New Funding Opportunity - USAID Senegal "Health Systems Strengthening Mechanism"

Dear Friends, The US Agency for International Development (USAID) Senegal has released a new Cooperative Agreement funding opportunity called “Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) Mechanism”, solicitation number SOL-OAA-16-000018. Proposed activities should last for five years, with a start date on or about the date of the signature of the award.

Funder: The opportunity is funded by USAID, the U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies.

With the Government of Senegal, USAID works to improve lives by creating jobs, improve access to education and health care, strengthen democratic institutions, and develop the agriculture sector to increase production and incomes.  

Eligibility: There are no restrictions on eligibility.  

Due dates:

  • January 18, 2016: application period close date  

Award ceiling: $37,000,000  

Cost share: Required minimum cost share of 5% for the award Recipient.  

Goal: To support the Government of Senegal to ensure that health sector financing is sufficient and appropriately allocated and managed; that local communities are informed, trained and empowered to make decisions about priority health needs; that funding and programming decisions are data driven; and that previous improvements in health are sustained while simultaneously reinforcing the capacity of the Senegalese health system.  

Objectives:

1. Improved health system governance and finance:

-Sub-objective 1.1: Improved governance for Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths -Sub-objective 1.2: Improved health financing to reduce financial barriers to access health services -Sub-objective 1.3: Improved implementation of performance based financing in six regions in Senegal (Kaffrine, Kedougou, Kolda, Sedhiou, Tambacounda, and Ziguinchor)

2. Increased community involvement in health systems management:

-Sub-objective 2.1: Increased community awareness of and engagement in activities to safeguard health and strengthen the continuum of care -Sub-objective 2.2: Expanded use of community level financing mechanisms -Sub-objective 2.3: Capacity of local government structures strengthened to improve health services in response to community needs

3. Improved information and data use for decision-making:

-Sub-objective 3.1: Strengthened implementation and capacity of health information system -Sub-objective 3.2: Increased analysis and use of health information data

4. Maintain health gains and strengthen the capacity of Senegalese systems through subawards.  

Reporting:

Quarterly reporting-

Within 30 days after the end of each quarter, the Recipient must submit a performance report that includes: 1) qualitative and quantitative analysis of progress; 2) summary of key activities for the next quarter; 3) discussion of lessons learned, good practices and success stories; 4) challenges outside scope of the program, which affect implementation; 5) summary table of indicators, targets and results to date; and 6) financials for the quarter and projections for the next two quarters.

Annual reporting -

Within 90 days after the close of each award year, inclusive of the final quarter report, the Recipient must submit an annual report reflecting the progress of activities over the last year against the work plan/performance targets.

Final report -

The final performance report is due 90 days after the expiration or termination of the award.