Civil Society and Media - Strengthened Together and Advancing in New Directions (CSM-STAND)

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The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking applications for a Leader With Associate Award (LWA) cooperative agreement from qualified entities to implement the Civil Society and Media - Strengthened Together and Advancing in New Directions (CSM-STAND) program. CSM-STAND programming aims to foster independent civic forces, enhance civic engagement, and build vibrant, resilient, and self-reliant civil society and media sectors. USAID will accomplish this by strengthening civil society advocacy, monitoring and service delivery, and preserving the space for citizen voice and participation through a variety of modalities tailored to meet context-specific needs and opportunities. Further recognizing the rise of virtual and global threats, CSM-STAND will focus on context specific responses, including transnational or regional programs as necessary. These efforts will contribute to the overall strengthening of democratic civic culture in USAID partner countries. The theory of approach for this activity is: IF civil society and independent media strengthening interventions are implemented and supported with state-of-the-art technical guidance and resources that take into account evolving trends, new lessons learned, and the latest programming innovations in the sector, AND these timely interventions are able to adapt based on shared cross-learning within this global civil society mechanism, THEN USAID will be able to employ more impactful, sustainable, and effective approaches to improve civil society capacity, elevate citizens’ voices, and promote self-reliance. CSM-STAND objectives are as follows: Objective 1: Build Civil Society and Independent Media Capacity and Leadership to Constructively Engage in Civic Space; Objective 2: Provide DRG Sector with Cutting-edge Technical Resources and Adaptable Program Options; and Objective 3: Operationalize and effectively manage a broad-based, diverse consortium for LWA implementation. The CSM-STAND activity will strengthen civil society and media’s capacities to represent citizen interests; hold governments accountable through advocacy, oversight, and outreach; prevent conflict; and promote resilience. The Leader award will advance U.S. leadership in support to civil society globally, including social movements, by identifying global best practices and lessons learned, and facilitating learning among civil society actors and Mission-funded efforts. To identify effective programmatic approaches, the Leader will also coordinate with USAID and the awardee to develop learning questions and compile evidence across associate awards. The Leader will use that learning to inform adaptations to existing awards or in the design of new Associate Awards, with one aim of these feedback loops to be ensuring approaches are grounded in evidence. The purpose of this Amendment No. 04 to Notice of Funding Opportunity Number 7200AA21RFA00013 is to: 1. Extend the Closing Date to June 7, 2021; 2. Answer questions submitted in response to Amendment No. 3 by the May 14, 2021 deadline for questions; and; 3. Provide notification that the subject NOFO is hereby amended. Changes in the NOFO are highlighted in yellow.

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