Deadline: 17-Apr-23

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) announces an open competition for projects that support early action in response to atrocities, including crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes, as well as other large scale and deliberate attacks against civilians.

Within this policy objective, DRL seeks programs that measurably reduce climate-induced or climate-related atrocity risk and fragility in the selected countries.  Programs should effectively pilot an approach to atrocity prevention that integrates the increasing atrocity risk that climate change and environmental degradation poses and supports the formulation and implementation of atrocity prevention, response, and recovery measures that are responsive to that risk.

Programs should include the perspectives of women, girls, and vulnerable communities, noting that climate change heightens women and girls’ risk of encountering gender-based violence, as they are often the primary procurers or managers of these increasingly scarce natural resources.

Funding Information

• Total Funding Floor: $987,654
• Total Funding Ceiling: $987,654
• Period of Performance: 12-24 months.

Outcomes

• DRL seeks programs that contribute to the following outcomes:
  • CSOs and local actors have the skills, tools, and capacity to identify atrocities that are climate-related or otherwise impacted or driven by climate change and environmental degradation and safely advocate for local preventative measures based on relevant information.
  • CSOs and local actors develop and implement mechanisms to expose relevant stakeholders (including those responsible for response, enforcement, and/or accountability at different levels, targeted groups, and potential disablers) to knowledge about climate-related atrocity risks and engage them in using early warning information about relevant risks.
  • Related to the, CSOs formulate and advocate for actionable preventive or response measures to climate-related atrocity risks that integrate the voices of impacted communities and lay out pathways for relevant stakeholders to take action.

Eligibility Criteria

• Proposed projects may target up to 2 countries, with at least one country in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• DRL welcomes applications from U.S.-based and foreign-based non-profit organizations/nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and public international organizations; private, public, or state institutions of higher education; and for-profit organizations or businesses.  DRL’s preference is to work with non-profit entities; however, there may be some occasions when a for-profit entity is best suited.
• Applications submitted by for-profit entities may be subject to additional review following the panel selection process.  Additionally, the Department of State prohibits profit to for-profit or commercial organizations under its assistance awards.  Profit is defined as any amount in excess of allowable direct and indirect costs.  The allowability of costs incurred by commercial organizations is determined in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) at 48 CFR 30, Cost Accounting Standards Administration, and 48 CFR 31 Contract Cost Principles and Procedures.

Exemptions

• An exemption from these requirements may be permitted on a case-by-case basis if:
  • An applicant’s identity must be protected due to potential endangerment of their mission, their organization’s status, their employees, or individuals being served by the applicant.
  • For an applicant, if the federal awarding agency makes a determination that there are exigent circumstances that prohibit the applicant from receiving a UEI and completing SAM.gov registration prior to receiving a federal award. In these instances, federal awarding agencies must require the recipient to obtain a UEI and complete SAM.gov registration within 30 days of the federal award date.

Ineligible

• Activities that are not typically allowed include, but are not limited to:
  • The provision of humanitarian assistance;
  • English language instruction;
  • Development of high-tech computer or communications software and/or hardware;
  • Purely academic exchanges or fellowships;
  • External exchanges or fellowships lasting longer than six months;
  • Off-shore activities that are not clearly linked to in-country initiatives and impact or are not necessary per security concerns;
  • Theoretical explorations of human rights or democracy issues, including projects aimed primarily at research and evaluation that do not incorporate training or capacity-building for local civil society;
  • Micro-loans or similar small business development initiatives;
  • Initiatives directed towards a diaspora community rather than current residents of targeted countries.

For more information, visit Climate Change and Atrocity Prevention.