Deadline: 12 November 2018

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is seeking proposals to support the implementation of blockchain use cases addressing the agri-food sector in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific countries, in order to contribute to its transformation.

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). Its mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and encourage sound natural resource management in ACP countries.

Blockchain, a distributed digital ledger of transactions, a store of value and a smart global payment system in one, was launched in 2009. It changes the way we interact about value in the broadest sense: money, assets, identity, etc. It is a fundamental and disruptive technology at the same time. It has the ability to improve our worldwide financial system, to support more privacy, increase effectiveness and transparency in all sectors and to give people self-sovereign identities and more freedom of choice.

They particularly encourage project proposals submitted by organisations already engaged in agri-food related transactions that the blockchain applications can support.

Priorities

• Micro financing – smart contracting;
• Traceability and transparency of transactions;
• Supply chain management
• However, applications may be submitted around other issues of relevance to the agri-food sector and business with ACP countries.

Funding Information

• A maximum of six grants will be awarded.
• The maximum amount that will be allocated to a winning proposal is Euro 60,000.

Geographical Coverage

Proposals must address the agri-food sector in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. They may involve agri-food related transactions or business between ACP countries and non-ACP countries (for example EU countries); in that case the benefit for ACP countries should be important and clearly illustrated. Similarly, activities implemented by ACP stakeholders should be outlined.

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must be:

• Private or civil society organisations, or international organisations from ACP, EU or OECD DAC countries, with the relevant expertise ; when the applicant is a non-ACP organisation, ACP organisations will be clearly involved in the management of the project and be (co-)beneficiaries;
• All members of the management of the project must be legally registered and operational in their country(ies);
• The lead implementer (N.B. CTA will sign the contract with this organisation) must demonstrate adequate project management capacity and experience at the regional or international level;
• The applicant, or the members of the consortium or group submitting the project must collectively demonstrate at least one year expertise in blockchain technology or blockchain protocols implementation; They must also collectively have proven capacity and expertise in the agricultural sector in ACP countries.

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted via email at the address given on the website with the subject heading of “Blockchain use cases in Agriculture in Africa – Call for Proposals”.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2E8l7O4