Deadline: 30-May-23
The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA) announces an open competition for organizations interested in submitting applications for projects that support civil society in preventing and responding to child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM).
Program Goals
- Child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM) affects nearly 45 percent of women between the ages of 20-24 in South Asia. CEFM poses severe health consequences for women and girls, perpetuates poverty, and is linked with negative education outcomes for children and loss of economic productivity for women and their communities. CEFM is a form of gender-based violence and a violation of human rights; Sustainable Development Goal 5.3 calls for its elimination.
- The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and humanitarian crises in the region have only exacerbated economic insecurity and prevalence of early and forced marriage, accelerating adolescent girls’ vulnerability to this form of gender-based violence.3 An outcome of a confluence of social and economic factors, CEFM is pernicious and requires localized solutions and champions at the grassroots level to enforce laws, engage families, communities, and local religious or community leaders, ensure educational opportunities, support economic opportunities for adolescent girls, and empower adolescent girls as leaders and agents of change in their own lives and communities. While all targeted countries have laws prohibiting child, early, and forced marriage, enforcement is uneven and support to community-based solutions is necessary.
- The State-USAID Joint Regional Strategy for South and Central Asia seeks to “Support the development, capacity, and resilience of civil society and independent media as safeguards of democracy” and “Promote and protect the rights of women and marginalized and underrepresented populations as members of an inclusive democratic society”. Accordingly, SCA seeks to establish a fund to support community and grassroots civil society organizations, with the goal of reducing the prevalence of CEFM and supporting the victims.
Funding Information
- Total Funding Floor: $1,000,000
- Total Funding Ceiling: $1,950,000
- Anticipated Number of Awards: One
- Type of Award: Grant or cooperative agreement
- Period of Performance: 24-36 months
- Anticipated Time to Award, Pending Availability of Funds: 4 months
Activities
- The implementer of this award will create a fund to make sub-awards to civil society organizations (CSOs) whose programs prevent and respond to CEFM in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and/or Pakistan. The project must operate in two or more of these countries. However, SCA prefers proposals for work in all listed countries. The fund may focus on specific sub-regions in each country. If applicable, proposals should indicate the specific regions in which the project will work, or, if the specific regions will be determined after the award is made, the process for identifying them.
- The implementer is expected to carry out activities that will:
- Identify key factors contributing to CEFM in each country or sub-national region in which the fund will operate, and key interventions that may prevent or respond to CEFM in that country or sub-national region; SCA welcomes proposals that rely on existing research on these topics and will thus avoid duplication of effort and unnecessary costs.
- Identify and select community or grassroots civil society organizations that work to prevent or respond to CEFM and support these CSOs through sub-award funding and capacity building.
- Provide opportunities for shared learning among the selected CSOs and with other stakeholders.
- At the project’s conclusion, evaluate its success in preventing and responding to CEFM, review opportunities for sustained activities that support the project’s goals and for scaling the project for potential future funding.
- All sub-awards made through this project will be subject to the approval of SCA and the State Department Grants Officer.
Outcomes: The project should aim to make progress leading to a reduction in the prevalence of child, early, and forced marriage in the targeted countries or sub-regions, and to increased support for victims of CEFM.
Eligibility Criteria
- SCA welcomes applications from U.S.-based non-profit/non-governmental organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status of the U.S. tax code; foreign-based non-profit organizations/nongovernment organizations (NGO); Public International Organizations; and private, public, or state institutions of higher education.
- The project must be carried out in at least two of the following countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.