USAID-Accra seeking Applications for Strengthening Community Resilience and Learning in Cote d’Ivoire’s Border Areas to Counter Violent Extremism/Resilience for Peace

fundsforNGOs

5 years ago

Deadline: 12-Aug-20

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking applications for a cooperative agreement from qualified entities to implement the Strengthening Continually Resilience and Learning in Cote d’Ivoire’s Border Areas to Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) also known as Resilience for Peace (R4P) Activity.

The goal of R4P is to strengthen community resilience and learning, particularly for youth and women’, to counter violent extremism (CVE) in Cote d’Ivoire’s northern border areas. This program will reinforce resilience structures and factors as well as build in learning to better identify any pockets of radicalization and vulnerability.

More specifically, this award will focus on improving governance in ungoverned spaces in the border regions, enhancing trust between states and their citizens and reinforcing not only the authority but also the utility of the state in the peripheral zones. This activity will proactively address the negative spill-over relating to instability and violence in Burkina Faso and Mali by working to reduce marginalization and inequality particularly around natural resource management and lack of equitable and fair government services. It will also increase economic opportunities, particularly for youth (adolescents) and women as well as increase positive narratives to increase social cohesion in northern border areas.

Objectives

Objective 1: Increase knowledge, learning, and understanding (KLU) of VE in border communities
- Increased practical research and analysis conducted to address analytical gap areas around community resilience to violent extremism.
- Created a cadre of local researchers/practitioners’ and key actors on CVE
- Organized collaborative learning and adapting platforms and networking for exchanges between community actors and researchers/practitioners on CVE
Objective 2: Reduce socio-pol-economic marginalization and inequality in border areas
- Increased trust between communities in northern border areas
Objective 3: Increase positive narratives to counter radicalization and hate speech, particularly for youth women and girls in border areas

Funding Information

USAID intends to award one (1) Cooperative Agreement pursuant to this notice of funding opportunity. Subject to funding availability and at the discretion of the Agency, USAID intends to provide $19.5M in total USAID funding over a five-year (5) period.
The anticipated period of performance is five (5) years. The estimated start date will be in November 2020.

Geographic Focus

This activity will be implemented in geographic areas which were identified during the 2019 Coastal Violent Extremism Risk and Resilience Assessment. Further, R4P will leverage USAID CVE efforts, especially on the border of the country including the northern borders of °Ste d’Ivoire, reached through the Political Transition and Inclusion and the Accountability for Development activities. For Objective One, the geographic targeting will be at the local and national level; for objective two and three the level of effort will be primarily focused at the local level with some important targeted linkages at the national level where relevant. In addition, if the political context changes and political will to work on CVE becomes more open, then there could be an opportunity to engage more at the national level on all objectives in the outer years of this activity. Geographic targeting will include border areas of Cote d’Ivoire from Touba to Bouna including these towns: Odienne, Ouangolodougou,Tengrela, Mbengue, Bouna, Tehini, Doropo, Varape, Man, Bouna and could also include border areas in the south. The activity will include Abidjan as the capital of Cote d’Ivoire, and Bouake as well as San Pedro. The work plans will need to be flexible to adjust or intensify geographic targeting if and when directed by USAID or if and when the context evolves which will require adjustments in the activity.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility for this NOFO is not restricted.
USAID welcomes applications from organizations that have not previously received financial assistance from USAID.

For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=328113