Notice of Intent to Publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity Announcement for NGO Programs Benefiting Displaced Iraqis and Syrian Refugees | PRM ANE NOI 01

Opportunity Information: Apply for PRM ANE NOI 01

This opportunity is a Notice of Intent from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) signaling that it plans to release its FY 2020 annual Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for NGO programs serving displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees. The process is expected to start with a request for concept notes, anticipated to be posted around December 16, 2019, with a closing date listed as January 22, 2020. The work is intended to support affected populations across four countries: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. While the notice does not spell out every technical priority area, it makes clear that additional detail on which sectors PRM will prioritize in each country will be provided in the full NOFO.

The funding mechanism is a discretionary Cooperative Agreement under CFDA 19.519, which typically means PRM anticipates being more involved than in a standard grant, including potential engagement on key programmatic decisions and oversight requirements. The notice lists an award ceiling of up to $10,000,000, though it does not specify the total amount available or the exact number of awards expected in the excerpt provided. Applicants should plan for the two-step structure that begins with concept notes and may proceed to full proposals depending on PRM's review and invitation process.

A major change highlighted in the announcement is that, for the first time under this NOFO, organizations may apply for programs in Iraq either as individual applicants or as part of a consortium. PRM explicitly frames consortia as a way to combine different organizations' strengths to submit a single, more comprehensive program proposal rather than multiple fragmented applications. For the purposes of this notice, PRM defines a consortium as a group of no fewer than four eligible applicants that have formed an agreement or partnership to carry out an assistance activity. Importantly, participation in a consortium does not count against an individual organization's application limit, which is meant to reduce the disincentive for organizations to collaborate.

Within Iraq, PRM calls out one sector with special instructions: education. In the Iraq education sector only, PRM intends to prioritize proposals submitted by consortia rather than single organizations. Education proposals for Iraq are expected to serve a mixed set of beneficiaries, not only Syrian refugees but also Iraqi internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees, and vulnerable host community members. The notice is explicit that consortia proposals that target Syrian refugees in Iraq exclusively will not be considered, signaling that PRM is looking for education programming designed around the broader displacement and recovery context inside Iraq, where Iraqi displacement, returns, and host community needs are central.

For consortium applications, PRM requires clear governance and accountability structures. One organization must be identified as the lead applicant at both the concept note stage and the full proposal stage. The consortium must explain how the partnership will function in practice, including how roles are divided, how authority is structured, and how decisions will be made across all members, particularly between the lead applicant and any associate awardees or subrecipients. PRM also notes it may request to review and approve substantive provisions of proposed sub-awards, which is a signal that applicants should expect scrutiny of subaward terms, responsibilities, and potentially the flow-down of compliance obligations.

Eligibility is geared toward nonprofit and international entities. Eligible applicants include U.S. nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education), nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status (also excluding institutions of higher education), and international organizations. The notice also provides a specific instruction for international multilateral organizations such as UN agencies: they should not submit concept notes through Grants.gov in response to this anticipated NOFO. Instead, multilateral organizations seeking funding aligned with this announcement are directed to contact the PRM Program Officer once the announcement is published, implying a separate coordination and submission pathway for those entities.

In practical terms, the opportunity is setting expectations for an upcoming PRM funding round focused on humanitarian and displacement-related programming for displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees across Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, with a particularly strong push toward consortium-based education proposals inside Iraq. Organizations considering applying will need to watch for the full NOFO to confirm sector priorities by country, prepare a concept note on the timeline indicated, and, if pursuing a consortium (especially for Iraq education), be ready to document a credible partnership structure with a designated lead and well-defined lines of decision-making and subaward management.

• The Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Notice of Intent to Publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity Announcement for NGO Programs Benefiting Displaced Iraqis and Syrian Refugees" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.519.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2019-11-16.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-01-22. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $10,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Others.

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