9th Call for Proposals of Nordic Climate Facility launched

Deadline: 5 September 2019

The Nordic Climate Facility (NCF) has launched its 9th call for proposals which is a challenge fund set up and administered by the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) to finance innovative climate change projects.

Objectives

Increase low-income countries’ capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change;
Encourage and promote innovations in areas susceptible to climate change;
Build partnerships between Nordic and partner country actors, both private and public organisations;
Contribute to sustainable development and the reduction of poverty;
Leverage additional financing for climate action.

Theme

The theme of the call is ‘Testing the viability of innovative climate solutions’.

Features

The strong project proposals have the following features:

the aim to build prosperity and reduce poverty;
the aim to increase gender equality;
realistic and clear outputs and outcomes;
strong replication and scaling-up potential;
convincing justification(s) for why NCF grant funding is needed;
alignment with national development and climate change plans, strategies and policies in the country of implementation.

Funding Information

NCF can provide grant financing of between EUR 250,000 to 500,000. The NCF grant cannot cover the full project costs, and therefore co-financing is required from the project partners and/or other financiers.
The maximum implementation period is 30 months.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible applicants
- Eligible applicants must be registered legal entities at the time of the concept note submission, such as:
  - For-profit companies and organisations;
  - Non-profit organisations and social entreprises;
  - Civil society organisations (CSOs); and
  - Research institutes and universities.
- Projects should be implemented through partnerships between Nordic and local partners in an eligible NCF country. In addition, the project partnership may entail other partners. All project partners should have a meaningful role in the implementation of the project. The applications should clearly clarify the roles of and division of responsibilities between each project partner.
- The partner requirements are as follows:
  - Nordic partner(s)
    - The Nordic partner needs to be a Nordic company, organisation or other legal entity holding a registered place of operation in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway or Sweden.
    - Several Nordic partners can partner up to implement and finance the project; however, there should be one lead Nordic partner. The lead Nordic partner is the main applicant and accountable for the NCF application. The lead Nordic partner will be the sole and responsible contractual party towards NDF. The lead Nordic partner will, prior to the first disbursement, have sub-contracts with all other project partners.
    - Multilateral institutions, UN agencies, bilateral financing institutions or other donor agencies, development financing institutions or their affiliates, trust funds, government ministries and individuals are not eligible.
    - A copy of the registration certificate showing the registration of the Nordic partner(s) as a legal entity in one of the Nordic countries should be attached to the concept note.
  - Local partner(s)
    - The Nordic partner(s) can have one or more local partners. A local partner is a local company, organisation or other legal entity registered in the country of implementation. The local partner(s) should, upon request, be able to show a copy of the registration certificate showing the registration of the local partner(s) as a legal entity in the country of implementation.
    - Multilateral institutions, UN agencies, bilateral financing institutions or other donor agencies, development financing institutions or their affiliates, trust funds, government ministries and individuals are not eligible.
  - Other partner(s)
    - The lead Nordic partner may have one or more other partners (non-local) which are legal entities. There are no country restrictions on the other partner(s) others than that they should not be registered in the country of implementation (local partner) or in one of the Nordic countries (Nordic partner). The other partner(s) should, upon request, be able to show a copy of the registration certificate showing the registration of the other partner(s) as a legal entity in its country of registration.
    - Multilateral institutions, UN agencies, bilateral financing institutions or other donor agencies, development financing institutions or their affiliates, trust funds, Government ministries and individuals are not eligible.
Geographic scope
- Projects should be implemented in one of the 21 eligible NCF countries. These countries are:
  - Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia
  - Asia: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam
  - Latin America: Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua
- Regional projects, i.e. projects implemented in more than one country, are NOT eligible. However, knowledge and technology transfer between countries can be a part of the project activities.
Applications that do not fulfil the eligibility criteria specified below will be rejected.