Nigeria Strengthening Advocacy and Civic Engagement 
Program 
Request for Applications (RFA) No. CDF-001

BACKGROUND

The USAID Civil Society Project (The Project) is a five-year project financed by USAID Nigeria and implemented
through a contract with Chemonics International. The goal of the project is to strengthen good governance by
increasing the capacity of civil society networks and coalitions to influence the development and implementation of
key democratic reforms at local, state, and national levels. The Project explicitly aims to engage marginalized
populations, including women, youth, people with disabilities, and other minorities in the process, and emphasizes
leadership and innovation. The Project aims to support six Nigerian “anchor” civil society organisations (CSOs) to
become sectoral leaders and stewards of their advocacy issue, with each anchor supporting approximately 50
Nigerian organizations and institutions within a thematic issue cluster. This advert is only a summary of the call for
proposals. Instructions on receiving the full request for application are included below.

OBJECTIVE
The Project is seeking concept papers for implementation of grant activities focused on building the institutional,
organizational, and technical capacity of CSO coalitions and networks to advance targeted democracy and good
governance initiatives. The grants will be awarded and implemented in accordance with USAID and US Government
regulations governing grants under contracts and the Project’s internal grant management policies. The Project,
plans to award grants to Nigerian CSOs to strengthen civil society’s ability to influence the development and
implementation of key democratic reforms at the national, state, and local levels. The Project is keen on supporting
organizations with effective systems, policies, and procedures, that demonstrate they are passionate about their
work, have strong ties to their constituencies, are committed to network development, and well prepared to
function innovatively and sustainably in a world of rapid change and complexity.

THEMATIC ISSUE CLUSTERS

Applicants should indicate how they propose to address one of the following broad issues:

1. Access to information
2. Public Finance Management
3. Accountability Systems and institutions
4. Local Governance and Decentralisation
5. Social Inclusion
6. Citizen participation and oversight on privatisation of public utilities

The sectors within which the issues above are to be situated are:
Health, with emphasis on access to Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH); Education, with emphasis on
access to and quality of Universal Basic Education (UBE); Extractives and Power Sector; Agriculture; Water.
Applicants are expected to chose one sector and all applications must clearly demonstrate how issues affecting
women, people with disabilities, and youth are to be mainstreamed and integrated into the work. Also, proposals
should clearly show how they are integrating the following key themes into their approach: Implications of the 2015
elections (pre, during, post), Post 2015 MDG agenda and Conflict.

GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS
Activities are to take place at both the national and sub-national level. Special attention will be given to applicants
that aim to strengthen the vertical linkages between their national level coalitions/network and their local partners
across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, primarily by cascading activities from the national to the local level and vice
versa.

AWARD INFORMATION
The duration of any grant award under this solicitation is expected to be four years, with an estimated start date of
September 1, 2014.

Eligible Recipients

1. Applicants must be a registered Nigerian non-governmental entity. Unregistered Nigerian non-governmental entities will be considered of they can demonstrate that they are in the registration process or are able to meet requirements prior to the issuance of a formal grant agreement.
2. Applicants must demonstrate how they have managed a similar program of at least 1 year duration.
3. Applicants must have an institutional mission that focuses on policy priorities in line with the thematic issue clusters above.
4. Applicants must have established demonstrated outreach capabilities within their identified coalition/network.
5. Applicants will be required to complete STARNET networking survey.
6. Applicants must have constituencies at national and sub national level.
7. Applicants must provide 3 professional references.
8. Faith- based and community groups will receive equal opportunity for funding in accordance with the mandated guidelines laid out in Annex C of RFA except for faith-based organizations whose objectives are for discriminatory and religious purposes, and whose main objective of the grant is of a religious nature.
9. Applicants must display sound management in the form of a financial administrative, and technical policies and procedures.

SACE encourages applications from new issue-alliances/organisations who meet the above eligibility criteria.
APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION
For the full Request For Application RFA, applicants should send a request to cdfrfa@nigeriasace.org . Completed
applications should be submitted in electronic form to the USAID Civil Society Project offices at the address below
and should reference RFA No. CDF-001 in the subject line. Applications must be submitted no later than 17:00 pm
local time, on 21st
June, 2014.

Chemonics/USAID Civil Society Project
7A Biskra Street, Ibrahim Abacha Estate
Wuse Zone 4 Abuja
cdfrfa@nigeriasace.org

BIDDERS CONFERENCE
The project will hold a pre-application question and answer conference on 28th
May, 2014 at Barcelona Hotel, 23,
Blantyre Street, Wuse II, Abuja 09:30am to 12:30pm. This conference will allow interested applicants the chance to
ask questions about the RFA. Interested parties that would like to attend this workshop must confirm their
attendance by sending the participant’s name and the organization’s name to cdfrfa@nigeriasace.org . Maximum of
2 representatives may attend from each organization . When confirming attendance, please indicate if the person
has any special needs to access the conference. No reimbursement for costs of attendance will be met.