Deadline: 17-Aug-20
The Bureau of Conflict Stabilization Operations has announced a call for proposals for Building Society-Based Solutions in Ukraine: Youth IDP Local Conflict Resolution and Integration.
Project Goals
The purpose of this program is to advance Ukraine’s stabilization by fostering the integration of IDPs within Ukraine in line with the IDP integration strategy and by reducing IDP vulnerability to exploitation.
Illustrative indicators:
- Reduction in conflict between communities and IDPs.
- Increased reports of confidence between IDPs and their receiving communities.
- IDPs report increased integration into communities and resilience against exploitation.
- The updated IDP integration plan provides needed benefits to IDPs.
These indicators might be measured by: implementer or third-party conducted surveys; structured content analysis of social media and news articles; and/or behavioral changes of IDPs or host communities.
Project Objectives & Activities
This program will reduce IDPs’ vulnerability to exploitation, advance conflict resolution at the local level, and foster integration to prevent further fracture of Ukrainian society, which Russia could use to exacerbate social instability. It will do so by convening youth IDPs and their receiving communities in workshops that build confidence and offer capacity building in local dispute resolution skills, connecting youth IDPs with the tools and platforms to further integrate the displaced population, and engaging youth IDPs to inform a locally driven and implemented IDP integration plan. Objectives and their potential illustrative supporting activities could include:
- Objective 1: IDPs and receiving communities increasingly view one another as partners.
- Activity 1.1: Youth IDPs and receiving communities jointly identify tension and issues that hinder social cohesion and integration.
- Activity 1.2: Workshops with youth IDPs and receiving communities build confidence and develop local dispute resolution skills.
- Activity 1.3: Workshops incorporate gender-sensitive training to address the needs of women and girls in integration.
- Objective 2: Youth IDPs build networks that connect them to resources aiding integration and facilitate their articulation of a post-conflict vision for Ukraine.
- Activity 2.1: Development of centers that connect youth IDP with needed resources. These could include, for example, vocational training to support economic integration; capacity building that supports IDPs in advocating for their needs in integration; and civic resources.
- Activity 2.2: Establishing a Ukrainian youth IDP network through the centers.
- Activity 2.3: Small grants for programs addressing key grievances expressed by youth IDPs.
- Activity 2.4: Holding workshops in which youth IDPs articulate a vision for post-conflict Ukraine.
- Objective 3: Locally-driven IDP integration plans and their implementation are informed by youth IDP input; youth IDPs are connected with the resources to support existing integration efforts, including the goals of the 2017 plan related to fostering social cohesion to prevent violence and discrimination, developing young IDPs, and conducting trainings to reduce vulnerability to exploitation.
- Activity 3.1: Convening workshops between an Embassy Kyiv-approved Ukraine stakeholder and groups of youth IDPs who are geographically representative of IDPs.
- Activity 3.2: Connecting youth IDPs with civic resources, including but not limited to resources on how to exercise voting rights under the 2020 legislation.
- Activity 3.3: Assisting an Embassy Kyiv-approved Ukraine stakeholder to apply youth IDP input in its IDP integration efforts, and strategically communicate updates with IDPs and host communities in a manner that improves government relationships with and among both communities.
Funding Information
- CSO expects to award one (1) cooperative agreement based on this NOFO and in an amount not to exceed the total ceiling amount of $1.975 million.
- The period of performance is 24 months with an anticipated start date of September 30, 2020.
Target Groups
- Beneficiaries should include young (approximately but not exclusively 18-30 years old) IDPs, whose diversity is representative of the IDP population displaced by Russian aggression in Ukraine, and their receiving communities. IDPs should include those displaced from Donbas, Luhansk and Crimea. Implementers should take into consideration potential language barriers and means to mitigate them.
Geographic Focus
- CSO and the implementer, in cooperation with relevant Department and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) offices, will finalize the geographic target locations. Likely locations include Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovs’ka oblasts, the locations west of the Line of Contact where most IDPs have relocated (20 percent and 11 percent, respectively), and have the lowest rates of perception of integration (49 percent).
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicant must have acute awareness of conflict-related sensitivities in Ukraine, through prior work in Ukraine or through thematic expertise.
- Applicants are encouraged to partner with relevant organizations with the ability to execute such programming throughout Ukraine.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=328580
