3ie announces Implementation and Evaluation Grants under Swashakt Evidence Programme

Deadline extended till: 18 May 2020

The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invite organisations to submit proposals for implementation and/or evaluation grants under new evidence programme, Swashakt: Empowering women through collective based approaches.

Organisations engaged in implementing—at scale or through pilots— innovative economic interventions for women’s collective- and group-based enterprises in India are invited to submit proposals.

This evidence programme aims to generate evidence on policy-relevant interventions that enhance the viability, scalability and returns for women’s collective enterprises, thereby promoting women’s leadership and economic empowerment.

3ie expects to award between two to three implementation and evaluation grants for a period of three years with funding up to US$1 million, depending on the scope of work. Depending on the type of intervention (pilot or at-scale), evaluations could include formative, process or impact evaluation components.

Under this programme, 3ie will consider funding proposals for

The implementation and evaluation of an intervention;
The evaluation of an intervention that has secured implementation funding; or
Implementation only, with evaluation teams to be matched to implementing teams by 3ie.

The focus of this call is on interventions serving non-farm and off-farm women’s collective enterprises in rural areas.

Funding Information

3ie will provide funding of up to USD 1 million for selected implementation and evaluation projects, which are to be completed in three years.

Types of Proposals

In response to this call, the Foundation welcomes proposals of three types:

Implementers and independent evaluators and researchers that have teamed up and are seeking both evaluation and implementation support funds. The evaluation and research teams must declare conflicts of interest and propose mechanisms to mitigate the same.
Evaluation or research teams seeking funding for the evaluation only and that are able to demonstrate that the implementation partner has adequate funding and is committed to the evaluation. Proposals will have to demonstrate that the evaluation and research team has no conflict of interest.
Implementation team interested in being evaluated to gain knowledge about the effectiveness of their project and interventions. The implementation team could already have secured implementation funding and only be seeking to be teamed up with an evaluation team, or it could seek some support for the implementation rollout. In such cases, 3ie will match the implementing team to an evaluation team. Proposals from implementation agencies that have not partnered with evaluation teams and need 3ie to match them will be required to supply information about the state of implementation and its funding, the rollout plan for the project or intervention, the description of the intervention including target group, objectives and theory of change, and the policy or programming question(s) they are interested in.

Note: The Foundation requests teams of evaluators or researchers who may be interested in the third type of proposals to submit their qualifications separately. Such teams need not submit a full proposal and will be matched to implementation teams by 3ie based on their qualifications, availability and requirements of the evaluation.

Outcomes

Business outcomes such as the number of jobs created, productivity, revenue generated, financial sustainability.
Participant economic empowerment outcomes such as women’s employment status, hours in income-generating activities, incomes, access to assets.
Non-economic indicators of women’s well-being such as self-efficacy, time use, mental health, aspirations for children, agency and empowerment within the household.
Household socio-economic and demographic outcomes
Project implementation and quality indicators such as participation, cost-effectiveness, inclusivity.

Eligibility Criteria

Only legally registered organisations and consortia of registered organisations may apply under this call for proposals.
India-based grant-holding organisations should be registered under Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) and able to receive dollar-denominated grants.
The grant-holding organisation and the lead PI for the evaluation team may be located anywhere in the world, but there must be a local PI in a substantial role.
In the case of proposal types 1 and 2 (where the evaluation team and implementation team apply together for funding, and where only evaluation funding is sought) the proposal must be submitted by a single evaluation or research organisation. This organisation can work with others as sub-grantees or sub-contractors (subject to 3ie’s direct and indirect cost policies). In the case of proposals of type 3, the proposal must be submitted by the implementing organisation.
For-profit organisations are eligible to apply but are restricted to the same indirect cost limits as non-profit organisations and may not charge a fee.
The applicant organisation must be able to sign the 3ie grant agreement, a sample of which is available on the webpage.
Organisations may submit more than one proposal and may be included on more than one proposal. They should, however, have the capacity to implement any and all grants awarded to them under the programme.
All evaluation proposals should have sufficient resources for undertaking high-quality evaluations. If the proposal is dependent on other resources, this should be clearly indicated. If selected for this evidence programme, the applicant will need to ensure that these additional resources are available at the time of signing the agreement with 3ie. In the absence of this, the offer of 3ie grant support will be withdrawn.

For more information, visit https://www.3ieimpact.org/funding/call-proposals-swashakt-empowering-women-through-collectives-and-group-based-approaches