The Small Grants Programme (SGP) was established in 1992, as a GEF corporate programme, with the purpose to contribute towards conservation and restoration of the environment via supports provided to the local people by promoting community actions that maintain the balance between social, economic and environmental aspects. The GEF SGP supports projects that are relevant, effective and efficient in achieving global environmental benefits, while addressing issues of livelihoods, poverty reduction, gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The GEF Small Grants Programme believes that global environment problems can be addressed effectively if local people are involved in decision-making at all levels within projects and have control over resources. It has demonstrated that with a small amount of funding, communities at the grassroots level can make a significant difference in their livelihoods and the environment.

To this end, the GEF SGP STAR fund under 7^th operational phase (OP7) is now available to support relevant projects. In this regard, the SGP Ethiopia hereby invites eligible Civil Society Organizations, Non-Government Organizations and Community Based Organizations to submit their Project Proposals until February 28, 2022.

Eligible Criteria

Eligible Organization:

• GEF SGP Ethiopia grants are available ONLY for not-for-profit NGOs, CBOs, CSOs, etc.
• Locally registered Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
• The organization must have a strong organizational capacity to implement SGP grant projects and meet SGP requirements.
• Promote innovative community-based initiatives to reduce local environment threats,
• Build local capacity to implement sustainable development strategies creating “local ownership and institutional capabilities”
• Demonstrate high replicability, co-financing and scaling up potential
• Foster public awareness on environmental issues as an integral part of the project
• Address livelihood, equality and gender concerns and sensitivities
• Involve women, Youths, persons with disabilities and marginalized populations and isolated communities as equal partners in programme implementation,
• Create an impact, influence policies and partnership at the National, regional and local levels in the country,
• Generate local knowledge and involvement of communities in planning, flexibility, partnerships and transparency in their approach during implementation of activities in projects.

In addition to the above, given the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic happening worldwide, we are now facing unprecedented health, economic and social challenges. The pandemic is severely affecting the

vulnerable groups: urban and rural poor, indigenous peoples, women, youths, persons with disabilities and others.  Even though the work of the GEF Small Grants Programme is focusing on addressing long term environmental challenges and fostering community resilience, the SGP will also supports  communities in  COVID -19 recovery efforts that reduces pressures on the environment and improve the  livelihoods of vulnerable communities within the framework of  the SGP Strategic Initiatives. In this regard, we are looking at ideas related to an immediate to a short-term response for COVID -19 that can be implemented under the existing SGP grant projects in line with the SGP’s Country Programme Strategy.

In this regard, we encourage the applicants to come up with innovative ideas that mainstreaming and addressing COVID - 19 pandemic impacts and recovery initiatives in line with the SGP country programme strategy.

Focus Areas: - the proposals should meet the criteria under the following GEF thematic areas of

1. Biodiversity Conservation,
2. Protection of International Water,
3. Prevention of Land Degradation
4. Sustainable Forest Management,
5. Climate Change and
6. Chemicals and Waste management; plastic / solid waste management and circular economy
7. Capacity Development

The Landscapes/ Waterscapes:

The prioritized and selected landscapes/ waterscapes are the Central Rift Valley; West Arsi zone of Oromia National Regional State, Borecha and Hawassa Zuria woredas of Sidama region as well as Hawassa City in Sidama regional state, and Siemen Mountains National Park (SMP) in Amhara National Regional State. However, 30% of the total grant allocated is to be committed to implement innovative, inclusive and impactful projects outside of the priority landscapes/ waterscapes.

Budget: The maximum grant amount for the budget will be limited to $50,000 based on the implementation capacity of the CBOs and/or CSO with applicants required to provide rough budget estimation.

Project Duration; - The duration of projects proposed should not exceed 24 months.

Applications has to be submitted directly Dejene.biru@undp.org.

Guidleines for Small Grants Programme Project Proposal Preparation 

Contact person

Dejene Biru (Mr.)

National Coordinator

GEF Small Grants Programme - Ethiopia

Email – Dejene.biru@undp.org

Mobile - +251911935912