USAID/RDMA hosted a successful Informational Meeting on March 12, 2014 for those interested in pursuing a new funding opportunity for people-to-people reconciliation projects in Thailand’s Deep South. If you couldn't attend the meeting, you can view a summary of the meeting by reading the summary below and attached. More details about the solicitation can be found here: http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=251741  

Applications for Thailand must meet all the criteria outlined in the solicitation and be emailed to CMMAPSThailand@usaid.gov by March 28, 2014 at 5pm, Bangkok time. Submissions that are late or incomplete will not be considered.

Attendees: Local and international organizations interested in applying for funding to implement people-to-people programming in Thailand’s Deep South under solicitation number APS-OAA-14-000003

• Applicants should view grants.gov in Internet Explorer. Some people reported that they were not able to access the full application package in other browsers, such as Google Chrome.

• The solicitation is very explicit in its instructions about the technical approach being sought from the applications that are responding to this funding opportunity. Interested applicants should make sure to follow the links providing in the solicitation documents that explain key concepts, such as people-to-people approach and do no harm, in order to craft more responsive applications.

• As the solicitation outlines, there are two levels of competition. The first level is offered only to local organizations and budget may range from $100,000 to $500,000. The second level is open to both local and international organizations, with budgets ranging from $500,000 to $1.2 million.

• Applications will be reviewed first by the Mission. The Mission will consider all applications that respond to the detailed instructions outlined in the solicitation. Applications that pass this first round will then be sent forward to the Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation in Washington, D.C. to be considered. 

• Final determinations about what applications will be funded will be determined in Washington. As outlined in the solicitation, the global Annual Program Statement (APS) has funding up to $16 million for multiple awards, but there is no guarantee of funding. An application that passes the first round at the Mission level will then be competing against  

applications from other countries as Washington examines application quality and global funding priorities.

• The submission instructions are very clear in the solicitation that all submissions must be sent in one electronic file (which our Mission understands to mean one single email) with multiple attachments in order to meet all the requirements outlined in the solicitation.

 • The Application Package consists of the solicitation and attachments 1 and 2 (attachment 2 is not separately listed, but rather is the last page of attachment 1). The SF 424, SF424a, and SF 424b will be required ONLY by applicants that have successfully passed the stage-one evaluation at the Mission level, as well as the stage-two evaluation in Washington, D.C. DUNS numbers are also not required at this stage.