U.S. Mission to Afghanistan (Doha), Supporting Access to Higher Education for Afghans

Overview

The Public Diplomacy Section (PDS) of the U.S. Mission to Afghanistan is pleased to announce an open competition for eligible organizations to submit applications to carry out a program aimed at supporting higher education opportunities for Afghans, in particular women and girls. 

Program Goal: 
To support higher education opportunities for Afghan students and young professionals, particularly women and girls, inside Afghanistan, and to maintain an educated workforce in which will be the basis for political and economic stabilization in Afghanistan. 

Project Objectives: 

Objective 1: Equip Afghan professionals, primarily women, across various fields inside Afghanistan with additional skills needed in their career fields and support them to maintain and extend existing skills in an environment in which opportunities to use them professionally is limited. 

Objective 2: Increase the ability of young Afghans in Afghanistan to access to higher education opportunities, in particular women and girls and those from marginalized and lower-income communities.

Objective 3: Increase connections between Afghan professionals inside Afghanistan and others in their field, both inside Afghanistan and in outside of Afghanistan, to share knowledge and opportunities. 

Successful proposals will focus on at least one of three areas of support for higher education: 

• Individual and/or series of short online courses (at least three weeks and up to six months in duration) to assist educated young professional Afghans in maintaining or developing professional skills in target fields; 
• Mentorship, coaching, and/or networking support for young professionals to further develop their skills through relationships with other Afghans in their field and/or; 
• Post-secondary “bridge” programs that prepare students who have already studied at the secondary level but may lack an internationally recognized diploma or qualification for university admissions, or to otherwise prepare them for university studies. 

Target Audiences: 
The primary audience for this project is Afghans ages 18 - 35 inside Afghanistan, particularly women and girls who, are able to benefit from higher education opportunities. The participants should reflect the diversity of Afghanistan and include women and men, Afghans from urban and rural areas, as well as a mix of ethnic groups. 

The target audience for Objective 1 and 2 is professional Afghans (at least 80% women), ages 18-35, who have attended university, or have at least three years of work experience in their field or participated in donor-funded education programs. The program should target professionals in Afghanistan in at least three different fields (for example: Business/Entrepreneurship, Information Technology, Education, Law, and Allied Health Sciences) who are interested in taking an active part in contributing to the social and economic future of Afghanistan. Afghans in diaspora communities outside of Afghanistan may be included in this element of the program in limited numbers for the purpose of establishing or maintaining networks and relationships for Afghans inside Afghanistan with their counterparts outside the country.

The target audience for Objective 3 is Afghans inside of Afghanistan (at least 80% women) who have studied at the secondary level and who seek to continue with university and/or post-secondary education but need additional support to qualify for admission to university.

PDS requires all applicants to include in their proposal a security plan to accompany appropriate programmatic elements within their proposal. All program proposals must describe any safety precautions and measures that will be undertaken to minimize risks to implementors as well as participants.

Project duration: 24 to 36 months

Anticipated programs start date: September 2023