YSEALI 10 - Seeds for the Future

Description

A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Mission to ASEAN (USASEAN) announces an open competition for a cooperative agreement to develop and implement the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Seeds for the Future small grants competition. One organization will be selected to manage the program, which will provide subgrants up to $15,000 each for up to 25 projects implemented by Southeast Asian youth from the 11 YSEALI countries. The subgrant recipients will be selected through an open competition designed by the successful organization and will be given tools and training to implement nine-month projects across the four core YSEALI issue areas. Carefully follow all instructions below. Priority Region: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Timor-Leste. Background: YSEALI (yseali.state.gov) is the U.S. government’s signature initiative to engage emerging leaders in Southeast Asia. The program aims to create a network of young Southeast Asian leaders who work across national borders to solve common problems. Through a variety of programs and engagements, YSEALI seeks to build the leadership capabilities of youth in the region, strengthen ties between the United States and Southeast Asia, and nurture a community of leaders who work across borders to solve shared issues. YSEALI is open to young leaders ages 18-35 who are both citizens and residents of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries (Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) or Timor-Leste. Responding to priorities from youth in the ASEAN region, the Seeds for the Future program will allow YSEALI youth to implement public service projects that improve their communities by addressing one or more of the four core YSEALI themes: themes (Civic Engagement, Economic Empowerment and Social Entrepreneurship, Education and Environmental Issues). Program Objective: Since 2015, the YSEALI Seeds for the Future program has awarded more than $2,500,000 to emerging leaders across ASEAN. The Department of States will celebrate YSEALI’s 10th birthday on December 3, 2023, and Seeds for the Future 2024 will be the 10th iteration of Seeds for the Future. Thus, the grant recipient should design special and creative components to recognize the duration of YSEALI initiatives and the growing number of YSEALI program alumni. While working closely with U.S. Mission to ASEAN and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Office of Public Diplomacy, the recipient shall develop a robust program for the 2024 YSEALI Seeds for the Future with responsibilities as follows: · Provide an online site to receive and manage subgrant participant applications, and answer questions from applicants. Provide virtual resources (e.g. webinars) to help applicants prepare. · Collaborate with USASEAN to develop scoring criteria. Review and score all applications and provide a shortlist (maximum 40 projects). USASEAN will have substantial involvement in final participant selection. · Work together with USASEAN to notify winning teams of approved proposals. · Design and execute a two to three-day kick-off workshop in early 2024 for the selected participants, taking ownership of all logistics and programming. The goal of this workshop is to bring together all project participants (maximum 3 members per project), train them on subgrant expectations (e.g. budgeting, administration, communication, reporting, work plan, digital storytelling), and allow them to collaborate and improve their work plans. All logistics expenditures and travel costs for participants and trainers must be covered by the overall program budget. (e.g. flights, lodging, per diem, venue) · Pair subgrantees with mentors that will help them with their project implementation throughout the program. · Distribute funds to winning projects by January 2024 as follows: 60 percent of funding after submitting a detailed timeline and work plan (including marketing strategy for the project); 35 percent of funding after submitting a mid-term report (including direct and indirect impact metrics, both qualitative and quantitative); 5 percent of funding after submitting the final report with detailed project results. · Oversee the implementation of projects and monitor subgrants by actively corresponding with the subgrant participants on at least a weekly basis. Collect monthly, mid-term and final reports. Track budget usage. · Provide USASEAN with quarterly and final program and financial reporting. The program reports should summarize the progress on the subaward projects, identifying key milestones, successes, and challenges. Include both qualitative and quantitative success metrics to measure the impact of each project on their community. · Collect media (photos/videos) and project stories to amplify on YSEALI website and social media through a robust and detailed communication and social media plan. · Ensure that all program content and media adhere to the YSEALI and Department of State branding guidelines, including US flag and the YSEALI Seeds logo. · Develop a “lessons learned” for future Seeds programs. · Design virtual engagement opportunities for a minimum once per two months post kickoff workshop for the grantees to keep connected with the recipient, other participants, U.S. Mission to ASEAN as a way for them to connect and learn from each other and help run their projects throughout the year. Additional proposal requirements · The proposal should include workshop follow-on activities such as virtual collaborative work, projects funded through small seed grants, or ongoing mentorship. The follow-on activity should be included in the monitoring and evaluation plan. · The proposal should include a media plan for how this program will be promoting in local and regional media with an emphasis on the 10th anniversary of YSEALI and the 10th anniversary of the Seeds for the Future program. · The proposal should include a pre- and post-workshop survey to measure the overall effectiveness of the workshop as well as any changes to the participants’ knowledge of the workshop topic. · The concepts of leadership, giving back, and strengthening a Southeast Asian/ASEAN identity based on shared values and shared challenges should be integrated into the program. · Workshop speakers/facilitators/mentors should be citizens of the United States, an ASEAN member country, or Timor-Leste. · The recipient is expected to develop syllabus materials and an event program with participant and speaker biographies, as well as design banners, backdrops, and other printed materials. The recipient is expected to design a digital engagement strategy for workshop participants and social media audiences, including live video or live online engagement during the program. · No new website specific to the event should be created or launched. Domain, hosting and build costs will not be covered. · The in-person workshop should have an ASEAN Secretariat representative come in to join. Funds should be set aside for an ASEAN Secretariat representative to join the workshop if ASEC representative is available. Timeline: Cooperative agreement period will be no more than 16 months. Design small grants competition, open application, participant selection, and kick-off workshop preparation will take place October to December 2023. A kick-off workshop with in-person attendees from all winning teams will take place in the first three months of 2024. Subgrant participants will implement their projects February to October 2024. Subgrant participants’ final reporting and close-out activities will take place in November to December 2024. Note that all dates could change due to global or regional circumstances and recipient must agree to be flexible and respond to any date adjustments.

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