VOA常速英语:美国国际开发署正在寻求新的合作伙伴

Under USAID’s New Partnerships Initiative, or NPI, the agency is looking to partner with organizations that are deeply connected in the communities USAID serves and that have not – or have only in a limited capacity – worked with the agency in the past. NPI simplifies access to USAID resources and makes it easier for partners to bring forward their ideas and strengthens local capacity so that partner countries can gain new knowledge and skills to address their own development challenges. Potential partners can compete for one of three forms of funding: Direct awards for organizations that enable local engagement; sub-awards designed for organizations that enable more efficient partnerships for effective local engagement; and direct awards to partners that can leverage significant private and other non-U.S. government funding to promote effective local engagement.

In late April, USAID’s Acting Administrator John Barsa announced three new funding opportunities under NPI for potential new and underutilized USAID partners. The first of these is the YouthPower 2: Youth Excel Addendum, which aims to help develop new approaches to strengthening youth-led and youth-serving local and community-based organizations. The second award will support USAID's goals in higher education by finding new ways to create meaningful change. These may, for example, include scholarships for individuals, capacity-building for local institutions, and policy reforms. Together, these two awards are worth at least $60 million. And in the near future, USAID’s Bureau for Global Health will announce the third opportunity -- one that will support response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are seeking to engage new partners that are effective development actors, who were previously limited or even blocked by complex solicitation requirements,” said USAID Acting Administrator Barsa.“At the same time, through NPI, we are looking to our more experienced partners to focus on mentoring and capacity building to elevate the leadership of local organizations in the countries in which we work,” he said. “NPI is becoming a crucial part of the adaptation of our programmatic operations under these difficult conditions caused by the novel coronavirus. USAID is pursuing all options for an effective response, including by working with new or underutilized partners that can provide innovative, scalable solutions to address the pandemic.”