Integrated Approach to Sustainable Cooking Solutions Programme in Tanzania

Deadline: 21-Jun-23

The European Commission (EC) is seeking proposals for the Integrated Approach to Sustainable Cooking Solutions Programme to promote sustainable forest management and wood-fuel production in rural areas with an overall aim of enhancing environmental sustainability, in particular the sustainability of the wood-fuel value chain.

Objective

The specific objective of this call for proposals is to increase capacities and commitments by local communities (including wood-fuel producers) to engage in sustainable forest management practices along the wood-fuel value chain.

The expected contribution of the intervention to the call’s objectives and any of the following priority areas should be clearly demonstrated in the proposals.

• Sustainable forest management: Tanzania is well endowed with vast forest resources. Forest resources are estimated to cover about 48.1 million (m) hectares (ha), about 55% of total surface land area of Tanzania mainland. However, the current trend of deforestation and forest degradation in Tanzania is alarming driven by charcoal extraction among other factors such as agriculture which is the main driver. It is estimated that Tanzania’s rate of deforestation is about 469,000 ha per year with most of the forest conversion taking place in village lands (comprising of about 22 million hectares).
• Protection of village forest land and land use planning: In Tanzania mainland, 70 percent of land is considered to be Village land, 28 percent is Reserved land (forests, national parks, game reserves etc), general land and other land is on lease mainly urban and rural estates where rights of occupancy have been granted. Most of land clearing for charcoal is in village land, farmlands and general land. Agricultural activities especially opening of new farms, shifting and farmland expansion are the key drivers of deforestation.
• Formalisation of the charcoal value chain: An assessment on the contribution of the forest sector to the national economy undertaken by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT) estimated the annual business of charcoal production at 1,895,248 tonnes making a total Gross Value Added (GVA) of about TZS 2,056 trillion equivalent to 44.22% of the total forest sector’s contribution to the GDP. 50% of charcoal revenue is emanating from wholesalers and retailers who are not formally organized/governed and recognized. The government collects only 0.5% of this as fees and taxes.

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 10,500,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.

• Indicative allocation of funds by lot/geographical distribution:
  • Funding is indicatively allocated across lots as follows.
    • Lot 1: EUR 2,000,000
    • Lot 2: EUR 2,000,000
    • Lot 3: EUR 2,000,000
    • Lot 4: EUR 2,000,000
    • Lot 5: EUR 2,500,000
• Size of grants
  • For Lot 1 – 4: Any grant requested under these Lots must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
    • Minimum amount: EUR 1,500,000
    • Maximum amount: EUR 2,000,000
  • For Lot 5: Any grant requested under this Lot must fall between the following minimum and maximum percentages of total eligible costs of the action:
    • Minimum amount: EUR 2,000,000
    • Maximum amount: EUR 2,500,000

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • Be a legal person and
    • Be non-profit-making and
    • Be a specific type of organisation such as: non-governmental organisation, public sector operator, local authority, international (inter-governmental) organisation as defined by Article 156 of the EU Financial Regulation.
    • Be established in  an ACP State; a Member State of the European Union; Beneficiaries of the Instrument for pre-accession assistance; a Member State of the European Economic Area; Overseas Countries and Territories; developing countries and territories, as included in the OECD-DAC list of ODA Recipients, which are not members of the G20 group, without prejudice to the status of the Republic of South Africa, as governed by Protocol 3 of the partnership Agreement; a Member State of the OECD , in the case of contracts exclusively implemented in a Least Developed Country (LDC) or a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC);
    • Be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary;
    • Have sufficient technical capacity demonstrated by:
      • A minimum of three (3) years experience in the specific areas of the lot applied for;
      • Have at least five (5) years experience practical experience in an ACP country;
    • Have stable and sufficient sources of financing demonstrated by having managed resources during the past five years (2018 – 2022) of not less than 50% of the grant requested; and
    • Lead applicant established in a country other than Tanzania should have a co-applicant established in Tanzania.
    • Organizations must demonstrate clear working relations with Government agencies involved in forestry and energy management (e.g., Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania Forest Services Agency, Ministry of Energy and Local Government Authorities – respective district councils where project will be implemented).
    • Potential applicants may not participate in calls for proposals or be awarded grants if they are in any of the situations listed in Section 2.6.10.1 of the practical guide;
    • Lead applicants, co-applicants, affiliated entities and, in case of legal entities, persons who have powers of representation, decision-making or control over the lead applicant, the co-applicants and the affiliated entities are informed that, should they be in one of the situations of early detection or exclusion according to Section 2.6.10.1 of the practical guide, personal details (name, given name if natural person, address, legal form and name and given name of the persons with powers of representation, decision-making or control, if legal person) may be registered in the early detection and exclusion system, and communicated to the persons and entities concerned in relation to the award or the execution of a grant contract. In this respect, provisionally selected lead applicants, co-applicants and affiliated entities or those placed in the reserve list are obliged to declare that they are not in one of the exclusion situations through a signed declaration on honour. For grants of EUR 15 000 or less, no declaration on honour is required.
• Co-applicant(s)
  • If the lead applicant is not a “local organization” as defined in 2.1.1, it must act with at least one “local organization” as co-applicant.
  • Co-applicants participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the lead applicant.
  • Co-applicants must satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable to the lead applicant himself.
  • In addition to the categories referred to in Section 2.1.1, the following are however also eligible:
    • Local authorities;
    • A profit-making entity can be co-applicant as long as its involvement contributes to the achievement of the objectives of the project and more generally of this call for proposals, and it does not make a profit from the grant.
  • Co-applicants must sign the mandate in Annex A – Part B Section 4 of the grant application form.

For more information, visit EC.