Small Grants ($15,000 and $40,000) for Forest and Farm Producer Organizations in Liberia

Deadline: 07-Apr-24

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is offering small grants for Forest and Farm Producer Organizations (FFPOS) to develop farm forestry based and end market driven inclusive business towards climate resilient landscapes and improved livelihoods in Liberia.

Liberia is one of the countries in which the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) phase II provides support.  The Phase II has the goal of scaling up the role of Forest and Farm Producer Organisations (FFPOs) to achieve Climate Resilient Landscapes and Improved Livelihoods through four outcomes.

Objective of this call for proposals is to award small grants for organising forest and farm producers for development of farm forestry based and end market driven (gender) inclusive business in Nimba, Lofa and Gbarpolu Counties.

Funding Information

• Successful applicants will be supported with a total maximum amount between 15,000 USD and 40,000 USD, agreed by the FFF/FAO national & international team and will be provided directly to the beneficiary organisation in three separate instalments depending on the size of the grant, the nature of activities, the history of collaboration with the organisations and the outcome of the technical and administrative visits carried out by the FFF Country Facilitator. Note that the grants are focused on building capacities and don’t include funding for investments.

Project Duration

• The proposals should be designed to be completed within 12 months.

Outcomes

• Expected group business initiatives could include, but not be limited to the following, under the 4 outcomes:
  • More enabling policy and legal frameworks for FFPOs delivered through more FFPO-inclusive governance and cross-sectoral processes
    • Initiatives that support the coordination and strengthening of the FFPOs National Federation and formalization of FFPOs on different value chains.
    • Initiatives that will lead to changes in policy and legal documents in favour of the interest of the FFPOs through direct FFPOs engagement
    • Strengthen the internal governance of the FFPOs through eg  developing an  advocacy agenda approved by the General Assembly or the Board (or another legitimate and elected body),  strengthening the effective participation of women and youth in the board of the FFPOs, etc.
    • Support FFPOs participation representation and participation in national, regional and sub-regional cross-sectoral platforms for policy dialogues.
  • Increased sustainable entrepreneurship, access to markets and finance through gender equitable value chains delivered through new capacity to provide business development capacity within FFPOs.
    • Develop business plan for FFPOs to access market and financial services.
    • Support innovative initiatives for quality value addition activities around different products e.g. honey, cashew etc.
    • Develop key value chain linkages of products produced by the FFPO (with eg private sector actors).
    • Undertake entrepreneurial trainings for a successful business establishment on different value chains (honey, cashew, cocoa etc) targeting women, youth and indigenous people.
  • Improved delivery of landscape scale mitigation, adaptation and climate resilience for climate change through direct engagement of FFPOs and integration with inclusive livelihood approaches and
    • Initiatives towards FFPO management or direct engagement linked to increased mitigation and adaptation results in territories
    • Initiative that support FFPOs peer to peer exchange event to increase exposure to climate resilient, and landscape restoration activities.
    • Initiative towards undertaking of climate-smart agriculture initiatives e.g. organic farming, agroforestry practices.
    • Support the initiative of tree planting for climate landscape restoration
    • Initiatives for the capacity building of the FFPOs staff and members on basic GIS training for map development on restoration initiatives.
    • Initiatives towards strengthening the partnership with sub-national and national and global climate or landscape restoration programmes
  • Improved and equitable access to social and cultural services
    • Initiatives seeking that the forest and farm producers receive improved social (protection) and/or cultural services offered and/or channelled by the FFPOs
    • Initiatives for the participation of FFPOs in national level social development processes that include social and cultural rights
    • Initiatives to organize peer-to-peer learning exchanges for women, youth, and vulnerable individuals to enhance understanding of their rights and advocate for equitable access to productive resources.
    • Undertake trainings for FFPOs on communication development work through video production, radio messages focusing on the advocacy for improved social and cultural services.

Priority will be given to:

• Clear approach for gender transformation
• Clear demonstration of women, youths, and/or marginalized and/or indigenous groups participation in the initiative
• Proposals with outcomes relevant to improvement of forest and farm contribution to food security and household incomes.
• Proposals which demonstrate sustainable forest and farm management practices

Eligibility Criteria

• The applicant:
  • Must be located in Liberia, particularly in the three FFF priority counties for the approved 2023 workplan (Nimba, Lofa, and Gbarpolu counties).
  • Must be a member-based forest and farm producer organization
  • Organization must have a bank account registered in the name of the organization
  • Applicants must be POs focusing on integrating either agricultural landscapes and forestry, farm forestry or Community Forestry User Groups.

For more information, visit FAO.