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Young Australians tend to be skeptical of the importance of the U.S.-Australia bilateral relationship; only 38 percent of Australians under the age of 45 said that our alliance is "very important," according to a recent Lowy Institute poll. Confidence in democratic institutions among that age group is also in decline; according to the same poll, only 47 percent of young Australians believe that democracy is preferable to other forms of government. To address these trends, and develop policies that win support for our shared vision for a free, open, secure, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region, the U.S. Embassy in Australia seeks to fund a program that identifies, develops, and equips next-generation leaders to gain a greater understanding about the U.S.-Australia alliance, the common values and democratic principles that underpin our two societies, and our shared vision for the Indo-Pacific.

Social connections can help us thrive. But too many people feel disconnected from society and from life, and that contributes to a host of physical, mental and emotional health problems. School children, teens, new mothers, immigrants, LGBT people, people living in remote areas, even millennials with thousands of Facebook friends, often feel excluded or like they don't belong. We want to learn about solutions that have worked in other countries to address social isolation across all ages and life stages, so that we can strengthen social connection in the United States. RWJF is looking for applicants who represent organizations from a wide range of fields and disciplines-both within and outside the health sector. We encourage proposals from both U.S.-based applicants to adapt an overseas idea, and from international applicants with ideas that could work in the United States. We encourage submissions from teams that include both U.S. and international members. We seek to attract diversity of thought, professional background, race, ethnicity, and cultural perspective in our applicant pool. Building a Culture of Health means integrating health into all aspects of society, so we encourage multisector partnerships and collaboration.

Society for Research in Child Development Patrice L. Engle Dissertation Grant for Global Early Child Development The Patrice L. Engle Dissertation Grant provides support for students interested in a career in global early child development who are from or doing research in low- or middle-income countries. The Grant includes US $5,000 to support dissertation research and a 2-year student membership to SRCD. Applicant Eligibility and Responsibility 1. Dissertation research in global early child development with a one-year Grant for $5,000. The developmental focus of the research should include children, prenatal to 6 years of age living in low- or middle- income countries, as defined by the World Bank.  Potential topics could include (but not limited to): The effectiveness of different models of parenting support on early child development. Examination of how child care programs promote child development and family involvement. The effectiveness of 2-generation programs that provide maternal and child support. Innovative strategies to integrate programs that promote early child development with health or nutritional services for young children. Innovative strategies to integrate child development interventions with social protection services or programs to promote maternal mental health or education. Innovative strategies to involve fathers and other extended family members in early child development programs. Development of measurement strategies, indicators, and assessment tools for children and family interactions that can be implemented with reliability in low resource settings. Strategies for effective scale-up of demonstration programs.

The Office of Citizen Exchanges, Youth Programs Division, of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces an open competition for two distinct Youth Leadership Programs with Indonesia and Burma. Public and private non-profit organizations meeting the provisions described in Internal Revenue Code section 26 USC 501(c)(3) may submit proposals to conduct three- to four-week U.S.-based exchange programs for teenagers and adult educators. Participants will be high-school-aged youth and adult educators. The program with Indonesia is a two-way exchange; applicants must propose both an exchange for Indonesian participants in the United States and an exchange for American participants in Indonesia. Applicants should plan to recruit and select between 24 and 34 youth and adult participants total in Indonesia and in the United States. The new program with Burma is a one-way exchange; applicants should plan to provide U.S.-based programming for 16-20 youth and adult participants from Burma. The activities for each program will focus on civic education, leadership, diversity, and community engagement and prepare participants to conduct projects at home that serve a community need. Pending the availability of funds, it is the Bureau's intent to award two cooperative agreements: (1) $275,000 for Indonesia, and (2) $110,000 for Burma, each for one base year plus two option years for an estimated total amount of $1,155,000.

The Office of Citizen Exchanges, Youth Programs Division, of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces an open competition for the Youth Leadership Program with Burma. Public and private non-profit organizations meeting the provisions described in Internal Revenue Code section 26 USC 501(c)(3) may submit proposals to conduct three- to four-week U.S.-based exchange programs for teenagers and adult educators. Participants will be high-school-aged youth and adult educators. Applicants should plan to provide U.S.-based programming for 17-18 youth and 2-3 adult participants from Burma. The activities for each program will focus on civic education, leadership, diversity, and community engagement and prepare participants to conduct projects at home that serve a community need.

The Public Affairs Section of the North India Office at the U.S. Embassy New Delhi seeks proposals for a project entitled "Beyond Borders: A Workshop on Filmmaking Across the Punjab Region." The grantee will bring together a total of thirty participants, fifteen each from India and Pakistan from the greater Punjab region on both sides of the border, to work together on conceptualizing, writing, and producing short films. The thirty participants will travel together to the United States for a three-week filmmaking workshop, led by the grantee. The participants will be between the ages 22-30 with an interest in filmmaking and storytelling, but no formal prior training is required. The participants will work in pairs or small groups, ideally including participants from both India and Pakistan, to produce short three-five minute narrative (fiction) films over the course of the seminar.

Botswana has both a high prevalence of HIV (25% among persons 15-49 years of age) and a high incidence of TB (455 new cases per 100,000 population per year). Drug resistance is a concern with both diseases. High quality surveillance and monitoring data are needed for effective disease control efforts. This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) has two primary objectives. Both are meant to support ongoing efforts of the Botswana Ministry of Health (MOH). The first objective is to strengthen the capacity of the TB laboratory and surveillance systems focusing on drug resistance and system integration. The second objective is to a) complete the national rollout of PIMS II (Patient Information Management System) to health care facilities and development of the national data warehouse and b) to support development and implementation of an HIV surveillance strategy at national- and district-levels.

The Institute will engage 55 teenagers (ages 16-18) from Europe and the United States. U.S. Embassies throughout Europe will select the foreign participants, and the U.S. award recipient will select the American participants. The Institute will focus on transatlantic relations, leadership development, critical thinking, diplomacy, community activism, and the media as ways that young adults can unite around their common goals.

The Ag/NRM Project is the main vehicle within the USAID/Ghana Feed the Future strategy to address issues of environment and natural resource management and will focus on increasing rural wealth, nutrition and climate change adaptation

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)'s mission in Jordan is issuing this Funding Opportunity to solicit technical applications for a five-year Health Service Delivery Activity designed to improve the health status of women of reproductive age and children underfive. USAID expects this Health Service Delivery Activity to support the resilience of the Jordanian health system to respond to the Syrian refugee crisis, by producing significant and measurable improvements in the availability and quality of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) services, as well as decreasing the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCD), through innovative and scale-able service delivery approaches targeting both the public and private sectors.

The purpose of the program is to identify and support U.S.- and Japan-based professionals who demonstrate an interest in and potential for becoming Japan specialists and policy intellectuals. The resulting network includes Japan specialists from all regions of the United States and Japan with diverse expertise and perspectives. Participants should be able to constructively participate in the bilateral policymaking process and contribute to better understanding of U.S.-Japan relations. The program seeks to nurture a new generation of scholars and professionals working in the following policy areas: U.S.-Japan security relations; U.S.-Japan economic relations; regional cooperation; issues where the two countries confront common domestic challenges (such as aging societies and income inequality); and issues where the two countries have opportunities to work together to resolve global challenges (such as climate change and food security).

The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Singapore announces an open competition for proposals to design, plan, and implement a three-day workshop (not inclusive of travel dates) in Singapore for the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), pending the availability of funds. The three-day workshop in August 2020 (tentatively) will gather approximately 40-60 participants between 18-35 years of age from all ten ASEAN member states and Timor-Leste around the theme, "Future Workforce." YSEALI is the U.S.government's signature initiative to strengthen partnerships with emerging leaders in ASEAN member states (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and Timor-Leste. Program participants are encouraged to work across national borders to solve regional challenges, encompassed by the four pillars of YSEALI - economic growth, sustainable development, education, and civic engagement - and to strengthen the U.S.-ASEAN partnership. The YSEALI Regional Workshop on "Future Workforce" in Singapore will help Southeast Asia strengthen economic development capacity by preparing their workforce to adapt to the needs of future job demands and highlight the value of U.S. companies in driving technology and innovation. Over the course of three days, workshop participants will gain the knowledge, skills, and resilience to ensure their enterprises remain viable into the future. The workshop will develop participants' leadership competencies in strategies for meeting the digital future, critical thinking skills required to adapt quickly, and upskilling/reskilling their workforce.

The United States Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, acting through the Office of Public Affairs, is pleased to announce a Notice of funding opportunities for two types of Civic Education programs that address school segregation or other problems that divide students along ethnic lines. These projects should advance Education for Democracy and Hhelp remove obstacles to integration in education. Small grants competition will support projects designed explicitly as home-stay exchange programs to contribute to democracy and human rights education with interaction and the development of tolerance between the ethnically, religiously and geographically diverse communities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition to the core exchange program activities, the mandatory requirement is a component of family engagement in which participants will stay in the homes of fellow participants from different ethnic or religious backgrounds, and engage in volunteer projects in both communities. Priority will be given to innovative programs that bring together youth (ages 12-24) from communities across ethnic, geographical, and administrative lines and engage large number of youth in community improvement activity in each host town. Detailed budget should be expressed in USD, with a maximum amount of $20,000.

The Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia is pleased to announce an open competition for assistance awards through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a pilot Program in Media Literacy. PAS invites organizations to submit proposals for an up-to- 24 months project to improve media literacy skills among young Georgians between the ages of 16 - 24 to include ethnic minorities and people at risk of being socially marginalized. Expected results include an increase of at least 20% in program participants' ability to distinguish trustworthy news from fake news and an increase of at least 20% in those who cross-check the information from the news.

The country-wide English Works! Program will offer the opportunity to at least 600 at-risk Pakistani youth ages 17-25 to increase their English language proficiency, critical thinking, employability, and soft skills to become more productive members of their community and society. English Works! will be taught using the existing curriculum and guidance of RELO Pakistan. Implementers and teachers may participate in trainings (in-person or online) designed to introduce them to sample activities and suggested methodology.

The purpose of the Equitable Access to Education in Southern Senegal Cooperative Agreement (CA) is to ensure the maximum number or children (aged approximately 9-16) in the Casamance (Ziguinchor, Sedhiou, and Kolda) and Kedougou regions of Senegal have equitable access to relevant basic education opportunities that develop essential life skills

The Social Science Research Council and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership have announced that applications are now open for the Abe Fellowship for Journalists. The fellowship is designed to encourage in-depth coverage of topics of pressing concern to the United States and Japan through individual short-term policy-related projects. Applicants are invited to submit proposals on one of four themes. 1) Threats to Personal, Societal, and International Security: Topics may include food, water, and energy insecurity; pandemics; climate change; disaster preparedness, prevention, and recovery; and conflict, terrorism, and cyber security. 2) Growth and Sustainable Development: Topics may include global financial stability, trade imbalances and agreements, adjustment to globalization, climate change and adaptation, and poverty and inequality. 3) Social, Scientific, and Cultural Trends and Transformations: Topics may include aging and other demographic change, the benefits and dangers of reproductive genetics, gender and social exclusion, expansion of STEM education among women and underrepresented populations, migration, rural depopulation and urbanization, impacts of automation on jobs, poverty and inequality, and community resilience. 4) Governance, Empowerment, and Participation: Topics may include challenges to democratic institutions, participatory governance, human rights, the changing role of NGO/NPOs, the rise of new media, and government roles in fostering innovation.

This program supports initiatives with the primary goal of promoting interethnic and intercommunity exchange, collaboration, and joint projects. We are seeking projects and initiatives that clearly develop increased tolerance and cooperation between the ethnically and geographically diverse communities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Proposals should engage youth (ages 11-25) who have had no prior access to similar initiatives. The Embassy welcomes all innovative proposals aimed at promoting interethnic engagement, reconciliation, and cooperation. Priority areas: Projects that reach out and promote cooperation between youth from different ethnic communities

The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai (PAS Mumbai) seeks proposals for a project entitled, "Promoting Diversity and Tolerance through Interfaith and Interclass Community Service Projects." Under this project, the grantee will work with local partners and the consulate to identify up to 500 youth, aged 12-25 from different cultural, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds, to participate in the program to be held in a secondary city in one of the following four western Indian states: Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, or Maharashtra.

The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Consulate General in Chennai (PAS Chennai) seeks proposals for a project entitled "This House Believes That: A U.S.-India Comparative Constitutional Law Debate Project." Under this project, the grantee will organize and implement a multi-tiered program which will include a workshop, mentorship and debate competition in English that offers youth (especially law students) from South India (age 19-30 years) an opportunity to objectively and dispassionately deliberate important contemporary issues through the lens of U.S. and Indian comparative constitutional law. The program will compare, contrast, and provide insight into the salient features of the foundational documents of the world's two greatest democracies. In the process, the project will interrogate the rationale and impact of democratic tenets such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press in an open, non-judgmental environment. (Please refer to the full announcement available under 'related documents' tab.)