Deadline: 4-Sep-20
The U.S. Embassy Cotonou of the U.S. Department of State announces a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a program to improve civic education, citizen participation, and public accountability at the communal level. The project will educate citizens about their roles in citizen oversight, train communal councils on their role in promoting transparency and communicating with constituents, and facilitate inclusive community dialogues and the development of social contracts between citizens and communal councils.
Renewing Benin’s Social Contract will complement Benin’s existing administrative infrastructure to increase citizen engagement and encourage transparency at the communal level.
Civil society organizations and the independent Benin Human Rights Commission acknowledge the need to include the local public, including vulnerable populations, in decision-making, a role that communal councils should play to ensure that citizens’ needs are met. The practice of decentralization since 2013 has gradually established citizen participation mechanisms via local citizen committees which assist and contribute to the debate during communal council meetings.
Objectives
- Objective 1: Build capacity of communal council members to communicate with and respond to constituents while advancing civil and political rights, including freedoms of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and access to information.
- Objective 2: Build capacity of citizens, civil society organizations, labor organizations, and registered political parties to actively participate in policy dialogue and political processes.
Main Activities
- Activity 1: Educate citizens – especially women, youth, and marginalized populations – about their roles and responsibilities in monitoring local government performance and resource allocation through citizen engagement and existing or new oversight mechanisms.
- Activity 2: Train newly elected and veteran communal council members on their responsibilities to promote transparency, communicate effectively with constituents, facilitate community dialogue on key local issues, and respond to citizen concerns and demands.
- Activity 3: Facilitate diverse and inclusive community dialogues on key governance, social, and economic issues impacting women, youth, and marginalized populations. Facilitate the development of signed citizen-communal council social contracts, recording and tracking citizens’ governance priorities and councils’ commitments and actions to address them.
Funding Information
- The amount of funds is $3,75,000 US dollars.
- The period of performance will be 24 months
Eligibility Criteria
The following organizations are eligible to apply:
- U.S. Non-profit/non-governmental organizations (NGOs) having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, and overseas-based non-profit/non-governmental organizations.
- For-profit and commercial firms are not eligible to apply in response to this NOFO.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=328591
