Call for Proposal: Urgent Action Fund — Transcript

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1. 0:05Hello everyone, my name is Vlonga
2. 0:08and I'm an NG fundraising and resource
3. 0:10mobilization expert. Now today we are
4. 0:13beginning a very exciting series on
5. 0:16supporting NOS's to understand call for
6. 0:19proposals in order to place or advance
7. 0:22highquality
8. 0:23technical application documents that can
9. 0:25actually win. Now what we are doing
10. 0:27right now is that we are breaking down
11. 0:29each and every call for proposals
12. 0:31looking at the legibility criteras and
13. 0:33all the issues and the areas that they
14. 0:36need end us to look into uh before or
15. 0:40during application. We aim to build the
16. 0:43capacity of NOS to present a very
17. 0:46credible um technical proposal or
18. 0:51technical document during application
19. 0:52process. I've worked as a proposal
20. 0:54reviewer as well as writing technical
21. 0:56proposals. So I I want to use the
22. 0:58knowledge and the skills that I've
23. 1:00acquired over time to bring NGOs's
24. 1:02especially in the global south closer to
25. 1:05winning grant uh applications. So now
26. 1:08today we are looking at a funding
27. 1:11opportunity by an NGO called agent
28. 1:14action fund Africa. I want to pronounce
29. 1:16the name very clearly to help you to go
30. 1:18and Google and actually access the the
31. 1:21further details. So it's called agent
32. 1:23action fund. The focus area is to invest
33. 1:27in women right organizations and
34. 1:28networks in Africa. I want to begin by
35. 1:30letting you know that organizations are
36. 1:33now donors are now increasingly focusing
37. 1:36on networks and consortiums because they
38. 1:38want to
39. 1:40um focus on value for investment while
40. 1:44at the same time um improving structures
41. 1:47and systems so that NGOs can um respond
42. 1:51properly to um social issues uh while
43. 1:55also preserving the the value for their
44. 1:58investment. So uh we are unpacking one
45. 2:00of the most exciting funding
46. 2:01opportunities currently available for
47. 2:03African NGO and the agent action fund is
48. 2:08a pan Africa African feminist grand
49. 2:10maker. It was established in the year
50. 2:122001
51. 2:14and um it it supports uh women
52. 2:17organization feminist movement and
53. 2:19networks across Africa. Actually it
54. 2:22respond to what he call power imbalance
55. 2:24by equipping women organization with
56. 2:25authority, information and power to uh
57. 2:29to respond to issues uh that have
58. 2:32undermine the uh opportunity and
59. 2:35participation of women. The grant will
60. 2:37be between a maximum of $200,000 US and
61. 2:41will be implemented uh for a maximum of
62. 2:4430 months and the deadline for
63. 2:46application is on 12th of August. So
64. 2:48what is this funding all about?
65. 2:51uh their funding is designed to
66. 2:53strengthen women right organization we
67. 2:56call it
68. 2:57and networks themselves so what they
69. 3:00seek to do is to build systems and
70. 3:02capacity so that these organizations can
71. 3:05respond appropriately to the issues that
72. 3:07are are affecting women I also need to
73. 3:10mention this for the sake of creativity
74. 3:13that they are
75. 3:15largely interested in organizations that
76. 3:18respond to epic sorts of issues and
77. 3:21emergencies that that can be predicted
78. 3:25but there violates the the right of
79. 3:26women. So then once they support you,
80. 3:31you need to prove during the technical
81. 3:33application that it will lead to a
82. 3:35sustainable stronger movement providing
83. 3:38long-term impact. There should be
84. 3:39short-term gains
85. 3:42um low hanging fruits as well as
86. 3:44medium-term and long-term uh impact. If
87. 3:47you are an organization working in the
88. 3:48following areas, then you qualify. Women
89. 3:51right organizations, feminist
90. 3:52organizations, women networks,
91. 3:55coalitions, national origin alliances
92. 3:58and you are legally operating in the
93. 4:00continent.
94. 4:01Now um you must be registered that I
95. 4:05already mentioned you must operate
96. 4:07within a geographical scope and there
97. 4:10has to be evidence of previous similar
98. 4:14project or activity that you
99. 4:16implemented. So what are the issues that
100. 4:18you can do? What are some of the
101. 4:20projects? Uh we decided to mention this
102. 4:23to help you in your thinking or project
103. 4:25design. Gender justice which is
104. 4:27protecting and advancing the rights of
105. 4:29women. So they they are very particular
106. 4:31about the aspect of justice. So when
107. 4:33you're deciding a project in that area
108. 4:35notice that then there is what we call
109. 4:37economic justice or distributive justice
110. 4:39if you are also focused on political
111. 4:42philosophy women livelihoods, economic
112. 4:45empowerment, financial inclusion, decent
113. 4:48work and women entrepreneurship. All
114. 4:51these programs should be structured as
115. 4:53social enterprises with a very strong
116. 4:56emphasis on sustainability. And you have
117. 4:58to develop a very you have to
118. 4:59demonstrate a clear and a stronger
119. 5:01linkage between uh poverty and what is
120. 5:05called uh the issues that undermine the
121. 5:07rights of women. You know the problem
122. 5:08tree that we always talk about. You can
123. 5:11focus on climate and environmental
124. 5:13justice which is something I would do
125. 5:15for myself because I know the
126. 5:16correlation talking about climate
127. 5:18resilience uh natural resource
128. 5:20governance, women participation in
129. 5:23climate action but sometimes I always
130. 5:26advise people to do what is called
131. 5:28gendered uh women right u climate
132. 5:32sensitive empowerment so that you bring
133. 5:33those two issues together democratic
134. 5:35governance women political participation
135. 5:38especially if you're operating from a
136. 5:40place Kenya where we headed to election
137. 5:42that is an urgent issue that they can
138. 5:44fund uh strengthening the leadership of
139. 5:47women
140. 5:49uh enhancing civic engagement advocacy
141. 5:51and policy for a fair uh competition
142. 5:55environment uh you can do on conflict
143. 5:58transformation where you do peace
144. 6:00building protecting of women rights
145. 6:01defenders this is the project I did in
146. 6:03the first protecting of women wh
147. 6:07it's a very critical component where you
148. 6:09equip civil society organizations with
149. 6:12the knowledge on how to gather evidence,
150. 6:14disseminate it, advocacy, work with what
151. 6:16is called um community actors or
152. 6:19community champions.
153. 6:21All these align perfectly with the agent
154. 6:24action fund Africa's broader mission to
155. 6:27support women agency. Now I need you to
156. 6:31look at five things. They have not
157. 6:32indicated this but I need to advise you
158. 6:34on five things I know um action fund
159. 6:37will be probably looking out for in
160. 6:39organizations.
161. 6:41So they are not just investing in
162. 6:44activities but you must demonstrate that
163. 6:47the project will strengthen governance
164. 6:49financial systems leadership capacities
165. 6:52and enhance
166. 6:54um enhance uh lesson learning and
167. 6:57feedback. But then you must also have
168. 7:00policies regarding uh the governance
169. 7:02policy such as human resource, financial
170. 7:05management, your board management
171. 7:06criteria. I've seen this over and over
172. 7:09again. Then your theory of change must
173. 7:12be very clear. Remember there was a
174. 7:14problem then you respond to those
175. 7:16specific problems as objective. Uh then
176. 7:19now you have to de develop what is
177. 7:21called clear theory of change. If we do
178. 7:22this then we will achieve this because
179. 7:25of this leading to this. So that is how
180. 7:29the theory of change works nowadays. So
181. 7:31you have to explain the problem the root
182. 7:34causes and of course it is the root
183. 7:35causes that you will transform into
184. 7:36objectives the intervention the expected
185. 7:39transformation and then you have to
186. 7:41explain uh the sustainability.
187. 7:44Um I would propose that organizations
188. 7:48that apply are in networks
189. 7:51coalitions don't apply as individual
190. 7:54uh collaborating regionally. You can do
191. 7:56that so that you can expand the scope uh
192. 8:00peer learning and collective um
193. 8:02advocacy. I always tell people to always
194. 8:05think of innovation and innovation does
195. 8:07not mean artificial intelligence as most
196. 8:10people will think. Um do we have a
197. 8:12system for community led accountability?
198. 8:16Is there digital advocacy which is low
199. 8:18cost and sustainable?
200. 8:20Is the budgeting process participatory?
201. 8:23Uh do we have a feminist technology
202. 8:25drafted into the design? What is the
203. 8:28process of financing? Is it creative for
204. 8:31sustainability? And what is the
205. 8:33significant investment in the
206. 8:35participation of youth into the program?
207. 8:37So sustainability is something we've
208. 8:40talked about in the past in the videos.
209. 8:42What happens after the project ends? So
210. 8:44you can show institutional
211. 8:45strengthening. You can do aspect of
212. 8:48social enterprises especially if you're
213. 8:50doing the economic empowerment. You can
214. 8:52link up women with other organizations
215. 8:54for partnership capacity building. So
216. 8:57can I give you an example of u strong
217. 8:59projects that you can apply? Number one
218. 9:02uh is women led climate justice hubs.
219. 9:04Women led climate justice hubs. So I'm
220. 9:07empowering women
221. 9:09justice places but then they are climate
222. 9:11sensitive. Under this project you will
223. 9:14also train women farmers climate smart
224. 9:16agriculture we call it caps market
225. 9:18access digital weather information uh
226. 9:21carbon awareness. You can do an example
227. 9:24too like women economic accelerator
228. 9:26program. I've done this also where you
229. 9:28do what is called business incubation
230. 9:30microenterprises digital marketing
231. 9:32access to finance or mentorship and then
232. 9:35I will give you two more examples like
233. 9:37digital safety for women human right
234. 9:39defendants I also did this in informal
235. 9:42settlement in Nairobi Kenya where we
236. 9:43were training women right organization
237. 9:45on how to safely gather evidence cyber
238. 9:48security online protection emergency
239. 9:50response digital evidence collection
240. 9:52that is actually what we did example
241. 9:54four we can do a project on women in
242. 9:56local governance initiative where you
243. 9:59look at leadership development, election
244. 10:00preparedness, country like Kenya uh
245. 10:03policy advocacy, community score cards
246. 10:06and citizen engagement. Now don't write
247. 10:09generic proposals. This a mistake you do
248. 10:12be very creative. Elevate what is called
249. 10:15your past experience and scale it. Uh
250. 10:18ensure that if you're touching profile
251. 10:20it must be resultbased profile. Always
252. 10:23generate evidence citation and also your
253. 10:26experience as evidence. Do activity
254. 10:27based budget uh attach what is called
255. 10:31sustainability plan. They never talked
256. 10:33about this but it's very critical. Um
257. 10:35ensure that you the monitoring systems
258. 10:38are very strong. Don't induce weak
259. 10:40monitoring system. Uh be very creative
260. 10:43and innovation. So in closing my
261. 10:46strategic advice is this.
262. 10:49This is not the right donor if your
263. 10:50project is only about constructing
264. 10:52infrastructure or delivering services
265. 10:54without women strong participation. We
266. 10:56are purely focusing on institutional
267. 10:59strengthening women movement, women
268. 11:01leadership, economic justice, climate
269. 11:03justice policy. So I I read the
270. 11:07technical proposal in detail. We
271. 11:10reviewed it and and and I believe that
272. 11:13uh it should help you to pitch or to
273. 11:15advance a very strong proposal. Anytime
274. 11:18um you are applying grant proposal
275. 11:22ensure that your title is integrated
276. 11:24under what we call in proposal writing
277. 11:26narrative engineering. That is why we
278. 11:29use climate justice economic hub. you
279. 11:31bring two or three things together so
280. 11:33that it it helps to
281. 11:36incorporate crosscutting issues into the
282. 11:37proposal writing process. So we really
283. 11:40wish you the best. Go for it. Um work
284. 11:44out your problem tree. Identify areas
285. 11:47that may interfere with the success of
286. 11:50your proposal. Avoid generic terms. Go
287. 11:53to the website and check the language
288. 11:55that the guys are using and use the sim
289. 11:58language. uh we call it uh social
290. 12:00nomination uh for the uh feminist
291. 12:04organization. So thank you so much uh
292. 12:07follow us as we break down all other
293. 12:10funding all call for proposal to help
294. 12:11you uh advance a very winning technical
295. 12:16proposal. Thank you for now. See you in
296. 12:18the next video.