Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative for Civil Society Organizations

Deadline extended till 19 May 2020

Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) has launched a call for proposals for funding for civil society organizations for the grant period 2021-2025.

NICFI is managed by the Ministry of Climate and Environment, but also includes staff at various embassies and Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). Norad supports NICFI with forest and development related advise, quality control and legal assistance, and manages a significant share of NICFI grants. This call for proposal is managed by Norad’s civil society department.

Objective

Civil society organizations are invited to present proposals for projects that contribute to NICFI’s strategic goal, which is that reversed and reduced loss of tropical forest contribute to a stable climate, protect biodiversity and enhance sustainable development.

Sustainable development and combating poverty are overarching goals of Norwegian foreign and development policy. Climate policy and development policy shall be mutually supportive. The climate policy objectives govern approaches and priorities. The money spent should promote development in developing countries and be approved as official development aid under the guidelines of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). All projects must demonstrate a plausible causal link to sustainable development effects in countries on DACs List of ODA Recipients with tropical forests.

Priority geographic focus for funding are countries with which NICFI has established large partnerships. This includes Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Guyana, DR Congo, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, Liberia, Ethiopia and Indonesia. However, strategic projects focusing on other important tropical forest countries will also be considered.

Projects targeting drivers of deforestation in emerging economies and developed countries with significant import markets for commodities linked to forest loss are also highly relevant. All projects must demonstrate a plausible causal link to reduced deforestation and to sustainable development effects in developing countries with tropical forests. All projects need to have a theory of change that clearly shows how the project will lead to one or several of the outcomes in NICFI’s strategic framework.

Categories

Projects funded under this grant scheme must address one or more of the five following categories:

Indigenous peoples, local communities and environmental defenders
Deforestation-free supply chains and financial markets
Reduced forest crime and improved forest monitoring
Mobilising ambition and support for forest friendly policies
Groundbreaking ideas to reduce deforestation

Size of the Grant

For applications covering a five-year period, priority will be given to projects with a total budget above 20 million NOK.

Target Group

The final target groups for the grant scheme are population groups in developing countries that depend on tropical forests for subsistence, as well as all other population groups from these countries that will benefit from reduced greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The tropical forests and their carbon stores also constitute a target group in themselves.

Eligibility Criteria

Potential grant recipients

Civil society organizations working within the field of reduced deforestation and forest degradation in the prioritized NICFI partner countries.
Consortia led by a civil society organization that demonstrate added value through complementary expertise and working methods will be prioritized. No applicant may lead more than one consortium or be a member of more than two consortia. Exemptions may be made for local partners. Local partners must be representative and legitimate civil society actors, i.e. established organisations that represent target groups and driving forces in the country in which the intervention will be implemented.

Requirements to applicants

The applicant must be a legal person. The applicant must indicate the legal status of the organization in the application.
Priority will be given to applicants that have their own articles of association and a Board of Governance. The applicant’s Board of Governance should be administratively autonomous from the organization’s daily operations to secure the Board’s independent control functions.
Priority will be given to applicants who can confirm that they have established ethical guidelines for the organization, which, as a minimum, fulfil the requirements as laid out in Ethical guidelines – Guide for Norad’s grant recipients.
Priority will be given to applicants who can confirm that they have safety and security protocols for project personnel and stakeholders, corresponding to risks identified.
Applicants with a sustainable and diverse funding base will be prioritized.
Applicants that are able to document necessary thematic and administrative competence to implement the project will be prioritized. Results from previous projects within the grant scheme’s thematic areas are relevant.
Applicants must have a policy in place for combating and counteracting sexual harassment and discrimination and ensure that this policy is implemented in practice.
Applicants must have safeguards in place against corruption and negative impacts on women’s rights and gender equality, human rights including the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as climate and the environment.

Application requirements

All applications must fulfil the following requirements:

The project must comply with the OECD/DAC criteria for official development assistance (ODA). All projects must demonstrate a plausible causal link to sustainable development effects in countries on DACs List of ODA Recipients with tropical forests.
The application must demonstrate how the project will contribute to one/several of the seven expected outcomes in NICFI’s strategic framework and show how this in turn can be expected to contribute to the strategic goal of reduced deforestation and forest degradation in tropical forest countries.
The application must include a results framework with clearly defined, realistic and measurable objectives, baselines for the current situation, indicators and targets that will make it possible to measure and report on the results achieved by the project. The template for Norad’s results monitoring framework shall be used.
The application must contain the applicant’s name, address, organization number, account number and contact person. The entity’s legal registration documents, i.e. certificate of registration, its articles of association and annual accounts for the past three years, alternatively from the year of establishment.
The budget must identify the cost of the activities for which a grant is applied for. Overhead/indirect operating costs are normally limited to 5 per cent of the direct project costs. For projects entailing very extensive involvement of, and very high costs for, the grant recipient’s headquarters, indirect operating costs up to 7 per cent of the project’s direct operating costs may be granted. The budget must show the total cost of the project and the proportion for which a grant is applied for, as well as an overview of any other sources of funding.
The application must describe the entity’s accounts and financial system, including how the project accounts are to be prepared and reported.
The application must include an implementation plan that is linked to the results framework.
When applicants are based in OECD countries, priority will be given to projects that include an established partner relationship with an organization in a prioritized NICFI country, where relevant to meet project goals. An established partnership can be demonstrated through an existing working relationship and/or a signed MoU and priority will be given to applicants that ensure capacity building of its local partners.
Local partners must be representative and legitimate civil society actors. This means they have to be already established organisations that represent target groups and driving forces in the country in which the intervention will be implemented. Private individuals or consultants will not be considered local partners, nor local branches by organisations with headquarters in an OECD country unless they are separate legal entities with an independent board of directors.
The application must include information about the project’s risk management, including the identification, analysis and mitigation of risks.
The application must identify relevant risk factors that can have a negative impact on crosscutting issues, or environmental and social safeguards. The grant recipient must analyze and mitigate these risk factors throughout the project cycle. The risk assessment must be adapted to the significance of the project, including its scope and duration. There are four mandatory cross-cutting issues defined in Norwegian development policy:
- Human rights, with a particular focus on participation, accountability and nondiscrimination
- Women’s rights and gender equality
- Climate change and the environment
- Anti-corruption
Project proposals that manage to document their organizations’ efforts to reduce their environmental and carbon footprint will be prioritized (e.g. reduce carbon emissions from air travel)