Municipal Waste Recycling Program Quarterly Report - Quarter 1; FY 2018

The program is implemented by the Development Innovations Group (DIG) under the Making Cities Work (MCW) IDIQ task order. MWRP activities and accomplishments in the first quarter of FY 2018 consisted of orientation meetings with organizations awarded grants from the first funding cycle, due diligence field visits to six applicant organizations from the second funding cycle with "Apparently Successful" ratings, commencement of the Initial Reviews of the third funding cycle submissions, participation in a solid waste conference in the Philippines, scoping mission to Indonesia to investigate the nature of the solid waste management/recycling sector, field visits to the four target countries to identify a pipeline of potential solid waste management and recycling investment opportunities, review of public comments on the Annual Program Statement (APS), and timely submission of program reports and deliverables. The MWRP grants component continues to attract strong interest from non-governmental organizations throughout the three original target countries. Through three quarterly application cycles under the APS, the MWRP received 77 submissions in the form of 49 applications and 28 concept notes. The table on the following page contains a breakdown of the submitted applications and concept notes to date. The MWRP grants component's first funding cycle, which had an application deadline of March 31, 2017, led to six program grants valued at $1,210,657. The grantees signed grant agreements the last week of September 2017, and the deadline of $1.2 million in grants obligated by September 30 was met. The six grant agreements are noted in the table below. In October 2017, MWRP visited the six grantees to provide assistance in starting up project implementation and defining monitoring & evaluation (M&E) activities. DIG met both collectively and individually with the three first cycle grantees from Sri Lanka, and individually with the grantees from Vietnam and the Philippines. DIG led a grantee orientation workshop in Colombo, Sri Lanka with Sevanatha, Janathakshan and SLCDF, and organized subsequent meetings in Hanoi, Vietnam with CECR, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam with ENDA, and in Manila, Philippines with CRS. The workshops/meetings covered the following topics: project presentations and questions & answers (Q&A), review of one-page project description, monitoring & evaluation plans based upon implementation plans, monitoring & evaluation factors (MEFs) and individual project indicators, project baseline data, project reporting requirements: financial and technical reports, gender considerations in project implementation, environmental considerations in project implementation, legal and regulatory issues, risks to successful project implementation and mitigation approaches, and USAID branding and marking requirements. In Quarter 4 of FY 2017, USAID concurred with DIG's recommendations for "Apparently Successful" applications from the second funding cycle. The following eight applicant organizations were rated as "Apparently Successful" and advanced into the Final Review phase: World Vision Philippines, Philippine Reef & Rainforest Conservation Foundation Inc. (PRRCFI), Candis III Marketing Cooperative (C3MC), Lanka Upcycles (Private) Limited, Sri Lanka Centre for Development Facilitation (SLCDF), Center for Social Research and Development (CSRD), World Wildlife Fund (WWF-Vietnam), and Center for Supporting Green Development (GreenHub), in partnership with the International Collaborating Centre for Aquaculture and Fisheries Sustainability (ICAFIS). Prior to the quarter under review, DIG had already entered the Final Review phase by undertaking pre-award surveys and risk assessments during field visits to four of the eight applicant organizations' head offices (PRRCFI, C3MC, SLCDF, and GreenHub) and three of the eight proposed project sites (C3MC, SLCDF, and GreenHub). In the quarter under review, the DIG teams met with the applicant organization's senior management and board members of the other four "Apparently Successful" applicants (World Vision, Lanka Upcycles, CSRD, and WWF-Vietnam) to discuss the organization's technical and financial management capabilities, prior donor experience, strategic elements of the project proposal, and the project budget. DIG also conducted a second visit to the PRRCFI office and project site. Through these field visits, DIG determined whether the applicant organization has sufficient financial and project management skills, and the relevant experience to implement its proposed activities.