CARE Nepal/Right to Food Project

Small Grants Mechanism Guideline

1.Background

CARE Nepal and partners are implementing a project on the ‘Right to Adequate food’in Nepal from 2013-2019 with the following objective: “Representative civil society organisations have contributed to the realization of the ‘right to food’ to the benefit of the impact groups”. The impact groupis small holder farmers and landless people engaged in faming among them women and marginalized groups are an important. In order to ensure flexibility and responsiveness to the dynamic policy and civil society environment in Nepal, the Right to Food Project has made a provision of Small Grant Mechanism to be used flexibly to fund organisations and activities that are not covered in the regular Right to Food Project plan and budget;respond to issues/agendas arising during the project implementation; and support the objective of the Right to Food Project.

2.Scope of Grant

The grants will be awarded to:

Research:on the Right to adequate food in Nepal and related issues and policies (land, agriculture, climate change adaptation, exclusion, rights violations, etc.), documentation, publication and dissemination of best practices and approaches (including a critical analysis of contract and/or leasehold farming), success cases, etc.Priority will be given to research and evidence gathering which can inform the advocacy campaigns of the Right to Food Network and partners.

Capacity building and institutional strengthening: Civil society organisations representing the impact groups[1]and working on issues of right to food, land access and agriculture, will besupported for specific areas contributing to building their technical andorganizational capacity. Areas to be supported include the development of strategic plans, advocacy plans or implement specific elements of strategic and or advocacy plans which are related to the right to adequate food.

3.Eligibility

Eligible organizations include:

  • Nepalese civil society organisations, research institutions, small NGOs, networks/ federations/ associations and their chapters, and media organisations.

NB: Individual studiesor scholarships willnot be supported.

4. Geographical Areas

The small grant mechanism can support research and capacity building activities which take place across the country (also outside the working area of the Right to Food project - Okhaldhunga, Udayapur, Siraha), however, there must be a clear link and justification for how the activities feed into and are relevant to the national level right to food campaign[2].

  1. Funding duration and size of fund

The supported Small Grant activities must be completed within one yearof grant allocation. The grants will be in the range of USD 2.000[3]–15.000[4].

  1. Grant types
  2. Direct award (the Grant Award Committee contacts organisations directly and ask them to submit a concept note for review)
  3. Call for Expression of Interest(the Grant Award Committee publishes a call for proposals and all eligible organisations may apply)
  1. Application Procedure

A short Concept note in English or Nepali following the template (Annex 1 and Annex 2)must be submitted to the CARE Nepal ‘Right to Food Project’. The deadline will be stipulated in the call for Expression of Interest, which will go out at least once a year. A minimum of 15 days’ notice will be given for the concept note submission. The call will be published in national and local newspapers in the project districts and on CARE Nepal’s website.

Hard copy and electronic copies of concept notes must be submitted in the prescribed format to be considered eligible for review. Concept notes submitted electronically should be in MS Word format only.

Review and Decision Making

Concept notes will be reviewed and shortlisted based on public evaluation criteria by a 3-member Grants Award Committee.Dependent on the grant size, urgency, and volume of applications, the Grant Award Committee may ask a review team with wider representation to shortlist, provide comments and input and recommend awards. The Grant Award Committee will make the final decision on the grant allocation.

Granteesmay be asked to submit a full proposal for final review and award.In this case, the final award decision will be made based on an evaluation of the full proposal (and fulfillment of requirements).

  1. Evaluation criteria

Concept notes will be evaluated based on their relevance to the objectives of the Right to Food Project and priority themes, and their explicit linkages to the national level campaign. Concept notes must demonstrate convincing links between expected inputs, activities, outputs and results. The technical and implementation capacity of the applicant as well asthe cost-effectiveness of the proposal will be considered by the evaluation team.

Priority will be given to applicants with proven commitment to Right to Food issues and members of the Right to Food network.

  1. Administration

CARE Nepal will administer the sub-awards under the existing policies and procedures. The Right to Food Project Manager in consultation with the Grants and Budgetspecialistand other relevant CARE Nepal staff will oversee the process.

ANNEX I

Concept note for Small Grant Support (Right to Food)

  1. Activity title:
  2. Type of activity (select one):

Research ( )

Capacity building/institutional strengthening ( )

  1. Activity location:
  2. Name and address of organization (including postal, telephone and email):
  3. Name, title and contact information of primary contact:
  4. Activity duration (start and end date and time in months):
  5. Budget:

Total budget; a. Expected Project Support

c. Organization’s own contribution (cash and kind);

d. Other sources (if any):

II. NARRATIVE SECTION- (This section should not exceed 4 pages excluding budget)

  1. BACKGROUND (brief background and justification for the activity)
  2. PURPOSE AND EXPECTED OUTCOME (be concise andclearly describe the purpose of the activity (why?) and expected results (what will be achieved as a result of the activity?))
  3. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES: (describe proposed activities, target groups and methodology divided into subsections as per need)
  4. MONITORINGANDEVALUATION (describe how the activity will be monitored, how learning will be captured and shared)
  5. BUDGET (a detailed activity-wise breakdown): This should not exceed 1 page

ANNEX 2

SUGGESTED BUDGET FORMAT

Costs / Unit / No of Unit / Rate/Unit / Total cost
  1. Human Resources(please specify)

  1. Travel (incl. per diem)

  1. Equipment and office supplies (stationary, communications, etc.)

  1. Other costs (as appropriate please specify)

4.1 Publications
4.2 Costs of training/conferences/seminars/venue
…
Total funds requested from CARE
Match funding (if any)
Total costs

NB: Unit and unit rates must be specified. Lump sums will not be accepted.

1

[1]This includes those who either have a small piece of land (less than 0.2 hectares), ortenants or landless. Among them Dalits, Janajatis, female headed households, youth are often more vulnerable.

[2] For example, a study of local resource conflicts in a particular district with relevance or dissemination plan beyond that community or district would not be prioritized; but a documentation of a right to food violation in a particular district which is intended to be used as evidence for advocacy at various levels, would be a priority.

[3] In some cases smaller grants may be awarded depending on the nature and relevance of the activities proposed.

[4] The total budget for the activity may be bigger if there is secured match funding, but the amount requested may not surpass the grant maximum.