USAID/Senegal’s Mauritania Country Office seeks call for concept notes under the YouthPower 2 (YP2) APS umbrella to create a new program to create socio-economic opportunities for youth while preventing violent extremism in Mauritania.

The YouthPower 2 (YP2) Annual Program Statement (APS) is an unfunded umbrella APS designed to creatively engage with, among others, youth-led and youth-serving organizations, and systems, to generate cross-sectoral, positive youth development outcomes.

USAID Nafoore aims to strengthen the resilience capacities of vulnerable Mauritanian youth in urban and peri-urban communities in order to prevent radicalization and counter recruitment efforts by VEOs. Youth in target environments for this Activity include those at the intersection of socio-economic vulnerability and high levels of exposure to VE activity. Many youth fall victim to cycles of violence and recruitment and/or utilization precisely due to their conditions of vulnerability and lack of a safe, supportive social network. Others are lured into illicit violent activities with the hope of escaping their hostile realities at home and/or in their communities to access what they may see as the only option for protection and/or economic prosperity and/or to feel included and empowered.

Goal: Increase resilience capacities of Mauritanian youth needed to resist radicalization and recruitment by violent extremism organizations.

Objectives

• Objective 1: Increase income of vulnerable youth
• Objective 2: Strengthen youth agency in their lives and communities
• Objective 3: Expand safe and supportive youth social networks

Funding Information

USAID/Senegal /SRO may allocate up to $17,000,000 over the course of three years with a two (2) year extension period , subject to the combined successful implementation of the first three years and the availability of funding.

Geographic Priority: USAID Nafoore will prioritize interventions for the following areas: Nouakchott, Trarza, Hodh el Chargui, Hodh el Gharbi regions using specific criteria (applicants are welcome to use the aforementioned criteria as a basis to develop their own suggested criteria) to determine the most vulnerable areas of the region prone to violent extremism. The selection of these regions is indicated by the 2019 Mauritania media assessment and recent Cross Sectoral Youth Assessment considering key push and pull factors facing Mauritanian youth.

Eligibility Criteria

• U.S. and non-U.S. public, private, for-profit, and non-profit organizations, as well as institutions of higher education (especially minority-serving institutions), public international organizations, and non-governmental organizations are eligible to submit a concept note. Further, the organization must be a legally recognized organizational entity in the country where it operates.
• USAID values the participation of the U.S. higher education community in this activity. U.S. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are key partners for developing solutions to development challenges, by serving as intellectual hubs for knowledge, research support, and innovation.
• USAID welcomes applicants form organizations that have not previously received financial assistance from USAID.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.