CAR Peacebuilding RFI 8.27.21.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Reference: Request for Information, RFI# 72060521RFA00002

Issue Date: August 27, 2021

Response Due Date: September 27, 2021, 1600 Kinshasa time

Title: USAID/DRC, Peacebuilding in the Central African Republic

Dear Interested Parties, Note: THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY.

USAID/Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) seeks information about interests, capabilities, and market information related to the draft problem statement below and questions below through this Request for Information (RFI). Responses to the RFI will inform the design of a potential future peacebuilding mechanism. This RFI is open for comments from any interested party.

Responses to the RFI questions in Attachment 1 (“Questions for Industry and Partner Feedback”) should be no more than six (6) pages in a Microsoft Word document or an Adobe PDF in 12-point font. Responses must be written in English with consecutively numbered pages. Clearly label each page with the name of the organization responding and “USAID/DRC Peacebuilding in the Central African Republic - RFI”. USAID values concise, issue-specific responses. Please ensure submitted comments make specific reference to RFI pages and question numbers.

Send responses to this RFI to Clement Kashala (ckashala@usaid.gov), Kathlyn Bryant (kbryant@usaid.gov), and kinshasaproposals@usaid.gov no later than 16:00 Kinshasa time on September 27, 2021. The subject of your email submission should include the following title:

“USAID/DRC Peacebuilding in the Central African Republic - RFI”.

This RFI is not a solicitation and is not a commitment by USAID to issue any solicitation or fund any award on the basis of a response to this RFI. No costs incurred in the preparation and submission of a response to this RFI will be paid. Responses will be held confidentially.

Proprietary information should not be sent.

Thank you for your response and interest in USAID/DRC’s programs.

mailto:ckashala@usaid.gov mailto:kbryant@usaid.gov mailto:kinshasaproposals@usaid.gov

Kathlyn Bryant, Supervisory Contracting and Agreement Officer

USAID/DRC

Attachments:

1. Challenges, Goals, Potential Activities; RFI Questions

2. Organization Response Form - optional

ATTACHMENT 1:

Introduction

USAID/DRC seeks development approaches and theories of change most likely to achieve peacebuilding and governance results in the Central African Republic. This input may contribute to activity design(s).

Conflict and Governance Challenges

Since independence, the people of the Central African Republic (CAR) have suffered from insecurity and cyclical governance crises that have stifled democratic hopes. Today, the state remains weak or absent in most of the country. Authoritarian states are exploiting this gap, using hard and soft power to deepen engagement in the country to exploit its natural resource wealth.

In the absence of a viable state, armed groups thrive and contribute to cycles of violence in their aspirations for political power. Illegal land use and abusive taxation are common. Kleptocratic systems become more and more entrenched. Human rights violations and atrocity risk are increasing.

Conflict drivers include power vacuums, absence of rule of law, corruption, unrealized hopes for democratic governance, social fragmentation, persistent insecurity, lack of justice for past and ongoing atrocities, exclusionary decision-making, and poverty. Domestic and neighboring elites exploit numerous lines of social fragmentation, including farmer-herder, inter-ethnic, and inter-religious divisions. Inter- and intra-communal violence erupt over transhumance issues and access to/control of natural resources - such as land, water, gold, and diamonds - deepening mistrust between communities. At the same time, those participating in armed group violence are driven more by basic economic need than any identity or ideology.

A 2019 peace agreement between the Central African Republic Government (CARG) and fourteen armed groups presented opportunities for Central Africans to address these drivers. But it confronted many obstacles to implementation, including the bad faith and obstruction of key actors. In January 2021, a loose coalition of armed groups, Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), formed to contest national election results. It disrupted the democratic process, captured territory throughout the country, severed road networks, and briefly threatened the capital. CPC failed to capture Bangui but succeeded in exposing CAR’s extreme fragility and creating havoc that non-official Russian actors use to justify their deepening engagement in the country.

The agreement now faces an uncertain future. After being confirmed by the Constitutional Court as the victor in the elections, President Touadera announced that he would convene a Republican Dialogue with ”les force vives.” He ruled out any dialogue with representatives of armed groups or any political party that showed support for the CPC, potential spoilers in any peace process.

Goal and Potential Activities

The goal of a potential program would be to reduce violence and build more effective, accountable, and democratic governance systems in CAR. The program must balance the scale of the interlinked conflict and governance challenges outlined above against USAID’s resources and capabilities in the country and region. USAID seeks realizable, locally driven theories of change. Under each theory of change, it seeks practical supply and/or demand-side interventions most likely to achieve the stated goal and make incremental progress toward peace and democratic stability in CAR. USAID is considering an investment in this space, although no funding amount has been determined.

Proposed interventions should be tailored to respond to local conflict dynamics and build on existing peace processes and local sources of resilience. They may address regional conflict and governance challenges to the extent that such challenges relate to the stated goal. Possible objectives include:

1. Reduce the vulnerability and increase the collective political power of CAR citizens and communities through early warning networks, peace committees, peace processes, or other means

2. Support independent and free professional media institutions to hold institutions accountable to CAR’s citizens

3. Strengthen institutions and systems that enable the rule of law, combat corruption, promote transparency, or establish predictable, enforceable rules, for example in natural resource economies and along transhumance routes

4. Improve access to justice for survivors of violence or strengthen the ability of justice sector actors to hold perpetrators accountable

5. Create jobs and opportunities for individuals at-risk of violence or armed group recruitment, particularly young people and women, leveraging private sector partnerships

6. Contribute to community and/or other types of trauma healing for those who have experienced violence

7. Support local elections and accountable local governance institutions where windows of opportunity exist and in collaboration with existing bilateral and multilateral interventions

8. Create cross-border constituencies for peace between CAR civil society and private sector organizations and those in neighboring countries

This list is not exhaustive or in any order of importance to USAID.

Any program must begin with a thorough understanding of the key actors and incentives, the principles of participatory action research, thinking and working politically, and applied political economy analysis. Adaptive management is essential in a dynamic environment with many unknowns, including the future role of Chad, Rwanda, and other neighboring governments, Russian engagement, shifting relationships within CPC, and the evolving capabilities and limitations of MINUSCA and FACA forces.

Questions for Industry and Partner Feedback:

Given the challenges, goals, and illustrative list of objectives above and your knowledge of the context and U.S. Government strategy, please generate a theory of change and respond to the following questions.

Using only the objectives listed above:

1. Rank the 8 objectives above by their potential to maximize and sustain results under the goal with available resources.

2. Why did you rank them this way? What makes your top objective(s) more vital than the others?

Unconstrained by the list of objectives above, but using them if desired:

3. Draft the theory of change you believe most likely to achieve the goal.

Format: IF…..AND….(AND……) THEN violence will decline and CAR will have more effective, accountable, and democratic governance systems.

4. Unconstrained by the list above, what peacebuilding objectives would be most important to realizing this theory of change? List no more than two.

5. What types of approaches would be most effective at achieving these objectives? Please outline the approaches and how you would implement them.

6. What would be the most important local institutions with which to partner to ensure that the goal is achieved and results sustained?

7. How do the answers to the above questions vary among different groups - including women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, people living with disabilities, and others?

Responses should reference approaches and results of existing and previous USAID interventions, including efforts to collaborate with the private sector, wildlife conservation organizations, and interfaith communities to promote peace.

ATTACHMENT 2:

Organization Response Form - optional

RFI# 72060521RFA00002

GENERAL INFORMATION

Name of the Organization:

Address:

Contact Person:

Name: ________________________________________ Position Title: __________________________________ Telephone: ____________________________________ E-mail address: _________________________________

Type of Organization:

US Organization (other than small business) US Small Business - (Please indicate type______________) International/Non-US Organization (Please indicate: ____________________)