Action Learning Network: Notes from the 6th Network Session September 6, 2013 at GNS Sports Complex

What is the Action Learning Network (ALN)?

The purpose of the Action Learning Network is to share and network available resources with the aim of improving the services the voluntary sector delivers. Hosted by the Volunteerism Support Platform with support from Cuso International and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, the ALN creates a setting where organizations and individuals can gather to share best practices or resources; share experiences with other organizations and individuals; create and expand networks; examine issues within their respective service sectors; and to explore solutions with the aim of facilitating organizational sector development. The ALN is expected to snowball into a structured body that will provide the scope for organizations and individuals to tap into a pool of existing and documented Guyanese resources and approaches to forward the development of the voluntary sector.

Main Presentation Points from September 6 Session

Topic: Are You Looking in the Right Places? The Search for Funding Facilitator: Mr. Kevin Bonnett, Civil Society Consultant, Inter-American Development Bank Background: Many local CSOs face difficult challenges in participating in the harmonised development principles laid out in the Paris Declaration1. In Guyana there is only a limited number of CSOs that can be considered successful for a variety for reasons. This impacts on the contribution that Civil Society is making to development in Guyana in its own right as a development actor and the results is considered mixed. The development landscape is very different in 2013 compared to the pre-global financial crisis era. Development agencies in Guyana specifically, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank (WB) have all moved to regional programing through the Caricom Secretariat as a model to support regional integration or have relocated out of Guyana completely to focus on new priority countries. In 2009, the Guyana economy was rebased from a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) and elevated to a lower middle

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness was developed in Paris in 2005. It looks at the responsibility of developed and developing countries for delivering and managing aid using five principles; Ownership, Alignment, Harmonization, Managing for Results & Mutual Accountability.

income country. This means that concessional financing/grants have become more difficult to access by Guyana. Naturally, grant resources for civil society organisations have become more difficult to obtain through the traditional donors and civil society organisations must search for new avenues and sources of funding. Many of the CSOs and their constituencies are unaware about the existence of the IDB, EU, GRIF and other external funding windows, and how to access funding from new sources is often misunderstood. Overview: Guyanese civil society organizations have expressed a desire to learn more about mechanisms and tools to access external sources of funding to help support their programs and activities. Overall Objective: The objective of the workshop is to help participants to develop a better understanding of how to access grants and other funds from non-traditional sources. Topics to be discussed include: Information on how to find donors and funding sources How to keep aware of funding opportunities How to undertake strategic partnerships for proposal submissions Challenges/pitfalls to be aware of in the grant application process Tools and resources that people can access to help them develop better funding proposals (i.e. training sessions like this one, online resources, websites, etc.) Outcomes: Participants should leave the session with some ideas of possible funding sources for their organizations Participants will have networked and met other organizations that may be possible partners for future funding proposals **** See below for a copy of the full presentation ****

Next Action Learning Network

Time: 9:00am-12:00pm Date: Friday, October 18, 2013 Venue: GNS Sports Complex Facilitator: To be announced Topic: To be announced

Access to Finance : Are You Looking in the Right Places? Presenter: Kevin Bonnett

Kevin Bonnett

Why are you here?

Help NGOs understand the new models of development financing

Improve NGOs capacity to respond to or to solicit development financing

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Seminar Objective

My objective is COLONISE you by the end of the seminar

The 1st duty of colonist is to change a populations language and the way they think!! Development is now about; Innovation

Partnerships
Collaborations
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Understanding the Global Development Landscape (Context)

Why do you need financing and why should someone give you their

monies?
The most powerful force for poverty reduction is not development

assistance its local entrepreneurs Scott Glenmore , CEO of Building Markets (formerly Peace Dividend Trust)
Good intentions dont end poverty. Enterprise ends poverty.

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Understanding the Global Development Landscape (Context)

Changed landscape

960 million poor people now live in middle income countries (MIC) a new bottom billion. Aid funding is principally targeted to poor (low income) countries and not poor people. Guyana graduated from low income country to a middle income country in 2009/10. Middle income countries are less and less likely to receive development assistance overtime & taxpayers of donors are less inclined to support aid to MICs . Non-traditional donors (China, India, Brazil) are offering more resources to middle income countries.
5 Multilateral donors are re-prioritising their resources & focus. Kevin Bonnett

Understanding the Global Development Landscape (Context)

What are the New Priorities?

3 Categories of Development Finance: Reform, Development & Humanitarian Donors are harmonizing & aligning resources more than ever (Parris Declaration)

Pursuing Joint Agendas Caribbean Integration, Pooling their Resources Compete Caribbean Programme (IDB, USAID, DFID & CIDA)

Partnering for effectiveness & reach (multiple combinations),

Supporting regional priorities economic growth, private sector development, employment, climate change, citizen security.

MDG Agenda coming to an end in 2015. Stakeholders are influencing the Post 2015 Development Agenda.
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The Post 2015 Agenda

What will the priorities for that agenda look like? Financing for Development
Encouraging trade as an engine for development. Encouraging entrepreneurial development. Growing the private sector in Middle Income Countries.

Science, Technology & Innovation

Fostering access to knowledge (education with an emphasis on math & science). Economic growth & access to decent jobs. Achieving food security through sustainable, equitable agriculture systems and raising

production and income levels.

Promoting renewable energy technologies. Mitigating climate change.
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How Global Development Priorities influence funding at the Country Level

Global Priorities Science, Technology & Innovation

Caricom Priorities Regional Competitiveness

Climate Change
Economic Growth

Inclusive Growth
Resilience & Social Cohesion Regional Integration

Guyana Priorities with IDB Renewable Energy SME & PS Development

Guyana Priorities with EU Political & Social Partnerships Economic & Environmental Opportunities & Vulnerabilities Promoting Social Cohesion
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Natural Resources
Public Sector

How does this affect Guyanese NGOs?

The need to reassess your own organisations, adapt to the new types of development and new sources of financing NGOs need to position or re-position their organisations internally;

Internal governance, strategic plan & priorities, Internal Records, Controls & Safeguards, Oversight & Accountability (Functioning Boards), Qualified staff, Sound project planning & management, Doing more with less (credibility).

Understand the new environment and new priorities

Need for new skills & new ways of thinking. An important theme of the new

environment is INNOVATION. Are you developing competencies & expertise on the new priorities?, are you honing your proposal & portfolio writing skills?

Build relationships with International Philanthropic Organisations, Foundations, International Private Sector Organisations, Partner with like minded NGOs (innovative partnerships)
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Who is Financing What?

British Government British High Commission Small Grants Scheme (SGS) addresses issues linked to Guyanas business plans and policy priorities. Projects match the main goals of the local embassy. NGOs should contact the local High Commission to propose projects. https://www.gov.uk/government/world/guyana

British Council ( Trinidad Office) addresses education, arts and culture. Contact them directly and propose collaborative projects in the fields of arts and education in order to start new collaborative ventures sponsored by the UK. (e.g Microsoft & BC collaborated on providing a series of trainings to high school students in skills employable in the global market).
http://www.britishcouncil.org/tt-our-projects.htm
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Who is Financing What?

Inter-American Development Bank Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF)

MIF supports economic growth by encouraging increased private investment and advancing private sector development. It finances and execute innovative business models that benefit entrepreneurs and poor and low-income households. Grants between US$250,000 to US$750,000. Areas of Financing: early stage entrepreneurs, small producers and high value agriculture markets, value chains, youth, access to basic services, womens empowerment, SME finance, microfinance in underserved and frontier markets. Social Entrepreneurship Program rural business production, processing, marketing and value chains (rural micro and small producers from marginalized communities). Loan of up to US$1 Million repayable over 10 years. US$250,000 grant for training and strengthening operational capacity. http://www5.iadb.org/mif/en-us/home/aboutmif.aspx for call for proposals information
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Who is Financing What?

Delegation of the European Union

The objectives of the EU's approach are based on three dimensions: (a) Shaping a political partnership based on shared values, (b) Addressing economic and environmental opportunities and vulnerabilities and (c ) Promoting social cohesion and combating poverty. Areas of financing: support civil society in working on human rights (political, civil, economic, social and cultural) and democratisation; strengthen the capacities of vulnerable communities in Guyana (including the Amerindian communities) so as to enable them to be more productive and self sufficient. Up to 200,000 euro. Europeaid promote good governance, human and economic development and tackle universal issues, such as fighting hunger and preserving natural resources. http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/funding/index_en.htm for call for proposals information

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Who is Financing What?

UNDP UNDP pursues national goals and objectives as articulated by the Government of Guyana in its national development strategic frameworks. UNDPs areas of focus in Guyana are Democratic Governance, Poverty Reduction, Energy and Environment and Crisis Prevention and Recovery. UNDP through the Guiana Shield Facility launched a call for proposals to contribute to its overall objective to promote and support the conservation and sustainable development of the Guiana Shield eco-region for the period 1 September 2013 to 31 August 2014 - See more at: http://www.guianashield.org/index.php/news/315-gsfcallforproposals2013-guyana#sthash.1dUKMOZX.dpuf

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Who is Financing What?

Bilateral Agencies To understand the source of funding available with bilateral donor agencies, it is important to know what are the different types agencies and whether any of them have bilateral relationships with Guyana or have a presence in the Caribbean. Their small and medium-sized grants are targeted to address issues related to health, nutrition, education, human rights, peace, economic development, conflict & stabilization etc depending upon the country strategies and polices in place. Good bilateral agencies who work with Guyana include CIDA, JICA, UKAID (DFID) and the largest amongst them USAID.

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Who is Financing What?

http://www.fundsforngos.org/
This website provides comprehensive and continuous world wide updates of funding opportunities for NGOs by themes, donors and geographic regions. Training opportunities, NGO webinars, scholarships, call for papers (research grants), proposal writing resources, opportunities to attend conferences, free NGO guides are some essential tools offered by the site.

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What are Grant Makers Financing?

Donors are looking for projects that have the following key components

Innovative business relationships: Projects that offer small businesses new ways to adapt to quickly changing market realities

Improving SME competitiveness through eco-efficiency: Projects that enhance productivity and profitability of small enterprises by adopting eco-efficient technology to their business practices.
Use of information and communication technology (ICT): Projects that promote the use of ICT as a means of enhancing productivity of local small businesses, providing access to better information. Improving small business access to the formal economy

Skills standards: Projects that apply skill standards to allow local small enterprise owners and their workers to train and assess performance against criteria established by internationally recognized accreditation bodies.
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What are Grant Makers Financing?

Research Grants NGOs need to engage in more research

Carry out research to address a problem in your community. How does the proposed research idea relate to priority problems of the country/region as recognized by governments, civil society organizations, or international experts? The proposed research should draw upon the natural, economic, and social sciences as needed to ensure relevant and useful applied research. Is gender and social analysis included in the research methodology? Consider how the NGO can use the results of the research to obtain funding. Agape Network; a local NGO based in Sophie is undertaking a community research on GBV in its target communities to inform national policy on GBV and to become subject matter expert (go to NGO) on GBV in its target communities.

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What are donors looking for in Proposals?

Get to know the funding agency/program/donor

Sustainability and Partnership Innovation - the extent to which the organization and project have innovative and inclusive approaches to new ways of doing things. It is the implementation of something new. doing Social Impact providing low income communities with greater access to goods/services, and/or income generation opportunities. Replicability and Growth Potential proposals should exhibit potential for being replicable/scalable and be of potential interest to social investors and/or mainstream venture investors and financial institutions.
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Innovation

Note that transferring an approach to solve a common problem beneficiary group or geographic area is not considered innovative.

When all think alike then no one is thinking Walter Lippman

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Success Factors for Donors

Proposals should Provide Direct Relief to the Poor and Most Vulnerable Groups Demand-Driven beneficiaries or communities demand the project Clear Definition of who the Beneficiaries are Strong Sustainability

Strong Implementation Capacity of NGO/CSO

Collaboration with other NGOs, Government , Private Sector is crucial Be INNOVATIVEintroduce new approaches or ideas

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Eligibility Issues

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Ensure Your NGO Meet This Profile

1. Legally constituted or incorporated (in Guyana) as a not for profit preferably

under the Companies Act.

2. Minimum number of years of legally constituted and working experience in

eligible sectors
3. Experience in successfully implementing similar projects in the communities

identified as the main beneficiaries of the proposal

4. Financial soundness proven by X years of external audited financial

statements (commensurate with the amount requested; and most lately available)
5. Sound financial capacity and administrative management
22 Kevin Bonnett 6. Evidence of sound governance mechanisms; by-laws, constitution, records

Challenges & Pitfalls to be aware of

Parameters to determine if a proposal is eligible to be considered.

By law document submitted? Y/N Legally constituted in Guyana? Y/N minimum required yrs existence verified? (Registration ) Y/N Not for Profit status verified? (Registration Doc) Y/N Prior years fiscal or calendar audited financial statements uploaded? Y/N Audited externally? Y/N

Have you used the donors template where necessary? Y/N

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Challenges & Pitfalls to be aware of

Proposal narrative completed? Y/N Budget completed? Y/N Is the results matrix completed? Y/N Terms of Reference annex completed (where necessary)? Y/N Is the project synopsis template completed? Y/N

Is the synopsis template submitted? Y/N

Is the 10% counterpart contribution met? Y/N A single NO indicator will render the proposal ineligible for phase 2!!! NO EXCEPTION
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Challenges & Pitfalls to be aware of

Is the NGO known for having strong management experience? Is the NGO known for its community based work?

Is the NGO known to work with other Development Agencies?

Is the NGO cleared of any restrictions relating to competing for donor funds? Is your proposal relevant and aligned to the donors work per the country strategy?
Relevance and alignment to country strategies and priorities require extensive

research by the NGO to prove that the NGO understand the issues it proposes to address and is consistent to donors strategy.

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Challenges & Pitfalls to be aware of

Poor planning and tight deadlines

Limited skills /resources

Clarity about language/ expectations of the donor Understanding the problem

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Assessment and Selection Criteria

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Assessment Criteria
1.

Sound technical proposal that includes innovative and replicable inclusion mechanisms focused on community-based development for vulnerable populations.
Size of budget requested commensurate with the organizations proven administrative and financial management capacity. Participatory monitoring and evaluation that will contribute to building a sense of ownership among the beneficiaries to promote the sustainability of the interventions. Intervention directly targets and responds to the needs of eligible sectors in poor and vulnerable communities.
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2.

3.

4.

Assessment Criteria

1.

Proposals responding to needs needs assessment of the target community poverty profile of community or vulnerability assessment of group Innovative and replicable inclusion mechanisms

2.

3.

how are beneficiaries contributing to the intervention demonstrate reliability are you strengthening partnerships is it a new idea Size of budget requested

have you managed equivalent funds in the past demonstrate that your fiduciary systems support the budget requested
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Technical Review of Proposals

Essentially an evaluation process will consider the following; Main Issues: what are they? are they clearly presented? Is it data & evidence driven? Beneficiary Profile: who are they? what is the poverty or vulnerability condition? Poverty analysis. Justification: why do they need this support, is it really poverty alleviation? How? Execution Capacity : have you demonstrated your capacity to manage funds of similar size? what are the strengths and development needs of your CSO?

Concrete Proposal: it is clear on how, when and what to do?

Expected Results: What are the expected results? What is the baseline analysis?
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Useful Links
o

www.iadb.org Gender Equality and Womens Empowerment

http://www.iadb.org/en/topics/gender-indigenous-peoples-and-africandescendants/gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment,2604.html
Early Childhood Development

http://www.iadb.org/en/topics/education/early-childhood-development-ecd-in-latinamerica-and-the-caribbean,6458.html
Teacher Quality

http://www.iadb.org/en/topics/education/teacher-quality-tq-in-latin-america-and-thecaribbean,6461.html
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QUESTIONS?
My time is up and I thank you for yours(

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How to Contact me

Kevin Bonnett Email: kevin.bonnett@aol.com Telephone: 225 7950 -3 ext 15 1266 Mobile: 626 8925

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