Deadline: 4-Jan-21
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Zimbabwe is seeking applications for a fixed amount award from eligible Zimbabwean organizations to implement the activity entitled “Local Works Zimbabwe Youth Program Collaborative Action Network.”
The overall goal of this activity is to advance locally led development where the Recipient will facilitate stakeholder engagement, promote communication among stakeholder groups, collect and analyze data, and take on other responsibilities that support the Local Works Zimbabwe Youth Program design objectives.
The Recipient will facilitate youth to conduct listening tours and will be responsible for organizing a Whole System in the Room workshop (WSR) to convene key stakeholders to develop a systems map and process on youth entrepreneurship development.
The Recipient will, among other objectives:
- Mobilize youth to lead the design of the Local Works Zimbabwe Youth Program in an inclusive manner and in line with USAID’s PYD approach.
- Facilitate meetings, workshops, stakeholder consultations and other events that support the design of the Local Works Zimbabwe Youth Program.
- Facilitate youth to conduct listening and discussions with fellow youth in their communities that encourage consensus and ownership and lead to a clear definition of the challenges that youth are facing and proposed solutions to tackle them.
- Demonstrate accountability by providing and receiving timely feedback from youth and other local actors including communities, youth associations, youth serving organizations, the private sector, development partners, government and others.
- Document and share lessons learned, best practices and recommend any future steps for further development of the youth-led Local Works Zimbabwe Youth Program. This includes quarterly and annual reports and presentations at stakeholder meetings. The Recipient will ensure that these lessons learned are generated by and for youth.
- Provide input into any pre-design analyses and assessments that might become necessary during the design process.
- Facilitate the leadership of youth in designing, conducting, and analyzing results of these assessments.
- Facilitate the development of a draft Program Description for a youth-led activity(ies). This will be informed by the collaborative decisions and action plans that will emanate from the WSR.
Funding Information
- USAID intends to provide up to $250,000 in total USAID funding over 18 months for achievement of milestones.
Milestones
- Milestone 1: Program familiarization and development of a Design Implementation Plan (DIP). This milestone seeks to familiarize the Recipient with the overall goal of the Local Works Zimbabwe Youth Program and to develop a draft implementation plan. USAID/Zimbabwe expects this milestone within the first three months from the award start date.
- Milestone 2: Co-creation of a Youth Advisory Board. At the core of the Local Works program is USAID/Zimbabwe’s strong conviction that young people have the capacity to frame and make positive contributions in the development of their societies. To ensure that young people achieve this, the Recipient will co-create a diverse, inclusive and independent youth advisory board (YAB) to inform and offer governance oversight towards the design of the Local Works Zimbabwe Youth Program.
- Milestone 3: Facilitate youth-led listening. Young people’s aspirations and needs continue to evolve as the communities around them change. This means that in addition to desk literature reviews, there is a need to cross check, affirm and validate some of the key findings in a range of past studies on youth while capturing emerging needs, aspirations and opportunities for their growth. This milestone will ensure that diverse groups of young people are consulted and heard through a series of listening tours across the country and with often forgotten young populations in urban and rural spaces.
- Milestone 4: Stakeholder Engagement, Coordination and Logistical Support. Ensuring that the program engages the whole system in a collaborative manner, promotes multistakeholder dialogue, generates cross-sector partnerships, and discovers collaborative solutions, the Recipient will engage with and coordinate various stakeholders and provide logistical support for the Whole System in the Room approach.
- Milestone 5: Local Works Collaborative Action Network support. For many actors working with young people, the concept of Local Works is new. This requires support, clear documentation, networking and a clear communication strategy. Networking is important as it will allow the program to layer its response, adopt and adapt to emerging issues while offering a learning curve for other stakeholders.
- Milestone 6: Monitoring and Reporting on LWCAN. One of the key principles of Local Works is collaborative, learning and adaptation (CLA) for locally led initiatives. ThebRecipient will develop and implement a monitoring and evaluation framework that aligns to the management of the Local Works Zimbabwe Youth Program. This service cuts across all the program milestones.
- Milestone 7: Advocacy and Strategy Implementation. The success of this activity depends on the Recipient implementing a strategy that allows for building bridges with stakeholders and being able to articulate the aim and goals of the activity. This should be done throughout the period of performance.
- Milestone 8: Working Group Project Management. Offering project management support is a key competency for the success of this program. Support to and provision of project management will range from accompaniment of the YAB and being an interlocutor with a range of stakeholders including USAID/Zimbabwe. This service will also cut across other milestones and will run from award inception up to the end of the period of performance.
Eligibility Criteria
USAID defines a local entity as an individual, corporation, a nonprofit organization, or another body of persons that:
- Is legally organized under the laws of Zimbabwe;
- Has as its principal place of business or operations in Zimbabwe;
- Is majority owned by individuals who are citizens or lawful permanent residents of Zimbabwe; and
- Is managed by a governing body the majority of who are citizens or lawful permanent residents of Zimbabwe.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=330005