ADA invites NGOs to present their Gender-transformative Initiatives on promoting Food & Nutrition Security

Deadline: 09-Jun-2024

The Austrian Development Agency (ADA) invites Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that qualify as development organisations or other equivalent institutions, of Austria´s Federal Act on Development Cooperation to present their gender-transformative initiatives on promoting food and nutrition security in the districts of Muanza and Nhamatanda in Sofala Province.

The objectives of this CFPs are aligned with the government strategies to strengthen the role of women subsistence farmers in ensuring sustainable farm and food systems. To increase the demand-orientation and complementarity with other initiatives, eligible applicants will need to coordinate their cooperation with community-based and local partner organisations as well as relevant government institutions at district and provincial level.

The Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) has been active in Mozambique since its independence in 1975. In 1992, Mozambique became a priority country of the ADC and the Province of Sofala Austria’s focus area of intervention.

The overall aim of Austria’s engagement is to support Mozambique’s efforts in implementing the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and to achieve its national targets of the SDGs including the commitment to the principle of ‘Leaving no one behind’. The ADC is directly aligned with Mozambique’s programmatic priorities such as the Strategic Plan for the Development of the Agrarian Sector 2030 (PEDSA II) and aims to reduce poverty in all its dimensions through targeted socio-economic improvements and to contribute to the consolidation of peace and reconciliation in the country.

The CFPs aims to identify a partner to implement a gender-transformative intervention which directly contributes to outcome 1.2 of ADC’s result matrix included in the Mozambique Country Strategy 2019-2024:

• Households in food insecure areas of Sofala are able to maintain access to adequate and nutritious food throughout the year.

The geographic focus of the CFPs are the districts of Muanza and Nhamatanda, which are among the areas with the highest malnutrition rates in Sofala Province.

Funding Information

• Any grant requested under this CFPs must at minimum amount to EUR 1,500,000 and not exceed a maximum amount of EUR 1,800,000.

Guiding and Planning Principles

• Environmental, Gender and Social Impact Management (EGSIM) 
  • Environmental sustainability, social inclusion and gender equality are fundamental to the achievement of development outcomes. Applicants are required to align their proposal with ADA’s Environment, Gender and Social Impact Management (EGSIM) system. Proper EGSIM requires that social, gender and environmental opportunities and benefits are enhanced in the project. It further ensures that environmental, gender and social risks and adverse impacts are avoided, minimized, mitigated or managed. The promotion of environmental, gender and social standards and safeguards should thus be considered at the earliest stage of the design, systematically addressed during implementation and followed-up through monitoring and evaluation.
• Gender
  • Contributing to the objectives of the EU Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GAPIII), ADC needs to ensure that women and girls directly benefit from interventions by including gender equality as the main purpose of programmes as well as by applying gender-transformative approaches in the design, planning and implementation of interventions.  This includes an analysis of existing gender inequalities and how they can be addressed as well as developing gender-sensitive indicators and gender-specific results/targets to assess the performance. Since gender equality in the context of food and nutrition security is the main objective of the project and will need to be adequately reflected in its design and expected results, the criteria for an OECD DAC Gender Equality Policy Marker II should be fulfilled.
• Environment and Climate Action
  • 45% of the population in Mozambique live below the poverty line and 70% depend on climate-sensitive agricultural production for their food and livelihoods. Increased frequency and severity of intense storms, droughts and floods are likely to affect human development in Mozambique. The Global Climate Risk Index 2021 considers Mozambique as the most affected country in 2019. Droughts and floods regularly occur in Sofala Province, threatening the livelihoods of the people and the functioning of a sustainable ecosystem. There is a close correlation between poverty and climate vulnerability. The projected 1 degree celsius increase by 2037 will lead to an increase in droughts and duration of dry spells as well as heavy rainfall events and considerable sea level rise.
• Social Inclusion (Leave No One Behind) 
  • To address poverty and exclusion, interventions shall focus on poor and vulnerable groups by applying a gender lense and an explicit focus on female smallholder farmers as well as by targeting households with one or more members with disabilities. A pro-poor focus should be applied emphasising the inclusion of poor and vulnerable groups (men and women) in decision-making processes that affect their lives, equality in access to resources and services. Moreover, economic empowerment of vulnerable groups as well as strengthening their capabilities in order to cope with the impacts of climate change as well as other crises and shocks (resilience). With a medium to longer term perspective also existing discriminatory social norms and practices need to be addressed in order to contribute to systemic changes.
• Planning Principles
  • Based on their comprehensive understanding of the situation on the ground, applicants are invited to present their strategic approaches and appropriate methodologies/tools for, amongst others:
    • Gender mainstreaming and targeted actions for women/girls’ empowerment to ensuring explicit benefit for women and girls;
    • Gender-transformative approaches which address: unequal workloads between women and men, especially regarding unpaid care and domestic work, women’s lack of voice in household and community decision-making, women’s unequal access to and ownership of resources, GBV including early marriage and women’s unequal participation in local organisations, both as members and leaders;
    • A do-no harm approach must be ensured and described to avoid negative backlash;
    • Engaging men and boys in dialogues on gender equality and social discriminatory norms and practices;
    • Social inclusion and equal access to resources and services for women and men of poor and vulnerable groups.

Impact, Outcomes and Outputs

• Impact
  • In line with Outcome 1.2. of the results matrix included in ADC’s Mozambique Country Strategy 2019-2024, the CFPs aims to fund interventions that target vulnerable and/ or food-insecure households in Muanza and Nhamatanda districts so that they can maintain access to adequate and nutritious food throughout the year. The two related indicators to measure progress on this outcome are (1) Percentage of children under 5 years of age in chronic malnutrition in target districts and (2) Percentage of households in chronic food insecurity in target districts.
• The proposed project shall focus on following outcomes and outputs:
  • Outcome
    • Outcome 1: Increased agricultural productivity and income of women smallholder farmers in vulnerable and food insecure communities through the application of climate-smart agricultural practices and enhanced capabilities to cope with crises and natural disasters.
    • Outcome 2: Women and adolescent girls are empowered and have agency to influence community and household decisions that affect their livelihoods and wellbeing.
  • Outputs
    • Women smallholder farmers have capacities as well as access to natural resources, services and inputs to apply climate-smart agricultural practices to increase agricultural production and productivity.
    • Women smallholder farmers have increased functional and financial literacy, benefit from inclusive agricultural value chains and integrated farm systems, as well as capacitated and well-functioning farmers’ associations and cooperatives.
    • Members of vulnerable and food insecure communities have increased knowledge on adequate and nutritious diets including clean water and feeding practices particularly for children under 5.
    • Community members including local leaders examine and understand the negative impact of gender inequalities, discriminatory norms and harmful practices on women and girls as well as on their families and communities and are aware about women’s rights including rights to sexual and reproductive health.

Target Groups

• In line with the CFPs objective to promote gender-transformative interventions to improve food and nutrition security of women, girls, their families and communities the primary target groups are:
  • Women smallholder farmers;
  • Female-headed households;
  • Farmers’ cooperatives and associations which are led by or cater to women farmers;
  • Local women’s (rights) groups and other community-based organisations with a mandate to improve rural livelihoods;
  • Youth organisations with a mandate focussing on adolescent girls;
  • Community and religious leaders;
  • Male and female extension service providers;
  • Government officials at provincial and district level in charge of coordination and implementing support programmes for smallholder farmers including SUSTENTA;
  • Community health workers and health facilities providing information and services on adequate nutrition, disease prevention and sexual and reproductive health.

Beneficiaries

• Female smallholder farmers and their families living in vulnerable and food insecure communities;
• Female-headed households;
• Households with members that have specific nutritious needs such as pregnant and lactating women and children under 2;
• Households with chronically sick members or members with disabilities;
• Households with high numbers of dependents;
• Members of predominantly women-led farmers’ cooperatives, associations and groups.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible applicants
  • This call is addressed to non-governmental organisations that qualify as Development organisations or other equivalent institutions and dispose of adequate administrative and project implementing capacities as well as accurate business performance.  Development organisations as defined by this Federal Act shall be non-profit making legal entities under private law provided that their objectives laid down in their statutes and their actual operations include development cooperation.
  • Applicants must demonstrate experience in all mentioned thematic areas of the CfP. Applications under this CfP can be submitted by one single organisation or by a Consortium consisting of two or more eligible partner organisations/institutions who work together under a consortium arrangement. If selected for funding, each consortium member will become contractual partner of ADA, while one organisation takes the lead. The funds are transferred to the account of the lead organisation. Consortium proposals must clearly describe the complementarity and interrelatedness of all project measures, including common objectives and approaches as well as knowledge exchange. The particular comparative advantage of each member should be laid out (over-laps are accepted). The roles and responsibilities, leadership and management structures as well as risk management in relation to the consortium must be clearly outlined in the proposal document.
• Local Partners
  • Eligible applicants will need to cooperate with one or more local partner organisations. Local partners must have valid registration/authorization according to the legal provisions in Mozambique

For more information, visit ADA.