The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has invited Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Non-Govern-mental Organisations (NGOs) to submit proposals for funding of up to US$1 million.
According to an IDB press release, the groups must be working in three specific areas—gender; community and rural development; and education and social protection—in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Funding is available to all legally established CSOs and NGOs in any of the IDB’s 26 borrowing countries and will be awarded to the groups that submit as “innovative proposal to support communities and vulnerable groups.”
In order to be eligible, the group must support well-targeted poverty reduction and social development activities that respond directly to the needs of socially and/or economically disadvantaged people.
They must also be able to stimulate widespread stakeholder participation (i.e. civil society groups) at the community level.
The current call for proposals is supported by financing from the Japanese Poverty Alleviation fund.
The press release said proposals in the Education and Social Protection category should focus on early childhood development for children between 0 and 8 years; teacher quality for primary and secondary education; and youth interventions to protect from risky behaviours. In the gender category, proposals should focus on caring services for young and elderly people; violence against women (VAW) and implementation of pilot tests (including evaluation) of community-based approaches in the prevention of VAW.
In the Community-Driven Rural Development category, proposals should focus on prevention of diseases and agricultural health and water and sanitation for disperse and poor rural households.
The groups must also pilot alternative and innovative approaches or partnerships with CSOs, including community-based organisations, as implementing agencies to reach groups currently not being reached by other programmes, and they must support capacity building of community-based organisations in low income communities to provide sustainable solutions for poverty reduction.
Entries close on May 15, 2013, and the Guyana country office of the IDB will host an open forum to brief all interested CSOs and to clear up issues about eligibility requirements, assessment criteria and eligible sectors.
Last year’s call for proposals was won by Partners of the Americas, (Guyana Chapter), which received US$1,161,000 for its project, “Development of sustainable communities through the hydroponic production of organic vegetables.” The project aimed to provide opportunities to low-income households to become self-employed entrepreneurs in organic hydroponic farming.
