Deadline: 11-Jul-25
The Wales and Africa Grant Scheme enables community groups and organisations in Wales to access funding for small-scale projects that contribute to Wales’ delivery of UN Sustainable Development Goals and deliver benefits to Wales and Africa.
The Wales and Africa programme supports and encourages civil society, business and public bodies in Wales to take action on poverty in Africa through active global citizenship, skills exchanges and mutual learning, partnership working, and climate change action.
Thematic Areas
- Health: They seek to contribute to protecting the mental and physical health and wellbeing of communities in Africa through their grants. Examples of this could include:
- Supporting knowledge and skills sharing between health institutions in Wales and Africa for mutual learning and benefit
- Supporting healthcare professionals in Africa to access small scale training and support from Wales
- Lifelong Learning: They will support individuals or groups of young people or adults in Wales and/or Africa to gain skills and knowledge. Examples of this could include:
- Supporting the educational needs of disadvantaged children in Africa and sharing that experience with school pupils in Wales, contributing to their global citizenship education
- Supporting people in Africa to learn practical/vocational/artistic skills to improve their livelihoods
- Climate Change and Environment: They will support initiatives that reduce environmental degradation and biodiversity loss in Africa. They’ll also support strategic and practical work to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and to protect people from the impacts of climate change on food supplies, water availability or safety. Examples of this could include:
- Activities which support African farmers to adapt to a changing climate
- Projects engaging people in Wales with climate change issues as they affect Africa
- Sustainable livelihoods: They seek to promote realistic and sustainable livelihood opportunities in Wales and Africa, ensuring that marginalized individuals are included in grassroots economic and social development. Initiatives that they support include:
- Community-led, income generating cooperatives that have benefit to Wales and Africa
- Engaging the public through Fair Trade campaigns, advocacy or policy
Funding Information
- Applicants can apply for funding between £5,000-£25,000 for a 12 month project.
Eligible Costs
- The Wales and Africa grants scheme will fund both capital and revenue costs, there is no requirement ratio. examples of eligible costs include:
- Staff salaries
- A 15% uplift on the total staff salaries costs applied for can be included into your project costs to cover overheads such as utilities and running costs, where applicable
- Equipment and tools where there is a clear project need
- Publicity materials
- Venue hire, stall hire, event fees
- Training costs
Eligible Activities
- The grants scheme can be accessed by groups in Wales who work in collaboration with African partners to deliver a diverse range of activities, including:
- Building capacity of small Welsh international development NGOs
- Promoting international development volunteering
- Promoting best practice in fair trade and ethical procurement across all sectors
- Facilitating the work of diaspora communities in Wales to maximize their impact on SDG delivery in their home country.
- Health projects
- Projects run for and by people with disabilities
Eligible Organisations
- Applications are open to constituted organisations in Wales, including:
- Constituted group
- Registered charity
- Community Interest Company
- Charitable Incorporated Organisation
- Company limited by guarantee
- Private limited company
- Community Council
- Town Council
- Local Authority
Eligibility Criteria
- In order to be eligible, you must:
- Be an incorporated body based in and operating for the benefit of people in Wales
- Have governing documents containing suitable asset lock and dividend distribution control
- Have the ability to demonstrate suitable oversight and independence from a qualified and quorate Board with a minimum of three directors or trustees
- Have appropriate minimum policy standards in place (e.g., safeguarding).
- Applicants will also need to ensure that their organisation meets the following criteria:
- The lead applicant must be based within Wales
- All activities should clearly demonstrate a benefit to Wales
- Applications should clearly demonstrate a fit with one or more of the four thematic areas
- Applicants with prior experience of delivering grant funded activity from the Wales and Africa Programme should demonstrate the impact of this project and any lessons learned
- All relevant purchases to be made with Wales and Africa grant scheme funding will consider ethical and Fair Trade criteria
Ineligibility Criteria
- Individuals cannot apply; however, they may apply through a host organisation, the grant agreement will be held with the organization and no direct payments will be made from the Wales Africa grant scheme into an individual’s bank account
For more information, visit WCVA.