About

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Guatemala invites applications to advance Guatemala’s development by connecting indigenous peoples, women, and youth to opportunities that enable them to achieve prosperous, secure, and dignified lives at home in Guatemala under Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS).

The CDCS seeks to address the systemic development challenges which underpin Guatemalans’ decisions to immigrate to the United States, while helping create greater opportunities in Guatemala. Core areas that influence the decision to migrate include lack of economic opportunity, insecurity, and inadequate access to basic services. USAID/Guatemala seeks to partner with stakeholders to increase opportunities for Guatemalans in the areas that exhibit the highest levels of out-migration, corresponding to the areas with weakest state presence and lowest levels of economic development.

USAID/Guatemala will: 1) champion the work of local actors to establish and advance Guatemala’s development agenda, and partner in areas of mutual interest and shared value; 2) expand and diversify engagement opportunities with local organizations by innovating, adapting, and supporting partnership models to better align with the needs of different organizations and shared development goals; and 3) work to expand USAID’s and local actors’ capacity to work as partners in designing, mobilizing resources for, implementing, and evaluating development projects.As described in the CDCS, through three Development Objectives (DO), USAID/Guatemala’s work will do the following:

• DO 1: Economic growth programming will create partnerships with the GOG and other stakeholders to increase economic prosperity, inclusion, and stability in areas with high irregular migration. USAID/Guatemala will aim to generate economic opportunities to stabilize income, improve resilience to stressors, and increase investment in targeted communities with high irregular migration. Activities will also help respond to and mitigate the persistent effects from shocks to community resilience, prolonged droughts, natural disasters, and the sustained impact of community violence and organized crime.

• DO 2: Governance programming will create partnerships with the GOG and other stakeholders to improve quality of life in Guatemala, especially in areas with high irregular migration. USAID/Guatemala will seek to increase transparency and accountability by supporting Guatemalan government institutions, civil society, academia, independent media, and the private sector to improve public resource management, strengthen good governance, and fortify the rule of law. Programming will improve the quality and effectiveness of publicadministration, provision of social services such as health, education, and water, and citizen engagement and advocacy. In addition, USAID will strengthen collaboration between the GOG, indigenous authorities, and the private sector to improve the quality of public services in predominantly indigenous regions.

• DO 3: Security and Justice programming will partner with the GOG, civil society, and other stakeholders to strengthen the GOG’s capacity to address crime and violence and combat corruption, to help reduce drivers of irregular migration. USAID/Guatemala will support crimeand violence prevention, strengthen the justice sector, and prevent gender-based violence in order to rebuild citizen confidence and improve security. In addition, USAID/Guatemala support will strengthen the organizational capacity of civil society groups which represent the most marginalized populations and help protect civic spaces and human rights, as well asindependent media, especially when threats to democratic institutions occur.

Focus Areas

• Local Capacity Strengthening: This addendum aims to strengthen local organizations and/or businesses to advance locally-led development by providing financial support, technical assistance and other capacity strengthening interventions.

• Security, Justice and Governance: This addendum seeks to promote improvements in resiliency to crime and violence, access to justice, and capacity to reduce impunity, address corruption, and respond to irregular migration.

• Economic Growth: This addendum aims to promote economic development in Guatemala through partnerships with the private sector to strengthen small and growing businesses and support improvements to the business climate.

• Environment: This addendum seeks to fund projects that contribute to conserving Guatemala’s natural diversity, reducing land-based emissions, enhancing national and regional security, and generating income and employment.

• Food Security: This addendum will provide support to USAID’s Feed the Future initiative to reduce hunger, malnutrition, and poverty by achieving sustainable rural development and increased agricultural income in collaboration with the Government of Guatemala, private sector, academia, and local leaders at the community, municipal, departmental, and regional levels.

• Education: This addendum will seek innovative solutions to address challenges in education, quality, coverage, teacher training, and equity in Guatemala. Programming will improve the lives of underserved children and youth through increasing education investments, providing training opportunities, and engaging and strengthening higher education institutions.

• Health and Nutrition: This addendum aims to find solutions to the lack of access to basic health and nutrition services in Guatemala.

• HIV/AIDS: This addendum seeks to support a regionally-integrated response that prioritizes financial stability and local capacity of government ministries and civil society, and institutionalization of processes and policies that guarantee quality HIV services, free from judgment or discrimination.

Development Objectives

• Partner with the Government of Guatemala (GOG) and other stakeholders to increase economic prosperity, inclusion, and stability in areas with high irregular migration

• Partner with the GOG and other stakeholders to strengthen effective and accountable governance to improve quality of life and reduce irregular migration

• Partner with the GOG and other stakeholders to improve justice and security to reduce irregular migration

Activities to achieve Goals

USAID/Guatemala will:

• Champion the work of local actors to establish and advance Guatemala’s development agenda, and partner in areas of mutual interest and shared value

• Expand and diversify engagement opportunities with local organizations by innovating, adapting, and supporting partnership models to better align with the needs of different organizations and shared development goals

• Work to expand USAID’s and local actors’ capacity to work as partners in designing, mobilizing resources for, implementing, and evaluating development projects

Funding Information

• USAID/Guatemala anticipates awarding multiple awards over the lifetime of this APS. Subject to funding availability and at the discretion of USAID/Guatemala, USAID/Guatemala intends to provide $95 million in total funding for awards over the life of the APS. Individual awards will range in value and have a period of performance up to five years, depending on the award. Actual funding amounts and the number of awards under each addendum are subject to the availability of funds, award type, and project proposed.

• The period of performance of individual awards may vary. The performance period may be up to five years.

• Award Ceiling: $5,000,000

• Award Floor: $250,000

Eligibility

• Eligibility for this APS is restricted to local organizations that meet the criteria below (based on USAID/Guatemala definition of local organizations):

  • Must be incorporated or legally organized under the laws of Guatemala

  • Must have its principal place of business or operations in Guatemala

  • Must be more than 50% beneficially owned by individuals who are citizens or lawfully admitted permanent residents of Guatemala

  • Must be managed by a governing body, of which at least 50% of the members are citizens or lawfully admitted permanent residents of Guatemala.

• Eligibility for awards receiving Local Works funding is restricted to organizations that have not received more than $5 million from USAID as a prime Recipient in the last 5 years.

• Additionally, applicants that submit concept papers under any forthcoming addendum must meet the critical elements established in the addendum.

Posted Date: Aug 28, 2023