI) to all interested partners—especially local entities and locally-established partners—who have the ability to implement a $20-$40 million project focused on increasing access to finance for agricultural micro, small and medium enterprises, as well as vulnerable and marginalized populations.

OBJECTIVE AND GOALS:

The purpose of this activity is to incentivize financial institutions and non-traditional lenders to provide loans to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), especially those in the agricultural sector using blended finance. This project will target a range of priority populations and sectors, such as women-owned agribusinesses, first-time borrowers, don’t have immovable property as collateral, youth, ethnic minorities and indigenous populations, and climate-smart agriculture. USAID is also interested in potentially piloting rural finance initiatives to strengthen farmer resilience (e.g., crop insurance).

USAID is interested in the following information related to organizational capability:

1. Highlight your organization’s experience working with or capability working with a range of bank and non-bank financial institutions to increase access to finance.

RFI # 72038823RFI00001

2. How can USAID target its resources most effectively to attract private sector investment to micro, small and medium agribusinesses and vulnerable populations, such as the women owned agribusinesses, rural poor, and indigenous minorities?

3. Given USAID’s objective of optimizing social and environmental impact (i.e. greater financial inclusivity, access to resources for vulnerable and marginalized groups, financial intermediation towards climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts) via a blended-finance, what are some meaningful measures can we use to facilitate progress toward this objective?

4. Which non-governmental financial institutions in Bangladesh could be incentivized to invest greater private sector investment in rural areas? Which would be best placed to pilot rural finance initiatives such as crop insurance?

5. What other engagement opportunities do you see for USAID to strengthen the sustainability of its access to finance interventions and the incentives related to lending to underserved areas and populations?

RFI FORMAT

All eligible and interested organizations are strongly encouraged to provide comments by the closing date and time noted on page 1. Respondents shall use only size 12 Times New Roman font or similar size typeset, 8.5 by 11-inch paper, and single-spaced pages for all narrative documents, with each page numbered consecutively, and must not exceed ten (10) pages. If the respondent cares to include relevant reports, those reports may be included, preferably as embedded links. The submission must be in English. Please do not submit applications, proposals, or resumes as they will be discarded. This RFI is issued only and solely for information and planning purposes; and USAID reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for USAID's own purposes. All information provided will become the property of USAID, and will not be returned, released publicly and treated as confidential. Questions regarding this announcement will not be answered.

RFI SUBMISSION

Submission via email is required; phone calls or hard copy delivery will not be accepted. E-mail submissions shall be sent to: Andrew Holland (aholland@usaid.gov), Jerome Robinson

(jerrobinson@usaid.gov), and Ahsan Rahman (marahman@usaid.gov) with the subject line, "Response to RFI No.: 72038823RFI00001 Inclusive Access to Finance”.

OTHER INFORMATION

This RFI provides prospective stakeholders/respondents with a fair opportunity to develop and submit competitive proposals/applications to USAID for potential funding. It is not a request for

Proposal/Application/Quotation. If a solicitation is issued, it will be announced at a later date on mailto:aholland@usaid.gov mailto:jerrobinson@usaid.gov mailto:marahman@usaid.gov

RFI # 72038823RFI00001

https://grants.gov or https://sam.gov and all interested parties must respond separately to that solicitation announcement.

Please note that the release of this RFI in no way obligates USAID or constitutes an award commitment on the part of USAID nor does it commit USAID to pay for any costs incurred in the preparation of responses to the RFI.

Responses to this RFI are strictly voluntary and responding to this RFI will not give any advantage to any organization in any subsequent procurement.

FAR Clause 52.215-3 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION OR SOLICITATION FOR PLANNING

PURPOSES (OCT 1997) is attached and made part of this RFI.

Best Regards, Ananciata Muyama, Contracting/Agreement Officer, USAID/Bangladesh

52.215-3 Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes (Oct 1997)

(a) The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this solicitation or to otherwise pay for the information solicited except as an allowable cost under other contracts as provided in subsection 31.205-18, Bid and proposal costs, of the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

(b) Although "proposal" and "offeror" are used in this Request for Information, your response will be treated as information only. It shall not be used as a proposal.

(c) This solicitation is issued for the purpose of: "Requesting Comments" to the concept for a new program.

[END OF THE RFI]

https://grants.gov/ https://sam.gov/