The Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships Activity (MSP) is pleased to invite for-profit businesses to apply for funding in Mozambique. MSP’s Mozambique Partnerships Facility offers businesses operating in the country the opportunity to co-invest with USAID to address the food crisis resulting from shortages of food, fuel and fertilizer as a result of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Through the Partnership Facility, MSP seeks to channel business resources, expertise, technology and influence to contribute to one or more of the following objectives:

• Encouraging and incentivizing innovations and investments in agriculture food systems by agribusinesses linked to smallholder farmers and/or farmer associations/cooperatives;
• Expanding fertilizer investment and finance across the fertilizer supply chain;
• Building systems capacity to manage future shocks and stressors;
• Reducing food loss and waste; and
• Increasing investments in agriculture capacity and resilience (i.e., promoting increased agribusiness efficiency, last-mile distribution of local products and digital applications, etc.).

Illustrative partnership activities that could meet these objectives by introducing or scaling technologies and improving management practices include but are not limited to: 

• Warehousing, storage, cold chain, logistics/transportation and other technologies that prolong shelf-life, improve food safety and reduce product losses from damage or spoilage in agriculture market systems;
• Practices that create circular economy opportunities where unsafe or inedible foods are safely recycled back into the food system for human, animal or fish consumption;
• Technologies that improve sanitary and phytosanitary food safety standards;
• Agro-processing that generates additional income for smallholder farming households and expanded opportunities for farmer groups (e.g., value addition, washing, grading, sorting and packaging).
• Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies and practices (e.g., climate-smart agriculture including crop management practices, agriculture water management, salt-tolerant and other resilient seed varieties, net houses, CSA mechanization technologies and services and carbon credit programs from the reduction of GHG emissions in agriculture); 
• Other practices or services that promote value addition and prevent food loss or waste, support fertilizer finance/supply chain or agricultural resilience; and
• Innovations in agriculture food systems, including digital technologies and digital financing.

Access the full request for applications at www.mspgrants.com/mozambique.

Partners are selected through an open and competitive process. MSP will issue two-year grant agreements of $250,000-500,000 based on a 1:1 match (or 50%). Potential partners should be able to invest at least $250,000 over the course of two years, which we (USAID through MSP) will match, making the total project amount around $500,000 at a minimum.

Applications due by: December 30, 2022, 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (GMT-4)/11:00 p.m. Maputo Time (GMT +2). Apply here. 

Applicant's conference (virtual): November 8, 2022, 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time (GMT-4)/3:00 p.m. Maputo Time (GMT +2). Register here.

Questions regarding this opportunity are currently being accepted and must be submitted to [email protected] before 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time (GMT-4) on December 20, 2022.

Answers will be posted weekly, every Tuesday from November 1 to December 21, 2022, on the opportunity page.

Contacts

Submit questions to [email protected].

Issuance of this announcement does not constitute an award or commitment on the part of DAI, nor does it commit DAI to pay for costs incurred in the preparation and submission of applications. Further, DAI reserves the right to reject or approve any or all submitted applications. The MSP Activity is advancing learning and good practice in market systems development and private sector engagement within USAID, USAID partners, and market actors. For more information, access to technical resources, and opportunities to engage, visit www.agrilinks.org/msp.