African Adaptation Initiative (AAI) Project call for Proposals

Deadline: 15th October 2023 | African Adaptation Initiative (AAI) Project Call for Proposals

In order to build more resilient agriculture in Africa, applications are now being accepted for the African Adaptation Initiative (AAI) programme, which was started by the African Union and sponsored by the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

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The bulk of people in Africa rely on subsistence farming, which is greatly impacted by unstable economies, the Ukraine War cyclically, and Climate Change more structurally. Due in great part to droughts and other climate risks that have affected countries, agricultural activity and accompanying output have decreased across Africa in recent decades.

This request for proposals seeks to compile a list of 20 projects, from which 10 pilot projects will be chosen. These projects will have a significant impact on improving the resilience of agricultural, livestock, and fishing operations, as well as low-carbon energy production for sustainable agriculture, in each of the 23 participating countries. It is difficult to bring together a dynamic that includes all agricultural actors and renewable energy sources.

Benefits

• The winners of this request for projects will receive free technical assistance to raise private funding through bankable projects or public funding from bilateral and international climate finance organisations as part of this program’s phase 2.

Project Leader Expectations and the Type of Projects

• The National Determined Contribution (NDC), the National Adaptation Strategy, and the National Adaptation Plan, as well as the outcomes of risk, impact, solution, and policy modelling for resilient and low-carbon agriculture, should all be taken into consideration while developing projects.
• The focus of this request for proposals will be on the production of agricultural goods from the fishery and livestock industries as well as the development of low-carbon energy for agriculture.
• The projects that are more specifically aimed at by this request for proposals will adhere to three requirements:
• Size
  • Medium and Large ($1 million minimum investment);
• High maturity (executed in no more than six months based on a thorough operational readiness assessment, a business strategy, and a study of the socioeconomic and legal viability);
• Duration:
  • The pilot phase of the outcomes’ effect assessment shouldn’t go more than three years.
• Public institutions, private organisations (businesses, business groupings, consortiums), an NGO, or members of civil society may carry them out on their own.

Beneficiaries

• African enterprises, residents, and local communities—particularly those with a heavy reliance on agriculture and weak agricultural systems benefit from this.

Project Evaluation Standards

All projects that meet the qualifying requirements are eligible to be submitted to the grid of selection criteria. The following are these standards:

• Innovativeness
  • The initiative must be innovative, offering unique and inventive answers to agricultural problems;
• Local anchoring
  • The project must show that it has grown in concert with and with the assistance of local partners and communities;
• Economic and financial robustness
  • In order to ensure alignment between the project’s goals and the resources that are available, the project leader’s financial situation will be assessed in light of the proposed work’s scope.
• Replicability
  • The project’s ability to be replicated within a certain industry or environment will be considered;
• Cost-effectiveness
  • The project must show that it is cost-effective and achieves the highest return on investment.

eligibility

Applications for the call for proposals must adhere to the following requirements in order to be accepted:

• Administrative accuracy: The file must have all necessary annexes and be accurate;
• Limitations on qualifying expenses and expected levels of maturity: The project must adhere to the requirements listed in the “Nature of projects and expected from project leaders” section;
• The project must adhere to national non-exclusion standards for fiscal, social, and administrative compliance.
• Impact on the national territory’s economy and social structure: The project must produce financial gains and support goals like food security, job creation, and training (skills development and maintenance, training subsidies, etc.), but it must also support investments in technological advancements (patents, intellectual property, etc.), the growth of a sector, or the foreseeing of economic or societal changes;
• Environmental impact: The project must show that it has a good effect on the agricultural sector’s resilience, as well as on the generation and consumption of low-carbon energy there. The anticipated benefits should be measurable thanks to performance indicators and a reliable methodology:
• Climate change adaptation, mitigation of climate change, reduction of fossil or synthetic inputs or their effects, sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, transition to a circular economy, prevention and reduction of pollution, preservation and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems, and reduction of carbon impact are all important topics.

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