Call for Proposals: Skills-Based Literacy Programme (Afghanistan)

UNESCO has supported skills development and literacy training programmes to improve literacy skills and provide beneficiaries, especially females, with opportunities to enhance their livelihoods. These programmes integrate literacy with skills, covering topics such as vegetable farming, first aid, and entrepreneurship. Practical support is also provided through these programmes, enabling learners to engage in agricultural and livelihood activities such as poultry, goat keeping and vegetable farming, as well as to start small enterprises.

Aim

• This approach aims to empower individuals by equipping them with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values necessary to become productive, healthy, and responsible citizens. The programme adopts a community-based approach, prioritising the provision of skills-based literacy for youth and adults, particularly women who have been deprived of education.

Objectives

• To empower Afghan youth and adults aged 15 and above, who have previously been excluded from education, by providing them with SBL training. The programme will equip learners with essential literacy skills integrated with practical livelihood skills, fostering their ability to be productive, healthy, and responsible citizens prepared to contribute to community welfare and secure viable employment in the national labour market, particularly focusing on women and girls who face significant barriers to education and economic participation.

Duration

• Project duration will not exceed 7 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• Partners operating in Afghanistan, as to their geographical coverage, areas of expertise and operational capacity, current priorities in response to the crisis level, interest to work with UNESCO, state of coordination with the de- facto authorities, etc:
  • The partner brings added value, including monetary or in-kind contribution, to the project/activity
  • The partner shares in the risks and rewards of the project/activity implementation and is responsible and accountable for delivering expected results
  • The partner is involved at each step of the process, from detailed work plan elaboration to project/activity evaluation
  • The partnership will include aspects beyond the delivery of a service to include capacity-building elements with respect to the partner and/or beneficiary.

Ineligibility Criteria

• IPs which do not have yet reached the basic mandatory requirements/experience will be automatically disqualified.

Evaluation Criteria

• Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
  • Sound technical proposal that includes innovative and replicable inclusion mechanisms to maximize the value transfer to the beneficiaries.
  • High impact interventions directly targeting and responding to the needs established in the TOR.
  • Size of budget requested commensurate with the organization’s proven administrative and financial management capacity.
  • Participatory monitoring and evaluation that will contribute to building a sense of ownership among the beneficiaries to promote the sustainability of the interventions.

Selection Criteria

• UNESCO will review proposals through a five-step process:
  • determination of eligibility;
  • technical review of eligible proposals;
  • scoring and ranking of the eligible proposals based on the assessment criteria, to identify highest ranking proposal;
  • round of clarification (if necessary) and work plan elaboration with the highest-scoring proposal; and,
  • Implementation Partners’ Agreement (IPA) signature.

For more information, visit UNGM.