U.S. Ambassador's Special Self-Help Fund

Key Dates:

1. Questions must be submitted no later than 23:59 on Tuesday, May 28, 2024 on PortLouisSelfHelp@state.gov

2. Applications must be submitted no later than 23:59 on Friday, June 28, 2024

3. Notification of project approval and award signing expected by September 2024.

A. Project Description

U.S. Embassy Port Louis announces an open competition for organizations in Mauritius and Rodrigues Island to submit applications to carry out a project through the Ambassador's Special Self-Help Program. A grant agreement for up to $15,000-$20,000 (U.S. Dollars) in fiscal year (FY2023) Economic Support Funds (ESF) will be awarded (pending availability of funds) for work that will support organizations throughout the country. The period of performance is 12 months. Funding authority rests in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended.

Projects this year should fall under one or more of the following three categories:

Small construction projects (less than 1,000 square meters)

Communal construction equipment

Miscellaneous durable goods

The Ambassador's Special Self-Help Program provides small grants to assist community development projects that improve basic economic or social conditions in local communities. The small grants should aim to encourage self-reliance within local communities in Mauritius and Rodrigues Island by providing resources needed to turn a good idea into action.

Proposed projects must be initiated by the community and should benefit the community by increasing income or improving living conditions. If the project is designed to generate income, it must benefit the beneficiaries and not the NGO or community-based organization and shall not be a for-profit enterprise or sole proprietorship. The project should be sustainable and not require continued support after the one-time funding from the Self-Help Program.

Examples of potential project sectors/activities include:

Cultural Heritage: Preservation or conservation of tangible and intangible heritage assets of society such as buildings, monuments, landscapes, archive materials, books, works of art, historical artifacts, folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge, or other types of related items.

Environment: Reforestation, soil conservation, waste management, biodiversity conservation; community agriculture or aquaculture projects or other agroindustry projects, green composting projects, cold storage facilities, or fish conservation techniques for artisanal fishermen, or other types of related activities.

Marine Conservation: Delimitation of marine protected areas, seagrass mapping to identify carbon sinks, coral reef restoration, protection of endemic plant and animal species, or other types of related activities.

Renewable Energy: Installing solar energy, other renewable energies, or other types of related activities.

Economic Support: Income generating activities, capacity building workshops in key traditional and non-traditional sectors, providing tools for furniture and handicrafts making, vocational training activities that produce employment and marketable skills, workshops to build e-commerce skills, or other types of related activities.

Health: Drug demand reduction, improving health conditions of disadvantaged groups, community gardening and psychosocial support, providing healthcare assistance to at-risk community members, including homeless persons, families living under the poverty line, and/or elderly living alone, providing broadly accessible, reliable, and economically sustainable water and sanitation services to bolster healthy, secure, and prosperous communities, or other types of related activities.

Civic Education: Civic engagement, civic education in the lead up to elections to increase public participation, promotion of diverse voices through education centers, or other types of related activities.

Funding Restrictions

The following activities and costs are not covered under this announcement and are classified as not allowable:

Activities with unmitigated and negative environmental consequences, such as dams and roads through relatively pristine forest lands.

Activities that contribute to commercial deforestation or conversion of land-use from forest to livestock.

Actions that are likely to jeopardize, threaten, or endanger species and/or their habitat.

Actions that are likely to degrade protected areas significantly, such as introduction of exotic plants or animals.

Development, procurement, or use of toxic or otherwise unsafe products, including pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or hazardous chemicals.

Religious, political, military, or law enforcement activities, including those relating to police and prisons.

Activities that violate or abuse labor rights, human rights, or otherwise discriminates against or exacerbates inequities among members of marginalized or underserved communities.

School or team uniforms.

Sports equipment or musical instruments.

Playgrounds.

Luxury goods.

Gambling equipment.

Surveillance equipment.

Alcoholic beverages.

This notice is subject to availability of funding.

Please refer to the complete NOFO on U.S. Embassy Port Louis's website.