Kenya Prosperity Fund: Call for Project Bids for 2016/17

By British High Commission Nairobi

The 2015Strategic Defence and Security Reviewannounced a £1.3bn Prosperity Fund over the next 5 years to promote the economic reform and development needed for growth in partner countries. Our global priorities will include improving the business climate, competitiveness and operation of markets, energy and financial sector reform, and increasing the ability of partner countries to tackle corruption. As well as contributing to a reduction in poverty in recipient countries, we expect these reforms to create opportunities for international business including UK companies.

The role of the Fund is also set out in the UK aid strategy,Tackling Global Challenges in the National Interest.

The Prosperity Fund will form a small but integral element of the UK's total Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment of 0.7% of GNI. It will primarily be focused on ODA eligible middle income countries, contributing to poverty reduction and complementing DFID's work in poorer countries. In this way, the Fund will contribute towards meeting the new Sustainable Development Goals. ODA spend under the Fund will be fully consistent with OECD DAC criteria.

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office's programme funds seek to create real, measurable outcomes in support of the FCO's policy goals. Since 2011, the Prosperity Fund has supported the FCO's Prosperity Priority on opening markets, ensuring access to resources, and promoting sustainable global growth, mainly in the emerging powers.

Kenyan Prosperity Fund Objectives

Projects should be designed to overcome the barriers to growth in the local economy. Whilst projects should focus on promoting economic development in Kenya, initiatives may benefit the wider region and should have the potential to scale up in Kenya and beyond. As well as contributing to a reduction in poverty in recipient countries, we expect these reforms to create opportunities for international business including UK companies.

In year one, two priority sectors have been identified:

Renewables

Kenya aims to produce 19,200MW of power by 2030 (ten times today's amount) and is banking on renewable energy sources to do so. We are interested in projects that will help to deliver more renewable energy to the grid, in particular ones that:

Remove barriers to hydro-solar hybridisation

Increase the efficiency of anaerobic digestion of CAM plants from semi-arid zones of Kenya

Map the opportunities and barriers faced by UK and other international investors in the renewable energy sector in Kenya leading to improved knowledge of and relationships between international (including UK) and Kenyan stakeholders

Infrastructure

Kenya's infrastructure gap has been identified as a key constraint on growth, yet large scale infrastructure projects can struggle to receive funding and implementation. We are interested in projects that will help to:

Facilitate the high quality implementation of large scale infrastructure projects, such as the LAPSSET corridor.

Application Instructions Applications under this call will close on 27 April 2016.

To apply, please download, complete and send:

Part A of the Project Proposal FormProject Proposal Form-Prosperity(ODT,203KB)(full bid) (in MS Word format); An Activity Based Budget (in MS Excel format) see example in theCentral Guidance for Implementers; Evidence of stakeholder engagement and local buy-in; And any additional supporting document you may wish to provide [email protected] 27 April 2016. Do take note that Project Concept Forms are not used in the Kenya Bidding Round therefore we encourage you to contact the team to discuss potential bids in advance.

Bids will be accepted for projects with a value of up to £330k but all will be rigorously scrutinised to ensure value for money and impact. It will be important to demonstrate mechanisms to monitor and evaluate outcomes.

It is important that all projects plan for completion by the end of 2016 and are compliant with the UK's International Development Act and the OECD DAC rules on Official Development Assistance.

Please make sure you include a signature and the printed name and title of the person submitting the form. An electronic signature will be accepted.

Please also make sure that you are familiar with how proposals are assessed in the Central Guidance for Implementers document above.

Do also familiarise yourself with theStandard Grant Contractbefore applying.

Kenya Bidding Timeline

Wednesday 06 April 2016 Call for bids released Wednesday 27 April 2016 Final deadline for bids to be submitted Friday 13 May 2016 Decisions announced

Contracts will be signed with successful project implementers and projects can expect to start as early as June 2016

Kenya Prosperity Fund Contacts

Due to the need to implement quickly there is no concept stage for this Call for Bids. Therefore interested parties are strongly encouraged to contact the team via e-mail (Kenya Prosperity Team) to discuss proposed bids before they are submitted.