Procedure to Determine Compliance with the Conditions of the Bellmon Amendment for Title II Awards

This policy supersedes Food for Peace Information Bulletin (FFPIB) 19-02 and is applicable to all BHA Title II awards, except for International Disaster Assistance (IDA) and Community Development Fund (CDF) awards. The Bellmon Determination is a formal declaration internal to BHA that a proposed Title II food security activity is compliant or not with the Bellmon requirement. A Bellmon Determination is required for any Title II activity that includes distribution of agricultural commodities, food procured outside of the United States, food vouchers, or cash transfers for food. Market assessments provide critical information that enables BHA to make a Bellmon Determination and assist partners in designing food and nutrition security activities that are appropriate, feasible, and cost-efficient. BHA requires market analyses, consistent with current practice, for all Title II interventions. Implementing partners are also required to provide information related to the local, national, and regional markets when proposing Title II interventions to ensure that local markets are not negatively affected by the proposed activities. The analysis and award process for Title II Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) involves an independent market analysis conducted by BHA/Washington (BHA/W) or a commissioned entity. The report will be country-context specific and include information on agricultural production and market systems, in-depth analysis of markets for key food security crops, policy issues relevant to agriculture, markets, and trade, and logistics and storage profile. This report will be made available to implementing partners through the USAID website and used as BHA/W drafts the RFA in conjunction with Mission input. For emergency activities, BHA/W will rely heavily on its implementing partners and other publicly available market analyses for this information. Implementing partners' application submissions should contain essential market analysis information informed by the independent market analysis, if available, as well as the implementing partner's own analyses. The Bellmon Determination is a requirement for all Title II awards, and BHA/W, in concurrence with the relevant USAID Mission or the delegated U.S. Government official, is responsible for making this determination as part of its approval of a Title II-funded application before a final award is issued. The Bellmon Determination assesses whether the proposed activity is in compliance with the Bellmon requirements, which include ensuring that the distribution of agricultural commodities or use of food procured outside of the United States, food vouchers, or cash transfers for food will not result in a substantial disincentive to or interference with domestic production or marketing in the recipient country. Implementing partners are expected to continue to stay abreast of the conditions of the markets in which they are operating and maintain a detailed knowledge of relevant markets. They will continue to be required to provide considerable information in RFSA activity applications related to the markets that could be affected by proposed Title II interventions. Market updates will be required when there is a compelling reason to question the validity of the findings of the prevailing analysis and/or Bellmon Determination. A written request with a justification and suggested timeline should be conveyed to the Agreement Officer through the Agreement Officer's Representative for activities in that country. This request should include the date of the last known market analysis and/or Bellmon Determination, a copy of the last market analysis used to inform an understanding of compliance with the Bellmon Amendment, a description of the performance of the BHA award, and an explanation of what calls into question the validity of the current market analysis and/or Bellmon Determination. BHA/W reserves the right to deviate from the procedures specified in this BHAFP under extraordinary circumstances, consistent with the statutory authorities and requirements of Title II of the Food for Peace Act.