Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) Grant: Research for Humanitarian Programs

PRM will prioritize funding for projects involving research, assessment, or formative evaluation that could inform and strengthen PRM policy and programming for:

Urban refugees/urban displacement:
o Good practices in development of social networks and support systems among urban refugees, with an emphasis on increasing access to existing services in urban areas.
o Good practices in mapping of existing services for refugees in urban environments and in the development of referral and coordination networks among NGOs and service providers, with a particular emphasis on livelihood and micro-finance programs.
o Refugee case management models and approaches in urban areas.
o Good practices for working with refugee youth in urban areas, including increasing access to existing youth programs, services, and educational opportunities in urban areas.
o Investigation of protection issues and appropriate legal/programmatic responses for vulnerable refugees in urban areas. [Note: PRM considers LGBT refugees, female- and/or child-headed households, unaccompanied or separated minors, the disabled, elderly, and commercial sex workers among the most vulnerable populations in urban areas.]

Stateless persons:
o Gender discrimination in nationality laws and its relationship to statelessness, particularly identification and/or scope of stateless populations that result from gender discriminatory nationality laws;
o Impact of statelessness due to gender discriminatory nationality laws on residence status, family unity, child protection, access to basic education and health care, and/or protection against gender-based violence and exploitation;
o Reduction of statelessness as a result of reforms which introduce equal rights for women to confer nationality on their children;
o Good practices in the protection of stateless children, particularly regarding provision of civil registration documentation, access to education and healthcare (including immunizations), prevention of exploitation (including labor exploitation, trafficking in persons) and gender-based violence;
o Application in practice of safeguards in nationality laws against statelessness among children.

(a) PRM will accept proposals that include multiple countries/populations/regions and include analysis across different cases. PRM will also accept proposals that are country- or population-specific; however, these projects should aim to draw general conclusions that can be applied beyond the specific country or population.

PRM’s current regions of interest include (but are not limited to) the South America, North, West, and Central Africa, the Persian Gulf (for statelessness only), South and Central Asia, and the Caucasus. PRM will prioritize funding for proposals that aim to produce practical policy or programmatic recommendations that are applicable to more than just one specific population or country.

(b) All final reports should include tools, data, findings, and actionable recommendations for policy and program implementation.

(c) All proposals must include a strategy for how the findings, recommendations, guidance, reports, and/or tools from the research project will be disseminated to relevant operational partners and the public.

(d) All proposals should clearly demonstrate how the proposed research builds on previous bodies of work and advances the knowledge base on global humanitarian policies and programs.

(e) PRM will accept proposals from non-governmental organizations, including universities and research institutes, proposing to work in the above mentioned areas. To ensure that research findings inform policy and programs, PRM encourages academic institutions seeking funding to identify operational partners to formulate and conduct the research and to inform programmatic recommendations. Given budgetary constraints, priority will be given to proposals from organizations that can demonstrate:

• Knowledge of UNHCR operations and findings from previous UNHCR research and evaluations.

• Collaboration with UNHCR or other PRM-funded implementing partners and coordination with UNHCR on major policy and program initiatives.

• A proven track record in conducting such research in the past, with a focus on the research and evaluation of humanitarian assistance programs and policies for refugees, stateless persons and prevention of statelessness, vulnerable migrants, and/or conflict victims.

• Evidence of subject-matter expertise and familiarity with current and past research and activities in the proposed area.

• Evidence of coordination with donor governments, other policy and research institutes, international organizations (IOs), and other organizations working on research and/or activities in the proposed area

• A concrete data collection and implementation plan, project objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, and well-conceived linkages between research findings and recommendations for PRM metrics, policy, and/or programs

• A budget that is appropriate for meeting the proposal’s objectives.

Funding Limits: PRM will consider project proposals submitted with budgets up to $250,000. PRM anticipates the total amount available for programming under this announcement may be up to $1 million. As of the release of this RFP, the U.S. Government is operating under a Continuing Resolution. As such, all decisions regarding these projects are subject to the availability of funds.

As stated in the PRM General NGO Guidelines for Overseas Assistance, PRM looks favorably on cost-sharing efforts and seeks to support projects with a diverse donor base and/or resources from the submitting organization.