The Justice, Rights, and Security (JRS) Annual Program Statement (APS) is a tool available to USAID Missions and Bureaus/Independent Offices (B/IO) wishing to use assistance to address justice-, rights-, and security-related needs in the field. Missions can use the JRS APS, through funded addenda, to issue awards –  including cooperative agreements, grants, and fixed amount awards.  Eligible applicants include U.S. and non-U.S. non-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, colleges and universities, private voluntary organizations, and public international organizations.  

USAID’s Center for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance’s (DRG Center) JRS Team will facilitate Missions' and B/IOs' use of the APS, and will also support Missions and B/IOs on key APS programmatic processes, including development of procurement  packages for the APS, facilitation of co-creation processes, and development of evaluation criteria and review of applications under the APS.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of the JRS APS is to: 

  • Empower USAID to seek solutions to justice-, rights-, and security-related challenges; 
  • Engage new and underutilized partners; 
  • Solve problems not adequately addressed by other USAID investments; and/or
  • Offer USAID Missions and B/IOs a mechanism through which such work can be innovatively accomplished with dedicated support and expertise from the DRG Center’s JRSTeam. 

POTENTIAL PROGRAMMING AREAS:

This APS is a mechanism for USAID Missions and B/IOs to invite qualified U.S. and non-U.S., non-profit or for-profit, non-governmental and international organizations to collaborate with USAID in developing and implementing programs that achieve one or more of the following JRS APS goals and objectives:   

Goal 1: Promote Justice, including the following objectives:

  • To ensure the independent, efficient, and open administration of justice; 
  • To enhance the quality and accessibility of justice;  
  • To guarantee impartial application of the law and due process; 
  • To improve justice seeker experiences and outcomes; and/or 
  • To strengthen effective checks and balances and accountable institutions as foundations of democratic governance.     

Goal 2: Protect Rights, including the following objectives: 

  • To improve enabling environments for the protection and advancement of human rights;
  • To facilitate, develop, and implement effective remedies to address human rights violations and abuses to ensure non-recurrence;
  • To promote equal and equitable enjoyment of human rights by all; 
  • To empower people to know, use, and shape the law in their daily lives to protect and advance human rights; and/or
  • To facilitate the work of all types of human rights defenders and activists.

Goal 3: Promote Security, including the following objectives: 

  • To constrain the arbitrary exercise of power and tempering the use of force by civilian law enforcement; 
  • To strengthen the accountability, professionalism, capacity, and integrity of police and other civilian law enforcement actors; and/or
  • To safeguard all members of society from crime and violence, including gender-based violence, so they may live safely and recognize their full potential.

Cross-Cutting Goal: Key Populations Are Empowered

CORE PRINCIPLES:

The JRS APS seeks to apply the following core principles in all its programming:

Readiness for Collaboration, Adaptability, and Scalability 

  • JRS APS activities should contribute to USAID’s Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting approach to development.

Potential for Impact: 

  • JRS APS activities should demonstrate potential to achieve impact, through the following qualities: 
  • Feasible:  Programming should have well-defined and achievable objectives.
  • Sustainable:  Programming should yield sustainable solutions to the development challenge being addressed.
  • Scalable:  Programming should be capable of being replicated in a manner that would offer a broader set of impacts at the national, regional, or global level. 
  • Locally-driven:  Programming should respond to locally-identified needs and priorities, support and partner with local actors and organizations, integrate local leadership into project management and operations, and strengthen local capacities, and should also be inclusive of diverse populations, peoples, and perspectives.
  • People-Centered:  Programming should improve people’s experiences and outcomes when engaging formal and informal systems and services by making relevant systems, institutions, and services more data-driven, user-friendly, problem-solving, and prevention-oriented and, thus, more people-centered. 
  • Innovative: Programming should elaborate creative approaches and activities to achieve project goals and objectives. 

Basis in Evidence 

  • JRS APS activities should be based on existing research and programming methodologies with demonstrated success.  

Engagement with Local Systems

  • JRS APS activities should include measures for ensuring that “local systems” are built upon — that includes being recognized, engaged, and strengthened during implementation.  

Supporting New and Diverse Actors

  • JRS APS activities should support USAID's New Partnerships Initiative and seek to reach the Agency’s partnering potential by improving collaboration with new, non-traditional, and local actors — while enhancing local leadership, capacity, and accountability in all that we do. 

Doing No Harm

  • JRS APS activities should support key principles related to "do no harm," which "strongly advises outsiders to allow insiders to make their own choices and identify their own priorities."

Sector Overview