DRC Partnership Facility

Market Systems and Partnerships is pleased to invite for-profit businesses to apply for grant funding in the Democratic Republic of Congo. MSP’s DRC Partnerships Facility seeks to channel firm resources, expertise, technology, and influence to contribute towards one or more of the following objectives:

1. Pilot innovative solutions that can help businesses to overcome the most problematic market constraints currently inhibiting agricultural-led growth.
2. Increase and improve linkages, wherever possible, between companies and the following groups—smallholder farmers, especially women farmers, micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), producer organizations, traders, aggregators, transporters, sellers, and/or consumers along underdeveloped value chains – to benefit the poor as producers and consumers and to strengthen supply chains.
3. Strengthen DRC’s economic competitiveness and social inclusiveness
4. Improve DRC’s climate change resilience and risk management capacity

Illustrative partnership activities that could meet these objectives by introducing or scaling technologies and improved management practices include but are not limited to:

Agriculture

1. Warehousing, storage, cold chain and other technologies that prolong shelf-life and improve food safety.
2. Agro-processing that generates additional income for smallholder farming households and expanded opportunities for farmer groups (e.g. value addition, washing, grading, and packaging).
3. Technologies that improve sanitary and phytosanitary food safety standards.
4. Climate smart agriculture (CSA) technologies and practices (e.g. climate smart agriculture including crop management practices, agriculture water management, salt-tolerant and other resilient seed varieties, net houses, CSA mechanization technologies and services, and carbon credit programs from the reduction of GHG emissions in agriculture).

Energy

1. Technologies that improve vulnerable households access to renewable energy that can improve on-farm productivity.
2. Improved access to electricity to better support processing and cold chain warehousing investments.

Finance

1. Transaction advisory services to 1) help agribusinesses grow their operating capacity and raise critical growth capital and to 2) support investors in developing an investment pipeline and in directly addressing barriers such as information asymmetries and high transaction costs.
2. Accelerator services for agribusinesses and/or energy firms.
3. Innovative financial services and products for agribusinesses
4. First loss capital or upfront due diligence to enable venture funds to make smaller ticket-size investments in agribusinesses or renewable energy firms.

Applications due by: November 7, 2022 4:00PM EST (GMT-4)

Applications may be submitted in either English or French

Next applicant's conference (virtual): October 19, 2022 at 9:00am Central Africa Time (GMT+2). To participate, please register through the Zoom link in RFA Amendment 01.

Questions regarding this opportunity are accepted on a rolling basis between August 12, 2022 and October 25, 2022. Questions must be submitted to grants_nofo@ftf-msp.org 4:00PM EST (GMT-4) October 25, 2022.

Answers will be posted weekly, every Tuesday from August 12, 2022 to November 1, 2022

Partners are selected through an open and competitive process.