IKI Small Grants
The IKI Small Grants component ‘Funding Institutions’ strengthens the capacities of national and regional institutions to implement their own funding programme in the respective countries or regions. Selected institutions receive technical support from GIZ as well as funding of up to 850,000 euros to implement their own call for proposals or funding line for small-scale projects and measures at local level. In total, five million euros are available.
4th INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The 4th ‘Call for Proposals‘ of the IKI Small Grants component ‘International Calls’ has been closed on 17 March 2023, 11:59 CET. We would like to thank all applicants for their proposals. The submissions will now be reviewed in detail. This may take up to a few months due to the high number of applications.
We will contact all applicants as soon as the selection is completed. Please refrain from contacting us regarding the status of your application. We ask for your understanding and patience here.
All information on current activities of the IKI Small Grants component ‘Funding Institutions’ can be found here.
If you are looking for information and documents of previous calls, please take a look at our ‘International Calls’ section.
Documents and Guidelines – How to apply?
Note: The funding information has been updated on 30 November 2022. Please only use the version linked below. All former versions are not applicable.
Funding Information 2023(PDF, English, 143 KB)
Application Guideline 2023(PDF, English, 632 KB)
Budget Template 2023(Excel, English, 656 KB)
Note: Please do not reformat the budget template in order to maintain the mandatory built-in functions.
Travel Allowances 2023(PDF, English, 168 KB)
GANTT Chart Template 2023(Excel, English, 24 KB)
Eligibility Criteria – Who can apply?
Please find below the eligibility criteria. We can only consider project proposals of organisations that meet all criteria.
Eligibility Criteria concerning the applicant organisations:
- Applicant organisations have to be not-for-profit organisations. For-profit non-government organisations are eligible if they pursue strictly non-profit objectives within the scope of their proposed project.
- Applicants must be based and registered in countries that are on the DAC List of ODA Recipients. Please note that proposals from countries that are official or potential candidates for EU membership are not eligible. This does not apply to Ukraine.
- Organisations must be operative for at least three years.
- Over the last three years, the organisation must have an average annual revenue of at least 60,000 and no more than 500,000 euros.
- The average annual revenue of the last three years should be higher than (or equal to) the requested funding volume.
- The average annual revenue does not exceed the maximum turnover for eligible organisations (as specified in our funding information).
- The applicant must have dedicated accounting staff and have accounting principles that ensure internal as well as external control mechanisms.
- The applicant organisation must employ a software-based accounting system which meets its respective national standards. (Excel is not considered as sufficient)
Eligibility Criteria concerning the project:
- Project proposals must clearly address one of the IKI funding areas:
- Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions
- Adapting to the impacts of climate change
- Conserving natural carbon sinks / REDD+
- Conserving biological diversity
- The duration of the proposed projects should cover a minimum of twelve months and a maximum of three years. Longer durations may be acceptable if justified appropriately.
- Projects must be implemented on a local, national, or regional level. Projects with a global focus cannot be funded.
- Projects must be implemented by the applicant organisation itself. Forwarding of funds to other implementing partners or beneficiaries is not permitted.
- The requested financing is in the right proportion to your annual revenue (as specified in our funding information).
- The application includes all mandatory documents.
- Projects must have an initial draft of a capacity development concept.
- The submitted documents are filled out completely (that inlcudes all spreadsheets of Excel documents such as Budget and GANTT Chart).
- The current templates provided on this website have been used (refrain from reformatting or modifying to avoid unintended mistakes).
- The project proposal must be submitted in English.
Conceptional Priorities
As mentioned in the eligibility criteria, the projects must address one of the four funding areas Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, Adapting to the impacts of climate change, Conserving natural carbon sinks / REDD+ or Conserving biological diversity. Additionally, we explicitly encourage projects which:
- support the implementation or increase the ambition of nationally determined contributions (NDCs)
- support action on the ground to contribute to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030
- address the risks, challenges and opportunities of global megatrends (e.g. increasing demand for natural resources, rapid urbanization, digitalisation) in the context of climate change and biodiversity loss
- support a just transition of economies towards decarbonization including fair social change especially for vulnerable groups
- support the implementation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework of the CBD
- strengthen networks, knowledge sharing and cooperation of organisations working on climate change and biodiversity related issues
- develop and promote the use of climate smart technologies
- contribute to awareness building and education regarding climate change and biodiversity
- engage in cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder cooperation and / or involve the local population.
Please also check chapter 6 of the funding information on page 5.
Tips and Advice
Before submitting your application, please make sure to doublecheck on all selection criteria for projects. We expect a high number of project proposals and only a limited number can be selected in each call for proposals (approximately 20-40 per year).
Your application should:
- contain an operational plan including indicators and a detailed budget plan demonstrating how the funding will be used
- adhere to the environmental and social safeguards system applied in this programme (for detailed information have a look at chapter 8 in our application guidelines)
- contain a well-designed capacity development package, which plays an important role in the evaluation and selection of project proposals. (for detailed information have a look at chapter 10 in our application guidelines)
- involve the local population and strengthen gender equality in society. The project should be embedded within an enabling environment and produce tangible and practical results that can be replicated further.
- use all templates provided on the application platform and do not change their formatting when filling them in (all macros and formulas should remain)
Quality assurance before handing in your application:
- Doublecheck on the quality of the project concept and its ambition.
- Guiding Questions:
Is all information provided comprehensible (also for people who do not know your local/regional conditions)? Is the effectiveness of the project idea clear? Are the choice of appropriate methods, the feasibility regarding the project duration and the budget well reflected in the application?
- Guiding Questions:
- Doublecheck on the qualification of the implementing organisation.
- Guiding Questions:
Is my organisation´s professional expertise and experience presented? Did I describe networking activities with relevant stakeholders? Is my organisation in accordance with the IKI Small Grants target group (eligibility criteria)? Does the application clearly describe the organisation´s accounting guidelines?
- Guiding Questions:
- Doublecheck on the project risks and safeguards.
- Guiding Questions:
Does my application asses on relevant risks/safeguards and appropriate mitigating measures? Does my application reflect on the likelihood of the project implementation being jeopardized and on all relevant safeguard dimensions?
- Guiding Questions:
- Doublecheck on the sustainability and replicability chapter.
- Guiding Questions:
Did I provide information about continuation of activities after the project ends? Does my application clearly outline how to embed my project in existing national or regional strategies? Did I reflect on the project´s replicability in other contexts?
- Guiding Questions:
- Doublecheck if the provided templates by IKI Small Grants are used and no changes on the templates have been done.
Check List Download(PDF, English, 86 KB)
FAQ
The FAQs only present a quick overview. For comprehensive details on the funding criteria please carefully read the IKI Small Grants funding information and the application guidelines provided on this website. Also, the recording of the IKI Small Grants Launch Event in 2019 may offer further interesting insights. Click here to see the video.
A: Which organisations are eligible for funding?
For detailed information regarding the eligibility criteria please have a look at the boxes above and the funding information.
- In the current call for proposals, IKI Small Grants does not support:
- government organisations (e.g., ministries, municipalities, public universities)
- branches of organisations based in a non-ODA country
- Consortia are not eligible as this would imply the forwarding of project funds from the lead organisation to partners in the consortia. The forwarding of funds is not permitted.
- Research projects will not be financed unless they have a strong implementation component. This means that basic research projects concentrating mainly on data collection, evaluation, and publications are not eligible as such. However, a project that has its main focus on addressing the needs of target groups and through this achieving substantial changes in the IKI Small Grants’ funding areas is welcome to carry out project related research as a side activity.
B: When can I expect a first contact from IKI Small Grants?
After the call is closed on 15 March 2023, the submitted proposals will undergo a thorough selection process and will be treated with the upmost care and attention. This process might take several months. As soon as the selection has been finalised, all submitting organisations will be informed.
In the meantime, please do refrain from inquiries about the status of your proposal.
C: Can I hand in an application in a language other than English?
Applications have to be submitted in English. Pease bear in mind that all communication after the submission of your application will be in English, too. IKI Small Grants works with organisations from many countries with a wide range of languages. Perfect English language skills are not required. However, good working English from at least one person in the project team is essential for effective cooperation. You are welcome to seek assistance in proposal writing from third parties including professional translation and/or online translation tools.
