IREX Seeks Potential US Partners for USAID funded “Partnerships, Networking, Empowering and Roll-Out” (PartNER) Program

 

Information about the PartNER Program:

The PartNER program is financed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and will provide three million dollars in funding and technical assistance to partnership projects that contribute to social and economic development in the Volga Federal District (VFD) in Russia.  For more information on the PartNER program please visit the IREX website: www.irex.org/volgapartner or if you have specific questions regarding the Round II phase of competitions, please contact IREX at [email protected].  

IREX has recently completely the first Round of competition for existing partnerships between US and Russian organizations.  Rounds II through IV of the PartNER program will support new partnerships: those between US and Russian organizations and those between Russian organizations.

The PartNER program will encourage new partnerships between U.S. organizations and Russian organizations from the cities of Saratov, Kazan, Perm, Ulyanovsk, Kirov and Ufa.  U.S. organizations that wish to cooperate with Russian organizations from these cities should submit a Profile Application to the PartNER program.  In addition, U.S. organizations that wish to partner with Russian organizations from other cities in the VFD may submit Profile Applications and participate in the new partnership competition. 

The profile application below is designed solely for collecting information on organizations that may serve as partners; it is not an official Request for Proposal (RFP).  Each remaining round of competition in the PartNER program will be officially opened with an RFP.  The second round of competition will be officially announced in June 2002.  IREX will distribute the RFP to all organizations that complete the Profile Application below.    Interested organizations will also be able to download the Round II RFP from the IREX websites listed above.

Finding a Partner:

US organizations that wish to participate in the program, but do not already have a Russian partner must fill out the Profile Application below.  The information provided in this application will be posted on the IREX website in a database that will be available to organizations interested in finding a partner.  A follow-up interview, either in person or by telephone, may take place to supplement the information submitted in the application form. 

To be included in the database, the US organization should:

·         Have experience in implementing project activities under at least one of the three strategic sectors (see question 11). 

·         Have been legally registered for as least one year;

·         Demonstrate verifiable results and/or accomplishments from previous projects;

·         Have a proven capacity for developing and implementing activities that fall under one of the four strategic sectors.

·         Have an interest in working with a Russian organization to contribute to the social and/or economic development in Russia.

US organizations should submit the attached Profile & Application form via email to [email protected] or in hardcopy to:

The International Research Exchanges Board
2121 K Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington DC, 20037
Fax: (202) 628-8189
Attn: Bobby Tiwari

Upon receipt of the Profile Application, IREX will post application information to the online database.  We encourage those submitting Profile Applications to review this online database to identify and contact suitable partners.   Additionally, if needed, IREX may help facilitate pairing organizations with similar programmatic interests. 

Partnerships, Networking, Empowering and Roll-Out (PartNER)

Profile Application Form

1. Organization Name:

2. Address: 

3. Telephone:

4. Fax:

5. E-mail:

6. Contact Person:

7. How long has your organization been legally registered?

8. Please list your organization’s past and current sources of funding and amounts:

9. Briefly describe activities that you would be interested in implementing in partnership with a Russian organization or institution. Please be sure that the activities are relevant to at least one of the three strategic sectors listed below:

10. How do you think working with a Russian partner would strengthen or contribute to your own organization?

11. Strategic Sectors.  Listed below are three strategic areas under which your project with the Russian partner must fall.  Examples of the types of activities USAID seeks to support in the Volga Federal District are listed under each strategic sector.  Although your planned project activities do not have to precisely match any of these examples, they should be generally in line with them.   You may select one or more strategic sectors and activities that match your organization’s field of interest and expertise.

q       Social Reform:

q       Support approaches that provide expanded services to the most vulnerable, such as disabled or multiple-children families;

q       Strengthen relationships between NGOs and governmental organizations that promote more effective representation of citizens’ interests;

q       Facilitate cross-sectoral projects that create civic education programs for youth;

q       Promote programs that eliminate social and economic disparity;

q       Facilitate partnerships between grassroots groups, advocating change and reform in social services;

q       Develop relationships that advocate for improved preventive health and primary health care services, while advocating for health care change.

 

q       Local Governance and Economic Development:

q       Increase the effectiveness and equity in the delivery of goods and services;

q       Develop a strategic planning tool for local economic growth that includes NGOs, businesses, and citizen advocates;

q       Improve information exchange between local governments;

q       Facilitate partnerships that provide business-related training for young entrepreneurs;

q       Develop the institutional capacity of Volga Federal District professional associations;

q       Promote eco-business associations, lobbying for environmentally-conscious and cost-effective business practices.

q       Reinforce associations that encourage public participation in budget and resource allocation within the community.

 

q       Rule of Law:

q       Promote citizen’s rights advocacy;

q       Support for juvenile crime prevention;

q       Expand sister-bar partnerships;

q       Provide legal services to the less privileged and most vulnerable groups in society;

q       Promote greater awareness of legal rights among the indigent.

 

12. Describe your accomplishments in the strategic sector(s) that you selected (be as specific as possible):