2021 07 02 AFRDF Corruption Nofo Final.docx

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

U.S. Embassy, Windhoek Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)

Awards are subject to the availability of funding and Congressional Notification

A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The U.S. Embassy in Windhoek announces an open competition for organizations to submit proposals for a nation-wide civil society led project to help Namibia fight corruption. Please carefully follow all instructions below.

Priority Region: Republic of Namibia

Program Objectives and Background:

Under this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) assistance award solicitation, the Embassy will provide a one-time grant to a local nongovernmental or civil society organization to design and implement a program that helps Namibia combat corruption.

Corruption is increasingly becoming an obstacle to the accountable, responsive, and transparent functioning of Namibia’s democracy. Through this grant, the U.S. Embassy in Windhoek aims to assist Namibia in combatting corruption by empowering civil society in its watchdog function to increase accountability and attention on corruption. Pursuant to this NOFO, the U.S. Embassy will support an anti-corruption project designed and implemented by a local civil society organization. The anti-corruption project should be multi-year and aim to bring together civil society, members of the media, the general public, the private sector, and the government to take concrete actions against corruption. The project should have nation-wide components and ideally will partner with regionally based civil society organizations to assist with roll-out. This NOFO is purposely non-prescriptive as our intention is to allow flexibility to animate locally grown anti-corruption ideas.

Project Objectives:

(1) Namibian civil societies actively engaged on fighting corruption and enhances its ability to serve as a watchdog; and

(2) Civil society helps increase public and government attention to fighting corruption, leading to increased investigation and prosecution of corruption cases and full implementation and enforcement of anti-corruption legislation, such as the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Access to Information Act, and the Powers and y Privileges of Parliament Act; and

(3) The grantee promotes public anti-corruption education and helps animate anti-corruption champions within Namibia.

This program is part of the U.S. State Department’s Africa Regional Democracy Fund (ARDF) intended to support programming that strengthens democratic institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. Specific ARDF objectives are to promote accountable, transparent, and responsive governance; promote human rights and fundamental freedoms; and support democratic processes and promotion of strong democratic norms.

Direct funding for individuals, public international organizations, foreign governments, parastatal organizations, educational institutions, or U.S. Government departments and agencies is not available under this announcement.

Participants and Audiences:

The project should have nation-wide reach.

B. FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION

Length of performance period: Up to 36 months (3 years) Number of awards anticipated: One award. The USG reserves the right to award more than one project under this announcement.

Total available funding: Up to a maximum of USD 250,000.

Type of Funding: FY 2020 Economic Support Funds under the Foreign Assistance Act.

Anticipated project start date: October 1, 2021 Funding Instrument Type: Grant Performance Period: Proposed project should be completed in approximately 36 months.

This notice is subject to availability of funding.

C. ELIGILIBITY INFORMATION

Eligible Applicants: Not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks and civil society/non-governmental organizations (local).

Cost Sharing or Matching: This program does not require cost sharing.

Other Eligibility Requirements: In order to be eligible to receive an award, all organizations must have a unique entity identifier (Data Universal Numbering System/DUNS number from Dun & Bradstreet), as well as a valid registration on www.SAM.gov. Please see Section D for information on how to obtain these registrations.

Applicants are only allowed to submit one proposal per organization. If more than one proposal is submitted from an organization, all proposals from that institution will be considered ineligible for funding. If an organization has a proposal with different programmatic deliverables, please submit them all under one proposal.

D. APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Content and Form of Application Submission:

Please follow all instructions below carefully. Proposals that do not meet the requirements of this announcement or fail to comply with the stated requirements will be ineligible.

Please ensure:

· The proposal clearly addresses the goals and objectives of this funding opportunity;

· All documents are in English;

· All budgets are in U.S. dollars; and

· All pages are numbered.

The proposal should contain sufficient information so that anyone would understand exactly what the applicant proposes. Applicants must submit a complete proposal that includes the items listed below. The proposal should not exceed 10 pages total and include:

1. Mandatory Application Forms:

· SF-424 (Application for Foreign Assistance) located on grants.gov

· SF-424A (Budget Application) located on grants.gov

· SF-424B (Assurances for non-construction projects) located on grants.gov

2. Summary page: A cover sheet stating the applicant’s name and organization, proposal date, program title, program proposed start and end date, and brief purpose of the program.

3. Proposal:

· Proposal Summary: A brief narrative that outlines the proposed project, including project objectives and anticipated influence of the project.

· Introduction to the Organization: A description of past and present operations, as well as information on any previous grants from the U.S. Embassy and/or U.S. government agencies.

· Problem Statement: A clear, concise and well-supported statement of the issue that the proposal addresses and how it will address it.

· Project Goals and Objectives:

· The “goals” should describe what the project is intended to have achieved at its completion. How will it strengthen Namibia’s ability to fight corruption?

· The “objectives” refer to the intermediate accomplishments on the way to the goals. These should be achievable and measurable.

· The project should monitor and report on performance indicators that are specific, measurable, achievable, reasonable, and time-bound. Establish, where possible, performance baseline data and expected performance targets for each expected result and include details how the indicators will be measured. Please fill out the table below with the included required indicators and any additional indicators relevant to the objectives of the project.

· Program Methods and Design: A description of how the project is expected to work and solve or address the stated problem.

· Project Activities: The specific activities related to the objectives that must be reached and the methods used to achieve the stated objectives.

· Proposed Project Schedule: The proposed timeline for undertaking and completing the specific project activities. Dates, times, and locations of planned activities and events should be included.

· Key Personnel: The names, titles, roles, and experience/background of the key personnel to be involved in the project.

– Who will work on the project?

– What responsibilities will they have?

– What qualifications do they have?

– What proportion of their time will be used in support of this project?

· Project Monitoring and Evaluation: This is an important part of successful grants. Throughout the time-frame of the grant, how will the activities be monitored to ensure they are happening in a timely manner, and how will the program be evaluated to make sure it is meeting the goals of the grant?

· Future Funding or Sustainability: The applicant’s plan for continuation beyond the grant period, or the availability of other resources, if applicable.

4. Proposed Budget Narrative: After filling out the SF-424A Budget (above), please describe each of the budget expenses in detail.

Required Registrations:

Any applicant listed on the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) in the System for Award Management (SAM) is not eligible to apply for an assistance award in accordance with the OMB guidelines at 2 CFR 180 that implement Executive Orders 12549 (3 CFR, 1986 Comp., p. 189) and 12689 (3 CFR, 1989 Comp., p. 235), “Debarment and Suspension.” Additionally, no entity listed on the EPLS can participate in any activities under an award. All applicants are strongly encouraged to review the EPLS in SAM to ensure that no ineligible entity is included. All organizations applying for grants (except individuals) must obtain these registrations. All are free of charge:

· Unique entity identifier from Dun & Bradstreet (DUNS number)

· NCAGE/CAGE code

· www.SAM.gov registration

Step 1: Apply for a DUNS number and an NCAGE number (these can be completed simultaneously)

· DUNS application: Organizations must have a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number from Dun & Bradstreet. If your organization does not have one already, you may obtain one by calling 1-866-705-5711 or visiting http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform

· NCAGE application: Application page https://eportal.nspa.nato.int/AC135Public/scage/CageList.aspx and instructions https://eportal.nspa.nato.int/AC135Public/Docs/US%20Instructions%20for%20NSPA%20NCAGE.pdf For NCAGE help from within the U.S., call 1-888-227-2423 For NCAGE help from outside the U.S., call 1-269-961-7766 Email NCAGE@dlis.dla.mil for any problems in getting an NCAGE code.

Step 2: After receiving the NCAGE Code, proceed to register in www.SAM.gov. SAM registration must be renewed annually.

Submission Dates and Times:

Applications are due no later than August 09, 2021 11:59:59 p.m. local Namibian time. Applications submitted after 11:59:59 p.m. will be ineligible for consideration. Begin the application process early, as this will allow time to address any technical difficulties that may arise in advance of the deadline. There will be no exceptions to this application deadline.

Applications should be submitted via email to PublicAffairsWindhoek@state.gov.

E. APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION

1. Criteria:

Each application submitted under this announcement will be evaluated and rated on the basis of the evaluation criteria outlined below. The criteria listed are designed to assess the quality of the proposed project and to determine the likelihood of its success. The criteria are closely related and are considered as a whole in judging the overall quality of an application. Applications will be reviewed on the basis of their completeness, coherence, clarity, and attention to detail.

· Organizational capacity: The organization has expertise in its stated field and Embassy Windhoek is confident of its technical capacity to undertake the project. This includes a financial management system and a bank account.

· Goals and objectives: Goals and objectives are clearly stated and project approach is likely to provide maximum impact in achieving the proposed results. Applicant has clearly described how stated goals are related to and support the goals and themes outlined above.

· Sustainability: Project activities will continue to have positive impact after the end of the project.

· Feasibility: Analysis of the project’s economic, organizational, and technical feasibility. This is related to the project approach, budget items requested, and technical/human resource capacity of the organization.

· Budget: The budget justification is both reasonable and realistic in relation to the proposed activities and anticipated results. Grants will be awarded to programs with the highest impact per dollar spent.

· Monitoring and evaluation plan: The Applicant has demonstrated the ability to measure program success against key indicators and provides milestones to indicate progress toward goals outlined in the proposal. The project includes a systematic recording and periodic analysis of selected information on the project activities

2. Review and Selection Process:

A review committee will evaluate all eligible applications.

3. Federal Awardee Performance & Integrity Information System (FAPIIS):

For any Federal award under a notice of funding opportunity, if the Federal awarding agency anticipates that the total Federal share will be greater than the simplified acquisition threshold on any Federal award under a notice of funding opportunity may include, over the period of performance (see §200.88 Simplified Acquisition Threshold), this section must also inform applicants:

i. That the Federal awarding agency, prior to making a Federal award with a total amount of Federal share greater than the simplified acquisition threshold, is required to review and consider any information about the applicant that is in the designated integrity and performance system accessible through SAM (currently FAPIIS) (see 41 U.S.C. 2313);

ii. That an applicant, at its option, may review information in the designated integrity and performance systems accessible through SAM and comment on any information about itself that a Federal awarding agency previously entered and is currently in the designated integrity and performance system accessible through SAM;

iii. That the Federal awarding agency will consider any comments by the applicant, in addition to the other information in the designated integrity and performance system, in making a judgment about the applicant's integrity, business ethics, and record of performance under Federal awards when completing the review of risk posed by applicants as described in §200.206 Federal awarding agency review of risk posed by applicants.

F. FEDERAL AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

1. Federal Award Notices:

The grant award will be written, signed, awarded, and administered by the Grants Officer. The assistance award agreement is the authorizing document and it will be provided to the recipient for review and signature by email. The recipient may only start incurring project expenses beginning on the start date shown on the grant award document signed by the Grants Officer.

If a proposal is selected for funding, the Department of State has no obligation to provide any additional future funding. Renewal of an award to increase funding or extend the period of performance is at the discretion of the Department of State. Issuance of this NOFO does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the U.S. government, nor does it commit the U.S. government to pay for costs incurred in the preparation and submission of proposals. Further, the U.S. government reserves the right to reject any or all proposals received.

Payment Method: All payments will be done via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and a payment schedule will be determined in the grant agreement.

2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements Terms and Conditions:

Before submitting an application, applicants should review all the terms and conditions and required certifications which will apply to this award, to ensure that they will be able to comply.

These include:

· 2 CFR 25 - UNIVERSAL IDENTIFIER AND SYSTEM FOR AWARD MANAGEMENT

· 2 CFR 170 - REPORTING SUBAWARD AND EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION INFORMATION

· 2 CFR 175 - AWARD TERM FOR TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

· 2 CFR 182 - GOVERNMENTWIDE REQUIREMENTS FOR DRUG-FREE WORKPLACE (FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE)

· 2 CFR 183 - NEVER CONTRACT WITH THE ENEMY

· 2 CFR 600 – DEPARTMENT OF STATE REQUIREMENTS

· U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE STANDARD TERMS AND CONDITIONS

In accordance with the Office of Management and Budget’s guidance located at 2 CFR part 200, all applicable Federal laws, and relevant Executive guidance, the Department of State will review and consider applications for funding, as applicable to specific programs, pursuant to this notice of funding opportunity in accordance with the following: NOTE:

· Guidance for Grants and Agreements in Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (2 CFR), as updated in the Federal Register’s 85 FR 49506 on August 13, 2020, particularly on:

· Selecting recipients most likely to be successful in delivering results based on the program objectives through an objective process of evaluating Federal award applications (2 CFR part 200.205),

· Prohibiting the purchase of certain telecommunication and video surveillance services or equipment in alignment with section 889 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019 (Pub. L. No. 115—232) (2 CFR part 200.216),

· Promoting the freedom of speech and religious liberty in alignment with Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty (E.O. 13798) and Improving Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability at Colleges and Universities (E.O. 13864) (§§ 200.300, 200.303, 200.339, and 200.341),

· Providing a preference, to the extent permitted by law, to maximize use of goods, products, and materials produced in the United States (2 CFR part 200.322), and

· Terminating agreements in whole or in part to the greatest extent authorized by law, if an award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities (2 CFR part 200.340).

In accordance with the Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Underserved Communities, proposals should demonstrate how the program advances equity with respect to race, ethnicity, religion, income, geography, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability. The proposal should also demonstrate how the program will further engagement in underserved communities and with individuals from underserved communities. Proposals should demonstrate how addressing racial equity and underserved communities will enhance the program’s goals and objectives, as well as the experience of participants.

Reporting Requirements: All awards issued under this announcement will require both program and financial reports on a frequency specified in the award agreement. The disbursement of funds may be tied to submission of these reports in a timely manner.

All other details related to award administration will be specified in the award agreement as well. Final programmatic and financial reports are due 90 days after the close of the project period. Progress reports at a minimum should be submitted via electronic mail to an address to be provided in the award.

Applicants should be aware of the post award reporting requirements reflected in 2 CFR 200 Appendix XII—Award Term and Condition for Recipient Integrity and Performance Matters.

G. FEDERAL AWARDING AGENCY CONTACTS

If you have any questions about the grant application process, please contact PublicAffairsWindhoek@state.gov.

H. OTHER INFORMATION

Guidelines for Budget Justification Personnel and Fringe Benefits: Describe the wages, salaries, and benefits of temporary or permanent staff who will be working directly for the applicant on the project, and the percentage of their time that will be spent on the project.

Travel: Estimate the costs of travel and per diem for this project, for program staff, consultants or speakers, and participants/beneficiaries. If the project involves international travel, include a brief statement of justification for that travel.

Equipment: Describe any machinery, furniture, or other personal property that is required for the project, which has a useful life of more than one year (or a life longer than the duration of the project), and costs at least $5,000 per unit.

Supplies: List and describe all the items and materials, including any computer devices, that are needed for the project. If an item costs more than $5,000 per unit, then put it in the budget under Equipment.

Contractual: Describe goods and services that the applicant plans to acquire through a contract with a vendor. Also describe any sub-awards to non-profit partners that will help carry out the project activities.

Other Direct Costs: Describe other costs directly associated with the project, which do not fit in the other categories. For example, shipping costs for materials and equipment or applicable taxes. All “Other” or “Miscellaneous” expenses must be itemized and explained.

Indirect Costs: These are costs that cannot be linked directly to the project activities, such as overhead costs needed to help keep the organization operating. If your organization has a Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate (NICRA) and includes NICRA charges in the budget, attach a copy of your latest NICRA. Organizations that have never had a NICRA may request indirect costs of 10% of the modified total direct costs as defined in 2 CFR 200.68.

“Cost Sharing” refers to contributions from the organization or other entities other than the U.S. Embassy. It also includes in-kind contributions such as volunteers’ time and donated venues.

Alcoholic Beverages: Please note that award funds cannot be used for alcoholic beverages.