Africa Regional Services Paris Annual Program Statement: ARS Speaker Program | AF PDPA FY22 01

Opportunity Information: Apply for AF PDPA FY22 01

The Africa Regional Services Paris (ARS) Speaker Program is a U.S. Department of State (Bureau of African Affairs, Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs) grant opportunity that builds a roster of U.S.-affiliated speakers who can support U.S. embassy and consulate outreach across sub-Saharan Africa. The program funds small, speaker-led engagements designed to strengthen understanding of the United States and highlight people-to-people ties, including professional lectures and seminars, hands-on trainings, STEAM-focused sessions, artistic and cultural workshops or masterclasses, and sports clinics or coaching camps. Programs must be delivered in English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish, and are meant to demonstrate cultural cooperation and reinforce the broader transatlantic relationship.

The application is intentionally structured as a two-step process. First, interested individuals submit a concise, one-page Statement of Interest (SOI) in English plus an attached CV or resume. The SOI is meant to be practical and program-ready: it should clearly communicate the applicant's expertise and credentials, foreign language ability, and the kind of sessions they can run. ARS asks applicants to describe their presentation style, preferred audiences, and the topics they can cover with a short outline. Applicants are also encouraged to include brief testimonials or endorsements, a summary of prior speaking or training experience, and links to videos of presentations when available. This first step is essentially an eligibility and suitability screen to determine whether the person should be considered for inclusion on the ARS speaker roster.

If the SOI passes merit review, the second step begins with an interview. Successful interviewees are added to the official roster, but being rostered does not automatically mean immediate travel or programming. Instead, roster members are contacted when an Africa-based U.S. embassy requests a speaker whose background matches a specific planned program. In other words, ARS is building a bench of vetted experts and practitioners who can be tapped quickly when embassies identify needs and target audiences.

ARS prioritizes speakers whose work aligns with three broad sets of themes. The first theme focuses on advancing trade and commercial ties to boost prosperity, including entrepreneurship and innovation, arts entrepreneurship and management, and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math). The second theme centers on protecting the United States from cross-border health and security threats, including climate change and environmental or waste management, energy security, cybersecurity, countering violent extremism, and efforts to prevent international trafficking in persons. The third theme supports progress toward stability, citizen-responsive governance, and self-reliance, covering topics such as good governance, rule of law, transparency and accountability, NGO and civic leadership, public management, youth empowerment, women's leadership, human rights (including LGBTI issues), disability rights and inclusion, racial and ethnic diversity and inclusion, countering disinformation, wildlife protection and illegal fishing (including judicial aspects of wildlife trafficking), freedom of expression and citizen journalism, journalism skills and press freedom plus news media business management, countering gender-based violence, and space policy.

The intended participants and audiences are broad and influence-oriented. ARS, working with U.S. embassy public affairs sections, aims to engage members of the public as well as decision-makers, civil society leaders, and other opinion-shapers at various levels. The overarching public diplomacy objective is to broaden understanding of U.S. policies, culture, history, society, and values in sub-Saharan Africa through direct engagement and practical collaboration.

Eligibility is primarily limited to U.S. citizen individuals who can lead programs in one of the required languages and who may be based in the United States, Africa, Brazil, or Europe. Applicants must be able to provide proof of U.S. citizenship (typically via a U.S. passport). U.S. green card holders may be eligible only if they are part of a performing artist group. For-profit or commercial entities are not eligible to apply under this opportunity. Additional requirements include submitting only one SOI per applicant and having a Social Security Number to meet U.S. Internal Revenue Service reporting requirements.

Applications are submitted by email, sending the SOI and CV or resume to arsspeaker@state.gov. SOIs are accepted and evaluated on a rolling basis, with eligible submissions reviewed monthly by a Grants Review Committee. Importantly, SOIs are scored against the program criteria rather than ranked in a head-to-head competition against other applicants. The primary evaluation factors are the applicant's subject matter expertise, prior experience as a speaker or trainer, and language ability. The award is described as a small grant, with an award ceiling listed at $10,000. The funding opportunity information includes the title "Africa Regional Services Paris Annual Program Statement: ARS Speaker Program," funding opportunity number AF PDPA FY22 01, and CFDA number 19.040, with an original closing date of 2022-09-30.

• The Africa Regional Services in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Africa Regional Services Paris Annual Program Statement: ARS Speaker Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.040.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-12-27.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-09-30. (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 $10,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for AF PDPA FY22 01

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