Deadline: 31-Jul-20
The Eswatini Environment Fund through the Eswatini Environment Authority hereby issues the 2020 Call for Proposals. The Eswatini Environment Fund is established by the Environment Management Act 5 of 2002 and strives for an environmentally healthy Kingdom of Eswatini for sustainable livelihoods and well-being of Emaswati.
This call aims to fund innovative community projects that promote the protection, conservation and enhancement of the environment and the sustainable management of natural resources.
The Eswatini Environment Fund (the Fund) is established by the Environmental Management Act 5 of 2002 (the Act). The purpose of the fund is to promote environmental sustainability at grassroots level in the country. The Eswatini Environment Authority through the Board of Trustees (BOT) manages the operations of the fund, including inter alia, the identification of activities that stand to benefit from the fund from time to time. These guidelines therefore provide a tool to assist the general public access monies from the Fund for projects which are aimed at enhancing environmental sustainability in the kingdom. It is this public involvement aspect that necessitates the establishment of guidelines that will channel the accessibility of monies by the public under the Environment Fund.
Objects of the Fund
The Act provides the following as the objects of the Fund:
- To aggregate funds from different sources to ensure sustainable funding for programmes, projects and activities that provide for and promote the protection, conservation and enhancement of the environment and the sustainable management of natural resources.
- To provide financial support for activities aimed at the enhancement, protection and conservation of the environment and the sustainable management of natural resources and supporting community participation in these activities.
- To enhance and restore the environment of Eswatini.
The availability of the Fund is expected to encourage communities to take interest and initiative in managing resources in their respective localities. It is envisaged that in this way environmental issues will be sensitized to communities, particularly in the rural areas, where the human-environment interactions are more intense. It is for this reason that community driven environmental initiatives will be given priority in terms of funding. This is not to say that projects by other interested parties and stakeholders are not eligible for financing from the Fund.
Priority Areas
The Eswatini Environment Fund seek to tackle emerging environmental risks facing the country as articulated in the country’s cross cutting environmental sectoral policies on land, climate change, biodiversity, pollution, waste, chemicals management, and sustainable development. Some of these areas include:
- Ecosystem Restoration & Rehabilitation
- Waste Management
- Adaptive Research
- Climate Change Adaptation
- Ecosystem
- Sustainable land management
- Integrated water resource management (IWRM)
- Sustainable forestry management
- Promotion & protection of biodiversity
- Renewable energy & energy efficiency technology
- Pollution management
- Water storage, conservation
- Green Entrepreneur
Funding Information
The Fund will award small grants (to a maximum of E300, 000) for eligible projects. At least 80% of this grant should go into the environmental activity itself, with 20% used for other administrative issues where necessary.
Eligibility Criteria
- It should be noted that the primary premise for financing a project from the Fund is that the project should demonstrate how it will enhance environmental sustainability. Benefits to human populations are secondary to the enhancement of environmental quality. Applicants therefore should first and foremost demonstrate this aspect in their project proposals. It is encouraged that applicants to the fund are in a group form within communities. This is meant to avoid individuals applying for financing and having sole ownership of a project and having any possible resultant benefits accruing to them alone. As stated above, the Fund thrives on the prospect of community participation in coming up with local environmental management initiatives and projects. Individual applicants should demonstrate beyond doubt that a project they propose to undertake will impact on the wider community, and that they will not be sole beneficiaries of any resultant benefits from the project. Below are the kinds of project proponents eligible for financing from the NEF.
- Community as a whole.
- Environmental groups within communities.
- NGOs engaged in community-wide environmental initiatives.
- Individuals whose projects portray clear positive impacts to the environment and wider community.
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