Deadline: 23-Jul-21
The Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs’ (OES) Office of Environmental Quality (ENV) at the U.S. Department of State (DOS) announces this Notice of Funding Opportunity (“NOFO”) for “Facilitating a multi-organizational approach to formalizing artisanal and small-scale gold mining.
Goal
- The goal of this project is to develop a model for international organizations bringing various strengths to work together in a voluntary partnership to transform the ASGM sector into a responsible extractive sector.
- This process is important for OES to increase its impact on reducing mercury use and release from the ASGM sector.
- Once the partnership is in place, OES plans to incrementally fund specific activities under projects developed under this partnership that will focus on reducing mercury use and release.
- Other partners will also be able to find or contribute in other ways to project design, development, and implementation.
Objectives
- Objective 1: To develop an understanding among the partners of the working relationships, roles, and processes for the design, development, and implementation of ASGM projects.
- Objective 2: To lead the partners in the design and development of one or more projects for a specific country or area in a region of high ASGM activity, i.e., southeast Asia, Africa, and Central and South America, that approach the formalization of the ASGM sector in a holistic way that includes the elements deemed critical by the partners.
- Objective 3: To lead the organization, collaboration, and implementation of enabling activities towards one or more of the projects designed under this cooperative agreement. Applicants are encouraged to create a budget that estimates general costs for enabling activities, desk reports, etc., for operation in a developing country.
Main Activities
To achieve the goals and expected results, the program could include the following activities:
- Facilitation of meetings and workshops, most likely using a virtual platform, to agree on processes for working together, including drafting discussion documents for meeting preparation, meeting notetaking, and synthesizing discussion into a final document.
- Facilitation of meetings and/or workshops, most likely using a virtual platform, to design the project(s) in the targeted countryfies, including discussing the main challenges and gaps identified in relation to illegal activities/formalization of the ASGM sector in areas of interest, identifying the critical elements of this new approach.
- Drafting project documents for review by the participating organizations towards the development of project(s) to address formalization in ASGM that includes project documents such as a proposal, theory of change, budget, Gantt chart of activities, results framework, indicators, etc.
- Coordinate project activities with partners and other organizations, organize and implement launching event(s), and collect progress reports to share with the group.
Funding Information
- Funding amount: $490,000 USD
- Award Date: September 2021
- Project Completion Date: September 2023
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligibility is limited to U.S. non-profit/nongovernmental organizations subject to section 501 (c) (3) of the U. S. tax code, foreign not-for-profit/nongovernmental organizations, U.S. and foreign educational institutions, and public international organizations.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=333983