Call for Expressions of Interest: Partners for Youth-Led Youth Economic Empowerment Activity عودة إلى الفرص

Call for Expressions of Interest:

Partners for Youth-Led Youth Economic Empowerment Activity

Background

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is funding the Ma3an project, a seven-year (September 2018 – August 2025) project that aims to increase Tunisian youth civic engagement and economic empowerment to advance progress towards sustainable and inclusive development in Tunisia. Ma3an is implemented by FHI 360, a non-profit human development organization dedicated to improving lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions. 

Ma3an’s objectives are as follows:  

1. Objective 1: Youth have improved access to skills, services, and opportunities for civic engagement and economic empowerment  
2. Objective 2:  Tunisian youth lead and meaningfully participate in activities to address youth and community priorities

Ma3an aims to ensure that young people have access to opportunities to apply them to achieve tangible civic and economic gains. Therefore, Ma3an will work with civil society partners to facilitate a youth-driven collaborative action planning exercise in each governorate that enables youth to work together with key Youth Economic Empowerment (YEE) stakeholders to identify and implement solutions for YEE priorities. 

In order to ensure that youth and other youth system actors at the governorate level drive the identification and implementation of Ma3an-supported youth economic empowerment interventions, Ma3an is pleased to release this call of interest to identify five (5) local civil society organizations (CSO) partners to support youth leaders and key public and private sector actors to implement a youth-led YEE collaborative action planning process which will result in Ma3an supported, locally-driven YEE initiatives. 

This process will commence with youth-led consultations with key public and private stakeholders for youth to better understand the labor market and value chains in their governorates and to define priority sectors that can be the focus of the action planning that follows. The youth will also conduct focus groups with youth and other stakeholders to identify priority needs for youth – for young women, youth with disabilities, racial minorities, and school dropouts – related to YEE services, opportunities, skills-building. The YEE partners will then provide in-kind support and/or follow-up for the implementation of priority solutions within each governorate to improve the economic enabling environment and access to services that empower and expand youth access to economic opportunities. YEE partners will also facilitate the access to opportunities for young social innovators and entrepreneurs who would gain applicable skills while playing a leading role in these collaborative solutions. 

Each of the 5 selected partners will support Ma3an by directly implementing activities in one of the 5 zones. 

The table below lists the zones, the governorates and communities served by Ma3an. Please make sure that you are working in at least these communities in each of the governorates in your chosen zone and you may propose other communities. 

Following its review of submitted Expressions of Interest, FHI 360 / Ma3an will share the full Request for Applications (RFA) with all eligible organizations that submitted Expressions of Interest.  The RFA will detail the scope of work and the final selection process. 

All organizations receiving the RFA will also be invited to bidders’ orientation sessions. 

The value of each grant shall not exceed 460,000 TND (A maximum total of 2,300,000 TND for the 5 grants) for implementation in the 15 governorates (2-4 governorates per grantee). Each grantee shall have an additional 120,000 TND per governorate (depending on the number of governorates in his selected zone) that will be dedicated for locally-driven YEE initiatives resulting from the youth-led YEE collaborative action planning process. Successful Applicant(s) will be awarded grants for an anticipated 18-month period of performance. 

Application and Eligibility Criteria

1. The organization is operational and a legally registered not-for profit non-governmental organization in Tunisia.  
2. The organization is currently present in and/or demonstrates their ability to operate and launch activities in one zone and each of its governorates by May 2023.
3. The organization must not be listed in any US Government and International excluded parties list due to their affiliation with unlawful activities.
4. The organization’s mission and past programming experience is relevant to the technical and programming areas related to youth economic empowerment using collaborative solution planning approaches; relevant areas could include: the design and implementation of previous youth economic empowerment activities such as youth capacity building to access labor market, facilitating financial access or promoting the existing economic opportunities/ value chain at the governorate level, and facilitating youth led/collaborative processes to address local economic challenges.

To apply for this opportunity, please submit your application and the required supporting documents (see below) to FHI 360/Ma3an by no later than February 16th, 2023.  

Applications must be sent electronically to grantstunisia@ma3an.org .  Applications can be submitted in English, French, or Arabic.  FHI 360/Ma3an will confirm receipt of applications by email. Only eligible applicants will be contacted and receive the RFA.

Requested Documents: JORT publication, Fiscal Registration and Current Address, and the completed Application Form. 

02.YEE_EoI_Application form_ENG