WPSI Implementer Answers (1).docx

BUREAU OF CONFLICT AND STABILIZATION OPERATIONS

Anticipating, Preventing, and Responding to Conflict Developing Women, Peace, and Security Indicators– SFOP0006023 Questions and Answers

BUREAU OF CONFLICT AND STABILIZATION OPERATIONS

· Would CSO please provide additional detail to confirm the intent of the indicators. Are they expected to reflect how gender-specific indicators can anticipate broader political conflict, as suggested by the reference to the PCR analysis? Or are they intended to demonstrate how conflict indicators can predict gender-specific harms (as suggested by references to UN sources)?

· The focus on the first, with an obvious link to the second as some of the WPSI will be related to gender-specific harms and therefore serve an EW purpose as well.

· Our understanding is that CSO’s WPSI are not intended to measure progress or impact of the WPS agenda, as these are laid out by UNW’s 26 Global Indicators for prevention, participation, protection and relief & recovery. Is this an accurate understanding?

· Yes, although they’re called ‘WPSI’, they are not related to the 1325 Pillars – rather, they are focused on the WPS Act of 2017 and 2019 WPS Strategy policy guidance.

· We understand that USIP may not enter into partnerships on DoS-sponsored grants, however USIP is identified in the NOFO. How/under what mechanism is such a partnership envisioned?

· The implementer may reach out to USIP to determine how a partnership could work. There are also a number of additional organizations listed in the NOFO that could be potential partners.

· Could CSO clarify the number of countries preferred for programs? What is meant by ‘approximately six separate countries’?

· This is for piloting the WPSI in countries where an EWS is actively being used to test their applicability/accuracy.

· Under ‘Project Considerations - Geographic Focus’ could CSO please provide more clarification on how it anticipates the WPSI will be ‘piloted’ in approximately six separate countries? How does CSO define a pilot program in six different locations?

· Same as above. It does not need to be six exactly, but we’d like to have geographical diversity.

· Can CSO please provide clarification on if the one-page executive summary is part of the ten-page Proposal Narrative , or if it is separate from the 10 page Proposal Narrative?

· No. The page limit does not include the Table of Contents, Executive Summary and Attachments, such as Budget/and Budget Narrative, Audit Report, and NICRA, if applicable.

· On the cover page, it states the Anticipated Award Date is “approximately nine to twelve weeks of the closing of this announcement.” By “closing,’ does CSO mean the submission due date for completed proposals? This does not appear to align with the e Estimated Program Start Date of September 2, 2019 as listed on the funding opportunity overview, which is well before the nine to twelve week window previously stated. Can CSO provide clarification as to when the award is expected to be issued, and when the program would therefore start?

· The dates are estimations. We hope to start the project in early September but it could take longer to process the award.

· Can CSO please confirm the award type for this proposed program? In the funding opportunity overview, the funding type is listed as a grant, but in the body of the NOFO, the award type is listed as a cooperative agreement.

· It’s a grant.

· Can CSO please provide clarification on if it requires an explanation of the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Plan and Logic Model in the Proposal Narrative, or as attachments?

· These are typically separate attachments and do not count toward the page limit. The proposal narrative does not need to include an explicit explanation of these documents.

· The NOFO references additional funding that may be allocated to the project. Does this mean that there will be additional funds available at the program’s outset, or will there be opportunities for extensions during program implementation?

· There are no additional funds at this time. CSO may decide to extend the project at a later time if funds become available.

· The Women, Peace and Security strategy covers a range of instability and conflict, spanning inter- and intra-state conflict in wartime to political and electoral violence occurring in transitional state politics. Under the illustrative activities in the solicitation, it suggests to “Collect data on WPSI to test the predictive capacity of the gender-sensitive EWS in multiple countries during different political events (such as during a referendum, constitution-making process, a political transition, or national level elections)”. Although there is overlap between conflict and political violence indicators, they are distinct. Is the intent of CSO to focus the WPSI on political/electoral violence specifically (as suggested by the passage above) or on broader forms of conflict (civil war, etc) as well?

· The focus on the WPSI is on broader forms of conflict, and the ‘political events’ mentioned above are an example of when/how the WPSI could be tested during a distinct event in an EWS.

· Page 5 of NOFO states: “However, out of a 2008 compilation of 30 early warning and assessment frameworks that included 832 indicators, only 11 indicators made any reference to women” and references a CSIS study in footnote. FOOTNOTE: “According to a review conducted in 2009 by UNIFEM’s Ending Violence Against Women section, based on the publication of Barton, Frederick, von Hippel, Karin, Sequeira, Sabina and Irvine, Mark. (2008). “Early Warning? A Review of Conflict Prediction Models and Systems.” Center for Strategic and International Studies.”

· We have not been able to locate the relevant files with the referenced indicators. The links to the databases appear to be broken both in the CSIS report (appendices B, C & D) and on the CSIS website cover page (see screen shots below).

· Reviewing these indicators will be of great help in preparing our approach to our response on this solicitation.

· www.cu-csds.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/unwomen2012vdk.pdf

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