District Inclusive Education Support Project (DIESP) | RFI 674 17 DIESP 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFI 674 17 DIESP 001

The District Inclusive Education Support Project (DIESP) is a planned USAID/Southern Africa education initiative focused on strengthening inclusive education at the district level in South Africa. The notice provided is not a full solicitation for funding yet; it is issued as a Request for Information (RFI) to gather feedback, ideas, and practical input from organizations that may have relevant experience or insights. USAID is using this RFI to inform its project design, validate assumptions in its draft concept, and understand what approaches, partnerships, and implementation models are likely to work best in the South African context.

This opportunity is issued by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under USAID/Southern Africa, and it is categorized as a discretionary funding opportunity in the education sector (Funding Activity Category: Education) with the CFDA/Assistance Listing number 98.001. The planned award instrument referenced is a Cooperative Agreement, which typically means USAID expects to have substantial involvement during implementation (for example, through close coordination on work planning, monitoring, learning, and adaptive management), rather than simply providing funds with minimal engagement.

A key point in the announcement is the distinction between who can respond now versus who can ultimately receive an award later. For the RFI stage, responses are unrestricted, meaning any type of organization can submit comments and input, regardless of whether they are local or international, nonprofit or for-profit, academic or community-based. However, USAID clearly signals that if it later releases a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) based on this concept, eligibility for that eventual competition will be limited to South African local organizations. In practical terms, the RFI is open to everyone to shape the concept, but the future implementer(s) USAID intends to fund would need to be locally based South African entities, which reflects a localization approach and an intent to strengthen local ownership and capacity.

The posting identifies the funding opportunity title as "District Inclusive Education Support Project (DIESP)" and provides the opportunity number "RFI 674 17 DIESP 001." It also indicates an expected number of awards of one, suggesting USAID anticipates selecting a single primary implementing partner under the eventual cooperative agreement. The notice does not list an award ceiling amount, which is common at the RFI stage since budgeting and final scope may still be under development and may depend partly on what USAID learns from stakeholder input.

In terms of timing and status, the RFI was created on April 13, 2017, with an original closing date of May 5, 2017. That means this particular RFI comment window was time-limited and tied to early-stage planning. The purpose is to solicit substantive comments on the enclosed concept paper (not included in the excerpt), such as recommendations on district-level support structures, feasible implementation strategies, coordination with government systems, approaches to supporting learners with diverse needs, and suggestions for monitoring outcomes related to inclusive education.

Overall, DIESP is presented as a USAID-led planning effort aimed at improving how inclusive education is supported and delivered through district education systems in South Africa. The RFI signals an intention to proceed to a formal funding opportunity later, with a strong emphasis on South African local organizations as the eventual eligible recipients, and with USAID anticipating an active partnership role through a cooperative agreement mechanism.

• The Agency for International Development in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "District Inclusive Education Support Project (DIESP)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 98.001.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-04-13.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-05-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

Apply for RFI 674 17 DIESP 001

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: