Request for Information - USAID/Tanzania Community Social Welfare System Strengthening Program (CHSSP) | RFI 621 19 CHSSP

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFI 621 19 CHSSP

This opportunity is a Request for Information (RFI) issued by USAID/Tanzania (USAID Mission in Dar es Salaam) to gather input from interested organizations and stakeholders to help shape the design of a forthcoming program called the Community Social Welfare System Strengthening Program (CHSSP). Because it is an RFI, it is primarily a market and partner sounding exercise rather than a solicitation for immediate funding. The intent is to collect practical ideas, lessons learned, and implementation approaches that USAID can use to refine the scope, technical priorities, and operational model of a follow-on activity that will be funded under the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In other words, USAID is signaling that a larger, formal funding opportunity is expected later, and they want feedback now to improve how that future activity is structured.

The planned follow-on activity is focused on strengthening community social welfare systems in Tanzania in ways that increase access to and use of integrated services for vulnerable populations affected by HIV. The emphasis is not limited to clinical HIV services alone; it explicitly spans health and HIV services, social welfare services, and protection services. This typically implies attention to how communities identify vulnerable individuals and households, refer them to appropriate services, ensure follow-through, and protect them from harm, exploitation, or neglect. The target groups are described as vulnerable HIV-affected populations, which commonly includes orphans and vulnerable children, adolescents and young people, people living with HIV and their households, and others whose health and social outcomes are negatively impacted by HIV-related vulnerability.

From a funding and administrative perspective, USAID lists the opportunity category as discretionary and indicates the anticipated funding instrument type for the eventual activity as a cooperative agreement. A cooperative agreement usually means USAID expects to have substantial involvement during implementation, such as collaboration on work planning, monitoring, and adaptive management. The funding activity category is health, and the CFDA (now often referred to as Assistance Listing) number provided is 98.001, which corresponds to USAID foreign assistance. The notice also indicates an anticipated award ceiling of USD 35,000,000 and an expectation of one award, which suggests the eventual follow-on program could be a single, relatively large activity led by one prime recipient with partners and subrecipients.

Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning it is open to any type of entity, subject to details that would normally be clarified in the full notice or any additional eligibility text. In practice, RFIs are commonly open to a wide range of respondents, including international and local nongovernmental organizations, faith-based organizations, for-profit entities, universities, research organizations, and potentially government-related or quasi-governmental institutions, depending on USAID rules and the final solicitation language. Since the purpose is to inform design, USAID generally benefits from hearing from actors with on-the-ground experience delivering HIV-sensitive social welfare services, strengthening case management and referral networks, improving child protection and gender-based violence response linkages, building capacity of local government social welfare offices, and integrating community structures with formal systems.

Key dates indicate the RFI was created on July 19, 2019, with an original closing date of August 2, 2019, suggesting a short response window typical of RFIs. While the RFI itself does not award funds, responding can position organizations to influence program priorities and implementation models, as well as to demonstrate technical credibility and local knowledge ahead of the anticipated competitive procurement. Overall, the notice signals USAID/Tanzania's continued PEPFAR investment in strengthening the community-level social welfare and protection ecosystem so that vulnerable, HIV-affected people can access the right mix of services consistently and safely, with better coordination between community mechanisms and formal health and social welfare systems.

• The Agency for International Development, Tanzania USAID-Dar es Salaam in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Request for Information - USAID/Tanzania Community Social Welfare System Strengthening Program (CHSSP)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 98.001.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 19, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 02, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $35,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for RFI 621 19 CHSSP

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