Applications Invited for the South Asia Regional Energy Partnership (SAREP) Partnership Fund Grant

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USAID leads international development and humanitarian efforts to save lives, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance and help people progress beyond assistance.

President John. F. Kennedy created the United States Agency for International Development by executive order in 1961 to lead the US government’s international development and humanitarian efforts.

U.S. foreign assistance has always had the twofold purpose of furthering America's interests while improving lives in the developing world. USAID carries out U.S. foreign policy by promoting broad-scale human progress at the same time it expands stable, free societies, creates markets and trade partners for the United States, and fosters good will abroad.

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About the Grant

The South Asia Regional Energy Partnership (SAREP) is the flagship regional energy program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) mission to India (USAID/I). This five- year initiative (2021-26) will improve access to affordable, secure, reliable, and sustainable energy in six countries—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka— in line with these countries’ climate and clean energy priorities. The program is a key activity under the U.S. Government’s Clean Edge Asia -Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy initiative and aligns with USAID’s climate change priorities to advance equitable and ambitious actions to confront the climate crisis. The program helps the United States Government’s Indo-Pacific Vision and facilitates collaboration among the six countries in South Asia to accelerate the transition to clean energy, mitigate climate change, and promote energy security.

SAREP seeks to encourage targeted action and drive systems change by engaging policymakers, regulators, utilities, private sector, investors, and think tanks among others, through four key technical objectives and three cross-cutting themes:

• Objective 1: Enhanced regional energy markets and integration
• Objective 2: Increased deployment of advanced energy solutions and systems
• Objective 3: High-performing modern utilities.
• Objective 4: Transparent, best-value procurement and private sector investment mobilized

SAREP’s activities and outcomes also support and contribute to the Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP) and the Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD) under the recently established U.S.-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership. Through this collaboration, India and the U.S. aim to demonstrate swift climate action that is inclusive, resilient, and based on national and regional priorities. Countries in the region will also benefit from this collaboration through sharing of the learnings, best practices, lessons, and templates from previous experience which can be customized and replicated in other South Asian countries.

Private sector engagement. SAREP will enable and enhance private sector participation, leverage and mobilize resources, strengthen the enabling environment, increase awareness and understanding of solutions to enhance private sector finances, and promote replication of successful approaches.

Gender diversity and inclusion. SAREP will increase awareness and enable inclusion considerations in the energy sector, particularly mainstreaming gender in the energy sector. It will also engage and promote women leaders and entrepreneurs across the region.

Pollution mitigation. SAREP will advance clean energy deployment to reduce air pollution associated with the energy sector.

Purpose of the SAREP Partnership Fund:

The SAREP Partnership Fund (SPF) will support market-based transformative solutions to enable the clean energy transition, particularly by engaging the private sector, local organizations, and new and underutilized partners. It will also harness innovative business models, solutions, technologies, resources, experiences, and networks of relationships that exist across stakeholders. SPF will achieve this by catalyzing country and regional activities to complement the technical assistance provided by SAREP. SPF aims to expand and maximize the impact of USAID resources in an innovative and sustainable manner through the SPF activities designed, owned, and implemented by grantees under the SAREP Program.

This Annual Program Statement (APS) APS-SAREP-FY24-001 is the FOURTH round of calls for applications planned under the SPF. This APS focuses on activities specific to all six SAREP countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Through this APS, SPF is inviting applications to fund qualified organizations for supporting activities and programs consistent with the SAREP’s purpose of improving access to affordable, secure, reliable, and sustainable energy, and its four objectives.

Applicants should submit proposals that enable and deliver strong and long-lasting development results.

To achieve the results outlined under the four technical objectives, the SAREP Partnership Fund will support the types of activities illustrated below:

• Pilot demonstrations
• Incubation support
• Feasibility studies, detailed project reports, and market assessments
• Knowledge management and dissemination
• Policy advocacy and consensus building
• Knowledge sharing, exchange, and institutional capacity development
• Developing business models and innovative solutions, and structuring of innovative financial transactions to enable clean energy transition
• Design and deploy new decision-making tools

Other eligible activities, or a combination of the above activities with or without other eligible activities, can also be proposed, provided they support achievement of above-mentioned outcomes and are consistent with the four technical objectives.

Eligibility

The SAREP Partnership Fund grants can be provided to private sector / for-profit entities; notfor-profit organizations; nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); civil society organizations; business service organizations; industry, trade, or other private sector associations; educational/training or academic institutions; and think tank/research entities which are eligible to receive foreign funded grants in accordance with applicable local regulations. Government and or quasi-government (parastatal entities) are not eligible to apply for and receive grants funded under this APS. All applicants will be bound by various USAID regulations as relevant and set forth in the US Code of Federal Regulations and Automated Directive System.

Grantees should be registered in any of the countries not expressly prohibited in ADS 310 and should be legally authorized to operate in the country/ies where performance of grant activities are proposed.

How to Apply

Round 6 – Call for full applications

Applications received until December 31, 2024, 23:59 hours IST will be evaluated in Round 6.

Application to be submitted by email to: sarep-grants@rti.org (Subject: Application – Name of the entity).

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Tags Environment and Sustainability Innovations and Technology Others