GEF SGP, Call for Proposals on Capacity Development

I.  Background:

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) provides nongovernmental and community‐based organizations (NGOs/CBOs) in developing countries with grants to enable them to tackle climate change, conserve biodiversity, protect international waters, reduce the impact of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), and prevent land degradation. With these environment‐centred “grant projects” the programme also seeks to generate sustainable livelihoods and reduce poverty in the world’s neediest countries and regions. The SGP motto is “community action with global impact!”

The GEF SGP works in 126 countries all over the world. SGP Moldova was opened in 2012 and started financing projects in 2013. Since then, it has succeeded in funding and providing technical support for more than 11 grantee projects. The Programme is a GEF corporate programme, implemented by UNDP and executed by UNOPS.

Effective partnerships are key for SGP Moldova’s success. From management structures and funding mechanisms to grass‐roots action, partnerships permeate all aspects of SGP operations. NGOs/CBOs are viable channels to promote community empowerment, ownership and participation in development and can thus be considered as the most significant SGP partner. They can play an effective role in better understanding the local community's needs and demands and must be given a full chance to fulfill their responsibilities towards those communities.

II. Objectives:

In addition to the usual capacity development activities included in focal area project, SGP can have grant‐making in Capacity Development as an additional focal area. These grants consist of standalone projects that are strategic and support the work of the other focal areas at the portfolio level.

Specific objectives can be outlined as follows:

1. Improve awareness and understanding about the GEF SGP country programme and its strategy and results;

2. Exchange of experiences between NGOs/CBOs working to address global environment issues in order to facilitate exchange of knowledge and replication of best practices;

3. Promote and strengthen partnerships among all concerned stakeholders, such as, NGOs/CBOs, international funding agencies, government & local authorities, the business community, and local communities.

III. Outputs:

The expected outputs of the Capacity Building grants are as follows:

The applicants can select one or several outputs of the Capacity Development grant.

It is recommended to consult with SGP National Coordinator and/or National Steering Committee members when developing the project proposals.

IV. Budget:

The SGP grant should not exceed US$50,000. The total amount available for Capacity Building grants is US$130,000.

The NGOs are encouraged to propose co-financing as 1:1 to the granted funds. Please consult the Guidance Note for details.

V. Eligible Organizations:

Only local nonprofit organizations can apply.

VI. Procedures and deadlines for submitting proposals:

The project proposals will be developed following the Guidance Note.

Proposals submitted by two (2) or more Proposers shall all be rejected if they are found to have any of the following:

1. they have at least one controlling partner, director or shareholder in common; or
2. any one of them receive or have received any direct or indirect subsidy from the other/s; or
3. they have the same legal representative for purposes of this Call for Proposal (CFP); or
4. they have a relationship with each other, directly or through common third parties, that puts them in a position to have access to information about, or influence on the Proposal of, another Proposer regarding this RFP process;
5. they are subcontractors to each other’s Proposal, or a subcontractor to one Proposal also submits another Proposal under its name as lead Proposer; or
6. an expert proposed to be in the team of one Proposer participates in more than one Proposal received for this CFP process. This condition does not apply to subcontractors being included in more than one Proposal.

VII. Application:

Offers can be submitted either in hard copy, or electronically. Offers received by fax will be rejected. Incomplete offers shall not be examined.

a) Documents/offers in hard copy need to be submitted in a sealed envelope (marked “GEF SGP CD, April 2016, [name of the applicant NGO]”) and addressed to:

UNDP Moldova

131, 31 August 1989 Street, MD-2012, Chisinau

Attention: Registry Office/GEF SGP UNOPS

b) Offers sent electronically need to be addressed to the following e-mail address:

tenders-moldova@undp.org, titled in the message subject line as “GEF SGP CD, April 2016, [name of the applicant NGO]”.

The deadline for submitting the offers is 27th of April 2016, 17:00 (GMT +3).

Offers received after the deadline will be rejected. Applications sent by e-mail should not exceed 5 MB in size. Applications larger than 5 MB should be split into several messages and each message subject should indicate “part x of y” besides the marking mentioned in the announcement and the solicitation documents. All electronic submissions are confirmed by an automatic reply from tenders-Moldova@undp.org. If you do not receive a confirmation by email, please, contact UNDP Moldova Registry Office by phone +373 (0) 22 220-045.

For any additional information on the call for proposals, please contact:

Mrs. Inessa Galitchi,

National Coordinator, The GEF Small Grants Programme, Moldova

E-mail: Inessag@unops.org

Tel: (+373) 22 839-876, Mob. (+373) 79440234

VIII. Supporting documents:

1. The Letter of Invitation (English);
2. Announcement (English, Romanian, Russian)
3. Project Application form (Romanian, Russian);
4. Annex 4, Budget justification form (Romanian, Russian);
5. Applicant’s Guideline (Romanian, Russian).

For more details.