Eligibility Criteria and Guidance

Introduction

Hub Cymru Africa’s grants scheme enables individuals, community groups and organisations throughout Wales to access funding for small-scale Wales-Africa projects. Up to £180,000 is available per year, including an annual minimum of £50,000 for health activities involving the Welsh NHS or public health Wales. This scheme replaces funding previously available through Wales Africa Community Links, Fair Trade Wales and the Wales for Africa Health Links grants scheme.

Funding will be allocated under 4 thematic areas:

  • Health
  • Sustainable Livelihoods
  • Lifelong Learning and
  • Climate Change and Environment

The 2017/18 round of funding will open on 8thAugust2017 and applications must be submitted by 12 noon on 18th September2017.

We will aim to disperse funds at the start of November2017 so this means that the project work runs from 1stNov2017 – 31st March 2018.

Application forms must be completed in full and submitted with the supporting documents required as detailed in the application forms found here. All forms must be received by email or hard copy by the deadline. Funding categories are:

  • up to £1,000 for small scale activity grants;
  • from£1,001 - £5,000 for project grants; and
  • from £5,001 - £15,000 for partnership grants.

More detail on these categories can be found below.

Organisations can submit multiple applications for funding within the same financial year. However, Hub Cymru Africa is only likely to make multiple awards to a single organization inexceptionalcircumstances.

The grant assessment and award process for applications will be:

  1. Applications initially assessed by the Hub Cymru Africa staff to confirm eligibility;
  2. Applications assessed by a panel composed of the Hub Cymru Africa staff team (for grants of up to £1,000) or an independent panel comprised of Hub Cymru Africa partnership board representatives (for grants of over £1,001);
  3. The outcome of the application will be either a) agreement to full funding, or b) offer of partial funding, or c) offer of funding on set conditions, or d) rejection;
  4. Outcome letters sent to each applicant;
  5. Successful applications will be sent a grant offer letter with full terms and conditions (including reporting requirements) and must be signed and returned by the specified deadline before funds can be released.

Overall Criteria

  • Lead applicants must be based in Wales
  • Any overseas activities must take place within Africa
  • Applications must demonstrate value for money in their activities
  • All activities should be of benefit to Wales
  • Applications must fall under one or more of the thematic areas
  • Applicants who have previously received an HCA grant or a grantthrough the member organisations of Hub Cymru Africa (Wales Africa Community Links, Wales for Africa Health Links Network, Fair Trade Wales) should show impact or progression from these grants
  • Joint applications from consortia of Welsh organisations will be considered
  • Individuals or un-constituted groups may only apply for a maximum of £1,000
  • Scoping visits to develop your relationship with African partners will only be considered under £5,000
  • All applications are subject to a conflict of interest declaration
  • All applicants should demonstrate that they have taken into consideration ethical and Fair Trade criteria when making purchasing decisions
  • Match funding is strongly encouraged
  • For international travel, Cardiff airport should be prioritised as a point of departure, wherever possible

For the avoidance of doubt, we will not fund, for example:

  • Academic Research
  • Unrestricted donations to southern partners
  • School trips/travel
  • Humanitarian operations (emergency relief work)
  • Direct applications from African organisations
  • Evangelical or proselytising activities
  • For-profit activities (exceptions may be made in the case of community cooperatives or microfinance initiatives within a livelihoods programme)
  • Political parties
  • Individuals, groups or activities that aim to deny equal rights.

Activity grants - Up to £1000
Wales-based lead must be one of the following:
-Individual
-Unconstituted group (e.g. community group/network)
-Constituted group (e.g. Fair Trade group, community based organisation, religious institution)
-Registered charity, NGO, social enterprise, private business
-Affiliated to an NHS Health Board or Trust
-Educational institution
-Community or town council
What you need to demonstrate:
  • A clear explanation of the benefit to Wales; see “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQs)
  • A clearly focused activity plan
  • Good communications potential
  • Awareness of similar activities and groups and evidence of engagement with them
  • Where relevant, must have a demonstrable impact in Africa
  • Reference to how the project supports the aims of the Well-being of Future Generations Act in Wales
  • Applications showing clearly explained match funding or in-kind contributions are strongly encouraged

Project grants - Up to £5,000
Wales-based lead must be one of the following:
  • Constituted group (e.g. community based organisation, religious institution)
  • Registered charity, NGO, social enterprise, private business
  • Affiliated to NHS Board or Trust
  • Educational institution
  • Community or town council
  • It is not essential for project work to take place in Africa but preference will be given to those working with a southern partner, with demonstrable impact in Africa
African organisation (where relevant):
  • Unconstituted group (e.g. midwives or PTA)
  • Constituted group (e.g. women’s cooperative or community based organisation)
  • Constituted organisation (e.g. NGO, social enterprise, training centre)
  • Government Department (local, regional or national)
  • International NGO
What you need to demonstrate:
  • Letters of support from your main partners including the lead organisation/group in Wales and your African partner (if relevant).
  • A clear explanation of the benefit to Wales (see FAQs)
  • A clear demonstration of the project need, based on a needs assessment
  • Project delivery against clear strategic objectives
  • A clear impact measurement framework
  • Good communications potential
  • Where relevant, must have a demonstrable positive impact in Africa
  • Where relevant, an explanation of work to build the capacity or skills of African partners, and encourage African leadership of the project
  • Where relevant, demonstrate a link to local government or other delivery organisations in project area
  • A clear link between the skillsof the volunteers involved and the project objectives
  • Priority will be given to health projects which involve participants who are working in the Welsh NHS or Public Health Community
  • An explanation of how the project will support the delivery of the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015
  • An explanation of how the project contributes to the achievement of the Global Goals
  • Applications showing clearly explained match funding or in-kind contributions are strongly encouraged
Specific Criteria
Applicants must be a constituted group (not an individual) with a bank account with two unrelated signatories.
Partnership Grants - Up to £15,000
For partnership grants you must have an African partner organisation.
Wales-based lead must be one of the following:
-Constituted group (e.g. Women’s cooperative, community based organisation, religious institution)
-Registered charity, NGO, social enterprise, private business
-Affiliated to NHS Board or Trust
-Educational institution
-Community or town council
African organisation:
-Unconstituted group (e.g. midwives or PTA)
-Constituted group (e.g. women’s cooperative or community based organisation)
-Constituted organisation (e.g. NGO, social enterprise, training centre)
-Government Department (local, regional or national)
-International NGO
What you need to demonstrate:
  • A current Memorandum of Understanding or Partnership Agreement between you and your African partner which covers the remit of this proposal (see FAQs).
  • Letters of support from your key partners, including the lead organisation in Wales and in Africa.
  • A clear explanation of the benefit to Wales (see FAQs)
  • A demonstrable positive impact in Africa
  • A clear demonstration of the project need, based on a needs assessment
  • Project delivery against clear strategic objectives
  • A clear impact measurement framework
  • Good communications potential
  • Where relevant, an explanation of work to build the capacity or skills of African partners, and encourage African leadership of the project
  • Where relevant, demonstrate a link to local government or other delivery organisations in project area
  • A clear link between the skillsof the volunteers involved and the project objectives
  • Priority will be given to health projects which involve participants who are working in the Welsh NHS or Public Health Community
  • An explanation of how the project will support the delivery of the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015
  • An explanation of how the project contributes to the achievement of the Global Goals
  • Applications showing clearly explained match funding or in-kind contributions are strongly encouraged
Specific Criteria
Applicants must be a constituted group (not an individual) with a bank account with two unrelated signatories.

Thematic Funding Streams

Health

Access to good quality healthcare is essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. It is also one of the areas where inequality can be seen most starkly. Children in sub-Saharan Africa are more than 15 times more likely to die before the age of five than children in developed regions (WHO).

High-income countries have an average of almost 90 nurses and midwives for every 10,000 people while some low-income countries have fewer than 2 per 10,000 peopleand nearly 800 women die every day due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth (WHO Global Health 2014 report).
We therefore seek to contribute to protecting the mental and physical health and wellbeing of communities in Africa through our grants.

This includes for example:

  • Supporting knowledge and skills sharing between health institutions in Wales and Africa for mutual learning and benefit;
  • Supporting healthcare professionals in Africa to access small scale training and support; and
  • Supporting communities in Wales and Africa to access to more equitable, quality healthcare

Lifelong Learning

In our globalised world, learning is more than about acquiring and using factual knowledge, but also includes personal and professional skills development throughout adult life. This might be through developing self-confidence for young people or exposing mature professionals to new experiences in Africa.
Lifelong Learning provides an opportunity for us to look afresh at our own society and question and understand it better, as well as creating greater awareness of international issues.

Under Lifelong Learning we will support individuals or groups of children or adults in Wales and/or Africa to gain skills and knowledge.This might include, for example:

  • Linking communities in Wales with African partners to develop mutual understanding of global development and international issues;
  • Supporting the educational needs of disadvantaged children in Africa and sharing that experience with school pupils in Wales, contributing to their global education; and
  • Supporting people in Africa to learn practical/vocational/artistic skills to improve their livelihoods (e.g. theatre and dance, IT and carpentry).

Climate Change and Environment

The pressures of climate change are made worse by inequality, as the poorest and most marginalized are excluded from a decent standard of living, free from poverty, and without access to essential services including education, health care, clean water and nutritious food.

The impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are felt by us here in Wales as well as the wider world, but research shows that it is the world’s poorest who face the greatest risks.

Our ambition is to help mitigate negative effects and contribute to positive change now and for future generations.

Under our climate change and environment grant stream, we will support initiatives that help people while working to reduce environmental degradation and biodiversity loss in Africa as well as strategic and practical work to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and to protect people from the impacts of climate change on food supplies, water availability or safety.

This includes, for example:

  • Activities which support African farmers to adapt to a changing climate;
  • Projects which enable the use of renewable energy in Africa;
  • Projects engaging people in Wales with climate change issues as they affect Africa; or
  • Work aiming to support African partners in implementing sustainable development practices.

Sustainable livelihoods

By 2050 the global population is set to hit 9 billion (UN Population Fund) putting enormous pressure on the vital resources which individuals and communities need, now and for future generations.

A livelihood is sustainable when individuals and communities have access to the vital resources that they need to thrive. Tackling financial poverty, enabling economic resilience in families and supporting small-scale enterprise and employment is key to supporting the fundamental right to a sustainable livelihood, allowing families and communities to respond and adapt to and recover from things beyond their control.

We seek to promote realistic and sustainable livelihood opportunities in Wales and Africa, ensuring that marginalized individuals are included in grassroots economic and social development.

Initiatives that we support include for example:

  • Community-led, income generating cooperatives that have benefit to Wales and Africa;
  • Engaging the public through Fair Trade campaigns, advocacy or policy;
  • Activities that bring the consumer closer to the producer in a sustainable way;
  • Support to small scale agricultural projects and activities; and
  • Support to grassroots income generating activities e.g. arts & crafts.