USAID: INSPIRE Project 2nd Grant Cycle in the Philippines

Deadline: 1-Dec-22

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is pleased to announce the opening of the Second Grant Cycle of the Investing in Sustainability and Partnerships for Inclusive Growth and Regenerative Ecosystems (INSPIRE) Project, a five-year grant facility that supports various environmental efforts by civil society groups in the Philippines.

Goals

This goal will be achieved by implementing a suite of interventions geared towards:
- improving the capacity of CSOs, IPs and local communities to participate in and demand good natural resource governance;
- enhancing legal frameworks with stronger support for customary rights to land and water especially those within biologically significant areas that sequester carbon from the atmosphere, and the appropriate allocation of rights to natural resources; other
- increasing transparency and accountability of various stakeholders, especially of the government, on how natural resources are managed, extracted and brought to market.

Activities

Illustrative Sustainable Landscapes and Biodiversity activities:
- Biodiversity
  - Scaling up ecosystem-based approaches and innovations that will enhance environmental resilience
  - Adopting and supporting the Ecosystems Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM) in fisheries and marine habitat management to reduce overfishing and habitat destruction
  - Reducing trafficking and poaching of endangered species
  - Improving management effectiveness of conservation areas
- Sustainable Landscape
  - Natural landscape restoration and protection
  - Avoidance of deforestation and forest degradation
  - Peatlands and mangroves restoration and protection
  - Capacity-building on nature-based solutions initiatives
  - Watershed restoration and protection through payments for ecosystem services
- Integrated Biodiversity and Sustainable Landscape
  - Strengthening access and use rights of IPs and local communities to land and coastal resources
  - Strengthening CSO, media, and community participation in natural resource governance
  - Stimulating and strengthening private sector engagement in natural resource management
  - Implementing social marketing, media engagement and expanding the constituency for conservation, and promotion of inclusive nature-based development and climate solutions in the bioregion
  - Promoting social enterprises, sustainable financing, or payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes
  - Establishing sustainable supply chains and ecosystem service markets

Eligibility Criteria

Applications will be accepted from non-profit organizations, people’s organizations (POs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), cooperatives and other CSOs including private universities, research organizations, professional organizations, media, faith-based and community organizations and other relevant entities. Branches or local offices of international organizations are eligible to apply, and the requested funds should be used solely for project operations in the Philippines. Applicants must not be currently receiving nor intend to receive any funding in violation of Article of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and its protocols, or in any way cause any government partners to violate them.
Applicants must have:
- Legal Certifications (SEC Registration and/or other accreditation by authorized government agencies);
- An established three-year track record;
- A working board of trustees or any equivalent governing body and preferably with a determinable membership base or constituency