Deadline: 30-Jun-21
The Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) of IFAD is pleased to announce the second round of National Calls for Proposals 2021: supporting remittances in times of crisis.
Through its over US$60 million fund, the FFR works to reduce poverty and promote development by leveraging both international and domestic remittances and migrant capital in rural areas of developing countries.
IFAD’s FFR welcomes strategic partnerships linking for-profit entities with non-profit organizations, formal financial intermediaries, money transfer operators, microfinance institutions, financial cooperatives, postal networks, philanthropic organizations, investment funds, local and national governments, among others.
Goals
IFAD/FFR Call for Proposals 2021 (CfP21) – Remittances in times of crisis – Kenya calls on the private sector (profit or non-profit), in response to COVID-19, to identify, support and scale up innovative solutions and models of intervention that will strengthen the remittance market, particularly in rural areas, by promoting lower transfer costs, digitization and formalization of flows, and providing remittance beneficiaries with more tools to access, use and invest these flows.
Objectives
The Call for Proposals 2021 follows the previous ones published in December 2020, and focuses on Kenya, to finance initiatives that will support at least one of the following objectives:
- Reduce international remittance transaction costs: Contribute to reducing international remittance transfer costs and increase access to and use of transparent and gender responsive low-cost services.
- Accelerate digitization of international remittances: Accelerate the use of digital products and the digital payments ecosystem to support international remittances.
- Leverage remittances to deepen financial inclusion: Use international remittances as a conduit for increasing financial inclusion and the resilience of remittance senders and recipients.
- Expand formal channels for international remittances: Promote greater access and use of formal international remittance transfers.
Funding Information
- These National Calls for Proposals 2021 will finance grants from €150,000 up to €500,000. Regional proposals including Kenya, can request up to €750,000.
Target group
- Proposed interventions must have a direct impact on migrant workers sending remittances from Europe and other African countries and receiving families in Kenya. Given that PRIME Africa has also a corridor-focused, results-oriented approach; proposals can include initiatives in both sending and receiving countries. More than one particular remittance corridor between Europe/other African countries and Kenya can be targeted, with preference, but not exclusively, to the corridors with Germany, South Africa.
Eligibility Criteria
- As a basis for eligibility, proposed projects must be aligned with the Call for Proposals 2021: Remittances in times of crisis – Kenya, and framed under the COVID-19 response.
- The following types of institutions can apply to this CfP21:
- private sector entities
- for profit entity or
- non-profit entity.
- Entities interested in responding to this CfP21 must bear in mind the following condition: as co-founders, IFAD shall be entitled to promote and disseminate information on any activity or product financed by the grant. Exceptions shall be explicitly stipulated in the grant proposal upon submission. Grants for for-profit organizations will include partial pay-for-performance mechanisms under which specific IFAD disbursements will be linked to successful key performance indicators of implementation, as well as effective and dedicated co-financing.
- This CfP21 welcomes strategic partnerships linking public (central banks, financial sector regulators) and private sector organizations providing remittance support activities with formal financial intermediaries, money transfer operators, microfinance institutions, FinTechs, financial cooperatives, postal networks, diaspora networks, banks, Telcos, investment funds, and non-profit institutions, among others.
For more information, visit https://www.ifad.org/en/web/latest/-/second-round-of-national-calls-for-proposals-kenya-and-uganda-supporting-remittances-in-times-of-crisis-in-africa