REDAA Programme Grants: Scaling Up Locally Led Restoration

Deadline: 30-Jun-2024

The Reversing Environmental Degradation in Africa and Asia (REDAA) invites proposals for locally led, multi-locational, research-to-action for restoration programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Reversing Environmental Degradation in Africa and Asia (REDAA) is a programme that catalyses research, innovation and action on ecological restoration in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia by offering grants and technical support. REDAA funds initiatives that are interdisciplinary, locally led and focused on solutions for ecosystem restoration, enabling people and nature to thrive together in times of climate, resource and fiscal insecurity.

REDAA uses UK government Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) funds; therefore projects and programmes it supports must promote the economic development and welfare of eligible countries as a primary objective. REDAA funding is also categorised as International Climate Finance (ICF) and therefore must additionally deliver climate adaptation and/or mitigation objectives.

Grants will fund programmes of four years, with implementation of these programmes expected to begin on 1 February 2025. Grants will be awarded via a two-stage proposal process: Stage 1 for Concept Notes; followed by Stage 2 for Full Proposals. Only applicants who are successful at Stage 1 will be invited to submit Full Proposals in Stage 2.

Funding Information

• For Grant Call 2 REDAA will fund programmes at a budget scale of between £1,000,000 and £1,500,000 (GBP).
• Matched funding is not required but is strongly encouraged.

Subject Matter Requirements

• Locally led research-to-action 
  • Concept Notes should demonstrate that they are proposing locally led research-toaction programmes supporting Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ efforts to improve their evidence, tools, civic space and governance powers.
  • Locally led programmes engage residents in their design and implementation, and local leadership is strongly involved. Such programmes are likely to employ and empower women and youth, and show concrete benefits for local communities, emphasising those most often marginalised. They also invest in further developing local leadership strength.
  • Research-to-action involves both rigorous research and the uptake of research findings to bring about change. It is likely to include the use of research findings in training or improving the capability of people to make positive changes and the use of research findings in developing tools and approaches to improve or influence policy and institutional decision making and practice.
  • Research conducted or used in the proposed programmes should be designed to improve the evidence base on key ecosystems and the livelihoods that depend on them, and on how to move from degraded to restored ecosystems. It will pay attention to ecological concerns and also to social, political and economic issues. Applied research approaches may be the most useful focusing on specific practical problems. Research approaches should be scientific, involving clear research questions and/or hypotheses and systematic observation. These approaches should also be rigorous, involving design, methods and conclusions that are explicit, public, replicable and open to critique, and that minimise bias.
  • Methods may be quantitative, qualitative or participatory. Research may have been largely conducted prior to the start of a REDAA-supported programme by the programme team or by others or may be a central part of the programme. Either way, the Concept Note should demonstrate that the research previously undertaken or proposed has the features described above.
  • In demonstrating that they are proposing locally led research-to-action programmes, Concept Notes should therefore outline activities that will:
    • Strengthen local research-to-action capability and leadership of such capability
    • Include rigorous research and its translation into effective engagement with, and improvement of, inclusive decision making at policy level
• Integrated activities for positive outcomes for nature, climate and people 
  • Concept Notes should demonstrate that they are proposing positive and integrated activities for nature, climate and people
  • Concept Notes should therefore clearly identify the main:
    • Climate change, nature loss and human wellbeing challenges that will be tackled
    • Improvements that can be directly achieved by the programme for:
      • Nature in terms of protection, restoration, regeneration and/or sustainable management of specified ecosystems or landscapes or their components
      • Climate in terms of mitigation and/or adaptation for specified people, economies, sectors or infrastructure, and
      • People in terms of improvement to livelihoods, wellbeing, poverty status, rights and inclusion, particularly including those who are most affected by climate change and nature loss and are most often marginalised groups.
    • Synergies and trade-offs expected between the benefits for people, nature and climate, and how they will be managed — optimising synergies so that benefits for nature bring specific benefits for climate and/or people, and handling trade-offs in scientifically valid, ethical and policy-relevant ways.
• Gender equality and social inclusion 
  • Concept Notes should demonstrate commitment to promoting equality between different groups of people and ensuring that those who are most marginalised and negatively affected by climate change and nature loss are not left behind but are empowered through planned actions.
  • Gender equality is about addressing inequalities and transforming the distribution of opportunities, choices and resources available to girls, women and non-binary individuals, regardless of their age, so that they have the power to shape their own lives.
  • Programmes should thus consider the prevailing gender and social norms and the (formal, informal and traditional) structures upholding them, and how they affect different aspects of different groups of people’s lives and communities, including the division of labour, access to and control of resources, and ability to participate in decision making.
  • Concept Notes should outline activities that will improve gender equality and inclusion of people who have been disadvantaged and historically excluded in decision making, domestic and community roles, and access to and control over assets.
  • Considering the following questions may help in designing effective activities to improve gender equality and social inclusion:
    • Who are the key groups of marginalised people and how might prevailing gender and social norms and structures (formal, informal, traditional) enable or inhibit their engagement with the programme?
    • What opportunities and potential challenges and risks face the people who might be involved in, or affected by, the programme? What measures will the programme take to leverage or address these opportunities, challenges and risks?
    • How will the programme ensure equitable reach, benefit and empowerment for the most affected and most often marginalised people?
    • How will the most often marginalised people be supported and engaged in the shaping, implementation, outcomes, and monitoring and evaluation of the programme?
    • What GESI-relevant or specific outcome(s) will the programme achieve or contribute to, and for whom?
  • All programmes will be expected to report indicators disaggregated by gender where appropriate and applicable.
• Approaches 
  • Concept Notes must include specific research-to-action activities which adopt one or more of the following three approaches. It is recommended that applicants focus on one of these approaches; however, more than one may be selected if well justified.
    • Use of legal tools to secure local rights and strengthen local nature stewardship and restoration. Research-to-action might aim to secure local rights to land, natural resources and conservation areas, ensure investments in land and natural resources contribute to inclusive sustainable development, or hold government and companies to account in their use of, or investments in, land and natural resources, and in a manner that addresses the specific needs and opportunities of those most affected by the challenges addressed and most often marginalised. Activities might include, but are not limited to, the following:
      • Improving access to information on law and policy decisions
      • Legal literacy training or developing paralegal support to local groups
      • Helping local groups register their lands, or supporting legal representation, or enabling local groups to negotiate with government or the private sector
      • Enabling citizens to participate in law reform processes
      • Improving mechanisms for grievances and dispute resolution.
    • Development of finance mechanisms that support local nature stewardship and restoration. Research-to-action might aim to enable the establishment or improvement of finance mechanisms and finance flows that are direct, patient and long term, and in a manner that addresses the specific needs and opportunities of those most affected by the challenges addressed and most often marginalised. Research, capacity building and policy engagement activities might be designed to enable the initiation or improvement of:
      • Local savings and loan practices
      • Transparent accounting systems
      • Connections of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, or local groups and enterprises to financial institutions (types of finance include member, family or friends’ savings; grants; bank or credit card overdrafts; loans/debt capital; trade credit; leasing; equity capital; crowdfunding; bonds; and insurance)
      • Redesigned financial rules or promotion of trade credit
      • Blended enabling investment from national public finance, international ODA and climate finance.
    • Development or strengthening of productive ecosystem-based enterprises that are sustainable, equitable and climate resilient. Research-to-action, potentially co-developed with enterprise partners, might aim to establish and develop locally led businesses based on ecosystem goods and services, and in a manner that addresses the particular needs and opportunities of those people most affected by the challenges addressed and most often marginalised. Activities might include, but are not limited to, the following:
      • Training and development of organisational systems for: leadership, people and knowledge management; accounting and financial management; market needs assessment; preparing business plans and investment proposals; and mapping and engaging potential investors
      • Ecosystem goods and services management, product development and quality assurance
      • Risk management and de-risking ecosystem-based enterprises
      • Developing enterprise associations that provide business support services to members and engage with policy reform processes and external investors, or aggregation businesses that harness the returns from profitable locally led ecosystem-based enterprises to finance further business development
      • Technology sourcing and upgrading for improvements in all the above.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead and Partner Organisations 
  • Concept Notes must name one Lead Organisation. This will be the organisation that will make an agreement with the REDAA team and receive a grant, if the proposal is successful, and will be ultimately responsible for delivery and management of the programme, including management of any partners.
  • Lead Organisations should be a non-profit organisation based within one of the six focal regions for this grant call. A small minority of programmes with a Lead Organisation based outside the region or country of focus may be considered for funding if their proposal provides a strong rationale for why the organisation is not in the region, as well as demonstrating strong partnerships with locally led organisations.
  • The Lead Organisation must partner with at least one other non-profit organisation. This partner may be based in one of the six regions, but this is not a requirement. The minimum required partnership of two organisations (a non-profit Lead Organisation and a non-profit partner) must include a research or academic organisation and an action-oriented non-profit organisation (which may include Indigenous Peoples’ and local community organisations).
  • In addition to the Lead Organisation and the required non-profit partner described above, other non-profit organisations and private sector organisations can be listed as funded or non-funded partners. Government agencies and intergovernmental and United Nations agencies can be listed as non-funded partners. Proposed programmes should be codesigned with partners.
  • Organisations eligible for REDAA funding in such wider partnerships therefore include:
    • Other non-profit organisations, which may be non-governmental organisations, research institutions or community-based organisations
    • Private sector organisations, businesses or business associations, which may be sub-granted (or contracted via a consultancy agreement) to undertake specific planned actions for the programme, provided this partnership can demonstrate value for money in its costs and benefits to the programme.
  • Government, intergovernmental and UN agencies are not eligible to receive funding from REDAA. However, these agencies may be key programme partners, and REDAA encourages in-kind partnership where relevant.
  • Lead Organisations must be able to demonstrate that they are:
    • A non-profit organisation, which may be a non-governmental organisation, research institution or community-based organisation that is legally registered in the country in which it operates
    • Experienced in the kind of work they propose to undertake
    • Financially sound
    • Staffed with the appropriate technical and financial capacity and expertise to manage and implement programmes successfully and deliver technical and financial reporting, and
    • Able to demonstrate proven management systems that can achieve impact with programmes at a budget scale of between £1,000,000 and £1,500,000 (GBP).
  • Lead Organisations must provide their last three years of audited accounts and details of average turnover (income) at Concept Note stage. The expected annual expenditure of the proposed programme must be no more than 25% of their average annual turnover/income figure.
  • Under this funding call, an organisation may lead on only one proposal but may be involved as a non-leading Partner in more than one proposal. Country offices of an international entity will be considered as subsidiaries, even if legally registered in the country. Therefore, international entities will be considered as one Lead Organisation. The Lead Organisation cannot be changed between Stage 1 (Concept Notes) and Stage 2 (Full Proposals). If a Lead Organisation has already been awarded a REDAA Project Grant under the first REDAA grant call, the organisation is still permitted to apply for a Programme Grant under this new call, provided they meet the specific eligibility criteria for this call.
• Lead Applicant 
  • Concept Notes must name an individual Lead Applicant, who should also be the person submitting the Concept Note application form. This person, on behalf of the Lead Organisation, takes responsibility for the management and accountability of the programme and will be the main contact point for all aspects of programme management. This individual should therefore have appropriate levels of experience, qualifications, authority, capability and capacity to manage the programme, and should have a full understanding of their role and obligations to take responsibility for delivering value for money, managing risk and financial controls, and fulfilling the terms and conditions of the grant.
  • CVs (résumés) are not required at Concept Note stage but will be required for Stage 2 (Full Proposal).
  • Under this funding call, an individual may be named as Lead Applicant on only one proposal. An individual who is already leading an awarded REDAA Project Grant under Grant Call 1 may not lead on a Programme Grant proposal (but may be involved as a nonleading programme team member). The Lead Applicant cannot be changed between Stage 1 and Stage 2.

For more information, visit REDAA.