U.S. Mission to Afghanistan: Apply for South Asia Higher Education Symposium

Deadline: 12 June 2018

The Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan has announced an open competition for an assistance award through this NOFO for a cooperative agreement to organize and implement a regional higher education symposium. The symposium will be conducted in English.

The four-day symposium will enhance Afghan education officials’ skills in monitoring and evaluation, accreditation, and curriculum development and improve Afghan universities’ financial literacy and accountability.

The symposium will also strengthen regional integration by bringing together higher education stakeholders from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka to share best practices; build connections among education ministries; and create university partnerships, in particular with Afghan universities.

PAS has worked with Afghanistan’s Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) to identify several symposium objectives, which include but are not limited to developing skillsets in the following areas: senior academic leadership and management, curriculum revision and development, independent accreditation and quality assurance, E-learning, frameworks for public-private partnerships in higher education, and development of research centers.

Goals

The goals of this symposium are to:

• Strengthen the MoHE’s senior leadership and management-level skills in monitoring and evaluation and accreditation efforts and improve the MoHE’s university-level curriculum development.
• Introduce Afghan college and university administrators (presidents, deans, chancellors, and provosts) to their counterparts in regional universities and governing bodies to share best practices.
• PAS hopes that the symposium will result in Memorandums of Understanding and long-lasting partnerships between universities.
• Improve financial literacy and accountability standards of public and private Afghan universities to make them more self-sustaining.
• Develop new and strengthen existing partnerships between regional higher education ministries.

Funding Information

• Estimated Total Program Funding: $300,000
• Award Ceiling: $300,000
• Award Floor: $250,000

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligibility is open to all types of applicants except individuals.
• Organizations may sub-award/contract with other entities, but only one entity may be the prime recipient of the award.
• When sub-awarding/contracting with other entities, the responsibilities of each entity must be clearly defined in the proposal.
• Applicants must have a valid Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number from Dun & Bradstreet.
• Applicants must have a NATO CAGE/NCAGE.
• Applicants must have and maintain an active System for Award Management (SAM) registration with current information at all times during which they have an active federal award or an application under consideration by a federal awarding agency.
• Note that SAM registration must be renewed annually.
• The U.S. Department of State may not make an award to an applicant until the applicant has complied with all applicable DUNS and SAM requirements.
• The Department may determine that the applicant is not qualified to receive an award and use this determination as a basis for making an award to another applicant.

How to Apply

Applicants can apply via given website.

For further information, please visit grants.gov.