Deadline: 2-Jun-21
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) is seeking applications for funding from qualified entities to implement programming and activities for Humanitarian Capacity and System Strengthening.
BHA is soliciting applications to support programs that focus on improving policies, practice, and standards in humanitarian response through increased coordination among key stakeholders, technical and policy engagement with relevant global actors, innovative and effective approaches to delivering and financing humanitarian assistance, as well as for thematic and operational issues improving humanitarian response to affected populations.
This also includes enhancing humanitarian actors’ ability to respond to humanitarian crises by developing tools and methodologies that contribute to greater understanding of key issues affecting people in crises and humanitarian actors responding to their needs. BHA expects successful applicants to work with BHA and other relevant stakeholders to make new policies, practices, tools, methodologies and innovations available to the wider humanitarian community, where appropriate.
Objectives
- Objective 1: Humanitarian Coordination, Policy Enhancement and Strengthening International Humanitarian Systems
- Strengthen the international humanitarian system through enhanced coordination, improved policies, practices and standards, and technical support to system-wide initiatives.
- Develop and improve tools and methodologies, which could include critical data analysis, research, and monitoring.
- Identify and address gaps or problems inhibiting a more coordinated, inclusive, equitable and effective humanitarian response.
- Promote collective action towards shared goals and objectives in humanitarian response, such as increased diversity and inclusion, expanding the partner base, or address other challenges, through research, convening, or creative programming.
- Address other thematic and operational issues to advance the effectiveness of creative approaches to financing humanitarian assistance.
- Contribute to greater understanding of key issues affecting people in crises and humanitarian actors responding to their needs.
- Objective 2: Global Capacity and Leadership Development
- Increase the inclusion and representation of national and local NGOs in the international humanitarian system at the national and global level through increased knowledge, capabilities, leadership capacity and organizational integration. This work should build upon gains already achieved by BHA and others within the international humanitarian system and be coordinated with existing systemic capacity efforts and programming.
- Objective 3: Humanitarian Innovation
- Enhance the coordination and effectiveness of innovation investments and activities within the humanitarian system in order to ensure humanitarian innovation efforts and investments are additive rather than duplicative and solutions are scalable, and to increase the impact of humanitarian innovation.
Funding Information
- Subject to the availability of funds, BHA intends to have more than one round of applications under this APS. BHA intends to award predominantly cooperative agreements, but reserves the right to award any other form of assistance agreement. For the first round of applications, BHA intends to award up to $31.9 million in total USAID funding for multiple awards, as Cooperative Agreements, for humanitarian capacity and system strengthening.
- For the first round of applications, BHA anticipates that the total amount of each award will not exceed $3 million over a two-year period of performance and interested applicants may submit applications for lesser amounts.
- The awards will be issued for a period of performance of up to twenty-four (24 months) from the date of award.
Illustrative Activities
Objective 1: Humanitarian Coordination, Policy Enhancement and Strengthening International Humanitarian Systems
- Illustrative activities could include but are not limited to:
- Information dissemination and training on best practices, lessons learned and guidance for humanitarian response to expand existing knowledge base on key humanitarian topics and advance collective action toward shared operational, policy or programmatic goals with research, analysis, convening of stakeholders, and programming.
- Monitoring and data collection of internal displacement through evidence-based planning and implementation in countries experiencing internal displacement, which could include a focus on displacement severity, disaggregation of internal displacement data as part of internal displacement profiling, and the publication and dissemination of this work. Engage communities and strengthen local capacity to inform collective solutions to displacement.
- Promote, for example, a systematic implementation of joint and impartial needs assessments in multiple sectors to inform consolidated appeal processes across humanitarian crises in support of the humanitarian program cycle.
- Strengthen the community of practice around innovative finance for crisis affected populations to understand and nurture innovative humanitarian response financing, with the aim to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian response.
- Improve humanitarian coordination and the delivery of humanitarian assistance in the context of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, to address interrelated and cross-cutting issues that challenge humanitarian response, with the exploration of reasonable, cost effective anticipatory action efforts and finance.
- Analyze and improve humanitarian response processes and practices through reforms to the humanitarian system; to address existing and emerging obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, such as mitigating access constraints and promoting principled assistance; to identify practicable solutions, including expanding funding sources; and to ultimately improve the conditions and delivery of critical services to people in need.
Objective 2: Global Capacity and Leadership Development
- Illustrative activities could include but are not limited to:
- Globally-run instructor-led learning and/or training on humanitarian leadership, for local/national NGOs
- Regionally or globally-run programming aimed at increased incorporation of national NGOs into the international system at the country and/or global level such as in the cluster system, the Humanitarian Country Teams and NGO networks.
- Regionally or globally-run programming aimed at improving the international humanitarian systems’ ability to include national NGOs in the international humanitarian architecture.
- Regionally or globally-run programming to increase partnerships and/or linkages between International and national NGOs.
Objective 3: Humanitarian Innovation
- Illustrative activities could include but are not limited to:
- Research to support the development of findings and recommendations that assist in testing, implementing, and up taking priority humanitarian innovation areas.
- Identifying opportunities and strategies that enable more effective coordination and collaboration between international donors and international and national nongovernmental organizations as related to humanitarian innovation.
- Determining appropriate humanitarian innovation impact models across various humanitarian sectors, including results frameworks and identifying appropriate metrics of success.
- Developing processes and approaches for better sharing of best practices, innovation investments, and learning’s on humanitarian innovation activities.
- Pilot projects that are innovative in nature and leverage humanitarian gains.
- Developing methods and strategies for enhanced collaboration and coordination amongst international donors as related to the research, testing, and piloting of innovation solutions to humanitarian challenges at the program and operational levels.
- Efforts that support the design, development, analysis and / or adoption of mutually beneficial frameworks, operational models, and standards for innovative data and technology solutions in the humanitarian sector.
Eligibility Criteria
- U.S. and Non-U.S. Non-Profit Organizations
- Qualified U.S. and non-U.S. non-profit organizations may apply for funding for an assistance award under this APS. Foreign government-owned parastatal organizations from countries that have certain legal restrictions for receiving assistance under the FAA or related appropriations acts are ineligible.
- U.S. and Non-U.S. For-Profit Organizations
- Qualified U.S. and non-U.S. for-profit organizations may apply for funding for an assistance award under this APS. Foreign government-owned parastatal organizations from countries that have certain legal restrictions for receiving assistance under the FAA or related appropriations acts are ineligible.
- U.S. and Non-U.S. Colleges and Universities
- Qualified U.S. and non-U.S. colleges and universities may apply for APS funding under this APS. USG and USAID regulations generally treat colleges and universities as NGOs, rather than governmental organizations; hence, both public and private colleges and universities are eligible. Non-U.S. colleges and universities in countries that have certain legal restrictions for receiving assistance under the FAA or related appropriations acts are ineligible.
- A U.S. or non-U.S. NGO, including Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs)
- An NGO is defined by USAID as any non-governmental organization or entity, whether nonprofit or profit-making. BHA welcomes applications from organizations that have not previously received financial assistance from USAID.
Non-eligible Applicants
- Under this APS, BHA will not accept applications from, or provide awards to individuals, parastatal organizations, public international organizations (PIOs) such as U.N. agencies, or other U.S. Government departments and agencies.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=332976