FY2024_PRM_General_NGO_Guidelines.docx

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FY 2024 General NGO Guidelines for Overseas Assistance

1. Introduction The Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) has primary responsibility within the U.S. government for formulating policies on population, refugees, and migration, and for administering U.S. humanitarian assistance to refugees, conflict victims, internally displaced persons, stateless persons, and vulnerable migrants, as well as refugee admissions progrAams. PRM’s mission is to provide protection, ease suffering, and resolve the plight of persecuted and uprooted people around the world on behalf of the American people by providing life-sustaining assistance, working with multilateral organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGO), and civil society systems, to build global partnerships, promoting best practices in humanitarian response, and ensuring that humanitarian principles are thoroughly integrated into U.S. foreign and national security policy.

Historically, the majority of PRM’s primary funding supports the efforts of key multilateral humanitarian organizations responsible for refugees, conflict victims, internally displaced and stateless persons, and vulnerable migrants. PRM also funds NGO programs that are coordinated with multilateral institutions, other NGOs, and other civil society actors to expand the reach of U.S. government assistance and complement the humanitarian assistance ecosystem.

A critical component of providing humanitarian aid is the State Department’s humanitarian diplomacy. The Department of State’s diplomatic personnel worldwide play an important role in advocating for the protection of, and durable solutions for, the millions of refugees, stateless persons, internally displaced, and other people affected by conflict around the world. PRM recognizes NGOs as important and ubiquitous advocacy partners that contribute to and drive reform and innovation where they operate and across the humanitarian response structure.

These guidelines provide an overview to NGOs of common PRM application requirements and instructions in response to PRM-issued competitive notice of funding opportunities (NOFOs) for overseas assistance. These guidelines do not cover the full spectrum of programmatic activities PRM may support. These guidelines are meant to complement the instructions and requirements outlined in PRM-issued NOFOs, which will provide any additional specific instructions, eligibility requirements, and other considerations related to the advertised opportunity.

PRM may amend these guidelines due to changes in regulations, policies, or as deemed necessary. In such cases, PRM will notify applicants in relevant notices of funding opportunities and upload revised guidelines on PRM’s public website. The most recent version of these guidelines was published in December 2023.

PRM encourages and values both policy and program innovation, fully realizing the pace of innovation can be incremental to exponential. Have a great idea or want to provide feedback? 5 Please email PRM’s NGO Coordinator at PRMNGOCoordinator@state.gov.

2. What’s New and What has Changed?

· The guidelines document once again notes updated guidance on SAM.gov registration and sub-awardee UEI guidance, as well as potential lessened requirements for NATO CAGE (NCAGE) requirements for non-U.S. based applicants. Please note that Grants.gov has undergone a redesign for some webpages and users may need to update saved bookmarks as some URLs may have changed. Applicants are encouraged to closely review these changes to ensure access and that their registrations are processed in a timely manner.

· Updated guidance and suggestions on structuring forms and attachments within the Grants.gov Workspace environment and ensuring that applications are submitted in full so that technical complications are lessened.

· Exceeding stated page lengths limits of your proposal narrative will no longer result in automatic disqualification but will result in the portions of your proposal that exceed stated limits not being reviewed, likely impacting your submission’s score.

· The standard page limit for multi-year proposals (unless otherwise noted) has been reduced from 20 to 17 pages.

· Minor edits have been made to the M&E section of the proposal narrative; combined several sections and added suggested page length.

· Updated instructions for completing the indicator tables.

· Reorganization and renaming of select sectors and expanded sectoral guidance in Appendix C.

· Scoring criteria for both full proposal and concept note applications have been modified, for example, to place greater emphasis on applicant’s program descriptions, gap analyses, and quality of program idea.

· New Risk Assessment and Security Plan Guidance: PRM requires all recipients to conduct thorough risk assessments and take all actions necessary in accordance with those assessments to mitigate those risks. PRM’s website includes a new suggested format for a risk assessment document and additional information on analysis for locations with actors either sanctioned by the U.S. government or designated terrorists under U.S. material support statute (18 U.S.C. § 2339A and § 2339B). In FY 2024, to minimize the number of attachments submitted on grants.gov, PRM requests that applicants also provide their security plan together with the risk assessment. Applicants are required to submit a location-specific safety and security plan for proposed operational areas.

· The previously separate summary budget and detailed budget sample templates have been consolidated to one document to minimize the number of attachments submitted to grants.gov. The budget detail tab now includes fields for calculating level of effort.

· New statement on staff duty of care to encourage applicant organizations maintain a strategy for ensuring that all staff have access to the duty of care resources necessary to protect their health and overall well-being.

· New requirements on post-distribution monitoring (PDM): PRM now requires partners to conduct PDM after cash and voucher assistance (CVA) disbursements, either as a household survey or focus group discussion. This PDM should be used to collect data verifying that the CVA was received, as well as to understand how the CVA was used, whether the support was sufficient, whether the support was well-targeted, and to identify and respond to any protection concerns. Partners delivering CVA should also clearly message to CVA recipients how they can access technical support, such as through a helpline or contact, should the recipient experience challenges accessing their CVA.

· Appendix D, PRM Standardized Indicators: PRM reduced the total number of required and recommended indicators across sectors and made minor changes to several indicator titles. All changes to indicator titles and requirement levels are marked in red in the indicator list.

· If including custom indicators in an initial application, please consider that PRM recommends limiting them to no more than five (5) per objective to keep the overall table length manageable. If including custom indicators, applicants must ensure that they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, realistic, time-bound, and trackable (SMART). Applicants are encouraged to consider custom indicators that align with refugee response and cluster coordination requirements.

3. Application Process Overview of Required Registration Processes To begin the process of seeking PRM funding, applicants must register with the System for Award Management (SAM) and obtain a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) for their organization through SAM.gov. Organizations with inactive or expired SAM registrations, must renew registrations to apply for PRM funding opportunities. Note: On April 4, 2022, the former DUNS Number identifier was discontinued and replaced by the SAM UEI. For more information on the DUNS to SAM UEI transition or to register your organization or get a UEI, please visit the SAM.gov website.

Applicants must register with and create a username and password on Grants.gov and complete their Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) profile and confirm, through the E-Business Point of Contact (E-Biz POC) at the organization, that the applicant has an AOR. Please note that the grants.gov website is expected to undergo visual changes in 2023-2024. Some page URLs may change. When the new site launches, you may need to update bookmarks or hyperlinks you may use to access Grants.gov pages.

Organizations should not wait for Notice of Funding Opportunity announcements to be posted to start the registration process outlined above. Organizations can register at any time, and PRM encourages potential applicants to do so to avoid complications or delays in future application submissions. Organizations considering applying for specific open PRM funding opportunities should start the application process as early as possible to avoid missing submission deadlines and to ensure that they can obtain any additional required registrations in ample time, and/or avoid outages related to scheduled website maintenance.

Preparing to apply for PRM funding is a multi-step process that can take several weeks for U.S.-based NGOs and considerably longer for non-U.S. organizations. The SAM.gov registration process and the renewal process for registrations that have expired can take several weeks to complete. Please familiarize yourself with the latest registration guidance from SAM.gov.

The registration functions of SAM.gov and grants.gov are outside the control of PRM and the Bureau has limited ability to correct or facilitate rapid resolution to technical difficulties associated with these processes.

All applications in response to PRM Notice of Funding Opportunity announcements must be submitted via Grants.gov. PRM posts all funding opportunities on the website Grants.gov, PRM’s website, and all programs in the Assistance Listings on SAM.gov (formerly the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance [CFDA]).

PRM's Assistance Listings numbers are as follows and additional information on each may be found on SAM.gov and searching the following Assistance Listing numbers:

Registering with SAM To successfully apply to PRM funding opportunities through Grants.gov, organizations must register with and acquire a UEI number through SAM online. Note that once registered, SAM registrations must be renewed annually. Please note that as of December 2022, organizations based outside of the United States that do not intend to apply for U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) awards are no longer required to have a NATO CAGE (NCAGE) code to apply for non-DoD foreign assistance funding opportunities. If an applicant organization is mid-registratiosn and wishes to remove an NCAGE code from their sam.gov registration, the applicant should submit a help desk ticket (“incident”) with the Federal Service Desk (FSD) online to seek guidance on how to do so. If registration is not completed by the time the application for PRM funding is submitted, the application will be rejected automatically by Grants.gov. PRM strongly recommends that organizations complete the registration process as early in the fiscal year as possible to avoid potential delays when calls for concept notes or proposals are issued. Detailed instructions on how to complete this registration process can be found on grants.gov. When organizations register on SAM.gov, they will be asked to identify a single “E-Biz Point of Contact” for the organization. This person has the responsibility to confirm which individuals have the authority to submit proposals on behalf of the organization. SAM.gov is a free government-managed website; applicants do not need to pay to register their organization. Please beware if you are contacted by entities posing as SAM.gov and threatening to terminate registration unless a fee is paid. These emails are fraudulent and should be reported as Spam and Phishing/Spoofing.

Registering with Grants.gov Once organizations have obtained their UEI number and completed their SAM registration, the individual who is submitting the application on behalf of the organization must register on the Grants.gov website and create a username and password to complete his or her AOR profile. Once the AOR has registered on Grants.gov, the E-Biz Point of Contact at the organization will receive an email and must log on to Grants.gov to confirm the applicant as an AOR. All applicants are encouraged to consult the Grants.gov online page for frequently asked questions, user guides, and applicant training videos to familiarize themselves with the application process.

Grants.gov uses a secure platform to apply for federal grants called “Workspace.” Grants.gov Workspace is an online environment optimized for applicants who are collaborating on an application. Forms can either be completed online within a web browser or downloaded individually and uploaded to Workspace. You should plan to use this new system when applying. For more information on how to use Workspace, please see the Grants.gov YouTube channel.

SAM.gov and Grants.gov Technical Support Applicants who experience technical difficulties with the Grants.gov system during the application process must report the problem to the Grants.gov Help Desk at 1-800-518-4726 or support@grants.gov as soon as possible prior to the deadline identified in the funding opportunity announcement. Grants.gov will assign a case number and open a service request to research the problem(s).

Applicants experiencing technical difficulties with the SAM registration process, acquiring a UEI, or validating their entity, must contact the Federal Service Desk (FSD) online or at 1-866-606-8220 (U.S.) and 1-334-206-7828 (International).

PRM has very limited ability to facilitate rapid resolution to technical difficulties associated with these sites and should not be contacted before first attempting to correct issues through the above support systems.

International Multilateral Organizations International multilateral organizations, such as United Nations agencies, should not submit proposals to PRM through Grants.gov. Multilateral organizations seeking funding for programs must first contact the relevant PRM point of contact listed in the public funding announcement for additional instructions.

4. Application Submission PRM strongly recommends application documents be submitted as Adobe PDF files (except budgets and the indicator table, which should be in Excel file format), as Microsoft Word documents may produce different page lengths based on software versions and configurations. (Note: If converting a Microsoft Word document to a PDF, ensure that converted documents remain within the permitted page length limits.)

Exceeding stated page lengths limits of your proposal narrative, including through the inclusion of additional cover pages, organizational logos and branding, or additional extraneous content may result in portions of your proposal not being reviewed, thus impacting your submission’s score.

All documents must be in English and cost amounts in U.S. Dollars (rounded to the nearest whole dollar). For required documents (such as PSEA Codes of Conduct, organization charts, etc.) originating in another language, please provide an official English translation or comparable summary. For optional annexes, such as needs assessment reports, a rough translation to English is sufficient (for example, using Google Translate for Documents or another free translation tool).

PRM conducts formal internal competitive reviews of all application packages based on the proposal evaluation criteria and PRM’s priorities stated in the NOFO. A sample scorecard used by PRM to evaluate NGO applications can be found in Appendix F - Scorecard examples.

PRM accepts unsolicited concept notes and proposals at any time; however, due to limited funding, priority will be given to proposals responding to PRM-issued NOFOs. Unsolicited proposals should be submitted to the NGO Coordinator at PRMNGOCoordinator@state.gov.

Proposals must be focused along the sectors/modalities, and incorporate the corresponding indicators, specified in the NOFO. All proposals using cash and/or voucher assistance as a modality must use the relevant CVA indicator(s). Programmatic sector descriptions and indicators can be found in Appendices C and D, respectively.

Proposal Format, Templates, and Attachments:

PRM strongly recommends that applicants use the suggested templates and instructions available on PRM’s website. This will ensure consistency across applications and funding opportunities. PRM-issued NOFOs will state whether an application requires a concept note or full proposal application format.

Concept Note Templates:

· Concept Note for single and multi-year submissions (Word)

· Budget Summary [Tab 1 of Budget table] (Excel) Full Application Package Templates:

· Proposal Narrative for single year submissions (Word)

· Proposal Narrative for multi-year submissions (Word)

· Indicator Table (Excel)

· Budget Tables [Summary and Detail] (Excel)

· Budget Narrative (Word)

· Risk Assessment and Security Plan (Word) Single-year application proposal narratives must not exceed 15 pages in length, or 17 pages for multi-year funding proposals). Required proposal narratives, indicator tables, and budget documents written in a language other than English will not be considered.)

All proposals (except indicator tables and budget templates) must use Times New Roman or Calibri 12-point font (footnotes may be reduced to 8-point font, if necessary), on letter sized paper with one-inch margins on all sides. Organizations may choose to attach charts, work plans, and/or activity calendars as an addenda or appendices as separate documents to the proposal narrative but are not required to do so. These attachments should be added to the attachment fields in grants.gov. These attachments do not count toward the proposal narrative’s page limit total; however, annexes cannot be relied upon as a key source of program information and should be included in moderation. Grants.gov further limits the number of additional attachments that may be included in an application package, and therefore encourage applicants to be judicious in the number of attachments they include in their submission. The proposal narrative must be able to stand on its own in the application process and serves as a primary basis for the panel review’s scoring.

Note: For proposals related to refugee resettlement and admissions programs, and humanitarian research, please see the relevant NOFO for details on the required proposal format and templates.

When submitting documents on Grants.gov, please pay close attention to the file naming conventions. If these guidelines are not followed, your application may be rejected, or documents may not upload correctly:

· File attachment names should clearly indicate the document type and be made as short as possible; names cannot be longer than 50 characters.

· Do not use any special characters (example: &? *, %, /, #,',) or spacing followed by a dash in the file (example: Application – 1).

· For word separation, use underscore (example: Attached_File.pdf) in naming the attachments.

· It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that the application package has been received in grants.gov in its entirety. Before submitting applications on grants.gov, PRM strongly recommends applicants check to make sure all documents you intend to submit have been uploaded correctly. Missing required documents could result in disqualification. Individual emailed documents will not be considered.

· PRM strongly recommends applicants save a screen shot of the documents to be submitted in case a document fails to upload successfully.

· Additional information on grants.gov applications, including using attachments, UEI rollout information and other best practices may be found on grants.gov.

· Grants.gov requires the use of structured Forms within the grants.gov Workspace. PRM recommends applicants structure their application documents under the following Form folders:

· Project Narrative Attachment Form

· Project Narrative

· Indicator Table

· Risk Assessment and Security Plan

· PSEA Code of Conduct and implementation plan.

· Market Analysis (if applicable to the project)

· Budget Narrative Attachment Form

· Budget Table

· Budget Narrative

· Attachment Form

· All other required and optional attachments (Please note there is a limit of 15 additional attachments) Instructions for Completing the PRM Proposal Narrative Template (single and multi-year):

Use the following guidelines to address each section of the proposal narrative. If organizations choose not to use the PRM narrative templates, proposals must still include the sections outlined below. Information on scoring criteria of the proposal narrative section is detailed in Appendix F.

Section 1: Summary of Program: Complete the table on the first page of the template with the name of the organization, points of contact, SAM.gov UEI number, name of program along with relevant sectors and requested funding, type and number of program participants, proposed start, and end dates, whether your organization is currently receiving PRM or other donor funding in country, and the program goals and objectives.

Section 2: Gap Analysis: With respect to the specific location, activities, needs, and target population/participants of the proposed program, briefly describe the current or anticipated humanitarian needs that this program seeks to address. Explain how this proposal addresses the protection and assistance needs of the target population which are not being met by other assistance efforts, including those being undertaken by the host country, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), other international organizations, and/or NGOs. Provide specific evidence based on assessments that have been conducted, including any protection risk analyses, and other relevant background information collected to identify the needs of the target population. Indicate dates, sources of information, and describe the most critical needs, vulnerabilities, or capacities that were identified. If an organization’s own needs assessment is being used as a justification for funding, we strongly recommend that the assessment be included as an annex to the proposal. All programs that include at least one livelihoods-sector objective must include a full market assessment and livelihoods competency/participant capacity assessment as an attachment. Market assessments for livelihoods activities must be briefly described in this section and attached in full to the proposal. Programs can use existing market analyses for that context and population, as appropriate and if available. (Note: These attachments are required, failure to provide such will result in technical disqualification. These attachments do not count against the 15 (single year)- or 17 (multi-year)-page limit.)

Section 3: Profile of the Target Population: Describe the anticipated participant population(s) for this program including the process of participant/population targeting and selection; how refugees, returnees, host community members will be identified; and what actions you would take to ensure that potentially vulnerable and underserved groups are included. Clearly indicate that PRM’s populations of concern will constitute a minimum of 50 percent of the program population as indicated in the NOFO. (Note: If less than 50 percent of the program participants belong to populations of concern, the application will be disqualified, unless noted otherwise or explicitly permitted in the NOFO.) Using the most recent data available and citing sources:

· provide the anticipated demographic profile of the program participants including the numbers of refugees / asylum-seekers, internally displaced people (IDPs), stateless people, returnees, conflict victims, other vulnerable migrants, host country nationals, etc., as well as gender, age, and any other unique factors or vulnerabilities.

· PRM encourages applicants to list the specific locations – including the names of camps, provinces, districts, villages, neighborhoods, temporary accommodation centers, etc. – of proposed activities. Provide GPS coordinates or other geographic information, including maps, on project location either as part of the proposal narrative or as a separate attachment.

· If the proposed activity locations are not yet known, explain how the sites would be chosen.

· Charts and tables are welcome in this section as a means of cutting down on narrative text.

Section 4: Program Description: This section should clearly and concisely outline:

· The program’s description and objectives.

· Department of State guidance defines an objective as “a statement of the condition or state one expects to achieve toward accomplishing a program, program, or process goal.” These objectives may be sector-specific or crosscutting depending on partner preference.

· Key activities.

· Implementation plan; and

· Any implementing or other partners, including their role in the program.

The program description must include:

· An explanation of the link between the needs identified, activities, and outcomes expected.

· Identification of any goods or services to be provided.

· In the case of multi-year applications, an explanation for why multi-year funding may be necessary for the program to succeed. Articulate and quantify cost efficiencies that may not otherwise be attained through single year programs that would be enabled through the provision of multi-year funding, how multi-year funding may reduce costs over time, how longer periods of consultation with participant populations will inform programming and enable interventions to be studied and improved, and how the proposed activities in year one will inform and contribute to outcomes and impacts in years two and three, as applicable.

· How the proposed program will uphold Sphere Protection Principles and mitigate potential protection risks because of proposed activities. If the standards differ from the Sphere Handbook’s Minimum Standards, provide a justification for the variance. Assistance activities should mainstream protection by analyzing the protection risks in relation to each specific programming sector. An analysis of the risks should inform how assistance is designed to minimize them and maximize protection of program participants. Guidance and tools on protection mainstreaming and common protection risks can be found on the Global Protection Cluster's website and programs must take into account the Cluster’s four elements in all proposed humanitarian activities:

· Prioritize safety & dignity and avoid causing harm: Prevent and minimize as much as possible any unintended negative effects of your intervention which can increase people’s vulnerability to both physical and psychosocial risks.

· Meaningful Access: Arrange for people’s access to assistance and services – in proportion to need and without any barriers (e.g., discrimination). Pay special attention to individuals and groups who may be particularly vulnerable or have difficulty accessing assistance and services.

· Accountability: Set-up appropriate mechanisms through which affected populations can measure the adequacy of interventions, and address concerns and complaints.

· Participation and empowerment: Support the development of self-protection capacities and assist people to claim their rights, including – not exclusively – the rights to shelter, food, water and sanitation, health, and education.

PRM strongly encourages its partners to ensure that projects adhere to the IASC Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action as well as Humanitarian Action and Older Persons.

Common protection risks for refugees, IDPs, and other conflict-affected individuals include:

· Exploitation and abuse.

· Violence against civilians.

· Denial of access to, destruction, or theft of property and assets.

· Family separation.

· Sexual violence and other forms of violence against women and girls; and/or

· Lack of access to, exclusion from, or denial of assistance, services, or documentation.

· Programs using Cash and Voucher Assistance are encouraged to use the Cash Learning Partnership Protection Risks and Analysis Tool and include reference to its use here.

· For all applications, the program description must demonstrate analysis of the factors that promote or undermine gender equality in the program context. All proposals must address the specific needs of vulnerable populations that may experience gender oppression and discrimination. Proposals should also address the following areas to show that applicants have assessed, analyzed, and integrated gender dynamics within their program:

· Experiences considering a broad gender perspective across various age ranges with a focus on the different familial roles, community privileges, and gender dynamics within the target population.

· Associated risks and threats experienced by women, girls, and other vulnerable populations based on their gender, including gender-based violence.

· Power imbalances and needs that arise based on gender inequalities that exist within the family or community.

· And proposed responses that will address the above and mitigate risks of gender-based violence and any gender differences in access, participation, or decision-making that may be experienced by at-risk groups, particularly women and girls.

· The gender analysis should aim to specify and target specific at-risk sub-populations of women and girls as applicable, such as women and girl heads of households, out-of-school girls, people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex (LGBTQI+), women and girls with disabilities, women and girl survivors of violence, married girls, and adolescent mothers who are often unaware of and excluded from programs and services and who may be the hardest to reach.

Section 5: Monitoring and Evaluation Plan: Describe the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan. This section must include all elements listed below. Please note that this section should also align with the information provided in the recommended Excel indicator table attachment. See below “Indicator Table & Targets” for more guidance on indicator requirements.

· The specific M&E staff positions that will be responsible for M&E of the proposed program (no more than one paragraph; can be in table format if desired)

· A detailed description of the data collection methods/tools (no more than one page) that will be used to collect output, outcome, and process monitoring data. Examples may include baseline and endline program assessments, household surveys, post-distribution monitoring, market monitoring, observational site visits, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, exit interviews, progress reports, evaluations, and more. If you plan to use any secondary data sources (humanitarian cluster or working group reports/studies, Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transition (SMART) surveys etc.), describe these in detail. Please note any expected timelines for key M&E deliverables, and whether the resulting information will be shared as part of PRM quarterly or final reports. If operating in a restricted access environment, describe any remote monitoring methods, including any plans for third-party monitors. If applicable, describe how technical support for monitoring and oversight will be provided for local sub-recipients by the prime organization.

· A brief description of any expected limitations or need for additional flexibility (no more than one paragraph). Describe any known issues that could affect the quality of data, along with any plans for mitigating these concerns. Examples of potential limitations could include limited access to certain areas due to security concerns, an M&E team that is not representative of the target population (ex. few women enumerators, or few staff with certain local language skills), limited power/internet access for digital data collection, etc.

· A brief description of M&E data management, storage, safeguarding, and data protection procedures (no more than one paragraph). PRM and its partners must protect and safeguard participants’ personally identifiable information (PII). Applicants should outline their organizational and program-level protocols for obtaining informed consent, limiting access to PII, storing it safely, and protecting it from unauthorized access and use.

· Plans for regular data review and utilization (no more than one paragraph). This may include, for example, regular meetings with program managers, technical staff, and M&E teams to discuss the latest programmatic data, discuss trends and any adjustments necessary, and decide on any follow-up actions.

· Plans to assess and/or evaluate program outcomes and impact (no more than half a page). For applications seeking multi-year funding, PRM strongly recommends applicants conduct a Year 1 baseline assessment (I.e., Indicator values collected prior to implementation) and annual assessments to measure progress on outcome and impact indicators each year. The baseline and annual assessments should ideally include primary data collection at the household or community level. The findings and methods of the assessment(s) must be described in the Year 1 first quarterly report (for baseline) and each year’s final report (for annual assessments). PRM recommends the use of a verified sample size calculator for any partner that chooses to conduct a representative household survey. Optional USG resources on baseline/endline survey design and sampling methods may be found in USAID BHA’s M&E Guidance. If applicants propose to conduct an evaluation, please include details on any third parties and proposed methodologies. Partners should share any PRM-funded evaluation reports with the GO/GOR upon completion. Note: For applications seeking single-year funding, PRM does not require a dedicated baseline and annual/endline assessment. PRM outcome indicators may be measured using non-representative surveys, exit interviews, focus group discussions, or other methods as relevant.

Section 6: Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP): Specifically for the proposed program, describe (1) how the target participant population is involved in program design and implementation, and (2) the organization’s procedures for collecting, analyzing, and responding to participant feedback throughout the life of the program. See Appendix B - PRM Policies and Standards for more information. Additional information on best practices for AAP can be found at:

· The IASC’s Results Group (RG2) portal and resource library

· PRM’s AAP webpage

· The Core Humanitarian Standard Alliance Frequently Asked Questions on AAP resource page.

Note: This section in the proposal narrative is specific to the program being proposed and is distinct from the organization-level AAP framework requirement, which is a separate required document and described later in these guidelines.

Section 7: Coordination: Describe the level of cooperation and coordination with relevant stakeholders including international organizations, other NGOs, government entities, other donors, and civil society that went into the program design, plans for partnerships, and plans to participate in ongoing coordination efforts. Please list current and anticipated challenges and suggested solutions. Applicants should include regional (and/or cross-border) coordination, as applicable. Descriptions of information-sharing plans or arrangements and use of existing information databases should be included. For programs targeting refugees or other populations for which international assistance is being coordinated by UNHCR or another UN agency, NGOs may, but are not required, to provide a letter of support from UNHCR or the relevant agency specific to the proposal and share how the proposed program falls within the scope of existing country humanitarian plans. The inclusion of a letter of support from UNHCR or another UN agency will not impact an applicant’s score during proposal panel reviews.

Section 8: Sustainability and Capacity- Strengthening: Describe what conditions will ensure the sustainability of the proposed program. Explain how the program will contribute to local capacity-strengthening elements including the self-reliance of program participants, and strengthening of local organizations, or the host government; incorporate longer-term sustainability objectives into humanitarian programs; increase work towards durable solutions and participant involvement, be handed over to another organization or entity incorporating a “do no harm” approach; or be financed by other means after PRM funding ends.

Section 9: Management and Past Performance: Applicants must provide details on the organization’s management structure, including specific management plans for the proposed program. Applicants should describe headquarters oversight of the proposed program. Applicants must furnish names, titles, and brief biographical information on the education and experience of key personnel in implementing the program and key supervisory personnel; (i.e., the members of the professional staff in a program supervisory position engaged for or assigned to duties under the award).

Describe the organization’s relevant experience working in the proposed location and sector(s) and whether the applicant currently has permission to operate in the country. Proposals that seek to continue current programs must include details regarding any changes in key personnel over the previous period of performance, a detailed discussion of what has been achieved with that programming to date and challenges in meeting objectives.

Proposals seeking to implement new programs should provide specific examples of past performance in similar programs in this country and/or sector. State explicitly any similar program the organization has implemented in the last three years for which it has received PRM funding, in any country/location. Organizations are encouraged to include an overview assessment of their programs funded by PRM in prior years.

· Note: Applicant Vetting as a Condition of Award (Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen): Applicants are advised that successful passing of vetting to evaluate the risk that funds may benefit terrorists, or their supporters is a condition of award. Vetting information is also required for all sub-award performance on assistance awards identified by the Department of State as presenting a risk of terrorist financing. Applicants may be asked to submit Risk Analysis information about their company and its key personnel via the secure RAM web portal. If vetting is required, the Department of State’s Risk Analysis and Management System (RAM) Team will contact applicants directly via email and instruct them on how to enter their data via the Secure Portal. Once a user is logged on to the Portal, there are links to help users input the required information. Failure to submit information when requested, or failure to pass vetting, may be grounds for rejecting your proposal.

Section 9a. Consortia Proposals Only: If the applicant is applying as a consortium, a description of how the partnership will be organized and how lines of authority and decision-making will be managed across all team members and between the lead applicant and associate awardees should be included in the proposal. For consortia, one organization must be designated as the lead applicant. The prime applicant would be responsible for overall implementation of the proposed program activities, preparation/presentation of annual work plans, M&E planning, and required reporting to PRM. The prime applicant should designate a single individual to be the liaison with PRM, although PRM would reserve the right to communicate with sub-recipients. Applicants may form consortia to bring together organizations with varied expertise to propose a comprehensive program in one proposal. Submissions by organizations as part of a consortium do not count toward an individual organization’s submission limit per a given NOFO’s requirements. Consortia applications are not weighted differently or prioritized unless explicitly noted in the respective notice of funding opportunity.

· For purposes of consortia applying for PRM funding, PRM considers them to be a group of no less than three NGOs that comprise an agreement, combination, or group formed to undertake, or propose to undertake, an assistance activity beyond the resources of any one member. The consortium arrangement may allow for greater geographic coverage, inclusion of technical and sectoral strengths from multiple organizations, increased inclusion of local, national, and refugee-led organizations, and the potential of much greater impact through collaboration. PRM encourages applicants to approach local and national entities as consortium partners. Awardees and local/national partners should work together to reach program goals and build upon their respective comparative advantages. As appropriate, awardees should also endeavor to ensure that these partnerships help to strengthen the capacity of local and national NGOs who serve as sub-awardees. This may include providing support to their financial and delivery systems or ensuring that partners are active in humanitarian coordination structures. Applicants are expected to advance good partnership practices with local partners, including as they align with the Grand Bargain Localization Workstream.

Section 10: Sub-Contracts/Sub-Recipients: List the full and exact name of any sub-contractors or sub-recipients the organization plans to fund through the proposed program, if known. Identify sub-recipients including, for each, the Legal Name, Organizational UEI, Address, and Name of Organizational Representative. Describe how these organizations are or will be vetted to comply with U.S. Executive Orders and law, which prohibits transactions with and the provision of support to organizations associated with terrorism. If sub-recipients are unknown at the time of proposal, the above information must be provided for PRM Grants Officer approval prior to a sub-award or sub-contract before or after a prime award is issued.

· Note: All partners in a consortium and all sub-contracts/recipients to a prime must obtain a SAM.gov UEI prior to an award or subaward being issued, however sub-awardees do not need to have a UEI prior to application. Sub-awardees typically only require a UEI and not a full SAM registration. Lead Applicants cannot apply through Grants.gov without being registered in SAM.gov and therefore must have a UEI.

Section 11: U.S. Government Recognition: Describe how the organization will recognize the U.S. government’s financial support, provided through PRM, for the proposed program/activities (e.g., in publications, social media, website platforms, press releases, etc., and at the program site).

If your organization believes that publicly acknowledging U.S. government financial support at the program site could potentially endanger the lives of the program participants and/or the organization’s staff, invite suspicion about the organization’s motives, or alienate the organization from the population it is trying to help, provide a brief explanation and request an exemption from the program site acknowledgement requirement.

Indicator Table and Targets As of Fiscal Year 2023, PRM updated the proposal indicator table to an Excel template format. This recommended file may be downloaded on PRM’s website. For PRM indicators, applicants must use the exact indicator title as listed below in Appendix D - PRM Standardized Indicators. Please reference PRM’s Performance Indicator Reference and Definition Sheets (PIRS), located on the PRM “Funding Opportunities” webpage, for additional information on indicator definitions. The use of PRM’s standard indicators will enable data aggregation and use across programs, while also complementing custom indicators. The indicator table must include indicator names, associated sector/sub-sector, disaggregates, the Year 1 baseline value, year-by-year targets (only if applying for multi-year funding), a cumulative target, associated objectives, a description of how the cumulative target was set, the name of the data collection method to be used, the frequency of collection, and the position responsible for collection as reflected in Columns A-N. For new awards, the purple columns (P-AD) should be left blank at application stage; they will be used by awardees for annual reporting. Note: Objectives identified in the proposal narrative and indicators will be formally referenced in the cooperative agreement for proposals that are selected for PRM funding and will be used by PRM to monitor and evaluate the program.

Cumulative Targets and Actuals The "Cumulative Target" and "Cumulative Actual" should reflect the final indicator value at the end of the program. For people-based output indicators (ex. "PRM-1. Number of individuals directly reached through PRM funding"), please use the UNIQUE total. The same person should be counted only once even if they participated across multiple years. If you are unable to calculate unique values for a legitimate reason (for example, one of the data sources is a government health database where the values are not unique), please provide your best estimate and note this in the "comments" column. For percentage indicators calculated using a survey from a sample of participants or sites (ex. SMART nutrition surveys), please use the latest survey value. For percentage indicators calculated using all sites/participants, please sum the numerators and denominators across all years and use this to calculate the final percentage.

PRM Standardized Indicator Selection Applicants must refer to PRM’s indicator list and include all required indicators as part of the application. PRM has two categories of indicators:

· Required: Indicators marked as “required” in Appendix D must be included in the proposal as applicable. Apart from Protection, each sector and sub-sector have one required PRM indicators; these must be included in the indicator table if the partner is proposing any activities or budget for that sector/sub-sector. In addition, three indicators are required for all programs regardless of design or sector (unless the NOFO or PRM staff provide specific exemption).

· PRM-1. Number of individuals directly reached through PRM funding - Partners should never use zero for this indicator’s target, unless they discuss first with PRM staff. In the case of research or coordination awards that don’t involve community implementation, partners should count external participants (from dissemination events, coordination meetings, etc.) and include them under the “non-POC stakeholder” disaggregate.

· PRM-2. Amount of PRM humanitarian funding distributed to local, national, or refugee-led organizations (in USD) – This amount should include any sub-awards or contracts with local, national, or refugee-led organizations. If the prime applicant is a local, national, or refugee-led organization, they should put the full proposal budget total as the target value. The IASC provides a working definition of “local” and “national” organizations. Applicants should put a target of zero for this indicator if it does not apply to them; it will not affect their eligibility.

· PRM-3. Percentage of participants who report that humanitarian assistance is delivered in a safe, accessible, accountable, and participatory manner – This is a protection mainstreaming indicator developed by ECHO and adopted by the Grand Bargain. Research or coordination awards that don’t involve community implementation are exempt from this indicator.

· Please refer to the PRM Performance Indicator Reference & Definition Sheets (PIRS) for a sample questionnaire and analysis guidance.

Recommended: Partners may consider using these indicators to monitor any related activities if they are applicable. However, inclusion of recommended indicators is not mandatory. PRM does value measuring outcomes, so please note that PRM may request for a partner to use a particular recommended indicator if there is a technical/thematic need to track information on that indicator, or if a similar custom indicator was proposed by the partner.

Custom Indicators Applicants may also include custom indicators if desired. If including custom indicators in an initial application, please consider PRM recommends limiting them to no more than five (5) per objective to keep the overall table length manageable. If including custom indicators, applicants must ensure that they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, realistic, time-bound, and trackable (SMART). Applicants are encouraged to consider custom indicators that align with refugee response and cluster coordination requirements. All indicators must be identified in parentheses as an input, output, outcome, or impact indicator.

· Input: Input indicators tell us what is being invested or done (i.e., staff hired, supplies purchased).

· Output: A short-term, immediate result of a program or process that leads to longer-term outcomes.