Opportunity Information: Apply for 72061222RFA00006
The Growth Poles Activity is a USAID/Malawi grant opportunity designed to speed up sustainable and more inclusive wealth creation in Malawi by using a "growth pole" model that attracts rural private sector investment and builds practical partnerships. The central idea is to work through one or more anchor firms and deliberately link their operations with surrounding communities, smallholder farmer groups, cooperatives, and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The activity puts a clear emphasis on making economic gains that are environmentally sound, socially responsible, and resilient over time, while also ensuring that women and youth benefit in concrete ways rather than being treated as an afterthought.
In this context, a growth pole is essentially a geographic or value-chain hub that is powered by an anchor firm (or group of firms) with the ability to scale efficiently and pull in additional economic activity around it. These hubs might form around a particular industry cluster, a municipality, or a defined production and market corridor for a specific value chain. The anchor firms are expected to act as a stable "engine" for local growth by creating reliable market demand, supporting services, jobs, and investment opportunities that spread beyond the firm itself into the wider local economy.
USAID describes the anchor firms it wants to engage as businesses with long-term strategies that are inclusive and climate-positive. Inclusivity here means the firm is structured to work with and benefit groups like smallholder farmers, not just large suppliers, and that it supports local enterprises and organizations that participate in production, processing, logistics, or services. Climate-positive and resilient approaches are tied to the idea that long-run competitiveness depends on healthier soils, functioning watersheds, and better natural resource management, so the activity anticipates partnerships that improve environmental conditions while also strengthening business performance. The opportunity also highlights the importance of strong ESG (environmental, social, and governance) practices and the presence of both hard infrastructure (such as facilities, equipment, roads, energy connections, processing capacity) and soft infrastructure (such as management systems, market linkages, standards, skills, and coordination platforms). The point is to identify places where targeted partnerships can unlock additional investment and produce measurable gains in growth, resilience, and inclusion.
The activity is explicitly framed as building on earlier work under Feed the Future Agricultural Diversification (AgDiv), which established an initial foundation for growth pole development. That signals continuity rather than a brand-new approach, with the new award intended to deepen, expand, and formalize growth poles so they become durable drivers of rural economic transformation. While the opportunity does not limit itself to one sector, it notes that most Malawian companies that fit the anchor-firm profile are in agriculture and related industries such as food systems, energy, forestry, agroforestry, and tourism, indicating where many partnerships are likely to concentrate.
From a funding and administrative standpoint, this is a USAID cooperative agreement, meaning the government expects to remain substantially involved during implementation rather than simply issuing a hands-off grant. The opportunity number is 72061222RFA00006 and it falls under an "Other" opportunity category, with the funding activity category listed as Agriculture and a CFDA number of 98.001. Eligibility is described as unrestricted, implying that any type of entity may apply as long as it meets any additional requirements stated in the full announcement. USAID planned to make one award, with an award ceiling of $39,780,462, indicating a single, large-scale implementer responsible for coordinating a wide set of partnerships and investments across one or more growth poles. The opportunity was created on September 15, 2022, and originally closed on November 14, 2022.Apply for 72061222RFA00006
- The Agency for International Development, Malawi USAID-Lilongwe in the agriculture sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Growth Poles Activity" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 98.001.
- This funding opportunity was created on Sep 15, 2022.
- Applicants must submit their applications by Nov 14, 2022. (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 $39,780,462.00 in funding.
- The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
- Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.
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