USAID-RAN Household Solar Workforce Development Challenge awarding Up to $350,000 Grant for Sub-Saharan Africa

Deadline: 15 December 2019

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) have launched a call for proposals under the Household Solar Workforce Development Challenge, as part of the Scaling Off-Grid Energy Grand Challenge for Development (SOGE). SOGE seeks to accelerate growth in the off-grid solar home system market to provide millions of households and businesses across sub-Saharan Africa with access to modern, clean, and affordable electricity. However, talent acquisition and retention for off-grid solar home system companies remains an ongoing industry challenge, limiting enterprise growth and the sector’s capacity to scale and mature as an industry.

The specific objectives of this funding window are to identify and support scalable, innovative, third-party training solutions to the off-grid solar home system sector’s workforce needs in sub-Saharan Africa.

Funding Information

The selected organizations will receive awards ranging from USD 100,000 to USD 350,000 for project implementation over the course of one year, subject to the availability of funding.

Geographical Scope

All proposed activities must take place in sub-Saharan Africa.

Project Period

All proposed activities must take place within one year of the award.

Eligibility Criteria

The call is open, but not limited to: for-profit and nonprofit organizations, social enterprises, programs under academic institutions and non-government organizations (NGOs) with demonstrated capabilities and programs in energy workforce development and capacity building that are ready to scale.
This call seeks third-party training providers that are designed with features including, but not limited to, initiatives that train management staff, technicians, or sales agents for the off-grid solar home system sector.
Solar home system companies seeking to build out in-house training capabilities exclusively focused on their own employees/staff will not be considered. Companies engaging in training individuals for employment throughout the sector (i.e. trainees are then suitable for hire by multiple companies) are eligible.
Joint proposals by two or more applicants are welcome. Applicants may also submit proposals that include individual consultants, non-profit organizations, and industry associations as implementing partners. In all such instances, a single individual or organization must serve as the lead applicant.

Eligible Use of Grant Funds

Grant funds must be for direct programmatic costs associated with the development of an off-grid solar workforce. Examples of eligible uses of grant funds are listed below. Please note that this list is intended to be illustrative and applicants may include other expenditures that are direct costs in the training program. RAN reserves the right to screen and accept or reject all the costs presented by applicants. Applicants must indicate what training they propose to deliver in their training program description.

Personnel costs for instructors to conduct training, fringe benefits, and/or personnel costs for tasks associated with programmatic reporting requirements.
Costs for screening and placement of individuals in the training program.
Costs for training materials and work gear associated with the training curriculum.
Development and refinement of existing curricula for training.
Implementing outreach activities directed toward engaging prospective employers to be involved in the job training program and to hire graduates.
Scaling already running programs geographically and also with some defined personnel categories where applicable; for example, including field managers in programs initially targeting off-grid solar technicians.

Evaluation Criteria