U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of Agriculture and Food Security, Economic Growth and Agriculture Development Center, Bureau for Global Affairs (G/EGAD/AFS), RRB, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 2.11-082,Washington, DC 20523-710

R -- 1999 DAIRY DIRECTIVE SOL G/EGAD/AFS-00-001 DUE 021000 POC Joyce Turk, Tel: 202-712-1424, Facsimile 202-216-3010, E-mail: jturk@usaid.gov WEB: http://www.info.usaid.gov/procurement_bus_opp/procurement/announce/cbd, http://www.infor.usaid.gov. E-MAIL: http://www.info.usaid.gov, jturk@usaid.gov. Pursuant to USAID Automated Directives System (ADS) Series 303.5.5, this announcement contains information on the 1999 Dairy Directive which is managed by G/EGAD/AFS. Application Deadline is February 10, 2000. NOTE: NO SEPARATE REQUEST FOR APPLICATION (RFA) WILL BE ISSUED -- ALL INFORMATION NECESSARY TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION FOR CONSIDERATION IS CONTAINED IN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. Dairy development can play a key role in moving developing and transitional country agriculture in the direction of viable, commercial enterprise. Because of its strong upstream and downstream linkages, it provides a means of addressing both farm-level production and value-added processing and marketing and associated policy issues. And because of their nutritional qualities, dairy products play a vital role in children's physical and cognitive development. Over the past five years, USAID has managed $18.5 million of development assistance provided by Congress under the dairy directive, in addition to funds provided through bilateral programs. Use of these funds has resulted in development of dairy cooperatives internationally, has provided a platform for the U.S. dairy industry to play an important role in bringing US technology to developing countries and transition economies while also developing and expanding its export market. Moreover, it has enabled USAID to engage in a range of dairy development-related issues: production, processing, marketing, and cooperative or producer association building. According to a recent International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) publication ("World Food Products: Critical Issues for the Early Twenty-First Century") a demand-driven "livestock revolution" is underway in the developing world: Opportunities for further dairy development are large, and many challenges remain. The 1999 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and related Programs Appropriations Bill, recommends that the Agency for International Development continue funding for dairy development. USAID sees this as an opportunity to move further into the arena of commercial dairy industry development and modernization, and preparation for participation in regional and global trade, as well as to reinforce the message about the critical role of dairy products in nutrition -- especially for child survival. The dairy directive funding available for FY99 totals $4.5 million. In the obligation of these funds, USAID will continue to utilize the competitive grant mechanism. Implementers will be expected to focus efforts in the areas where greatest impact could be achieved, with special reference to nutrition for children, and safety and quality of products entering the food system. As always, it is important that any proposal be integrated into Missions' strategic frameworks, and bear Missions' endorsement. The grant period remains three years for each award. CRITERIA AND PROPOSAL FORMAT. The criteria and proposal format include two areas not emphasized in previous years -- the importance of dairy products to children's cognitive and physical development, and dairy product safety and quality. Proposals may be new projects or those that build on current activities. Proposals will be evaluated and scored based on developmental impact, management capability, and procedural organization. 1999 PROPOSAL FORMAT. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. NARRATIVE: Objectives -- statement addressing developmental need and specifically defined constraints; Methodology; Expected impacts; Indicators; How other (private, NGO, govt.) funding will be leveraged; Integration with Mission's strategic objectives (SOs); Validation of sufficient management for effective project implementation; Verification of strong host country counterpart commitment; Plans for follow-on or transition phase of technical assistance and phase-out for investments/services; Description of proposer's experience in international dairy development; Budget, using standard form SF424 (can be downloaded from

http://www.info.usaid.gov/procurement_bus_opp/procurement/forms/SF-424 /), with budget narrative providing detail, support and links to the proposed program; Letters of endorsement and level of support from Missions; and letters of contractual arrangements with other partners. CRITERIA. Proposals will be evaluated and ranked according to criteria that have been grouped into three categories: developmental impact, management capability, and procedural organization. DEVELOPMENTAL IMPACT (60 points) 1. Statement of how proposal addresses developmental needs, with particular reference to improved children's nutrition and dairy food product safety and quality issues (30 points); 2. Plan for follow-on or transition/phase out of technical assistance (10 points); 3. Verification of strong host country counterpart commitment (10 points); 4. Prospects for leveraging other funding and description of expected impact of such funding (10 points). MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY (20 points). 5. Ability to demonstrate impact by identifying appropriate indicators (10 points); 6. Demonstrated experience of proposer in international dairy development (10 points). PROCEDURAL ORGANIZATION (20 points). 7. Description of how the proposal integrates with the Mission's strategic framework (SOs), along with letters of endorsement from Mission (20 points); TOTAL 100 Points.Please send ten copies of any proposal to: Joyce M. Turk, G/EGAD/AFS, USAID/W, RRB 2.11-082, Washington, DC 20523-2110. Posted 01/04/00 (W-SN413059). (0004)

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