Deadline: 24-Jul-23
The Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office) announces an open competition for applications from organizations with experience undertaking rapid landscape and gap analyses in one or more regions on human trafficking or closely related issues, such as health, education, labor, or gender, among others.
The purpose of this NOFO is to identify organizations that can be called upon in the future by the TIP Office to conduct rapid landscape and gap analyses in the region of expertise of the selected application(s). These analyses will be used to help the TIP Office build a repository of evidence that will inform the design of research and projects funded and implemented around the world.
This solicitation seeks applicants that demonstrate previous experience conducting landscape and gap analyses on human trafficking or closely related issues in one or more regions.
Applicants will be called upon by the TIP Office quarterly or biannually to conduct rapid landscape and gap analyses that provide a robust understanding of a specific TIP problem in a particular country in the region the applicant demonstrated experience (i.e., sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East/North Africa, South and Central Asia, and the Western Hemisphere).
The TIP Office anticipates future landscape and gap analyses may focus on, but are not limited to, some or all the following areas. Strong applicants will highlight past analyses that demonstrate similar types of expectations:
- Identification of common trafficking trends in-country.
- Identification of all key stakeholders in-country, including government actors working on human trafficking. This should include the titles of each actor, their role, how effective they are in that position, strengths of each actor and gaps in knowledge, and noteworthy skills and cooperation with other government entities.
- Identification of all human trafficking and human trafficking adjacent donors active in the country. Human trafficking adjacent programming could include education, gender-based violence, mental health services, vocational services, criminal justice sector training and assistance, and health or other prevention activities.
- An overview of government-invested funding, if any, towards human trafficking and human trafficking adjacent issues. This may be demonstrated in funds allocated for government worker salaries and/or government support for NGOs providing services and shelter.
- Identification of local and international NGOs and International Organizations active in human trafficking and human trafficking adjacent work and assessment of the government’s engagement with NGOs, whether positive or negative.
- Identification of tools a country’s government has at its disposal to combat human trafficking, such as a National Action Plan, a National Referral Mechanism, a multidisciplinary task force focused on trafficking, police units dedicated to human trafficking, child friendly spaces for interviewing child trafficking victims, a case management system for the care of a victim as well as for the prosecution of cases, among others. Assessing whether these tools are implemented and, if so, to what effect.
- Examples of training courses utilized in the country’s national academies for social workers, police, prosecutors, judges, etc.
- Elaboration on the regulatory system, if any, for the recruitment of overseas workers and other mechanisms to protect overseas workers from exploitation.
- Mapping of active systems involved in the human trafficking response, looking at prevention (including but not limited to, education, vocational work, financial inclusion programs, public awareness campaigns, etc.), protection (including but not limited to, proactive identification of victims, referral mechanisms, shelter and medical and psychosocial services), and prosecution efforts (including but not limited to investigations by police, labor and immigration services, investigations and prosecutions by prosecutors’ offices, and judges adjudicating human trafficking and forced labor cases).
- Identification of current activities and programming in-country that could be built upon in potential future funding. This should include human trafficking adjacent activities and entities, especially in under-resourced countries, such as one-stop centers, social services centers, vocational academies, NGO shelters and services, etc.
- Needs assessment based on information above to identify current gaps and challenges related to the trafficking response in-country. This will require both primary and secondary data collection (i.e., existing data sources already in the identified country). Local service providers must be consulted on this assessment.
- Establish a protocol and/or guidelines for conducting landscape analyses on human trafficking that could be used in future TIP Office programming.
- Literature review of current and recent research conducted in-country on human trafficking or a closely related field.
Funding Information
- The maximum amount of funding allocated for rapid assessments in this solicitation is $400,000 for a one-year program.
- The TIP Office expects to fund 6-8 assessments under the funding provided. The expectation is that an analysis is completed within 3-4 months or less.
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 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.
- Applications submitted by for-profit entities may be subject to additional review following the panel selection process. Additionally, the Department of State prohibits profit to commercial or for-profit organizations under its assistance awards. Profit is defined as any amount in excess of allowable direct and indirect costs. The allowability of costs incurred by commercial organizations is determined in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) at 48 CFR 30, Cost Accounting Standards Administration, and 48 CFR 31 Contract Cost Principles and Procedures.
- Organizations currently receiving funds from the TIP Office may apply for additional funding under the present funding opportunity. The eligibility requirements for applying to this funding opportunity do not restrict applicants from receiving other sources of funding from the U.S. government, including funding from other bureaus within the Department of State. However, the applicant must provide information on previous work conducted with U.S. government funding related to human trafficking issues or cross-cutting (health, education, labor, gender, etc.) issues within the project narrative.
- Under this funding opportunity, applicants may partner with other organizations in submitting application(s).
For more information, visit Grants.gov.