As described in YouthPower 2 Annual Program Statement (YP2 APS), USAID has a long-standing history of prioritizing youth needs and investing in youth development through support to initiatives in multiple sectors, including, but not limited to, reproductive health and voluntary family planning, education,

agriculture, environment, economic growth, and democracy, human rights and governance.

While USAID has demonstrated a commitment to better integrating youth voices into USAID programs and activities, there is still a need for increased effort to incorporate youth as valuable partners in development activities.

Previous USAID youth programming has supported small scale youth-led learning and implementation grants in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that have provided on-the-ground insights into PYD programming.

However, the local youth-led and youth-serving organizations involved in the research had limited capacity, specifically, knowledge and skill gaps in how to conduct research, analyze data, and disseminate findings to feed them back into future programming demand investment in capacity development.

These nascent youth-led and youth-serving organizations need further support and capacity development in order to implement research grants effectively at scale and to engage with funders for future programming.

Moreover, capacity building is time-consuming and requires mentoring and the need for significant management and technical guidance from other more seasoned implementing partners.

In response to this challenge, the Youth Excel Addendum seeks Concept Note(s) that support the overarching YP2 theory of change as stated in the YP2 APS, as well as the following theory of change: IF youth-led and youth-serving partners have improved capacity to conduct quality youth-led implementation research, and IF those partners have improved capacity to direct and learn from a research agenda to improve programming, and IF findings from research are synthesized and disseminated well, THEN local youth-led and youth-serving partners will improve and sustain positive outcomes for local youth and advance the local, national, and global development agendas The Youth Excel Addendum is not a Request for Application (RFA) but rather a request for Concept Note(s) in response to this Addendum published under the YouthPower 2 Annual Program Statement (YP2 APS).

To be competitive, the Concept Note submission must be fully responsive to all directions under this Addendum and YP2 APS.

Based on the submitted Concept Note, USAID’s E3 Bureau’s Office of Education (E3/ED) will determine whether to request a Full Application from an eligible organization.