United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has issued a call seeking grant applications from eligible U.S./non-U.S. non-profit/ for-profit NGOs, and other organizations to assist in implementation of “Strengthening Political Accountability and Civic Engagement in Moldova” (SPACE-Moldova) Program in Moldova. The main objective of this program is to improve the quality of political representation in Moldova through the development of more accountable political parties at the national and local levels that represent citizens’ interests. This program also seeks to strengthen pressure points to encourage political parties to reform in the region.
Funding Available
Subject to the availability of funds, USAID plans to provide a maximum of $6 million to be allocated over a four-year period. A cost share is not required under this funding opportunity. USAID intends to award a single cooperative agreement as a result of this solicitation.
Program Objectives
- Development of a democratic political system in Moldova is enhanced through more accountable political parties at the national and local levels that represent citizens’ interests.
- Political parties become more democratic and representative of citizen interests through increased pressure.
- Linkages between political parties and civic groups are expanded to increase demand for improved representation of the public interest by political parties and elected officials
- Integrity and transparency of the electoral process is sustained through monitoring and civic engagement.
Activities
For Objectives 1:
- Developing methodologies and providing assistance to parties to assess their institutional and capacity building needs at the central, regional and local levels.
- Training, consultations, coaching for national and regional party structures on topics determined by the parties
- Provide leadership, organizational, public policy and analytical skills for party activists at all levels and foster the professionalization of party functions at all levels.
For Objective 2:
- Facilitate dialogue between political parties and civic groups to identify key priority issues for the public at large and ways to address them in platform and/or policy formulation
- Facilitate dialogue between political parties and civic groups in order to support public discourse and assert pressure on parties for fundamental democratic reform
- Facilitate dialogue between members of political parties and civil society representatives on one hand and political parties and/or central/regional governing bodies on the other to identify key priority issues for the public at large and ways to address them.
For Objective 3:
- Develop a political education project to promote political accountability as a concept.
- Citizen education activities will be developed around the key areas of political knowledge, participation, and transparency, based on a participatory methodology for participants to not only learn new information, but also use it in practice.
For Objective 4:
- Support for domestic monitoring activities in order to ensure professional reporting, development of communication plans, and professional outreach during regularly scheduled elections.
- Assist in the coordination and undertaking of political debates during regularly schedule campaign periods.
- Development and use of a comprehensive sustainable long-term civic monitoring methodology.
- Support for civic monitoring activities beyond the election that track electoral promises and then compare these to governance/legislative decisions taken.
Last date for submitting the applications is January 23, 2012.
For more information, visit this link and search by Funding Opportunity Number RFA-117-12-000001.
