Deadline: 18-Jun-2020
The Ministry for Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT) has announced a call for proposals for the Forestry and Value Chains Development Programme (FORVAC).
The Forestry and Value Chains Development Programme (FORVAC) is a 4-year Programme funded by the Governments of Tanzania and Finland. The implementing agency of the programme is the Forest and Beekeeping Division (FBD) of the Ministry for Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT), in close cooperation with Tanzania Forest Service (TFS) and the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG).
FORVAC is working in three different cluster areas; Tanga, Handeni and Lindi. Forestry and Value Chains Development (FORVAC) aims to contribute in increasing economic, social and environmental benefits from forests and woodlands while reducing deforestation. The expected outcome of FORVAC is “Improved forest-based income, livelihoods and environmental benefits”.
FORVAC purpose is to support businesses based on forest products in villages who own a VLFR. Forest as a source of livelihood creates a feel of ownership of the forest and, thus, contributes to conserving the forest.
Objective
Contribute to increased forest based livelihoods in the FORVAC target areas through sustainable businesses with visions for growth.
Outputs
The outcome will be achieved through the following outputs:
- Output 1: Improved value chains and increased private sector involvement in the forest sector
- Output 2: Stakeholder capacity to implement and promote forestry value chain development enhanced.
- Output 3. Functional extension, communication, monitoring systems; and Management Information System (MIS) in place.
- Output 4. Supportive legal and policy frameworks to forest value chain and sustainable forest management developed.
Categories
During 2020 – 2022, FORVAC shall facilitate call for proposals for local CBFM/VLFR related businesses under the following three (3) categories:
- Category 1: Community level calls: support concentrates on mentoring, grant support between 1,000,000 tzs to 15,000,000.
- Category 2: Mezzo or Medium enterprises through matchmaking and community level calls (FORVAC invests in community capacity building, tools etc. needed in terms of mezzo level enterprises entering into contracts with the target communities).
- Category 3: National level: e.g. honey company investing in processing plant in FORVAC areas – FORVAC will share cost in community engagement and increasing beekeepers’ production. Level of support depends on the scale of the business and will be agreed upon case by case.
Duration
Duration Approximately July 2020 – January 2021 (six months from the starting date).
Expected Deliverables
- Report of capacity assessment of all enterprises (beneficiaries) before/after.
- Through mentoring, business owners skilled in cost – benefit, profitability and market analyses to assess viability of their initiatives.
- Recommendation for investments per business submitted to FORVAC (before procurement).
- Basic record keeping and accounting/bookkeeping guidelines for beneficiaries.
- Basic business plan of each supported business initiative.
- Basic demand-oriented growth strategies of supported initiatives.
- Electric data collection and storing (hand phone based data collection): Kobo toolbox form filled from mentoring events/visits (FORVAC will provide the form).
What can be Supported?
- Business registration & legal advice
- Business planning – investment plans
- Staff sourcing & training of skills (technical skills, management skills etc.); development of human resource management capacity – staff work plan preparation, labour regulation etc.
- Product and production process innovation; technology specification/development, supplier identification
- Equipment/machinery for operations, i.e. hand tools, weighing scales or other measurement tools, mobile phones etc.
- Market studies, i.e. demand/supply, price and competition analysis, customer satisfaction, access to market information etc.
- Participation in trade fairs and other market linking, establishment of market access
- Accounts establishment, management and annual audit
- Mitigating health risks among staff
- Mitigating negative environmental and social impacts
- Networking with similar business entities within the same commodity chain
- Any other aspect that according to business plan would lead to growth of the business
Eligibility Criteria
- Individuals / groups / micro-enterprises in community level, preferably with market linkage.
- Businesses outside the target areas, who are interested in doing business with individuals or groups from the forest communities. Application should be made in cooperation with the target community members.
- Primarily, the Lead Applicant should come from the community. Still in some cases local NGO can be the lead applicant, but with strong linkage to community entrepreneurs in target areas and a market actor(s).
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3cS1HZJ
