Under the Annual Program Statement (APS) for Conflict Mitigation and Reconciliation Programs and Activities of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA), Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM), a funding opportunity is available for NGOs, nonprofits and for-profit non-governmental organizations and international agencies to implement activities “…mitigate conflict and promote reconciliation by bringing together individuals of different ethnic, religious or political backgrounds from areas of civil conflict and war…” Only organizations from following countries can submit proposals for availing these USAID grants, mentioned as the second subject solicitation under the fiscal year 2010 for global reconciliation program only:
Africa: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Uganda (Restricted to Karamoja region), West Africa Regional and East Africa Regional.
Middle East: Yemen
Asia, Europe and Eurasia: Timor-Leste, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Regional Development Mission for Asia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Latin America and the Caribbean: Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru
APS intends to contribute towards the developmental objectives of the USAID in affected countries, but the overall objective is “to make significant strides in the overall goal of conflict mitigation, peace, and reconciliation in selected eligible conflict-affected countries.” The people-to-people approach has been adopted for this program and funding will be given for conflict mitigation projects that use this approach and also develop lessons learned and best practices that can be further used for future people-to-people programming. The APS states: “Successful applications under this solicitation will describe a people-to-people approach based on a context and conflict analysis that leads to a concrete program change hypothesis. Programs should be based on best practices, build capacity of local partners, and incorporate gender analysis into the proposed approach.”
