OFID/UNDP Mini Grants Competition Scheme

The grant has been extended to the OFID-UNDP Mini-Grants Competiton Scheme to cover three to five small innovative projects, in order to identify and showcase concrete development solutions in the Energy and Water or the Economic Governance and Employment areas. This first phase collected 475 project ideas from 31 countries and territories. Out of the 475 project ideas, 189 applications were focusing on priority 1 – Affordable energy and water solutions and 270 applications on priority 2 – Economic governance and employment. Regarding the regional representation, there were 72 applications received from the Middle East and North Africa region, with the State of Palestine leading with 32 EoI submitted. The rest of the applications were received from Europe and Central Asia – 386 EoI, out of which 107 were received from Ukraine. Approximately 10% of the projects had a cross-regional partnership in place, while the rest were requesting support from the Grants management team. The main tools used to promote the competition were the webpages of the OFID and of the UNDP RBEC. The UNDP RBEC webpage alone had over 8000 unique visitors during the expressions of interest phase. Additionally, the Grant Competition was communicated via Twitter and Facebook channels, direct emailing to over 1000 NGO contacts and via UNDP Country Offices network from both of the targeted regions. A short promotional film was developed and listed on YouTube. Out of the 475 Expressions of Interest received, 35 ideas were preselected and further elaborated into full project proposals. Following a joint OFID-UNDP meeting (July 2015), the full project proposals were evaluated and 3 projects were selected for funding. Out of the 35 Full Applications received, 19 projects focused on priority 1 – Affordable energy and water solutions and 16 projects on priority 2 – Economic governance and employment. Final projects selected and contracted for funding: The first project aims to design, build, and install a solar-powered wastewater treatment plant in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and test its feasibility in Uzbekistan. The second selected project aims to enhance the field of social entrepreneurship in Albania, Kosovo and Tunisia through business accelerators and the regional transfer of expertise. As a result of the third project, Somalia will benefit from the experience of Tajikistan and Yemen in the field of irrigation to provide water for farming in remote villages.