Deadline: 04-Sep-20
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s Agriculture, Livelihoods, and Conservation (ALC) program is issuing a targeted request for research proposals that center an analysis of women and/or young people in integrated rural agriculture or forest-dependent livelihoods development and conservation initiatives in tropical forested regions.
The ALC strategy builds upon the Foundation’s experience with climate and land use as well as the work in reproductive health. ALC aims to support communities in strengthening resilience and improving livelihoods while simultaneously protecting tropical forests and biodiversity. The hypothesis of ALC is that conservation and development goals in tropical regions with significant smallholder agriculture can be most effectively achieved through policies and actions that support smallholder livelihoods and community wellbeing, combined with effective regional planning and natural resource management.
The research will provide an opportunity to deepen the collective understanding of the potential impact from conservation initiatives focused on women and/or youth and how to best support improved livelihoods and wellbeing for these populations.
The objective of this RFP is to fund focused research that deepens understanding for the Packard Foundation, other funders and organizations working on conservation and agricultural livelihoods, and policymakers of the unique role of women and/or young people in initiatives that combine tropical forest conservation with smallholder farmer/forest-dependent community livelihoods and wellbeing (health, nutrition, individual agency, etc.).Research must include tropical forest conservation, smallholder agriculture, and an overarching focus on opportunities and barriers faced by women and/or young people, as well as participatory research methods or community engagement in the research design. Proposals for focus geographies within Ethiopia and Indonesia, those that build upon pre-existing projects that are seeking support for robust research on women and/or young people, and institutions based in countries of interest or that have in-country office/staff will be prioritized.
The call seeks innovative methods to ensure the meaningful participation of under-represented communities; therefore, participatory research methods or community engagement must be included in research design and methodology.
Funding Information
ALC will provide funding to one or more organizations between $100,000 and $1,000,000 (for a maximum of $1,000,000) over a period of three years.
The research should answer the following core questions using well-defined indicators and a robust methodology:
- What role do women and/or young people play in tropical smallholder agriculture and conservation?
- What impact (positive and negative) do integrated livelihood and conservation initiatives have on the lives of women and/or young people?
- What are the barriers to full participation of women and/or young people in these initiatives? What mechanisms/tools/conditions encourage robust participation in these initiatives and improved livelihoods for women and/or young people?
- What benefits are derived from initiatives that effectively integrate women and/or young people?
- Are there additional community-level/economic/conservation/environmental benefits that can be attributed to women- and/or youth-led initiatives?
Final grant recipients will be expected to produce a research product that provides clear and evidencebased findings. Research methods and findings should provide empirically-supported conclusions as well as specific programmatic actions and broader enabling conditions that allow for meaningful participation of women and/or young people in agriculture and conservation, as well as articulate existing and potential barriers to participation for these groups. Research findings should also allow a nuanced understanding of the behaviors and choices of women and/or young people with regard to agriculture and conservation.
For more information, visit https://www.packard.org/what-we-fund/agriculture-livelihoods-conservation/what-were-doing/request-for-proposals/
