Revised NPI_GH_APS 5.2.2024.pdf

APS Number: 7200AA19APS00013 USAID New Partnerships Initiative Global Health (NPI GH APS)

Federal Agency Name: United States Agency for International Development

Funding Opportunity Title: New Partnerships Initiative (NPI) – Global Health

Announcement Type: Annual Program Statement (APS)

Funding Opportunity Number: 7200AA19APS00013

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 98.001

Issuance Date: July 12, 2019

Last Revised Date: April 29, 2024

Closing Date: September 30, 2030

Questions Deadline for this APS Document: N/A

Please see individual Round documents for each Round’s deadlines and submission instructions for concept papers.

For a USAID bilateral or regional Mission or USAID/Washington Office wishing to issue a Round under this APS, the program description must fit within Section I of this document. Please contact ghnpi_aps@usaid.gov for review of the Round document - it must be reviewed before being posted publicly under this APS. All new Rounds must be posted as a NPI GH APS Round on the USAID Business Forecast.

Dear Applicants:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is announcing the New Partnerships Initiative Global Health Annual Program Statement (known hereafter as NPI

GH APS).

Through this APS, USAID announces its desire to engage new, nontraditional, and local partners to expand and amplify the Agency’s work in the health sector. The overall goal of NPI is to help the Agency partner with new, nontraditional, and local actors to advance shared development goals—while elevating the quality of our partnerships through strengthened accountability, capacity, and local leadership.

This APS is designed in accordance with specific Administration and Agency priorities and criteria for new, nontraditional, and local partners. After issuance of the APS, individual USAID Missions and Operating Units (M/OU) will request Concept Papers via a Round as the first step in a multi-step process that could result in USAID funding for an idea. Interested organizations should read this entire APS, as well as any Round, and follow the instructions for submitting a Concept Paper. Applicants should not submit Concept Papers in response to this umbrella APS, but only to Rounds published to this APS. USAID reserves the right to fund any or none of the applications submitted under this APS.

USAID is available to respond to questions from applicants about the process. Applicants should submit questions by email to the point of contact (POC) identified in the specific Round through which they are considering submitting a concept paper.

USAID sincerely hopes that your organization will consider submitting a Concept Paper to a Round of the NPI GH APS. Thank you for your interest.

Sincerely, Bureau for Global Health

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION I: PROGRAM DESCRIPTION 4

A. BACKGROUND 4

B. PURPOSE 5

C. PROGRAMMATIC AND GEOGRAPHIC 6

D. OVERALL PROCESS 13

E. POLICIES AND GUIDING DOCUMENTS 14

SECTION II: FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION 18

A. FUNDING 18

B. START DATE AND PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE FOR FEDERAL AWARDS 18

C. TYPE OF INSTRUMENT 18

D. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 18

E. AUTHORIZED GEOGRAPHIC CODE 19

F. BENEFITING GEOGRAPHIC AREAS 19

SECTION III: ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION 20

A. NPI PARTNERSHIP APPROACHES AND ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS 20

SECTION IV: INFORMATION ON APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION 24

A. AGENCY POINT OF CONTACT 24

B. APPLICATION PROCESS 24

C. MERIT REVIEW CRITERIA 27

D. KEY DEFINITIONS FOR THE NEW PARTNERSHIPS INITIATIVE 29

SECTION V: INFORMATION ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF FEDERAL AWARDS

A. FEDERAL AWARD NOTICES 32

B. TYPE OF AWARD 32

SECTION VII: FEDERAL AWARDING AGENCY CONTACT(S) 36

APPENDIX A –ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS 37

APPENDIX B – RESOURCES FOR IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS 39

SECTION I: PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

A. BACKGROUND

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is issuing this APS pursuant to the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) of 1961, as amended. The Agency will administer any resulting awards in accordance with Part 200 of Title 2 of the Code of Federal regulations (CFR), Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards; Part 700 of Title 2 of the CFR; Standard Provisions for U.S./Non-U.S. Organizations;

as well as the additional requirements in Section VI of this APS, Information on the Administration of Federal Awards.

New Partnerships Initiative (NPI)

NPI was relaunched in 2019 as part of the Agency’s first Acquisition and Assistance Strategy.

Currently, NPI seeks to operationalize the Agency’s updated 2022 Acquisition and Assistance Strategy, including Objective 3: “A more diverse set of partners engaged to implement locally led development solutions.” NPI’s focus on lowering barriers to entry to working with USAID, improving collaboration with new, nontraditional, and local actors, supporting greater local engagement, enhancing local capacity strengthening, and expanding the use of co-creation is closely linked with key issues of rebalancing power and accountability to local populations. As USAID renews its commitment to improving the way we engage with local systems through funding, promoting, and empowering local actors, NPI seeks to advance a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible approach to partnering.

Situated within the Local, Faith, and Transformative Partnerships (LFT) Hub of the Bureau for Inclusive Growth, Partnerships, and Innovation (IPI), NPI supports the Hub’s goals of strengthening the Agency’s ability to partner with new, nontraditional, and local actors to advance shared goals by elevating local leadership, fostering equity and accountability, and mobilizing resources across the Agency’s programs. NPI works closely with the M/OU to craft language for funding opportunities that incorporate NPI approaches designed to yield a more diverse set of partners working with the Agency in innovative, locally-driven, and accountable ways. Since the launch of NPI in May 2019, Central and Mission mechanisms affiliated with NPI have supported 54 awards representing over $1 billion to approximately 70 new, local, and non-traditional partners.

Global Health

The Bureau for Global Health Bureau (GH) works with a diverse set of communities and partners in the countries in which we operate, supporting health and social systems strengthening to promote local ownership, improve equitable access to healthcare services, and achieve sustainable outcomes. USAID recognizes that extensive capacity already exists among local organizations. As the GH seeks to partner more with diverse local actors to include marginalized and underserved communities, we recognize that local organizations have different experiences and expertise to leverage and that we should meaningfully engage and increase our resource allocations to them to strengthen other areas where they may want more organizational or technical expertise. Local Capacity Strengthening (LCS) has long been a central component https://www.usaid.gov/npi https://www.usaid.gov/policy/acquisition-and-assistance-strategy https://www.usaid.gov/policy/acquisition-and-assistance-strategy https://www.usaid.gov/local-faith-and-transformative-partnerships https://www.usaid.gov/about-us/organization/bureau-inclusive-growth-partnerships-innovation https://www.usaid.gov/about-us/organization/bureau-inclusive-growth-partnerships-innovation https://www.usaid.gov/policy/local-capacity-strengthening/bureau-global-health-lcs of USAID’s global health programming around the world. As aligned with the Agency’s LCS Policy, GH defines LCS as an investment to improve the performance of local health actors—individuals, organizations, and networks—to jointly improve the performance of a health or social system in producing valued health outcomes. It is through performance in the local health or social system, or the exercise of capacity—and not through training, plans, or procedures—that local health actors demonstrate the achievement of their LCS goals.

A robust health sector includes both public and private providers and partners as well as meaningful and routine engagement with the communities that they serve. Leveraging the expertise and reach of local stakeholders (including but not limited to) community-based organizations (CBOs), faith-based organizations (FBOs), and small businesses, is a key component of increasing the quality, access, and sustainability of health programs at the country level. Strengthening new effective and long-term partnerships can spur innovation and create new paths for development solutions to accelerate progress at the country and community levels. The NPI GH APS is intended to facilitate locally generated solutions focusing on country empowerment and accountability to improve health services, systems strengthening and leverage additional resources. This APS is intended to strengthen local organizations’ technical and organizational capacity and performance in order to expand access to quality health care services for underserved and vulnerable populations.

B. PURPOSE

USAID’s New Partnerships Initiative (NPI)

NPI leads USAID’s work to diversify our base, contributing solutions-oriented support at a strategic level in Washington, DC and at an operational level with M/OUs, while serving a pivotal coordination and exchange role with internal and external stakeholders to make USAID a more equitable partner and produce more sustained and locally-led development and humanitarian outcomes. NPI advances this mission by diversifying its partner base and changing how the Agency partners, based on six key principles:

1. Promote local leadership. NPI works with local actors, traditional partners, and nontraditional partners to strengthen local and national systems in ways that advance locally led development.

2. Improve equity and inclusivity within partner relationships. NPI proactively seeks opportunities to engage local communities more equitably and increase intentional inclusion in operations and programming, particularly for those communities that traditionally have been overlooked and underserved by USAID and other donor agencies—including FBOs, marginalized, underserved, and underrepresented communities , and diaspora communities.

3. Demonstrate accountability to constituents. Recognizing that USAID’s work is “from the American people” to the people of the world, NPI emphasizes the need to be accountable to all members of the communities in which we work as well as to the American taxpayer.

4. Seek innovative approaches. NPI capitalizes on the full marketplace of ideas and solutions by collaborating with partners from all sectors of society, while developing partnerships that foster mutual accountability and develop local capacity.

https://www.usaid.gov/documents/what-locally-led-development-fact-sheet

5. Lower barriers to partnerships. NPI identifies processes, policies, norms, and regulations that prohibit potential partnerships and finds ways to mitigate them while maintaining appropriate safeguards on taxpayer resources.

6. Identify new and nontraditional sources of funding. NPI fosters partnerships that leverage non-U.S. government funding sources to enhance local ownership and support effective collaboration across the spectrum of humanitarian and development funders.

C. PROGRAMMATIC AND GEOGRAPHIC

This NPI GH APS provides the broad framework for USAID’s interest in supporting partner-driven solutions, diversifying the partner base, and leveraging private development resources. This umbrella funding opportunity establishes the overall purpose, criteria, process, and rationale under which the Agency’s Operating Units will issue specific and to-be-determined requests (referred to as a Round).

This NPI GH APS describes the process through which organizations can work with USAID to achieve sustainable development outcomes, results, and impact. The APS itself is *not* a request for concepts. USAID is under no obligation to review general concepts submitted under this overall program statement, or to provide feedback on such submissions. USAID will *only* accept applications for awards under the NPI GH APS based on specific guidance provided separately through the Round document, issued by the USAID M/OU under this overall NPI GH APS frame.

USAID will express specific programmatic and geographic priorities through individual Rounds, issued on an as-needed basis, which reflect the particular programmatic or geographic focus of a M/OU. This approach will ensure that specific Rounds reflect the objectives and nuances of each unique environment, and that the M/OU is in a position to review and issue awards for those applications (with assistance from USAID Washington when necessary).

Programmatic Health Areas & Cross-Cutting Priorities

Below is a summary of current health program areas and cross-cutting health priorities that a Round under this APS could focus on but it is not limited to (either one or multiple areas/priorities):

1. Localization USAID is committed to shifting more leadership, ownership, decision-making, and implementation to the local people and institutions who possess the capability, connectedness, systems, and credibility to drive change in their own countries and communities. The localization approach recognizes that some of USAID’s past programs have not always reached the communities that they were designed to serve.

Engagement with marginalized, underserved, and underrepresented communities will now be an essential component to our localization approach. This requires us to shift the way USAID has done development internally and with our partners, including civil society, private sector, and local FBOs and government institutions. Localization is the process and action that USAID will undertake to ensure our work strengthens local systems, is responsive to local communities, and puts local actors in the lead. Over the past decade, we have contributed thought leadership, invested in innovative processes, and elevated local leadership. We have partnered with local organizations, and provided project-based assistance to governments. However, localization is more than directing awards to local organizations. Instead, it values the roles the local partners play, respects their commitment and integrity, and engages them as partners rather than as USAID agents and beneficiaries. This kind of partnership emphasizes trust-building, mutuality, and long-term commitments to a shared vision.

2. DEIA

USAID is committed to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) by improving and enhancing diversity throughout the Agency, enhancing inclusion and equity for everyone (including USAID’s global workforce, USAID partners, as well as the communities in which we serve), and strengthening accountability for promoting and sustaining a diverse workforce and an inclusive USAID culture. USAID leadership aim to proactively address internal systems that potentially inhibit DEIA efforts throughout the USAID employee life cycle; will develop, implement, and enhance a range of policies, programs, practices, and systems to improve and increase DEIA; and will develop and implement broad outreach strategies to attract talent from diverse sources.

USAID leaders have also committed to champion and enable workforce participation in initiatives that work toward the betterment of the Agency’s efforts in DEIA and actively engage with these groups to operationalize their recommendations and efforts. USAID leadership have established and enhanced training and capacity-building opportunities for all staff, including managers and supervisors, on diversity fundamentals, bias, and principles of inclusion -- all of which contribute to a respectful, safe, and inclusive work environment that enhances retention. USAID’s DEIA work goes beyond our internal environment. USAID’s Equity Action Plan has led USAID to address acquisition and assistance barriers for USAID partners, advance effective and equitable U.S. foreign assistance that meaningfully integrates inclusive development and the perspectives, and strengthen USAID's approaches to policy, programming, and learning to more effectively advance racial and ethnic equity and support for underserved communities in partner countries. USAID is working to consistently apply DEIA principles across program and management operations; all leaders at the USAID are now required to show evidence of their support for DEIA at USAID; performance management efforts at USAID have been updated to promote accountability to create and sustain a diverse and inclusive workplace at all levels. These goals, and the actions USAID is committed to taking to ensure progress and change on DEIA, have been established in USAID’s DEIA strategy following a rigorous process that included data collection, analysis, stakeholder interviews, focus groups, listening sessions, and consultations at all levels throughout the Agency.

3. Malaria Preventing and controlling malaria remains a U.S. national security and foreign assistance priority. The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) is the U.S. government’s largest program leading the fight against malaria, partnering with countries that account https://www.pmi.gov/home/pmis-strategy/ for almost 90 percent of the world’s malaria cases and deaths. Established by President George W. Bush in 2005, PMI is led by USAID and co-implemented with the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Greater Mekong Subregion in Asia. Reducing malaria enables governments, civil society, FBOs, and the private sector in USAID partner countries to unlock economic growth and realize greater human potential, paving the way to sustainable development and fostering productive partnerships with the United States. USAID works closely with the governments of malaria-endemic countries to strengthen their capacity to prevent and treat the disease.

4. Tuberculosis (TB) As the largest bilateral TB donor, USAID leads the U.S. Government’s global TB efforts. USAID works with partners around the world on the shared goals of reaching every person with the disease, curing those in need of treatment, and preventing the spread of new infections and the progression to active TB disease. This is done by evaluating new approaches, scaling up innovations, and fostering local ownership to sustain TB programs. USAID supports bilateral programs in priority TB countries and provides technical assistance to additional countries.

5. Neglected Tropical Diseases USAID focuses on the control and elimination of five NTDs – lymphatic filariasis, blinding trachoma, river blindness, schistosomiasis, and three forms of intestinal worms in multiple countries. USAID focuses our support on distributing safe, effective, donated medicines to communities around the world and evaluating progress toward disease elimination. To ensure sustainability, USAID also works alongside governments as they integrate NTD priorities into routine planning, service delivery, health financing, and data collection and monitoring processes.

6. Global Health Security (GHS) USAID's GHS Program works with our partner countries - as well as global, regional, and local public and private sector organizations - to help strengthen the systems needed to prevent and mitigate the increasing occurrence and severity of emerging infectious disease threats. Since 2014, USAID has invested more than $1.6 billion to ensure the necessary systems are in place to prevent, detect, and respond to emerging infectious disease threats wherever they exist. USAID’s GHS investments directly contribute to the United States National Biodefense Strategy commitment to assist at least 50 countries to achieve "demonstrated capacities" in five GHS technical areas by 2025.

7. HIV/AIDS

USAID provides global leadership to the Agency’s overall response to end HIV as a public health threat by 2030 through its leadership and implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). USAID supports country-led efforts to combat the complex challenges of HIV in more than 50 countries around the world.

USAID’s overall goal is to support and sustain the achievement of HIV epidemic control across these countries by providing global leadership in the development of programs that maximize impact; supporting country-led strategies while applying USAID’s broad https://www.pmi.gov/where-we-work/ https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-areas/tuberculosis/countries#tbMapLink https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-areas/tuberculosis/countries#tbMapLink https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-areas/neglected-tropical-diseases https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-areas/global-health-security/ghs-countries https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-areas/hiv-and-aids/approach-to-hiv-optimized-programming https://www.state.gov/pepfar-five-year-strategy-2022/ https://www.state.gov/where-we-work-pepfar/ health and development expertise and specialized HIV/AIDS technical competencies;

and, using science, technology, and innovation to support cost-effective, sustainable, and appropriately integrated HIV/AIDS interventions at scale.

8. Population and Reproductive Health (PRH) For more than half a century, USAID has led the world in supporting voluntary family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) programs that help women and couples make their own reproductive health decisions and plan their families. Our FP/RH program is founded on principles of health benefits for all and development impact. We partner with more than 40 countries around the world to meet FP/RH needs through locally-informed program design, comprehensive technical support, timely and authoritative research, and evidence-based high-impact FP/RH practices. Today, as a result of USAID’s work in FP/RH, millions of women and couples around the world are able to choose the number, timing, and spacing of their pregnancies, resulting in significant social, economic, and health gains for families and communities.

9. Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) USAID’s MCHN programs strive to create a world where every woman and child not only survives but thrives, fostering community and national prosperity. Collaborating closely with country governments, the civil and private sectors, FBOs, and other key partners, USAID works to bring life-saving health services closer to communities across 25 priority countries for maternal and child health, plus these priority countries for nutrition. In the last 10 years, these transformative programs have saved over 6 million lives and paved the way for a brighter future for millions of women and children.

10. Primary Health Care Primary Health Care (PHC) is a comprehensive approach to health that combines multi-sectoral policy and action, community empowerment, and integrated health services. Primary Impact brings together subject matter experts from Washington D.C.

and our offices around the world to harness the collective strength of our global health work and improve PHC outcomes in an initial 7 focus countries across Africa and Asia:

Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, and the Philippines. Through Primary Impact, USAID is working in this set of focus countries to develop a learning model for how country-led teams, donors, and local and other stakeholders can work together across health portfolios to coordinate investment in the systems and processes that drive PHC service delivery.

11. Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) HSS comprises the strategies, responses, and activities that are designed to sustainably improve country health system performance (map of countries with HSS work). Guided by our Vision for Health System Strengthening 2030, USAID invests in health system strengthening because strong health systems underpin all other health investments and lead to greater resilience and GHS. Strong health systems are necessary for all people to achieve access to quality health care, and to align resources for achieving sustainable improvements in health and for countries’ economic growth.

https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-areas/family-planning/countries https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-areas/maternal-and-child-health/priority-countries https://www.usaid.gov/nutrition/countries https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-systems-innovation/health-systems-strengthening/primary-health-care https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-systems-innovation/health-systems-strengthening/where-we-work https://www.usaid.gov/policy/vision-health-system-strengthening

12. Health and Social Service Workforce USAID recognizes health workers as the backbone to achievement of all our global health program goals and prioritizes advancing the multidisciplinary health and social service workforce (includes but not limited to nurses, doctors, community health workers, pharmacists, social workers, etc.) that supports comprehensive PHC the level at which the majority of services supported through USAID programs come together.

USAID investments align with the The White House Global Health Workforce Initiative (GHWI) and Americas Health Corp (AHC) that prioritize investments to expand the health worker pipeline into paid and gender-equitable local employment and strengthen key country and regional functions to more effectively plan, manage, protect, and support the health and social service workforce. GHWI and AHC also aim to improve policy environments and interventions to support health and social service worker rights and protections ensuring safe and supportive working environments, free from discrimination and harassment, and promotion of fair remuneration, critically important for women who represent 70% of the workforce globally. As part of its efforts to promote global health security, USAID is contributing to health workforce capacity to address infectious disease threats through investments in the core competencies of current and future health workers to collaborate and coordinate across sectors.

13. Climate and Health Climate change threatens to set back progress in all of USAID’s global health work through extreme weather events; disruption of essential services and supply chains;

increased food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty; increased inequality; and increased exposure to and cascading effects from heat and other climate shocks and stressors.

Populations that experience multifaceted health inequities are often also the most vulnerable to and least prepared to adapt to climate change. To meet our climate and health objectives, USAID is reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and building resiliency to the effects of climate change. The GH contributes to the Agency’s overall Climate Strategy by supporting and investing in (1) the development and improvement of climate-based early warning systems for health, (2) sustainable health systems and supply chains (including environmental, social and economic factors), and (3) the resilience of individuals, families, communities, and health systems to climate-related shocks and stressors.

14. Gender Promoting gender equity and equality in health programming is consistent with the USG’s National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality and USAID’s Gender Equality and Women’s Female Empowerment Policy. The common approaches that health programs seek to address include: 1) advancing gender equality and ending gender-based violence in order to sustain health outcomes and create a healthier and more equitable world for all people; 2) expanding access to and use of quality health services; practice healthy behaviors and build equitable relationships at home and in the community; and live free from violence, stigma, and discrimination; and 3) building strong and resilient health and social service workforces and systems that are responsive to the needs of diverse populations will help sustain USAID’s global health investments.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/05/11/fact-sheet-the-biden-harris-administration-global-health-worker-initiative/ https://www.usaid.gov/policy/climate-strategy https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/National-Strategy-on-Gender-Equity-and-Equality.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/document/2023-gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment-policy https://www.usaid.gov/document/2023-gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment-policy

15. Youth USAID envisions a world in which young people (ages 10-29) have opportunities to pursue their life goals and contribute to the development of their communities through meaningful participation within their communities, schools, organizations, economies, peer groups, and families enhancing their skills, providing opportunities, and fostering healthy relationships so they may build on their collective leadership. USAID health programming prioritizes key outcomes for youth across various health sectors including (but not limited to): FP/RH, HSS, HIV/AIDS, GHS, MCHN, and mental health and psychosocial support. In line with USAID's Youth in Development Policy, GH programs should apply the Positive Youth Development approach which is an evidence-based framework aimed at creating interventions for young people that are integrated and cross-sectoral, targeted, developmentally appropriate, and include a strong commitment to meaningful engagement of adolescents and youth in program design, implementation, and evaluation.

16. Lead Poisoning Mitigation The GH has joined forces with the Bureau for Inclusive Growth, Partnership and Innovation (IPI) and Resilience, Environment, and Food Security (REFS) to address lead exposure, especially for children, and reduce the negative impacts on development, health, and economic productivity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

USAID's goal is to increase awareness and build collective will in LMICs to take action to reduce lead exposure and improve human health, child development, and economic growth despite resource constraints.

17. Private Sector Engagement Significant strides in global health outcomes have been made over the last two decades with funding from governments and donors, including USAID. However, an estimated annual $130 billion gap remains to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Private health care providers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, supply chain firms, information and technology companies, finance institutions and investors and, particularly those locally-based, can help close this gap and enhance the enabling environment by mobilizing their own expertise, networks, and resources. Effectively engaging with diverse private sector stakeholders, in alignment with USAID’s Private Sector Engagement Strategy, is critical to: improve access to and use of quality health information, products and services; scale innovative technologies; build healthcare workforce capacity; enhance supply chains, and strengthen access to private financing through market-based approaches.

18. Digital Health USAID envisions a world in which advances in digital technologies are leveraged to help people access the information and services they need to live healthy and prosperous lives. Digital health is the systematic application of information and communications technologies, computer science, and data to support informed decision-making by individuals, the health and social service workforce, and health institutions, to strengthen resilience to disease and improve health and wellness for all. USAID’s Vision for Action in Digital Health, the Agency’s dedicated policy guidance for its investments in digital https://www.usaid.gov/policy/youth https://www.youthpower.org/positive-youth-development-pyd-framework https://www.usaid.gov/policy/private-sector-engagement https://www.usaid.gov/policy/private-sector-engagement https://www.usaid.gov/policy/digital-health-vision https://www.usaid.gov/policy/digital-health-vision technologies, takes a systems-level approach to health sector digital transformation to support partner countries to address the challenges of fragmentation, and lack of sustainability and interoperability, of their digital health systems.

Expected NPI GH APS Results

The NPI GH APS will seek to utilize multiple modalities of awards designed to achieve the following overarching results:

1) Expanded number of new and underutilized, local entities, and locally established partners including those representing marginalized and underserved communities contributing to the increased and sustained demand and utilization of high-quality, high-impact, equitable, sustainable health and social services by targeted populations, and strengthened local health and social systems at sub-national and/or national levels, and

2) Increase organizational performance of new or underutilized partners, local entities, and locally established partners (as defined by USAID) to lead the advancement or scale up of more high-quality, high-impact, equitable, sustainable health and social services in targeted geographic areas and strengthen local health and social systems.

Other results under possible NPI GH APS award(s) could include but are not limited to:

● Increased number of new and underutilized partners, local entities, and locally established partners working with USAID to improve health outcomes in targeted health interventions;

● Strengthened indigenous and/or local capacity to address health sector needs and to promote the sustainability of partner countries’ efforts to improve health outcomes;

● Increased number of new and underutilized partners, local entities, and locally established partners that have received capacity strengthening and support and can effectively meet USAID compliance and regulatory standards to receive direct awards;

● Increased number of people (disaggregated by sex, gender, age, race/ethnicity etc.)

receiving health and social service outreach and information on priority health and social service interventions; and

● Increased number and percentage of targeted population seeking and receiving quality health and social services.

● Strengthened performance of local health and social systems supported by local organizations.

Round documents could specify the results for that Round based on the focus of that particular program description.

D. OVERALL PROCESS

USAID has outlined the process through which potential applicants may apply under a potential Round in Section IV of this APS. The below diagram is an illustrative summary for how the NPI application process can unfold. In the following visual the Notice of Funding Opportunity is referring to a Round under the GH NPI APS. For more information, see Section IV, Information on Application and Submission or below:

Extensive Partnership: Co-Creation and Shared Responsibility

In order to foster sustainable and transformational development impact in health, NPI GH APS award(s) shall entail extensive partnering and collaboration between USAID M/OUs and the applicant from design to implementation. Ideally, the applicable M/OU will jointly identify and define with the applicant(s) the development problems to tackle in the program and then collaborate to determine whether and how to solve those problems and achieve the greatest degree of sustainable impact. M/OUs will work with the applicant(s) to mobilize, leverage and more effectively apply each other’s respective assets, expertise, and resources.1 Awards should be co-created, co-developed, and co-implemented. This means that, rather than telling

1 Refer to 2 CFR 200.205, 200.207 and ADS 303.3.9 for additional information.

applicants how USAID wants to solve a problem, the Agency presents a challenge and solicits the best ideas for how to address it and works from concept to issuance and then management of awards in an iterative, participatory, and collaborative process. Co-creation should take place throughout implementation, meaning not just during pre-award or at the start of the activity, but throughout implementation to develop work plans, develop and refine activity monitoring, evaluation, and learning plans (AMELPs), develop appropriate milestones and deliverables, and refine activities based on lessons learned.

E. POLICIES AND GUIDING DOCUMENTS

Locally Led Development

Although NPI retains the ability to partner with all types of organizations, including US-based, international, and local, an overriding objective of the localization initiative is to foster greater locally led development (LLD). USAID defines LLD as the process in which local actors—encompassing individuals, communities, networks, organizations, private entities, and governments—set their own agendas, develop solutions, and bring the capacity, leadership, and resources to make those solutions a reality. As the LLD Spectrum makes clear, local leadership is not about simply awarding funds directly to local actors; USAID empowers local leadership when it comes alongside initiatives that originate in and are managed by partner country actors. Local actors’ credibility, accountability, and long-range time perspective are essential for success in achieving sustainable development. LLD is not a single approach, but a range of ways that USAID, its partners, and communities can work together to shift agenda-setting and decision-making power into the hands of local actors.

Local Capacity Strengthening (LCS)

Since a key objective of NPI programming is to foster locally led development, it follows that capacity strengthening support provided through NPI awards should similarly be strategic, inclusive, and locally led, in line with the Agency’s LCS Policy. Capacity strengthening allows local organizations to better serve their communities, respond more effectively in crisis situations, develop specialized sectoral expertise, mobilize resources, influence policy, and move beyond the need for donor funding. Through the LCS Policy USAID is committing to a unified, cohesive, and systemic approach in which USAID collaborates with local partners to:

● Define their own vision for success;

● Strengthen their ability to be effective and relevant actors within their local communities and contexts;

● Elevate local ownership in sustaining development results.

Inclusive Development

NPI is committed to advance inclusive development as described in Inclusive Development: Additional Help for ADS 201. USAID promotes a nondiscriminatory, inclusive, equitable, and integrated development approach that ensures that all people have access to a country’s services, opportunities, and legal protections, and are able to take part in their societies. This approach requires a concerted effort to include those who face discrimination, marginalization, underrepresentation, and/or have been https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2022-12/USAIDs_Localization_Vision-508.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/documents/what-locally-led-development-fact-sheet https://usaidlearninglab.org/resources/locally-led-development-spectrum-and-checklist-tool https://www.usaid.gov/policy/local-capacity-strengthening https://www.usaid.gov/inclusivedevelopment/additional-help-ads-201 https://www.usaid.gov/inclusivedevelopment/additional-help-ads-201 made vulnerable. These intentional and proactive efforts ensure that all individuals are fully included and can actively participate in and benefit from development processes and activities with the goal of achieving equal outcomes for all.

Transition Awards

According to the “Process for Transition Awards” Mandatory Reference for ADS 303, a Transition Award is an assistance award to a local entity or locally established partner that is or has been a subrecipient under a USAID assistance award. Additionally, the local subrecipient cannot have previously received a direct award from USAID, making transition awards a means of engaging new, additional local organizations as prime partners in USAID awards. Transition Awards differ from typical awards as they have two objectives: the anticipated development results under the award, as well as a transition from sub to prime partner in a new mechanism. Both objectives occur simultaneously, and require dedicated resources (human, financial, time, etc).

Transition Awards are meant to “increase local engagement, promote self-reliance, foster, and strengthen local sustainability, and enhance the quality of the Agency’s relationship with local partners.”

Refinement Period

NPI encourages the use of a post-award Refinement Period, when useful, to facilitate the award process with new partners. During a Refinement Period the Recipient and M/OU, with support as needed from NPI, can further refine and adapt the activity design, technical approaches, and theory of change (TOC) to improve the impact and sustainability of results. Refinement Periods can also be used to identify subpartners, pilot implementation arrangements, strengthen capacity, address Special Award Conditions, or otherwise prepare for full scale implementation.

NPI expects the initial Refinement Period Phase to last approximately 3-12 months, depending on the needs of the activity, context, and partner. The timeframe will be defined at the discretion of the Office of Acquisition and Assistance. During the Refinement Period, prime partners may be expected to take the lead or carry out a number of tasks, including:

● Pre-implementation formative research and analysis that addresses evidence and knowledge gaps, strengthens understanding of local context, and helps to prioritize behaviors the activity will address;

● Small-scale operational research, piloting implementation strategies, and start-up of proven, evidence-based implementation strategies;

● Meaningful community engagement to enable two-way feedback and participation around the planned activity, interventions and refinement period, enhance M/OU understanding of local needs, opportunities and aspirations, and ensure mutual accountability, including in decision making processes.

● Participatory stakeholder engagement for strengthened local partnerships, capacity development, and coordination;

● Collaborating and planning with relevant M/OU activities to identify areas for strategic collaboration, effectively layer and leverage other USAID programming, create lines of communication with other activities;

https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/303mbb.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/USAID_NPI_RefinementGuide_FINAL.pdf

● Refining the TOC and implementation plans (including with other Mission partners in the areas of engagement); and

● Preparation for implementation through hiring, staff training, and procurement of goods and services; and

● Developing systems or processes to meet special award conditions.

Accountability and Feedback

The NPI recognizes that relationships characterized by equity and accountability within USAID’s partner ecosystem—particularly between established and local partners—better empower local populations to take the lead in achieving their own development or humanitarian objectives.

Consequently, NPI requires international implementing partners using mentorship or leverage awards to develop Accountability and Feedback Plans (AFPs) within their AMELPs. All prime recipients of NPI awards using mentorship or leverage awards will be expected to develop and maintain an AFP that fosters accountability between USAID, the prime, subawardees, and affected population. Further, AFPs contribute towards USAID’s Locally Led Programs Indicator.

While collecting information from populations engaged with and affected by development work is common practice, the AFP builds on legislative and ADS requirements for participant feedback, inclusive development, and Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) principles by encouraging implementing partners to seek information from a broader selection of sources and emphasizes equity as a topic of inquiry.

Accountability and feedback planning is rooted in the recognition that USAID and its implementing partner(s) need input from activity participants, sub-contractors, and the greater community for more effective programming and identifying avenues for adaptive activity implementation. Soliciting and incorporating a diversity of perspectives in the implementation process is valuable: it helps elevate community priorities and ensures they are centered in implementation and adaptation. Furthermore, involving activity participants in key decision-making processes can increase trust and cooperation, build community support for the activity, mobilize local leadership and skills, reduce complaints, and increase efficiency by reducing waste and losses.

Do No Harm (DNH)

Throughout a Concept Note (and subsequent application), an Applicant should reflect thoughtful consideration of any risks that could result by bringing together conflicting parties and should provide sufficient explanation of how it will establish and monitor appropriate safeguards to avoid intensifying any conflict or creating harmful situations for participants.

DNH should not be an isolated discussion in a Concept Note or subsequent application; Applicants should address it holistically, especially throughout a longer technical application, if the organization receives an invitation to move forward from a Concept Note submitted under this APS.

Where relevant, Applicants should analyze the impact of planned activities with regard to how they may affect local tensions, points of conflict, or post-conflict environments. It is not satisfactory to simply indicate the program will “DNH.”

https://www.usaid.gov/documents/listening-local-voices-accountability-and-feedback-plans https://www.usaid.gov/localization/measurement

Applicants should also describe how they plan to monitor (perhaps through indicators) and adapt their DNH strategies and approaches to ensure DNH throughout all stages of design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

[END OF SECTION I]

SECTION II: FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION

This program is authorized in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) of 1961, as amended. Issuance of this Program Statement and/or related Round do not constitute an award commitment on the part of the U.S. Government, nor do those commit the U.S. Government to pay for any costs incurred in the preparation or submission of questions, comments, suggestions, or an application. Applicants submit Concept Paper applications at their own risk, and all preparation and submission costs are at their expense.

This APS is not a request for Concept Papers. Applicants must provide Concept Papers in response to, and in accordance with the instructions provided in, a specific Round.

Specific information and instructions for awards under this APS will appear in an individual Round.

USAID intends that this APS will provide for full-and-open competition for qualified Applicants.

A. FUNDING

The NPI GH APS is not supported by specific funds. The funding for the Rounds under this APS will be provided through USAID/W offices, as well as USAID mission field support for USAID/W issued Rounds, and direct USAID mission funds for USAID/Mission issued Rounds.

As determined by the source of funding, awardee(s) will be expected to comply with the legal and USAID policy requirements that govern the Agency’s programming. Any GH health element funding can be used and also combined with other sector funding for integrated programming that advances and strengthens health outcomes and/or health and social systems.

Pending funding availability, there may be multiple Rounds for this APS that will all aim to meet the Purpose mentioned in Section I. The financial range for award(s) will be specified in each Round.

B. START DATE AND PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE FOR FEDERAL AWARDS

Applications must offer a period of performance in accordance with the guidance provided in a Round. The initial period of performance must be 60 months or less.

C. TYPE OF INSTRUMENT

Awards resulting from this NPI GH APS may take the form of an assistance mechanism (type of assistance awards are discussed further in Section V). Each Round will define the types of award instruments available for potential awardees. If a Round anticipates awarding a cooperative agreement, the expected substantial involvement will be included in the Round. An acquisition mechanism will not be awarded under any Round of this APS.

D. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Intellectual Property is discussed in 2 CFR 200.448 (for US NGOs) and in Mandatory Provision 7 Title to and Use of Property (December 2014) (for non-US NGOs). In general, awardee(s) may elect to pursue ownership of intellectual property that is developed as a result of an award from a Round of this APS. In such cases, USAID would typically retain a nonexclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to use any such intellectual property.

E. AUTHORIZED GEOGRAPHIC CODE

The authorized geographic code for the procurement of services and commodities is 937. If a Round wants to utilize geographic code 935, a waiver in compliance with 22 CFR 228 must be approved prior to the Round document being released.

F. BENEFITING GEOGRAPHIC AREAS

If a Round of this APS has a specific geographic focus, it will clearly state this. This does not, however, preclude activities in other USAID-supported countries.

G. MEASUREMENT

Adopt Standard Indicators, as relevant, to monitor capacity strengthening (CBLD-9: percent of US government-assisted organizations with improved performance) and local resource mobilization (CBLD-10: value of non-donor resources mobilized). Measure sector-specific results that matter to local communities. Additional localization indicators to be included as applicable.

[END OF SECTION II]

https://www.usaid.gov/npi/capacity-building-indicator-resources https://usaidlearninglab.org/sites/default/files/resource/files/deep_dive_2_tips_for_measuring_local_resources_-_508_compliance_1.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/localization/measurement

SECTION III: ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

A. NPI PARTNERSHIP APPROACHES AND ELIGIBLE…