USAID/Morocco Local Climate Action Program

Deadline: 3-Nov-23

The United States Agency for International Development in Morocco (USAID/Morocco) is seeking concepts from qualified local Moroccan organizations for the Local Climate Action Program.

Objectives

• The objective of this activity is to drive systemic changes to build resilience to climate change impacts, especially for marginalized groups, with a focus on women and girls. The activity supports locally led climate action that takes a local systems approach to strengthen resilience to climate change impacts and creates space for women, youth, and other local stakeholders to lead locally defined solutions to climate change impacts in Moroccan communities.
• The Climate Listening Tour discussions emphasized a variety of climate impacts and trends. Concepts should address some aspects of the key challenges prioritized across regions, specifically:
  • Water scarcity such as decreases in rainfall, drought, limited access to water and sanitation, reduced agricultural productivity, depletion of underground reservoirs, increased frequency of flooding, increasing demand on water resources, and limited water conservation and recycling.
  • Social impacts such as disproportionate impacts on women and women’s livelihoods, impacts on mental and physical health, youth migration to urban areas and abroad for job opportunities, disproportionate impacts on people with disabilities, and lack of awareness of climate risks, impacts, and solutions.
  • Economic impacts such as limited economic and employment opportunities, especially in green economic sectors, reduced incomes from agriculture, and limited ability to diversify income-generating activities.
• The problems and issues driving climate change in Morocco are complex and interconnected. To achieve meaningful change, a holistic local systems approach that addresses some aspects of these key challenges and that engages a wide community of local stakeholders to co-create and develop, endorse, implement, and ultimately be held accountable for local solutions to local challenges is necessary.

Funding Information

• Subject to the availability of funds, USAID/Morocco anticipates allocating up to USD $2,000,000 for one or more awards to a prime local partner over a period of three (3) to five (5) years.

Approaches

• The proposed activity should incorporate the following key approaches:
  • Approach 1:
    • Strengthen local systems: A local system is the interconnected set of actors— governments, civil society, the private sector, universities, individual citizens and others—that jointly produce some development outcome. Using a systems lens means to understand these actors relevant to achieving meaningful and lasting results, their interrelations, and the incentives that guide them.
    • Approaches should seek to strengthen the local systems to become more climate resilient over time. The approaches should drive systemic changes that promote meaningful participation and active leadership of women and girls in climate action and resilience, as well as catalyze climate action and build resilience, particularly for marginalized groups.
  • Approach 2:
    • Inclusion: Given that vulnerable communities are the most impacted by the negative effects of climate change, empowering vulnerable communities is at the heart of this intervention. Applicants should prioritize leadership of women and youth and other underrepresented groups, including persons with disabilities, to address their barriers to participation in climate change adaptation practices and to participate in decision-making processes related to the governance of natural resources and climate change.
    • Furthermore, economic empowerment of these vulnerable communities could happen through technical and/or soft skill development, education and sensitization to climate change issues, promoting their traditional knowledge and innovative strategies for livelihoods, and/or ensuring accessibility to information, technologies and funding (loans, equity or grants).
  • Approach 3:
    • Scale and Sustainability: Through this activity USAID seeks to build and strengthen local systems in a sustainable way using innovative and inclusive actions to support vulnerable communities to adapt to climate change and become more resilient. The available USAID resources are expected to minimize gaps rather than address all local needs. Therefore, Applicants must clearly identify linkages with key local stakeholders that can contribute to and scale the activity’s objectives in the longer term, including the Government of Morocco.
    • Applicants should propose an approach(es) to scale solutions in order to achieve broader reach beyond the life of the program.
  • Approach 4:
    • Recognizing, Leveraging, and Strengthening Local Capacity: Applicants should propose an intentional approach to capacity strengthening of:
      • The broader local system: Local capacity strengthening is a strategic and intentional investment in the process of partnering with local actors-individuals, organizations, and networks-to jointly improve the performance of a local system to produce locally valued and sustainable development outcomes.
      • Implementing partners: USAID encourages implementing partner(s) to strengthen their own capacities in key areas to better achieve their mission and contribute to development outcomes.
    • USAID also encourages Applicants to consider what technical assistance their organization may need to strengthen capacity to diversify their funding sources and achieve long-term financial sustainability.

Geographic Considerations

• USAID/Morocco invites Concepts from Applicants that focus on one or more of the following regions: Fes-Meknes, Souss-Massa, and Oriental. Within the selected region(s), Applicants should propose several (i.e. three or more) local communities1 in which to pilot a local systems strengthening approach. USAID is interested in learning from approaches in diverse communities with different characteristics (i.e. mountainous areas, farmland, oases, arid areas, etc).

Eligibility Criteria

• USAID welcomes Concepts from a wide variety of local actors who bring an understanding of the development challenges facing their communities or regions or who demonstrate a way to determine local priorities in their approach.
• Eligible Applicants:
  • Must be local entities in Morocco. When determining if an entity is a “local entity” for the purposes of this APS Addendum, USAID will consider:
    • Whether the entity is legally organized under the laws of Morocco;
    • Whether the entity has its principal place of business or operations in Morocco;
    • Whether the entity is majority owned and controlled by individuals who are citizens or lawful permanent residents of Morocco; and
    • Whether the entity is managed by a governing body, the majority of whom are citizens or lawful permanent residents of Morocco.
  • Cannot have received more than $5 million in direct funding (as a prime awardee) from USAID in the previous five fiscal years.
  • Cannot be a U.S.-based organization. U.S.-based organizations are not eligible as prime awardees under this APS Addendum.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.