Supporting Job Creation for Young Tunisians from Marginalized Communities | NEAAC ACBURGR 17 009

Opportunity Information: Apply for NEAAC ACBURGR 17 009

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Assistance Coordination (NEA/AC), is seeking grant proposals for a project called "Supporting Job Creation for Young Tunisians from Marginalized Communities" (Funding Opportunity Number: NEAAC-ACBURGR-17-009). The central goal is straightforward and results-driven: proposals must lead to verifiable, measurable increases in employment for young Tunisians, particularly university-educated youth living in marginalized governorates. The opportunity is built around closing the gap between what young people learn in school and what employers actually need, while also treating entrepreneurship as a practical pathway to employment and self-employment rather than a separate, abstract objective.

The program is described as a "supply-side" intervention, meaning it focuses on increasing the availability of job-ready candidates and strengthening youth capacity to enter the labor market. Applicants are expected to design activities such as market-relevant technical training, soft-skills development, structured job placement support, and initiatives that help young people start their own income-generating work. Entrepreneurship-focused components can include technical assistance, mentoring, and business plan development, but they must still connect clearly to market demand and real job outcomes. The funder emphasizes that activities should be grounded in the realities of specific interior or underserved locations, not generic national-level approaches.

A key requirement is local labor market intelligence. Strong proposals must demonstrate real knowledge of employment constraints and opportunities in the target governorates and, where relevant, an understanding of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. In practice, this means identifying localized barriers (such as skills mismatches, limited private-sector absorption, weak networks between employers and graduates, transportation constraints, or lack of access to capital and coaching) and proposing targeted solutions that directly address those barriers. The solicitation places a high premium on stakeholder buy-in and practical alignment with employers and local institutions so that training and support lead to jobs rather than just completed workshops.

The most important point in the solicitation is how success will be judged. NEA/AC makes clear that the grant will not be evaluated primarily by how many trainings are delivered or how many centers, programs, or advisory services are created. Instead, the ultimate measure is quantifiable increases in youth employment in specific localities. Proposals are expected to show how their interventions will translate into actual employment outcomes and to provide an evidence-based model that justifies why the approach should work. Applicants must also include a rigorous monitoring and evaluation plan that allows the government to track the number of jobs gained and calculate the cost per job gained, signaling that performance, verification, and value-for-money are central to this opportunity.

Partnerships and local ownership are also core to the design. Applicants must explain how they will leverage local leadership and sustain engagement, and they are encouraged to collaborate with individual businesses in the interior, relevant Tunisian government entities, business associations or chambers, existing job centers, and other private-sector actors. The intent is to build credible pathways from training to hiring by involving employers and labor market intermediaries directly, rather than treating placement as an afterthought. Overall, the opportunity supports projects that combine targeted skills development, employer-linked placement mechanisms, and demand-informed self-employment support, with a strict requirement that outcomes be measurable in terms of real jobs for marginalized Tunisian youth.

Administrative details provided in the announcement include that the funding instrument is a discretionary grant, the activity categories include business and commerce as well as employment, labor, and training, and the CFDA number listed is 19.600. The award ceiling is up to USD 1,000,000. Eligible applicants include public and state-controlled higher education institutions, private higher education institutions, nonprofits (including those with and without 501(c)(3) status), small businesses, and other eligible entity types listed in the notice. The original closing date shown is July 10, 2017, and the opportunity was created on May 30, 2017.

• The Assistance Coordination in the business and commerce, employment, labor and training sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Supporting Job Creation for Young Tunisians from Marginalized Communities" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.600.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-05-30.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-07-10. (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 $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, 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, Private institutions of higher education, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for NEAAC ACBURGR 17 009

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