Deadline: 17-Mar-23
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation’s Inclusive Development Hub (DDI/ID) is inviting all interested USAID Missions to apply for Disability Funding to support programming in the area of Disability-Inclusive Climate Action (DCA).
With 80% of the world’s one billion persons with disabilities living in developing countries, this leaves many persons with disabilities in contexts with high exposure to extreme weather events, including weather events catalyzed by climate change. As persons with disabilities are at greater risk of poverty due to pervasive societal inequalities, such as ableist norms, inaccessible environments, discrimination, and exclusion, they are often deprived of opportunities to build resilience in the face of climate change. These multidimensional inequalities mean that persons with disabilities often experience higher rates of injury and mortality during climate-related extremes than their non-disabled peers.
The intersections of climate change and larger societal inequalities experienced by persons with disabilities too often mean that:
- Climate change-related information, including early warning systems for extreme weather events, may be inaccessible to persons with disabilities.
- Persons with disabilities may be intentionally or effectively excluded from meaningful access to and inclusion in governance, finance, and decision-making processes related to climate action.
- Disability-based discrimination in education, employment, urban planning, agriculture, food security, health, disaster preparedness, and other contexts may leave persons with disabilities at risk of exclusion from measures related to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
- Persons with disabilities may be unable to evacuate in the face of extreme weather events, or to fully utilize migration as a climate change adaptive response due to inaccessibility of the built environment, transportation, emergency shelter facilities and poor access to financial and other resources, leading to increased risks of injuries and/or secondary disabilities or mortality.
- Perceptions of inherent vulnerability of persons with disabilities may result in persons with disabilities being forced into segregated settings, or otherwise limit their exercise of agency to generate climate change solutions of benefit to persons with disabilities and wider society
Funding Information
- Subject to availability of funds, the total estimated level of funding available for awards under this worldwide request is up to approximately $7,000,000 over a 24–36-month period.
- DDI/ID may fund individual programs in two categories:
- Programs ranging from $300,000 – $500,000; and
- Programs ranging from $500,001 – $1,000,000.
- Missions can use this funding for the procurement of new awards or use it to modify existing grant agreements.
- Missions may submit up to two proposals.
Eligible Projects
- Within the DCA theme, represents a pressing need in the country and demonstrates a clear linkage with USAID Mission priorities: The proposed project responds to a pressing DCA need in a country that has yet to be adequately addressed and demonstrates a clear linkage with existing Mission priorities.
- Sound technical approach and likely to contribute to sustainable and institutional change: The proposed project demonstrates a sound technical approach based on promising practices, lessons learned and/or international standards in DCA, and demonstrates how and to what extent it will contribute to sustainable and institutional change either at the person-, community-, or country-level. The project goes beyond addressing the symptom of a problem and seeks to identify and mitigate the root causes of inequality and persistent exclusion.
- Substantial involvement of and direct benefit to persons with disabilities: The proposed project demonstrates meaningful involvement of persons with disabilities in the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of the project. The overall direct benefit to persons with disabilities and DPOs offers the best value for the amount of funding requested.
- Thoughtful integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment: The promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment must be thoughtfully integrated into the main objectives, activities, and monitoring and evaluation plans of all applications, in accordance with USAID’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy and USAID ADS 205. If the application is successful, gender considerations must likewise be integrated into the resulting program design.
- Sound monitoring, evaluation and opportunities for learning: The proposed project includes relevant and meaningful indicators to measure both implementation progress as well as success in meeting the stated objectives, and realistic targets. The proposed project should also demonstrate how project learning will be captured and shared with a broad audience, including country stakeholders, USAID and other members of the international development community.
Eligibility Criteria
- All interested USAID Missions are invited to apply for DDI/ID Disability Program funds.
- Submissions of project concepts should be from qualified U.S. or non-U.S. entities, such as private, non-profit organizations (or for-profit companies willing to forego profits), faith- and local community-based organizations, private voluntary organizations, universities, research organizations, and professional associations.
- Local DPOs are strongly encouraged to submit project concepts. Preference will be given to qualified DPOs and/or any of the above organization types that directly collaborate with and/or award sub-grants to DPOs while meeting the requirements for funding.
- In their submissions to Missions, mainstream (non-DPO) organizations must include letter(s) of signed support from local DPOs they wish to partner with for the purpose of the project. Such letters should demonstrate significant involvement of the DPO(s) in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the project.
- PIOs are not eligible to apply for funding under this program.
- In line with USAID’s New Partnerships Initiative, new and underutilized organizations are encouraged to respond to this call. These can include U.S. and local community-based and faith- based partners, that have limited or no recent experience in working with and receiving funds from USAID.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.