Deadline: 30 July 2020
The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy of Kuala Lumpur announces an open competition for a cooperative agreement to develop, implement and organize a three-day Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Regional Workshop in Malaysia to enhance digital governance and digital economy programs within the ASEAN region.
The proposed workshop will focus on building local capacity within ASEAN countries to implement practical solutions based on existing technical infrastructure and to bring the benefits of online municipal services, education and economic opportunities to populations outside of major urban centers. The program will complement good governance and human capital initiatives already underway within the Indo-Pacific strategy.
Program Objectives: Recognizing there is no single, comprehensive blueprint for best practices or regulatory patterns for e-governance and digital economy within the ASEAN region, Public Affairs Kuala Lumpur proposes a three-day YSEALI Regional Workshop that will focus on the practical implementation of e-government services and digital economy at the regional, sub-regional or local level based on existing infrastructure and technical capabilities in order to engage rural communities or other less-connected groups better to increase overall awareness and support for digital services. The program aims to provide participants with the necessary tools, knowledge and skills to design best practices to provide cost-effective programs aligned to local community interests.
Areas
The objective of this workshop is to increase knowledge and skills in three specific areas:
- Framework for E-Governance at the Regional/Local Level: Most of the e-government efforts around the region have been sporadic and unplanned. These efforts mainly focus on technology rather than citizen usability. To have a fully functional e-government transformation framework, the workshop will first address local stakeholders’ challenges. In addition to addressing trust levels among citizens of e-services, it will also explore ways to educate citizens on the benefits of these services.
- Effective Channels for Dynamic Collaboration: Digital literacy is still a major challenge for citizens, particularly those in rural areas. To ensure sustainability for egovernance, standardization across the channels system needs to be addressed to avoid wastage of resources and to improve e-government services further.
- Space for a Robust Digital Dialogue: To provide a range of new tools and techniques for best practices that can be used to create a dynamic regulatory environment in which digital market failures and opportunities have space and flexibility to be used to address present and future challenges. This will further ensure e-government initiatives are designed to the needs of the citizens and businesses so they are useful.
Topics
The 3-day workshop will address the following topics:
- How to improve access to information for rural or less-connected communities
- How to ensure transparency of operations of government programs / services
How to increase communication and provide for smoother collaboration among the various stakeholders
To address the above topics, the proposed content workshop will include:
- Design thinking workshop to address overcoming challenges to Digital Access (to ensure inclusive access to the internet and its infrastructure) (Proposed Program Title: Coping with the Elephant in the Room)
- Establishing Digital Village / Civic Spaces (Proposed Program Title: Building Capacity & Breaking a Taboo)
- Establishing Database of experts and stakeholders (Proposed Program Title: Looking Forward with Stakeholders)
Priority Region: Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Timor-Leste.
Program title: Civic Engagement: Enhancing Digital Connectivity for All
Proposed Program Date: Between June and September 2021
Funding Information
- Total available funding: $250,000 contingent on funding availability
- Award amounts: up to $250,000
- Length of performance period: 12 – 18 months
- Anticipated program start date: Planning should start by September 2020 and workshop would be between June and September 2021
Participants and Audiences
Speakers and participants from the ASEAN region will also be invited to share their expertise and lessons learned facilitating the flow of information as well as fostering digital literacy to enable their country’s access to the digital economy.
Eligibility Criteria
The following organizations from U.S. and Malaysia are encouraged to apply:
- Registered not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks and civil society/non-governmental organizations with programming experience
- Non-profit or governmental educational institutions
(For profit or commercial entities are not eligible to apply)
Please ensure:
- The proposal clearly addresses the goals and objectives of this funding opportunity
- All documents are in English
- All budgets are in U.S. dollars
- All pages are numbered
- All documents are formatted to 8 ½ x 11 paper, and
- All Microsoft Word documents are single-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, with a minimum of 1-inch margins.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=326611