Africa Lead II West Africa Regional Office
Annual Program Statement
The Feed the Future: Building Capacity for African Agricultural Transformation (Africa Lead II) is a five year program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI)
The goal of the program is to build and expand on the foundation laid by Africa Lead, the predecessor program which successfully contributed to increasing the participation of a diverse but inter-linked set of Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) stakeholders in improving African food security policy. Africa LEAD II builds upon this foundation, while also moving into supporting the policy enabling environment and increasing support to non-state actors (NSAs) to take on a greater role.
In addition to being able to draw on technical assistance and programmatic funding for implementation support, Africa Lead II has a grant facility with which it enlists support from non-governmental organizations and the private sector to help achieve these ambitious goals. The Africa Lead II grant initiative can provide assistance through in-kind awards or through direct financial support on a reimbursable or cash-advance basis. Africa Lead II may not award any grant that exceeds $50,000 USD or for a period that extends beyond the estimated completion date of base period of the Africa Lead Program (September 30th, 2018). The grant program is designed to provide this financial support while leveraging local resources and those of other donors.
Eligible organizations: Africa Lead II can award grants to legally registered organizations, both U.S. and non-U.S. organizations through Ghana and West Africa, (both for-profit and non-profit). Non-US organizations should be registered under their resident country Law.
In-eligible organizations: Africa Lead II cannot award grants without the prior written consent of USAID to:
- Any U.S. entity which is a “private voluntary organization” (PVO) but has not registered as such with USAID;
- Any entity whose name appears on the “List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement and Non-Procurement Programs”;
- Any “public international organization” (PIO);
- Any third country foreign government;
- Any entity affiliated with DAI or any of its directors, officers, or employees;
- Any political party organization; and
- Individuals.
Eligible activities: The following are examples of activities that may be supported by grant funds. These categories and activities are illustrative only:
- Capacity building to local partner organizations to support innovative programs for youth, women, Champions for Change, and former interns who may need assistance to start a new initiative.
- To build capacity in training institutions.
- Activities that provide training to people seeking employment – particularly women and youth – or create employment opportunities in Africa Lead II ’s target value chains development sectors.
- Procurement of equipment and services to improve processing and marketing of priority agricultural products (as defined by Africa Lead II).
- Communication and outreach campaigns targeting innovative actions supporting key NSA groups through grants may include:
o Strengthening business leadership of African farmer groups. o Strengthening agribusiness leaders for policy engagement.
o Strengthening the ability of African civil society to support farmers.
o Facilitating national agricultural investment
It is usually expected that the grantee will make a contribution to the activity for which they are seeking funding. This can be either in-kind (such as labor and materials) or cash through direct financing of a portion of the grant initiative’s implementation costs. In most cases, Africa Lead II will seek a minimum contribution of 25% of the cost of activities.
Africa Lead II will accept grant applications on a quarterly basis by mail, email, or hard copies starting October 1st 2014 until September 30th 2015. Quarterly application deadlines are the following:
- October 31, 2014
- January 31, 2015
- March 31, 2015
- June 30, 2015
- September 30, 2015
A complete Annual Program Statement, application guidelines, minimum eligibility and selection criteria can be found below.
To submit grant applications and request further information, please contact
Africa Lead Program
A&C Shopping Mall Square
14 Jungle Road, East Legon
Tel: 0577 668 040
[email protected]