Inter-American Foundation 2023 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Inter-American Foundation is announcing a correction to the notice of meeting of the Advisory Council. This meeting was announced in the Federal Register of November 14, 2023. The meeting notice was published under the incorrect meeting authority.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, agencies are required to publish a Notice in the Federal Register notifying the public that the agency is creating a new information collection for OMB review and approval and requests public review and comment on the submission. The agencies received no comments in response to the sixty (60) day notice. Comments are being solicited on the need for the information; the accuracy of the burden estimate; the quality, practical utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and ways to minimize reporting the burden, including automated collected techniques and uses of other forms of technology.

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, agencies are required to publish a Notice in the Federal Register notifying the public that the agency is creating three new information collections for OMB review and approval and requests public review and comment on the submissions. Comments are being solicited on the need for the information; the accuracy of the burden estimate; the quality, practical utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and ways to minimize reporting the burden, including automated collected techniques and uses of other forms of technology.

The Inter-American Foundation (IAF), as part of its continuing efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a preclearance consultation program to provide the general public and federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This program helps ensure that requested data is provided in the desired format; reporting burden (time and financial resources) is minimized; collection instruments are clearly understood; and the impact of collection requirements on respondents is properly assessed. Currently, the IAF is soliciting comments concerning the information collection of the grant application concept note. The purpose of this form is to reduce the time needed to submit and review a proposal for IAF grant funds. Proponents spend a lot of time completing a proposal for grant funds, and IAF Foundation Representatives spend a lot of time reviewing proposals. Internal staff members are not able to read through all the proposals received each year as a result of the volume of submissions and the length of the materials. Given the high proportion of proposals that do not progress to the ``pre-selected'' phase of the review process, there is an opportunity to streamline the initial application requirements to only require the key information a Foundation Representative needs to decide whether or not a project is viable for IAF to fund.