USAID Transforming Health and Resilience for Individuals Through Vibrant Empowerment (THRIVE) Activity: (Deadline: 12 June, 2024)

The United States Agency for International Development Nigeria mission (USAID/Nigeria) seeks concepts from eligible and qualified organizations to implement the USAID Transforming Health and Resilience for Individuals Through Vibrant Empowerment (THRIVE) activity.

Goal 

• To improve the health and wellbeing of children living with HIV and reduce HIV related risk among uninfected children, adolescents, and young people by providing a suite of social welfare and related services that mitigate the multiple, layered vulnerabilities they are subject to, and in so doing contribute to sustained HIV epidemic control and resilience. sustained epidemic control by improving the health and wellbeing of children living with HIV.

Funding Information

• USAID/Nigeria intends to award two (2) Cooperative Agreements to cover the following geographic areas:
  • USAID THRIVE North: Anticipated Total Estimated Amount- $35M
  • USAID THRIVE South: Anticipated Total Estimated Amount- $30M
• Subject to funding availability and at the discretion of the Agency, USAID intends to provide up to $65 million for USAID THRIVE North and South, over a five-year period.

Results Framework

• Result 1 – Prioritized OVC Subpopulations are provided with Services to Prevent or manage HIV Infection 
  • Recognizing that the THRIVE Activity is one element in PEPFAR’s overall strategic response to the HIV epidemic in Nigeria, activities under this result will address shared epidemic control priorities, contributing directly to closing gaps in the pediatric treatment cascade, and focusing the limited OVC program resources on serving the sub-populations at highest risk.
    • IR 1.1 CLHIV are found, enrolled in treatment, and provided with adherence support services. 
      • Activities under this intermediate result will strengthen the program’s capacity to (i) support case finding in the pediatric and adolescent populations, and (ii) find and enroll all CLHIV in the geographies where the program is being implemented. These efforts will contribute directly to ramping up diagnosis, enrollment in and adherence to ART, of CLHIV and HIV positive caregivers, closing gaps in the pediatric treatment cascade, and reducing the risk of HIV transmission.
      • Illustrative activities:
        • Setup enrolment committees at local level that include care & treatment IPs, health facilities, and local CSOs to coordinate enrolment of households with C/ALHIV.
        • Deploy linkage facilitators to health facilities to support continuous enrolment of C/ALHIV.
        • Equip the social workforce with SOPs, tools, and training to screen, identify, and enroll households with C/ALHIV.
        • Setup adherence support groups for C/ALHIV and equip the social workforce to facilitate these groups.
        • Setup parenting groups to mentor and support caregivers of C/ALHIV.
    • IR 1.2 Adolescent girls at high risk of HIV infection and sexual violence are identified and enrolled in the OVC program or linked to services. 
      • Activities under this intermediate result will strengthen the program’s capacity to find and enroll AGYW who are at highest risk of sexual violence, exploitative sexual relations, and HIV infection, including girl survivors of sexual violence and adolescent mothers. These efforts will maximize THRIVE’s prevention contribution by ensuring that its comprehensive services are provided to the sub-population most in need of its protective effects. After C/ALHIV, at risk AGYW represent the priority sub-population for enrolment and should constitute a substantial proportion of program clients, as dictated by enrolment targets.
      • Illustrative activities: 
        • Setup enrolment committees at local level that include community leadership and local CSOs to coordinate enrolment of households with highest at risk AGYW.
        • Develop an effective strategy and tools for identifying and enrolling AGYW at highest risk.
        • Equip the social workforce with SOPs, tools, and training to screen, identify, and enroll AGYW at highest risk.
        • Setup procedures for identifying and immediately linking AGYW who are victims of abuse to violence response and counseling services.
    • IR 1.3 Other sub-populations of children at high risk of HIV infection are identified and enrolled in the OVC program or linked to services. 
      • Activities under this intermediate result will strengthen the program’s capacity to find and enroll children at highest risk of HIV infection in addition to AGYW, including children of HIV positive caregivers or caregivers in key populations such as female sex workers (FSW) and men who have sex with men (MSM), boy survivors of sexual violence, HIV exposed infants (HEI), and children living with a disability or in households with people liviing with a disability (PLWD). These efforts will maximize the THRIVE Activity’s prevention contribution by ensuring that its comprehensive services are provided to sub-populations of children most in need of its protective effects.
      • Illustrative activities:
        • Setup enrolment committees at local level that include community leadership and local CSOs to coordinate enrolment of households with highest at-risk children.
        • Develop an effective strategy and tools for identifying and enrolling children at highest risk.
        • Equip the social workforce with SOPs, tools, and training to screen, identify, and enroll children at highest risk.
        • Setup procedures for identifying and immediately linking survivors of abuse to violence response and counseling services.
• Result 2 – Households have Increased Resources and Access to Services needed to Care for OVC 
  • Acknowledging their role at the forefront of nurturing care, the THRIVE Activity will empower caregivers to meet children’s basic needs and ensure that they access available services according to their rights and requirements. Activities under this result will mitigate their constrained economic means, limited knowledge, and harmful attitudes, norms, and practices that hinder optimal parenting and that compromise the welfare of the child.
    • IR 2.1 Households are food secure and economically stable. 
      • Activities under this intermediate result will offer an integrated strategy that enables caregivers to meet the nutritional needs of their households, mitigate economic shocks, smooth household consumption, and meet the costs of accessing basic services and care. In addition to identifying and linking those requiring emergency nutritional support to required care, case plans will prescribe household participation in activities that support nutritional self-sufficiency, such as interventions that provide training and inputs to cultivate household, school, and community kitchen gardens and feeding programs.
      • Illustrative activities: 
        • Implement household, school, and community kitchen garden activities.
        • Map available government, development partner, and other donor food security, livelihoods, and household economic strengthening programs, and integrate these into referral networks.
        • Implement social behavior change communication (SBCC) to increase production, consumption of, and income from safe and nutritious foods, including appropriate intra-household food distribution.
        • Adopt and implement evidence-based savings group methodology for caregivers and youth.
    • IR 2.2 Caregivers adopt effective parenting practices. 
      • Activities under this intermediate result will equip caregivers with the knowledge and skills to effectively manage the relationships within their households, to best support the development of very young children in their care, and to guide older children to make choices that better secure their current and future welfare. Interventions will be sensitive to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) concerns; infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices; the specific knowledge and skills caregivers of C/ALHIV and children living with disabilities require; and the particular circumstances of caregivers in key populations, such as female sex workers.
      • Illustrative activities: 
        • Adopt and implement an evidence-based, PEPFAR approved parenting program, such as Parenting for Lifelong Health, Family Matters Program.
        • Adopt and/or design and implement activity that improves early childhood development practices in the home.
        • Deliver gender norms sessions to address harmful gender norms and cultural practices.
    • IR 2.3 Caregivers support OVC to access health, education, and social services. 
      • Activities under this intermediate result will improve responsive caregiving, by encouraging caregivers to value services that promote the rights, meet the needs, and improve the prospects of children in their care; equipping caregivers with the knowledge they require to access services children are entitled to; and supporting caregivers to overcome the barriers hindering their efforts to access services on behalf of their children. Reinforced by community-wide social and behavior change campaigns (IR 3.1) and parenting programs (IR 2.2) that reframe harmful cultural and religious norms and practices, THRIVE’s community workforce will continuously screen households to identify needs across all OVC program domains, raise awareness of available services with caregivers, and link clients appropriately.
      • To strengthen responsive care, health screening and referral will be sensitive to CALHIV specific needs and comprehensive, integrating ante- and post-natal care, nutrition, immunization, and sanitation, as well as emerging priorities such as child and caregiver mental health. THRIVE will also implement interventions that address and resolve administrative and cost barriers confronting caregivers, facilitating birth registration and setting up mechanisms for initially covering health and education fees that household economic strengthening interventions (IR 2.1) will ultimately empower caregivers with the means to meet. In addition to securing access, education interventions will support consistent attendance at, progression through, and completion of schooling, as well as reintroduce out of school youth to education opportunities.
      • Illustrative activities: 
        • Train and equip the community workforce to deliver behavior change messaging in households that strengthens responsive caregiving.
        • Train and equip the community workforce to screen for priority health needs and facilitate completed referrals.
        • Train and equip the community workforce to screen for child protection needs and facilitate a comprehensive response.
        • Implement a comprehensive education intervention that facilitates parental involvement and supports children to access, consistently attend, and complete school.
• Result 3 – Communities ensure that OVC access Quality Services and that their Rights are Protected 
  • Progress towards epidemic control and child wellbeing is constrained or enabled by the norms, attitudes, and behaviors sanctioned by communities. To ensure that the social environment becomes conducive to the welfare of children and other vulnerable sub-populations, and that this transformation is sustained after program exit, activities under this result will empower community members, structures, and institutions to lead de-stigmatization, child protection, violence prevention, and violence response efforts; encourage and facilitate access to services; and ensure that the demand for quality, accountable services and increases over time.
    • IR 3.1 Communities adopt child, gender, and HIV sensitive cultural norms and practices. 
      • Under this intermediate result, THRIVE will collaborate with community leadership and structures to implement social behavior change communication campaigns that target and transform attitudes, norms, and practices harmful to the wellbeing of children and other vulnerable sub-populations. In addition to inculcating rights-based values in its social workforce and equipping its cadres to model and reinforce norms change, THRIVE will target community authority figures and authoritative institutions with SBC interventions that complement its work with caregivers (IR2.2). Acknowledging their significant influence, THRIVE will work with religious leaders, organizations, and institutions, to transform harmful norms and practices. Community leadership, traditional authorities, and community structures with a role in community welfare (such as child protection committees) will receive culturally sensitive rights-based messaging in small group settings; educators will receive rights-based messaging as a component of THRIVE’s interventions to improve school safety (IR4.1); and THRIVE will work with care and treatment and prevention partners to address the attitudes and behaviors of providers’ that dissuade clients from seeking care in health facilities.
      • Illustrative activities: 
        • Design and implement a comprehensive SBC campaign integrating THRIVE’s messaging priorities (de-stigmatization of PLHIV, children’s rights, eliminating child marriage and FGM).
        • Design and implement an evidence-based safe school’s intervention.
        • Design and implement a culturally sensitive SBCC intervention targeting traditional and religious leadership and structures.
        • Work with care and treatment partners to implement SBC at health facilities.
    • IR 3.2 Communities participate in facilitating OVC access to services. 
      • Activities under this intermediate result will leverage THRIVE’s SBC interventions (IR3.1) by mobilizing communities to participate directly in nurturing care. Existing community structures with a role in community welfare (such as ward development committees) will be revived where necessary, and trained, equipped, and mentored to improve their efficacy. THRIVE will also integrate these structures into the social services referral network at community level. The program will avoid setting up parallel structures. Through a program of consistent community engagement – including community meetings, workshops, and small group sessions – THRIVE will equip community members with the knowledge to identify children in need, notify community structures and/or THRIVE’s community workforce, and facilitate referrals to services. The value that community members and structures contribute to nurturing care depends on the effectiveness of the systems THRIVE institutes to facilitate referrals and linkages.
      • Illustrative activities: 
        • Assess and strengthen the effectiveness of referrals and linkages at community level, integrating community participation.
        • Implement an intervention to strengthen community structures such as Ward Development Committees,
        • Community Child protection committees and other faith-based, youth and women groups contributing to social welfare.
        • Formulate and implement a plan for educating and mobilizing community members to participate in nurturing care.
        • Develop and disseminate guidance for community members to link those in need with the services they require.
    • IR 3.3 Communities take the lead in monitoring and advocating for high quality health, education, and social services. 
      • Activities under this intermediate result will empower communities to drive the continuous improvement of health and social welfare services due to them and the children in their care by rights, and guaranteed by law. THRIVE will establish community monitoring platforms, whereby community representatives are trained and equipped to systematically and routinely assess the quality of services provided at service points and use those findings to engage providers to improve service accessibility, palatability, and quality. In consultation with local authorities, THRIVE will establish community monitoring of education, social welfare, and child protection services, while community monitoring of health services will be developed in collaboration with PEPFAR’s care and treatment partners. In addition to developing monitoring tools and training community monitoring teams, THRIVE will institute procedures and facilitate community-provider engagements, as well as develop and disseminate templates for quality improvement agreements and tracking of commitments to support mutual accountability.
      • Illustrative activities: 
        • Consult with local authorities and service providers to secure buy-in for community monitoring.
        • Consult with communities and CSOs to develop or adapt procedures for mobilizing community monitoring teams.
        • Develop or adapt community monitoring tools and training materials.
        • Develop or adapt tools and procedures for facilitating community-provider engagements, developing joint quality improvement plans, and tracking quality improvement commitments.
• Result 4 – Local Actors are Equipped to Coordinate and Deliver Services to OVC and their Households 
  • To ensure that all children in need are reached during the implementation cycle, and continue to be reached after program exit, the OVC program must invest in developing and refining social service systems at local level. Key local actors to be prioritized under this result include Government of Nigeria at National and sub national levels, CBO’s/FBOs, Local CSO networks (such as the Association of OVC NGOs in Nigeria,AONN) , Networks of people Living with HIV/AIDS ,Youth and women groups, Child protection committees and private sector players.The OVC program also needs to develop the capacity of local partners with the skills to implement systems and deliver services. Finally, the OVC program needs to establish additional resource streams to meet the costs of continued service delivery after OVC program resources are withdrawn.
    • IR 4.1 State and local governments effectively plan, finance, coordinate, deliver, and continuously improve the quality of OVC services.
      • Empower local government to effectively implement their mandates and to continue to do so after program exit. Local governments should also be equipped to effectively coordinate their own efforts with those of non-government partners to optimize the delivery of services within their SNU.
    • IR 4.2 Community service organizations effectively plan, coordinate, deliver, and continuously improve the quality of OVC services. 
      • Empower CSOs to effectively deliver services to OVC and caregivers during the implementation cycle and to continue to do so after OVC program exit. CSOs should also be equipped to manage relationships with local government and other actors and to coordinate the joint delivery of services to optimize impact within the SNU in which they operate. To build sustainability, OVC implementers are encouraged to work with CSO networks that work in the OVC area (such as the Association of OVC NGOS in Nigeria, AONN). The application should describe how the role of AONN and related CSO networks will be maximized and local capacity built using this platform.
    • IR 4.3 Private sector entities are mobilized and participate in community initiatives to care for OVC. 
      • The private sector should be mobilized to assume a role in community development and to offer additional resources to meet the costs of services, or improve the accessibility and affordability of services, particularly after the exit of the OVC program.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligibility is restricted to local organizations.
• USAID THRIVE also supports USAID’s Acquisition and Assistance Strategy and localization targets, by limiting award eligibility to prime local entities and promoting investments in local Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and Faith Based Organizations (FBOs). Consistent with the overall vision for localization and PEPFAR’s local partners’ pivot, THRIVE will encourage the successful applicants to expand the number of new and underutilized partners sub-granted to implement THRIVE at local level and promote sustainability by working with CBO networks and Government of Nigeria (GON) structures.
• USAID defines a “local entity” as an individual, a corporation, a nonprofit organization, or another body of persons that:
  • Is legally organized under the laws of; and
  • Has as its principal place of business or operations in; and
  • Is a.
    • majority owned (51% or more) by individuals who are citizens or lawful permanent residents of; and
    • managed by a governing body the majority of who are citizens or lawful permanent residents of Nigeria.
• For purposes of this definition, ‘majority owned’ and ‘managed by’ include, without limitation, beneficiary interests, and the power, either directly or indirectly, whether exercised or exercisable, to control the election, appointment, or tenure of the organization’s managers or a majority of the organization’s governing body by any means.
• USAID welcomes applications from organizations that have not previously received financial assistance from USAID.
• Faith-based organizations are eligible to apply for federal financial assistance on the same basis as any other organization and are subject to the protections and requirements of Federal law.
• To be eligible for award of a Cooperative Agreement, in addition to other conditions of this NOFO, organizations must have a politically neutral humanitarian mandate, a commitment to non-discrimination with respect to beneficiaries and adherence to equal opportunity employment practices. Non-discrimination includes equal treatment without regard to race, religion, ethnicity, gender, and political affiliation. Applications will not be accepted from individuals.

Deadline: 12-June-2024

For more information, visit OFFICIAL LINK & APPLY.