GEF Small Grant Program- Call for Proposals 2017

The GEF Small Grants Programme-UNDP is accepting proposals in the five thematic areas:

• Biodiversity
• Land degradation
• Climate Change
• International Water
• Chemicals

Deadline for proposals submission is 31 August 2017.

Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grant Program (SGP)

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

• Mission

Established in 1992, the year of the Rio Earth Summit, the GEF Small Grants Programme embodies the very essence of sustainable development by “thinking globally acting locally“. By providing financial and technical support to projects that conserve and restore the environment while enhancing people’s well-being and livelihoods, SGP demonstrates that community action in collaboration with local authorities (municipalities), can maintain the fine balance between human needs and environmental imperatives.

• SGP Country Program Structure

The SGP operates through a National Coordinator (NC), a Programme Assistant (PA), and a National Steering Committee (NSC) for projects selection. The NSC is composed of representatives from different sectors (Government and ministries, private sector, civil society organizations NGOs, academic and scientific institutions, expert and UNDP CO).

• Focal Areas

The GEF Small Grants Programme, provides communities and civil society organizations with grants to enable them to implement projects in the focal areas of:

• Conservation of biodiversity: in protected areas, critical forest ecosystems, and conservation of biodiversity related to sustainable agriculture.
• Climate change mitigation: by reducing the percentage of greenhouses gases emission.
• Prevention of Land degradation and soil erosion.
• Protection of International Waters.
• Reduction of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)/chemicals.

• Types of projects:

Under priorities and focal areas mentioned above, grant is awarded to projects with the following activities:

• Support planning in participation of the community: The maximum grant is US $ 2,000. The project aims to involve the community in determining the actual situation and developing plans to improve it.

• Pilot projects: including projects with innovative ideas and application of appropriate techniques and technologies, feasibility study of these projects, encouraging project replication and scaling up.

• Capacity building: aims to build the capacity of NGOs (training, technical support …) to implement local activities within the priorities and focal areas of interest of SGP.

• Monitoring and analysis: includes support of associations and research centers (especially universities) in projects that aims at assisting in monitoring existing projects, documenting successful projects, and drawing lessons learned.

• Networking, policy discussion and information dissemination: including projects that support dissemination of information on successful projects, networking projects that provide joint work among all stakeholders, and projects related to advocacy to correct policies.

The maximum grant for one project is $ 50,000, as well as the maximum limit for one proponent is $ 50,000.

• Project Selection Criteria

The applicant must:

• Have experience, credibility and good governance (transparency, democracy, acceptance from the community and have previous experience in the field).
• Be representative (public committee, NGO, research center or academic institution).
• Coordinate with other local partners (public committees, NGOs, municipalities, private sector, youth clubs, women’s associations, etc.).
• Have the ability to write narrative and financial progress reports and to propose ways to modify and evaluate the project.
• Be a non-profit, non-governmental body.
• Have a bank account.

Documents required:

• Official license /legal registration (علم وخبر) for more than two years.
• Last minutes of meeting for the election of the president and board.
• Financial reports for the past two years.
• Background information on experience in management and execution of similar previous projects
• Annual Activities Reports

• Project specifications:
  Priority is given to projects covering the following specifications:
• Value and objective of the project:
• Address an environmental focal area among the five GEF priorities as mentioned above in the section 3).
• Project implementation benefits :
• Meet urgent local needs.
• Create job opportunities.
• Serves a marginalized area
• Encourage partnerships and exchange of information among stakeholders (government institutions, private sector, academic institutions, international institutions, and NGOs …)
• Have an impact on policy making
• Contribute to:
  • sustainable human development
  • Contribute to capacity building of the concerned organizations
  • poverty reduction
  • Women empowerment

• Tools and method of implementation
• To adopt a strategy to engage the community and attract support for the project
• To adopt innovation and replication in other regions
• Adopt appropriate technology (environmentally friendly)
• Take into account gender equality
• Include consultations with stakeholders
• Continue after the completion of the implementation period
• be able to secure additional funding from other sources
• To be in line with other projects supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UNDP projects

• Project components

The project must:

• assess the environmental impact of the project
• contain a monitoring and evaluation plan

• Administrative and Formal Requirements
• The project implementation period should not exceed 3 years.
• The participation of the program in financing the project should not exceed $ 50,000
• The project proposal document should be submitted according to the template prepared by the program
• the project proposal should include:

• The required documents related to the project (official license, written commitment, contracts, and documents of ownership or lease of real estate …).

• The expected project results and impacts that can be measured based on well-defined indicators

• The contributions of the proposed project from other sources of funding should equal the amount required from SGP (50% in kind contributions and 50% in cash contributions)

• Grant process (5 phases)

Phase I – Call for proposals:

1- Announcing selection criteria and call for participation (through the media, the relevant ministries and holding meetings …)

2. Contact the proposed project associations with the SGP National Coordinator to obtain project guidelines and application forms for the proposal.

3 – Preparation of the project proposal paper explaining the project in brief and submission to the National Coordinator using the template form.

4. The National Coordinator shall review the proposals taking first into consideration GEF focal areas and other criteria adopted by the SGP national steering committee (NSC).
5. The association shall submit the full project proposal if the project meets the required conditions by 31^st of August 2017 12 noon.

Phase II – Review of proposals:

1. The National Coordinator shall review the proposed project documents and prepare a preliminary assessment of their compliance with the basic formal standards, and therefore exclude projects that do not meet these criteria.
2. The National Coordinator shall present the full and qualified project proposals to the National Steering Committee of the Program.
3. The National Steering Committee shall review, approve or reject the proposed projects or return them back to the proposed entity in order to add or make changes or clarifications related to the formulation of the project.

Phase III – Final selection:

1. Approval of the projects by the National Steering Committee
2. Inclusion of projects approved in the national action plan (NAP)
3. Signing of an agreement between the Grantee and the Program, represented by the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program

Phase IV – Training:

1- Training grantees on program requirements during implementation

Phase V – Financing payments – include three or four installments paid:

1. at the beginning of the project
2. after submission of a first progress report with a financial report
3. after the submission of the second progress report
4. after completion of the project on the basis of a final report and a final financial

Documents required:

• Official license /legal registration (علم وخبر) for more than two years.
• Last minutes of meeting for the election of the president and board.
• Financial reports for the past two years.
• Background and experience in similar projects
• CV of the project managers.
• Documents confirming the cash and/or in-kind contribution (real estate, offices…) or other resources related to the project (especially from other partners).
• Annual Activities Reports

SGP Proposal template نموذج مقترح مشروع لمرفق البيئة العالمية/ برنامج المنح الصغيرة

موازنة المشروع Project Budget Time Table 

For further information please contact Mr. Adnan Melky on 00961 3 641174 or Miss Rebecca Baisari on 00961 70 717350. or by email: adnanm@unops.org or rebeccabaissari@hotmail.com.