City of Oakley Small Business Recovery Grant Program

The United States Department of States Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA) announces a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Caribbean United for Women's Economic Empowerment (CUWEE) project. This initiative aligns with the broader mission of advancing gender equity and equality, specifically in the Caribbean economy, utilizing FY 2023 Gender Equity and Equality Action (GEEA) Economic Support Funds (ESF). The project is expected to be executed as a cooperative agreement, with one award issued not to exceed $1,973,359, for a project period of up to three years, administered by WHA's Office of Policy Planning and Coordination (PPC). The primary impact goal of the CUWEE project is to address systemic barriers and socio-cultural attitudes that challenge gender equity and equality in the Caribbean economy. Target beneficiaries include women and adolescent girls aged 16 and older, with the aim of building their economic resilience and skills capacity to enable them to enter the labor force and obtain economic security. The strategic focus is on strengthening local civil society support actors engaged in advancing women's economic security across the region, thereby contributing to overall economic gender equity and equality in the Caribbean. The program priorities and focus areas involve a two-pronged approach. First, the potential grantee must include plans to identify problematic country-specific and/or regional systemic barriers and socio-cultural attitudes. Second, they must outline how they will work with local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to effectively address these identified barriers. A key component is supporting a competition designed to promote local CSOs in developing and implementing pioneering solutions to overcome the local systemic barriers to economic security for women in their country or region. The expected outcomes include strengthening the regional Caribbean network of local CSOs engaged in women’s economic security. This is to be achieved through providing a training curriculum that builds the capacity of these CSOs. The measurable results will be demonstrated by the success of proposals that show how the grantee will strengthen these local civil society support actors to help provide economic gender equity and equality, ultimately enabling women and adolescent girls aged 16 and older to obtain economic security.