About

The United States Agency for International Development is thrilled to announce its call for the End Wildlife Crime (EWC) Program to conserve biodiversity and strengthen rules-based order by building on the long history of the USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia (RDMA) in counter wildlife trafficking (CWT) through partnerships with regional organizations, governments, the private sector, and civil society.

It supports USAID policies on biodiversity, gender, Indigenous Peoples, and youth, as well as priorities on locally led development, private sector engagement, and climate change.

Objectives

• The USAID EWC Program has the following objectives:

  • Strengthen capacity of regional civil society organizations (CSOs) and platforms to plan and implement initiatives, activities, or social movements to counter wildlife trafficking and other wildlife crimes through advocacy, social mobilization, and behavior change campaigns using a social and behavior change communication (SBCC) approach emphasizing the inclusion of historically underrepresented groups, such as women, Indigenous Peoples, youth, and faithbased organizations.

  • Strengthen the rule of law by working with law enforcement, judicial, and policymaking professionals to further institutionalize the competencies necessary to decrease wildlife trafficking and other wildlife crime through support to the region’s criminal justice sector training institutes and their alumni associations to incentivize professional networks that can share best practices and increase conviction rates in wildlife prosecutions.

  • Cultivate the growth of constituencies for collective action to support conservation and CWT efforts spanning civil society, government agencies, the private sector, and their development partners to build multi-stakeholder regional coalitions that can assume leadership for regional knowledge sharing, consensus building, planning for common action, and implementation of coordinated efforts to reduce wildlife crime.

Aims

• USAID EWC, through its Grants Under Contract Program, seeks applications for grant funding from eligible CSOs, networks or coalitions, private sector foundations, and similar organizations that will support the achievement of one or more of the above cited Program Objectives. Specifically, the grants aim to:

  • Support the development and implementation of regional-level or transboundary policy advocacy, social mobilization, and SBCC demand reduction campaigns by regional CSOs, coalitions and networks including CSO-Underrepresented Groups of youth, women, Indigenous Peoples, and faith-based organizations, to promote biodiversity, wildlife conservation, environmental sustainability, climate change, One Health, and related issues that relate to ending wildlife crime.

  • Support activities that expand training and capacity building of other regional civil society actors including Underrepresented Groups in SBCC, CWT, wildlife conservation, environmental sustainability, climate change, One Health, and related issues.

  • Support activities or events that promote regional or transboundary cooperation in training, capacity building, knowledge exchange, policy development, and other CWT-related actions among CSOs, criminal justice stakeholders, private sector, donors, and other related stakeholders.

  • Support activities that enhance the capacity of these civil society actors, including those of Underrepresented Groups and criminal justice stakeholders to actively participate or play leadership roles in regional CWT or related coordination platforms or networks.

Focus Areas

• Activity areas of focus are those that use or promote SBCC approaches, support environmental sustainability, biodiversity, animal or wildlife conservation, One Health, or related issues that are linked to and/or help counter wildlife trafficking, and that cover two or more USAID EWC focal countries cited.

Funding Information

• USAID EWC anticipates issuing three to five awards with an expected range of USD 25,000 to USD 200,000.

• The implementation period for each award is expected to be from a minimum of six months to a maximum of 24 months, depending on the activities proposed.

Eligible Activities

• Civil Society Empowerment

  • Advocacy, social mobilization, and/or behavior change campaigns using SBCC approaches including advocacy meetings or events, conferences, or forums, the development and production of materials or products, and placements of materials on traditional or social media.

  • Planning and implementation of incountry SBCC campaigns that are linked to or expand existing or planned regional campaign efforts, e.g., a wild meat demand reduction campaign in Vietnam and Thailand that expands an existing wild meat campaign in other countries funded by other donor sources.

  • Media outreach, media training, or media engagement.

  • Development and production of media materials.

  • Production of case studies or multimedia materials showcasing best practices or success stories of regional collaboration on SBCC (advocacy, social mobilization, behavior change communication, and demand reduction) or on other areas to advance CWT, for regional and global dissemination.

  • Quantitative or qualitative research studies including situation analyses, literature reviews, baseline and/or post-research studies, evaluations, assessment studies, or reviews, target audience analyses, or pretesting of communication or advocacy materials.

• Network Strengthening

  • Transboundary or regional coordination meetings, events, forums, or platforms.

  • Regional knowledge sharing or knowledge management meetings, events, forums, platforms, exchange programs, or newsletters.

  • Establishment or strengthening of regional coordination or learning groups on SBCC, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, youth, women, faith-based organizations, or criminal justice for CWT concerns.

  • Activities that support the active participation of Underrepresented Groups in CWT.

• Scale-Up

  • Expansion or replication of SBCC or CWT-related training and capacity building, such as meetings, workshops, or the development or production of training and capacity building materials.

  • Activities that advance and enhance the efforts of criminal justice stakeholders to combat wildlife crimes, especially as it relates to coordination, collaboration, creating standardized approaches, institutionalization, sharing of best practices and lessons learned, and network building.

Expected Outcomes

• Civil Society Empowerment

  • Increased capacity to apply SBCC strategies for advocacy, social mobilization, or demand reduction campaigns

  • Strengthened regional demand reduction campaigns

  • More consistent and increased dissemination through media

  • Increased participation of civil society in public consultations

• Network Strengthening

  • Increased civil society participation and leadership in regional coordination platforms

  • More effective engagement on coordination platforms

  • Strengthened relationships across the region

• Scale-Up

  • Increased capacity to apply SBCC strategies for advocacy, social mobilization, or demand reduction campaigns

  • Diversified funding flows toward coordination platforms

  • Increased adoption of standardized training approaches in criminal justice sector

Ineligibility Criteria

• The following types of organizations are not eligible to receive funding under this expression of interest (EOI):

  • Organizations that are not legally registered.

  • Any entity that has been found to have misused USAID funds in the past (unless specifically approved by the USAID Task Order Contracting Officer).

  • Political parties, groupings, or institutions, or their subsidiaries and affiliates.

  • Any entity whose name appears on the “List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement and Non-procurement Programs”.

  • Any entity with a member who appears on the U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control’s “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons” list.

  • Any entity with members directly or indirectly involved in money laundering, acts of terrorism, gambling, prostitution, child trafficking, or drugs.

Eligibility

• The solicitation is open to the following legally registered organizations:

  • Regional CSOs, coalitions, networks, national CSOs, non-profit organizations or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) based in a USAID EWC focus country that act as secretariats or coordinating bodies for regional groupings, coalitions or networks of national CSOs, CSO-Underrepresented Groups (youth, women, faith-based, religious, indigenous peoples) or other civil society actors.

  • Private sector business foundations, social enterprise, or associations with operations in two or more USAID EWC focus countries.

  • Global/international or U.S.-based CSOs or NGOs with operations in two or more USAID EWC focus countries.

  • CSOs or associations registered at the national level in a USAID EWC focus country with access to other CSOs or associations in at least one other USAID EWC focus country.

  • Eligible academic and research institutions.

• In addition to falling under any of the types of organizations targeted, organizations should have implemented at least one activity using SBCC (research, training, advocacy, social mobilization, communication/media/social media campaigns, and similar) or at least one activity on environmental issues, such as biodiversity, animal or wildlife conservation, CWT, climate change, and One Health, in the past five years.

• Broadly defined, CSOs comprise “organizations, whether formal or informal, that are not part of the apparatus of government, that do not distribute profits to their directors or operators, that are selfgoverning, and in which participation is a matter of free choice. Both member-serving and public-serving organizations are included. Embraced within this definition, therefore, are private, not-for-profit health providers, schools, advocacy groups, social service agencies, anti-poverty groups, development agencies, professional associations, community-based organizations, unions, religious bodies, recreation organizations, cultural institutions, and many more.”

• USAID EWC defines CSOs as those organizations that operate regionally (within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region) or transnationally (two or more countries within ASEAN) including Underrepresented Groups (like youth, women, Indigenous Peoples, faith-based organizations). CSOs may be:

  • One organization with chapters in two or more USAID EWC-focus countries;

  • Coalitions, networks, or platforms of national CSOs working for the similar objectives/interests operating in two or more USAID EWC countries that are coordinated by a secretariat or national CSO that is a member of the coalition or network.

• A foreign governmental organization or foreign government-owned parastatal organization is eligible to receive in-kind grants only.

Post Date: January 14, 2025