NOFO BOLD Civic Engagement-Irma1-2020 novi 1.docx

NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

U.S. EMBASSY SARAJEVO, OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

The United States Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, acting through the Office of Public Affairs, is pleased to announce a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for BOLD CIVIC ENGAGEMENT GRANTS PROGRAM.

Funding decisions are contingent on the availability of funds. The U.S. Embassy reserves the right to cancel this Notice of Funding Opportunity at any time without any commitment to any applicant.

For more information, please contact us by phone: + 387 33 704-331, 704-078, 704-285, fax: + 387 33 704-432 or e-mail info@BOLD.ba .

A. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The United States Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the Office of Public Affairs (OPA), is pleased to announce a Notice of funding opportunity to design and implement BOLD (BiH Omladinski Lideri, Bosnia and Herzegovina Young Leaders) Civic Engagement Workshops for BiH Youth Leaders. The goal of the workshop is to prepare young BiH leaders to create opportunities for economic development in their communities through skill development; with special emphasis on how to move from theory to practice in the field of youth entrepreneurship, innovative business model design; project-based collaboration; and leveraging contributions toward broader impacts.

The program should introduce participants to the concept of civic engagement in the United States as a means of improving communities and the institutions and services of government and provide them with the skills to implement projects as civic leaders themselves. An understanding of civic engagement and its development in the United States should be accompanied by the opportunity to apply the U.S. experience to the BiH context. The academic program should define civic engagement, examine its development in the United States, and explore topics such as citizenship, community building, economic development, grassroots activism, political leadership, and volunteerism in the modern age. In order to define the content of the Institute and enhance the academic experience, proposals may choose to focus on a specific theme or sub-themes such as civil rights and protections, public health, education, entrepreneurship, ethics, leadership, or media. In addition to the community-based experiential learning component, academic sessions should be complemented with hands-on sessions or workshops designed to build skills in the topics mentioned above. The Institutes should require participants to develop innovative and practical plans to become engaged citizens in their own communities and to implement an action plan to address a particular need, building upon the BOLD network to disseminate their plans and actions.

Mandatory components:

1. Applicants should propose a 5-day workshop (excluding arrival and departure days) for a minimum of 30 youth leaders from all parts of BiH. The age range of possible participants is 18-35, but the applicant may limit the range further for participation in this workshop, to best fit the proposed workshop's theme.

2. The workshop should offer an innovative plan and provide young people with a concrete understanding of what civic engagement entails and the practical skills to become active in their communities to effect positive change in an area beneficial to the public. Concepts to be introduced should include, but not be limited to, citizenship, community building, grassroots activism, political leadership, and volunteerism. Participants should be encouraged to concentrate on their particular area of interest such as, as civil rights and protections, public health, education, ethics, leadership, or media.

3. The primary outcome of the workshop is for participants or groups of participants to design and implement a civic project in their communities over the course of the following year. The workshop should deliver training in project management and the design and development of a project proposal, including a budget, with the aim of competing in a small grant competition offered by the Embassy later on, separate from this workshop.

4. The workshop proposal should contain detailed day-by-day schedule, and other necessary information that makes it clear to anyone not familiar with it how the program will meet the stated objectives and projected outcomes.

5. There should be a strong American connection in the delivery of the workshop, ideally, with at least one participating American trainer to contribute expertise and experience from the civil society field.

6. The applicant should propose a nationwide recruitment plan to reach workshop participants from all parts of the country that goes beyond a public call for applications to include targeted outreach to appropriate youth audiences. OPA will review the final list of participants before they are notified of their selection.

7. It is the obligation of the applicant to ensure that workshop participants’ information about themselves, their experience in the workshop, and/or their project ideas are shared and publicized on social media platforms of the BOLD network so that others can see their leadership examples and be motivated by their experience in the workshop. All photos, videos, or text material produced during the workshop or after should be submitted to OPA at info@BOLD.ba.

A detailed budget should be expressed in USD, with a maximum amount of $60,000. OPA reserves the right to reduce, revise, or increase proposal budgets, participant numbers, based on program needs and the availability of U.S. government funding.

B. PROJECT PERFORMANCE PERIOD

All activities should last for a maximum of 16 months and take place between September 2020 and December 2021.

C. ELIGIBILITY

C1. Who can apply: Non-government, non-profit organizations (including think tanks, civil society organizations) educational institutions that are based and legally registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina are eligible to apply. Applicants must demonstrate an ability to work in all parts of BiH, whether independently or in cooperation with a partner organization.

C2. Other eligibility requirements: All organizations must have a DUNS unique entity identifier and a valid registration on www.SAM.gov before their project proposals can be funded. Organization must obtain a DUNS number and SAM registration in order to receive funding. Please see Section E for information on how to obtain these registrations.

D.APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

D1. Mandatory application forms: Your application cannot be reviewed without all of the below elements. All forms and instructions are available at https://ba.usembassy.gov/ under Grants and under Application package.

Please note: Obtaining the DUNS number and registering in the SAM system can take up to one month. We strongly encourage you to start this process as soon as possible.

· SF-424 (Application for Federal Assistance – organizations). Please make sure to include your DUNS number in the application.

· SF424A (Budget Information for Non-Construction programs)

· Project Proposal (6 pages maximum): The proposal should contain sufficient information that anyone not familiar with it would understand exactly what the applicant wants to do.

D2. General Guidelines: Please read all instructions carefully – proposals that do not meet the requirements listed here will not be considered for funding.

· All proposals must be written and submitted in English.

· One organization may submit only one proposal to this NOFO.

· Proposals may not exceed 6 pages in length (including budget and checklist) in Times New Roman size 12 font.

· All fields in the grant application form and checklist must be completed and sent via email as one document.

· Project duration may not exceed 16 months.

The deadline for submission of proposals /supporting documentation is July 6, 2020 by 17:00 p.m. Please submit your filled-in application to the following e-mail address: info@BOLD.ba .

Upon submission, please request a confirmation of the receipt of your application.

D3. Budget Guidelines: Any application not meeting the budget requirements below will not be considered for funding.

· Detailed budget should be written in USD, with a maximum amount of USD 60,000.

· Budget should NOT include VAT expenses; organizations will be able to be reimbursed VAT money.

· Budget costs should be grouped into the following categories:

· Personnel costs (salaries for staff who already work for your organization, fees for project manager, project coordinator/assistant, and or accountant)

· Fringe (social and pension insurance contributions)

· Travel (transportation costs, lodging, meals and incidentals)

· Supplies (office supplies and other materials for project implementation)

· Contractual (fees for trainers, moderators, experts, and educators, who do NOT normally work for your organization but who are engaged to implement certain project activities, printing of promotional materials, renting of space/equipment, broadcasting of TV and radio shows, web site development, and other contractual services needed for project implementation.)

· Other direct costs: (office rent, utilities, phone/fax/internet, office supplies, bank charges, etc.)

· Alcohol, entertainment, or “miscellaneous” expenses are not allowed.

· Costs incurred before the grant period start date will not be reimbursed.

Grant funds may not be used for the following:

· Long-term infrastructure needs

· Provision of direct social services to a population

· Vocational training, for example teaching participants to weld, perform electrical work, sew, raise bees, etc.

· Partisan political activity (Note: non-partisan election education and public information activities are allowable.)

· Funding of charitable activity and humanitarian aid, commercial projects, or fund-raising campaigns

D4. Review criteria: All proposals will be evaluated by the review panel according to the below criteria:

· Cost-effective budget, with concrete and reasonable expenses, and cost sharing amount

· Proposals that bring engage larger number of youths will be given priority consideration

· Implementation capacity of applicant, prior experience with organizing and managing country-wide programs, and capacity to carry out the project throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.

· Compliance with proposal guidelines and inclusion of mandatory components.

· Innovative and creative solutions for civic engagement

· Well-developed timeframe and activity plans that clearly support program goals

· Project sustainability

· Monitoring and evaluation. The proposal needs to outline in detail how project success and impact will be determined. The Applicant needs to demonstrate its ability to measure project impact and provides milestones to indicate project progress towards goals/objectives outlined in the proposal.

D5. Application Instructions: Please read carefully and complete each question as instructed. Omitting any of the requested information will delay the review of your proposal and may result in it being eliminated from consideration.

1. Applicant’s Contact Information

a. Implementing organization: Specify the officially registered name of the organization.

b. Contact person and title: Name and the title of the person who is authorized to sign official documents, if different from the Project Coordinator. You may state the name of the Project Coordinator too.

c. Address/Postal Code and City:

d. Phone number:

e. E-mail: Please include both the general e-mail address for your organization and the e-mail address of the project coordinator or person who is authorized to sign official documents.

2. Basic Information about the Proposal

a. Project title:

b. Amount requested (USD)/Amount of cost share (USD)/Total cost (USD):

Please list the amount of funding requested from the Embassy. If there is a cost share (another organization covering part of the total cost of the project), please list the amount here. Please list the total cost of the project which you get when you sum the amount you request from U.S. Embassy and amount of co-share.

3. Elevator pitch:

In 50 words or less, describe what your project is about and why it should receive support from the U.S. Embassy.

4. Problem statement Clearly identify the problem your project will address, including brief background information for context, if necessary. For example: The percentage of unemployment is the highest among youth population (60%) in my local community. Lack of employment contributes to the departure of young people from the country. The IT sector offers a huge employment opportunity, but youth lack the required skills. Existing educational institutions do not have adequate curriculum to meet the needs of the IT market.

5. Project goals and objectives Please explain how you want to solve this problem by explaining the goals and objectives of your project. Following the above example, the project goal might be “Create conditions to increase job opportunities for youth in the IT sector in my local community.” The objective of the project define how are you going to achieve the goal(s) of the project and might be addressed as follows: “To establish partnerships with local government, educational institutions, and IT companies to define the needs and resources to develop curriculum for training program based on market needs” or “To train young people in skills needed to work in IT sector”.

6. Description of the project activities Explain the activities you plan to implement in the scope of your project and how those activities will achieve the project goals you described above. If you are planning workshops, please explain how many workshops, what will be taught and how many participants will take part. Example: “We are planning to hold 5 workshops for total number of 30 people, age 20-25. Educational program will be held in 3 modules with the following topics (For example: Manual Quality Assurance and UI/UX design). Each workshop will cover one of the modules. Please clearly define project outputs in this section (number of workshops, number of participants for each workshop, number of public advocacy actions etc.)

7. Activity locations:

List the cities/towns/communities where the project activities will take place.

8. Project beneficiaries:

Describe the anticipated beneficiaries of your project, including estimated number and age range, i.e., “approximately 50 unemployed young people in Capljina, ages 25-40” or “about 100 high school students in Rogatica.”

9. Project schedule and timeline:

Note your project duration in months and give an overview of the schedule. If you have a specific timeframe, please list the dates, and explain why your project must take place within that timeframe. Please note that grant money could be received any time between April and August 2020, depending on the U.S. budget cycle.

10. Project partners:

If you are implementing your project jointly with any other organizations, please list the names and type of involvement of those partner organizations. A partner organization is an organization with which you work to develop and implement the project. Partner organizations also need to obtain DUNS numbers. Please note: contractors you engage to deliver goods or services such as trainers, web developers or suppliers are NOT partner organizations.

11. Key personnel:

List the names, titles and roles of key personnel involved in the project, including organization staff and any experts or trainers you will engage to implement the project. Give a brief overview (1-2 sentences) of their experience/qualifications. What proportion of their time will be used in support for your project?

12. Anticipated outcomes of the project:

Explain the outcomes you hope to achieve and how you will measure whether the project has succeeded. It is important to make a distinction between the project output and outcome. Example of the project output is: “30 young people participated in the training program,” which does not necessarily illustrate the impact of such participation. Outcome is defined as the longer-term impact or change in individual participants’ knowledge, skills and/or attitudes as well as the longer-term effect on their communities. For example, “After completing the training young people will be equipped with knowledge and skills to find a job in IT sector in BiH. To measure the success of the program I will carry out the survey before and after the program to see how much their knowledge has increased and did they gain confidence in their ability to find a job or start their own private business in IT sector. I will also report how many participants managed to find a job or started a private business a year after project is concluded.

13. Project sustainability:

Please explain your plans for follow-on activities after the grant period ends to ensure project impact continues. Example: “After the workshop series, the participants will continue to meet and serve as a support network to each other, as well as mentor other young people.”

14. Monitoring and Evaluation Plan:

The proposal should outline in detail how project success and impact will be determined. Be sure that you demonstrated your ability to measure project impact and provide milestones to indicate project progress towards goals/objectives outlined in the proposal.

15. Background of implementing organization:

Briefly explain the mission of the organization, date of registration, number of employees, their work experience, number of volunteers, past and current programs implemented, as well as its technical and management capacity. Please briefly explain what internal controls procedures you have put in place to manage grant funds.

16. Previous U.S. Government funding:

Indicate whether the implementing organization has received previous funding from the U.S. Government. If so, please state the name of the project, the year, and the amount of funding for each project.

17. Detailed budget:

Present the budget in the form of a spreadsheet, in USD amounts, dividing the budget into the categories delineated in the application. Ensure that your stated project activities are properly budgeted based on reasonable market price for personnel, fringe, travel, contractual services, supplies, and other direct costs. The ratio between administrative costs (personnel, fringe, and other direct costs) and program costs (travel, supplies and contractual) will have impact to project evaluation. Cost sharing is not required. However, the Recipient may present cost-sharing on voluntary basis including in-kind contributions. The absence of cost sharing will not in any way impact evaluation of the project. However, if the Recipient includes cost sharing in the project proposal, then the Recipient is accountable for providing it. In the event the Recipient does not provide the minimum amount of cost-sharing as stipulated in the Recipient’s approved budget, the government contribution may be reduced in kind.

18. Budget narrative:

Please explain your budget in narrative form, detail personnel duties, list names of trainers/moderators/experts and project staff and break down travel and lodging costs (i.e., how many people, how many overnights, cost per person per day

E.HOW TO APPLY FOR REQUIRED REGISTRATIONS

Who must apply? 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

First, get your DUNS Number Please use the link http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform/CCRSearch.do?val=1/ to obtain your DUNS number.

The system is set up to be user-friendly and we encourage you to use it to obtain your DUNS number for yourself. However, if you experience problems, you may seek further assistance from:

Zlata Mulać Bisnode BH Director, Bisnode BH, Skenderpašina br. 1, 71000 Sarajevo zlata.mulac@bisnode.com Tel: +387 61 896 753 www.bisnode.ba Please be aware that Bisnode charges a fee for this service.

Next, get your NCAGE/CAGE code

· To apply, go to: https://eportal.nspa.nato.int/AC135Public/scage/CageList.aspx

· Instructions for the NCAGE application process are available at: https://eportal.nspa.nato.int/AC135Public/Docs/US%20Instructions%20for%20NSPA%20NCAGE.pdf

· 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.

After you receive your NCAGE code, complete your SAM.gov registration

· To register in the SAM system, go to https://www.sam.gov.

· Please read the quick guide for grants registration attachment which is the part of the application package that is posted on the Embassy web site.

· SAM registration must be renewed annually, so even if you are already registered in SAM from a previous grant, please check to see if your registration is still valid.

· Entities registering in SAM must submit a letter appointing their authorized Entity Administrator. Please check the template of the letter which is the part of the application package.

However, if you experience any problem in registering in SAM.gov use the following link:

https://www.fsd.gov/fsd-gov/home.do to register for live chat, so the SAM administrators can answer your questions. Working hours for this service are from Monday through Friday after 14:00.

F. FEDERAL AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

F1. Federal Award Notices The grant award will be written, signed, awarded, and administered by the Grants Officer and the grants management team. The Recipient may only start incurring project expenses beginning on the start date shown on the grant award document signed by the Grant Officer. The assistance award agreement is the authorizing document and it will be provided to the recipient for review and signature by email.

Funding decisions are contingent on the availability of funds. The total amount for this program may not exceed 60,000 USD. The U.S. Embassy reserves the right to cancel this Notice of Funding Opportunity at any time without any commitment to any applicant.

A Cooperative Agreement (CA) may be issued, particularly in the case that the selected applicant is a first-time recipient of Federal Funding. Elements of substantial involvement include:

a. Participating in the design or direction of activities, design of conference agendas, and training delivery models

b. Participating in the selection of key project staff and trainers

c. Participating in the presentation of results

d. Assisting in the selection and/or analyses of data

e. Review and approval of each press release and other public statements and publications before their release to the public

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: The payment of the award amount will be made in multiple installments. A certain percentage of the total award amount up to 50% of the total will be paid immediately after signing the grant and submission of the valid bank account by Recipient. However, if the project implementation requires a higher percentage of advance payment than 50%, the Office of Public Affairs will require justification. The rest will be paid upon submission of the interim final program and financial reports by Recipient. Each award document will contain detailed payment information. The USG reserves the right to retain the last payment up to 10 % of the award amount until all project activities are completed and the final program and financial reports are submitted by the Recipient and approved by the Grant Officer and the Grant Officer Representative.

F2. Terms and Conditions Before submitting an application, applicants may wish to 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 200, 2 CFR 600, Certifications and Assurances, and the Department of State Standard Terms and Conditions, all of which are available at: https://www.state.gov/m/a/ope/index.htm

F.3. Reporting Requirements Recipients will be required to submit financial reports and program reports. The award document will specify the forms and how often these reports must be submitted.

G. FEDERAL AWARDING AGENCY CONTACTS

For more information, please contact us by phone: + 387 33 704-331,704-078, 704-285, fax: + 387 33 704-432 or e-mail at info@BOLD.ba .