Deadline: 25-Jun-23
The Seventh Operational phase of the SGP in Sri Lanka (OP-7) offers an opportunity to refine and broadly apply a community-based landscape approach, taking advantage of SGP experience in certain sectors and geographic regions and the well-developed civil society and market networks.
The Seventh Operational Phase (OP7) of the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) in Sri Lanka aims to build upon the long-standing achievements of SGP in the country, specifically involving and strengthening civil society organizations and improving socioeconomic conditions for local communities through the implementation of participatory environment conservation, land restoration, and sustainable livelihood interventions.
The OP-7 initiative will support communities in target landscapes (Knuckles Conservation Forest and its buffer zone, the coastal region from Mannar to Jaffna, and the Colombo Wetlands) using Knowledge Management Projects. These projects will work with selected grantees in the relevant landscape (8-10 grantees) towards knowledge management by supporting in implementation of projects as per global environmental and local sustainable development benefits such as biodiversity conservation, sustainable land management. Moreover, skill development and creating synergies among landscape projects and multi-stakeholders and organize policy forums in the landscape shall also be key elements of this initiative.
Objectives
- Objectives of this call is Knowledge Management, Skill Development and creating synergies within GEF/SGP landscape projects and organize policy forums.
- The Knowledge Management initiative shall offer a comprehensive package of knowledge management to all grantee partners and include the updating of multi-stakeholder platforms of the GEF SGP OP-7 programme. This work is to be carried out in three ecologically sensitive landscapes: the Knuckles Conservation Forest and its buffer zone, the coastal region from Mannar to Jaffna, and the Colombo Wetlands. The GEF SGP OP-7 programme advocates for sharing, documenting, and scaling project work so that this knowledge is shared amongst a wider audience.
- The objective of this knowledge management initiative is to create synergies among selected partners of OP-7 at landscape level to contribute towards sustainable environment conservation. The landscape multi-stakeholder platform headed by the District Secretaries advises on all activities in the landscape. It is expected that this platform is updated to reflect the management plans of the GEF focal areas of Biodiversity, Land Degradation and Climate Change in the landscape. In doing so, ensure that the SGP community activities are aligned with the overarching plan of the landscape.
Funding Information
- The maximum amount per grant award for the project will be limited to USD 40,000 with applicants required to provide a detailed budgetary estimate.
Tasks
The selected grantee will undertake the following tasks:
- Knowledge Management
- Knowledge Management can be understood as the process of capturing, organizing, storing, disseminating and applying knowledge in a manner that enable informed decision making while reducing the need for rediscovery of knowledge.
- Review and update the Knowledge Management Strategic plan for the UNDP/GEF-SGP in the landscape with stakeholder consultations.
- Conduct necessary training/awareness and skill development programmes in consultation with selected grantees for the landscape to improve the knowledge and skills (at least 10 specific trainings/ awareness and skill development programmes) and report on outcomes and follow-up works.
- Train CBOs and NGOs (including women and other marginalized groups) to collect, interpret/analyze and document information gained through implementation of community projects.
- Development of impact studies/stories for each landscape project (10-12 per landscape).
- Development and consolidated knowledge products from these case studies: summarize the case study information while highlighting best practices on adaptive management for landscape resilience, capturing learning from other complementary initiatives, and including at least 2 case studies highlighting the role of women.
- Knowledge Management can be understood as the process of capturing, organizing, storing, disseminating and applying knowledge in a manner that enable informed decision making while reducing the need for rediscovery of knowledge.
- Landscape Synergies
- Forging a collaborative spirit/attitude across landscape projects
- Conduct an assessment on specific community requirements and available resources in SGP selected project sites. A list of landscape project grantees will be provided. Identify specific gaps that have not been addressed to date. All assessments should be in participatory nature.
- Develop multi stakeholder landscape governance platforms, identify key gaps to address for strengthening the multi-stakeholder landscape governance platforms and develop terms of reference for the platform. Ensure equitable representation from different groups within the communities (Women, youth, underserved communities etc.)
- Engage with key stakeholders by convening regular meetings on landscape strategies, complementary initiatives etc.
- Collaboration with other projects: Identification of similar project interventions (Minimizing land degradation, biodiversity conservation, livelihood/social enterprise development, etc.) in the landscape and explore possibilities towards creating linkages for complementary outputs. Collaborate with these entities towards promoting scaling up initiatives.
- Documentation: Create active synergies between the CSOs, government, academia, private sector, youth and disadvantaged groups and document actions throughout the project period
- Convene regular meetings with multi-stakeholder landscape governance platforms, discussing landscape strategies, linking with complementary initiatives, facilitating capacity building, organizing awareness campaigns strategically, include women champions/ advocates in convening strategic planning workshops, etc. and accordingly document outcomes.
- Advocate and assist local government units in mainstreaming the multi-stakeholder platforms into local governance structures.
- Forging a collaborative spirit/attitude across landscape projects
- Policy Forum
- Advocate for policy reform through liaising with key stakeholders and convening stakeholder workshops, inviting local and national government officials, financial institutions, donor agencies, civil society, private sector, and research-academic institutes.
- Based on evaluation portfolio results and lessons learnt, prepare policy briefs to advance the enabling environment for incentivizing participatory approaches.
- Document good practices and lessons learnt and organize policy forums towards directing information for policy decisions.
Eligibility Criteria
- Proposals can be sent by registered Non-profit organizations such as registered Non-Governmental Organizations, Civil Society Organizations, Non-profit Academic organizations and Universities. Organizations that cannot furnish a valid registration shall be subject to disqualification (Nongovernmental organizations must be registered under relevant government agencies and must maintain an “active” status for at least a year).
- One awardee will be selected per landscape (please indicate your preference of landscape in the proposal i.e. Knuckles, Mannar or Colombo) to undertake the above work for a period of approximately 2 ½ years from the date of commencement.
- Training programmes and other communication programmes with the community should be conducted using suitable languages relevant for the landscape (English and Sinhala/Tamil based on the landscape).
For more information, visit UNDP.
