GH Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Activity | 7200AA24RFA00008

Opportunity Information: Apply for 7200AA24RFA00008

USAID's GH Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Activity is a planned five-year cooperative agreement designed to help countries improve health and broader development outcomes by strengthening how social and behavior change approaches are designed, implemented, and sustained. The core idea is to push SBC work beyond one-off communications campaigns and toward consistent, system-level use of proven behavioral science and social science methods across development programming. USAID positions this activity as a global leadership and backbone platform for SBC, meant to connect learning and practice across countries, partners, and sectors, and to make SBC more locally led, more evidence-driven, and more durable over time.

Programmatically, the opportunity emphasizes building on existing USAID investments in SBC research and implementation, including both global and bilateral projects. The activity is expected to help integrate SBC evidence and theory into real-world development programs, generate and apply new learning, and strengthen local technical and organizational capacity so that country and local institutions can lead SBC programming themselves. A major theme is moving evidence into action: generating, synthesizing, and catalyzing the use of theory-informed and evidence-based SBC approaches in diverse settings, while also promoting innovative and cost-effective programming. The project is also framed as a partnership-driven effort, using both new and existing collaborations to expand locally driven programming and embed SBC best practices within public and private health systems.

The strategic objective is straightforward: increase implementation of theory-informed, evidence-based, locally led SBC programming. Although the activity is primarily focused on health, it leaves room to support SBC needs in other sectors where behavior and social norms strongly affect outcomes, especially areas that naturally overlap with health goals such as environmental conservation, agriculture, food security, and nutrition. Within health, the activity maintains a substantive (but not exclusive) focus on family planning and reproductive health, including reproductive empowerment, along with malaria and maternal, newborn, and child health. It also calls out the need to stay responsive to emerging pandemic threats and other infectious diseases, signaling that the platform should be adaptable to evolving global health risks.

Across all components, the opportunity highlights several USAID-wide priorities that applicants should expect to integrate throughout their approach. These include localization (shifting leadership and capacity to local actors), gender integration, and youth engagement. It also prioritizes stronger health systems, inclusion of LGBTQI people, and disability inclusion (people with physical and cognitive disabilities). In addition, it stresses elevating the voices and expertise of marginalized and underrepresented groups, including racial, ethnic, and Indigenous communities, and it expects attention to climate change as a cross-cutting consideration. In practice, this means proposals will likely need to show how SBC work will be designed and delivered in ways that are equitable, inclusive, locally grounded, and resilient to changing environmental and health conditions.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary funding opportunity from the U.S. Agency for International Development, using a cooperative agreement mechanism (meaning USAID typically expects substantial engagement during implementation). The funding opportunity number is 7200AA24RFA00008, listed under CFDA 98.001. The stated award ceiling is $321,500,000, and the original closing date was May 29, 2024 (with the opportunity created March 29, 2024). Eligibility is broad: U.S. and non-U.S. public or private organizations, for-profit or nonprofit entities, universities, public international organizations, and NGOs may apply, provided they are legally recognized, not suspended or debarred, and registered in a country that is not a prohibited source under USAID policy (ADS 310). For full requirements, USAID directs applicants to the complete RFA posted with the opportunity's related documents.

• The Agency for International Development in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "GH Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Activity" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 98.001.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-03-29.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-05-29. (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 $321,500,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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