Request for Application (RFA)
Organizing community forums for environmental awareness and inclusive policy making.
Issuance Date: June 20, 2024
Closing Date and Time: 5 pm NPT on July 4, 2024
Partnership Period: October 1, 2024, to April 30, 2025 (tentative)
SUMMARY
The National Democratic Institute (NDI)'s 'Promoting Inclusive and Participatory Environmental Governance in Nepal' program aims to enhance representative, responsive, inclusive, and accountable environmental governance. Environmental governance involves the formulation and implementation of policies, regulations, decision-making processes, and stakeholder engagement to address environmental concerns in Nepal.
NDI is soliciting applications from civil society organizations (CSOs) to undertake the implementation of community forums in about 14-21 locations across Nepal's seven provinces, comprising at least two sites each. A community forum is a gathering that facilitates citizens in discussing mutual concerns, aiming to foster informed dialogue, raise public awareness, and gather input on policy issues. The main goal of these forums within the program is to enhance community understanding of environmental issues in the context of rapid urbanization and settlement expansion, collect their recommendations to inform the Ministry of Urban Development's (MoUD) development of the Human Settlement Policy, and play a vital role in shaping relevant laws, including the National Urban Act.
The total funding allocation for this sub-grant is up to $100,000, allocated for seven months, with an anticipated commencement date of October 1, 2024. The grant will be awarded to a single civil society organization to organize the community forums across all seven provinces. The CSO may collaborate with other local organizations to ensure extensive and efficient coverage across all seven provinces to organize the community forums.
BACKGROUND
Nepal is among the fastest urbanizing countries in South Asia. Significant urban growth post-2015 can primarily be attributed to the reclassification of regions and municipalities under the Constitution of Nepal. Additionally, internal migration, particularly from rural to urban areas in search of better opportunities, has played a crucial role in settlement expansion. This rapid urbanization and settlement expansion exerts considerable pressure on natural and cultural resources, risking environmental issues and recurrent disasters. These impacts disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, particularly traditionally marginalized and Indigenous people, along with their culture and way of life. Furthermore, they are losing their representation and input in policy formulation and implementation, hindering the identification of measures to mitigate the impact of rapid settlement expansion.
NDI seeks to partner with a CSO to organize two-day community forums on environmental governance with community members from selected sites. These forums will be held in all seven provinces through the CSO and its partners, focusing on emerging settlements within each province. The target audience will include members of the public, with an emphasis on groups and communities vulnerable to environmental risks. NDI and the CSO will also invite local elected representatives and community-based organizations actively working on environmental and governance issues. This will also include local policymakers, typically marginalized from national policy-making focusing on building their capacity to engage in other program activities, such as provincial policy dialogues and inter-governmental, and inter-agency policy workshops.
NDI’s existing partner research institute is actively investigating environmental challenges arising from rapid settlement expansion and identifying a comprehensive list of possible sites for community forums. Building on this research, the CSO will select sites and organize the forums. During the two-day community forum, experts contracted by the CSO will discuss the impacts of rapid settlement expansion on social, economic, and environmental sectors, while also collecting community inputs to shape related policies.
OBJECTIVES:
The main objectives of the assignment are:
Participatory policymaking: Facilitate the collection of input and feedback from the general public, grassroots organizations, and local authorities, including representatives from traditionally marginalized and Indigenous communities, to mitigate the impacts of rapid settlement expansion by fostering inclusive and deliberative environmental policymaking processes.
Environmental issues and policies awareness: Raise awareness among the general public, grassroots organizations, and local government entities, including representatives from traditionally marginalized and Indigenous communities, about the social, economic, and environmental impacts of settlement expansion and relevant environmental policies.
EXPECTED ACTIVITIES:
The anticipated activities encompass a range of tasks, including but not limited to:
Developing a comprehensive toolkit for organizing community forums, incorporating planning resources, site profile templates, logistics guidelines, outreach strategies, civic engagement tools, facilitation guides, educational materials, and data collection templates, among others.
Identifying local organizations across provinces to co-implement community forums and conducting a boot camp for these partners.
Preparing comprehensive site profiles and stakeholder mappings for the program and specific forum sites prior to organizing the forums.
Conducting the community forums, delivering educational content, and processing forum outputs into policy recommendations.
Presenting the policy recommendations and civic engagement experience in subsequent project activities, including provincial policy dialogues and inter-governmental/inter-agency policy workshops.
Implementing a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan.
Fulfilling documentation and reporting requirements, including an inception report and a final report.
Adhering to the principles of Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) and Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) in the design and implementation of the community forum.
Applicants should use this tentative list of activities as a guideline and are encouraged to brainstorm activities aligned with the project objectives.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:
To ensure that applicants demonstrate sufficient capacity to execute envisioned activities, the following eligibility criteria must be met by the deadline for submitting the application package:
Valid organizational registration as a legal entity in Nepal;
Prior experience in organizing public forums/participatory workshops on environmental issues;
Experience working with vulnerable communities, including traditionally marginalized groups and Indigenous people; and
Experience in collaboration with local sub-partners and stakeholders, including local civil society organizations, governmental bodies, and research partners, to strategize the organization of community forums.
Experience working in the 3M approach (Multi-disciplinary, Multi-stakeholder, and Multi-dimensional issues)
Sound knowledge of both quantitative and qualitative research methods and approaches is a prerequisite.
Experience working from local to national level is required.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Applications will be evaluated based on the strength of the concept note, organization profile, and budgetary competitiveness. Upon reviewing and evaluating the application package, NDI will select up to three organizations to submit a full proposal, detailed budget, and other required organizational documents. It is anticipated that one fixed-price award will ultimately be granted, subject to the availability of funds.
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Interested organizations are invited to submit a concept note and organization profile (both in MS Word format), along with a high-level budget outline (in a spreadsheet) using provided templates, and any relevant supporting documents, via email to [email protected] by July 4, 2024.
This LINK provides templates to the concept note, organization profile and high-level budget outline.
Please use ‘Application Package - Community Forum’ as the subject line when emailing the application package.
