Integrated Community Health Activity | 72069524RFA00003

Opportunity Information: Apply for 72069524RFA00003

The Integrated Community Health Activity is a USAID/Burundi funding opportunity focused on improving health outcomes by strengthening how communities participate in, shape, and use essential health services. The overall purpose is to deepen community engagement in ways that improve the quality and uptake of services related to malaria, maternal and child health (MCH), and family planning (FP). By doing this, the activity aims to reduce maternal and child deaths and illness (mortality and morbidity), especially by ensuring people can access appropriate prevention, timely care, and effective follow-up within their own communities and through nearby health facilities.

A central theme of the opportunity is meaningful community participation, not just awareness-raising. The activity is expected to increase community engagement through three types of participation processes: informative participation (communities receive clear, usable information about services, risks, and rights), preparatory participation (communities help plan and organize local health actions and service delivery approaches), and decision-making participation (communities have a real role in making choices about priorities, accountability, and how services are delivered). In practice, this points to work that strengthens trust in the health system, creates feedback loops between communities and providers, and supports local ownership so interventions are more likely to be used and sustained.

Another major objective is improving the continuum of services between health facilities and communities. The opportunity emphasizes coordinated, two-way integration: health facilities should provide services that complement community-based services, and community services should complement facility-based care. The intent is to reduce gaps where patients might otherwise fall through, such as delays in seeking care, missed referrals, poor follow-up, or incomplete treatment. This includes linking prevention to diagnosis and treatment, making referrals work in real life, and ensuring patient concerns are addressed efficiently and respectfully. The focus on coordination suggests strengthening systems for communication, tracking, and collaboration between community health workers and facility staff, so that care is continuous rather than fragmented.

The opportunity also prioritizes building and maintaining a capable community health workforce. It calls for community health workers to receive the training, coaching, and supportive supervision needed to meet required qualifications both before they begin service (pre-service) and while they are working (in-service). This implies a practical emphasis on competency, quality assurance, and ongoing performance improvement rather than one-off trainings. Supportive supervision typically includes mentoring, observation, problem-solving with workers in the field, and continuous learning to ensure community health workers can deliver consistent, high-quality services and effectively connect clients to facility-based care when needed.

From a funding and administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary award from USAID/Bujumbura, issued as a cooperative agreement. A cooperative agreement generally means USAID expects substantial involvement during implementation, such as collaboration on technical direction, monitoring, and adaptive management. The opportunity is categorized under the health funding activity area (CFDA 98.001). USAID anticipates making one award, with an award ceiling of USD 12,000,000. The funding opportunity number is 72069524RFA00003. The opportunity was created on 2024-04-18, and the original closing date for applications was 2024-05-20.

Eligibility is aimed at local Burundian organizations, aligning the activity with local leadership and implementation capacity in Burundi. Overall, the opportunity is designed to strengthen the connection between communities and the health system by increasing community voice and participation, integrating community and facility services into a coherent care pathway, and ensuring community health workers are trained and supported to deliver quality services that contribute directly to better malaria, MCH, and FP outcomes.

• The Burundi USAID-Bujumbura in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Integrated Community Health 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 2024-04-18.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-05-20. (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 $12,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for 72069524RFA00003

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: