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Counterpart International – Afghanistan Afghan Civic Engagement Program (ACEP)

Request for Applications (RFA)

Regional Civic Engagement Grant for the Southern Region (RCEG) for Program Year 4

RFA Number: RFA 17-02-04

Issuance Date of RFA: December 08, 2016

Deadline for Submission of Questions: December 13, 2016 at 02:00 PM Kabul Time

Orientation Session Date: December 19, 2016 at 02:00 PM Counterpart

International, Kabul

Posting Date of Answers to Questions: December 15, 2016

Application Submission Deadline Date: December 28, 2016 at 23:59 Kabul Time

Projected Date of Grant Awards: On or about January15, 2017

Dear Potential Applicant: The USAID-funded Afghan Civic Engagement Program (ACEP), Counterpart International, Inc. (Counterpart) is soliciting competitive applications from eligible organizations for an Advance Plus Cost Reimbursement Grant, as described in this solicitation. Only Afghan civil society organizations (CSOs) operating at the regional level, holding valid registration certificates from the Ministry of Economy and/or the Ministry of Justice and fulfil other criterion mentioned below are eligible to apply for the Regional Civic Engagement Advance Plus Cost Reimbursement Grant for the Southern Region. The eligibility requirements are further described in the RFA. Counterpart International anticipates awarding one (1) Advance Plus Cost Reimbursement grants to Regional Partner for a period of nine (9) months, and for up to AFN 580,000 (Five Hundred Eighty Thousand Afghani) per province. The anticipated start date of the Regional Civic Engagement Grants is on or about January 15, 2017. Applications must be submitted in accordance with the instructions contained in this solicitation. A. OBJECTIVE

ACEP is soliciting applications from eligible Afghan Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to

receive Regional Civic Engagement Grant (RCEG) to implement programs that enable Afghan

citizens to influence policies, monitor government accountability and serve as advocates for

positive social change at the sub-national and national level.

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The main objective of the RCEGs is to increase CSOs’ engagement at the regional level in

issues of national importance such as advancement of government accountability and

transparency, improvement of public servant responsiveness, improving the work place for

women, and promoting enforcement of rule of law. The grants will help enable CSOs to play

an interlocutory role between citizens and the government of Islamic Republic of

Afghanistan. The goal is to support Afghan citizens to improve their capacity to influence

local decisions and actions and have a voice in shaping policies at the national level.

One (1) RCEG will be awarded to cover the following provinces in the southern region of

Afghanistan, however, distribution of provinces under the portfolio of each regional partner

is subject to change as ACEP may not be able to find a qualified CSO at the provincial level to

serve as a provincial partner. Regional partner for South will cover provinces including;

Helmand, Kandahar, Ghazni, Uruzgan, Zabul and Nimrooz

B. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

B.1 Background The Afghan Civic Engagement Program (ACEP) is a five-year program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Counterpart International, Inc. (CPI), in partnership with Internews, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and the International Centre for Non-profit Law (ICNL). The goal of ACEP is to promote civil society and media engagement that enables Afghan citizens to influence policy, monitor government accountability, and serve as advocates for political reform. The program aims to achieve this goal through five program areas: (1) Regular Civil Society Organizations’ (CSOs) Engagement with Government; (2) Increased CSO and Media Thematic Expertise in Democracy and Governance; (3) Expanded Civic Engagement; (4) Improved Access to Independent News and Public Affairs Information, and (5) Increased CSO Organizational Capacity. In the first and the second program year (2014-2015) ACEP worked with 12 key partners and 130 target CSOs however, in PY3 (2016), rather than working with 12 Key Partners and 130 Target CSOs, ACEP worked with three categories of CSOs, namely: Provincial CSO Partners (PCPs) (at least one per province), Regional Key Partners (RCPs) (4 RCPs), and Kabul-based Key Partners (KBPs) (yet not on board). Regional Key Partners will mentor, train and support PCPs, while sector specific Kabul-based Key Partners will be responsible for engaging with the national government to influence policies, monitor government accountability and advocate for reforms. Community, district and provincial dialogues will be held by ACEP provincial partners, with the support of ACEP regional partners, to identify issues and challenges that could change for the better as a result of local advocacy. Issues not solved at the provincial and regional level, because they require solutions or policies at the national level, will be shared with the Kabul-based Key Partners. In turn, they will engage with the national level government in Kabul to advocate for better policies, laws and reform. They will also help regional partners

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understand the legislative and policy initiatives and environment in Kabul so that, in turn, provincial partners will better inform citizens in provinces and districts on approaches and initiatives they could take to influence the dialogue and decisions from the provincial to the national level. Through the revised supported cascading model, ACEP will provide the opportunity for partner CSOs to work effectively with communities as well as with CSOs in other provinces and the government institutions at the sub-national and national levels. The new partnership model facilitates an appropriate channel of communication among CSOs through collaborative efforts and makes a practical link through which CSOs at the provincial level will work with their respective Regional Key Partners to support CSOs working at the national level. B.2 Regional CSO Partners (RCPs) RCEGs Activities/Outputs A key role of the Regional Partners will be to provide mentoring, coaching, training and implement a supported cascaded capacity development to ACEP provincial partners. ACEP regional partners need to work with ACEP provincial partners to identify common issues across the province or a region, such common issues may need a provincial or regional advocacy plan to be developed by the regional partners. There should be discussion between provincial partners and the regional partners about provincial partner’s community mobilization strategy as well as the advocacy plan. Regional partners shall provide their assistance/feedback to provincial partners in the development phase of these two documents. To extent possible, Counterpart will be engaged in discussions between provincial and regional partners to make sure that community mobilization strategy and advocacy plan is practical, contextually sensitive and good in terms of quality. Regional partners need to make sure that provincial partners develop community mobilization and advocacy implementation plan in close conjunction with district level Shuras. In addition to providing monitoring, mentoring and coaching role, ACEP regional partners needs to make sure a regional level advocacy plan is in place including the budget and timeline. If there are any issue that needs follow-up at the national level, ACEP regional partner needs to engage relevant ACEP Kabul-based partner or other CSO network such as; Civil Society Joint Working Group (CSJWG) or ACEP parliamentary technical working groups (PTWG) for further follow up at the national level. Additionally, ACEP regional partners will support ACEP PTWG such as; the working group that works on family law to organize separate family law workshop at the regional level, PTWG regional workshop target civil society activists, CSOs, and relevant public servants in the region. ACEP expects regional partners to arrange at least two (2) monitoring visits to each provincial partner (under its portfolio) during a month. ACEP also expects regional partners to arrange at least three (3) mentoring and coaching visits during the life of project, in other words one (1) per each quarter.

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ACEP will provide two (2) trainings to regional partner for South on result-based management and financial management trainings during PY4 in Kabul. Both trainings should be cascaded by the regional partners to their respected provincial partners. Regional partners will also co-facilitate along with ACEP two internal study tours between February to April 2017. The aims of these internal tour is to provide an opportunity for partners to learn from each other, expand their network and also increase horizontal communication between the partners. In summary; the main purpose of the Regional Civic Engagement Grants – Southern Region (RCEG) is to increase CSO engagement at the sub-national level on issues of national importance such as:(1) advancement of government accountability and transparency;(2) helping citizens in communities be informed and have a voice on issues affecting them; (3) improving public servant responsiveness;(4) improving attitudes in the workplace related to acceptance of the working women and the awareness of the new anti-sexual harassment policies by the employees and employers;(5) promoting enforcement of rule of law; and (6) enabling CSOs to play an interlocutory role, as needed, between citizens and the government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. It is anticipated that the following results/outcomes shall be achieved upon completion of the grant activities:

Capacity of provincial CSOs will be improved in the areas of community mobilization, civic education, facilitating community dialogues, training and advocacy.

Networking and collaboration among CSOs and other stakeholders focusing on issues affecting the people in the region will be improved at provincial and regional levels.

Citizens’ engagement in civic activities will be increased in the region.

Local and national CSO and citizen linkages will be improved.

The Regional Partner selected under this grant will be located and active in the region for which they are applying. He will be primarily responsible to train, coach, mentor, monitor and provide oversight to ACEP Provincial Partners within their respective region. He will be expected to build the technical and functional capacity of provincial partners to establish and reinforce strong relationships with citizens, build networks and raise the capacity of communities to advocate on issues that affect them. He will be expected to provide back-up technical support to provincial partners in community mobilization, civic education, community, district and provincial dialogues. In short, the following are some major outcomes expected from the Regional recipient of the Regional Civic Engagement Grant:

1. Provincial CSO Partners are trained by the Regional Key Partners in Community Mobilization, Civic Education, facilitation of community dialogues, and advocacy after RCPs attend the Training of Trainers (ToT) provided by ACEP.

2. Provincial CSO Partners are able to operate effectively due to the ongoing on-the-job professional and technical training, technical assistance, coaching and mentoring provided by Regional CSO Partners.

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3. The work and activities of PCPs were monitored for quality and effectiveness. Technical assistance (TA) was provided based on learnings from monitoring to improve capacity and implementation of activities by PCPs.

4. Strong working relationships developed by Regional CSO Partners with provincial governments and public institutions in their respective regions.

5. Reports and feedback from advocacy at the provincial and national levels are provided back to communities on initiatives that affect the communities.

6. Communities are able to identify issues, develop advocacy campaigns and carry them out due to the help and mentoring they received from PCPs and RCPs.

7. Provincial partners in the region are appropriately linked/connected and work with public institutions, other civil society organizations, communities and other stakeholders to build understanding and solidarity for action to advocate for issues identified at the community level.

8. PCPs supported by RCPs organized provincial dialogues to identify issues at the community level for local action, and for further discussion, action and advocacy at the provincial level. The issues and challenges identified during provincial and regional dialogues, by Provincial Partners and Regional Key Partners respectively, will be shared with the Kabul-based Key Partners, who will then engage with the national level government in Kabul to further advocate for political reforms at the national level when necessary.

9. Regional level meetings convened to discuss common issues of interest for all provinces in the region. The regional meeting provided opportunities for provincial CSOs to build networks, develop a regional perspective in looking at local issues and develop regional and national linkages.

10. Common advocacy issues are identified and joint advocacy action plans are developed with other regional and provincial CSOs.

11. Findings of the various dialogues are analyzed, synthesized and reported to the ACEP team and used by ACEP to inform planned/needed technical assistance (TA)and/or training.

12. RCPs and Provincial partners provide high quality reports to the ACEP team. 13. RCPs partnered closely with ACEP/CPI to coordinate strategies, trainings, TA,

solutions to problems, successes and monitoring. 14. RCPs have developed a working relationship and regular communication with ACEP

Kabul-based partners and established bridges between ACEP PCPs and Kabul-based Partners.

Successful regional partner grantee will be based and active in the regions they apply for. They will be experienced CSOs as project implementers, trainers, mentors and guides. They will be versatile, learning organizations that are not afraid to admit when they are not successful. They learn from success and failure and celebrate the successes of others.

Note: Regional partner must ensure gender integration in all aspects of organizational development, capacity building efforts, program staff and program development and implementation. Not only will gender be integrated programmatically, there should be a sensitivity to how (methodologies, attitudes, questions, approaches, etc.) the organization’s/individual’s interactions, interventions and TA facilitate and impact gender

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attitudes and treatment either positively or negatively. Regional partners must ensure that women have equal access to and share equally in the benefits provided by program efforts.

Note: Counterpart will not fund activities that are described as banned activities by the NGO Law and other Laws of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Article 8). Eligibility Requirements

Counterpart will accept applications from organizations that meet the following eligibility

requirements:

Applicants must be an Afghan Civil Society Organization, holding valid registration

certificates from the Ministry of Economy and/or the Ministry of Justice, should be

formally constituted, recognized by and in good standing with appropriate

Government authorities, have its principle place of business in the recipient country,

and compliant with all applicable civil and fiscal regulations.

Applicants must be able to demonstrate successful past performance in

implementation of mentoring, coaching and training, programs related to ACEP

priority areas as described in this RFA.

Applicants must have established outreach capabilities with linkages to the

beneficiary group(s) identified in the program description. This should be reflected by

the incorporation of the beneficiary perspective in the application.

Applicants must display sound management in the form of financial, administrative,

and technical policies and procedures and present a system of internal controls that

safeguard assets; protect against fraud, waste, and abuse; and support the achievement

of program goals and objectives. ACEP will assess this capability prior to awarding a

grant.

Applicants must be located and active in the region they are applying for.

Grant Selection Process 1. Questions & Answers Questions regarding the RFA must be submitted in writing to applications.acep@counterpart.org with subject line: “Question RFA 17-02-04 Regional Civic Engagement Grant for the Southern Region (RCEG)” by no later than December 13, 2016 02:00 PM (Kabul time). Grant Application Orientation Session:

An orientation session for all civil society organizations interested in applying for Regional

Civic Engagement Grant for the Southern Region (RCEG) under this RFA will be organized

by Counterpart International –Afghanistan and its ACEP team to provide an opportunity to

explain the grant program and process and to allow applicants the opportunity to ask

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questions about the RFA requirements. The orientation session will be open to all potential

applicants for the grants program.

The orientation session will be organized at 02:00 PM on December 19, 2016 at the office of

Counterpart International – Afghanistan. Confirmations to attend the orientation session

should be sent to application.acep@counterpart.org to no later than 2:00 PM December 15,

2016. Please use “Orientation Session RFA 17-02-04 Regional Civic Engagement Grant for

the Southern Region (RCEG)” in the subject line. No phone requests will be accepted. In your

email to request participation in the orientation session for this RFA please list the name of

your organization, the name of the person to represent your organization and her/his contact

details (email address and phone number). Only one representative per organization may

attend the orientation session.

Counterpart International – Afghanistan and its ACEP team will send formal invitations to all

interested organizations who have requested participation in the orientation session for this

RFA. Only representatives of organizations who have confirmed invitation to participate in

the orientation session will be able to attend. All invites are requested to bring a picture ID

and arrive 20 minutes earlier than the announced time to allow for registration and

entrance procedures.

All Questions collected & Answers (Q&A) will be posted as a modification on the ACEP website http://www.counterpart-afg.org and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Counterpart.Afghanistan on December 15, 2016. During this solicitation process, interested applicants may not contact, speak with or ask questions of any Counterpart ACEP staff outside of the Orientation Session. Any contact is grounds for disqualification of the organization’s application. 2. Application Requirements

NOTES: Most of the forms referenced below and attached are new or revised. You must use the forms attached with this RFA. Do not use old forms from previous RFAs or from other donors. The maximum length of the Proposal is 10 (ten) pages. THE MAXIMUM TOTAL number of pages is 10, not counting the cover page, list of projects and log frame. Anything beyond 10 pages will NOT be read by the Grant Technical Evaluation Committee (GTEC) members and therefore not be considered in the scoring. Responses to this RFA must be submitted in English. Proposals should be limited to no more than ten (10) pages, submitted in Times Roman 12 and contain the following documents: Technical Proposal (Using Attachment A1, Proposal) The following information must be addressed in the Technical Proposal:

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1. Legal, Registered Name of the Organization and its Acronym. 2. Contact information (Address, Telephone number; E-mail and Website address). 3. Name, position and contact information of the Official Organizational Representative

who is authorized to sign agreements. 4. The grant application/proposal should address the questions in Attachment A1. The

proposal should provide a clear understanding of the work to be undertaken and the roles and responsibilities of all parties involved.

5. A description and list of the CSO’s civic engagement and government monitoring activities completed in the past three years, including;

organizing civic education training/sessions,

community mobilization,

awareness raising,

advocacy for policy based on lessons learned

efforts that enhanced citizen participation in civic activities,

increased citizen engagement in decision-making processes,

increased citizen networking/coalition for making positive social change,

activities that demonstrate CSO’s capacity to provide technical assistance,

mentoring,

capacity building to other CSO.

Please include a brief description of the main sources of funding for the organization (amounts of funding, duration, donor, name and objective of the project, current active grants).

6. A description of how civic engagement and policy advocacy activities are aligned with the organization’s mission and core competencies.

7. Trafficking in Persons (TIP) is a global human rights challenge that preys upon the vulnerable, breaks down rule of law, and corrupts global commerce. It involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of exploitation in forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. Victims are often children and women. In 2012, USAID launched a Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) Policy to emphasize the importance of new technologies and innovative approaches to fight trafficking. As a result, CSOs are asked to describe how they will integrate C-TIP efforts in the proposed activities.

8. A description of how the CSO will integrate gender and youth in the proposed activities.

9. More than one example of previous monitoring and evaluation activities by the organization and what indicators and tools were used to monitor and evaluate previous projects, and what, if any, corrective action was taken to improve the project/s. Description of how learning in one project informed the planning and implementation in another project.

10. A description of the sustainability of the impacts as well as the steps taken by your organization to ensure project sustainability.

11. A description of how the project will be managed and operated. Include an organizational chart (or the structure of the organization) and CVs of key personnel.

12. A description of the project stakeholders (i.e. other CSOs, Provincial Councils,

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provincial authorities, district authorities, CDCs) and provincial partners and describe their proposed involvement in the project implementation. Provide examples of how you have effectively worked with stakeholders to make a positive impact on a target in the past.

Work Plan (Using Attachment A2, Work Plan) 1. Develop a Work Plan in Excel format, using the template provided in Attachment A2.

Please note the “Sample Work Plan” tab included in the template for applicants to refer to when developing their work plans.

Budget and Budget Narrative (Using Attachments B1, Budget and B2, Budget Narrative) 1. Using Attachment B1, please develop a Budget in an amount not to exceed AFN

580,000 per province. Please note the Sample Budget tab including in the template that shows what the budget should look like.Please ensure that only costs that are directly related to the grant activities are budgeted. Indirect costs are not allowed under this Program. The budget should reflect all the resources necessary for project implementation. Budgets are to be developed based on the specific needs associated with the applicant’s proposed activities.

2. Please develop a Budget Narrative using the template provided in Attachment B2. The budget narrative should provide details on all types of costs planned, cost per unit and cost justification.

Cost Share Requirement and Plan In order to be considered for a Grant, applicants are required to secure either cash or goods/services (referred to as “in-kind”) to contribute to the grant activities. This cost share contribution must come from other, non-US Government related sources of funding. The cost share contribution requirement is a minimum of 5% of the value of the grant. Please refer to Attachment C for Cost Share Guidelines. Applicants must complete and attach to the Application a Cost Share Planning Worksheet, per Attachment C that demonstrates how the organization plans to meet this cost share requirement either in cash or in kind and what percentage of cost share they are proposing. The minimum requirement is 5% but special consideration shall be given to sound cost share plans that propose a higher cost share. Please note that if awarded, the proposed cost share becomes a contractual commitment that the organization must meet within the effective dates of the grant. Required Documents to Attach as Part of the Application. If these are not included, the proposal will not be read, scored or considered. 1. Copy of the Registration Certificate 2. Copy of the Organization’s Charter or Document of Incorporation or Organization’s

bylaws 3. Organization’s most recent annual financial statement and audit report for the most

recent year 4. The Cost Share Worksheet

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5. Organizational chart outlining the staffing structure by name and title and showing the number of staff employed. CVs of the key staff for instance (program manager, OD officer and M&E officer)

6. A copy of the receipt from the Ministry of Economy of the CSO biannual report to

the Ministry/Department of Economy

An application containing all of the required information in the above Application Requirements shall be considered a complete application. If one of the documents is missing, the application will not be considered as complete and therefore not be read or scored. 3. Deadline Date for Responding to this RFA Complete Applications should be emailed toapplications.acep@counterpart.org. The email and attachment total size should not exceed 20 MB. If needed, an application may be submitted through multiple emails. Please include in the submission email the following subject line: RFA 17-02-04 Regional Civic Education Grant for the Southern Region (RCEG). The deadline for submitting Complete Applications is December 28, 2016, 23:59 PM Kabul Time. LATE OR INCOMPLETE SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. Applications and accompanying documentation will not be returned.

All applicants will be notified on outcome once the grant recipient is determined. 4. Applications Evaluation Process Only complete applications received by the Application Submission Deadline Date will be accepted and submitted to the Grant Technical Evaluation Committee (GTEC) for review. GTEC members, Counterpart technical staff from different departments with ACEP, will thoroughly review and evaluate the applications in accordance with application evaluation procedures. Applications will be reviewed based on the following evaluation criteria:

No. Criteria Max Score

1 Relevance of the proposed project to the key purpose of the Regional Civic Engagement Grant (RCEG). Description of region and issues in region. Description of advocacy activities, initiatives and impact.

10

1.1 Is the proposal objective and goal relevant to the main purpose and the thematic area of the Regional Civic Engagement Grant (RCEG)?

4

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1.2 Does the proposal describe the situation and issues (males and females and present reality of communities) in the region

3

1.3 Does the proposal provide qualitative and quantitative need assessment data of the region?

3

2 Organization’s ability to successfully implement the proposed activities. Relevant previous experience including list of grants obtained in the last three years. Alignment with charter. Experience of key personnel. Partnerships.

25

2.1 Does the organization propose activity implementation strategy and methods to meet the objectives?

5

2.2 Does the organization have clear understanding of how to affect changes in the attitude and practice in the society with examples?

3

2.3 Do the organizations project in the past three years demonstrate that they have relevant experience (CSOs capacity building monitoring government, awareness raising, advocacy and policy, rule of law,)

5

2.4 Has the applicant described the organizational capability? 2

2.5 How the applicant ensure PCPs receive technical support? 4

2.6 Does the applicant describe how it will develop relationship with Kabul based CSOs and between PCPs and Kabul based CSOs?

4

2.7 Has the applicant describe how it will involve stakeholders? 2

3 Relevance and suitability of planned activities and expected result to achieve project objectives related to the thematic areas described in the RFA. Management plan. Implementation plan.

25

3.1 Are the planned activities well defined against each objective and are inter-related?

6

3.2 Has the applicant addressed outcomes of the RFA? 6

3.3 Does the applicant describe how the project will be managed? 6

3.4 Does the management plan describe the roles and responsibilities of the proposed project staff?

4

3.5 Does the applicant provide CVs of key staff and organizational chart? 3

4 Project methodology and sustainability potential. Understanding of how change takes place. Monitoring organization and learning.

17

4.1 Does applicant provide and well defined sustainability plan? 5

4.2 Has the applicant well described its monitoring plan and tools? 6

4.3 Has the applicant provided an example of previous monitoring and evaluation work?

2

4.4 Does the applicant relate its monitoring and evaluation lessons learned to any other project?

4

5 Project activities demonstrated gender, disabled, C-TIP and youth mainstreaming. Understanding of how activities impact gender.

8

5.1 Has the applicant described its work with PCPs to ensure involvement of women and men in decision making and consultation at the community level?

4

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5.2 Does the applicant describe how the opinions of youth will be solicited and integrated?

2

5.3 Are there plans identified for including C-TIP and disabled in the project? 2

6 Budget reasonableness and cost effectiveness 15

6.1 Are the budget lines reasonable? 7

6.2 Is the overall budget realistic in terms of the total plan? 4

6.3 Is the budget reasonable for each deliverable? 4

Total 100

Using the above evaluation criteria, GTEC members will score and rank each application and recommend the top one (1) for funding. As applicable, GTEC may request CSOs to provide additional information and refine their proposals within an established deadline for re-submission of a revised application for consideration. The selected applications will undergo a pre-award risk assessment for the purpose of an in-person review of grant seeking organization’s financial and administrative systems by Counterpart staff who have expertise in the areas being examined to adequately evaluated organization’s systems to determine their adequacy to receive and manage USAID funded award under Afghan Civic Engagement Program (ACEP). ACEP will finalize negotiations and the grantees will be submitted to USAID for approval (including vetting approval). Counterpart will issue the final advance plus cost reimbursement agreements to the selected CSOs after USAID approval is received. 5. Post-Award Orientation Meeting

After the award, ACEP shall conduct a post-award orientation meeting with the CSO. The meeting may be held in person or by phone. The post-award orientation meeting is an essential tool to help ACEP and the recipient achieve a clear and mutual understanding of the advance plus cost reimbursement grant’s requirements. The meeting helps the CSO understand the roles and responsibilities of ACEP who is administering the grant and reduces performance risks and future problems. It is an opportunity to review, discuss and clarify key aspects of the grant and its administration, help the CSO meet the intended goals and outputs of the grant and contribute to building the CSO’s institutional capacity. In addition, it should identify those areas where the CSO may need additional help in meeting the grant’s conditions. Items to be discussed at the meeting should include, but not be limited to, the authority of ACEP personnel who administer the grant, the specific terms and conditions of the grant, ACEP’s monitoring and evaluation plans, milestones, requests for payment, voucher approval, and payment procedures.

6. Monitoring and Site Visits

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As part of proper implementation of the grant activities, it is important that appropriate monitoring and oversight of the CSO and the activities is conducted. Site visits will be (security permitting) conducted by Counterpart Staff and/or Counterpart Consultants to ensure that satisfactory progress is being made and the milestones are being met. As part of USAID requirements, grant activities may also be monitored by USAID’s third-party monitoring contractors under the Monitoring Support Project (MSP). 7. Subgrant Agreement Award and Payments Up to one (1) advance plus cost reimbursement type subgrant agreements will be issued for the Regional Civic Engagement Grants for the Southern Region (RCEGs) for nine (9) months and up to AFN 580,000 (Five Hundred Eighty Thousand Afghani) per province. An initial advance based on the first one month of projected costs will be issued to the subrecipient after signing by both parties of the subgrant agreement and receipt of the one- month cost projection based on the approved budget. Subsequent advances will be made on a monthly basis upon receipt of the monthly financial report for the previous month and submission of the projected costs for the next one month of activities, based on the work plan and budget. Continuous payment of advances will be strictly contingent upon Counterpart’s monthly monitoring of subgrantee’s satisfactory performance and accomplishment of project activities, and timely and accurate submission of monthly programmatic and financial reports submitted by the subgrantee. Grantees will be expected to complete a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan that will be included in the final subagreement. Disclaimers Please note that the issuance of this Request for Application does not constitute a commitment on the part of Counterpart International, Inc. for funding or an award. All costs associated in the preparation and submission of a proposal in response to this RFA shall be the sole responsibility of the applicant.

RFA Enclosures:

Attachment A1: ACEP Proposal Template

Attachment A2: ACEP Work Plan Template

Attachment B1: ACEP Budget Template

Attachment B2: ACEP Budget Narrative Template

Attachment C: Cost Share Guidelines o Appendix A – Cost Share Plan Worksheet o Appendix B – Cost Share Certification o Appendix C – Cost Share Report