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UK AID MATCH PROPOSAL FORM
This completed form will provide detailed information about your proposal and will be used to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your project and inform funding decisions. It is very important you read the UK Aid Match Guidelines for Applicants and related documents before you complete this proposal form to ensure that you understand and take into account the relevant funding criteria.
How: You must submit a Microsoft Word version of your proposal and associated documents using the templates provided, by email, to . The form should be completed using Arial font size 12. We do not require a hard copy.
When: All documentation must be received by the published bidding round deadlines. Documents received after the deadline will not be considered.
What: You should submit the following documents: (all templates are on the UK Aid Match web page: www.gov.uk/uk-aid-match.
1. Narrative Proposal: Please use the form below, noting the following page limits:
§ Sections 1 – 7 : Maximum of 15 (fifteen) A4 pages
§ Section 8 : Maximum of 3 (three) A4 pages per partner
Please do not alter the formatting of the form and guidance notes. Proposals that exceed the page limits or that have amended formatting will not be considered.
For proposals to work in more than one country or in different regions within a country, you will need to include information about each country/region where the project context, beneficiaries, approach or the expected results are different. This is to enable DFID to assess your proposal within each of the contexts you plan to use UK Aid Match funds in.
2. Logical framework: All applicants must submit a full Logical Framework (Log-frame) and Activities Log. Please refer to the UK Aid Match Log-frame guidance and use the Excel log-frame template provided.
3. Project budget: All applicants must submit a project budget with the proposal using the template provided. Please refer to the UK Aid Match Guidance for Applicants, the budget guidance, and all tabs on the budget template. Please read all guidance notes and provide detailed budget notes to justify the budget figures.
For proposals to work in more than one country or in different regions within a country: Where there are substantial differences in the costs of the project in different countries or regions within a country, you need to include these in the budget and provide an explanation for the differences.
4. Organisational accounts: All applicants must provide a copy of their two most recent signed and audited (or examined) accounts.
5. Project organisational chart / organogram: All applicants must provide a project organisational chart or organogram which includes all the implementing partners and explains the relationships between them. Implementing partners are defined as those that manage project funds and play a prominent role in project management and delivery. The chart should also include other key stakeholders. (Please use your own format for this).
6. Project schedule or Gantt chart: All applicants must provide a project schedule or Gantt chart to show the scheduling of project activities (please use your own format for this).
7. Communications Plan: You will also need to complete a Communications Plan and submit this with your application. The plan is comprised of two parts (cover page and activity timetable).
Please complete the checklist provided in section 9 before submitting your proposal.
SECTION 1: INFORMATION ABOUT THE APPLICANT
1.1 / Lead organisation name / Concern Worldwide (UK)
1.2 / Contact person / Name: Peter Reynolds
Position: Director of Fundraising
Email:
Tel: +44 207 801 1871
SECTION 2: BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT
2.1 / Project title / Promoting Women’s Empowerment as a Pathway to Improved Household Nutrition in Central Province, Zambia
2.2 / Country(ies) where project is to be implemented / Zambia
2.3 / Locality(ies)/region(s) within country(ies) / Mumbwa District, Central Province
2.4 / Duration of grant request (in months) / 36 months
2.5 / Project start date (month and year) / April 2015
2.6 / Total project budget? In GBP sterling / £1,222,995 - per original proposal
£1,568,441 – per revised proposal after public appeal
2.7 / How much do you expect your appeal to raise? What percentage is this of the total project/programme budget? / £750,000 – per original proposal
£1,407,070 – actual eligible income from appeal
61% - per original amount
89% - in light of appeal amount actually raised
2.8 / Please specify the % of project funds to be spent in each project country / Zambia – 100%
3.1 / Which of the following Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is the project contributing to (if any)? - Please identify between one and three MDGs in order of priority (insert '1' for primary MDG focus area; '2' for secondary MDG focus area and; '3' for tertiary MDG focus area)
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger / 1
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women / 2
4. Reduce child mortality / 3
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
None of the above (please explain in section 3.3)
3.2 / Please list any of the DFID’s standard or suggested output and outcome indicators that this fund will contribute to. Please refer to the Guidance for Applicants, and the Standard Indicators document. If indicators are stated here these also need to be explicit in your logframe.
· Minimum dietary diversity (outcome)
· Minimum meal frequency (outcome)
· Percentage of women having knowledge of a specific technology being disseminated by extension systems (output 1)
· Percentage of women trying the specific technology advice from extension systems on their farms (output 3)
· Exclusive breastfeeding under 6 months (output 4)
SECTION 4: PROJECT DETAILS
4.1 / ACRONYMS
For words which you would normally use acronyms for, please write these words in full the first time you use them, followed by the acronym in brackets, and use the acronym after that. Where you feel that it would be useful to provide an explanation of any acronym, please add these here.
BCC
CHV
DNCC
IFPRI
IYCF
MAL
MCDA
MCDMCH
RAIN SMF SUN
WfC / Behavioural Change Communication
Community Health Volunteer
District Nutrition Coordinating Committee
International Food Policy Research Institute
Infant and Young Child Feeding
Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock
Mumbwa Child Development Agency
Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health
Concern Zambia project 2011-2016, “Realigning Agriculture to Improve Nutrition”
Smallholder Model Farmer
Scaling-Up-Nutrition
Women for Change
4.2 / PROJECT SUMMARY: maximum 5 lines - Please provide a brief project summary including the overall change(s) that the initiative is intending to achieve and who will benefit. Please be clear and concise and avoid the use of jargon (This should relate to the outcome statement in the logframe).
Using best practice, emerging evidence and current experience, the project will develop a sustainable model to effectively reduce child and maternal under-nutrition through a multi-sectoral approach to improved nutrition that integrates agricultural and nutrition interventions with women’s empowerment and the systematic promotion of gender equality. Beneficiaries will be the households targeted by the project with a wider potential impact from replication and scale up elsewhere.
4.3 / PROJECT DESIGN PROCESS
Describe the process of preparing this project proposal. Who has been involved in the process and over what period of time? How have the intended beneficiaries and other stakeholders been involved in the design? If a consultant or anyone from outside the lead organisation and partners assisted in the preparation of this proposal please describe the type of assistance provided.
The design process began in October 2013 and was led by Concern Zambia and Concern Health Support Unit in Dublin. The design was based on project implementation experiences and analysis of baseline data from the current Concern nutrition project, Realigning Agriculture to Improve Nutrition (RAIN)[1] and the emerging challenges in the ‘First 1000 Most Critical Days Programme’ in Zambia and was subsequently improved following the quantitative and qualitative findings of the 2014 Process Evaluation and the marketing pilot. The extensive RAIN baseline survey[2], conducted in 2011, generated significant information on various topics including anthropometry[3], infant and young child feeding (IYCF) indicators, dietary diversity scores, women’s influence in decision making, agricultural practices and HIV knowledge. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFRPI) analysis of the data in 2013 sought to determine whether ‘having greater autonomy and empowerment has implications for child nutrition status, minimum dietary diversity and preventative health seeking behaviours.” Initial findings, as presented at the RAIN Learning Event in November 2013[4], suggest that there is a linkage between women’s autonomy and children’s nutritional status, dietary diversity and health seeking behaviour. As a result, this project was designed to capitalise on this linkage and develop an approach to have a greater impact on nutrition by promoting women’s empowerment using nutrition sensitive agriculture interventions. Community involvement has been key to the design, and six Focus Group Discussions (3 male and 3 female) were held during the process. Discussions focussed around gender equality and the degree to which this influenced behaviours in the home; information and training received within the RAIN project and how this influenced knowledge and behaviour; and, particularly with men, the most effective approaches for promoting women’s empowerment and gender equality.
Consultations were held between Concern and the District Nutrition Coordinating Committee (DNCC) in Mumbwa District, who were highly supportive of the project and will be an important collaborating partner. The DNCC is a structure set up with the purpose of coordinating actors to improve nutrition outcomes in the district and includes representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL), Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health (MCDMCH), civil society, and communities. Key government departments, MAL and MCDMCH at both district and National level, were consulted on their approaches to mainstreaming gender equality at district level and the policies and guidelines they use. The technical input of the two implementing partners, WfC and MCDA, was integral to the project design.
4.4 / PROJECT RATIONALE (PROBLEM STATEMENT)
Describe the context for the proposed project, by considering the following questions. What specific aspects of poverty is the project aiming to address? What are the causal factors leading to poverty and/or disadvantage? (If applicable) what gaps in service delivery have been identified and how has your proposal considered existing services or initiatives? Why has the particular project location(s) been selected and at this particular time? Please also refer to your response to section 3.1 (fit with MDGs) when answering this section.
Undernutrition, one of the world’s most serious health problems, is not just an effect of poverty, but a cause, creating ill health and poor cognitive development, blighting economic productivity, and preventing people from reaching their full potential. Falling hardest on the very poor, women and children, more than 3.1 million deaths annually are attributed to maternal and child undernutrition. Chronic undernutrition (stunting) is the most prevalent form of undernutrition and is largely irreversible if not averted in the first two years of life. Stunted children are at higher risk of dying than well nourished children, and evidence now shows that this increased mortality risk extends into adulthood. Recent evidence also highlights the critical importance of maternal nutrition in determining not only the survival of mother and child before, during and just after delivery but a child’s longer term growth and development. At least 11% of under-five mortality and 20% of childhood stunting is associated with poor nutrition in the womb[5]. At 45%, Zambia has one of the highest rates of childhood stunting in the world; more than one million Zambian children under-five are stunted. The growth and development of an individual child is compromised by the interaction of poor diet and illness. Determinants of undernutrition at the household level include: income poverty, lack of access to sufficient and diverse foods, poor feeding and childcare practices, poor access to clean water, sanitation and quality health services. Despite great agricultural potential, the Zambian diet has an over-reliance on maize, which is highly deficient in micronutrients.[6]
Central Province, the proposed area for this project, has stunting rates of a staggering 52.7%. Concern has been operational here since 2011, so we have experience at community level that we can build upon. Under this proposal, we will expand our current five-year RAIN project into four new wards out of Mumbwa District’s total of sixteen, with the vital addition of a wider women’s empowerment component. The choice of this district maximises the return on the investment already made in establishing and building the capacity of the DNCC and other service providers, as well as the skills and experience of the three implementing partners. Taken together with the fact that the project’s starting point is the application of the most effective parts of a tested approach – the RAIN project – we see these as strong aspects of our value for money proposition.
Addressing undernutrition is essential to meeting economic and development targets and attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Having said that, the proposed project recognises that undernutrition arises from multiple causes which are complex and interact with each other, and which need to be addressed holistically. This intervention will increase household level food production of micronutrient rich foods and food availability at household level in addition to promoting specific nutrition and health-related behaviour change. The focus on women’s empowerment, including economic empowerment through creating market opportunities, will be central to the project, providing an important pathway to improving nutrition outcomes. The Lancet 2013 Maternal and Child Nutrition Series, states: “A third way to enhance the nutrition sensitivity of programmes is to engage women and include interventions to protect and promote their nutritional wellbeing, physical and mental health, social status, decision making, and their overall empowerment and ability to manage their time, resources and assets[7]”. The eradication of extreme poverty and hunger (MDG 1), improving educational levels and maternal nutritional status, family planning, and gender equality (MDG 2) coupled with the prevention of disease are inextricably linked to reducing undernutrition and reducing the risk of child mortality (MDG 3).