Counterpart International Afghanistan Afghan Civic Engagement Program (ACEP) Request for Applications (RFA)

Transcription

1 Counterpart International Afghanistan Afghan Civic Engagement Program (ACEP) Request for Applications (RFA) Research, Policy and Advocacy Grants (RPAG) RFA Number: RFA Issuance Date of RFA: 05 November 2018 Deadline for Submission of Questions: 08 November 2018 at 02:00 PM Kabul Time Date of Answers to Questions: 12 November 2018 Application Submission Deadline Date: 17 Nov 2018 at 23:59 Kabul Time Projected Date of Grant Awards: 11 Dec 2018 Purpose of the RFA: To solicit applications from civil society organizations (CSOs) currently implementing research, policy and advocacy initiatives that address issues under the defined thematic areas of this RFA. Eligible Organizations Who Can Apply: All Afghan CSOs (including women-led CSOs) that hold valid registration certificates from the Ministry of Economy and/or Ministry of Justice. Dear Potential Applicant: The USAID-funded Afghan Civic Engagement Program (ACEP), implemented by Counterpart International, Inc. (Counterpart) is soliciting competitive applications from eligible organizations for a Fixed Amount Award (FAA), as described in this solicitation. Only Afghan civil society organizations (CSOs) holding valid registration certificates from the Ministry of Economy and/or the Ministry of Justice and fulfil other criteria mentioned below are eligible to apply for the Research and Policy Advocacy Fixed Amount Award (FAA). The eligibility requirements are further described in the RFA. Counterpart International anticipates awarding One (1) Fixed Amount Award (FAA)s to an Afghan CSO for a period of eight (8) months, and for up to AFN 3,700,000 (Three Million seven hundred thousand). The anticipated start date of the Research, Policy and Advocacy Grants (RPAG) is on or about December 21, Page 1 of 9

2 Applications must be submitted in accordance with the instructions contained in this solicitation. Please note that invitation to apply for an Research, Policy and Advocacy Grants (RPAG) is not a guarantee of a grant being awarded; each application will be judged according to the Application Evaluation Criteria described in this RFA. A. Background The Afghan Civic Engagement Program (ACEP) is a five-year program which has just been extended for the sixth year to focus on civic and voter education, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Counterpart International, Inc. (CPI), in partnership with Internews, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and the International Centre for Non-profit Law (ICNL). The goal of ACEP is to promote civil society and media engagement that enables Afghan citizens to influence policy, monitor government accountability, and serve as advocates for political reform. The program aims to achieve this goal through five program areas: (1) Regular Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) Engagement with Government; (2) Increased CSO and Media Thematic Expertise in Democracy and Governance; (3) Expanded Civic Engagement; (4) Improved Access to Independent News and Public Affairs Information, and (5) Increased CSO Organizational Capacity. B. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION A multidimensional and inclusive approach of peacebuilding, appropriate engagement of different stakeholders strengthens existing measures and efforts to build peace in Afghanistan, it will ultimately increase the chances of success and obtaining desired results. Peacebuilding process will be more promising when root causes of insecurity are properly addressed, focusing only at the political/leadership level helps peace talks but is not enough for sustainability of peace process. Top down and bottom up peacebuilding approaches should move in parallel to ensure sustainability and a moderate reconciliation process. There are various grievances that lead to conflicts in Afghanistan that we cannot ignore when we are in the process of considering interventions to strengthen the process of peace. Among many factors, radicalization has been one of the major drives that prepares Afghan youth to join anti-government armed groups in an elusive and everlasting journey of violence. It is impossible to reach peace without having some counter-radicalization interventions. Counter-radicalization interventions and community peace building are very instrumental in the process of peace building in Afghanistan, in which civil society can play a significant role. CSOs can select and work on projects that addresses radicalization through community peace building and CSOs efforts. Specific objectives may include: 1) researches that identify invisible elements and root causes fuelling radicalization in the communities, 2) advocating with government to tackle radicalization in the country, 3) produce teaching materials, i.e. civic education and human rights self-learning manuals, and conduct human rights capacity development opportunities for the imams of the insecure prone communities, 4) work with civil society networks to develop/build on an existing peace building strategy for Afghanistan civil society organizations and 5) build in country peace building experts and practitioners, 6) work and advocate for the rights of victims of war, child soldiers and veterans. CSOs conduct secondary research on any of the above-mentioned illustrative objectives or generally on Page 2 of 9

3 current peace building measures of context sharing countries and select and work on projects that best address mitigation of radicalization and contribute to peace building process. C. Expected Outcome: - Afghan citizens, civil society and government are well-aware of root causes of radicalization in Afghanistan - A national peace building strategy is developed that defines the key areas of civil society interventions in peace building and in country capacity built for follow of the strategy. - Afghan government takes necessary measures to tackle radicalizations, i.e. draft new legislation that addresses radicalization, and take decisions that support counter radicalization. - Civic education materials are produced for counter radicalization in Afghan communities Note: Counterpart will not fund activities that are described as banned activities by the NGO Law and other Laws of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Article 8). D. Eligibility Requirements Counterpart will accept applications from organizations that meet the following eligibility requirements: Peacebuilding and reconciliation: a) Applicants must demonstrate at least five years of previous experience working on peacebuilding and reconciliation. b) Applicant must demonstrate a good working relationship with High Peace Council (HPC), relevant CSOs and CSO working groups that works on peacebuilding and last but not least with other public relevant institutions. c) Applicants must be Afghan Civil Society Organization, holding valid registration certificates from the Ministry of Economy and/or the Ministry of justice, should be formally constituted, recognized by and in good standing with appropriate government authorities, have its principle place of business in the recipient country, and compliant with all applicable civil and fiscal regulations (clean audit report). d) The applicant cannot be currently implementing another grant awarded by ACEP. e) Applicants must be able to demonstrate successful past performance in implementation of mentoring, coaching and training using adult learning methodologies, programs related to ACEP priority areas as described in this RFA. f) Applicants must have established outreach capabilities with linkages to the beneficiary group(s) identified in the program description. This should be reflected by the incorporation of the beneficiary perspective in the application. g) Applicants must display sound management in the form of financial, administrative, and technical policies and procedures and present a system of internal controls that safeguard assets; protect against fraud, waste, and abuse; and support the achievement of program goals and objectives. ACEP will assess this capability prior to awarding a grant. h) Applicants must be based or be able to travel to the provinces they are applying for. Page 3 of 9

4 E. FUNDING AND OTHER LIMITATIONS E.1 Fixed Amount Awards (FAAs) Each FAA award cannot exceed AFN 3,700,000. Payments shall be made based on the successful achievement of agreed-upon milestones. Please note that Counterpart will only pay the grantee for each milestone once it is successfully completed and accepted. Please note the following points regarding ACEP s issuance of FAAs, in accordance with USAID s Automated Directives System (ADS ): FAAs are intended to support specific program elements; there is no requirement for ACEP to monitor the actual costs subsequently incurred. This type of award reduces some of the administrative burden and record-keeping requirements. Accountability is primarily based on performance and results. FAAs are used to support specific projects, where there is a certainty about cost, and where the accomplishment of the purpose or milestone(s) in the grant is readily discernible and feasible. CSOs are paid a set amount (determined by the final value of the approved budget) upon the accomplishment of agreed to milestones and deliverables. International airfares and indirect costs are not eligible for ACEP financing. Real property may not be purchased with FAA funding. Real property means land, including land improvements, structures and accessories thereto, but excludes movable machinery and equipment. E.2 Preventing Terrorist Financing Organizations are reminded that they must not engage in transactions with, or provide resources or support to, individuals and organizations associated with terrorism, including those individuals or entities that appear on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List maintained by the U.S. Treasury (online at: or the United Nations Security designation list (online at: E.3 Prohibition to Fund Banned Activities Counterpart will not fund activities that are described as banned activities by the NGO Law and other Laws of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Article 8). E.4 Other Limitations To avoid duplication of funding, CSOs that have active grants/programs and/or planning to receive grants/programs of similar nature from USAID or other donors will not be considered for this opportunity at this time. By submitting a proposal in response to this RFA, the applicant certifies that it has not received a grant of a similar nature from USAID or other donors, to be implemented during the same timeframe. Page 4 of 9

5 F. INSTRUCTIONS TO APPLICANTS FAA applications shall consist of a Technical Proposal and a Cost Proposal (Budget and Narrative), as described below. An application containing all of the required information in the following Application Requirements shall be considered a complete application. F.1 Application Requirements NOTES: Most of the forms referenced below and attached are new or revised. You must use the forms attached with this RFA. Do not use old forms from previous RFAs or from other donors. THE MAXIMUM TOTAL number of pages is 10, not counting the cover page, list of projects and log frame. Anything beyond 10 pages will NOT be read by the Grant Technical Evaluation Committee (GTEC) members and therefore not be considered in the scoring. Responses to this RFA must be submitted in English. Proposals should be limited to no more than ten (10) pages, submitted in Times Roman 12 and contain the following documents: I. Technical Proposal (Using Attachment A1- Proposal) 1. Legal, registered name of organization and acronym 2. Contact information (address, telephone number; and website address) 3. Name, position and contact information of the Official Organizational Representative who is authorized to sign agreements 4. Applicants must submit a Technical Proposal structured as follows: a. Objectives, Analysis & Understanding: This section presents the applicant s analysis and understanding of the objectives of the Elections Grant. b. Implementation Approach: This section should describe the approach the applicant will take to implement the project and why such an approach has been chosen. c. Suitability: This section should describe why the CSO applying is ideally suited to implement the grant and in which province. It should provide examples of previous work that has been similar and successfully implemented. d. Conflict Sensitivity: This section should describe the CSOs understanding of and approach that will be taken to being conflict sensitive. e. Gender Mainstreaming: This section should include the organizational understanding of gender mainstreaming as well as the how the project implemented under this grant will be gender mainstreamed. f. Inclusivity Approach: This section should provide a description of how different sections of communities will be included and represented throughout the activities implemented under this grant. Importantly how disabled people, youth and people from different socio-economic background will be included and represented. g. Implementation Plan: This section presents a plan for implementing the requirements shown under Activities and Milestones in the Program Description under Section C and D above. It should include the names of communities the CSO Page 5 of 9

6 will work in during the course of this grant and the justification for including them. h. Key Personnel: This section should provide the Scopes of Work of the Provincial CSO Partner s civic educators (three male and two female),) and the project manager. Note: All technical proposals must be the original work of the CSO applying. Instances of plagiarism (the use of others work/writing without correct referencing) will not be tolerated and any part of a proposal that has been plagiarized will not be considered as part of the technical proposal when the proposal is evaluated by the Grant Technical Evaluation Committee (GTEC). II. Budget and Budget Narrative (Using Attachments B1- Budget and B2- Budget Narrative) 1. Using Attachment B1, please develop a Budget in an amount not to exceed AFN 3,700,000. Please note the Sample Budget tab included in the template that shows what the budget should look like. Please ensure that only costs that are directly related to the grant activities are budgeted. Indirect costs are not allowed under this grant. The budget should reflect all the resources necessary for project implementation. Budgets are to be developed based on the specific needs associated with the applicant s proposed activities. 2. Please develop a Budget Narrative using the template provided in Attachment B2. The budget narrative should provide details on all types of costs planned, cost per unit and cost justification. 3. It is important that an amount of budget be set aside for implementing the activities that will be designed as part of the community mobilization and district and provincial advocacy plans. A more precise budget for these along with corresponding milestones and MOVs will be required at the end of the fourth month of the grant s duration. Required Documents to Attach as Part of the Application. If these are not included, the proposal will not be read, scored or considered. 1. Copy of the Registration Certificate 2. Copy of the Organization s Charter or Document of Incorporation or Organization s bylaws 3. Organization s most recent annual financial statement and audit report for the most recent year 4. Organizational chart outlining the staffing structure by name and title and showing the number of staff employed. CVs of the key staff. 5. A copy of the receipt from the Ministry of Economy of the CSO biannual report to the Ministry/Department of Economy An application containing all of the required information in the above Application Requirements shall be considered a complete application. If one of the documents is missing, the application will not be considered as complete and therefore not be read or scored. Page 6 of 9

7 F.2 Questions & Answers Questions regarding the RFA must be submitted in writing to with subject line: Question RFA Research and Policy Advocacy Grant (RPAG) by no later than 08 November :00 PM (Kabul time). All Questions collected & Answers (Q&A) will ed as a modification to the applicants on 12 November During this solicitation process, interested applicants may not contact, speak with or ask questions of any Counterpart ACEP staff. All possible questions should be submitted through within the specified timeline indicated above and must be directed to applications.acep@counterpart.org. Any other contact is grounds for disqualification of the organization s application. F.3 Deadline Date for Responding to this RFA Complete Applications should be ed to applications.acep@counterpart.org. The and attachment total size should not exceed 20 MB. If needed, an application may be submitted through multiple s. Please include in the submission the following subject line: RFA Research and Policy Advocacy Grant The deadline for submitting Complete Applications is November 17, 2018, 23:59 PM Kabul Time. LATE OR INCOMPLETE SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. Applications and accompanying documentation will not be returned. All applicants will be notified on outcome once the grant recipient is awarded. E. Applications Evaluation Process Only complete applications received by the Application Submission Deadline Date will be accepted and submitted to the Grant Technical Evaluation Committee (GTEC) for review. GTEC members, Counterpart technical staff from different departments with ACEP, will thoroughly review and evaluate the applications in accordance with application evaluation procedures below. Page 7 of 9

8 Applications will be reviewed based on the following evaluation criteria: Application Technical Aspects for Selection 1. Relevance of the proposed project to the key purpose of the Research, Policy and Advocacy Grant (RPAG) 2. Organization s ability to successfully implement the project. Relevant previous experience including list of grants obtained in the last three years 3. Relevance and suitability of planned activities and expected result to achieve project objectives related to the thematic areas described in the RFA 4. Project sustainability potential and impact on target communities/beneficiaries 5. Project activities demonstrated Gender and Youth mainstreaming 7 6. Budget reasonableness and cost effectiveness; Replicability and/or potential to have significant impact 5 Maximum Score 100 Scoring Using the above evaluation criteria, GTEC members will score and rank each application and recommend One (1) for funding. As applicable, GTEC may request CSOs to provide additional information and refine their proposals within an established deadline for re-submission of a revised application. The selected applications will undergo a pre-award risk assessment for the purpose of an inperson review of grant seeking organization s financial and administrative systems by Counterpart staff who have expertise in the areas being examined to adequately evaluated organization s systems to determine their adequacy to receive and manage USAID funded award under Afghan Civic Engagement Program (ACEP). ACEP will finalize negotiations and the grantees will be submitted to USAID for approval (including vetting approval). Counterpart will issue the final advance plus cost reimbursement agreements to the selected CSOs after USAID approval is received. 5. Post-Award Orientation Meeting After the award, ACEP shall conduct a post-award orientation meeting with the selected CSO. The meeting may be held in person or by phone. The post-award orientation meeting is an essential tool to help ACEP and the recipient achieve a clear and mutual understanding of the Fixed Amount Award (FAA) s requirements. The meeting helps the CSO understand the roles and responsibilities of ACEP who is administering the grant and reduces performance risks and future problems. It is an opportunity to review, discuss and clarify key aspects of the grant and its administration, help the CSOs meet the intended goals and outputs of the grant and contribute to building the CSO s institutional capacity. In addition, it should identify those areas where the CSOs may need additional help in meeting the grant s conditions. Items to Page 8 of 9

9 be discussed at the meeting should include, but not be limited to, the authority of ACEP personnel who administer the grant, the specific terms and conditions of the grant, ACEP s monitoring and evaluation plans, milestones, requests for payment, voucher approval, and payment procedures. 6. Monitoring and Site Visits As part of proper implementation of the grant activities, it is important that appropriate monitoring and oversight of the CSO and the activities is conducted. Site visits will be (security permitting) conducted by Counterpart Staff and/or Counterpart Consultants to ensure that satisfactory progress is being made and the milestones are being met. As part of USAID requirements, grant activities may also be monitored by USAID s third-party monitoring contractors under the Monitoring Support Project (MSP). 8. Subgrant Agreement Award and Payments All requests for payment must correspond to a milestone and/or activity specified in the fixed amount award. Invoices (also referred to as Vouchers) must list the milestones and/or activity, not costs, as the product, task, deliverable or objective for which payment is being made. ACEP shall independently verify and document that the milestone has been completed; however, it may choose to rely on verification by a third-party verifier. Only ACEP may give administrative approval of recipient vouchers. Since fixed amount award payments are for fixed-amount milestones and/or activities, ACEP will not verify that the CSO incurred the costs as estimated in making the award. Any actual differences between the estimated costs used to set the milestone and/or deliverable payments and the CSO s actual incurred costs cannot be used to adjust the agreed upon amount for the milestone or the FAA. The documentation required for payment, per the Milestone/Deliverable Schedule in the FAA, relates to proof that the milestone was completed. Because payment follows verification of milestone completion, the timing of verification shall be planned and conducted in a manner so that payment is received as soon as possible. Disclaimers Please note that the issuance of this Request for Application does not constitute a commitment on the part of Counterpart International, Inc. for funding or an award. All costs associated in the preparation and submission of a proposal in response to this RFA shall be the sole responsibility of the applicant. RFA Enclosures: Attachment A1: ACEP Proposal Template Attachment B1: ACEP Budget Template Attachment B2: ACEP Budget Narrative Template Sample Fixed Amount Award Grant Page 9 of 9