Procedure to Determine Compliance with the Conditions of the Bellmon Amendment

The FFP Information Bulletin (FFPIB) 19-02 provides guidance on the procedure to determine compliance with the Conditions of the Bellmon Amendment, a requirement for all FFP Title II awards. The Bellmon Determination is a formal declaration by FFP that a proposed Title II food and nutrition security activity is compliant or not with the Bellmon Amendment. This determination is required for both emergency and non-emergency awards, and it involves assessing whether the proposed activity will not result in a substantial disincentive to or interference with domestic production or marketing in the recipient country. FFP conducts or commissions an independent market analysis to inform the Request for Applications (RFA) for a new development food security activity. The report provides a country-context-specific overview of agricultural production and market systems, including in-depth analysis of markets for key food security crops, policy issues relevant to agriculture, markets, and trade, and logistics and storage profiles. This report is made available to implementing partners through the FFP website and is used to draft the RFA in conjunction with Mission input. Implementing partners are required to provide essential market analysis information in their application submissions, informed by both the independent market analysis and their own analyses. The Bellmon Determination process complements the need for implementing partners' own initial and ongoing market analyses and surveillance to inform their understanding of the operational context. FFP/W, in concurrence with the relevant USAID Mission or the delegated USG official, is responsible for the Bellmon Determination as part of its approval of a Title II-funded application before a final award is issued. The relevant USG staff in the field and Washington assess information available from all sources to reach consensus on the Bellmon Determination, which may include consultation with market and development experts, internal FFP market assessments, secondary market reports, and/or specially commissioned Bellmon Analysis. Implementing partners are expected to continue to stay abreast of the conditions of the markets in which they monetize and/or distribute food assistance. A Bellmon Analysis is not required in a food and nutrition security development activity application submission, but implementing partners must provide considerable information in their proposal related to the markets that could be affected by proposed food assistance activities. FFP/W understands that market updates will be required when there is compelling reason to question the validity of the findings of the prevailing analysis and/or Bellmon Determination. When an update is necessary, the awardee, the USAID Mission, or FFP/W should convey those concerns, in a written request, along with a justification and a suggested timeline, to the Agreement Officer, through the Agreement Officer's Representative for activities in that country.