USAID-Haiti Resilient Environment Activity - Presolicitation Notice.pdf

U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

U.S. Embassy Tel: (509) 2229-8000

Boulevard de 15 Octobre Fax: (509) 2229-8066

HT-6123 Tabarre 41, HAITI https://www.usaid.gov/haiti

P.O. Box 1634, Port-au-Prince, HAITI

SOLICITATION TYPE: Pre-Solicitation Notice – Draft Statement of Work (SOW)

PROGRAM NAME: USAID/Haiti Resilient Environment Activity

ISSUANCE DATE: September 10, 2021

TO: ALL INTERESTED PARTIES

The purpose of this Pre-Solicitation Notice is to communicate with industry regarding the

Government's upcoming requirement for the anticipated USAID/Haiti Resilience Environment

Activity.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), represented by the Economic Growth and Agriculture Development (EGAD) Team in USAID/Haiti is issuing this Pre-Solicitation

Notice. The purpose of this activity is to increase community resilience in the Haiti Northern

Resilience Focus Zone (RFZ) by protecting and restoring ecosystem services, using a watershed management approach.

USAID values ideas and information provided by industry and seeks their input. Responses to this notice are NOT considered offers and CANNOT be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. USAID is not seeking technical or cost proposals at this time. Please do not submit a full proposal as it will not be reviewed and will be discarded.

Responses to this Notice are strictly voluntary and USAID will NOT reimburse for the preparation of information submitted. Submissions in response to this NOTICE will NOT be returned and respondents will NOT be notified of the results of the review. Respondents may, however, receive a confirmation of receipt of the response.

By responding to this NOTICE, there will be no advantage to any entity in any subsequent procurement. This Notice does NOT restrict the Government’s acquisition approach on a future solicitation.

Please submit comments, questions, recommendations no later than Thursday, September 30, 2021 to Matthew Courtad at mcourtad@usaid.gov and Agnès Léon at aleon@usaid.gov .

Sincerely, Matthew Courtad

Contracting Officer

USAID/Haiti Office of Acquisition and Assistance mailto:mcourtad@usaid.gov mailto:aleon@usaid.gov

USAID/Haiti Resilient Environment Activity

Pre-Solicitation Notice

Draft Statement of Work (SOW)

STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW) for

I. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of the USAID/Haiti Resilient Environment activity is to increase community resilience in the Haiti Northern Resilience Focus Zone (RFZ) by protecting and restoring ecosystem services, using a watershed management approach. The activity will aim to build on foundation of the USAID/Haiti Reforestation Project, hone in on the most critically degraded landscapes affecting the most vulnerable populations, and use economic incentives to drive sustainable landscape management changes. This Statement of Work is grounded in the following key contextual realities of working in the landscape management sector in Haiti:

• Forested watersheds are essential for protecting socio-economic investments and sustaining freshwater supply.

• Natural resources management interventions are more likely to succeed when primarily aligned with farmers’ and landowners’ economic and livelihood priorities.

• Well managed watersheds can generate economic, social, cultural, and ecological benefits that sustain livelihoods and systems’ productivity.

• Haiti’s mountainous terrain makes erosion control a landscape conservation and disaster risk reduction priority.

• Concentrating interventions/investments in a strategic focus zone, with simple, focused activities, is more effective, efficient, and manageable.

• Programmatic design and planning must be based on manageable needs and priorities, in close consultation with direct stakeholders.

• The health of coastal marine ecosystems depends upon conservation and management options adopted at the watershed level.

• Concrete involvement of government, municipality, and community stakeholders at the early and all stages of management processes is crucial for long-term commitment, collaboration and transformational outcomes.

• Simple interventions within targeted communities or micro-watersheds to trigger constructive changes are more effective than tackling structural constraints beyond the scope of the proposed activity.

The following sections will explain the foreseen challenges and opportunities; technical approach;

geographic scope; theory of change; relationship to USAID/Haiti’s Strategic Framework and other relevant Government of Haiti (GOH), donor, and USAID activities in Haiti; guiding principles;

and the implementation and performance requirements for the proposed activity.

II. BACKGROUND

Water availability is one of the most pressing environmental challenges currently facing the

Northern RFZ. Land degradation driven by deforestation and unsustainable land use practices, exacerbated by climate change, threatens the region’s freshwater resources and the productivity of major landscape systems. In general, Haiti’s denuded mountain landscapes are at extreme risk of erosion and landslides, which result in sedimentation of rivers and dangerous conditions for communities, and the Northern RFZ is no exception to this situation. Climate change is constantly worsening the risk of drought in the Nord and the North-Est departments of Haiti1, increasing food insecurity, loss of livestock assets and pressure on natural resources. Because forested watersheds are essential for protecting and sustaining freshwater supply critical for economic and social well being, there is an urgent need to restore critically threatened landscapes near water sources in order to protect downstream populations and investments, and safeguard vital ecosystem services, such as water purification, surface flow regulation, and erosion control in the Northern RFZ. The

Haitian Ministry of Environment’s Ten-Year Strategy (2021-2030) states that restoring Haiti’s watersheds should be treated as a “national emergency.” At the same time, limited government oversight, unenforced natural resources management policies, and complex land tenure systems present serious challenges to sustainable land management at the landscape level in the area.

Agriculture, livestock, and trees are the primary sources of income for farmers and landholders in

Northern Haiti; therefore, initiatives to protect and restore the ecological services needed to improve household resilience must be wholly integrated with actions to increase people’s economic security.

Haiti has a long history of domestic- and international donor-led reforestation projects. As far back as the late 1940’s, international organizations have targeted watershed protection and erosion prevention through tree planting, agroforestry, and the injection of capital and technological expertise into Haiti’s rural mountain regions. Yet deforestation remains the most critical environmental challenge in Haiti, suggesting that the same approaches traditionally used by the international donor community warrant reevaluation. At the same time, although tree cover remains sparse across the country, it reaches a much greater extent than was once believed. As of

2010, 29 percent of the country had tree cover, belying a widely cited 1979 report that predicted an “environmental apocalypse” due to deforestation driven by charcoal demand.

Despite the threats to Haiti’s landscape and watersheds, there are opportunities to increase water availability and community resilience by alleviating pressures on existing forested landscapes and incentivizing improved management and conservation. The USAID Reforestation Project (URP)

(2017-2022) established an important foundation for sustainable landscape management in the

Northern RFZ. Through this activity, USAID helped develop five sub-watershed management plans for the Capotille, Les Perches, Bahon, Joli Trou-Cormier and Gens de Nantes. across the

Nord and Nord-Est departments, established community tree nurseries and wood lots, planted fruit and tree seedlings, and promoted alternative economic livelihood opportunities (e.g., honey, 1 The Northern Resilience Focus Zone includes: North - Sainte Suzanne, Ranquite, La Victoire, Pignon, Saint-

Raphaël, Plaine du Nord, Acul du Nord, Limonade, Quartier Morin, Caracol Trou du Nord; North East; Mont-organisé, Carice, Vaillere, Capotille, Terrier Rouge, Perche, Fort-Liberté, Ferrier, Ouanaminthe; Central Plateau

Hince, Cerca La Source, Cerca-Carvajale animal forage, salt production, agroforestry systems, and short-term employment) to reduce the need to cut trees for income in the targeted areas.

Request for Information

In June 2021, USAID solicited feedback via a Request for Information2 (RFI) from a broad range of stakeholders and experts. Respondents provided detailed information regarding recommended technical approaches to sustainable landscape management, how to best support sustainable livelihoods among the most vulnerable populations in Northern Haiti, and how to improve governance and coordination across many institutions and stakeholders.

Respondents emphasized the importance of working with community-level groups in Haiti in order to affect long-term change across a target landscape. Historically, community engagement has either been done by creating “management committees”, which may be formalized with

Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) and then connected to build a platform across a sub-watershed and linked to department-level authorities. Farmer-centered extension and marketing networks are also frequently engaged in landscape management projects. Land tenure is an issue;

the legal frameworks that facilitate community-led natural resource management in Haiti are not adequately enforced. Therefore, community-led land management often requires a significant investment in time and resources to engage individual land holders as well as an overlapping set of institutions, including existing community-based organizations.

Technical approaches of donor-funded activities for managing watersheds in Haiti have typically focused on planting trees, conserving soil, controlling erosion and decreasing deforestation.

“Alternative livelihood” activities have commonly been a design component of similar donor activities working under the assumption that by providing new, more environmentally sustainable sources of income, such as beekeeping or planting higher-value crops, beneficiaries will voluntarily cut fewer trees for charcoal production or other income generating activities. However, the majority of respondents from the RFI admit that there is little to no evidence to indicate that alternative livelihoods decrease deforestation or promote improved environmental practices, especially not beyond the life of the projects. Large areas of land in Northern Haiti have been deforested for years and will remain cleared or in intensive production until household income is high enough from other sources to not need land-based income. Therefore, the type of alternative livelihood is likely not as important as the amount of income it is able to generate.

The Request for Information also sought feedback on a variety of direct economic incentives for conservation, including Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), Cash-for-Work (CFW), and

Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs). While there is widespread interest in these types of mechanisms among donors, project managers, and stakeholders in Haiti, views vary on the most appropriate implementation methods, and there is still a relatively limited body of evidence for these types of interventions in Northern Haiti. A number of risks must be considered, including inadvertently creating tension among communities or households, disrupting the local labor market, creating dependency, and possibly encouraging people to revert to or take up negative

2 https://sam.gov/opp/0956f0b36d5a436d9ecc00dce8e3d9bd/view https://sam.gov/opp/0956f0b36d5a436d9ecc00dce8e3d9bd/view environmental practices after the CFW ends to compensate for lost income. Haiti’s complicated, informal land tenure system is another primary challenge for these types of incentive.

III. GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Given the long history of watershed-based reforestation interventions in Haiti, there are many lessons-learned that the new Haiti Resilient Environment Activity must consider for the Northern

RFZ, including:

● Build on Previous Work and Successes: Landscape management projects to restore ecosystem services are only likely to be successful over a long period of time with extensive community involvement. Projects financed by donors generally have a duration of 3-5 years whereas land and ecosystem restoration and long-term partnerships involving local government and communities typically take a much longer time (10-15 years) to start yielding expected positive changes. With this in mind, the Resilient Environment Activity seeks to build on the USAID Reforestation Project, meaning that, although it is a “new” project, in practice it is building on the previous 5 years of deep community engagement in the same, but more focused geographic area.

● Systems Approach to Landscape Management: Large areas of land in Northern Haiti have been deforested for years and will remain cleared or in intensive production until household income is high enough from other sources to not need land-based income.

Therefore, it is important for the Resilient Environment Activity to understand how grazing and agricultural use of land limits tree growth, and to not only focus on tree cutting. This is why an agro-silvo-pastoral and/or climate-smart agriculture approach is recommended, rather than only livelihood activities that offer an “alternate” income to deforestation.

● Targeted geographic scope: The lack of overlap between ecological watershed boundaries and political administrative boundaries is a challenge, but can in some cases be addressed by exchange visits or cross-commune learning exercises to achieve a common vision across political boundaries (communes) within as well as across watersheds. The activity should be designed at the sub-watershed level to produce spatially coherent programs, and target households with contextually appropriate interventions. Furthermore, interventions over very large areas do not allow for scalable impacts and effective monitoring.

● Strong community/stakeholder engagement: Past reforestation interventions in

Northern Haiti have demonstrated the importance of involving all stakeholders in the landscape. This includes the regional or decentralized ministerial entities, people directly living on and managing the land, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, sub-watershed management committees, the private sector, and local government authorities. USAID’s past and ongoing activities have worked closely with department-level government counterparts to establish watershed management committees. However, the Resilient Environment activity will make the critical assumption that the landowners and land managers will be the primary influential group in terms of real changes on the ground. Therefore, community engagement under the new activity must shift to a “bottom up” approach, and dedicate significant time, energy and resources to engage community members early and often in the design and implementation process, including soliciting community input for decisions regarding introducing livelihoods and income-generating support and other interventions on the ground.

IV. TECHNICAL APPROACH

The purpose of the Resilient Environment activity is to increase community resilience in the

Northern Resilience Focus Zone by protecting and restoring ecosystem services, using a community-led watershed and landscape management approach. This goal is supported by three primary intertwined objectives:

1. Promote income generating activities linked to sustainable landscape management

2. Conserve and restore critical sub-watersheds

3. Support community-led natural resources management

1. Promote income generating activities linked to sustainable landscape management:

USAID seeks to contribute to increasing tree cover and restore landscapes in critical upper watersheds in the target area. However, the Resilient Environment activity must focus on activities that are directly linked to improving sustainable landscape management, within sub-watersheds presenting significant ecological, economic, livelihood and systems productivity interests for landholders and other community stakeholders. Landscape restoration/management interventions must include promoting agroforestry, agro-silvo-pastoral, runoff control, and climate-smart agriculture techniques in the selected sub-watersheds. By leveraging the investments already made in establishing woodlots, the activity can help beneficiaries to increase the economic potential of high-value trees in a more drought-managing and sustainable manner. These activities should address the broader implications of intensive farming and livestock by introducing practices that increase land-based income while protecting trees, soil and water. The activity must work on contiguous blocks of land and work directly with the landowners or land managers to introduce and support more sustainable and scalable land management practices. In addition to supporting sustainable agriculture and landscape management approaches, USAID is open to proposals that include Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes as pilot activities to directly link income generation to sustainable landscape management. However, such proposals must address the context-specific challenges and constraints associated with PES in Northern Haiti. USAID is not interested in introducing livelihood activities that are simply deemed to be “alternatives” to tree cutting and that do not have a direct impact on landscape management.

2. Conserve and restore critical sub-watersheds

Erosion control is essential for conserving productive landscapes, reducing climate-related disaster risks, and preventing sedimentation of rivers. “Water smart” and/or conservation agriculture, including agroforestry, is recommended to improve soil retention, increase incomes, and help retain water. The activity must focus on increasing tree cover around headwaters and river banks, and on the steepest slopes surrounding ravines, using site-specific species or techniques to decrease sedimentation and protect water sources. It should also prevent erosion on the steepest, most vulnerable or degraded slopes through physical barriers, as hard infrastructure may provide more immediate slope stabilization benefits. The activity must develop clear criteria for selecting landscapes to be rehabilitated, managed or protected; identifying critical hot spots; the restoration techniques/methods that will be used; and all interventions should be mapped (GIS). USAID is not interested in working opportunistically based solely on who is interested in working with the project. Part of conservation activities must include collecting data on defined environmental indicators to demonstrate impactful results. This type of work may be an entry point for community engagement. For acute problems related to specific stressors or needs, USAID is open to limited or on-a-case-by-case-basis “cash for work” schemes as incentives to engage landowners, land managers, and community members in the landscape restoration work within the target sub-watersheds.

3. Support community-led natural resources management

This activity must work with the existing network of community-based organizations (CBOs) and farmers’ organizations, such as the relationships fostered by the USAID Reforestation Project, to continue to strengthen land management capacities in the target sub-watersheds. The activity should demonstrate how it will work with local stakeholders to build a watershed management framework that promotes effective governance and decision making for sustainable natural resources management and best land use practices in the selected sub-watersheds. The activity must support the sub-watershed management committees to implement the existing sub-watershed management plans developed for the selected sub-watersheds. This activity must assess the capacity development needs within the sub-watersheds and link them to project outcomes to avoid funding training efforts that will not yield concrete results. Prizes that benefit the whole community

(e.g., scholarships, school materials, etc.) could be used to foster greater participation and community pride. The activity may also look to models such as the “Garde Ecologique”, which is used in other regions of the country for environmental management and monitoring. The activity must ensure that there is a clear and consistent shared vision for the project across all stakeholders, and foster communication between upstream and downstream groups.

V. GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE

Recognizing the need for long-term, uninterrupted engagement in order to achieve results in watershed conservation and community resilience, the USAID/Haiti Resilient Environment

Activity will build upon the groundwork laid by the 5-year USAID Reforestation Project in the

Nord and Nord-Est departments of Haiti. The Reforestation Project worked in 7 communes in the

North Department (Plaine du Nord, Acul du Nord, Milot, Quartier Morin, Limonade, Grande

Rivière du Nord and Bahon) and 9 communes in the North-East Department: Capotille, Caracole, Fort-Liberté, Ferrier, Ouanaminthe, Perches, Sainte Suzanne, Terrier Rouge and Trou du Nord.

The Project developed five sub-watershed management plans, which were adopted by local municipal authorities and communities in Joli Trou/Cormier (commune of Grande Rivière du

Nord), Les Perches, Gens de Nantes/Savane Longue (Ouanaminthe), Bahon and Capotille.3

One of the primary lessons-learned from the Reforestation Project is the need to narrow the geographic scope in order to achieve more significant, sustainable impacts. Sub-watershed focused activities are more likely to have greater success, in terms of restoring ecosystem services and protecting watersheds, and in terms of uptake of sustainable landscape management practices that improve environmental conditions and economic resilience for beneficiaries, than approaches that take a landscape-wide approach from the beginning. Rather than implementing numerous individual interventions scattered across a large landscape, new activities will concentrate efforts and investments in a smaller, contiguous space, with the aim of creating a more cohesive vision, both for the implementing organization as well as the beneficiaries. USAID recognizes the practical need to focus on more manageable micro or sub-watersheds within smaller political or administration delineations (communes, departments), which do not always align with ecological zones.

Based on information collected during in-person site visits and meetings with stakeholders, responses to USAID’s Request for Information from international and local experts, and the aim of building upon the work of the USAID Reforestation Project, the USAID/Haiti Resilient

Environment activity must work in the following sub-watersheds: Joli Trou-Cormier, Les Perches, and Bahon. These areas meet the following selection criteria, but not limited to:

o Urgent landscape restoration needs due to environmental degradation level and contributions to various ecosystem and socio-economic benefits for local communities;

o Communities, investments and ecosystems downstream vulnerable to climate risks, and preventive measures are required upstream to limit adverse impacts;

o Existing sub-watershed management plans developed with support from the USAID

Reforestation Project, in collaboration with local communities and officials from the

Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, and Territorial Collectivities.

o Existing landscape restoration foundation and stakeholder commitment framework to promote community-led sustainable sub-watershed management practices;

o Restoration scope is aligned with USAID’s and Government of Haiti’s natural resource management strategic priorities.

The contractor must propose activities that are appropriate to each of the aforementioned sub-watersheds, given that the capacity of existing sub-watershed committees, level and type of environmental degradation, and economic conditions of these areas are variable.

VI. THEORY OF CHANGE

IF…

3 The sub-watershed plans are public.

Landholders in the target sub-watersheds in the Northern RFZ adopt more sustainable landscape management practices that improve land use, systems productivity, and tree cover.

THEN…

communities will be more resilient to climate risks or stresses, including drought and flooding, and will experience improved economic security.

VII. RELATIONSHIP TO USAID HAITI STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

The Resilient Environment Activity’s objectives and anticipated results are aligned with

USAID/Haiti’s 2020-2022 Strategic Framework4. Developed in consultation with GOH counterparts, private sector and civil society stakeholders, interagency colleagues, several former

U.S. Ambassadors and USAID Mission Directors to Haiti, and extensive discussion within the

Mission, the Strategic Framework summarizes USAID's commitment to a different approach to development in Haiti that generates measurable progress toward self-reliance. In the midst of the

COVID-19 pandemic, the emphasis on resilience in the Strategic Framework is especially relevant, as the impacts of economic restrictions, particularly for those in the informal economy, and limitations in the nutritional supply chain have exacerbated hunger and poverty for a population already experiencing extreme vulnerability. This Strategic Framework also acknowledges the multifaceted and interconnected nature of challenges in Haiti and thus takes an integrated approach to development programming, explicitly seeking to leverage efforts across multiple sectors, include the widest possible array of stakeholders, and generate sustainable positive momentum.

USAID expects measurable results that indicate an improved ability for Haitians to be active and positive participants in shaping the direction of Haiti's development path. The 2020-2022 Strategic

Framework represents a significant strategic and tactical change, emphasizing a resilience-based approach and refocusing Government of Haiti (GOH) engagement toward the local level. USAID’s work thus seeks to build a Haiti that is more resilient to environmental, political, and economic shocks and stresses (Development Objective 1), advances more inclusive, locally driven economic growth and social development (Development Objective 2); and promotes governance that is more responsive to citizens’ needs (Development Objective 3) to develop the capacities in people, households, communities, and systems that build inclusive prosperity and create local demand for improved governance.

Specifically, the Resilient Environment activity should further the following Development

Objectives and Intermediate Results:

o USAID Development Objective (DO) 1: Haiti is more Resilient to Shocks and Stressors.

o Intermediate Result (IR) 1.1: People and households better able to weather shocks and stresses.

o Intermediate Result 1.2: Improved community assets and capacities support Haitians to withstand shocks and stresses at the local level.

o Intermediate Result 1.3: Increased capacity of systems to support Haitians when shocks and stresses occur.

4 https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Strategic_Framework_-_Haiti_-_December_2020-2022.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Strategic_Framework_-_Haiti_-_December_2020-2022.pdf o Shared Intermediate Result: Safer and more secure environment for Haitians.

USAID’s Performance Management Plan describes outcome-based performance indicators at the

IR level to monitor strategic performance progress towards the objectives and to respond to the

Mission learning agenda. The following performance indicators should be incorporated into the

Resilient Environment activity’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Plan.

Intermediate Results Indicators

IR 1.1: People and households better able to weather shocks and stresses

1.1.1 RESILIENCE-a: Ability to Recover from

Shocks & Stresses Index

1.1.2 Custom: Realized Resilience (Ability to

maintain or improve food security in face of shock/stress)

1.1.3 Custom: Percentage of USAID activity

participants with improvement in targeted resilience capacities

IR 1.2: Improved community assets and capacities support Haitians to withstand shocks and stresses at the local level

1.2.2 CLBD-9 Percent of USG-assisted

organizations with improved performance [IM-level]

(Disaggregated by organization type- This indicator will cover the organizations that are targeted by

USAID/Haiti across multiple sectors e.g., health, WSS, education, DRR, SMEs, agriculture, electricity)

IR 1.3: Increased capacity of system to support Haitians when shocks or stresses occur

1.3.1 EG.11-2: Number of institutions with

improved capacity to assess or address climate change risks supported by USG assistance

VIII. RELATIONSHIP TO USAID, GOH, AND DONOR ACTIVITIES

The USAID Resilient Environment Activity is a follow-on activity to the USAID Reforestation

Activity (2017-2022), implemented by Chemonics International. The Resilient Environment

Activity contractor should consult directly with the Reforestation Project team in order to facilitate the handover of relevant contacts and data. The activity will build upon the groundwork laid by the Reforestation Activity, particularly the watershed management plans for either or both Trou du Nord and Grande Rivière du Nord. Maintaining a continuity of relationships with watershed committees and other community-based organizations is a high priority, in order to ensure that the gains of the Reforestation Project are carried into the new Resilient Environment Activity.

Given USAID/Haiti’s prioritization of the Northern Resilience Focus Zone, there are several on-going activities and partnerships with which the USAID/Haiti Resilient Environment Activity should collaborate. Other relevant USAID activities include:

o Feed the Future Haiti Resilience and Agriculture Sector Advancement (HRASA) Activity5 o PISA o ATTEINDRE/ATTAIN o Pilot Food Security & Resilience

Furthermore, the following analyses should be taken into consideration:

o USAID/Haiti Livestock Assessment o USAID/Haiti Reforestation Project Resilience Baseline Study o Mid-Term Evaluation of the USAID Reforestation Project

5 https://sam.gov/opp/247592e414684633b31d13f867683fd1/view?index=opp https://sam.gov/opp/247592e414684633b31d13f867683fd1/view?index=opp

The new Resilient Environment activity also must take into consideration and leverage the Haiti

Ministry of Environment’s 10-year Strategic Plan, Plante ak Rekolte Dlo6, as well as align with other major projects in the area such as MARNDR's PITAG7 program, and current or past projects being undertaken by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UN Development

Programme (UNDP). The Plante ak Rekolte Dlo strategy aims to implement an improved landscape management policy from 2021-2030, which will increase the area of restored land and protected watersheds by 35%. In order to increase the climate change resilience and economic development of Haiti’s mountain regions, Plante ak Rekolte Dlo seeks to restore degraded landscapes by implementing soil conservation and climate-smart activities that will improve the infiltration capacity of soils and increase water availability. The Resilient Environment Activity will coordinate directly with the Department-level Ministry of Environment and the following supporting institutions: Integrated Management Department of Mountains and Hydrographic

Basins (DGIMBH), Forestry and Renewable Energies Department (DFER), Department of

Environmental Education, and the National Observatory of Water Quality and Vulnerability

(ONQEV). The activity may also work with the Combite Citizen Participation pour l'Environnement (CPCE), a local governance and community public private partnership structure, which supports the MDE through decentralized institutions (Departmental Directorates and

Communal Office for Environmental Management) particularly in terms of environmental monitoring, education, and overseeing activities in the field.

The USAID Resilient Environment Activity is also encouraged to coordinate with other donor activities in the zone of implementation. The Programme d’Innovation Technologique en

Agriculture et Agroforesterie (PITAG), supported by the Government of Haiti and the Inter-

American Development Bank (IDB). PITAG, which began implementation in 2018, focuses on two main components: i) applied research and training on sustainable agricultural technologies, and ii) promotion of sustainable agricultural technologies and practices. Research and training activities aim to provide the foundation for a strategic agriculture innovation program led by the

Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development (MARNDR). PITAG’s second component supports the adoption of innovative sustainable agricultural technologies to help improve farmers’ incomes and environmental sustainability. The Resilient Environment Activity can learn from PITAG’s experience working with farmers on climate-resilient agriculture practices in Northern Haiti. The target regions of PITAG include Nord and Nord-Est Departments, which overlaps with the geographic focus areas of the Resilient Environment Activity, Trou du Nord and

6 Launched in 2021, Plante ak Rekolte Dlo (Planting for Water) is the GOH’s 10-year strategy that seeks to implement an improved landscape management policy from 2021-2030, which will increase the area of restored land and protected watersheds by at least 35%. The Strategy’s principal objectives are to: i) restore Haiti’s mountains’ “green mantle” to reduce runoff, erosion, and loss of arable soil, to strengthen the mountains’ role as natural “water towers”, and to improve the infiltration capacity of soils, which will improve agriculture and water quality in rivers, springs, groundwater and other surface water bodies; ii) decrease the vulnerability of the population to climate change and natural disasters, and reduce the risks related to desertification, flooding, and landslides, which lock the population in a poverty trap. ta 7 The Programme d’Innovation Technologique en Agriculture et Agroforesterie (PITAG) provides technical assistance and subsidies to farmers who apply pre-approved agroforestry models on their plots. The program aims to support n farmers by improving plots of approximately 0.5 hectares. Implemented by the Ministère de l’Agriculture des Ressources Naturelles et du Développement Rural (MARNDR), the program works with the municipalities of

Bahon, Grande Rivière du Nord, Perches, Trou du Nord, and Terrier Rouge.

Grande Rivière du Nord. Coordination across major donors in the region is essential to avoid overlap with this activity. Coordination and collaboration requires time and resources; it is essential that this activity takes this into consideration to ensure leveraging of resources from other sources as well as avoiding overlap of specific interventions.

IX. MARGINALIZED POPULATIONS

The Contractor must detail how it will support activities primarily designed to benefit and meet the unique needs of marginalized populations.

a) Gender Analysis

The Contractor must demonstrate how its solution sets will be tailored to maximize gender and social inclusion, as required per USAID’s gender policy ADS 2058 and the Women’s

Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment (WEEE) Act9, enacted on January 9, 2019. Per

ADS Chapter 205, all USAID activities are required to consider the different roles of men and women, the relationship between and among men and women, and the broader institutional and social structures that support them. Contractor must address how interventions are likely to impact individuals differently based on their gender roles and cultural norms. The contractor will integrate gender topics and data into all workshops and activities, rather than treat them as an isolated work stream.

b) Youth

Haiti has the youngest age structure in the Caribbean, with almost 70 percent of the population under the age of 30. The country is also experiencing high levels of rural-to-urban migration, particularly among young people. These demographic trends have major impacts on land management throughout Haiti, including in the Northern Resilient Focus Zone (RFZ). Engaging young people and the next generation in sustainable land practices is critical for the long-term sustainability of the project. The contractor will integrate youth engagement topics and data into all workshops and activities. Young men and women are engaged in the agri-food system in a variety of ways — through formal and informal wage work, unpaid family labor, self-employment

— and across all levels of value chains. Youth earn “mixed livelihoods” from various sources — on-farm, off-farm, and non-farm — and with self-employment and migration playing particularly important roles. When trained and empowered, youth tend to favor modern agriculture practices, use of technology, and opportunities with relatively higher returns than staple crops. With the growing youth population in Haiti, alleviating youth unemployment and underemployment in the

RFZs is critical. The offeror must demonstrate how young men and women will be empowered to

8 The official USAID’s policy on gender equality and women’s empowerment expands on the legal definition for gender analysis provided by the WEEE Act and gives more instructions regarding gender integration in program design.

9 The WEEE Act makes gender analyses mandatory under federal law. The WEEE Act emphasizes the importance of gender integration in development projects, especially in the area of economic growth initiatives. It focuses on the positive outcomes of women’s entrepreneurship and economic empowerment in U.S. funded projects, which is presented as a crucial accelerator of sustainable development.

https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/205.pdf https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3247/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/3247/text take advantage of existing and potential economic opportunities to create wealth and become active change agents in the Resilience Focus Zones.

X. PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS

The following USAID standard indicators are expected to be used to monitor progress for the

Resilient Environment activity:

o EG. 10.2-1 Number of hectares of biological significant areas showing improved biophysical conditions as a result of USG assistance (impact) o EG. 10.2-2 Number of hectares of biological significance and/or natural resources under improved natural resource management as a result of USG assistance (impact) o EG. 3.2-1 Number of households benefiting directly from USG assistance (output) o EG 11.2 Number of stakeholders with increased capacity to adapt to the impacts of climate change as a result of USG assistance (outcome)

USAID will work closely with the implementing partner to develop custom indicators that must be used in addition to these standard indicators to monitor progress.

XI. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

a) Contract Management

This activity will be managed by the Economic Growth and Agriculture Development Office

(EGAD) of USAID in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Office of Acquisition and Assistance, USAID/Haiti will provide technical and administrative oversight to the Contactor through the designated Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR).

b) Anticipated Period and Place of Performance

The USAID Resilient Environment activity will be a 5-year contract (2022 - 2027). Place of performance is Northern Haiti.

c) Geographic Code

The authorized geographic code for procurement of goods and services under this contract is 937.

In accordance with ADS 310.3.3.3, revised February 6, 2012, code 937 refers to the United States, the recipient country, and developing countries other than advanced developing countries, but excluding any country that is a prohibited source. Please see ADS 310 for further details.

d) Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL)

Evidence has shown that the outcome of an activity will be enhanced when the programming is coordinated, grounded in evidence, and adjusted as necessary to improve effectiveness through the implementation. The Contractor must demonstrate how Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting

(CLA) practices will be incorporated into the design of the proposed solution as well as in implementation and show how the theory of change of the proposed solution aligns with the

USAID/Haiti 2020 - 2022 Strategic Framework. The Contractor must demonstrate how it plans to ensure that the implementing team, systems and processes are well-developed for advancing an adaptive approach, to ensure that the learning that emerges can be translated to an adjusted activity implementation approach in collaboration with partners. The Contractor will need to consider what types of short, focused studies and methods will facilitate rapid activity feedback and would serve as compelling evidence for making in course corrections.

The Contractor must propose a thorough Monitoring and Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Plan that will contribute to the Mission-wide Performance Monitoring Plan (PMP). Close monitoring based on USAID best practices, including a balanced set of outcome and output indicators, will be required for this activity. Proposed indicators must meet Agency and Mission Feed the Future and

Resilience reporting requirements. Finally, the contractor must take into consideration the need for continued monitoring and evaluation of activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the contractor must indicate the monitoring approaches it plans to utilize for safe execution of the

MEL plan.

Monitoring activities include implementing partner monitoring, USAID/COR, and use of collected data from other sources. Monitoring activities should include:

o Sustainable Landscapes standard indicators o Context monitoring o Resilience monitoring to understand how shocks/stresses intersect with the activity outcomes

A USAID-funded performance evaluation will be required for this activity. In addition to the standard required indicators for USAID sustainable landscapes funding and GIS data, a robust

Learning Agenda10 must also be included in the contract.

e) Shock-Responsive Programming and Adaptive Mechanisms

USAID recognizes that many of the interventions under this activity will be implemented in zones of recurrent crisis. This necessitates a shock-responsive approach to programming to help beneficiaries absorb, adapt to, and recover from shocks thereby reducing losses, preventing a downward spiral of divestment leading to destitution, and protecting the hard-won potential development gains of the activities.

The Contractor must build in programmatic and operational flexibility into their activities to allow quick response to unanticipated challenges which consistently occur in Haiti. This could include, but is not limited to, crisis modifiers that allow for an integrated crisis response between the humanitarian and development sectors. Contractors should refer to the USAID’s Shock

Responsive Programming Guidance.11 An adaptive shock responsive approach will allow for agile approaches for responding to situations that can occur in Haiti during project implementation and to allow for adjustments depending on the impact from the shock.

10 https://usaidlearninglab.org/qrg/learning-agenda https://usaidlearninglab.org/sites/default/files/resource/files/shock_responsive_programming_guidance_compliant.p df https://usaidlearninglab.org/qrg/learning-agenda https://usaidlearninglab.org/sites/default/files/resource/files/shock_responsive_programming_guidance_compliant.pdf https://usaidlearninglab.org/sites/default/files/resource/files/shock_responsive_programming_guidance_compliant.pdf

f) Environmental Compliance - Initial Environmental Evaluation (IEE)

Activities performed under Resilient Environment must comply with USAID’s environmental regulations as mandated in 22CFR216. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, Section

117 requires that the impact of USAID’s activities on the environment be considered, and that

USAID include environmental sustainability as a central consideration in designing and carrying out its development programs. This mandate is codified in Federal Regulations (22 CFR 216) and in USAID’s Automated Directives System (ADS) Parts 201.5.10g and 204

(http://www.usaid.gov/policy/ADS/200/), which, in part, require that the potential environmental impacts of USAID-financed activities are identified prior to a final decision to proceed and that appropriate environmental safeguards are adopted for all activities. In addition, the contractor/recipient must comply with host country environmental regulations unless otherwise directed in writing by USAID. In case of conflict between host country and USAID regulations, the latter shall govern.

g) Climate Risk Management

The program shall promote, where possible, the introduction of new technologies or practices to improve resilience of targeted value chains to climate hazards including increasing temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, and more frequent drought in collaboration with producers, processors, transporters, distributors and other service providers. Given the climate change challenges in Haiti, the contractor will need to articulate practices and interventions that can enable climate resilient approaches to succeed and support the sustainability of the investments made under this activity.

The project should improve the capacity of communities and their development partners to build climate resilience into their management of natural resources. A Climate Risk Management screening, led by USAID with significant input from the contractor, will be required prior to project implementation as part of the Environmental Compliance requirements for this activity.

h) Security

The security of beneficiaries and the Contractor’s staff is of utmost concern to USAID/Haiti.

Given the escalation of security incidents in Haiti, it is imperative that the Contractor develop a security plan that ensures institutionalized processes to track the security context in the operating zones, evaluate the risks to beneficiaries and the Contractor’s staff, and implement steps to mitigate risks.

XII. REFERENCE DOCUMENTS

Charcoal in Haiti: A National Assessment of Charcoal Production and Consumption Trends.

World Bank Group. November 2018.

Comité Interministériel d’Aménagement du Territoire (CIAT) - Land Use Plan Nord and Nord-

Est Départements. December 2012.

Republique de Haiti. Projet Territoires Productifs Résilients (TPR). Cadre de Gestion

Environnementale et Sociale (CGES). November 2017.

Freeman, Scott, and Mark Schuller. “Aid Projects: The Effects of Commodification and

Exchange.” World Development, vol. 126, 2020, p. 104731., doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.104731.

L. Carruth and S. Freeman, Aid or exploitation?: Food-for-work, cash-for-work, and the production of ‘‘beneficiary-workers” in Ethiopia and Haiti, World Development, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105283

Smucker, Glenn, et al. World Bank Program on Forests (PROFOR) CORE, Haiti Takes Root, 2019, Participatory Watershed Management Planning: A Step-by-Step Guide.

USAID/Haiti - Land Tenure and Property Rights Profile. 2021.

USAID/Haiti Biodiversity and Tropical Forest Assessment: Sections 118 and 119 of the Foreign

Assistance Act. 2020.

Evaluation: USAID/Haiti Feed the Future West/Watershed Initiative for National Natural

Environmental Resources. November 2015.

USAID/HAITI Mid-Term Evaluation of the Reforestation Project. Haiti Evaluation and Survey

Services Project. May 2021.

XIII. ATTACHMENTS

1. USAID/Haiti Reforestation Project-supported sub-watershed management plans for: Les

Perches, Capotille, Bahon, Joli-Trou/Cormier and Gens des Nantes.

2. USAID/Haiti Reforestation Project Resilience Baseline Study

3. USAID Haiti 2020 - 2022 Strategic Framework

4. CIAT Plan d’Aménagement du Nord/Nord-Est - Couloir Cap Ouanaminthe, Décembre

5. Politique Nationale de Lutte contre les Changements Climatiques, Ministère de l’Environnement, 2019

6. Plan Stratégique Décennal 2021-2030, Ministère de l’Environnement, 2021

7. Analyse du couvert forestier du Nord et du Nord-Est, USAID, 2018

8. Mid-term evaluation report for the USAID Reforestation Project, USAID, 2021

9. Haiti Environmental Vulnerability Report, USAID, 2007

10. Watershed Management in Action - Lessons learned from field projects, FAO, 2017

11. Plan d’Investissements Agricoles - Composante Aménagement des Bassins Versants et

Foresterie, MARNDR

12. New Watershed Development Guideline, 2020.

13. Charcoal (National Assessment) in Haiti, World Bank Group, 2018

14. Charcoal and fuelwood trends in Northern Haiti, USAID, 2019