Base MY APS Final Draft.pdf

Introduction Letter Issue Date: June 22, 2023 Deadline for Questions: August 1, 2023, 11:00 pm ET Closing Date: TBD Closing Time: TBD

Subject: Notice of Funding Opportunity Number: 720BHA23APS00002

Program Title: BHA Multi Year Annual Program Statement (BHA MYAPS)

Federal Assistance Listing Number: 98.001 and 98.008

Interested Applicants:

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) is announcing the Multi-Year (MY) Annual Program Statement (APS) known hereafter as the MY APS.

Through this MY APS, BHA announces its intent to issue future amendments as ‘rounds of applications’ for particular geographic, programmatic, or technical areas where USAID is interested in funding multi-year awards. This MY APS is designed to support specific Agency and Bureau priorities and criteria for Early Recovery, Risk Reduction, and Resilience (ER4), Resilience Food Security Activity, and Learning and Capacity Strengthening. BHA will issue requests for concept papers or applications via a round. For the purposes of the MY APS, a round of applications is defined as a specific program description that will be accepting applications or seeking concept papers. A round will be a specific program description that falls under the larger MY APS that will state a specific goal, purpose, and desired results.

Interested organizations should read the entire MY APS, as well as applicable rounds, and follow the instructions for submitting a concept paper or application as they are stated in the round. Applicants should not submit concept papers or applications in response to this umbrella MY APS, but only to rounds published under the MY APS on Grants.

gov. USAID reserves the right to make or not make awards resulting from applications received under the rounds to this MY APS.

To be eligible for award, the applicant must provide all information as required in this MY APS and meet eligibility standards in Section C of this MY APS. This funding opportunity is posted on www.grants.gov, and may be amended. It is the responsibility of the applicant to regularly check the website to ensure they have the latest information pertaining to this notice of funding opportunity and to ensure that the MY APS has been received from the internet in its entirety. USAID bears no responsibility for data errors resulting from transmission or conversion http://www.grants.gov/ https://Grants.gov process. If you have difficulty registering on www.grants.gov or accessing the MY APS, please contact the Grants.gov Helpdesk at 1-800-518-4726 or via email at support@grants.gov for technical assistance.

USAID may not award to an applicant unless the applicant has complied with all applicable unique entity identifier and System for Award Management (SAM) requirements detailed in Section D.6.g. The registration process may take many weeks to complete. Therefore, applicants are encouraged to begin registration early in the process.

Please send any questions concerning the MY APS to the point(s) of contact identified in Section D and G. The deadline for questions is shown above. Responses to questions received prior to the deadline will be furnished to all potential applicants through a round to this notice posted to www.grants.gov.

Issuance of this notice of funding opportunity does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the Government nor does it commit the Government to pay for any costs incurred in preparation or submission of comments/suggestions or an application. Applications are submitted at the risk of the applicant. All preparation and submission costs are at the applicant’s expense.

Thank you for your interest in USAID programs.

Sincerely, /s/ Matthew Nims Agreement Officer, Title II

/s/ Renee Newton Agreement Officer, International Disaster Assistance (IDA) and Community Development Funds (CDF) mailto:support@grants.gov www.grants.gov https://Grants.gov www.grants.gov

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION A - PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

SECTION B - FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION

SECTION C - ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

SECTION D - APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

SECTION E - APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION

SECTION F - FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION

SECTION G - FEDERAL AWARDING AGENCY CONTACTS

SECTION H - OTHER INFORMATION

ANNEXES

ANNEX 1 - STANDARD PROVISIONS

SECTION A: PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

1. Background

1.1. Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) Mission

BHA’s mission is to save lives, alleviate human suffering, and reduce the impact of disasters by helping people in need become more resilient to humanitarian crises. BHA also implements USAID’s mandate as the lead U.S. Government coordinator for international disaster assistance.

1.2. Background and Context

BHA’s humanitarian assistance consists of two major conceptual areas, which are frequently interlinked. The first area is humanitarian response pursuant to a Declaration of Humanitarian Need (DHN). Humanitarian response is characterized by urgent action, including quick assessment of needs, logistical support to local and national actors, rapid provision of funding to partners to meet critical needs, and deployment of teams of disaster response experts. The second conceptual area which this MY APS covers, encompasses early recovery, risk reduction, and resilience (ER4) programs and activities.

The goal of BHA’s ER4 programming, as described in BHA Strategic Framework for ER4, is to improve the well-being of people who are vulnerable—from the individual to country level—by strengthening their capacities to manage risk; to anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to shocks and stresses; and to support positive, transformative change. While BHA considers its ER4 programming to be a form of humanitarian assistance, activities in this area typically focus on longer-term outcomes related to recovery, reducing the need for ongoing and recurrent humanitarian assistance, and promoting resilience and enabling people to take ownership of their own humanitarian and development outcomes.

The MY APS is intended to promote competition to foster new ideas and encourage new partnerships with BHA. As a result of these challenges and to meet the demands arising from protracted crises and complex emergencies globally, the MY APS was designed to do the following:

● Increase BHA’s opportunities to support multi-year early recovery, risk reduction, and resilience programming;

● Improve quality and effectiveness of multi-year programs requiring a 2-5 year timeframe;

● Increase efficiency in soliciting applications for multi-year programming;

● To complement, but not replace or change, the EAGs; and

● Increase competition in BHA procurements.

BHA’s ER4 activities often represent an initial step towards longer-term development programming. These activities link to and coordinate with broader development efforts, https://www.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/document/strategic-framework-early-recovery-risk-reduction-and-resilience including those led by USAID Missions and offices, where possible. BHA both integrates ER4 programming with DHN humanitarian response programming where appropriate and feasible, and provides support to stand-alone ER4 activities that typically happen prior to and outside of the context of urgent humanitarian response to a DHN.

1.3. USAID Policies and Strategies

1.3.1 Automated Directives System (ADS)

Applicants should be familiar with the ADS, specifically ADS Chapter 303, which contains internal guidance, policy directives, required procedures, and standards for the award and administration of USAID grants and cooperative agreements. ADS Chapter 303 incorporates Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Guidance and Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) requirements into Agency policy and sets forth Standard Provisions which the Agency must include in awards to recipients. Applicants should also familiarize themselves with the mandatory Standard Provisions (ADS Reference 303maa and ADS Reference 303mab) accompanying ADS Chapter 303.

Note: Whereas ADS 303 applies to NGOs, ADS 308 is specific to PIOs. ADS 308 highlights that while competition is not required, it is encouraged. In cases when a PIO applies competitively, ADS 308 still applies. Unless otherwise specified in the MY APS, any reference to the Code of Federal Regulations or the ADS applies to NGOs only.

1.3.2 Agency Level Policy

The following USAID policies apply to rounds under this MY APS.

● USAID’s 2022-2030 Climate Strategy

● USAID Resilience Strategy

● USAID Private Sector Engagement Policy

● Local Capacity Strengthening Policy

● Global Food Security Strategy

● Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy

● 2023 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy

● Policy on Promoting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

● Youth in Development Policy

● Disability Policy Paper

● USAID’s Equity Action Plan

● LGBT Vision for Action

● USAID Digital Strategy

● U.S. Government Open Data Policy

● USAID Global Water Strategy 2022-2027 https://www.usaid.gov/ads/policy/300/303 https://www.usaid.gov/ads/policy/300/303 https://www.usaid.gov/ads/policy/300/303maa https://www.usaid.gov/about-us/agency-policy/series-300/references-chapter/303mab https://www.usaid.gov/policy/climate-strategy https://www.usaid.gov/policy/resilience https://www.usaid.gov/policy/resilience https://www.usaid.gov/work-usaid/private-sector-engagement/policy https://www.usaid.gov/work-usaid/private-sector-engagement/policy https://www.usaid.gov/local-capacity-strengthening-policy?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery https://www.usaid.gov/local-capacity-strengthening-policy?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/agriculture-and-food-security/us-government-global-food-security-strategy https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/agriculture-and-food-security/us-government-global-food-security-strategy https://www.usaid.gov/nutrition-strategy https://www.usaid.gov/document/2023-gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment-policy https://www.usaid.gov/indigenous-peoples/usaid-policy-on-indigenous-peoples https://www.usaid.gov/GenderEqualityandWomensEmpowermentPolicy https://www.usaid.gov/GenderEqualityandWomensEmpowermentPolicy https://www.usaid.gov/policy/youth https://www.usaid.gov/policy/youth https://www.usaid.gov/inclusivedevelopment/disability-rights/disability https://www.usaid.gov/equity/equity-action-plan https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2022-12/LGBT_Vision.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/usaid-digital-strategy https://www.usaid.gov/about-us/agency-policy/series-500/579 https://www.globalwaters.org/2022-global-water-strategy?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

2. Programming Areas

BHA will issue separate rounds to this MY APS. Rounds will request applications for the following types of programming:

● Early Recovery, Risk Reduction, and Resilience (ER4). The goal of early recovery programs is to help people and communities recover from a shock or stress, reduce or avoid dependence on humanitarian relief, and transition to self-reliance. Early recovery builds on humanitarian response and aligns with development principles to establish the initial foundations of long-term recovery. Disaster risk is expressed as the potential loss of life, injury, or destruction or damage to assets that could occur to a system, society, or community in a specific period of time. It is expressed as a function of hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and capacity. Risk reduction is the prevention of new disaster risk, reduction of existing risk, and management of residual risk, all of which contribute to strengthening resilience and to the achievement of sustainable development.

Resilience is the ability of people, households, communities, countries, and systems to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and facilitates inclusive growth.

● Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA). BHA’s RFSA programming strengthens capacities of populations to combat malnutrition, reduce morbidity and mortality, promote economic growth, minimize disaster risks, improve food security, and adapt to climate change. BHA uses a multi sectoral, integrated activity design that sustainably improves outcomes and strengthens the adaptive, absorptive, and transformative capacities of communities.

● Learning and Capacity Strengthening. BHA funds learning and capacity strengthening activities that improve humanitarian assistance by informing design and implementation, contributing to the global humanitarian evidence base through research and other forms of analysis, advancing thought leadership, or strengthening capacity that benefits the larger humanitarian community.

Rounds may also further specify a geographic or sectoral focus. Rounds with a geographic focus may have global, regional (multiple countries), country-specific, subnational purposes.

2.1. Sectors

BHA may fund the following sectors under this MY APS:

● Agriculture

● Disaster Risk Reduction Policy and Practice

● Economic Recovery and Market Systems

● Food Assistance

● Health

● Humanitarian Coordination, Information Management, and Assessments

● Humanitarian Policy, Studies, Analysis, or Applications

● Logistics Support

● Monitoring and Evaluation

● Multipurpose Cash Assistance

● Natural Hazards and Technological Risks

● Nutrition

● Protection

● Shelter and Settlements

● Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

BHA may issue rounds that focus on a single sector (e.g. a WASH-only activity) or multiple sectors.

For applications for ER4 and Learning and Capacity Strengthening rounds, applicants must group sectors by purpose, break out sectors into keywords; geographic areas; and sector, commodity, modality tables as applicable which are pre-defined categories of interventions under each sector. The EAG Sector Requirements contains detailed technical guidance for each BHA sector including applicable indicators at the purpose, sector and keyword levels.

Rounds for RFSAs will provide specific guidance on the applicable technical areas.

3. Programming Principles

BHA is committed to taking actions that uphold and are consistent with the four humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence. For further details, see the background paper on humanitarian principles produced by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

3.1. Design for People-Centered Approaches

BHA is committed to keeping the interests and voices of the people who are most vulnerable at the center of its work, and to funding activities based on the strengths, priorities, risks, and needs of the target population. Integrating diverse voices into program design requires intentional stakeholder engagement and meaningful partnerships to understand community resources and capacities, as well as the broader systems that support them through formal and informal institutions and social dynamics. People-centered approaches address shocks and stressors that may undermine opportunities for positive change and provide linkages to newly emerging or previously out-of-reach resources, services, and catalysts for change.

Applicants are expected to:

● Integrate contextual, and social-identity-related factors throughout their application;

● Consider how they will reach, ensure equitable inclusion of, and integrate the needs of groups that may face intersectional vulnerabilities (such as those related to age, disability, SOGIESC1, religion, ethnicity, etc.) in assessment, programming, implementation, and reporting;

1 Sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.

https://www.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/partner-with-us/bha-emergency-guidelines https://www.unocha.org/sites/unocha/files/OOM_Humanitarian%20Principles_Eng.pdf https://www.unocha.org/sites/unocha/files/OOM_Humanitarian%20Principles_Eng.pdf

● Propose activities that strengthen equal participation and feedback and do not exacerbate existing inequalities; and

● Include examples from their earlier activities that demonstrate their experience integrating intersectionality and inclusion.

3.2 Localization

BHA is committed to locally led, inclusive, and equitable approaches to humanitarian assistance. To the greatest extent possible, humanitarian actions should be guided by the leadership and experience of communities and diverse local actors, including women, persons living with disabilities, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and other individuals who have been marginalized and underrepresented.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to incorporate local capacity strengthening in all areas of the proposed activity. Local capacity engagement includes the amount of resources managed by local entities, formal engagements (sub-awards, sub-contracts, partnerships, research, etc.), and capacity strengthening efforts with local civil society and the private sector, such as NGOs, cooperatives, universities, academia, and private companies, among other entities. Local capacity engagement can be a combination of any of these approaches. Integration of local capacity engagement must be context-appropriate, reflected at every phase of the activity, and expected to increase over the course of the award. As applicable and appropriate, BHA encourages applicants to partner with local organizations and have local organizations directly manage resources to the extent they have the technical and financial management capacity.

Applicants are also strongly encouraged to work within local systems in order to strengthen human and institutional actors. Left unaddressed, social and gender norms, power dynamics, levels of inclusion, and nature of participation within local systems have the potential to undermine development impacts. Or conversely, when addressed appropriately, they can be engines of positive change when enhanced in ways that increase motivation, equity, social cohesion, and transparent socially accountable service delivery.

3.3 Prioritization and Focus

In low resource environments, needs and opportunities can easily exceed an activity’s capacity to respond comprehensively and effectively. There are also limits to the level of change in knowledge, attitudes, and practices that individuals, households, and communities can absorb.

BHA encourages applicants to prioritize the needs of individuals, households and communities and focus resources to achieve maximum impact. Effective programming identifies leverage points and factors that address key drivers of need and prioritize and sequence a limited number of interventions.

3.4 Strive for Sustainability

BHA is committed to supporting long-term and self-perpetuating change and the continued well-being of populations who are vulnerable. Therefore, activities proposed under this MY APS need to demonstrate understanding of the operating environment, including existing or residual conflict dynamics and to strengthen formal and informal local systems to increase the potential for sustained motivation, capacity, resources, and linkages in support of continued humanitarian impacts.

3.5 Sequencing, Layering, and Integration

Applicants are encouraged to utilize sequencing, layering and integration in their activity designs, both across BHA programs and other USAID activities as well as programs funded by government and donors across the Humanitarian Development Peace (HDP) nexus, to maximize the impact and sustainability of interventions and create potential for longer-term success.

Sequencing is the intentional organization of phased program interventions to maximize program impact. Appropriate sequencing facilitates utilization of services provided and skills and capacities strengthened. The sequencing of interventions should consider when it is optimal to engage participants in a particular activity or to provide a specific kind of support.

Layering is the strategic coordination of overlapping interventions across stakeholders, sectors, funding streams, and humanitarian and development programs in the same area. BHA supports activities that collaborate strategically and operationally with national and local government policies and systems, and other actors and programs working to address the drivers of chronic vulnerability. This requires coordination and joint planning with a broad set of stakeholders to support complementarity and coherence, collective impacts and sustainability, and the intentional pursuit of sequencing, layering, and integrating activities and interventions across relevant programs.

Integration is the intentional layering and sequencing of multisectoral interventions and the coordination of actors in order to prevent or reduce the drivers and effects of shocks and stresses that undermine the program and the long-term well-being of the target populations.

Strategic integration can address both emergency needs and longer-term development issues at the same time in places where shocks recur frequently. HDP coherence involves linking efforts across the spectrum of programming from short term relief to long term peace and development. HDP coherence is best considered at the design stage and achieved at the operational level, where the differences and overlap of scope and objectives across the three pillars of assistance can be identified. Such efforts inspire effective partner approaches and should align with the respective mandates and comparative advantages of different actors, and strive to contribute to national-level collective outcomes, if available.

USAID’s Programming Considerations for Humanitarian-Development-Peace Coherence: A Note for USAID Implementing Partners, identifies seven core principles:

● Uphold and respect humanitarian principles to ensure humanitarian assistance remains unhindered and effective;

● Plan jointly and seek a common agenda;

● Strengthen communication, coordination, and learning platforms across HDP pillars;

https://www.resiliencelinks.org/building-resilience/reports/programming-considerations-hdp-coherence https://www.resiliencelinks.org/building-resilience/reports/programming-considerations-hdp-coherence

● Strategically sequence, layer, and integrate across HDP assistance, where appropriate;

● Promote shock-responsive programming and data-driven adaptive management;

● Champion conflict integration and enable or build peace where possible; and

● Ensure programming with, by, and through local partners and systems.

3.6 Climate Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction

Climate change will increase frequency and intensity of disasters and food insecurity, increasing the need for humanitarian assistance as well as leading to social disruption, displacement, political instability and exacerbating fragility, conflict and violent extremism. DRR lays the foundation for resilience and adaptation by reducing the impact of recurrent disasters, which enables communities and countries to invest resources for development and bounce back from crises without significant losses.

BHA supports activities in countries that are highly vulnerable to disasters, climate change and complex emergencies to reduce impacts. DRR interventions can address multiple technical areas, adopt a multi-hazard approach, and applicants can implement them in either non-conflict or conflict settings with a wide variety of goals. Applicants should propose interventions that address the underlying causes of disasters to strengthen local capacities to anticipate, prepare for, and reduce risks, and recover rapidly from shocks. Applicants should consider approaches that integrate flexibility and adaptability to anticipate and respond quickly to the impact of shocks when responding to applicable rounds.

Applicants are encouraged to take into account the risk from future climate and other natural hazards and not exacerbate risks further or create inequities among the population (see Section

18.2 Climate in the BHA EAG Sector Requirements for more information).

3.7 Use Evidence and Learning for High Quality and Adaptive Management

BHA activities should leverage the learning from past and ongoing programming to improve program quality and apply evidence-based approaches to support communities who are in highly vulnerable conditions on a path towards sustainable change and out of extreme poverty and chronic vulnerability. Building upon and applying knowledge from past emergency and development activities in order to gain a more holistic understanding of the context-specific, social, political, economic, cultural, and climatic factors that affect vulnerability, stability, resilience, and growth will allow for adaptive management and influence the outcomes.

Effective learning approaches work to anticipate and mitigate context-specific shocks and stressors and potential unintended consequences of interventions through data utilization, experiential learning, and adaptive management. BHA encourages innovative approaches that actively and continually engage diverse community members, including those who have been marginalized and underrepresented, and incorporate their feedback and solutions into activity design, implementation strategies, management approaches and monitoring, and evaluation.

https://www.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/partner-with-bha/bha-emergency-guidelines

Applicants are encouraged to reference and build on existing and emerging evidence and learning in the relevant sector, target populations, and geographic areas.

Please note that past BHA programmatic experience and existing evidence demonstrate that the following developmental approaches are unlikely to yield a sustainable impact. Therefore, BHA would require a strong justification in order to consider supporting the following approaches in any applications under rounds to this MY APS:

● Weather-based index insurance as a stand-alone intervention or without a clear plan for transition to another entity, such as a national social protection system;

● Improved cook stoves/ovens/alternative fuels without an assessment of the current situation, detailed explanation of the intervention and intended results, and monitoring and evaluation plan complete with intervention-specific outcome indicators;

● Free or highly subsidized agricultural inputs, including seed, fertilizer, implements, tools, and animals, without a clear strategy for the eventual full purchase of these items by households;

● Keyhole or tower gardens;

● Volunteers in place of staff as frontline change agents. Reliance on volunteers to serve as lead mothers or lead farmers is, however, acceptable as these approaches are designed to build the capacity of community members as locally respected catalysts for community-based change;

● Exclusive reliance on point-of-use water treatment for provision of safe water is not encouraged in multi-year programming as the focus should be on sustainable basic water service;

● Community-based early warning systems that focus on collection of weather/climate data and forecasting by the communities or project staff that are not linked to the national/local warning authorities' weather or early warning systems. We do encourage community centered early warning systems that enable access and dissemination of early warnings/alerts from national/local warning authorities to enable action at local/community levels.

● Weather stations at community level that are not linked to and sustained by local/national government authorities/networks;

● Interventions proposed within or adversely affecting designated environmentally protected areas, such as national forests, Ramsar wetlands, marine sanctuaries, etc.;

● Measures that aim to control flooding such as sea walls, flood walls, levees, river/channel straightening or bypass, dikes, gabion walls (river, urban, flash floods or coastal flooding).

SECTION B: FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION

This funding opportunity is authorized under the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) of 1961, as amended. The resulting award will be subject to 2 CFR 200 – Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, and USAID’s supplement, 2 CFR 700, as well as the additional requirements found in Section F.

The FAA authorizes USAID to provide development assistance. BHA receives certain funds appropriated for this purpose. These funds are referred to as Community Development Funds (CDF) and may be used to support BHA resilience activities. Funding for resilience activities through CDF funds will be signaled in applicable rounds.

The Food for Peace Act, Section 201 (7 U.S.C. 1721) General Authority, authorizes the USAID Administrator to establish programs to provide agricultural commodities to foreign countries on behalf of the people of the United States. Resultant awards containing Title II funding will be subject to the 22 CFR 211.

For more information, particularly concerning eligible uses of Section 202(e), CDF, and Internal Transport, Storage and Handling (ITSH) funding, please refer to the current BHA Functional Policy 20-01 on these funds.

1. Estimate of Funds Available and Number of Awards Contemplated

This MY APS is not supported by specific funds. The source of funding, estimated funds, and number of awards contemplated will be specified in each round. The value of awards and expected number of awards will be determined by assessed needs and context and is subject to the availability of funds. BHA establishes no minimum or maximum award value or number of awards through this base APS. Rounds will specify limits for specific opportunities. As determined by the source of funding, award recipients will be required to comply with the legal and USAID policy requirements that govern the Agency’s programming

Section 491 of the FAA of 1961, as amended, authorizes the provision of “international disaster relief and rehabilitation, including assistance relating to disaster preparedness, and to the prediction of, and contingency planning for, natural disasters” through the International Disaster Assistance (IDA) account.

Section 7 of the Global Food Security Act of 2016 amended the FAA and authorized the use of the IDA account to provide emergency food assistance, including in the form of funds, transfers, vouchers, and agricultural commodities acquired through local, regional, and international procurement (LRIP), to meet emergency needs arising from manmade and natural hazards.

Public international organizations (PIO) are subject to different requirements, so USAID reserves the right to make awards to such organizations on different terms and conditions than those made to private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and cooperatives.

https://www.usaid.gov/document/bha-functional-policy-20-01 https://www.usaid.gov/document/bha-functional-policy-20-01

2. Expected Performance Indicators, Targets, Baseline Data, and Data Collection

The expected performance indicators, targets, baseline data, and data collection will be provided in each round when issued.

3. Start Date and Period of Performance for Federal Awards

The period of performance will be specified in each round to this MY APS, but will be between 24 months (two years) and 60 months (five years). Applicants must propose a timeframe for the proposed activity based on the needs assessment.

Applications for ER4, RFSA, and Learning and Capacity Strengthening activities will be considered for periods of performance up to five (5) years. Please review round-specific details.

4. Substantial Involvement

USAID may award either grants or cooperative agreements under this MY APS. Cooperative agreements will require substantial involvement, as applicable to the application.

In accordance with the ADS 303.3.11, a cooperative agreement, as distinguished from a grant, provides for substantial involvement between the Federal awarding Agency and the recipient in carrying out the activity contemplated by the Federal award (the examples of substantial involvement below are a guide, not a checklist). The Agreement Officer will determine the appropriate level of substantial involvement based on the programmatic requirements of the award and include only those elements of substantial involvement as needed. Examples of potential areas of substantial involvement include the following:

● Approval of the recipient’s annual implementation plans during performance.

● Ability to immediately halt an activity if the recipient does not meet detailed performance specifications (for example, construction specifications).

● Review and approval of one stage of work, before work can begin on a subsequent stage during the period covered by the cooperative agreement.

● Review and approval of substantive provisions of proposed sub-awards or contracts (see definitions in 2 CFR 200.1). These would be provisions that go beyond existing policies on Federal review of recipient procurement standards and sole-source procurement.

● Involvement in the selection of key recipient personnel.

● USAID and recipient collaboration or joint participation, such as when the recipient’s successful accomplishment of activity purposes would benefit from USAID’s technical knowledge.

● USAID monitoring to permit specific kinds of direction or redirection of the work because of the interrelationships with other projects or activities.

● Direct USAID operational involvement or participation to ensure compliance with statutory requirements such as civil rights, environmental protection, and provisions for https://www.usaid.gov/about-us/agency-policy/series-300/303 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200/subpart-A/subject-group-ECFR2a6a0087862fd2c/section-200.1 the handicapped that exceeds USAID’s role that is normally part of the general statutory requirements understood in advance of the award.

● Highly prescriptive USAID requirements established prior to award that limit the recipient’s discretion with respect to the scope of services offered, organizational structure, staffing, mode of operation, and other management processes, coupled with close monitoring or operational involvement during performance over and above the normal exercise of Federal stewardship responsibilities to ensure compliance with these requirements.

Read the rounds carefully to determine the extent of substantial involvement that applies to each round.

5. Authorized Geographic Code

The geographic code for the procurement of commodities and services under rounds to this MY APS is anticipated to be 937; USAID reserves the right to modify this herein or within rounds as applicable.

6. Nature of the Relationship between USAID and the Recipient

The principal purpose of the relationship with the Recipient and under the subject program is to transfer funds to accomplish a public purpose of support or stimulation of the BHA Multi-Year Annual Program Statement which is authorized by Federal statute. The successful Recipient will be responsible for ensuring the achievement of the activity purposes and the efficient and effective administration of the award through the application of sound management practices.

The Recipient will assume responsibility for administering Federal funds in a manner consistent with underlying agreements, activity purposes, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award.

SECTION C: ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

1. Eligible Applicants

U.S. and non-U.S. public, private, for-profit, and nonprofit organizations, as well as institutions of higher education, public international organizations, faith based, and non-governmental organizations, are eligible to apply to APS rounds. Further, the organization must be a legally-recognized, organizational entity under applicable law, legally registered in a country within the geographic code 937 (“the United States, the recipient country, and developing countries other than advanced developing countries, but excluding any country that is a prohibited source,” per ADS 310.3.1.1). Each round may further restrict eligibility depending on the funding source of that particular round. All applicants must comply with all USAID required rules and requirements.

USAID welcomes applications from organizations that have not previously received financial assistance from USAID.

Faith-based organizations are eligible to apply for federal financial assistance on the same basis as any other organization and are subject to the protections and requirements of Federal law.

For IDA resources, applicants must be a U.S. or non-U.S. NGO or a PIO. USAID defines an NGO as any nongovernmental organization or entity, whether non-profit or profit-making, including hospitals, universities, and for-profit corporations.

According to the 2018 FFP Act, eligible organizations shall be— (1) a PVO as defined in 22 CFR 203, or (2) an intergovernmental organization, such as WFP. This does not preclude other organizations from working as sub-recipients or sub-implementers of the prime. Applicants may include small businesses as sub-recipients as appropriate.

To be considered for a Community Development Fund (CDF)-funded award, the applicant must be a U.S. or non-U.S. NGO or consortium, or an organization designated by USAID as a PIO.

In the case of a consortium, the applicant must be the consortium lead and must identify any other members of the consortium or individuals tied to the implementation of the activity as described in the application, along with all sub-awardees. The respective roles of any other members of the consortium or individuals, including all sub-awardees, must be described and separate detailed budgets must be attached for each.

Note that organizations may be proposed as sub-awardees within more than one application.

Applicants may sign non-exclusive letters of commitment with the sub-awardees they propose to work with since BHA neither expects, nor desires exclusivity for local organizations.

USAID encourages applications from potential new partners (i.e., those who have not received any USAID funding previously) and local organizations. Organizations must have undergone a pre-award survey by BHA in order to determine whether the prospective recipient has the necessary organization, experience, accounting and operational controls, and technical skills in order to achieve the purposes of the activity, and whether specific conditions will be needed (see Section D of this MY APS). These organizations should take this into account and plan their implementation dates and activities accordingly. See WorkWithUSAID.org for more information and resources for organizations new to working with USAID.

2. Cost Sharing or Matching

Cost sharing will be determined during each round. If an applicant proposes cost share and receives an award, the cost share will be incorporated into the award budget. However, since http://workwithusaid.org/ cost sharing is not required, in accordance with 2 CFR 200.306, it will not be considered during the merit review of applications.

3. Additional Requirements for New Applicants

USAID encourages applications from potential new partners (i.e., those who have not received any USAID funding previously) and local organizations. Applicants are highly encouraged to propose approaches that include local contributions demonstrating strong commitment to sustainability and self-reliance. This may include private sector engagement that supports the activity’s goal and purposes.

Note that sub-awardees may be on more than one application, and applicants may sign non-exclusive letters of commitment with sub-awardees (international and local partners), if applicable.

If an applicant has not received funding from the U.S. Government within the past five years or has never received a grant, cooperative agreement, or contract from USAID, the applicant must complete the additional requirements described below, per USAID policy in ADS 303.3.9, prior to USAID making an award. This requirement does not apply to Fixed Amount Awards.

As for all applicants, new applicants must ensure they have a UEI and an active SAM registration. SAM is managed by the General Services Administration and is the official website for registering to do business with the Federal Government. Instructions and informational resources for organizations registering for the first time are available on the website. The SAM registration process may take many weeks to complete, so applicants should begin the process early. Applicants must also have a reputable bank account with a U.S. correspondent bank to receive payments from USAID.

Applicants that have never received a cooperative agreement, grant, or contract from the U.S.

Government are required to submit a copy of their accounting manual, or file a self-certificate of compliance with USAID standards. If a copy of the manual has already been submitted to an agency other than USAID, the applicant must list which federal agency or office and provide a point of contact with contact information. This certificate template is available from the USAID point of contact listed in this MY APS upon request.

For Grants and Cooperative Agreements If an applicant has not received U.S. Government or USAID funding in the past five years for grants or cooperative agreements, pursuant to ADS 303.3.9.1, BHA is required to conduct a pre-award survey to assess the risk in providing the organization federal funding. The purpose of the survey is to determine whether a prospective recipient has the necessary organization, experience, accounting and operational controls, and technical skills to achieve the purposes of the activity. Applicants should take this into account during the application process. A pre-award survey can occur before, during, or after applying for BHA funding. BHA will contact https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CFR-2022-title2-vol1/CFR-2022-title2-vol1-sec200-306 https://sam.gov/content/home https://www.usaid.gov/ads/policy/300/303 organizations before performing a pre-award survey. Pre-award surveys are not required for Fixed Amount Awards, and instead an Entity Eligibility Checklist shall be performed in accordance with ADS 303mak.

As part of the pre-award survey, applicants will be required to provide information demonstrating the organization’s ability to meet requirements and award conditions in ADS 303.3.9.1, ADS 303maa, and ADS 303mab. This includes areas such as accounting, recordkeeping, and overall financial management systems; system of internal controls;

personnel policies; travel policies; property management system; sub-award administration and monitoring; procurement; record retention policies; and program performance monitoring and reporting.

4. Other

USAID will not accept applications under this MY APS from individuals, parastatal organizations, or U.S. Government departments and agencies.

SECTION D: APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

1. Agency Point of Contact

Email: bhaglobalmyaps@usaid.gov

2. Questions and Answers

Questions regarding this MY APS should be submitted to bhaglobalmyaps@usaid.gov no later than the date and time indicated on the cover letter, as amended. Any information given to a prospective applicant concerning this MY APS will be furnished promptly to all other prospective applicants as an amendment to this MY APS, if that information is necessary in submitting applications or if the lack of it would be prejudicial to any other prospective applicant.

3. General Content and Form of Application

Preparation of Applications:

Each applicant must furnish the information required by this MY APS. Applications must be submitted in two separate parts: the Technical Application and the Business (Cost) Application.

This subsection addresses general content requirements applying to the full application. Please see subsections 5 and 7, below, for information on the content specific to the Technical and Business (Cost) applications. The Technical application must address technical aspects only while the Business (Cost) Application must present the costs, and address risk and other related issues.

https://www.usaid.gov/about-us/agency-policy/series-300/references-chapter/303mak https://www.usaid.gov/ads/policy/300/303maa https://www.usaid.gov/ads/policy/300/303mab mailto:bhaglobalmyaps@usaid.gov mailto:bhaglobalmyaps@usaid.gov

Both the Technical and Business (Cost) Applications must include a cover page containing the following information:

● Name of the organization(s) submitting the application;

● Identification and signature of the primary contact person (by name, title, organization, mailing address, telephone number and email address) and the identification of the alternate contact person (by name, title, organization, mailing address, telephone number and email address);

● Program name

● Notice of Funding Opportunity number

● Name of any proposed sub-recipients or partnerships (identify if any of the organizations are local organizations, per USAID’s definition of ‘local entity’ under ADS 303.

Any erasures or other changes to the application must be initialed by the person signing the application. Applications signed by an agent on behalf of the applicant must be accompanied by evidence of that agent’s authority, unless that evidence has been previously furnished to the issuing office.

All documents must be completed in accordance with the format detailed in this MY APS and must adhere to the following:

● Written in English and in 12-point Times New Roman font;

● Text in tables or charts may be 10-point Arial Narrow font;

● Narratives must be prepared in Microsoft Word or compatible equivalent with print areas set to 8.5 x 11 inch, letter-sized paper with one-inch margins, left justification and a footer on each page including page number, date of submission, proposed country, and applicant name;

● Spreadsheets must be prepared in Microsoft Excel or compatible equivalent, with print areas set to 8.5 x 11 inch, letter-sized paper;

● Official (signed) documents, memoranda, and certifications may be submitted as Adobe PDF files, with one-inch margins; and

● Faxed or hard copy applications are not accepted.

The applicant may be required to submit certain documents in order for the AO to make a determination of financial responsibility. Applicants may be required to submit any additional evidence of responsibility, as requested, to support the determination, such as:

● Adequate financial resources or the ability to obtain such resources as required during the performance of the award;

● Adequate management and personnel resources and systems;

● Ability to comply with the award conditions, considering all existing and currently prospective commitments of the applicant, both NGO and governmental;

● Satisfactory record of performance - unsatisfactory past relevant performance is ordinarily sufficient to justify a finding of non-responsibility, unless there is clear evidence of subsequent satisfactory performance or the applicant has taken adequate corrective measures to ensure that it will be able to perform its functions satisfactorily;

and

● Integrity and business ethics, along with qualifications and eligibility to receive a grant or cooperative agreement under applicable laws and regulations.

Applications are submitted at the risk of the applicant, and all preparation and submission costs for the application are at the applicant's expense.

4. Application Submission Procedures

The timeline for application submissions will be specified in each round. Applications in response to rounds under this MY APS must be submitted no later than the closing date and time indicated in the applicable round. Late applications may be considered at the discretion of the Agreement Officer.

In certain circumstances, BHA may request applications to be submitted according to ‘phases’.

This phased approach may include but not be limited to:

● Submitting a Concept Paper

● Providing Oral Presentations

● Submitting a Full Application

● Participating in a Pre-Award Co-Creation workshop(s)

The phases shown are illustrative and do not necessarily represent the exact sequence of a phased approach applicants may see in a round. Applicants should refer to individual rounds where BHA will detail a phased approach, if applicable, and the exact submission requirements for each phase. Applicants should note that BHA reserves the right to not incorporate a phased approach but may request full applications in response to a specific round.

Applications must be submitted by email to the address specified in the round. Email submissions must include the MY APS solicitation number along with the subsequent round number and applicant’s name in the subject line heading. In addition, for an application sent by multiple emails, the subject line must also indicate whether the email relates to the technical or cost application, and the desired sequence of the emails and their attachments (e.g. "No. 1 of 4", etc.). For example, if the cost application is being sent in two emails, the first email should have a subject line that states: "[MY APS round number], [organization name], Cost Application, Part 1 of 2".

USAID’s preference is that the technical application and the cost application each be submitted as consolidated email attachments, e.g. that applicants consolidate the various parts of a technical application into a single document before sending it. If this is not possible, please provide instructions on how to collate the attachments. USAID will not be responsible for errors in compiling electronic applications if no instructions are provided or are unclear.

After submitting an application electronically, applicants should immediately check their own email to confirm that the attachments were indeed sent. If an applicant discovers an error in transmission, please send the material again and note in the subject line of the email that it is a "corrected" submission. Do not send the same email more than once unless there has been a change, and if so, please note that it is a "corrected" email.

Applicants are reminded that email is NOT instantaneous, and in some cases delays of several hours occur from transmission to receipt.