Continuity of Pre-Primary Education Post Covid Using Learning Through Play, Community Engagement and Edutainment in South Africa – South Africa Addendum APS | 72067422APS00001

Opportunity Information: Apply for 72067422APS00001

USAID Pretoria issued this addendum to its broader Science, Technology, Innovation and Partnership (STIP) Annual Program Statement as a focused call for concept notes that help keep pre-primary education going in South Africa after the disruptions of COVID-19. The core idea is to use learning-through-play approaches, strong community engagement, and mass-media style "edutainment" (especially educational video and television-style content) to reach young children, support caregivers, and strengthen early learning in ways that still work when normal classroom routines are interrupted. The opportunity is authorized under Part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, and is framed as part of a longer-term disaster preparedness mindset rather than a one-off emergency response.

The activity centers on expanding and distributing high-quality educational video content and related learning materials for pre-primary learners. USAID points to a long history of evidence that well-designed, age-appropriate educational video can capture children’s attention, reinforce key skills, influence positive social and behavior change, and even support teacher development. While new digital tools often dominate education innovation conversations, this call emphasizes that scalable video, television segments, and other broad-reach media platforms can be especially practical and powerful in lower-resource environments and during periods when in-person schooling is limited. In other words, the grant is looking for approaches that can work in homes, communities, and early learning settings, not only inside a formal classroom.

Applicants are encouraged to use co-creation with communities and stakeholders to shape the final objectives, but the addendum lists several illustrative directions that concept notes may address. These include developing and testing low-cost ways to disseminate and project educational video content in resource-constrained areas; providing families with take-home materials and in-person support activities that promote children’s learning and self-regulation skills; creating mobile toy or play-material libraries that can travel to high-need areas and pair play resources with screenings of COVID-related or health-and-learning edutainment; partnering with a local higher education institution to measure outcomes for children, families, and communities; and embedding learning-through-play methods among parents, caregivers, and early childhood educators, including potential collaboration with the LEGO Foundation. USAID indicates it would prefer a set (portfolio) of partnerships that collectively advance all or most of these aims, but it will prioritize the strongest ideas even if only one or two of the listed objectives are ultimately pursued.

Funding is up to USD 1.5 million total over two years, intended to support a portfolio rather than necessarily a single award, with an emphasis on the most promising approaches for continuity of pre-primary education through edutainment and community-based delivery. The funding instrument type is a grant, the activity category is education, and the opportunity is cataloged under CFDA 98.001. The funding opportunity number is 72067422APS00001, and the original closing date for submissions was 2022-09-26.

Eligibility is restricted to local entities in South Africa. In this context, "local entity" is defined narrowly: the organization (or individual) must be legally organized under the laws of the eligible country, have its principal place of business or operations there, be majority owned by citizens or lawful permanent residents of the eligible country, and be governed/managed by a body whose majority are citizens or lawful permanent residents of a country receiving assistance under the relevant appropriations. Practically, this means USAID is specifically trying to resource South African-led organizations and institutions to design, test, and scale early learning solutions that are resilient to future disruptions and that can reach children beyond traditional school walls.

• The South Africa USAID-Pretoria in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Continuity of Pre-Primary Education Post Covid Using Learning Through Play, Community Engagement and Edutainment in South Africa – South Africa Addendum APS" 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 2022-08-12.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-09-26. (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 $1,500,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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