Announcement

Please find attached Request for Applications (RFA) No. RFA-VAC-2020-001, USAID Child Safeguarding Capacity Strengthening and Implementation Research Efforts.

The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Health Evaluation and Applied Research Development (HEARD) Project is seeking a partner institution to support strengthening USAID’s and its partners’ policies, procedures, and practices related to child safeguarding, including available reporting procedures, the quality of investigations stemming from reports, and assessments of new partners child safeguarding policies among all USAID partners.

USAID has regulations and a policy on child-safeguarding standards that apply to both acquisition and assistance partners as well as to USAID personnel. This includes prioritizing partners in providing international assistance to service-delivery programs for children that adhere to best practices and use family-based approaches. Because of their positive aims and potential for improving children’s lives, clear child safeguarding policies and procedures for prevention and response, including screening, training, and monitoring personnel, as well as immediate reporting and action in response to any violations of law or program policies, must also be in place in any activity (U.S. Government’s Strategy Advancing Protection and Care for Children in Adversity).

Child safeguarding includes the set of policies, procedures, and practices that are employed to ensure the safety of all children that come into contact with service providers, in any way, including as program beneficiaries. Child safeguarding requires responsibility and preventative actions at the organizational and individual levels to ensure that all children are protected from deliberate or unintentional harm or risk of harm by staff, representatives and third parties, who come into contact with children or impact them through the organization’s operations.

The focus of the work under this RFA will be to help strengthen USAID’s and its partners’ policies, procedures, and practices related to child safeguarding, including available reporting procedures, the quality of investigations stemming from reports, assessments of new partners, and presence of child safeguarding policies among all USAID partners.

Deadline for questions: August 21, 2020 5:00 PM (EDT)
Questions by email ONLY to: heard@urc-chs.com.

Closing date and time for applications: September 2, 2020 12:00 PM (EDT)
Applications must be emailed to: heard@urc-chs.com.

Contact: Samantha Ski, Senior Implementation Research Scientist, HEARD Project