U.S. Department of State, Bureau of PRM announces 2019 NGO Projects Benefiting Urban Refugees in South Africa

Deadline: 30 April 2019

The United States Department of State, Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration (PRM) is seeking proposals for its NGO Projects Benefiting Urban Refugees in South Africa.

Proposed activities should support refugees and asylum seekers residing in South Africa with priority areas being urban centers in Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, and North West provinces. Projects should build capacity of national organizations and within communities to address refugee and asylum seeker needs and promote self-reliance. They should also, where relevant, identify and build upon existing services (including government services), provide information about and referrals to existing services, and avoid creating refugee-specific parallel services to what already exists in the community. Because of PRM’s mandate to provide protection, assistance, and sustainable solutions for refugees and victims of conflict, PRM will consider funding only those projects that include a target beneficiary base of at least 50 percent refugees and asylum seekers.

Focus Sectors

Proposals should focus on one or more of the following sectors (see PRM’s General NGO Guidelines for sector descriptions):

Protection: Key components of protection programs may include: (1) legal assistance and counseling, (2) community-based prevention and response to xenophobia, (3) prevention and response to gender-based violence, (4) child protection, and/ or (5) dissemination of information to promote enhanced refugee access to protection mechanisms and programs. Proposals should be designed to support and strengthen existing protection mechanisms rather than develop parallel systems that may not be sustainable over time.
Health, Education, and/or Shelter: Proposals should focus on (a) health care (including mental health care and sexual and reproductive health services), (b) education and vocational training, and/ or (c) housing and shelter. Proposed projects should increase refugee and asylum seeker access to existing government and community-based social services rather than developing parallel services. They should enhance local capacity to address refugee and asylum seeker needs.
Livelihoods: Proposed projects may include (a) training in language, literacy and vocational skills, (b) job-placement, and/ or (c) legal support for businesses. Proposals should address needs based on market assessments and should be designed to foster self-reliance among refugees and asylum seekers in urban areas. They should include plans to measure the impact of proposed activities on achieving self-reliance, or in the case of continuation applications, describe the impacts of previous livelihoods activities and include indicators of self-reliance.

Award Information

Project proposals should be more than $200,000 and less than $500,000 per year.

Eligibility Criteria

Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with IRS, other than institutions of higher education; and
Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status with IRS, other than institutions of higher education.
PRM strongly encourages projects that target the needs of vulnerable and underserved groups among the beneficiary population (women; children; adolescents; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex (LGBTI) individuals; older persons; the sick; persons with disabilities; and other minorities) and can demonstrate what steps have been taken to meet the specific and unique protection and assistance needs of these vulnerable groups effectively.
PRM will accept proposals from any NGO working in the above mentioned sectors although, given budgetary constraints, priority will be given to proposals from organizations that can demonstrate:
- a working relationship with UNHCR;
- a proven track record in providing proposed assistance both in the sector and specified location;
- evidence of coordination with international organizations (IOs) and other NGOs working in the same area or sector as well as – where possible – local authorities;
- a transition plan involving local capacity-building, where feasible;
- adherence to PRM’s Principles for Refugee Protection in Urban Areas; and
- an understanding of and sensitivity to community dynamics in the project location.