Funding Opportunities for African Businesses

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a call for grant proposals for the Soil Fertility programme: one for Sahel/West Africa and one for East and Central Africa.

Organisations with experience in achieving sustainable management of soil fertility in a way that contributes to ecologically sustainable improvements in food productivity and to increased resilience of small-scale food producers and/or pastoralists in Sub Sahara Africa may apply for a grant.

The following points are important in ensuring that activities contribute as effectively and efficiently as possible to the general goal of the Soil Fertility Grant Programme:

• Focus on integrated soil fertility management; combine local agro-ecological methods, nature-based solutions and external knowledge and inputs (particularly fertilisers), and establish a strong link with climate adaptation, agrobiodiversity, water management and value chain development.
• Gender strategy; targeted measures to improve soil fertility management by women producers, safeguarding their interests at local, regional and national levels.
• Embedded in local and national structures and aligned with prevailing policy and implementation plans.
• Aligned functionally and effectively to one or more existing initiatives, preferably of regional governmental or intergovernmental organisations, aimed at strengthening smallscale farming systems. The initiatives should have a large geographical reach and target group. It is essential that alignment with such initiatives is institutionally anchored.

Scope

• Goal and approach
  • To be eligible for a grant under the Soil Fertility Grant Programme, activities must be based on a theory of change (ToC) developed by the applicant aimed at achieving the following goal:
    • Achieve sustainable management of soil fertility in a way that contributes to ecologically sustainable improvements in food productivity and to increased resilience of small-scale food producers (arable and/or livestock farmers) in the Sahel/West Africa and East and Central Africa.
• Framework for the theory of change
  • A theory of change must be drawn up to achieve the goal formulated, indicating how sustainable impact will be achieved with regard to the following:
    • Farmland is converted to ecologically sustainable use in such a way that
    • Small-scale food producers, particularly women, have sustainably improved their productivity and
    • Small-scale food producers, particularly women, are more resilient to climate change and (climate) shocks.
• Results and indicators
  • The Soil Fertility Grant Programme aims to support activities that contribute directly and measurably to, as a minimum, the following result areas of Dutch policy on food security, water and climate:
    • Farmland is converted to ecologically sustainable use;
    • Small-scale food producers, men and women, have raised their productivity;
    • Small-scale food producers, men and women, and their agro-ecological systems are less vulnerable to current and expected impacts of climate change and other shocks, thanks to increased resilience and/or reduced exposure.

Funding Information

• The Minister is providing €200,000,000 in grant funding under the Soil Fertility Grant Programme for a period of ten years. These resources count as ODA and are distributed over the two regions as follows:
  • €100,000,000 is available for a grant for activities in the Sahel/West Africa;
  • €100,000,000 is available for a grant for activities in East and Central Africa.
• Duration of the activities
  • The grant period is from 01-11-2023 up to and including 31-12-2033. For each region the grant amount will be disbursed in two phases: from 2023 to 2028 (phase 1) and from 2028 to 31-12- 2033). The grant will be prepaid in yearly instalments on the basis of liquidity forecasts.
  • The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will commission an external evaluation, to be conducted during the last year of phase 1, in Q2 of 2028, of the results achieved up to that time and giving an estimateof the chance of results being achieved as envisaged in phase 2.

Eligible Costs

• The eligible costs are listed and explained in the model budget that must be used in drawing up the budget to be submitted in stage 2 of the application procedure (appendix 5 to this grant policy framework). In calculating the costs eligible for a grant, the following principles apply:
  • Only costs that are necessary for carrying out activities for which grant funding is sought, and which cannot reasonably be covered from the applicant’s own resources or in some other way, are eligible for a grant;10
  • Only costs incurred during the grant period as stipulated in the grant decision are eligible;
  • Costs of materials and depreciation costs on investments related to the implementation of the activities are eligible;
  • Costs of third-party services for which an external party is contracted and which are invoiced in arrears are eligible;
  • Costs will be compared with local standards and assessed for reasonableness;
  • Audit costs: under the Ministry’s 2022 audit protocol a report of findings must be appended to the audit opinion. This increases the cost of an audit. Please bear this in mind when drawing up the budget.

Eligibility Criteria

• Type of organisation
  • Not-for-profit organisations which possess legal personality under civil law (such as NGOs8 or knowledge institutions) and which have a track record in integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) and the development of small-scale farming systems.
  • Organisations may apply independently or join a consortium of organisations, one of which submits the application as lead party. A consortium is a framework for cooperation between two or more organisations, as defined, that have concluded a partnership agreement with a view to implementing the activities for which a grant is requested.9 All parties in the consortium contribute verifiably to the final objectives of the consortium’s activities.
  • For-profit organisations do not qualify for a grant under this programme as independent applicant nor as lead party of a consortium. They can be co-applicant in a consortium for which an organisation as mentioned is the lead party and submits the application. For all organisations part of a consortium applies that they must possess legal personality under civil law and have a track record in integrated soil fertility management and the development of small-scale farming systems.
  • An organisation may qualify for a grant only once under this programme as either lead party of a consortium or as independent applicant. If an organisation submits more than one application as either a lead party or an independent applicant, only the first application submitted will be considered. Any applications subsequently received will be rejected, regardless of the region that the application concerns.
  • There is no maximum on the number of consortia an organisation can participate in as coapplicant, even if it is has submitted another application as either a lead party or independent applicant.
  • Local and other governments, intergovernmental organisations and organisations in which a public authority is the sole shareholder (or the majority shareholder) are not eligible for a grant, and cannot therefore be an applicant, lead party or co-applicant.

For more information, visit Subsidy Soil Fertility Programme.