Notice of Funding Opportunity: Civil Society Resilience Activity (Cambodia)

Deadline: 5-Jul-24

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is announcing this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) to improve Cambodia’s civil society and grassroots organizers to be more effective while maintaining civil society’s ability to function within the country’s closing civic space.

Purpose 

• The Civil Society Resilience (CSR) activity will address the needs, opportunities, and challenges identified by the civic actors, across relevant sectors, to foster engagement and respond to civic space challenges. The CSR activity will strengthen the agency, resiliency, and efficacy of civil society to advance agendas that are in the public interest and advance inclusive development.

Objectives and Illustrative Activities 

• The CSR activity seeks to support the work of civil society and grassroots organizers, across all sectors, engaged in advancing inclusive development, by pursuing the following three objectives:
  • Objective 1: Provide flexible financial and technical support to bolster the agency and resilience of civil society and grassroots organizers, across sectors
    • The Activity will provide funding to respond to civil society’s evolving needs and support initiatives complementing USAID’s broader activities in Cambodia. The Activity will fund local organizations including community-based organizations, informal groups and grassroots networks, in addition to traditional national level partners. Cross-sectorial assistance to community-based organizations, informal groups, and grassroots networks aims to increase citizen participation and engagement. Particular attention should be paid to support women, persons with disabilities, LGBTQI+ individuals, marginalized youth, indigenous populations, and ethnic minorities.
    • Funding should support youth-led/serving groups and include interventions that build international support for a new generation of civil society leaders. Funding will also be available for CSOs or legal aid organizations to provide high quality legal representation to affected individuals or communities, advocacy campaign support, or other forms of technical assistance
    • Illustrative Activities:
      • Multi-year funding and demand-driven capacity strengthening support, regranted through local CSOs and intermediaries, across Cambodia’s provinces. This funding support could cover partnership and resource mobilization staffing needs for local CSOs.
      • Partnership with international organizations to help civil society understand/pilot resource mobilization and funding diversification strategies.
      • Risk mitigation planning with local partners – civil society must have a clear approach to duty of care and sufficiently budget for related costs. Duty of care should also extend to the families of partners and beneficiaries who require assistance.
  • Objective 2: Promote practices that strengthen strategic decision-making, resource mobilization, coordination, communication, and long-term planning to advance reforms.
    • Long-term civil society resilience is achieved through network ties and coalitions among diverse civic actors that share information and best practices. The Activity will provide financial and technical assistance for public advocacy to influence law, rules, and regulations at national and sub-national levels towards a civic sector that is in the public’s interest. There is a need to strengthen relationships and trust among civil society actors to work across sectors and achieve meaningful reforms. Regular and systematic multi-stakeholder dialogue can help CSOs to better understand the challenges and opportunities in their sectors.
    • The Activity can also include flexible capacity strengthening and technical assistance to meet the emerging needs of civil society coalitions and networks by creating mechanisms for everyday Political Economy Analysis, and support for advocacy strategy development. In order to respond to the new regulation impacting civil society operations, interventions such as rapid policy/legal analysis are very critical for them to navigate the new regulations so that they can continue to operate. In addition, the activity can provide an evidence-based framework for fostering joint actions at the sub-national level.
    • Illustrative Activities: 
      • Funding/support for existing networks.
      • A virtual help desk that can help surge needed services, e.g. high-quality legal representation, guidance for CSOs and grassroots organizers, and/or offer digital security support/training.
      • Building village and commune level abilities to engage to address issues of public concern, building on other stakeholder efforts.
  • Objective 3: Strengthen access to learning, networking, and exchange opportunities that civil society identifies as central to the success of their work.
    • The Activity will enable civil society and actors to share relevant information, learn from each other’s experiences, and provide structured opportunities for knowledge transfer and peer support. This includes support for improved coordination across networks and access to real- time evidence and learning opportunities that enhance the network capacities. The Activity can support the participation of civil society in learning forums to help build greater solidarity and support. The Activity may consider developing advocacy toolkits, providing practical tips for implementation advocacy initiatives, creating high-impact programing, building advocacy campaigns, and amplifying work through social media. Regular coordination will continue among USAID/Cambodia, local partners, grantees, and other stakeholders throughout the life of the Activity.
    • Illustrative Activities: 
      • Supporting and funding relevant research and studies.
      • Evidence utilization forums that convene CSOs and organizers, across sectors, to strengthen coordination that advances legal reform.
      • Peer-to-peer learning exchange opportunities to meet civil society and grassroots organizers challenges/opportunities.
      • Creating and/or strengthening resource organizations that can provide capacity strengthening.

Funding Information

• USAID intends to award one (1) Cooperative Agreement pursuant to this NOFO. Subject to funding availability and at the discretion of the Agency, USAID intends to provide $12 million in total USAID funding over a five-year period.
• The estimated start date will be on or about October 1, 2024.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligibility for this NOFO is not restricted. All U.S. and non-U.S. public, private, for-profit, and non-profit organizations, as well as educational organizations, and non-governmental organizations are eligible to submit a Concept Note. Further, the organization must be a legally recognized organizational entity in the country where it operates.
• USAID welcomes Concept Notes from organizations that have not previously received financial assistance from USAID.
• Faith-based organizations are eligible to apply for federal financial assistance on the same basis as any other organization and are subject to the protections and requirements of Federal law.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.