Funding Opportunity Title: U.S. Embassy Djibouti Public Diplomacy Section (PDS) – Request for Statements of Interest: Annual Program Statement
Funding Opportunity Number: PDS-23-01
Deadline for Applications: June 30, 2023 deadline
CFDA Number: 19.040– Smith-Mundt
19.022 – Fulbright-Hays
19.441- American Spaces
Total Amount Available: $35,000.00
A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
U.S. Embassy Djibouti announces a Request for Statements of Interest (RSOI) from organizations interested in applying for funding for program proposals that strengthen cultural ties between the U.S. and Djibouti through cultural and exchange programming that highlights shared values and promotes bilateral cooperation. PDS invites organizations interested in potential funding to submit SOI applications outlining program concepts that reflect this goal. Please carefully follow all instructions below.
The submission of an SOI is the first step in a two-part process. Applicants must first submit an SOI, which is a concise, 2-3-page concept note designed to clearly communicate a program idea and its objectives before the development of a full proposal application. The purpose of the SOI process is to allow applicants the opportunity to submit program ideas for PDS to evaluate prior to requiring the development of full proposal applications. Upon review of eligible SOIs, PDS will invite selected applicants to expand their ideas into full proposal applications.
Purpose: U.S. Embassy Djibouti Public Diplomacy Section invites SOIs for programs that strengthen cultural ties between the U.S. and Djibouti through cultural and exchange programming that highlights shared values and promotes bilateral cooperation. All programs must include an American cultural element, or connection with American expert/s, organization/s, or institution/s in a specific field that will promote increased understanding of U.S. policies and perspectives.
Examples of PDS-funded programs include, but are not limited to:
- Academic and professional lectures, seminars and speaker programs;
- Training programs presented in American Spaces;
- English Language promotion;
Participants and Audiences: PDS seeks to reach primarily young audiences in Djibouti city and throughout the country who are searching for the skills needed to obtain employment or further their education, including the improvement of their English language skills.
The following types of programs are not eligible for funding:
- Programs relating to partisan political activity;
- Charitable or development activities;
- Construction programs;
- Programs that support specific religious activities;
- Fund-raising campaigns;
- Lobbying for specific legislation or programs;
- Scientific research;
- Programs intended primarily for the growth or institutional development of the organization; or
- Programs that duplicate existing programs.
Authorizing legislation, type and year of funding: The Statutory Authorities for this program are the Smith-Mundt Act, Fulbright-Hays, and American Spaces. The source of funding is FY2023 Public Diplomacy Funding.
B. FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION
Length of performance period: 6 to 12 months
Award amounts: awards may range from a minimum of $5000 to a maximum of $35,000.
This notice is subject to availability of funding.
Funding Instrument Type: Grant, Fixed Amount Award, or Cooperative agreement. Cooperative agreements are different from grants in that PDS staff are more actively involved in the grant implementation. U.S. Embassy Djibouti retains the right to execute non-competitive continuation amendment(s). Any amendment(s) is based on performance, pending availability of funds and is not guaranteed.
C. ELIGILIBITY INFORMATION
- Eligible Applicants
The Public Diplomacy Section encourages applications from Djiboutian:
- Registered not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks and civil society/non-governmental organizations with programming experience;
- Individuals;
- Non-profit or governmental educational institutions;
- Governmental institutions
For-profit or commercial entities are not eligible to apply.
- Cost Sharing or Matching
Cost sharing is not required. When cost sharing is offered, it is understood and agreed that the applicant must provide the amount of cost sharing as stipulated in its proposal.
- Other Eligibility Requirements
Applicants are only allowed to submit one proposal per organization.
If more than one proposal is submitted from an organization, all proposals from that institution will be considered ineligible for funding. In order to be eligible to receive an award, all organizations must have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number issued via www.SAM.gov as well as a valid registration on www.SAM.gov. Please see Section E.6 for more information. Individuals are not required to have a UEI or be registered in SAM.gov.
D. APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION
Application forms required below are available at https://www.grants.gov/
- Content and Form of Application Submission
U.S. Embassy Djibouti Public Diplomacy Section will accept proposals throughout fiscal year 2023 until June 30, 2023. A grants committee including U.S. Embassy employees will review submissions upon receipt. All application materials must be submitted by email to DjiboutiPDSubmissions@state.gov .
All SOIs should ensure that the following requirements are met:
Please follow all instructions below carefully. SOIs that do not meet the requirements of this announcement or fail to comply with the stated requirements will be ineligible. An organization may submit no more than one SOI.
Content of Application
Please ensure:
- The SOI clearly addresses the goals and objectives of this funding opportunity
- All documents are in English
- All budgets are in U.S. dollars
- All pages are numbered
- All documents are formatted to 8 ½ x 11 paper, and
- All Microsoft Word documents are single-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, with a minimum of 1-inch margins.
A submission template is attached for the convenience of applicants. The following information is required:
Statement of Interest (not to exceed 2-3 pages in Microsoft Word) that includes:
- A table listing:
- Name of the organization;
- The target country/countries;
- The total amount of funding requested from PDS, total amount of cost-share (if any), and total program amount (PDS funds + cost-share); and,
- Program length;
- A synopsis of the program, including a brief statement on how the program will have a demonstrated impact and engage relevant stakeholders, including a statement on why the program is needed or the problem the program seeks to address;
- A list of the program’s objectives and activities with the desired results contributing to each objective; and,
- A brief description of the applicant(s) that demonstrates the applicant(s) expertise and capacity to implement the program and manage a U.S. government award.
E. APPLICATION REVIEW CRITERIA
- Quality of Program Idea: Short narrative that outlines the proposed program, including program objectives and anticipated impact. The SOI should explain why the proposed program is needed.
- Program Planning: A description of how the program is expected to work to solve the stated problem and achieve the objectives and a proposed timeline for the program activities.
- Ability to Achieve Objectives/Institutional Capacity: A demonstration of the organization’s or individual’s expertise and previous experience in administering programs.
A Grants Review Committee will evaluate all eligible applications. SOI applicants will be notified of the decision to present a full submission within four weeks of the email confirmation of the proposal receipt. Instructions on the requirements of a full application submission will be provided at that time.
Review and Selection Process: A Grants Review Committee will evaluate all eligible SOIs. All eligible SOIs will be reviewed against the criteria listed above. SOIs are reviewed individually against the criteria and not against competing SOIs. For a balanced review all panelists will review the first page of the SOI up to the page limit and no further. The panel may provide conditions and/or recommendations on SOIs to enhance the proposed program. Conditions must be addressed, and recommendations should be addressed in a full proposal application.
Following the review, any successful SOI applicants will be contacted and instructed to submit full applications. A full application will include:
- SF-424 (Application for Federal Assistance – organizations)
Or SF-424-I (Application for Federal Assistance -individuals) - SF424A(Budget Information for Non-Construction programs)
- SF424B(Assurances for Non-Construction programs) for individual or organization exempted from registering in SAM.
Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM.gov)
Required Registrations:
Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM). All prime organizations, whether based in the United States or in another country, must have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and an active registration with the SAM.gov before submitting an application. PDS may not review applications from or make awards to applicants that have not completed all applicable UEI and SAM.gov requirements. A UEI is one of the data elements mandated by Public Law 109-282, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA), for all Federal awards. Note: As of April 2022, a DUNS number is no longer required for federal assistance applications.
2 CFR 200 requires that sub-grantees obtain a UEI number. Please note the UEI for sub-grantees is not required at the time of application but will be required before the award is processed and/or directed to a sub-grantee.
Note: The process of obtaining or renewing a SAM.gov registration may take anywhere from 4-8 weeks. Please begin your registration as early as possible.
- Organizations based in the United States or that pay employees withinthe United States will need an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from theInternal Revenue Service (IRS), a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code, and a UEI number prior to registering in SAM.gov.
- Organizations based outside of the United States and that do not pay employees within the United States do not need an EIN from the IRS, but do need a UEI number prior to registering in SAM.gov. 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-registration 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 at www.fsd.gov to seek guidance on how to do so.
All prime organizations must also continue to maintain active SAM.gov registration with current information at all times during which they have an active Federal award or application under consideration by a Federal award agency. SAM.gov requires all entities to renew their registration once a year in order to maintain an active registration status in SAM. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure it has an active registration in SAM.gov and to maintain that active registration. If an applicant has not fully complied with the requirements at the time of application, the applicant may be deemed technically ineligible to receive an award and use that determination as a basis for making an award to another applicant.
Please refer to 2 CFR 25.200 for additional information.
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 unique entity identifier and completing SAM registration prior to receiving a Federal award. In these instances, Federal awarding agencies must require the recipient to obtain a unique entity identifier and complete SAM registration within 30 days of the Federal award date.
Organizations requesting exemption from UEI or SAM.gov requirements must email the point of contact listed in the NOFO at least two weeks prior to the deadline in the NOFO providing a justification of their request. Approval for a SAM.gov exemption must come from the warranted Grants Officer before the application can be deemed eligible for review.
All organizations applying for grants (except individuals) must obtain these registrations. All are free of charge:
- SAM.gov registration which will generate a UEI. Any applicant with an exclusion in the System for Award Management (SAM) is not eligible to apply for an assistance award in accordance with the OMB guidelines at 2 CFR 180 that implement Executive Orders 12549 (3 CFR, 1986 Comp., p. 189) and 12689 (3 CFR, 1989 Comp., p. 235), “Debarment and Suspension.”
The Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) is one of the data elements mandated by Public Law 109-282, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA), for all Federal awards. SAM.gov is the Federal government’s primary database for complying with FFATA reporting requirements. OMB designated SAM.gov as the central repository to facilitate applicant and recipient use of a single public website that consolidates data on all federal financial assistance. Under the law, it is mandatory to register in SAM.gov.
Starting April 2022, the UEI will be assigned when an organization registers or renews it’s registration in SAM.gov at www.SAM.gov. To access SAM.gov an organization is required to have a Login.gov account. Organization can create an account at https://login.gov/. As a reminder, organizations need to renew their sam.gov registration annually.
www.SAM.gov requires all entities to renew their registration once a year in order to maintain an active registration status in SAM.gov. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure it has an active registration in SAM.gov.
If an organization plans to issue a sub-contract or sub-award, those sub-awardees must also have a unique entity identifier (UEI number). Those entities can register for a UEI only at SAM.gov.
If an organization does not have an active registration in SAM.gov prior to submitting an application, the application will be deemed ineligible. All organizations applying for grants (except individuals) must obtain these registrations, the latter are free of charge.
Note: As of April 2022, a DUNS number is no longer required.
However, if an SOI is accepted for a full proposal application, the organization must obtain a UEI and have an active SAM.gov registration before submitting its full proposal application. Therefore, we recommend starting the process of obtaining a SAM.gov registration as soon as possible. The process can take several weeks. Please note there is no cost associated with UEI or SAM.gov registration.
F. FEDERAL AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION
- Administrative and National Policy Requirements
Terms and Conditions: Before submitting the SOI, applicants should review all the terms and conditions and required certifications which will apply if a full proposal application is requested and awarded, 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/.
G. FEDERAL AWARDING AGENCY CONTACTS
If you have any questions about the SOI application process, please contact: (DjiboutiPDSubmissions@state.gov.)
Questions and Answers or FAQ will be addressed at a Bidding Conference to be held at the American Corner in the Chamber of Commerce Building on February 21, 2023 at 10:00AM. Please email DjiboutiPDSubmissions@state.gov to register.
