Deadline: Ongoing Opportunity
IFAD’s FFR is seeking to engage with public, private and civil society stakeholders through this Call for Proposals 2024 to:
- maximize the developmental impact of remittances by increasing access to these transfers through digital methods, promoting digital and financial inclusion, and
- promote migrant returnees’ access to income-generating activities, particularly in rural areas.
The CfP24 aims to address development opportunities by financing innovative cost-effective and replicable/scalable solutions and models that promote more digital usage of remittances, particularly in rural areas, and related financial services to ultimately improve income generating opportunities for remittance receiving families and migrant returnees.
Objectives
- Objective 1: Accelerate digitization of international remittances
- Expected impact:
- Expand usage of channels and instruments for digital remittances and linked financial services.
- Expand the outreach of financial access infrastructure or agents for payments and banking services to underserved locations, especially in rural areas.
- Expected impact:
- Objective 2: Leverage remittances to deepen financial inclusion in line with the NFIS
- Expected impact:
- Expand access to a broader set of financial services linked to remittances, as an example: interest-term deposits, flexible savings (including group savings), emergency savings, microinsurance, emergency loans, affordable microenterprise credit, agri-finance, climate adaptation finance, etc.;
- More rural men and women that can access, are aware of and use low-cost digital remittance services.
- Expected impact:
- Objective 3: Promote deeper financial and digital education that fosters resilience and financial access in line with the NFIS
- Expected impact:
- Further enhance the financial management and planning skills of remittance senders and recipients, as well as migrant returnees through customised financial and digital education programs (ensuring participation of women, rural and low-income segments of the population will be encouraged).
- New financial services linked to remittances are used by the most vulnerable.
- Expected impact:
- Objective 4: Contribute to cost effective and sustainable integration of migrant returnees
- Expected impact:
- Sustainable reintegration of returnees measured by levels of economic self-sufficiency, social stability, and psychosocial wellbeing that make their further migration decisions a matter of choice, rather than necessity.
- Returnees benefit from stable income and new employment opportunities generated.
- Local economic development policies targeting returnees that enable scalable interventions.
- Sustainable reintegration of returnees measured by levels of economic self-sufficiency, social stability, and psychosocial wellbeing that make their further migration decisions a matter of choice, rather than necessity.
- Expected impact:
Funding Information
- Grant amount financed by IFAD: indicatively from €100,000 up to €450,000.
Target Group
- Proposed interventions must have a direct impact on migrant workers returning home or sending remittances and receiving families in the four Central Asian countries included in PRIME Central Asia.
- Either individual proposals for the Tajikistan, or regional proposals covering one or more Central Asian countries –the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan– are eligible.
Who can apply?
- Public sector entities.
- Private sector entities including: (i) for-profit businesses and (ii) non-profit, non-governmental organizations. These include licensed commercial banks, MTOs, MNOs, MFIs, Fintechs, financial cooperatives, diaspora networks, banks, Telcos and investment funds, among others.
- Strategic partnerships linking private stakeholders (for-profit entities and/or non- profit) and public sector entities (central banks, financial sector regulators) are welcomed.
- Requirements for applicants are as follows:
- must be a legal organization registered in an IFAD Member State (alternatively, at least one of the parties involved in the proposal must be registered in a Member State).
- must show the license required to offer services in compliance with regulations in jurisdictions where it will operate.
- must have the capacity to enter into financial and legal agreements with IFAD, and comply with the procurement guidelines of IFAD.
- may not act as an intermediary, but be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the proposed project.
- must present audited financial statements in accordance with international standards for the two previous years.
- All applicant organizations should have already reached sustainability in their operations, and a proven track record in the area of expertise proposed for the project.
For more information, visit International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).