DRL Ensuring Resilient Seafood Supply Chains: Countering Forced Labor and any associated Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor is offering the Ensuring Resilient Seafood Supply Chains: Countering Forced Labor and any associated Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing funding opportunity under opportunity number DFOP0019538 and Assistance Listing Number 19.345. The program is funded through the FY25 Democracy Fund and is subject to the availability of funding. One grant award of $1,973,359 is anticipated, with total available funding of $1,973,359. The proposed project should be completed within 24 months or less, and the anticipated project start date is September 30, 2026. The priority regions are East Asia and the Pacific and the Western Hemisphere, with Indonesia and the Philippines excluded. The program seeks to counter forced labor in seafood supply chains associated with countries that have signed Agreements on Reciprocal Trade with the United States, as well as strategically important countries and prospective ART partners where engagement advances U.S. economic, trade, and maritime interests. Its goal is to increase transparency, accountability, and compliance in seafood harvesting and processing by strengthening the detection, prevention, and remediation of forced labor, including risks associated with illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing where applicable. Activities may employ satellite imagery, vessel tracking data, artificial intelligence, open-source intelligence, web scraping, digital reporting tools, investigations, public reporting, and other technologies and methodologies to identify, verify, analyze, and publicly disseminate information about abuses. The program has three principal objectives. The first is to strengthen detection, monitoring, and public reporting of forced labor in seafood supply chains, including vessel-based fishing, harvesting, processing, and associated IUU fishing where applicable. The second is to increase the capacity of civil society, labor rights organizations, investigative researchers, and other stakeholders to identify, document, and respond to abuses. The third is to strengthen market-based accountability and remediation mechanisms that promote responsible business conduct and reduce the competitiveness of seafood linked to forced labor. Activities may include technology development, data acquisition and analysis, research and documentation, trainings, workshops, exchanges, stakeholder convenings, translation and interpretation, outreach, monitoring and evaluation, and appropriate travel. Applicants must incorporate safeguards for workers, whistleblowers, researchers, and others who could face legal, security, or retaliation risks. Award funds cannot be used for alcoholic beverages, payments or transfers to UNRWA, or prohibited activities related to encouraging mass-migration caravans toward the United States southwest border. Other federal requirements and restrictions described in the NOFO also apply. Eligible applicants are U.S.-based nonprofit organizations and nongovernmental organizations, foreign organizations and NGOs, private or public institutions of higher education, and for-profit organizations or businesses. For-profit and commercial recipients may not earn profit from Department of State assistance awards. Cost sharing, matching, or cost participation is not required and will not improve an application's competitive ranking. Organizations must have a Unique Entity Identifier and an active SAM.gov registration, subject to the stated exemption process. Applicants may submit only one proposal per organization; if an organization submits more than one proposal, all proposals from that institution will be considered ineligible. Applicants should demonstrate experience in areas such as labor rights, seafood supply chain transparency, fisheries governance, anti-trafficking, anti-corruption, or related issues. Applications must be in English, budgets must be in U.S. dollars, pages must be numbered, and documents must meet the stated page and formatting requirements. Required application forms are SF-424, SF-424A, and SF-424B. The application also includes a proposal narrative of no more than 15 pages covering the proposal summary, organizational background, problem statement, goals and objectives, activities, methods and design, schedule and timeline, key personnel selection criteria, project partners, monitoring and evaluation, and sustainability. Applicants must also provide a budget justification narrative and attachments including a line-item budget, key personnel position descriptions, partner letters of support, the latest NICRA when applicable, official permission letters when required, and other applicable materials. A summary page is optional. Applications may be submitted electronically through Grants.gov or MyGrants. Questions about the application process may be sent to DRL-PRU-Solicitation@state.gov. Applications are due September 3, 2026, at 23:59:59 EST. The NOFO does not state a separate required letter of intent, concept paper, pre-proposal, or other pre-application gating deadline. Applications will be evaluated on the quality and feasibility of the program idea, organizational capacity and record on previous grants, program planning and ability to achieve objectives, budget, monitoring and evaluation plan, and sustainability. A review committee will evaluate eligible applications, and the Department will also conduct the required risk review. If otherwise equivalent applications receive equivalent scores, the applicant with the lower indirect cost rate receives preference as a tie-breaking mechanism. Awards are administered by the Grants Officer, and recipients may incur project expenses only beginning on the start date shown on the signed award document. Unsuccessful applicants will be notified by email. The NOFO does not describe this opportunity as recurring or provide a future application cycle.

Develop a detailed and feasible program approach with a reasonable implementation timeline and measurable objectives. Demonstrate relevant expertise, internal controls, financial management capacity, and subaward management experience if applicable. Provide a detailed and realistic budget tied to activities and results. Include output and outcome indicators, milestones, measurement methods, and clear performance targets and baseline data appropriate to the operating environment. Explain how positive impacts will continue after the program ends. Incorporate appropriate safeguards for workers, whistleblowers, researchers, and other participants facing legal, security, or retaliation risks.