Embassy of the United States

Grant Opportunities

MEPI Standing Program Announcement

MEPI awards grants of between $200,000 and $900,000 to support reform initiatives in its four “pillars”: political reform, economic reform, education, and women’s empowerment. These grants are awarded to nongovernmental organizations, professional associations, universities, and other civil society groups on the basis of submissions to periodic Standing Program Announcements (SPA), an open competition for grant and cooperative agreement applications to carry out national or regional projects that focus on one or more of the priority areas of reform addressed by MEPI. In this competition, MEPI intends to support non-governmental organizations based in the Middle East and North Africa that are committed to increasing the role of all citizens, especially women and youth, in achieving:

• improved governance;
• democratic practices and institutions;
• economic growth founded in international free trade practices and entrepreneurship;
• and educational practices that cultivate critical, creative, and independent thought and civic and social responsibility.

Applicants are encouraged to note the following information:

• Preference will be given to countries in the Gulf and North Africa with less developed civil societies and with limited experience in implementing issue-based reform and advocacy campaigns that increase the number of active stakeholders within societies.

• The percentage of total budget actually spent in the region through local organizations will be among the elements of evaluation for this competition.

• MEPI is interested in funding projects that yield clear and significant impact and results in the areas of public knowledge and participation in issue-based reform discussions.

• MEPI prefers to fund the organization and implementation of public advocacy campaigns on specific reform topics rather than internal development programs or general training programs focused upon basic organizational capacity.