Deadline: Ongoing Opportunity
MetaMeta, on behalf of ZOA, is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals for the SIPRA Challenge Fund – Large Grant Facility.
This initiative is part of the Strengthening Inclusive Partnerships for Smallholders in Rainfed Areas (SIPRA) programme, a four-year initiative funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. SIPRA is designed to strengthen food and nutrition security in Sudan by empowering smallholder farmers—particularly women and youth—through inclusive agribusiness investments, improved service delivery, and stronger local support networks.
The Challenge Fund – Large Grant Facility offers funding for innovative, high impact proposals that address critical challenges in Sudan’s rainfed agricultural value chains and interconnected systems, including poultry, livestock, and horticulture.
The Facility supports practical, scalable solutions that contribute to resilient food systems, improved food and nutrition security, and stronger smallholder livelihoods across SIPRA’s seven target states: South Darfur, East Darfur, Central Darfur, South Kordofan, White Nile, Blue Nile, and Gedaref.
This is achieved through inclusive agribusiness investments, enhanced private sector service provision, and the active engagement of local networks and institutions.
Objectives
- The objectives of the Large Grant Facility are closely aligned with SIPRA’s overarching vision: unlocking the potential of Sudan’s rainfed agriculture to build a resilient and sustainable food system. Operating across the seven target states, the programme empowers smallholder farmers, including especially women and youth, to become entrepreneurs and agents of transformative change.
- In summary, the Large Grant Facility supports proposals that:
- Foster resilient and sustainable food systems;
- Improve smallholder productivity, income, and livelihoods;
- Enhance food and nutrition security;
- Promote access to finance and rewarding markets;
- Catalyze local economic growth.
Strategic Principles
- The Challenge Fund (CF) – Large Grant Facility support should conform to the following core principles:
- Innovation: the CF seeks to catalyse and capitalise innovation by applicants by targeting programs that present new approaches to linking smallholders/MSMEs to markets.
- Complementarity: the Fund will support those initiatives that can be linked to other already ongoing initiatives.
- Competition: the allocation of funds will be determined by an open, competitive process – to incentivise good ideas and maximise impact.
- Additionality: funds will target activities and investments which would not have happened without them, would not have happened at the same scale, or would not have been implemented at the same speed. Funds will also target instances where the uncertainty and risks involved preclude access to conventional sources of funding (sourced from within or outside of the applicant).
- Non-distortion: Ensure that funds are not distorting existing markets and market activity, and that private sector investment, and existing public sector funding initiatives, are not crowded out.
- Portfolio approach: within the eligibility and assessment criteria of the CF, the Fund will, where possible, pursue a portfolio of investments, diversified according to a range of risk criteria, partners, sectors, fund sizes, and implementation periods.
- One-off, limited duration matched funds: investments will target specific initiatives which are clearly defined and which require limited, temporary support that will lead to their on-going sustainability.
Funding Information
- The Challenge Fund – Large Grant Facility offers funding from €20,000 to €100,000
- While the standard funding ceiling is €100,000, proposals exceeding this amount may be considered in exceptional cases.
Eligibility Criteria
- Three categories of applicants are eligible to apply for the large grant:
- Farmer Networks: Networks of farmers who are already practicing agriculture as a business and are considered equivalent to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
- SMEs: Small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in rainfed agricultural activities.
- Large Private Companies (include financial institutions): Companies with a significant presence and resources in the agriculture and food security sector.
For more information, visit MetaMeta.