Strengthening East African Community Phytosanitary Priorities | USDA FAS 10960 0700 10 20 0028

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA FAS 10960 0700 10 20 0028

The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), through its Office of Capacity Building and Development (OCBD), is offering a discretionary grant opportunity called Strengthening East African Community Phytosanitary Priorities (Funding Opportunity Number: USDA FAS 10960 0700 10 20 0028; CFDA/Assistance Listing: 10.960). The aim is to help East African Community (EAC) Partner States (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda) strengthen their ability to manage plant health (phytosanitary) issues in a more consistent, transparent, and internationally aligned way. The opportunity is built around a practical problem in the region: countries face uneven capacity to handle sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) responsibilities, and gaps in infrastructure, staffing, and information systems can lead to trade delays, rejections at borders, and reduced regional and international market access. By improving how phytosanitary systems work across borders, the program is meant to support both trade expansion and food security.

A central feature of the grant is that it builds on work led by the East African Phytosanitary Information Committee (EAPIC), an ad hoc group of plant pest regulatory officials that has been active since 2006. USDA has previously supported EAPIC efforts such as developing a Regional Harmonized Pest List and improving information sharing through tools like pest databases. This new project continues that trajectory by focusing on harmonization and mutual recognition of phytosanitary systems across EAC countries, so that member states can apply compatible rules and procedures, reduce unnecessary technical barriers to trade, and handle plant pest risks using shared scientific approaches. The work is also designed to align with international obligations and best practices, especially the World Trade Organization (WTO) SPS Agreement and the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), while also supporting broader African trade goals such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the African Union SPS Policy Framework for Africa.

The recipient selected for the award is expected to work closely with the EAC Secretariat, national plant protection organizations (NPPOs) in member states, and USDA/FAS, and to coordinate with in-country USDA and USAID offices. The project can also be implemented in collaboration with Land-Grant Universities, other universities, research institutions, public and private African institutions, non-governmental organizations, and external subject matter experts. A notable expectation is that the technical assistance delivered should reflect a strong understanding of U.S. phytosanitary systems and regulatory approaches, since part of the value is creating deeper technical links between U.S. and East African institutions. The recipient is also expected to coordinate with a related USDA Food for Progress SPS effort in East Africa (including the TRASE program referenced in the opportunity), so the different investments reinforce rather than duplicate each other.

Programmatically, the grant focuses on establishing, convening, and participating in regional technical working groups to advise and support the EAC as it harmonizes SPS protocols across the region. The thrust is practical harmonization: aligning procedures, building common tools and operating methods, and strengthening regional coordination so that pest risks are managed efficiently and scientifically, and so that border processes are smoother and more predictable. The opportunity emphasizes transparent, science-based decision-making that meets international standards, which in practice points toward improved pest risk analysis (PRA), better surveillance and outbreak response, and stronger documentation and standard operating procedures.

The notice provides examples of activities that could be funded, which together outline the intended scope. These include reviewing existing regional efforts for plant disease prevention, surveillance, and mitigation and using that review to shape a comprehensive regional plan; developing a roadmap for a regional prevention and surveillance plan that accounts for financial needs, human capacity, and technical requirements; analyzing current integrated plant disease control and management practices and scaling up what works best across the EAC; and creating coordination and communication protocols for timely response to plant disease outbreaks. The program also anticipates work to better integrate plant protection activities across instruments and policies at the continental, regional, and national levels, and to develop and strengthen standard operating procedures (SOPs) for phytosanitary measures based on both regional experience and international practice.

Another important strand is continued support for EAPIC objectives, including ensuring that the PIMS database (referenced as a key information tool) is usable for individual countries to enter and manage pest data, that countries understand how to input data correctly, and that the resulting information supports pest risk analyses and verification of regional pest status. The opportunity also highlights facilitating guidelines for how EAC countries can adopt PRAs at the national level, which is often a sticking point when regional technical work needs to translate into national regulatory action. In addition, the program supports moving forward a regional plant health working group in coordination with Food for Progress TRASE activities, indicating an emphasis on durable regional coordination structures rather than one-off workshops.

Trade outcomes are explicitly part of the design, including quality assurance and certification, value addition, trade facilitation, and business promotion in selected value chains such as coffee, tea, cacao, and horticulture. These sectors are typically sensitive to pest risks and phytosanitary compliance, so improvements in surveillance, certification, and harmonized border procedures can translate into real reductions in shipment risk and transaction costs. The notice also points to collaboration with USDA APHIS to facilitate technical exchanges that bring African experts to the United States to learn about harmonized inspection systems, border regulatory practices, and approaches that improve resilience against invasive pests. This exchange component is framed as regional, coordinated through the Inter-African Phytosanitary Council (AU/IAPSC), reinforcing the idea that the work should strengthen regional institutions and networks.

Capacity building is a recurring expectation throughout the opportunity. Proposed work may include technical trainings on science-based systems for gathering, analyzing, and sharing information about high-risk pests, diseases, or food safety hazards. It may also include technical assistance to conduct a survey that identifies institutional gaps limiting NPPO performance, with the longer-term goal of shaping an Africa-focused NPPO plant health safeguarding capacity building program. Finally, the recipient is expected to monitor implementation, evaluate progress against objectives, and report outcomes, indicating that the grant is meant to produce measurable improvements in harmonization, coordination, and phytosanitary performance rather than only delivering activities.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity was created July 1, 2020, with an original closing date of July 31, 2020. The anticipated award structure was a single award (Expected Awards: 1) with an award ceiling of $500,000. Eligible applicants include public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, and other eligible entities as clarified in the opportunity materials. Overall, the grant is best understood as a targeted technical assistance and regional coordination project meant to strengthen plant health governance across the EAC, reduce avoidable trade friction, and improve the region’s ability to prevent, detect, and respond to plant pest and disease threats using internationally accepted, science-based standards.

• The Department of Agriculture, Technical Agricultural Assistance 10.960 in the agriculture sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Strengthening East African Community Phytosanitary Priorities" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.960.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 01, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 31, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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