Call for proposal under Local Action Grant

Information about CSSP2: Civil Society Support Programme Phase Two (CSSP2) is funded by the people of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, and Norway, and the programme is managed by the British Council, in consortium with Pact UK and Social Development Direct. CSSP2 is a capacity development programme designed to support Ethiopia’s civil society organizations to enable them to be capable advocates on inclusive and accountable governance for better equitable and inclusive access to services; and an improving environment for the promotion and protection of the human rights of all. To this end, CSSP2 is supporting Ethiopian civil society organizations through capacity building activities and grant making for CSOs to implement activities. Grant making, Capacity Development and Engagement are the core strategies of the programme that mainstream key cross cutting strategies including gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), Safeguarding, and Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL). CSSP2’s core thematic areas are Gender Transformation, Young People, and Citizen-State Engagement. CSSP2 uses Regional Hubs as a basic programme delivery unit. Human Rights Based Approach is CSSP2 core approach. CSSP2 believes and supports collaborative efforts among and between different actors for collective impact initiatives are also the key strategies and approaches used for successful, effective and efficient implementation.

Application closing date: 19 July 2022 

Definition and Scope

Local Action Grants (LAGs) are demand-driven grants responsive to emerging local opportunities identified through ongoing contextual analysis (CA) and learning by Hubs and partners. LAGs use of grant making as a development strategy which devolves power and resources closer to the ground to effectively respond to and address local needs. This means that the Local Action Grants will be tied to CSSP2’s priority themes:

1. Gender Transformation: Gender based violence; Land rights; and Women political participation

2. Young People: Substance abuse; Youth voice; and Decent work

3. Citizen-State Engagement: Social minorities inclusion; Creating stronger and better CSOs; and   building trust and confidence

LAGs should retain the focus and should leverage and contribute to achieve CSSP2’s overarching objective of promoting citizen-state engagement.

The key aspects of LAGs are:

• Issues and solutions to be supported by LAGs will be identified through ongoing contextual analysis and other learning opportunities such as monitoring visits, learn and share events, etc.

• The funds are available for effective and a real time response to local needs and emerging opportunities. 

• Mobilize local power, resource, and response to address issues of concern by promoting collective action among organizations with complementary technical capacity, outreach capacity and influence, in which diversity of stakeholders represented, including indigenous and new community partnerships.  This will contribute to ensure the voices of different marginalized groups are incorporated.

Grant Size and Duration

Each grant size ranges between £ 25,000.00-30,000.00. The exchange rate to be used to convert the GBP budget ceiling to ETB is 63.90 for maximum of 8 Months period from August 2022 to March 2023.

Eligibility Criteria for applicants

In order to be eligible for a grant, the applicants must:

 be a local civil society organization, and be non-profit-making,

 Registered by authorized government body of Ethiopia (federal or region level) and have a valid registration license,

 be able to demonstrate that they have experience in carrying out similar activities 

 have basic financial management systems (to be checked by due diligence  assessment immediately after the selection of successful concept notes), 

 have proven track record and past performance (CSOs who have been funded under CSSP1 or CSSP2, CSSP2 proves the past performance under the CSSP grant), 

 develop and submit Safeguarding policy at the full proposal submission stage (if successful at the concept note stage)

 CSOs who are currently implementing projects funded by CSSP2 are not allowed to apply in this call

 Applicants can only apply separately, and coalition application is not allowed for this call.

How to get Application Guideline and Application pack?

The CSSP2 Local Action Grant Application Guideline and Application packs are available at  www.cssp2.org. Or, request via information@cssp2-et.org if you face a challenge to download it.

Please read the CSSP2’s Local Action Grant Application Guideline before you begin to write your proposal.

How to Apply?

A full set of application pack should be submitted in soft copies (word excel, and PDF files) to CSSP2 via  grantapplication@cssp2-et.org by indicating CSSP2 Local Action Grants Application on the subject line of the email. If the size of attachments is larger than the allowable limit, the applicant must send the attachments in rounds; however, the subject line of the second email should denote CSSP2 Local Action Grants Application – Second Email etc. Deadline for application is on 19 July 2022.

For any enquiry, please send your request through information@cssp2-et.org; or Call to: +251- 11 617 4300 the Grants team