USAID: Better Lives for Mes Enfants Activity

Deadline: 21-Jun-21

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking applications for a Cooperative Agreement award from qualified entities to implement the activity entitled “Better Lives for Mes Enfants” (BLM).

While building on accomplishments and lessons of the current CTIP program, the proposed activity will pursue a more community-led, locally-driven approach to ensure ownership and sustainability of the initiative to reduce forced child begging.

The proposed activity is the next logical step, focusing assistance on empowering community leaders to involve influential religious leaders and parents.

Ideally, the activity will work with two communities to address the issue at the point of origin and the point of destination (e.g., Kolda and St. Louis) using techniques and strategies that uniquely address each community.

The activity should make efforts to include religious leaders and local enterprises in order to encourage and ensure sustainability.

This multi-year activity will pursue the overarching goal of reducing forced child begging by pursuing the following interrelated objectives, which reflect the theory of change above:

Objective/Outcome 1: Increased capacity of the community to develop and implement effective strategies to enable children to safely study in their own communities and reduce forced child begging

IR 1.1: Increased capacity of communities to provide local educational opportunities for their children. Illustrative activities:
- Strengthen ndeyou daaras’ (women’s groups) networks; e.g., Leadership Change Management (LCM) curriculum for ndeyou daaras
- Build capacity of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working to counter forced child begging and supporting children to return to their family
- Engage in advocacy campaigns through the development of advocacy tools and support networks with a message that safe education of the children is a community matter
- Strengthen government, CSO and community groups to provide psycho-social and recovery services for children who are returning from daaras and/or vulnerable to be recruited by residential daaras.
IR 1.2: Established partnerships between community leaders, religious leaders and local businesses. Illustrative activities:
- Communities build adequate local daaras and create ties to larger religious centers
- Sponsorship of talibés to attend higher-level daaras as they mature
- Development of vocational training opportunities for children and adolescents at daaras

Objective/ Outcome 2

Influential religious leaders and local government actors to support local Koranic education without forced begging, and to promote child protection efforts.

IR 2.1: Reinforced fundamental rights and protection of children. Illustrative activities:
- Koranic teachings on protection of children are widely disseminated by religious leaders (caliphs, imams, marabouts) to communities
- Support coalitions of marabouts and imams who promote child protection in their efforts to sensitize and/or train other religious leaders
- Support children who are subjected to forced begging to return to their families, or kinship care or other family care if needed, with quality case management and psychosocial support provided
- Support the censure and closure of unsafe and/or exploitative daaras in communities
- Advocate for the arrest and prosecution of actors who abuse and neglect children in daaras.
IR 2.2: Promoted health, well-being and educational development of children. Illustrative activities:
- Leverage social and political influence of the Islamic brotherhoods to advocate/raise funds to improve conditions in local daaras, provide medical care, and advocate for construction of traditional, local daaras in communities lacking them
- Successful municipalities mentor other local communities to share best practices
- Support social and traditional media campaigns using positive messages regarding treatment of children in daaras and laws on child protection (e.g., documentary screenings and forums on ways to protect children – especially those at boarding daaras).

Funding Information

USAID intends to award one Cooperative Agreement pursuant to this notice of funding opportunity. Subject to funding availability and at the discretion of the Agency, USAID intends to provide $2.34 million in total USAID funding over a three (3) year period.

Eligibility Criteria