Request for Application (RFA) Call for Application to Participate in Culinary Arts Skills Training Program in Rwandan Traditional Cuisine. 

Request For Application (RFA)

Call for Application to Participate in Culinary Arts Skills Training Program in Rwandan Traditional Cuisine.

Feed the Future Rwanda Hanga Akazi (HA) Activity is a 5-year activity designed to facilitate growth leading to inclusive job creation and entrepreneurship in Rwanda’s agri-food system. Using a market systems approach, the Activity aims to support access to productive resources for enterprises and entrepreneurs in the agri-food system that are poised to grow and hire. The Activity will also work on the labor supply side through a workforce development component, linking demand from growing enterprises to curriculum development and training so that job seekers bring the skills employers need. The Activity will support increased entrepreneurship in the agri-food system, helping to identify areas of opportunities for entrepreneurs and connecting them with the supporting services—such as business development, access to finance, and market linkages— they need to succeed.

The Activity wishes to partner with competent training providers to build technical and employability skills for chefs, in in Culinary Arts Training of Trainers Program in Rwandan Traditional Cuisine. The Activity has no geographic restriction and is therefore looking for partners throughout the country. Final funding levels will depend on quality of applications received, number of fundable applications received, market needs, availability of funding, suitability of the application in line with HA’s scope of work and competing priorities. Grants will be awarded competitively in amounts commensurate with their impact but shall not exceed the maximum amount of Frw 36,000,000 million.

Request For Application Package

Call for Application to Participate in Culinary Arts Skills Training Program in Rwandan Traditional Cuisine.

Dear Applicant:

Feed the Future Rwanda Hanga Akazi (HA) Activity is a 5-year development project designed to promote and facilitate inclusive economic growth in Rwanda leading to increased employment and entrepreneurship. The project seeks partnership with new existing and new businesses of all sizes operating in Rwanda’s agri-food system. Hanga Akazi is also working to strengthen the business enabling environment by strengthening and increasing access to business development services, finance, incubation/acceleration in Rwanda. Through these efforts, the project aims to facilitate 19,000 new full-time jobs and to improve the employment of 23,000 Rwandans while increasing the participation of women, youth and people with disabilities in the economy as entrepreneurs, employers, and employees.

HA is seeking applications to participate in partnerships to implement activities that lead to entrepreneurship promotion, employability skills enhancement, enterprise/firm growth, and jobs creation in Rwanda’s agri-food system. The partnership agreements will be awarded and implemented in accordance with USAID and US Government regulations and Hanga Akazi management policies.

The Application Package includes:

• Section I.   Illustrative Partnership Activities
• Section II.   Leverage
• Section III. Technical Evaluation
• Section IV.  Application and Submission Information
• Section V.   Types of Awards
• Section VI.   Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)

This is a targeted application process with technical evaluations made once. Resources are limited and applicants are strongly encouraged to respond promptly. All questions and Request for Application Forms must be submitted to CGF-Grants@Hanga-Akazi.org. For applicants who need support or assistance completing this application, please contact CGF-Grants@Hanga-Akazi.org

Section I.  Illustrative Partnership Activities

Hanga Akazi will consider activities that directly contribute to the achievement of project results in a sustainable and tangible manner. The awards are intended to facilitate employment and entrepreneurship opportunities through technical and soft skills enhancement for youth, women, and persons with disabilities in hospitality value chain.  Areas of possible assistance include:

• Skills Building: Support private, public or NGOs training service providers to adapt or initiate the development of new and/or existing technical and soft skill training programs focusing onCulinary Arts Training Program, including conducting cooking demonstrations for beginner chefs in five provinces            (4 provinces and city of Kigali) to transfer cooking skills on Rwandan traditional cuisine.
• Social Inclusion:Interventions that are specifically promoting employment and/or skills building activities that support women, youth and/or persons with disabilities.

 Hanga Akazi grant funds will not be used to support any of the following:

• Construction or infrastructure activities of any kind.
• Ceremonies, parties, celebrations, or “representation” expenses.
• Purchases of restricted goods, such as: restricted agricultural commodities, motor vehicles including motorcycles, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, contraceptive products, or prohibited goods. Prohibited goods under USAID regulations, including but not limited to the following: abortion equipment and services, luxury goods, alcoholic beverages, police and military equipment. Refer to the link for more information.https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PBAAD445.pdf
• Purchases or goods or services restricted or prohibited under the prevailing USG Foreign
• Policy restricted countries. Refer to the link for more information. https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2022-12/310.pdf
• Any purchase or activity, which has already been made.
• Purchases or activities unnecessary to accomplish grant purposes as determined by the Hanga Akazi Activity.
• Prior obligations of and/or, debts, fines, and penalties imposed on the Grantee.
• Purchase of secondhand goods or used machinery unless prior approval has been given by Hanga Akazi based on sound justification.
• Creation of endowments.

Section II.  Leverage

There is no minimum leverage requirement under this RFA, but leverage is encouraged from all applicants.  Priority will be given to applicants that can provide a meaningful contribution of the cost on the proposed activities. Applicant contributions can be in the form of cash (such as capital or loans), infrastructure, property, equipment, new staff, and others directly used for the proposed activity. Special considerations on leverage amounts will be given to businesses led by women, youth, and persons with disabilities.

The applicant can propose mobilization of additional financial resources, such as equity or debt that will come from other sources including, formal financial institutions such as commercial banks, individuals, other companies, funds and foundations, and bilateral or multilateral organizations.

Applicants must demonstrate that their contributions will, in most cases, be “incremental” to the “new” effort associated with the grant. However, if the applicant can successfully demonstrate that this was a recent direct investment then the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) will consider accepting this leverage on a case-by-case basis.

Section III. RFA Review

The TEC will review the RFA submitted by the applicant using the criteria listed below.

Section IV.  Application and Submission Information

The Grant Application and Award Form (Annex A) must be submitted in English. Applicants must adhere to the guidance provided in each section of the Grant Application and Award Form. The application and any supporting documentation should be submitted in electronic form to: CGF-Grants@Hanga-Akazi.org 

Subject Line: RFA-HA-2025-002 : Culinary Arts Skills Training Program in Rwandan Traditional Cuisine

Submission should include:

Full Grant Application and Award Form (See below)

Section V. Type of Awards

Grants awarded under this RFA will primarily be Fixed Amount Award grants (FAA) or in-kind grants, or hybrid FAA and in-kind grants. For FAAs, HA will make payments based on submission and acceptance of specific verifiable milestones. Once an award is issued, it will include a fixed price payment schedule with milestones and deliverables negotiated during the final application and award process.

Under in-kind grants, goods and/or services will be procured directly by RTI and provided to the grantee. In exceptional circumstances, Hanga Akazi may consider a cost reimbursement type of grant mechanism.

Grant Application and Award Form

Instructions:

• All applicants are required to complete and submit this application form.
• All the attachments in this application must be attached to the completed application form.
• By signing and submitting this application, the applicant attests to the Anti-Terrorism Certification in item 16.

9. Program/Project Description.  The applicant must describe in detail the program/project to be supported by Hanga Akazi (HA) grant.  The program description must be results-oriented.  Result is a significant, intended, and measurable change in the condition of the beneficiary, or a change in the host country, institutions, or other entities that will affect the beneficiary directly or indirectly. Results are linked by causal relationships, i.e., a result is achieved because related, interdependent result(s) were achieved. Applicants must ensure that their program/project description should address the following:

Program/Project Goals

Applicant must detail the overall goal of the program/project in both the short term and long term.

Program/Project Objectives 

The Applicant must explicitly explain what the program/project intends to achieve.

Project Activity Description 

The applicants must provide in-depth descriptions all activities to be undertaken under this program/project.

Organization/Company’s Background 

The applicant must provide a detailed summary of the company/organization, including years of experience in the relevant sector, overview of current operations and capacity as well as the company top management structure with their roles/decision making organ.

Organization/Company’s Current Challenges 

The applicant must provide an overview of the company’s current/development challenges, opportunities, and/or problems. The applicant should discuss what political, social, economic, and/or environmental conditions that require change. How does the applicant know what needs changing? What appraisals, evaluations, needs analysis and other methodologies were used to understand what requires changing?

Proposed Upgrades

The applicant must propose detailed upgrades that are needed to address the aforementioned current/development gaps/challenges. Under this section, the applicant must propose/discuss in detail measures/activities to achieve these upgrades.

Targeted Markets/Participants/Beneficiaries disaggregated by women, youth, and persons with disabilities.

The applicant must identify the activity participants/beneficiaries disaggregated by women, youth, and persons with disabilities, their numbers, location, and anticipated benefits that they will receive. In addition, the applicant must identify the company’s current target markets. The participant must explain how beneficiaries/participants will be reached.

Sales

If relevant to the activity, describe all the new products and/or services that your company/organization will sell after the new investment has been made. Provide information on the expected increase in sales or revenue—this can be a result of improved prices and/or increased quantity, list all identified buyers and local suppliers).

Job Creation

Provide information related to the estimated number of direct permanent and seasonal jobs the investment will create. If income of employees will increase, list the increased amount. Clearly provide the details of the number of jobs the intervention will create for women, youth under the age of 30 and persons with disabilities.

Investment

Provide a short description of your planned investment– list of the activities and investments necessary to achieve the desired results; include any equipment if any to be purchased that is over $500 USD per unit, list financial institutions or other resources that will be accessed for the investment, describe what new processes or new technology your company needs to make this investment succeed -identify the steps for making the new product or service.

Social inclusion

Hanga Akazi grant targets to increase jobs for women, youth, and persons with disabilities. The application must clearly indicate and explain in numbers and/or percentage of women, youth and persons with disabilities to be reached & methodology to be used to reach the beneficiaries.

Program/ProjectTechnical Implementation Approach and Methodology.

The applicant must explain in detail how he/she intends to use the grant requested to achieve Hanga Akazi targets especially job creation targets for women, youth, and persons with disabilities. In this section the applicant must explain in-depth approach on how the proposed activities will be carried out to achieve and obtain the expected output, and the degree of detail of such output. The applicant should also highlight the problems being addressed and their importance and explain the technical approach to be adopted to address them. Applicant should also explain the proposed methodologies to be adopted and highlight the compatibility of those methodologies with the proposed approach.

Sustainability and Scale

The applicant must demonstrate how future activities and investments will continue and grow after USAID funding has ended; applicants are asked to explain how their activities and investments are locally owned, market-driven and expected to grow over time.

10. Implementation Plan.An excellent implementation plan should show how the anticipated results would be achieved. What activities, processes, or strategies are essential to achieve the results? Why will the planned work lead to the intended results? What is the anticipated timetable for the achievement of the results? Implementation plan template to be used is hereby below.All applicants must adhere to this template.

Implementation Plan

11. Monitoring and Evaluation Plan.A Monitoring and Evaluation Plan should contain a set of indicators that would permit continuous measurement of progress toward targeted results. For each result, what is the performance indicator? What is the baseline data? What is the performance target? What is the timetable for achieving results? For each performance indicator, what is the definition and what is the unit of measurement? What are the plans for reporting and using the performance information? Monitoring and Evaluation Plan template to be used is hereby below.All applicants must adhere to this template.

Monitoring and Evaluation Plan

Note:

• Keyassumptions: The applicant must identify and explain the expectations and predictions they assume that may lead to success or failure of the What are the external factors and other critical assumptions that are likely to facilitate or hinder the achievement of the results?
• Expected Target:Specific desired outcomes that support achievement of the objective/goal.
• Target Indicator:Indicators to achieve the aforementioned targets.
• Outcomes: Result or effect of an action/intervention.

12. Budget and Budget Narrative.  Each application must contain a detailedline-item budgetaccompanied by a budget narrative explaining all costs. Lump sum budgets will be considered non-responsive and will be rejected. An acceptable budget will have all costs broken out by unit costs and should clearly show the number of units used for each line item.   Each line item should identify the type of cost, e.g., labor units, units of materials and/or equipment, travel, transportation, communications, etc. The narrative will describe how the applicant arrived at each unit cost and the number of units for each line item. An excel Budget template to be used is hereby shared as a separate document. All applicants are required to submit the Budget with its narrative.

13. Organizational Control Environment Questionnaire.  All applicants are required to complete the questionnaire attached to this application. U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) regulations require RTI International (RTI) to obtain information from all applicants in order to determine an applicant’s ability to comply with prescribed standards for (a) financial management, (b) property management, (c) procurement, and (d) reports and records. Please answer all questions to the best of your ability; do not leave blanks. Failure to provide the necessary information may cause your application to be rejected. Applicants are required to submit the completed Organizational Control Environment Questionnaireis Attached herewith as a separate document.

14.Past Performance.  

The applicant must provide detailed information or description of previous work and experience of relevant work both technically and geographically by using the table below:

15. References.  All applicants are subject to a reference check.  Applicants must provide name, address, and other contact information of at least three past performance references below.

16. Anti-Terrorism Certification. It is a mandatory requirementby USAID and a condition of award that the applicant must certify that it does not support terrorism. Applicants unable to submit the signed certification will not be eligible for an award. The certificate to be signed is provided as a separate form.

In Agreement to the terms and conditions above: 

WHAT IS A UNIQUE ENTITY IDENTIFIER (UEI, or Unique Entity ID) &

WHY DOES MY ORGANIZATION NEED TO OBTAIN ONE?

The U.S. government is transitioning away from the DUNS number as the primary organizational identifier to the twelve-digit alphanumeric Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) starting April 4, 2022.

The UEI will be requested in, and assigned by, SAM (www.sam.gov). Organizations will no longer have to go to a third-party website to obtain their identifier. This transition allows the United States government to streamline the entity identification and validation process, making it easier and less burdensome for entities to do business with the government.

If your entity is registered in SAM.gov today, your Unique Entity ID (SAM) has already been assigned and is viewable in SAM.gov. This includes inactive registrations. The Unique Entity ID is currently located below the DUNS Number on your entity registration record. Remember, you must be signed in to your SAM.gov account to view entity records. To learn how to view your Unique Entity ID (SAM) go to this help article.

If your entity is not registered in SAM.gov today, please visit www.sam.gov to begin the registration process.