USAID: Higher Education for Youth Prosperity in Agriculture Project (Malawi)

Deadline: 12-Aug-2024

The United States Government, as represented by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Malawi, is announcing the Higher Education for Youth Prosperity through Agriculture Project Funding Opportunity.

Through this Project, USAID/Malawi aims to create new partnerships with Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) in efforts to amplify the Mission’s work in support of higher education. USAID expects MSIs to lead the development of the Concept Papers response in collaboration and partnership with relevant Malawi university and non-university tertiary institutions, the private sector, and organizations with capacity to technically offer training for a cadre of students. The Mission’s drive in seeking New Partnerships Initiatives (NPIs) and in support of partner countries’ progress to self-reliance, achieve sustainable and resilient results, and catalyze more effective partnering for impact shall entail that the lead MSI is a prime for the first two years, where focus is on building cooperative agreement grant administrative, financial and reporting compliance in lead local sub-partner, who will graduate into a prime Contractor in Year 3 of the project implementation.

Higher Education for Youth Prosperity through Agriculture project (the Project) seeks to increase access and retention of youth in post-secondary education institutions offering relevant training that is responsive to skill sets required in the agricultural sector, inclusive of production through consumption value chain.

Objectives

• Specifically, the Project aims to achieve the following objectives:
  • Increase youth entry in post-secondary education institutions that builds capacity for immediate uptake in agricultural value chains (production – consumption) in Malawi.
  • Review the relevance of post-secondary education curriculum to the needs of the private sector in the agro-production value chains, including value addition, food processing, and marketing.
  • Build capacity of youth in agricultural entrepreneurism, including setting up seed business ventures for entrepreneurial skill practice, application and proofing of concepts and guided graduation from incubatory entrepreneurial skills development to market entry.
  • Develop business units in selected participating institutions in collaboration with the private sector for institutional sustained income streams and students’ entrepreneurial skill practicum.

Funding Information

• Award Ceiling: $22,000,000
• Award Floor: $22,000,000
• The anticipated period of performance is 5 Years.

Project Goal and Expected Results 

• Project Goal 
  • The goal of this project is to increase youth’s contribution to the country’s economic growth through (1) increased access, retention and completion of the marginalized and marginalized youth to quality and relevant post-secondary education in agriculture; (2) strengthened capacity of agriculture training institutions to offer students practicum and venture entrepreneurial support to set-up business ventures, (3) facilitated private sector linkages in off taking innovations from the business units established in participating tertiary institutions, offer a sustained student practicum support system, and advocate for commercialization of youth involvement in the agricultural sector to build numbers of participating youth and develop value for their involvement.
• Intermediate Results 
  • IR 1: Increased access, retention, and completion of marginalized youth to quality and relevant post-secondary education in agriculture. 
    • Malawi’s gross enrollment rate in higher education at 3% is very low to provide the skilled labor required to develop the economy in sectors such as agriculture, with a 40% overall contribution to the Malawi GDP. The youth, who form 60% of the population contribute 55% of the labor force in agriculture. Therefore, the population of the involved youth is unskilled and can hardly generate value in the agricultural value chains in which they are involved. Therefore, it is imperative to intervene through targeted training of youth in skills that will be utilized forthwith in the agricultural value chain. While higher education institutions train agricultural scientists, it is apparent that the sector requires trained artisans who would immediately work on huge farm operations, laboratory assistance in food processing and value addition, and farming managers with farm experience ready to manage farming operations, including training of youth with practical skills in irrigation, equipment maintenance, plant breeding and management. that would begin specializing in irrigation.
    • IR 1 addresses youth’s lack of access and low retention rates in HEIs and their low levels of contribution to the agriculture sector.
    • The objective of this IR will be addressed by 1) expanding formal higher education opportunities in the agriculture sector for secondary school graduates 2) improving the relevance of teaching and curriculum in post-secondary tertiary training in agriculture aligned to the industrial needs, and (3) Building capacity for the participating institutions to offer a practicum for students in entrepreneurship.
    • IR 1.1: Expanded pipeline of qualified students studying agriculture
      • To create a more robust pipeline of youth choosing to study agriculture, this sub-IR focuses on improving the connection between secondary and post-secondary agricultural education and training programs. Through targeted advocacy, this project activity will ensure that youth — including marginalized youth and women – are aware of career opportunities and pathways in agriculture and are able to access different types of post-secondary education in the agricultural sector. Such educational opportunities could include non-degree programs in agro-tertiary institutions with potential to bridge entry into universities or indeed immediate uptake in the agriculture industry upon graduation.
    • IR 1.2: Improved industrial relevance of curriculum in post-secondary training in agriculture. 
      • The project is expected to facilitate the review, development and roll-out of curriculum and introduction of specific courses that aligns with high-value crop and animal value chains that Malawi is focusing on, and any other potential areas established during the review. At minimum, it is expected that participating institutions will develop courses and related instruction that offers a practicum opportunity before graduating to ensure that they have inculcated hands-on skills in the students that the industry can off-take with limited investments in re-training. To ensure that students have attained reasonable levels of practical skills, illustrative activities under this sub-IR could include student internships, establishment of demonstration farms, including aquaculture and animal husbandry, food processing and mechanical engineering workshops and laboratories in participating institutions.
    • IR 1.3: Capacity for participating institutions to offer practicum for students in entrepreneurship developed. 
      • The project, among others, aims to build entrepreneurial skills for students. However, if the participating institutions do not have capacity to offer practicum in entrepreneurship, the project will facilitate the development of business units in the participating institutions in high value agricultural chains, including food processing to offer an opportunity for students’ practicum through channels such as venture capital, equity, and debt (where applicable). Being a novelty of these units, the project will facilitate capacity building for the participating institutions in corporate governance to ensure that they are well established to manage the business ventures and offer students’ practicum sustainably.
  • IR 2: Improved entry and lateral pathways into and between post-secondary non-university HEIs and non-university HEIs agricultural education 
    • The goal of this IR is to strengthen the capacity of the participating agriculture institutions to improve collaboration and alignment for both types of institutions to build on each other’s strengths and allow students opportunities to interact with one another and work together. Strengthening collaboration between university and non-university agricultural institutions is vital for strengthening the post-secondary agriculture training system.
    • IR 2.1: Improved institutional linkages between university and non-university agriculture training institutions for student progression and joint research and innovation 
      • This sub-IR is aimed at improving collaboration and linkages between agricultural post secondary university and non-university training institutions. While Malawi has made strides in improving access to higher education, most of the youth are still not able to access HEIs including youth enrolled in post-secondary non-university institutions. In general, the higher education sector does not adequately support non-university institutions to bridge the access gap.
    • IR 2.2: Improved data collection and management for coordination between university HEIs and non-university agriculture training HEIs
      • This IR will focus on strengthening the capacity of participating institutions to collect, manage and trace students longitudinally to assess the extent of bridging students into HEIs and the impact therefrom. Such databases are expected to be linked to existing platforms in the HEIs and Central respective Ministries.
  • IR 3: Improved youth entrepreneurship in agriculture 
    • This IR is aimed at improving economic growth opportunities in the agricultural sector for post – secondary school graduates. A recent study on youth entrepreneurship has revealed that youth report lacking knowledge of agricultural markets and agribusiness, youth had limited knowledge of how the markets worked agricultural produce and product standards and marketing techniques. Those interested in pursuing agribusiness lacked knowledge on entrepreneurial processes in agriculture. Therefore, this IR will support youth to overcome these barriers through 1) business incubation and acceleration activities; 2) improved enabling environment for youth entrepreneurship; and 3) increased training opportunities in entrepreneurship, corporate governance, and financial literacy for participating students.
    • IR 3.1: Increased business acceleration and incubation activities in agriculture higher education institutions
      • This sub-IR focuses on encouraging youth into agro-entrepreneurship, which has a high value potential to support growth of students through seed investments, facilitating youth to bring their ideas to market. The IP should create new networks of student agripreneurs or connect them to the private sector for sustainable growth and capitalization of the ventures for enhanced productivity.
    • IR 3.2: Improved enabling environment for youth entrepreneurship 
      • Emerging youth business ventures require the proper enabling environment to be successful. Youth in Malawi report having limited understanding of agricultural markets, quality standards for produce and products, and marketing. This sub-IR seeks to build the capacity of that system so young people have more support as they attempt to bring their innovations and business ventures to market. Activities related to this sub-IR could include development of financial products to improve youth access to credit, insurance, and land. It could also include the establishment of networks to facilitate inter-generational mentoring and knowledge sharing in agribusiness, training to help youth gather and track the data needed to calculate things like yields and profits, and data systems that allow tracking of indicators related to youth involvement in agribusiness.

Eligibility Criteria

• USAID defines “Implementing Partners” as U.S. and non-U.S. non-governmental organizations that can design and implement assistance activities outside the United States. All Implementing Partners must be legally registered entities under applicable law and eligible under the relevant laws to receive funding from a foreign source. Individuals, unregistered, or informal organizations are not eligible to be Implementing Partners.
• Eligibility for the Higher Education for Youth Prosperity through Agriculture Project Funding Opportunity is limited to Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) as the primary Applicant (“Prime”) who will transition the award to a non-traditional Malawian tertiary institution in year 3. The implementation arrangement must include, at minimum, a partnership between at least one non traditional Malawian tertiary institution and a private sector partner.
• USAID/Malawi will accept Concept Papers that address one or more of the outcomes related to advancing Higher Education for Youth Prosperity in Agriculture Project priorities.
• All eligible interested MSIs/organizations are restricted to submitting only one Concept Paper as the Prime Applicant. If more than one Concept Paper is received with the same Prime Applicant, USAID will seek written clarification from the Prime Applicant regarding which Concept Paper should be considered for review. If clarification is not resolved within 5 (five) business days, all Concept Papers submitted by the Applicant will be deemed ineligible.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.