4th Call for Proposals
Technical assistance for policy, legislation and institutional capacity
How to apply
March 2011
Table of contents
Background 3
Technical assistance proposals 3
Technical assistance from FAO 3
Eligibility requirements 4
Funding limits 5
Proposal submission 5
Deadlines for submission 6
Scoring and selection process 6
Proposal format 10
Part I. Project summary 10
Part II. Project description 13
Part III. Creating an enabling environment for FLEGT Action Plan implementation 14
Part IV. Budget and budget description 15
Background
Illegal logging poses a serious challenge to the establishment and maintenance of efficient markets and sustainable logging practices in a global economy that is increasingly seeking assurances regarding the legal and sustainable production of wood and wood products. Illegal behaviour in the logging sector results in lost government revenue, missed industry development opportunities, and increased environmental damage and social problems.
In 2003, the European Commission adopted the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan[1], with the ultimate goal of encouraging sustainable management of forests. Ensuring the legality of forest operations is considered a vital first step. The plan focuses on governance reforms and capacity building to ensure that the timber exported to the European Union (EU) comes only from legal sources.
The ACP-FLEGT Support Programme is a four-year programme implemented by FAO and providing technical and financial resources to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to support the development of an enabling environment for implementation of the FLEGT Action Plan elements.
Technical assistance proposals
Proposals for technical assistance should address activities that will contribute to an improved enabling environment for implementing FLEGT elements, through review of policy, legislative and regulatory frameworks, capacity building of institutions, or improving communications among ACP stakeholders. Projects should contribute to existing long-term programmes or strategies. Programme support to each proposal is limited to a maximum of 50 000 EUR, or approximately US$67 000. Proponents must be prepared to provide a financial or in-kind contribution in addition to the requested amount and equal to at least 20 percent of that amount. Technical assistance proposals should have an implementation timetable of approximately six months.
Technical assistance from FAO
If proponents wish to receive technical assistance on topics for which expertise is not readily available in their country or for which there are no appropriate experts known to the proponent organization, they may receive it, on request, from FAO experts or external experts recommended by FAO. Topics for which technical assistance may be provided include improved law enforcement capacity in the forest sector, governance, legislative analysis, institutional capacity, trade and market data management and analysis, forest resource monitoring and forest industries.
To obtain FAO technical assistance, the proponent should submit a proposal in accordance with the guidelines. In Part 1: Project summary, the proponent should request that FAO organize and provide specialized technical assistance, training or FLEGT-related communications support. Typically, the resources available through a standard technical assistance grant allow FAO to support two or three short-term technical assistance missions[2] and in-country logistics costs.
Please contact ACP-FLEGT Support Programme management for more information on the availability and access to technical assistance from FAO.
Eligibility requirements
The following general requirements must be met to be eligible for support through the programme:
1. The proponent is currently registered in the ACP country in which activities are proposed (in the case of regional proposals the proponent should be registered in at least one of the countries represented in a regional proposal).
2. The proponent is a government institution, civil society organization[3] or private sector organization[4].
3. The proposal directly addresses elements of the FLEGT Action Plan and addresses issues from at least one of the nine recommended thematic areas:
a. Capacity building and training
b. VPA support
c. Policy and legal frameworks
d. Verification systems
e. Transparency and independent monitoring
f. Private sector initiatives
g. Community-based FLEGT initiatives
h. Domestic and regional markets
i. FLEGT information support
4. Civil society and private sector organizations submitting proposals must provide a letter of recommendation from the Head of Forestry or names of reference people from the government forestry agency. The letter of recommendation or references is used to verify that the government is aware of the proposal and that it has been discussed within the national forestry development context.
5. The proposal is complete and follows the required format (see format section of the guidelines).
6. The proposal is within the grant financial parameters:
a. the requested grant is under the maximum limit of 50 000 EUR (or US$67,000); and
b. the proponent contribution, financial or in-kind, is at least 20 percent of the requested grant.
While not a requirement for eligibility, countries are encouraged to develop projects through an existing national-level multi-stakeholder process to ensure relevance, consistency with national priorities and broad ownership of the proposal by stakeholders. The programme can support the development of such national multi-stakeholder processes if local stakeholders request assistance.
ATTENTION: Civil society organizations and private sector organizations planning to submit technical assistance proposals are encouraged to provide a “letter of endorsement” from the Head of Forestry as a demonstration of local ownership and consistency with national FLEGT policy and strategies. The letter of endorsement is not an obligation for eligibility. The letter of endorsement is to encourage proponents to work through and consult with local stakeholder fora and government institutions to develop proposals that support nationally driven FLEGT processes.
Please refer to the ACP-FLEGT programme website (www.fao.org/forestry/acp-flegt) for more information on recommended thematic areas and projects currently funded through the programme.
During this call for proposals three thematic areas will be emphasised:
1. Support to private sector initiatives;
2. Support to address domestic and regional market issues; and
3. Support for sharing FLEGT information and knowledge.
Funding limits
A limit of 2 pilot projects and 1 technical assistance project per country has been established for each call for proposals. If aggregate project funding in a country exceeds 680,000 Euro, the country will be limited to 1 project in the subsequent call for proposals.
Proposal submission
All proposals must be signed by the proponent and submitted in English or French, Spanish or Portuguese to the fax number or e-mail address below. E-mail proposals should be submitted with a scanned copy of the signature page. Proponents will receive written notice confirming receipt and registration of the proposal shortly after the submission deadline.
Robert Simpson
Programme Manager
ACP-FLEGT Support Programme
FAO of the United Nations
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00153 Rome, Italy
Fax number: +39 06 570 55514
E-mail:
Deadlines for submission
The proposal submission deadline is Friday, 20 May 2011 before 1700h GMT +1.
Scoring and selection process
All proposals submitted to the programme will be evaluated according to the following process.
If any component of the proposal is found to be inconsistent with the processes and format established in the guideline for calls for proposals, the proposal may be rejected.
Step 1. Screening for eligibility
All incoming proposals will be registered by the Project Management Unit (PMU), and screened against the eligibility criteria defined in the guideline for calls for proposals.
Proposals that meet the eligibility criteria will be reviewed by the Expert Panel.
Step 2. Proposal evaluation and scoring
The PMU will send the eligible proposals to members of the Expert Panel for individual evaluation and scoring. Each proposal must be evaluated by at least two members of the Expert Panel.
The Expert Panel will score proposals based on the selection criteria and scoring presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Evaluation criteria and scoring
Evaluation criteria / Max. possible points / Points received / Comments1. Adequate scale: the budget requested should be realistic and consistent with the planned actions / 20 points
2. Consistency with and relevance for forest sector priorities and/or national forest programmes/poverty reduction strategies/national forest policies or other sector strategies that address FLEGT issues; and, if applicable, consistency with priority themes established by the Steering Committee / 15 points
3. Appropriateness of proposed strategy: the implementation strategy in the proposal should reflect a logical process to achieve the expected results. / 15 points
4. Innovation and catalytic character: projects should include innovative, potentially mainstreamed/replicable approaches, or contribute to programmes with these characteristics / 10 points
5. Sustainable outcomes: activities should complement/contribute to successful implementation of an existing or ongoing national programme / 10 points
6. Stakeholder participation: projects should involve relevant stakeholders and provide opportunities for stakeholder participation / 10 points
7. Lesson learning: proposals should contribute to wider dissemination of ideas, lessons learned and best practices, with specific opportunities for feedback to stakeholders / 10 points
8. Partnership: collaborative efforts are preferred over single organization activities / 10 points
TOTAL POINTS / 100 points
A maximum of 100 points are available for the eight criteria. A total of 70 points and a minimum of 50% of available points in each criterion are required to be eligible for funding.
If there are more proposals with scores of at least 70 points than can be funded in the current funding cycle, the Expert Panel will provide a hierarchy of scores and a list of proposals they recommend for funding.
If a proposal scores less than 70, but the proposal idea merits further development, the Expert Panel can recommend to the PMU that the proponent be given the opportunity to revise the proposal and resubmit it in the next cycle.
The Expert Panel will prepare an evaluation report summarizing the results of the evaluation process.
Step 3. Review by the Executive Committee
The FAO Executive Committee will review the proposals recommended by the Expert Panel in the evaluation report. The Executive Committee may comment or request clarifications and will take into account thematic and regional balance among the six ACP regions[5] when making final recommendations. Based on its review, the Executive Committee may modify the final report before approval.
Step 4. Checking for duplication
The list of proposals approved by the Executive Committee will be forwarded for review by other FLEGT support institutions, to reduce the risk of duplicate funding.
Step 5: Steering Committee endorsement
The PMU will forward the finalized report to the Steering Committee for review and final endorsement. Before endorsement, the Steering Committee may request clarification, present alternative perspectives or seek additional information from the PMU.
After endorsement by the Steering Committee, the PMU will inform all the proponents of the evaluation results. The PMU will initiate contractual arrangements with the proponents of selected projects.
Figure 1: Selection process for Calls for Proposals
Proposal format
Proposals should be no more than ten pages, formatted on A4 paper, and written in Times New Roman size 12 font. Additional relevant information may be submitted in annexes for reference.
Part I. Project summary (cover page)
1.1 Project title:
Title of the project
1.2 Type of assistance proposed:
Please check the box that most accurately describes the type of technical assistance proposed by the proponent. Check the first box if the proponent is requesting FAO to provide or recommend technical assistance (TA). Check the second box if the proponent has identified another source of technical assistance:
· TA provided through FAO q· TA identified by the proponent q
1.3 Project proponent:
· Organization name:· Office address:
· City and postal code:
· Country:
· Mailing address (if different from the office address):
· Email address:
· Office, cell phone and fax numbers:
· Website (if available):
Check the box that designates the type of organization:
Government institution qCivil society organization q
Private sector organization q
1.4 Contact person:
· Point of contact name:· Title:
· Email address:
· Office phone number:
· Cell phone number:
1.5 Thematic area addressed:
Review the nine thematic areas on the ACP-FLEGT Support Programme website and list the one thematic area that best describes the objectives of the proposal.
1.6 Government references or letter of endorsement:
Civil society and private sector organization must provide either a letter of Endorsement from the Head of Forestry or at least two references of government forestry agency personnel familiar with the proposal. Each reference should include the person’s name, title, address, e-mail and telephone number. Check the box as appropriate.[6]
· Letter of Endorsement q· References q
· Not applicable q
If providing references, please include the following contact information of the references:
· Name:· Title:
· Phone number:
· Email address:
1.7 Funding summary:
Total (in US$)Requested funds:
Requested TA from FAO:
Proponent contribution:
TOTAL PROPOSED COST:
Identify the total cost, total amount of funds requested in the proposal and the total amount that will be provided through the proponent contribution (express monetary values in US$). If the technical assistance is to be provided by FAO, please specify duration of the mission and the type and level of expertise on the line “Requested TA from FAO”. Do not quantify the USD value of those missions.
1.8 Organization background (1/2 page):
Please provide background information about the institution, including its mission statement, institutional objectives, number of employees, financial management capacity, work history highlights and current projects.
1.9 Declaration and signature:
All information contained in this proposal is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge. This proposal is not currently and has not been previously funded by another institution.
Date______Signature______
(signature and name of project proponent)
Part II. Project description
2.1 Context and problem statement (maximum 1 page):
Please describe the problem that the requested assistance will address, as well as the context and factors that perpetuate the problem. Confine the description to relevant forest related policy, legislation, law enforcement, economic, and social issues.