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CoopAfrica is set up to be a demand-driven programme, giving the national cooperative movements influence on how to invest the funds available. Cooperatives, cooperative apex organisations and other cooperative support agencies from the project countries can apply for a grant from the CoopAfrica Challenge Fund. Twice a year CoopAfrica publishes in national newspapers, on the radio and on the website a call for proposals for proposals of USD 20,000 to USD 50,000. Smaller projects below the threshold of USD 20,000 can apply for funds throughout the year.
CoopAfrica covers nine countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, including Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Cooperative organizations from these countries are able to request assistance through the Challenge Fund in the form of technical support, training and capacity building. National CoopAfrica focal points facilitate the process in the countries covered.
The CoopAfrica Challenge Fund focuses on three areas: Innovation, Training and Services. All of the funds are accessible through a competitive process and transparent selection ensures that the best initiatives are selected for funding. The selected project proposals must clearly demonstrate a link to the achievement of CoopAfrica objectives and contribute to the fight against poverty and the promotion of decent work.
Applicants can submit a full-fledged proposal or a concept note. A concept note is a brief summary of the project and if it is successful, applicants will be asked to provide a full-fledged project proposal. Concept notes and proposals must be written according to templates provided by CoopAfrica.
Please download the brochure, guidelines and the different application forms on the right-hand side of the page.
What is a challenge fund?
A challenge fund is a financing mechanism to allocate funds. Instead of writing and funding projects written by the organization itself, the programme asks for proposals from organizations and institutions working in the targeted field, in this case cooperatives. Challenge funds are always set up to meet specific objectives – such as extending financial services to poor people. Applications are assessed against transparent criteria, and successful bidders must match a certain percentage of the grant. A Selection Committee then awards grants to those projects that best meet the aims of the objectives of the Challenge Fund.
A key feature of the challenge fund mechanism is the sense of competition that is created among the organizations involved and the way their ideas seed the debate on key development issues.
Selected Projects
So far, CoopAfrica held three calls for proposals under this facility. In the first call which closed in June 2008 a total of 145 proposals were submitted to CoopAfrica. Eight proposals were selected for funding totalling USD 301,354. In the second call 141 project proposals were received in December 2008 from 6 countries, of which 22 projects have been selected. The projects for the second round are worth an estimated sum of USD 1, 330, 000. Applications submitted during the third call, held in May 2009, are currently being processed. Additionally, a number of small of up to USD 20,000 have been funded outside of the calls.
Please see the list of projects selected for funding so far on the right-hand side of the page.
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