Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership Programming in Nepal

Deadline: 16-May-24

The Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office) announces an open competition for projects in support of the Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership between the United States and the Government of Nepal.

The CPC Partnership is jointly developed and implemented by the United States and the Government of Nepal through a multi-year plan (approximately five years). The purpose of this CPC Partnership is to advance and strengthen the efforts of the Government of Nepal and civil society organizations in Nepal to combat forced child labor and child sex trafficking in a victim- 2 centered, coordinated, sustainable, and multi-sectoral approach to support an effective system of justice, prevention, and protection. This includes the implementation of a victim-centered prevention strategy that addresses targeted risk factors, promotes high-quality comprehensive victim protection, and investigates, prosecutes, and convicts perpetrators of child trafficking.

The purpose of this notice of funding opportunity is to advance and strengthen the efforts of the Government of Nepal and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Nepal to combat child trafficking in a victim-centered, coordinated, sustainable, and multi-sectoral approach to support an effective system of prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnership. Applicants are expected to propose activities that align with the goals and objectives outlined below from the U.S.-Nepal CPC Partnership text.

Nepal is the eighth CPC Partnership the US government has negotiated globally; the TIP Office has active CPC Partnerships in Peru, Mongolia, Colombia, and Cote d’Ivoire, and previous CPC Partnerships with the governments of Jamaica, the Philippines, and Ghana.

Objectives

• Objective 1 (Prevention): The Government of Nepal, particularly local government, coordinates with NGOs on child trafficking prevention efforts that are comprehensive and contextualized into local community child protection initiatives.
  • Illustrative Activities:
    • Capacity Building
      • Strengthen and empower Local Coordination Committees on Human Trafficking;
      • Train Child Welfare Officers to further identify and combat child trafficking;
      • Provide technical assistance to the MoWCSC on effective prevention strategies.
    • Awareness Raising
      • Engage schools and communities on action plans to identify and prevent child trafficking;
      • Engage families and communities about the risks of child trafficking among vulnerable communities;
      • Work with government and local communities to increase child registration for identification.
    • Community Interventions:
      • Targeted interventions for most at-risk populations; examples include but not limited to working with cash plus programs, community savings and loans cooperatives, financial inclusion strategies, vocational training, and alternative livelihoods;
      • Pilot or support community resilience programs to minimize the effects of disasters and climate change that exacerbate child trafficking risk factors
• Objective 2 (Protection): The Government of Nepal supports child trafficking victims by providing accessible trauma-informed, victim-centered care, and supports NGOs to protect children throughout the country.
  • Illustrative Activities:
    • Training and Curriculum Development
      • Expand social workers’ use of victim-centered and trauma-informed approaches;
      • Build capacity of local child-care centers with curriculum on minimum standards of care and sustainability plan.
    • Direct Victim Support
      • Enable organizations to provide protection services to child trafficking victims;
      • Identify and support protection services for male victims of trafficking, including shelter services for boys;
      • Support reintegration efforts, including but not limited to vocational/ apprenticeship training, paying of school fees, and small business support.
    • Standard Operating Procedures
      • Create SOPs and/or handbooks to guide victim support in partnership with local committees;
      • Support implementation of identification guidelines with MoWCSC;
      • Develop repatriation procedures, SOPs, and guidelines for cross[1]border trafficking cases.
    • Capacity Building
      • Support the rollout of the Social Information Management System (SIMS) as a data collection tool and ensure it meets data sharing and case tracking needs;
      • Assist the “1098 hotline” for victims of human trafficking to be more responsive to victims and increase capacity to identify and serve trafficking victims.
    • Advocacy
      • Support pending legal code amendments that align laws with the Palermo Protocol;
      • Ensure civil society organizations are adequately resourced to provide needed victim services.
• Objective 3 (Prosecution): The Government of Nepal, including law enforcement, prosecutors and the judiciary, utilizes existing trafficking-specific legal frameworks to identify child trafficking victims, investigate cases, and prosecute and convict perpetrators of child trafficking in a child-friendly, victim-centered, and trauma informed manner.
  • Illustrative Activities
    • Training and Curriculum Development
      • Comprehensive (basic and advanced) training for justice-sector actors on the human trafficking law and how to utilize it during investigations, prosecutions, and convictions;
      • Comprehensive (basic and advanced) training for justice sector actors on victim-centered, trauma-informed, and child-friendly practices;
      • Training for law enforcement entities on trauma-informed and child[1]friendly techniques for gathering evidence and testimony from survivors of child trafficking;
      • Victim-centered training in the National Police Academy to combat human trafficking;
      • Curriculum for the National Judicial Academy focused on human trafficking laws, trauma-informed and child friendly practices, in coordination with NGOs
      • Methods to investigate and monitor online violence and cybercrimes.
    • Standard Operating Procedures
      • Child-friendly procedures for accompaniment of child trafficking victims and witnesses before the courts;
      • Child interview SOPs for police investigators and MoWCSC social workers;
      • Nationwide SOPs on victim identification, referral, and case management;
      • Support airport and border officers with resources for improved screening tools.
    • Establish New Practices
      • Digitized Court or “E-court” using video conferencing or video testimony likely connected with protection homes to support criminal cases;
      • Victim service units and victim-friendly court environments within the Supreme court and District courts;
      • Child-friendly spaces in local police offices, and/or other relevant locations;
      • Create child-friendly space guidelines that are adopted and used to train relevant staff;
      • Promote creation of a secure network and data collection system for criminal justice actors to share case details.
    • Advocacy
      • Expand judges’ use of current legal frameworks with innovative prosecution techniques such as victim compensation;
      • Promote appointment of an Office of the Special Rapporteur for Human Trafficking within the National Human Rights Council;
      • Create a cybercrime law from current cybercrime policy.
• Objective 4 (Partnership): The Government of Nepal addresses child trafficking in a coordinated manner across all relevant ministries, local authorities and NGOs.
  • Illustrative Activities:
    • Expand Alliances
      • Engage with private sector actors to raise awareness and prevent forced child labor in targeted industries;
      • Engage telecommunications companies to prevent online sexual exploitation of children;
      • Encourage parliamentary involvement on child protection issues;
      • Analyze the use of information technology to support child trafficking prevention and protection.
    • Information Sharing
      • Encourage information sharing across different data management systems, including the Missing Children and National Police databases.
    • National Frameworks
      • Review and support the Master Plan on Child Labor;
      • Support regional referral mechanisms and/or intergovernmental MOUs on trafficking with neighboring countries in the region;
      • Foster development and implementation of a National Action Plan.
    • Advocacy
      • Empower the National Coordination Committee on Human Trafficking;
      • Promote creation of a national budget line to combat child trafficking to ensure programs and relevant ministries are properly funded;
      • Facilitate sustainability planning to maintain CPC investments beyond the end of the agreement.

Funding Information

• Total Funding Floor: $1,000,000
• Total Funding Ceiling: $10,500,000

Eligibility Criteria

• Organizations eligible to apply include U.S.-based and foreign non-profits, nongovernmental organizations (including faith-based organizations), public international organizations (PIOs), institutions of higher education, and for-profit entities. For-profit organizations are not permitted to generate profits from grant-funded activities. U.S. government (USG) agencies may respond to this NOFO with applications for projects that would be funded through an Interagency Acquisition Agreement. While foreign governments are not eligible to apply, governments may be beneficiaries of projects provided that funding does not pay salaries of government agency personnel and that such assistance is not restricted by U.S. law or policy.
• The eligibility requirements for applying to this funding opportunity do not restrict applicants from receiving other sources of funding from the United States government, including funding from other bureaus within the Department of State. However, the applicant must provide information on any work conducted with U.S. government funding related to human-trafficking issues or cross-cutting human-trafficking issues (e.g., child protection, health, education, labor, gender, etc.) within the project narrative.
• Under this funding opportunity, applicants may form a consortium and partner with other organizations to implement and carry out project activities. Applicants proposing to partner with other organizations must clearly identify the lead applicant to directly receive a potential TIP Office award, and the applicant may designate one or more partner organizations as sub-recipients.
• Under this funding opportunity, applicants may partner with other organizations in submitting application(s). In instances where the lead applicant is not based in Nepal, applications must include at least one identified local partner engaged in the project from its inception. Applicants partnering with other organizations must clearly identify the lead applicant, and the applicant may designate one or more partner organizations as sub-recipients.
• The TIP Office is committed to an anti-discrimination policy in all its projects and activities. The TIP Office welcomes applications irrespective of race, ethnicity, color, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or other status.
• Cost sharing, cost matching, and cost participation are not required to carry out a project under this funding opportunity. While not required, applicants may propose to include voluntary cost share. Applications that include voluntary cost share will NOT be evaluated differently than other applications. Applicants that voluntarily propose cost share must read the instructions below regarding budget 12 documents that are required to be submitted under this announcement.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.