The Asia Foundation Request for Application (RFA) Development of a Policy Portal to address the concerns of Women, Youth, and Marginalized (WYM) Communities.
This Request for Application (RFA) is to solicit applications from prospective grantees to support The Asia Foundation (hereafter referred to as the “Foundation”) in the implementation of the USAID Civil Society and Media (CSM), funded by USAID (Award # 72036722LA00001) through CSM-STAND.
The Civil Society and Media Program, funded by USAID through the Civil Society and Media – Standing Together and in New Directions (CSM-STAND) Leader with Associates Award, is led by The Asia Foundation in partnership with Pact. USAID-CSM is a five-year program (2022-2027) to support ongoing and emerging civic engagement in areas that advance the interests of sub-national communities, particularly those with a history of challenges in engaging women, youth, and marginalized sections of their populations. USAID CSM focuses on civic and media engagement related to good governance (accountability, transparency, participation, equity, and inclusion); and access to and quality of education. Most activities focus on providing grants to those organizations and communities outside of Kathmandu in Lumbini and Madhesh Provinces, with some activities implemented in Kathmandu.
CSM’s overarching goal is to support independent civil society and media led by and for women, youth and marginalized (WYM) communities to advance public interest, fundamental freedoms, and accountability. The program works to achieve this through mutually reinforcing activities under three inter-related objectives while contributing to USAID’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS):
- To foster an enabling environment for civic space where issues and interests of WYM communities are addressed.
- Increase WYM's engagement in civic and public spaces and advance their interests through better access to resources, assets, and skills.
- Improve the availability of credible information and diverse narratives within media that better represent WYM issues and perspectives.
Objective
Develop a multimedia portal to serve as a repository for all policy-related information such as records/ documentation of policy discussions, draft policy papers, videos of events and activities, analytics, and findings from research studies, particularly related to concerns and issues of WYM, PWD, LGBTQIA+ communities which will increase the accessibility and the availability of evidence-based information and materials.
To achieve the objective, the portal adopts the following strategies:
- Identify and onboard a lead CSO for the development and management of a multimedia policy portal to address the issues and priorities of WYM communities.
- Formation of an editorial committee for delivering new policy solutions through inspiring policy analysis and reviews
- Identify pertinent issues in the policies and find an amicable solution through dialogue with different stakeholders to create a meaningful impact for advancing the public issues of WYM communities.
- Enable and promote a culture of policy reform within and offer a platform for informed policy formulation through infographics, briefs, interactive sessions, podcasts, op-eds, etc.
- Supports building the knowledge of lawmakers, government officials, policy professionals, scholars, CSOs, community leaders, and researchers to identify and address the issues of WYM communities.
- Provide a research environment and encourage scholars to do policy research through the publication of review articles, columns, publications, reports, and analyses.
- Sharing training, initiatives, and programs through government plans and policies to create a pool of the next generation of policy leaders for bringing hidden and unheard voices of WYM communities at the subnational level.