The Applicants should be:
• SMEs engaged in food processing and/or food marketing;
• Clusters of Food SMEs in the same geographic area or industry, including Associations of food processors, etc.

A consortium of eligible organisations may submit Applications, provided the basis and membership of the consortium is clearly identified.
Applicant organisations must:

1. Be registered as a business or association;
2. Have a bank account;
3. Have a written constitution, memorandum of understanding; and
4. Where an Applicant is a branch of a larger organisation, these requirements will apply both to the branch and to the larger organisation.

Eligibility of Proposed Projects

The Eligibility Criteria for screening of proposed projects will be used to determine to what extent the proposed projects are designed to achieve at least one of the first four SCF outputs indicated in Section Three above and may include opportunities to improve performance in categories such as :

Financial Limits

support may range from 50 percent to 95 percent of the eligible costs, graduated and segmented as indicated previously.

The size of the grants will range between TSH 10,000,000 (TSH ten millions) and TSH 100,000,000 (TSH one hundred millions) per activity. If the activity is rolled off a number of times, the grant total could reach a maximum of TSH 300,000,000 (TSH three hundred millions) per cluster or association.

Time Limits

There is no formal deadline for applications as they can be received throughout the year; however, as the Board will meet quarterly, financial commitments will be made four times a year. However, no applications will be received in the last two quarters of the Project to allow proper monitoring and end of project evaluation. The last batch of applications will, therefore, be received by SCF Management in December 2012.

Notification of rejected applications

The SCF Management may reject applications that for obvious reasons do not fulfil the eligibility criteria described in the annex. The Board will subsequently be informed about the rejection, and the applicant will in a Letter of Rejection be informed about the reason for the rejection. Such applicant may resubmit an improved application up to three times, after which that application will not be considered.  The applicant may, however, apply for support in another area eligible under the SCF facility.

SCF Management Assessment of Applications

Assessment Criteria

The SCF Board will assess eligible applications on a competitive basis against the established criteria. Some aspects of the eligibility criteria are reemphasised below:

Will the Initiative make an Effective Contribution to the SCF Objectives?

• In making this assessment, preference will be given to initiatives from Food Processing and Food Marketing SMEs that will:
• Increase value addition and sales volume of food products aimed at “international” clients, both domestic and foreign;
• Achieve improved utilization of technology, applying it to products for “international” markets, both domestic and foreign;
• Strengthen the abilities of their representatives to disseminate information on their export products;
• Enhance their ability to utilize appropriate BDS providers.

The SCF Management will further consider the question: Is the initiative well designed?

The design should be realistic, and should do each of the following:

• Clearly identify the need which is being addressed.
• Set out a clear logical link between the aims of the initiative and the proposed activities.
• Include a time bound work plan and budget.
• Identify staffing and logistical arrangements.
• Identify how progress will be measured, monitored and reported; and
  Demonstrate how activities will be sustained after the end of the initiative

It may be noted, that the SCF Management may suggest to the Applicant to refine the initial Application for Support. The SCF Management may also in certain cases provide professional assistance to the refinement of promising but not well developed initiatives.