Strategic Partnership Grant Fund

The Strategic Partnership Grant Fund (SPGF) has been established to address Southern Africa region industry issues in cereals, legumes and other agricultural commodities and their related services in finance, transportation, storage and information technology.
SPGF is a financing mechanism to allocate funds to support efforts of the South Africa private sector to make investments in the Southern Africa regional agriculture sector that will increase trade in agricultural products, help accelerate agricultural sector growth in the region and improve regional food security. It focuses on South African companies as catalysts for increasing trade capacity in agricultural value chains in the wider Southern Africa region. Objectives of the SPGF are to:

• Accelerate the transfer of improved production (including inputs), processing, storage, analysis and marketing technologies or innovations to actors within the agricultural supply chains (grains and legumes, in particular)
• Improve relationships and effectiveness of skills transfer between service providers and actors within the value chain.

The USAID-funded Southern Africa Trade Hub (SATH, www.satradehub.org) administers the SPGF, in cooperation with South Africa's Agricultural Business Chamber (www.agbiz.co.za), to market the fund's existence and objectives. The Fund has US$800,000 available in grant funds, up to a maximum of US$100,000 per award. Eligible companies and apex organizations can apply for a grant from SATH.

 

Process:
The proposal process will consist of three distinct steps: 1) Submission of a brief concept note of no more than three pages, 2) a pre-award survey for those organizations whose concept note is accepted, 3) followed by a full proposal.

Applicants will first submit a concept note consisting of:

• A cover sheet identifying the applicant company
• Up to three pages defining the problem, proposed intervention, how this fits within the overall company objective and an implementation plan
• An indicative budget supporting the concept

If the concept note is accepted, the applicant will undergo a pre-award survey to determine eligibility. If accepted, the applicant will submit a full proposal which includes project design and strategy, staffing and human resources, management plan, past performance, cost effectiveness and accuracy, gender and environmental considerations and the ability to contribute a cost share of at least 25%. The grants committee will review the full proposal and recommend an award, if appropriate.

 

Evaluation Criteria:
Applications will be evaluated on project design and strategy, staffing and human resources, management plan, past performance, cost effectiveness and accuracy, gender and environmental considerations, and the ability to contribute a leveraged contribution equal to or higher than the grant amount.
Proposals received from eligible companies and associations will be evaluated for:

• Suitability and affordability of proposed technologies in terms of increasing storage, processing and/or trade capacity and competitiveness of the industry;
• Impact on employment, productivity and the expansion of trade activities;
• Increase in value added and market accessibility of products in the region;
• Ability of the applicant to influence change for desired results;
• Degree to which concept notes leverage significant private sector financial or in-kind resources in activity implementation; and
• The proposed projects must be sustainable beyond the life of the USAID/SATH project.

Eligibility:

• Applicants must be a private sector company, an association of private sector companies, or a non-profit company supporting the private sector. Applications will not be considered from governmental organizations, parastatals or non-government organizations (NGOs);
• Be incorporated in and doing business in South Africa;
• Be engaged in private sector efforts which can be transferred to other countries in the SADC region and which will increase trade in agricultural products, accelerate the growth of the agricultural sector or improve regional food security;
• The proposed activity will increase international competitiveness, intra-regional trade and food security in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC);
• The activity is in some way related to the activities of the Southern Africa Trade Hub such that the proposed activity will benefit the work of SATH, and conversely that SATH can add value to the grantee and its proposed activities.

Selection of concept notes will be on a competitive basis and must demonstrate how the applicant will use the funds to implement or support SATH's own interventions. SATH will not fund any activity on its own; cost sharing by the applicant is critical to instill buy in and ownership. Grants are awarded on cost reimbursement basis.

Proposals are requested starting June 5, 2012 and will be received on an on-going basis until December 31, 2012, or until funds are exhausted. SATH reserves the right not to award all available funds if there are insufficient proposals which meet the eligibility and evaluation criteria.

This request for assistance may be found posted on http://www.agbiz.co.za or www.satradehub.org. Concept notes and questions may be sent to the Grants Manager at okebasitile@satradehub.org or info@satradehub.org.