Urban Health Initiative (UHI) | 72030620RFA00005

Opportunity Information: Apply for 72030620RFA00005

The Urban Health Initiative (UHI) is a USAID-funded cooperative agreement designed to strengthen and improve health service delivery in five major urban cities in Afghanistan. The central goal is to improve public and private sector health services by closing persistent gaps in access and quality, while also strengthening the overall stewardship role of the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). The activity is structured as a five-year technical assistance program, but it also includes targeted service delivery elements where needed to address urgent deficiencies in essential services in urban settings. In practical terms, UHI is meant to help urban health systems function more effectively, reach more people, and deliver better care, especially in fast-growing and underserved city areas.

UHI is organized around four core objectives. First, it seeks to strengthen MoPH capacity and stewardship, meaning it will support the ministry in planning, oversight, coordination, and management functions that influence how services are organized and regulated. Second, it aims to improve access to primary and secondary health care services, with a focus on ensuring that people in urban areas can actually reach and use appropriate services across the continuum of care, not just basic primary care. Third, it emphasizes improving the quality of both public and private health services, which implies attention to standards, supervision, performance improvement, and other quality assurance approaches across different types of facilities and providers. Fourth, it targets improved public awareness and healthier behaviors, recognizing that outcomes are shaped not only by service availability but also by what people know, believe, and practice related to seeking care and maintaining health.

A defining feature of the opportunity is its explicit focus on vulnerable and underserved populations within cities. UHI prioritizes improving health outcomes for women and children, while also emphasizing groups that are often left behind in urban health planning, including internally displaced people (IDPs) and residents of informal settlements and slum communities. This focus reflects the reality that urban areas can have significant inequities, where services may exist but remain inaccessible or unaffordable for certain populations, or where quality varies greatly between neighborhoods and between public and private providers.

From a funding and administrative standpoint, the opportunity is issued by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Afghanistan (USAID-Kabul), under Funding Opportunity Number 72030620RFA00005. It is categorized as a discretionary opportunity and will be awarded as a cooperative agreement, which generally indicates substantial involvement by the funding agency during implementation compared to a standard grant. The assistance is listed under CFDA 98.001. The award ceiling is USD 104,000,000, and USAID anticipated making a single award. Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning it is open to a wide range of applicant entity types, subject to any additional clarifications included in the full notice. The opportunity was created on November 26, 2019, with an original closing date of January 21, 2020.

Overall, UHI represents a large-scale, multi-year effort to improve how urban health services are governed, accessed, delivered, and utilized in Afghanistan. By combining systems-focused technical assistance with selective service delivery support, and by targeting women, children, IDPs, and slum communities, the activity is designed to produce measurable improvements in essential health services and urban population health outcomes in the five targeted cities.

• The Agency for International Development, Afghanistan USAID-Kabul in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Urban Health Initiative (UHI)" 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 Nov 26, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jan 21, 2020. (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 $104,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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