Deadline: 15-Jun-23
The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs’ Office of Assistance Coordination (NEA/AC) and Embassy Tunis Assistance Unit seek proposals to address the vulnerability of Tunisia’s agricultural sector to climate change, as well as increased food security threats, particularly for women’s economic security and empowerment.
The project should advance women’s economic futures by empowering previously marginalized women working in agricultural cooperatives to use innovative technical and entrepreneurial approaches to mitigate the impacts of climate change, increase profitability, and protect against food insecurity. This project will also support women working at various stages of the agricultural value chain to enhance their business acumen, better access funding, and more effectively advocate for their economic and legal rights.
Objectives
- Project’s Goal: Empower women working in agricultural cooperatives to use innovative technical and entrepreneurial approaches to mitigate the impacts of climate change, increase profitability, and combat food insecurity.
- A successful project will result in:
- Objective 1: Women-led cooperatives optimize their use of natural resources to mitigate the challenges caused by climate change.
- Identify sector appropriate women cooperatives and assess their respective needs: The project will first review existing studies on Tunisian cooperatives. A follow-on assessment will identify the targeted regions and the cooperatives that will benefit from this project, highlight their respective needs, and tailor the support activities accordingly.
- Optimize use of natural resources: The project will leverage the assessment to help the selected cooperatives identify sustainable and innovative techniques to optimize the use of natural resources, such as water. The project will provide cooperatives with technical capacity building and equipment to improve their cultivation practices and agricultural yields. The project will also help the cooperatives and private sector partners implement environmentally conscious practices, ensuring sustainable preservation of natural resources, and mitigating the threat of food insecurity.
- Support innovative start-up solutions: Activities will support start-ups that create sustainable agricultural solutions to address identified needs of cooperatives. The project will select three to five Tunisian start-ups based on an evaluation of how successful their business solution will be in helping the women cooperatives mitigate climate change and grow their businesses. The startups will receive business support and small grants of $5,000 to $10,000. Each entrepreneur will be matched with a cooperative most likely to benefit from its solution. These partnerships will provide women cooperatives direct access to innovative, cost efficient, and environmentally sustainable solutions while narrowing the digital gender gap.
- Objective 2: Women-led cooperatives improve business acumen and increase revenue throughout the value chain of their products.
- Provide cooperatives with capacity-building training: The project will assess cooperatives’ needs and create a personalized capacity-building program for each targeted value chain. These efforts will help cooperatives improve their products based on market demand, expand their product reach, and increase profits. Examples of capacity building opportunities include training in environmentally sustainable business approaches to protect the environment and adapt to climate change; participation in national and international fairs to expand cooperatives’ networks; assistance with negotiation and product pitching techniques; partnerships with e-commerce platforms on website development and other sustainable technological solutions.
- Facilitate cooperatives’ access to finance: The project will help cooperatives restructure their financial processes, connect them to investors to improve their access to land procurement loans, and provide in-depth financial educational training. The project will work with the cooperatives to create financial strategies to mitigate financial losses caused by COVID-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and to anticipate future risks, such as climate change.
- Objective 1: Women-led cooperatives optimize their use of natural resources to mitigate the challenges caused by climate change.
Focus
- Project activities should mostly focus on:
- A mapping of the current literature and an assessment to identify relevant beneficiary women cooperatives, as well as their respective needs and climate change mitigation solutions;
- Mechanisms to improve access to innovative and sustainable means of natural resource optimization for women agricultural cooperatives and methods to implement environmentally conscious practices;
- Partnerships with Tunisian start-ups offering sustainable solutions to help women cooperatives mitigate the impacts of climate change on their production;
- Collaboration with financial institutions, and other stakeholders to facilitate access to funding and improve financial literacy of rural women; and
- Mechanisms to build women cooperatives’ capacities to grow their entrepreneurial activities.
- Project beneficiaries include:
- At least 15 established women agricultural cooperatives with a total of at least 150 rural women members.
- At least 3 Tunisian start-ups developing sustainable agricultural solutions to cooperatives’ needs; and
Funding Information
- Estimated Number of Awards: 1
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $1,500,000
- Estimated Award Ceiling: $1,500,000
- Estimated Award Floor: $1,250,000
- Estimated Length of Project Period: 3 Years
- Maximum Length of Project Period with Option Year(s): Five years
- Estimated Award Ceiling for the Option Year(s): $2,500,000
- Estimated Award Total with the Option Year(s): $4,000,000
Outcomes
- Increased access to finance and sustainable long-term financial strategies for women agricultural cooperatives;
- Increased financial literacy of rural women;
- Established new climate change mitigation solutions in the agricultural sector;
- Increased access to innovative and sustainable infrastructure and equipment;
- Implementation of environmentally conscious practices, ensuring sustainable preservation of natural resources and the mitigation of food insecurity;
- Established partnerships with Tunisian start-ups to provide climate change solutions for women cooperatives;
- Growth of domestic and international entrepreneurial activities of women cooperatives;
- Increased access to business growth expertise and resources;
Eligible Countries and Territories: In this announcement, we seek to support projects in Tunisia. Please note: Applications that focus on activities in countries and territories other than Tunisia will not be considered.
Eligibility Criteria
- U.S. or foreign
- Non-profit organizations;
- For-profit organizations;
- Private institutions of higher education;
- Public or state institutions of higher education;
- Public international organizations;
- Small businesses with functional and regional experience in the areas of:
- Climate change, women’s economic empowerment, and agriculture in the MENA region.
- All applications must be submitted in English.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.