By George Munene
USAID Africa Trade and Investment (ATI) program is inviting applications from Kenyan start-ups in the agriculture value chain to the Sh600 million Africa Food Security and Resilience Partnerships grant opportunity.
Run through the Prosper Africa initiative, the program seeks local Small and Medium Scale agricultural enterprises to partner with USAID to address food insecurity and food systems resilience challenges on the African continent.
Successful applicants will receive grants of Sh59.9 million to Sh598.9 million to scale access to inputs, technologies, and food that directly respond to the food security and resilience impacts of ongoing price and availability shocks associated with the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
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Interested applicants are required to submit a concept note that works towards one or multiple of the following comprehensive objectives:
- Increased food security
- Support to established businesses, farming associations, and sourcing partnerships that can rapidly scale access to crucial inputs such as seeds and fertilizers
- Partnerships with companies to scale production of food crops critical to food security and nutrition across multiple markets
- Export deals for critical inputs to food insecure regions
- Facilitate trade deals that deliver food from areas of surplus to those of scarcity
- Resilience of food systems
- Transaction identification, facilitation, and deal structuring related to Africa’s resilience and food security
- Development of new financing solutions addressing issues of Africa’s resilience and food security to accelerate access to key inputs or food products and scale production of essential value chains
- Expand farmers’ access to technologies that reduce reliance on rain-fed agriculture, reduce post-harvest loss, and reduce/replace the use of diesel/fuel
- Strengthening and optimization of supply chains, such as through the use of technology and data to quickly drive decision making and respond to new resilience shocks
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Shortlisted applicants will be sent a request for an application.
Apply before 31 March 2023.
For more information on the program and application details, visit: ANNUAL PROGRAM STATEMENT