PCLM-2025_Final.docx

U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) U.S. Embassy Zambia Community Led Monitoring-Notice of Funding Opportunity

Section 1: PROGRAM DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

Program Description The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Zambia requests applications for an open competition for organizations to conduct the Community Led Monitoring (CLM) program. This funding opportunity seeks to improve the quality of HIV care in Zambia by soliciting and triangulating recipient of care feedback collected by trained community members. PEPFAR Zambia and Government Republic of Zambia (GRZ) Ministry of Health uses this information to strengthen, address gaps and improve the outcomes of HIV services. PEPFAR Zambia seeks not-for-profit organizations with the capacity to collaborate with PEPFAR, key stakeholders, as well as community level recipients of care of PEPFAR supported services. Potential grantees should build on past work, be able to implement a monitoring program to promote cooperation in improving HIV care, encourage all People living with HIV (PLHIV) constituencies, including but not limited to key populations (KP), adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) persons with disability and pregnant and breastfeeding women (PBFW), to share their experience and facilitate discussion and insight that makes a difference in the HIV response.

Program Objectives PEPFAR Zambia recognizes the importance of engaging with communities in the development and implementation of its HIV programming. The CLM program started in 2021 with PEPFAR providing funding and technical support to not-for-profit organizations implementing in each province. Beginning May 2025, PEPFAR will support CLM implementation with organizations aiming to strengthen previous CLM activities and systematically address client feedback. In partnership with the National HIV/AIDS, STI, and TB Council (NAC) and the Ministry of Health (MOH), quarterly review meetings of recipient of care and client feedback will be held to identify persistent and common problems, challenges, and barriers to service uptake at the site and facility level. To facilitate and ensure all provinces and PLHIV constituencies are represented, PEPFAR Zambia seeks applicants from community organizations from each province in Zambia. The grantees are encouraged to integrate PLHIV-focused community organizations within their province as structures that will facilitate recipient of care engagement for feedback collection. The feedback will be collected and reported using a harmonized reporting tool created by stakeholders. The role of the grantees will focus on feedback collection and synthesizing feedback to share with stakeholders with approval from PEPFAR and MOH, while PEPFAR Zambia will provide oversight of CLM implementation. The grantees are expected to collect recipient of care feedback and experience in two phases; phases one establishes a baseline while phase two demonstrates changes in quality-of-service provision.

The deliverables are:

1. Include low and high-volume health facilities offering PEPFAR supported HIV related services across the province, as part of data collection.

2. Collect feedback from all PLHIV constituencies, including but not limited to KP, AGYW, persons with disability, and PBFW. Applications which do not include plans for the inclusion of all constituencies will not be considered.

3. Submit monthly programmatic reporting.

4. Submit quarterly summarized programmatic indicators and financial reporting

5. Track changes in recipient of care feedback and service provision between phase one and two feedback collection.

6. Participate in quarterly meetings with government, community, United States Government (USG) and implementing partners.

7. Make actionable recommendations to improve client care based on feedback from recipients of care.

Section 2: AWARD INFORMATION

Length of performance period: May 1, 2025, to March, 31, 2026 (11 months)

Number of awards anticipated: 10 awards (one award per province)

Award amounts: Awards may range up to the maximum of the Kwacha equivalent of $115,000 USD

Total Available Funding: Up to $1,150,000 USD for all awards

Type of Funding: FY2025/COP23/FY25 Allocated Funds

Anticipated programs start date: May 1, 2025

Funding Instrument Type: Cooperative Agreement

Program Performance Period: Proposed programs should be completed no later than March 31, 2026.

The Department of State will entertain applications for continuation grants funded under these awards beyond the initial budget period on a non-competitive basis subject to availability of funds, satisfactory progress of the program, and a determination that continued funding would be in the best interest of the U.S. Department of State.

Section 3: ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

Eligible Applicants:

1. Not-for-profit organizations, including civil society, non-governmental organizations, and public and private educational institutions.

2. Organizations must be registered with the Government of the Republic of Zambia.

3. Must have experience of successfully implementing programs with funding of a minimum of $25,000.

4. Must have established offices, at least 12 months prior to application submission, in the province for which they are applying to implement the CLM program.

5. An organization may apply for consideration for more than one province but is only eligible to be one prime CLM Grantee.

Other Eligibility Requirements:

Applicants must register with Grants.gov prior to submitting an application. Registering with Grants.gov is a one-time process; however, it may take weeks to have the registration validated and confirmed. It is recommended that the registration process is begun immediately to ensure that the process is completed well in advance of the deadline for applications. Until that process is complete, you will not be issued a user password for Grants.gov, which is required for application submission. Below are the steps that must be completed before being able to submit your application in Grants.gov:

Register organization with System for Award Management (SAM) www.SAM.gov. SAM.GOV is a government-wide registry for organizations doing business with the Federal government; Grants.gov uses SAM.gov to establish organizational authority for its user and to provide unique entity identification (UEI) numbers. SAM registration must be renewed annually. After obtaining the UEI for the organization from SAM.gov, you must return to Grants.gov to continue registration. There is no fee for registering with Grants.gov. Your organization’s Electronic Business point of contact (EBiz POC) must:

a. Create a Grants.gov account with the same email address as used in SAM.gov for EBiz POC, and

b. Add a profile with Grants.gov using UEI obtained from SAM.gov. The EBiz POC can then delegate administrative roles to other users.

The U.S. Department of State will not make an award to an applicant who does not have a valid and active SAM registration by the time the Department is ready to make an award.

Section 4: APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Instructions:

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

Applicants must ensure:

1. The proposal clearly addresses the goals and objectives of this funding opportunity

2. All documents are in English

3. All budgets are in U.S. dollars and calculated at USD 1= K25 (as of July 2024)

4. All pages are numbered

5. All materials are submitted to Grants.gov, by midnight February 17, 2025.

The following documents are required:

1. Mandatory Applications forms (these forms are included in the package):

a) SF-424 (Application for Federal Assistance)

b) SF-424A (Budget Information for Non-Construction Programs)

c) SF-424B (Assurance for Non-Construction Programs)

2. Summary Page: Cover sheet stating the organization’s name, province applying for, and brief overview of your organization implementation of the CLM program.

3. Proposal: The proposal should contain sufficient information that anyone not familiar with community led monitoring would understand exactly what the applicant wants to do. You may use your own proposal format, but it must include all the items below:

a. Proposal Summary: Short narrative that outlines your organization’s proposed community led program, including plans to reach and collect feedback on the service experience of all PLHIV constituencies including KP, AGYW, pediatrics, persons with disability, and PBFW.

a) Introduction to the Organization Applying: A description of past and present operations, showing the ability to carry out the CLM program, including the descriptions of funding programs of at least/minimum $25,000, and all previous grants from U.S. government agencies.

b) Program Methodology and Monitoring Plan: A description of how your organization will engage and train their staff within the province to collect and consolidate feedback from recipients of care. Address the following:

· Include a detailed description of the institutions, networks, and community structures your organization will engage to expand the reach of all PLHIV constituencies accessing HIV related services in the province of interest.

· Detailed description of how all PLHIV constituencies will be included.

· Target to reach a monthly minimum of 250 recipients of care with all PLHIV constituencies covered.

· The coverage of recipients of care should be from both low and high-volume health facilities and, rural and urban areas.

· Describe how your organization will provide field team technical support and supervision to ensure feedback is collected correctly and reports are submitted on a monthly and quarterly basis in a timely manner throughout the lifecycle of the grant.

· Provide detailed description of how recipients of care will be engaged in collaboration with health facilities and other community structures.

· Provide assurance to not engage in a competing interest to this program.

· For sub-awarding: Describe how the CLM work will be managed and tracked, and all reporting requirements met with the sub-awardee.

c) Key Personnel: Names, titles, roles, and experience/qualifications of key personnel involved in the CLM program. What proportion of their time will be used in support of the CLM program?

d) Program Partners: List the names of any type of involvement of partner organizations and/or sub-awardees.

4. Budget Justification Narrative: After filling out the SF-424A Budget form, use two separate documents to describe project budget expenses as detailed budget and budget narrative.

5. Attachments:

a) CV or resume of key personnel who are proposed for the program

b) Letters of support from program partners describing the roles and responsibilities of each partner (if applicable)

c) Three Reference letters

1. One letter must be from an international organization with annual funding of $25,000 or more

d) Applicants submitting proposals over $100,000 must also submit Standard Form LLL (SF-LLL), Disclosure of Lobbying Activities. This form is available at: http://apply07.grants.gov/apply/forms/sample/SFLLL-V1.1.pdf

Questions:

For questions on this solicitation please submit questions ONLY to PEPFAR Zambia Grants Team: lusakasmallgrants@state.gov. No questions received through phone calls will be answered.

Questions may be received until January 20, 2025, and the answers to all questions received will be posted by February 03, 2025 on the PEPFAR Zambia webpage: https://zm.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/pepfar/. Please check back frequently for any updates.

· For questions relating to grants.gov, please contact +1-800-518-4726 or support@grants.gov.

· For questions relating to sam.gov, please contact +1-866-606-8220 or fds.gov.

Submission:

All application materials must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov. The subject line should be as follows –Applicant Organization name: Community Led Monitoring Grants Program. through Grants.gov only Paper and or email applications will NOT be accepted.

Application Deadline: February 17, 2025, by Midnight Zambia time.

Section 5: APPLICATION REVIEW AND SELECTION PROCESS

Selection Process:

1. Criteria: Each application submitted under this announcement will be evaluated and rated based on the criteria enumerated in the evaluation section. The criteria are designed to assess the quality of the proposed project, and to determine the likelihood of its success.

2. Acknowledgement of receipt: Applicants will receive acknowledgment of receipt of their proposal.

3. Review: A technical review panel will review the proposal and based upon the criteria noted in evaluation section. A determination will be made regarding the CLM proposal and activities, and those applications that are the best fit will be given additional consideration.

4. Follow up notification: Applicants will be notified within 60 days after the NOFO deadline regarding the results of the review panel.

Criteria:

Each application will be evaluated and rated based on the evaluation criteria outlined below.

A. Quality and Feasibility of the CLM Implementation (25 points)

1. Does the implementation plan explain where CLM will be conducted in the province?

2. Does the implementation plan include all constituencies, including but not limited to KP, AGYW and PBFW?

3. Does the proposal incorporate and explain how the CLM program builds on already established community health mechanisms at the neighborhood, district, and provincial level?

4. Does the applicant clearly articulate the organization’s clear understanding of what CLM is?

5. Does the applicant clearly articulate their role in the CLM initiative?

B. Organizational Capacity (20 points)

1. Does the organization have the expertise for key staff in its’ stated field?

2. Does the organization have a proven track record of implementing similar projects?

3. Does the organization have the necessary internal controls in place to manage grant funds?

4. Does the organization have a financial management system in place?

5. Does the organization have a bank account?

C. Previous Experience with International Funding (10 points)

1. How many international funding projects has the organization successfully completed?

2. What is total amount of international funding the organization has received in the last 5 years?

3. Recommendations received from previous funders.

D. Budget (15 points)

1. Is the budget justification detailed?

2. Are the costs reasonable in relation to proposed activities and anticipated results?

3. Is the overall budget realistic, accounting for all necessary expenses to achieve proposed activities?

4. Does the applicant provide a clear plan to manage the resources of the program and audit expenditures?

5. Consideration will be given to the applicant with the lowest realistic budget proposal.

E. Methodology and monitoring Plan (20 points)

1. Does the applicant provide sufficient information on field staff engagement and training?

2. Does the applicant clearly outline field team supportive supervision?

3. Does the applicant provide a detailed description of the institutions, networks, and community structures they will engage for feedback collection?

4. Does the applicant provide a plan to reach the minimum target of recipients of care for monthly feedback collection?

5. If the organization has plans to subaward does their methodology plan include how they will monitor the subawards?

F. Collaboration (10)

1. Does the organization have a strong history of working successfully with key stakeholders in Zambia (for example, NAC, MOH, UNAIDS, Global Fund, MOD, and/or USG agencies)?

2. Does the organization have letters of recommendations from any of these organizations?

Section 6: AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

Award Notices:

The grant award will be written, signed, awarded, and administered by the PEPFAR Grant Officer. The assistance award agreement is the authorizing document, and it will be provided to the recipient for review and signature. The recipient may only start incurring program expenses beginning on the start date shown on the grant award document signed by the Grants Officer. The awardee will interact with a designated Grant Officer Representative (GOR).

If a proposal is selected for funding, the Department of State has no obligation to provide any additional future funding. Renewal of an award to increase funding or extend the period of performance is at the discretion of the Department of State Grant Officer.

Issuance of this NOFO does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the U.S. government, nor does it commit the U.S. government to pay for costs incurred in the preparation and submission of proposals. Further, the U.S. government reserves the right to reject any or all proposals received.

Reporting requirements:

All awards issued under this announcement require both program and financial reports on a frequency specified in the award agreement. The disbursement of funds will be tied to the timely submission of these reports. All details related to award administration will be specified in the award agreement. The point of contact for questions or issues related to the administration of the cooperative agreement will be specified in the award agreement.

Administrative and National Policy Requirements:

Terms and Conditions: Before applying, applicants should review all the terms and conditions and required certifications which will apply to this award, to ensure that they will be able to comply. These include: 2 CFR 200, 2 CFR 600, and the Department of State Standard Terms and Conditions which are available at: https://www.state.gov/about-us-office-of-the-procurement-executive/. Note the U.S. Flag branding and marking requirements in the Standard Terms and Conditions.