Stage 1: Statement of Interest
The Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office) announces an open competition for grant funding to support the Program to End Modern Slavery (PEMS).
The TIP Office will allocate funding for anti-trafficking projects through an open, two-stage competitive process. In stage one, also known as the statement of interest (SOI) stage, applicants are invited to submit a three-page SOI, detailing how the organization would address programming priorities highlighted in the funding opportunity. Upon completion of a technical and programmatic review, the TIP Office will select a limited number of SOI applicants for further consideration in the second stage of the competitive process. In the second stage, selected applicants will receive feedback from the TIP Office and will be invited to submit full proposals.
The TIP Office has identified five priority categories for potential funding under the Program to End Modern Slavery:
I. Supply Chains
- Reduce or eliminate forced labor within a stage of a supply chain or the entire chain of a specific product or industry. Example topic areas include, but are not limited to, a specific sector in agriculture or manufacturing or selection of the supply chain of a specific product within a sector. Applicants may also select products within green energy markets (e.g., solar panels, lithium-ion batteries) or their inputs (e.g. polysilicon, cobalt) or fossil fuel industries (e.g. coal, natural gas etc.).
II. Climate Change and Displacement
- Reduce human trafficking by addressing vulnerabilities caused by environmentally driven displacement. Climate change may be a driver of and increase vulnerabilities to trafficking as severe weather events increasingly impact livelihoods. Programs may focus on reducing trafficking in persons vulnerability caused by risk of internal and/or international displacement.
III. Public Health
- Reduce human trafficking through partnership with the public health sector. Example topic areas include, but are not limited to, developing anti-trafficking minimum standards of care for use by public health providers; the development and application of protocols for the identification, care, and referral of victims of trafficking; and building partnerships with health care providers, including community health workers.
IV. Financial Inclusion
- Reduce human trafficking through financial inclusion programming (digital finance, financial behaviors, rural finance, insurance, financial technology adoption, etc.) targeted at labor-sending regions in areas with high levels of human trafficking either based on anecdotal or empirical evidence. The interventions must be paired with experimental research and should occur in 2-3 or more distinct settings to allow for comparison of results.
V. Sex Trafficking
- Reduce sex trafficking in select geographies with high levels of human trafficking, either based on anecdotal or empirical evidence, and/or address online sexual exploitation. Applicants should display a comprehensive understanding of which populations are at risk. Given sustained levels of funding focused on sex trafficking of women and girls, in order to address an under-resourced area, targeted populations must be adults, men and boys, and/or members of the LGBTQI+ community, as applicable.
Applications for this funding opportunity must be submitted via SAMS Domestic (https://mygrants.service-now.com/grants ) by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on March 10, 2022, to be eligible for consideration. Please visit Grants.gov for full details on the priority categories, how to apply, and other important details for this funding opportunity.
Please see the TIP Office Funding Opportunity Common Questions and Answers for answers to some of the questions that you might have about this funding opportunity.