USAID Local Governance Strengthening Activity in the Kyrgyz Republic | 72011521RFA00001

Opportunity Information: Apply for 72011521RFA00001

The USAID Local Governance Strengthening Activity in the Kyrgyz Republic is a USAID-funded initiative focused on expanding citizen-centered approaches to local service delivery across the country. The core idea behind the opportunity is to help municipal governments and local self-governance (LSG) bodies deliver the services that residents actually prioritize, while also strengthening the ways citizens participate in municipal decision-making. By improving both how services are planned and delivered and how people can shape those choices, the activity aims to make local governance more responsive, transparent, and widely supported, with the longer-term goal of seeing successful approaches taken up beyond the initial target areas.

The grant is structured around one overarching purpose and three linked sub-purposes. The main purpose is to expand citizen-centered, local service delivery approaches nationally, meaning the activity is not only expected to improve performance in the municipalities where it works directly, but also to create models, practices, and momentum that can be replicated and adopted more broadly. To reach that purpose, the activity is expected to achieve three sub-purposes: first, expanding effective service delivery of services that citizens themselves prioritize, which points to improved planning, budgeting, implementation, and management of municipal services aligned with community needs; second, increasing citizen engagement in municipal decision-making, which suggests strengthening formal and informal channels for participation, consultation, feedback, and oversight; and third, broadening ownership of citizen-centered governance approaches, meaning the activity should build buy-in and capacity among local authorities, communities, and other stakeholders so that these reforms are sustained and promoted rather than remaining donor-driven pilots.

Geographically, the activity is expected to work in four oblasts: Issyk-Kul, Jalal-Abad, Naryn, and Osh. The anticipated footprint is between 20 and 50 municipalities, described as ayil aimaks and/or cities. USAID proposes a clustering approach to maximize learning and diffusion: targeting two rayons in each of the four oblasts, with roughly four target local self-governance units per rayon. This design is intended to create practical opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, where municipalities can compare results, share tools and methods, and encourage each other to adopt better practices, helping effective local solutions spread faster than if each municipality worked in isolation.

From a funding and administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary USAID opportunity issued as a cooperative agreement, which typically implies close engagement between USAID and the recipient during implementation compared to a more hands-off grant. The funding activity category is community development, and the CFDA number listed is 98.001. USAID expected to make one award, with an award ceiling of $5,000,000, indicating a single implementing partner would likely lead the activity, potentially working through subawards or local partners to reach municipalities and communities across the four oblasts. The opportunity was posted by the Agency for International Development, USAID-Almaty (Kazakhstan), under funding opportunity number 72011521RFA00001. The original posting date was March 19, 2021, and the original closing date was April 19, 2021. Eligibility is noted broadly as "Others," with additional eligibility details referenced in the full notice.

Overall, the opportunity centers on strengthening local governance in a practical, service-delivery-oriented way: municipalities are expected to become better at delivering the services residents care about, citizens are expected to have more meaningful influence over local decisions, and the approaches developed are expected to gain enough legitimacy and local ownership that they can be expanded and sustained nationally over time.

• The Agency for International Development, Kazakhstan USAID-Almaty in the community development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "USAID Local Governance Strengthening Activity in the Kyrgyz Republic" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 98.001.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 19, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 19, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $5,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 72011521RFA00001

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: