Deadline: 17-Feb-23
European Commission (EC) is seeking applications for the Program Entitled “Support Program for Sustainable Food Systems in Côte d’Ivoire”.
Program Objectives
- The general objective of this call for proposals is to contribute to strengthening the resilience and sustainability of the food system in Côte d’Ivoire.
- The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals is to ensure the availability of food products (in particular market gardeners, cassava and its by-products, and plantain) on national and international markets as well as the accessibility of these food products to consumers.
Priorities for Action
- This call for proposals will make it possible to put in place actions that will be levers to catalyze changes in the food system in Côte d’Ivoire.
- Overall, the actions proposed should contribute to increasing sustainable food production and the availability of food products in urban and peri-urban areas.
- The actions proposed must take into account several priorities at the same time from the indicative list below:
- Promote sustainable agricultural production practices. The aim is to change current food production practices towards productive and sustainable agro-ecological production systems.
- Increase the availability and accessibility of food products in rural and urban areas. This involves setting up and developing infrastructures for the collection, storage and sale of food products in the production areas in order to ensure their availability and accessibility with a view to ensuring the regular supply of high-consumption areas. . It will also be a question of connecting the producers and or those exercising the collection and marketing of food products with the market, including the agri-food companies, with a view to the transformation of the products.
- Promote research and innovation in food systems. This involves developing technological innovations (including in the digital field) at the level of production, processing and marketing (e.g. supporting the establishment of strategic intelligence systems, dissemination of information and networking food sector operators, production of reliable statistical data, implementation of early warning and risk management systems, market information system, digital and/or physical marketing platform, etc.).
- Promote access to financing for food value chain operators with particular attention to women and young people and to the impact at the territorial level. Support value chain operators to facilitate their access to financial products. Support financial/microfinance institutions to develop products that meet the needs of operators in the food supply chains.
- Strengthen the mechanisms for coordinating policies/strategy and programs for food and nutrition security and food health, by supporting the application, or even improving, of regulatory texts and by involving all stakeholders in the functioning of food systems. This priority must be taken into account by the actions proposed under Lot 2.
- Reinforce the improvement of the governance of the sectors. It is a question of supporting the structuring and the capacities of the organizations of the producers and the interprofessional organizations of the sectors of the food products. This priority must be taken into account by the actions proposed under lot 2.
Funding Information
- The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 9,600,000. The Contracting Authority reserves the right not to allocate all available funds.
- Lot 1: Quantitative and qualitative increase in the production and processing of priority food products 7,000. 000 EUR.
- Lot 2: Improvement of the organizational, regulatory and operational framework that supports the production, marketing and processing of food products: 2,600,000 EUR
- Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
- Amount: 2,000,000 EUR and maximum amount: 3,500,000 EUR (Lot 1)
- Amount: 1,300,000 EUR and maximum amount: 2,600,000 EUR (Lot 2)
- Any grant requested under this call for proposals must be less than or equal to the maximum percentage below:
- Minimum percentage: 50% of the total eligible costs of the action.
- Maximum percentage: 95% of the total eligible costs of the action.
Methodological and Geographical Priorities
- Proposed actions must take into account the following priorities:
- The actions must be grafted onto existing actions or actions completed less than two years ago. These actions should improve the resilience and sustainability of the food system with a rapid impact.
- The actions must therefore be concentrated from a geographical point of view in the areas.
- Actions should strengthen gender equity and empower women.
- The actions must promote job creation for young people and their socio-economic integration.
Expected Results
- Quantitative and qualitative increase in the production and processing of food products identified as priorities (vegetable products, cassava and its by-products, plantain)
- Improvement of the organizational, regulatory and operational framework that supports the production, marketing and processing of food products
Eligibility Criteria
Lead applicant(s)
- To be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
- Be a legal person and
- Have no profit motive and
- belong to one of the following categories of organisations: non-governmental organisation, public sector operator responsible for technical supervision and/or agricultural and marketing advice, local authority, international (intergovernmental) organization as defined in Article 156 of the Financial Regulation of the European Union; organizations from Member States of the European Union (Article 157 of the Financial Regulation of the European Union);
- Be established in a Member State of the European Union or in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire
- This obligation does not apply to international organizations;
- Be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and the affiliated entity(ies) and not act as an intermediary.
- Potential applicants who find themselves in one of the situations of the PRAG cannot take part in calls for proposals, nor be beneficiaries of a grant.
Co-applicant(s)
- Co-applicants take part in drawing up and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those borne by the lead applicant.
- Co-applicants must meet the same eligibility criteria as apply to the lead applicant itself.
- Co-applicants must sign.
- If the grant is awarded to them, any co-applicants become beneficiaries within the framework of the action (with the coordinator).
- In addition, it should be noted that contracts cannot be awarded or signed with applicants on the EU restrictive measures lists.
Affiliated Entities
- The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with one or more affiliated entities.
- Entities affiliated with an applicant can therefore be:
- Controlled directly or indirectly by the applicant (subsidiaries or first-tier subsidiaries) or controlled by an entity itself controlled by the applicant (sub-subsidiaries or second-tier subsidiaries). This is valid for the other control levels;
- Entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies) . Similarly, they may be entities controlling a company controlling the applicant;
- The same level of direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies);
- membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as, for example, a network, federation or association of which the proposed affiliated entity is a member, or the applicant is a member of the same entity (for example, a network, a federation or an association…) than the proposed affiliated entity.
For more information, visit European Commission.