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Matching Grant Fund June 2023

Welcome

Business Support Facility for Resilient Agricultural Value Chains

 

Who we are

The project “Business Support Facility for Resilient Agricultural Value Chains” is co-financed by the European Union (EU) under the post-Cotonou agreement with the Secretariat of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and by the Federal Ministry of Development and Economic Cooperation (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. It is a joint effort between Agri Business Facility (ABF) and MOVE based on longstanding working experience with the promotion of sustainable agribusiness and value chain (VC) development focusing on cashew, maize, livestock, and cocoa. Its focus is to contribute to economic and climate change resilience of selected VCs and food security, increased income, and employment in the 79 African countries, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries under the post-Cotonou agreement.

The Market-Oriented Value Chains for Jobs and Growth in the ECOWAS Region (MOVE) is a project that promotes market-oriented value chains to create jobs and income in the ECOWAS region. We represent the merger of two well-established regional projects: The Competitive Cashew Initiative (ComCashew) in the cashew sector and the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI) in the rice sector. The two respective brands (ComCashew and CARI ) are maintained under the umbrella of the MOVE project.

Note that for this multi-actor partnership with BMZ - EU - OACPS - private and public partners, MOVE will be referred to as MOVE-ComCashew

One of the outputs for this project is Matching Grant Fund  (MGF) and the indicators are as follows:

  • 2.1 Competitive matching grant scheme designed and validated with relevant partners, OACPS, EU and BMZ
  • 2.2 Bankable multi-stakeholder MGF-projects are selected with relevant partners for support.
  • 2.3 Additional resources from applicant consortia mobilized for climate resilient projects.
  • 2.4 Multi-stakeholders MGF projects are implemented in line with MGF award criteria.

In the past, ComCashew had launched 7 calls with 51 Cashew Matching Grants Funds rolled out in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Mozambique. Under this new project Business Support Facility for Resilient Agricultural Value Chains, MOVE-ComCashew aims to have 25 Cashew Matching Grant Fund projects in the 79 ACP (African, Caribbean and the Pacific) countries.

What we offer

  • The Business Support Facility for Resilient Agricultural Value Chains MOVE-ComCashew provides support to actors in Cashew to foster and improve supply chain linkages among others.

The two-year tailor-made Matching Grant Fund projects are for the cashew sector and are aimed to support cashew private sector businesses in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific to mobilize resources, create ownership and build resilient agricultural Value Chains.

MOVE-ComCashew's financial contribution for each Matching Grant Fund project will be up to € 125 000 for the entire duration of the project if one project is proposed with beneficiaries in one country. Where beneficiaries are in multiple countries, more funding can be provided as the contribution of GIZ (see more details in the guideline for applications). For all Matching Grant projects, the contribution of GIZ would be a maximum of 40% of the total budget. The 40% value would not exceed the 125 000 or increased value for strategic alliances (see further delails.

The package includes

  • STEP 1  -  12th June 2023

    Launch of the call for concept notes. 
    To enable all potential partners to understand the Matching Grant Fund and how to apply, MOVE ComCashew proposes its readiness program, including webinars with dates shown below. Please join the webinars on your preferred date and time.

    Readiness Program:     
    All documents, guidelines about the Matching Grant Fund application process  are made available on www.comcashew.org and partner websites (for example: Homepage - OACPS; Accueil (ciccashew.org); African Cashew Alliance; About us - CARI : Competitive African Rice Initiative (cari-project.org); and https://www.agribusiness-facility.org/). Webinars on the application process shall be organized before, and during the applications phase. Please join us on your preferred date and time for more information about the Matching Grant Funds and application process.

    Below are planned dates and time for webinars:

    WEBINAR 1: 13th June 2023 (English Only)
    MS Teams call (Africa/Caribbean) at

    • 2pm GMT
    • 5pm East and southern Africa time
    • 10 am Guyana
    • 9 am Jamaica

    Click below link to join the webinar on your computer, mobile app or room device:
    Launch of the MOVE ComCashew Matching Grant Fund

    WEBINAR 2: 14th June 2023: (English & French)
    Zoom call organized jointly with the African Cashew Alliance at (Africa/Caribbean)

    • 2pm GMT, 4 pm CET
    • 5pm East and southern Africa time
    • 10 am Guyana time
    • 9 am Jamaica time

    Click below link to join the webinar on your computer, mobile app or room device:
    ZOOM MEETING

    • Webinar ID: 874 3297 8174
    • Passcode :7494

    Click below link to join  the webinar on your computer, mobile app or room device:
    Launch of the MOVE ComCashew Matching Grant Fund

    WEBINAR 3: 20th June 2023 (French Only)
    MS Teams call (Africa/Caribbean) at

    • 2pm GMT
    • 5pm East and southern Africa time
    • 10 am Guyana time
    • 9 am Jamaica time


    WEBINAR 4: 21st June 2023 (English)
    Targeting the pacific region and the Caribbean

    • 9 pm GMT, 11 pm CET
    • 9 am in the pacific region
    • 5 pm Guyana time
    • 4 pm Jamaica time

    Click below link to join the webinar on your computer, mobile app or room device:
    Launch of the MOVE ComCashew Matching Grant Fund

In case of any questions, please contact  MOVE-ComCashew at cashew@giz.de

  • STEP 2  -  24th July 2023

    Deadline for submission of concept notes

  • STEP 3  -  24th July–13th August 2023

    Evaluation of concept notes

  • STEP 4  -  17th August 2023

    Communication with successful applicants. Full proposals development and commercial suitability check begins

  • STEP 5  -  13th September 2023

    Deadline for submission of full proposal

  • STEP 6  -  9th October 2023

    Feedback to successful applicants

  • STEP 7  -  16th October 2023

    Contracting of MGF partners begin

Who can Apply?

To be eligible for the Business Support Facility for Resilient Agricultural Value Chains MOVE-ComCashew Matching Grant Fund, you must meet the following conditions:

First, the Matching Grant Fund for cashew is open to only Private sector businesses who apply as a consortium. For more information, please check the eligibility criteria on ComCashew and partners websites.

No.

Eligibility Criteria

Detail        

1

Value Chain
  • Cashew

2

Implementation Countries and Regions
  • Working in any of the 79 ACP (African, Caribbean and the Pacific) countries

3

Purpose (Indicators)
  • Increasing Income of Supplying Agricultural MSME
  • Adaptation to Climate Change
  • Reduction of Emissions
  • Strengthening Women and Youth in Access to Resources, Education, Business Opportunities & Linkages, Investment-related Decision Making and Finance

4

Intervention Areas

All applications must consider, at least one topic each from points 1 and 2 below:

  1. Technical training for primary producers: such as Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Adaptation to Climate Change (CC), Conservative Agriculture (CA), Agroforestry, Improved planting Material development, etc.
  2. Entrepreneurial training for primary producers: Topics may include Farmers Business School (FBS), Cooperative Business School (CBS), Gender Make Business Sense (GmBS), Mitigation to Climate Change, Empowerment of women and youth and other entrepreneurial topics. 
  3. Other interventions and value chain promotion approaches:            In addition to the first two thematic areas, application could also consider below topics/approaches. 
  • Contract farming/Supply Chain linkages 
  • Diversification (e. g. intercropping, bee keeping, agroforestry etc.)
  • Production and / or use of renewable energy
  • Optimized supply management and logistic (transport) management including communication, traceability, / digital solutions.
  • Innovations in new products development
  • Waste recycling / upcycling in commercial products 
  • Cashew by-products use
  • Cashew Processing
  • Ecotourism / agrotourism 
  • Certification (Organic, Fairtrade etc.)
  • Digital services (weather forecast, traceability) 
  • Integrated Pest Management
  • Soil fertility management
  • Post Harvest Management
  • Carbon credit
  • Mechanization
  • Access to finance,
  • Social sustainability (such as awareness raising on child labour, forced labour, etc.)

5

Eligible Partners
  • Processing Companies
  • Agricultural Producer Organisations
  • Legally-Registered private Organisations working in cashew
  • Offtakers of ACP countries’ products

Note: Women and youth led consortia are encouraged to apply  

How to Apply

Once you meet the eligibility criteria above you can apply for the Matching Grant Fund. Please read through relevant documents here and prepare your concept note to submit to cashew@giz.de latest by 24th July 2023.

In addition to your concept note, all applicants are expected to submit the Letter of Intent duly signed by all consortia members for this stage of the application process. 

You would be contacted by 14th August, 2023 if your application is selected after evaluation.

When to Apply

The first call of the MOVE-ComCashew Matching Grant fund has been launched on the 12th June 2023 on MOVE-ComCashew (www.comcashew.org) and partner websites (example; OACPS Homepage - OACPS, Consultative International Cashew Council Accueil (ciccashew.org), and African Cashew Alliance African Cashew Alliance) platforms  and social media. The call would be open until 24th July 2023. Other calls are likely to be opened subsequently depending on availability of funds.

You find Links to all documents here:

  1. Application Guidelines for call for proposal
  2. Concept Note Template
  3. Guidelines for cost eligibility
  4. Price Schedule
  5. Letter of intent 
  6. Memorandum of Understanding

For further clarifications/ questions please write to (email: cashew@giz.de )

Other services and Trainings/Coaching

Additionally, we offer training and coaching for partners based on demand. This is to ensure smooth implementation and ease with GIZ processes.

  • GIZ Financial reporting
  • Gender Transformative approaches
  • Key performance indicators
  • Other topics

For further clarifications/ questions please contact us via: cashew@giz.de