Funding Opportunity: Youth Empowerment through International Exchange (Uzbekistan)

Project Goal

• Increase the capacity of emerging young leaders to address shared challenges between Uzbekistan and the United States.

Project Themes and Objectives

• The Embassy seeks applications that use in-person exchange programs to focus on one or more of the themes and objectives below.

• Theme 1: Building leadership and professional skills. Program elements focused on improving leadership and professional skills could include leadership self-analysis, peer to-peer discussions with U.S. university students and/or U.S. mentors, career building skills, volunteering and social entrepreneurship, and breakout sessions for field-specific discussion such as technology or business.
  • Objective 1: Increase leadership, project management, public speaking, and other critical professional skills among youth through career development training and mentorship opportunities in the United States.
• Theme 2: Developing Global Citizens. Students could gain knowledge and tools about how to impact their communities through opportunities to work with U.S. youth organizations, including in areas of women’s empowerment and strengthening civil society. Examples of activities include, but are not limited to, Service-Learning projects that address global challenges such as poverty, education, environmental sustainability, or healthcare; Global Issue Debates focusing on pressing global issues such as climate change, human rights, gender equality; and Global Citizenship workshops or lectures on topics such as global citizenship, sustainable development goals, intercultural competence, and social justice.
  • Objective 2: Increase awareness and understanding on shared issues that impact communities in Uzbekistan and in the United States.

Funding Information

• Total Available Funding: $370,000
• Estimated Award Ceiling: $185,000
• Estimated Award Floor: $100,000
• Length of Project Period: 12 months
• Anticipated program start date: October 2024

Project Audience(s)

• Primary audiences for proposals should be youth: undergraduate (university) students ages 17-23.
• Depending on the focus, projects may have secondary audiences or beneficiaries including media, civil society organizations or wider professional audiences, which you may note in the proposal.

Eligibility Criteria

• The following organizations are eligible to apply:
  • Must be an accredited school, institute, teacher training center, university, or non-profit organization completely based in the United States or Uzbekistan.
• Activities must be conducted either in English with Uzbek translation, or entirely in English. English language learning content can be included but should not be the focus of the program. If the program is entirely in English, the grantee organization is responsible for determining that participants have appropriate English levels to participate fully.
• Organizations may sub-contract with other entities, but only one, non-profit, non-governmental entity can be the prime recipient of the award. When sub-contracting with other entities, the responsibilities of each entity must be clearly defined in the proposal.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.