UICN - Union internationale pour la conservation de la nature

PURPOSE OF SMALL GRANTS

IUCN small grant program using CARPE fund has the objective to strengthening civil society for sustainable forest conservation in Central Africa. Detailed objectives are as follows:

• 1- Promote and build constituency for conservation among civil society;
• 2- Foster partnerships between landscapes consortia and local civil society in the field;
• 3- Fill gaps in conservation’s analytical agenda including the design of a suitable mechanism to provide feedback to local communities on conservation strategies, exchanges of field experiences and success stories between and within landscapes;
• 4- Facilitate the participation of Central African institutions and governments in CARPE activities;
• 5- Reinforce the capacities of local civil society in institutional development and strategic planning;
• 6- Effectively integrate CARPE activities in the field with host country institutions;
• 7- Identify Natural Resources Management policies that require country team advocacy for policy reform or development;
• 8- Raise local, national and regional awareness of CARPE objectives and achievements;
• 9- Foster gender equity.

DOMAIN OF INTENVENTION

To meet the objectives of this program, the following domain of intervention will be given priorities:

• - Capacity Building;
• - Natural Resources Management Policy;
• - Natural Resources Management governance;
• - Capitalization and sharing of lessons learned;
• - Gender equity;
• - Landscape issues related to policy and to build constituency for its
• sustainable management;
• - Bush meat management in term of Policy and regulation to set forth
• for advocacy.

TECHNICAL FORMAT FOR GRANT PROPOSAL

Proposals must conform to the following format and can be submitted in English, French or Spanish.

1. Cover page (2 pages).

Please list the following on a Cover sheet page 1:

a) Title of proposed grant (must not exceed 20 words);
b) Name of organization (and acronym, if applicable);
c) Estimated total project costs in CFA or US Dollars with specification of the level of support requested from IUCN, and the level of matching fund from the applicant organizations;
d) Duration (in months) ;
e) Proposed period for starting and ending of the project activity;
f) Name of organization’s Chief Executive Officer;
g) Organization’s address (telephone, fax numbers, e-mail, etc.);
h) Name and full address of contact person for the proposal;
I) IUCN Tracking Number (If previously assigned).

On Cover sheet page 2:

a) List 3 references with name, position and contact details for each
b) A one paragraph description of proposed work.

2. Title of the proposal (20 words maximum)
It must be concise and must provide an indication of the geographic situation of the site of the project.

3. Executive summary of the project: (2 pages maximum).
It should include the objective and activities to be carried out and specifically state how the project will contribute to the CARPE Results.

4. Background and Justification (1page)
The proposal shall mention the management structures, all programs and projects linked with biodiversity conservation in the area concerned.
Justification shall include and expose a clear analysis of the problems or needs indicating, historical aspects, constraints, key opportunities and others efforts to solve the problem.

5. Objectives and expected outputs (1 page)
Describe what the project aims at achieving and justify the importance with regards to the sustainable use of the biodiversity.
The expected results have to be expressed in terms of output generated by the project.
Concrete results have to be obtained in order to seek solutions to the problems in the management of forest resources. There should be a relationship between the project results and the objectives, and also the link must be established between the expected outcomes and CARPE IRs

6. Activities and Methods (5 pages)
Describe the activities planned to achieve project results. Each result requires a series of specific activities. Describe the methodologies that would be used to implement these activities and explain why these methodologies are important. Explain who or what will benefit from the activities, how the results will be applied to nation/regional identified priorities.

7. Logical Framework
The proposal must provide a logical framework of the project with clearly defined Indicators, sources of verification and hypothesis.

8. Sustainability of the project (1 paragraph)
The proposal must mention how the project will achieve sustainability. It will also present some multiplier effect, by describing the possibility for replication and extension of the project outcomes.

9. Implementation Plan (1 page)
It must describe how the project would be organised and managed, and indicate who will be responsible for the financial and technical management of each activity. Executing plan should provide the project duration and briefly describe the different implementation phases including planned activities and time frame (Chronogram of activities).

10. Monitoring and Evaluation Data management plan (1-2 pages).
This should indicate how the monitoring and evaluation of the progress made towards reaching project objectives will be done and how the results will be reported.
Describe which products will be generated by the project and detail how these products will be made available to CARPE partners and other stakeholders. Describe how the products of this project will contribute to individual IRs.

11. Gender issues (1 paragraph)
Explain how the project will consider gender issues and promote gender equity..

12. Environmental Risk Assessment
UCN require that unintended negative environmental consequences be anticipated so that mitigating and environmental consequences be incorporated in the development process early in the proposal and activities planning stages. Therefore each proposal should include a matrix on Environmental Risk Assessment (see Small Grant manual)

13. Expertise and operational capacity (1 page)
The proposal will clearly present the experience of the applicant and its partner’s organizations in the issues to be addressed and in project management.

14. Grant duration
Activities under each grant have to last for one year maximum. Beyond this, an amendment has to be granted by IUCN.

15. Deadline for applications
Which deadline are you applying for? (Please note that proposals are solicited two times a year with deadlines at the end of January, and June).

FINANCIAL FORMAT FOR GRANT PROPOSAL

16. Budget
The maximum amount per grant award will be $30.000 and applicant should provide a detail budgetary estimate comprising the following:
a) Salaries and benefits, b) Travel (Airfare)/travel (per diem), c) Consultant/contract services, d) Audit fees, e) Other direct costs (Communication products preparation, equipment and supplies, publications and reports, other expenses, f) Other functioning expenses, g) Administrative cost (if applicable)
Include a budget notes that explains the various costs indicated in the budget. Specify who will have the spending authority and how funds will be accounted for. In case of co-funding, please specify in a column, level of contribution per item for other donors.

17. Bank Address
All application must include the address of the bank where funds would be transferred in case of selection of the project, with the following specifications: a) Bank Name, b) Bank address, c) Bank account name, d) Bank account number, e) Swift code

In general, Non profit organizations (NPO) with sort of legal recognition such as Local NGO, Community based organizations, Local associations, and Non Governmental Research Centres, Independent researchers, university students, Women and minor groups are especially welcomed.

Legal recognition refers to being officially registered with certified receipt from official source or; have a country agreement with the host country where the NPO operates.

 
WHEN TO SUBMIT PROPOSALS ?

Proposals are accepted periodically following established deadlines (See Deadline above) as per solicitations, to allow time for their consideration by review panels that meet periodically. Proposals must be received by the specified date. If the deadline date falls on a weekend or on a holiday, it will be extended to the following Monday or the following business day. Applicants should allow up to three months for programmatic review and processing. Only proposals that are time sensitive (Workshops, conference, travel) will be accepted for review in an ad hoc basis by the National Focal Points and IUCN Program Manager. Whether solicited or unsolicited, until an award is made, IUCN is not responsible for any costs incurred by the applicant. 
 
WHERE TO SUBMIT PROPOSALS ?

In countries where there is a IUCN CARPE FP (Cameroon, Gabon, Congo and DRC), full proposals must be submitted electronically to
these offices, together with applicant’s CV, personal references, exhibits and other supporting information/documents by the established deadlines.
In countries without IUCN CARPE FP, proposals should be submitted electronically to Consultants hired by IUCN together with applicant’s CV, personal references, exhibits and other supporting information/documents by the established deadlines, who will now send them to the Program Manager in IUCN.
Applicants are encouraged to submit electronic version and to the extent possible hard copies.
 
CRITERIA FOR FINAL APPROVAL

To be approved, Proposals should respond to a number of criteria that include:

• a) All grantees should have an agreed organization structure;
• b) The proposal should have a result-based monitoring and evaluation plans;
• c) The proposal must have an integrated approach to local civil society capacity building;
• d) The activities initiated under this project are sustainable, and grantee should be effectively dealing with forest management and biodiversity conservation;
• e) The entire proposal should be results oriented. The proposal should be addressing any of the thematic areas and clearly have explicit link to one or more CARPE PMP indicators e.g good governance (Policy reform, advocacy) or Monitoring and evaluation of forest resources;
• f) The project would have linkages with other initiatives in the region;
• g) The activities should have a national and regional implications (focused in CARPE geographic area and landscapes);
• h) Partnering with CARPE international partners that demonstrate a value added to strengthen oversight, mentoring and leveraging is a bonus;
• i) The proposal must foster partnership among civil society and promote transparency and promote gender equity in forest conservation

The time limit of the project proposals will depend on the nature of the activities and outputs required from the activities to contribute to the program objectives, but it must not exceed one year;
A proposal will be required to have a monitoring and evaluation plan, which indicates benchmarks and impact indicators. The plan will indicate how information will be collected to measure the impact indicators;
Environmental risks should be well reviewed and mitigating action well documented;

Reports will be submitted quarterly depending upon the nature of the activity.
Counterpart contribution if applicable will be agreed upon and endorsed in the grant agreement.