USAID/Zambia Offers Various Incentive-based Grant Opportunities and Rewards II

A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Introduction
USAID/Zambia’s intention is to continue support to local organizations previously funded through USAID’s VIGOR program to expand the activities in their current area of operations, replicate the activities in a new area, or a combination of both. VIGOR assists qualified local organizations that seek to improve forest conservation, sustain forest management practices, or upgrade access to renewable energies through innovative activities, as described below. Acceptable VIGOR activities must have an impact on forested areas in local or national forest reserves, local open forests, community managed forested areas, joint forest management areas, or other protected forested areas that are not privately owned land within the Eastern Province or peri-urban areas. Peri-urban areas are forested areas outside of an urban center, though not including national parks within the Central and Lusaka Provinces. At the end of the grant period, USAID/Zambia expects the Recipient(s) to have engaged communities in forest conservation, forest management practices, or the adoption of renewable energy technologies with the overarching goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

This activity is designed to support the Government of the Republic of Zambia’s (GRZ) initiative to implement the United Nations (UN) Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) by providing quick-start funding to local, environmentally-conscious organizations. The implemented interventions will demonstrate approaches to generate scalable impacts to reduce deforestation in rural or peri-urban forested communities using small grants. The result of these grant activities will encourage attitude and behavior changes in communities towards forest conservation, engage community leaders in developing sustainable forest management plans, provide access to sustainable energy sources, and promote alternative livelihoods to those reliant on unsustainably-harvested forest products. Successful activities will be innovative, replicable, scalable, and sustainable; they will serve as examples for other communities across the nation.

Activity Statement
Of key importance to the Zambia UN-REDD+ initiative are focused activities that demonstrate novel approaches to reducing deforestation rates at the provincial, district and community levels and provide models that could be eventually scaled up to the national level. Further, to implement these activities, capable local organizations are needed to act at the grassroots level to determine what interventions work to provide forest-dependent people alternatives to charcoal and timber production for income or energy sources, to establish incentives that successfully promote sustainable forest management, or to promote the adoption of energy-saving technologies.

Gender and Youth
In rural parts of Zambia, women rely on forests for carrying out subsistence activities, be they charcoal and timber production or non-timber forest products. Once forested areas are under improved management, the tendency for illegal use of forest resources decreases while the sale of legal forest products increases; this impacts lower income households the most, namely female – headed households. Further, the incorporation of women into the management process of forest resources produces beneficial results for the health of forests as well as improved resource access to both men and women, as opposed to management processes that exclude women or men. This information compels USAID/Zambia to mandate that all VIGOR activities integrate women into the management, protection, and conservation of forests
Further, it will be important to incorporate youth into sustainable forest conservation and management issues as they are the nation’s future. Youth are often disenfranchised, not having skills to find gainful employment and not having the political clout to advocate for themselves. As the prospects of youth foreshadow the prospects of a country, USAID/Zambia encourages all VIGOR activities to incorporate and empower youth with training, new life skills, and opportunities to be entrepreneurial.

Environmental Compliance
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.

The applicant’s environmental compliance obligations under these regulations and procedures are specified in the following paragraphs of this RFA. In addition, the 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.

No activity funded under this Fixed Amount Award will be implemented unless an environmental threshold determination, as defined by 22 CFR 216, has been reached for that activity, as documented in a Request for Categorical Exclusion (RCE), Initial Environmental Examination (IEE), or Environmental Assessment (EA) duly signed by the Bureau Environmental Officer (BEO). (Hereinafter, such documents are described as “approved Regulation 216 environmental documentation.”)

An Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) 611-002 has been approved for the Global Climate Change program funding this RFA. The IEE covers activities expected to be implemented under this grant. USAID has determined that a Negative Determination with conditions applies to one or more of the proposed activities. This indicates that if these activities are implemented subject to the specified conditions, they are expected to have no significant adverse effect on the environment. The recipient shall be responsible for implementing all IEE conditions pertaining to activities to be funded under this award.

As part of its Work Plan, the recipient, in collaboration with the USAID Agreement Officer Representative and Mission Environmental Officer, shall review all ongoing and planned activities under this Fixed Amount Award to determine if they are within the scope of the approved Regulation 216 environmental documentation.

If the recipient plans any new activities outside the scope of the approved Regulation 216 environmental documentation, it shall prepare an amendment to the documentation for USAID review and approval. No such new activities shall be undertaken prior to receiving written USAID approval of environmental documentation amendments.

Any ongoing activities found to be outside the scope of the approved Regulation 216 environmental documentation shall be halted until an amendment to the documentation is submitted and written approval is received from USAID.

The Recipient shall:
(a) Integrate an Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plan (EMMP), describing what actions the Recipient will take to mitigate and monitor potential negative impacts on the environment, into the work plan;

(b) Undertake regular field visits to monitor and evaluate program activities to assess their environmental impact, and the effectiveness of USAID-proposed mitigation measures and Best Management Practices (BMPs);

(c) Include in requests for milestone approvals a brief update on mitigation and monitoring measures being implemented, and results/findings of environmental monitoring visits;

(d) Complete an environmental mitigation and monitoring summary of activities undertaken during the grant period. This report will be submitted to the Agreement Officer’s Representative (AOR) together with the final request for milestone approval. This reporting requirement shall be incorporated into the project’s milestone schedule and work plan.

B. AUTHORIZING LEGISLATION

The authority for this RFA is found in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, and the Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act of 1977. The resulting award(s) will be administered in accordance with USAID’s ADS Chapter 303, “Grants and Cooperative Agreements with Non-Governmental Organizations”, and ADS 303mat, Standard Provisions for Fixed Amount Awards to Nongovernmental Organizations.

C. RESPONSIBILITY FOR PERFORMANCE

a) Recipient

The Recipient of this award is responsible for devising, implementing, and continually refining a technical approach for achieving the overall outcomes and objectives specified in the Program Description. The Recipient will articulate its major activities and milestones in a work plan to be discussed with the AOR. Finally, the Recipient will be responsible for documenting and sharing the results and lessons learned from implementing this activity.

b) USAID

The Agreement Officer will designate an Agreement Officer Representative (AOR) to monitor the Recipient’s progress and provide technical assistance. The AOR, based in USAID/Zambia, will be the primary day-to-day liaison between USAID and the recipient of this award. The AOR’s primary responsibilities are to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions, to maintain contact (including site visits and liaison) with the Recipient, and to approve completed milestones.