Americas Region, All-Sbus

Americas Region, All-Sbus

Americas Region, All-SBUs

2017-2018 Americas Challenge Fund

INTERNAL CALL FOR PROPOSALS

  1. Background and objectives

The new British Council 2017-2020 corporate plan continues to focus on promoting Security and Stability; Prosperity and Development and Influence and Attraction to the UK and the countries where we operate.Priorities for impact are defined by a range of programmatic areas defined below (Corporate Plan 2017-2020):

There is also strong new guidance considering internal policy, finances and accountability for our grant expenditure. Part of our task is to get better at spending our grant more evenly across the year and better planning projects that are more easilytracked, recorded and connected to high-level regional and corporate objectives related to impact and sustainability.

The regional strategies and country plans have been finalized, indicating priority areas and strategic objectives of each operation.

Therefore, under the curatorship of the Americas region, this 2017-2018Americas Challenge Fund seeks to encourage the development of new or enhancement of impactful, larger-scale and sustainable projects in the region by providing further support in line with country, regional and corporate priorities.Eligible proponents are country teams (working together or individually) which can submit through their Country Directors proposals under the Fund´s Projects line. An individual country can apply alone, but we will prioritise bids which strengthen collaboration. Criteria and process for submission are explained in further detail below.

This document establishes the main criteria for proposal submission and selection process.

  1. About the funding:

The region is making available £500k for projects. We are looking to support projects at large-scale or with scaling–up potential. Budgets submitted can range from 50k (minimum request) to 200k per project and the region might work with countries for budget revisions to an optimal amount if needed before granting the award.

Requests from the Challenge Fund may amount to 100% of the delivery costs, but we will prioritise bids which demonstrate evidence of leverage in either cash or in-kind income.Countries are encouraged to talk to potential partners in advance of bidding and may want to submit evidence of partners disposition to commit (e-mails, MOUs, contracts, etc.), although this is not necessary at this stage.

75% of the requested amount from the region needs to be spent by December 31st.

The funding covers all direct delivery costs generally covered by the British Council grant. Temporary additional project staff costs can be included.

  1. About timelines:

Funding and execution shall take place in the following phases:

  1. May 8nd to May 24thcall is open and submissions are being drafted individually or with internal or external partners;
  2. May 24th, a two page concept note (template attached) submitted to Camila Morsch via email;
  3. June 1st, agreement on chosen projects to proceed to full proposal reached by panel and announced to participants through the Americas regional page (intranet) and email to all proponents
  4. June 26th, full-proposal due (project TORs, Budget, and Logframe in template provided by region to shortlisted projects) (submission via email to Camila Morsch)
  5. June 30th, selection process, agreement reached by panel and funds disbursed
  6. July 1stto December 22nd (75% of execution of proposed activities met)
  7. January 1st to March 30th (residual activities up to 25% per project, and impact assessment of activities ready).
  1. Projects line
  2. Thematic areas and priorities:
  3. Projects that demonstrate strong evidence of impact (understood by connection with selected indicators of the BC Results and Evidence Framework and reach/scorecard) will be prioritised
  4. Projects that fit in with regional priorities in the Arts, Education and Society and English can apply. You should consult with your SBU lead to check strategic alignment.
  5. Cross-SBU projects are encouraged as are cross-country bids (but not mandatory)
  6. A focus on specific groups such as youth, vulnerable communities and women and girls is encouraged (but not mandatory)
  7. Who can apply

Representatives (CDs) of all countries in the region, proposing projects individually orin coordination with more countries (in this case, a lead country needs to be nominated and the CD of such country will be the leading proponent; the budget can be shared), and/or local partners with ability to co-fund (not mandatory but encouraged).

In case of applying with external partners (including for co-funding), a letter of intent from third-party and any due diligence needs to be delivered and/or carried out by country before grant-making (at full proposal stage).

  1. Assessment – Quality Criteria

The assessment process will be co-led by, at least, one external evaluator as well as other 4 British Councilrepresentatives of the region and/or the UK, across all programmatic SBUs, including a Finance representative. A panel of 5 evaluators will blindly score the projects according to the previously established criteria and the higher-ranking projects will receive the grant, upon final budgetary agreement with the region.

The candidates’ assessment shall take place within the following framework:

  • Relevance and quality ofconcept note or full-proposal in relation to the strategic objectives selected as main areas for action measured through its capacity to contribute to corporate results and impact on the ground (REF level 2). At full proposal stage we will be looking at coherent methodology (log frame) and robust budget (budget template filled accordingly); (20 points)
  • Benefit Youth or Women (5 points)
  • Digital and scale-up potential (10 points)
  • Partnership income expected/committed or potential to leverage (10 points)
  • Cross-country or cross-SBU (5 points)
  • Growth of existent programme/project/action (10 points) (such as Active Citizens, Building Movement, Core Skills, Unlimited, WOW, Run Free, English-PEP, English For Resilience, etc.)
  • Total of 60 points

d. How to Apply

  1. Work within country, with more than one country and/or external partners to submit a two-page concept note using the attached template provided by May 24th. Country Director sends to Camila Morsch on that day (regardless of time);
  2. When/if shortlisted to second stage:
  3. Project TORs (template will be provided) – including timeline for execution
  4. Project Logical Frame (template will be provided)
  5. Project budget (template will be provided)
  6. Optional: Partners letter of intent (could be an email statement) from third-parties. Letter of intent should expressly denote disposition to co-fund.
  7. Country Directors to sign off via email and lead CD (if more than one country is involved) to send to Camila Morsch by June 26th, regardless of time.
  1. Questions and support

For any questions, please contact Camila Morschon d/or Renata Coccaro on

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