Applications Invited for SCF Call for Concept Notes: Freshwater Ecosystems Grant Program

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About the Organization:

Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) are an international non-profit research and policy organization that tackles environment and development challenges. Their work spans climate, water, air and land-use issues, governance, the economy, gender and health. Stakeholder involvement is at the heart of their efforts to build capacity, strengthen institutions and equip partners for long-term change.

Strategic Collaborative Fund – Call for Concept Notes (freshwater ecosystems)

SEI Asia, with support from the Swedish government (SIDA), launched the Strategic Collaborative Fund Phase 2 (SCF2) programme in 2018 to enhance the current 2030 Agenda efforts in Asia and the Pacific. SCF2 aims to foster regional cooperation and policy dialogue for sustainable development and environmental sustainability, through capacity building, knowledge sharing and increased collaboration. Human rights and gender equality are central to SCF2, as it champions regional and inter-regional collaboration for transboundary environmental policy development.

Theme: Practical actions in protecting and restoring freshwater ecosystems for sustainable use and climate change adaptation.

Goals:

• Gender Equality: to undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic and natural resources.
• Clean Water and Sanitation: to protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes.
• Climate Action: to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.

Targets:

• Mainstreaming biodiversity values into national and local development and poverty reduction strategies and planning processes.
• Safeguard and restoring ecosystem services, including services related to water, and contribute to health, livelihoods and well-being taking into account the needs of women, indigenous and local communities, and the poor and vulnerable.
• Sharing biodiversity knowledge on its values, functioning, status and trends, and the consequences of its loss

Specific focus/priority:

This call attempts to demonstrate practical actions to protect, restore and safeguard freshwater ecosystems functions including wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes for multi benefits at the community level in rural areas and demonstrate scaling-up to integrate the value of ecosystems services into development plans and planning process of water related sectors at local, national and regional scales as well as transboundary basin scale. Special consideration goes to proposals that include indigenous ecological knowledge, promote gender equality and women’s role in managing ecosystem services and practical relationships between ecosystem services and human rights.

Funding:

A maximum of SEK 450,000 (approximately USD 45,000) will be awarded per grant. The grants can fund one or more events in their entirety or provide supplemental funding to already confirmed co-funded event(s).

Regional Strategic Collaboration

They invite proposals to support activities, events, and processes that attempt to push values of freshwater ecosystems into water-related sector plans through effective community decision-making process. The proposal expected to show success stories, identify key challenges and barriers, and engage local communities, indigenous peoples, and women groups in protecting and restoring freshwater ecosystems for sustainable use, water-related disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation as well as provide practical approaches and policy recommendations to scale up.

The types of regional strategic collaboration could include, but are not limited to:

• Strengthening coordination and collaboration between countries, across waterrelated sectors, across the scales and beyond watershed boundaries to accelerate the progress to achieve global and regional goals such as Sustainable Development Goals and Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
• Filling the gaps in mainstreaming biodiversity and freshwater ecosystem services into local development polices, upscaling into national and regional policies and the growing gaps in funding to finance conservation efforts by partnerships with the private sector, individuals and non-governmental organizations.
• Demonstrating importance of ecosystem services and biodiversity for the full enjoyment of human rights, contributing to gender equality and social equity in managing and restoring freshwater ecosystems.

Theme-specific criteria:

The successful event proposal will meet the following criteria:

• Programme design
• Multi-stakeholder engagement
• Clear directions for policy influence
• Communication and public awareness

Eligibility Criteria:

Interested applicants must send proposal for events on any of the four themes. Proposals should also include a human rights and gender angle, to be considered.

The following can apply for the grant:

• Nonprofit organizations or networks that based in Asia can apply. Organizations outside the region can be considered if the proposed event addresses issues relevant to Asia and can engage regional stakeholders.
• Private sector players can apply, if their proposal seeks to engage with the public sector and/or civil society organizations. Funding cannot be used for covering private sector actors’ participation in the supported event (related travel and accommodation expenses). It should, however, be used to increase participation of other stakeholders such as civil society and the public sector. A cost-sharing option for micro and small enterprises with resource constraints can be considered.
• Organizations that are currently Sida’s grantees are not eligible to apply as the lead organization, but can be part of the consortium.

For more information please check the Link