MDP

CITIES FARMING FOR THE FUTURE (CFF) PROGRAMME

CALL FOR PROJECT PROPOSALS UNDER THE COMPETITIVE FUND PILOT PROJECTS

Introduction

This is a call for interested parties to submit project proposals on multi stakeholder diagnosis and action-planning activities at local level on urban agriculture to be funded by the Cities Farming for the Future (CFF) programme. The program is managed by Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA) and funded by the International Development Research Center, Canada (IDRC) and Directorate-General for International Cooperation, Netherlands (DGIS).

 What is CFF

The Cities Farming for the Future (CFF) is a global programme that seeks to integrate agriculture into urban development. The Programme is coordinated globally by the Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF).

 The main objectives of this programme are to:

  • contribute to urban food security,

  • urban poverty reduction,

  • improved urban environmental management,

  • empowerment of urban farmers and

  • participatory city governance through capacity development of local stakeholders in urban agriculture and participatory multi-stakeholder policy formulation and action planning on urban agriculture.

 This programme will run from 2005 to 2008. The CFF programme manages a competitive fund that yearly will select one city in the region, where local NGOs, farmer organisations and one or more NGO’s will jointly develop diagnosis, policy reformulation, action planning and project implementation and monitoring under which the current call is made.

 Competitive bids for Pilot Projects

Under this program, a Competitive Fund for pilot projects has been created for financing of multi stakeholder diagnosis and action planning activities at local level and the provision of seed money for initial implementation of pilot projects. The maximum contribution of the RUAF-CFF programme to the total budget of the pilot projects is Euro 10, 000.

 Minimum requirements

 All proposals will have to meet the following minimum requirements:
 

  1. The applying organisation should have a legal status and be a not-for-profit (public or private) organisation.
     

  2. The participating organisations should be committed to jointly make a local contribution of at least 50% of the total project budget. Support letters of the participating organisations indicating their contributions to the project have to be added to the proposal.

  3. Relate to the objectives and priorities of the RUAF-Cities Farming for the Future Programme as outlined previously giving special attention to the following themes:

  • Urban agriculture and local economic development and poverty alleviation

  • Improving access of urban poor to land and water for urban agriculture and integration of urban agriculture in land use planning

  • Safe reuse of urban organic wastes and wastewater in urban agriculture

  • Urban agriculture, food security and nutrition

  • Social inclusion of disadvantaged categories of the urban population   (families affected by HIV-Aids, unemployed youth, disabled persons, etcetera) and gender mainstreaming through urban agriculture 

  1. Monitoring of the impacts of the pilot project at the level of the beneficiaries should be included in the project design. The regional coordinator of the MDPESA-RUAF-CFF programme may advise you on indicators and monitoring methods.
     

  2. In the cities that are already participating in the program i.e. Bulawayo, Cape Town, Lusaka and Maputo, the proposal should have been approved by the City Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Urban Agriculture and Urban Food Security and respond to one of its main priorities for action. In other cities, the approval by a similar Forum (if existing) is a recommendation.
     

  3. MDPESA-RUAF-CFF gives preference to pilot projects:

  • that focus on a priority issue in the development of pro-poor urban agriculture;

  • are participatory and gender sensitive;

  • forge partnerships and promote joint learning;

  • have a high probability of success and low level of risk;

  • have a high replication potential.

Duration of the project

The duration of the pilot projects preferably should not exceed 1year.

 Application deadline

Proposals should be received by the Regional Coordinator of the MDPESA-RUAF-CFF programme before19 November 2007. Guidelines are available for the development of the proposals.

 Assessment of the proposal

The proposals will be evaluated by the regional and global coordination unit of the RUAF CFF programme. All applicants will receive the decision by postal mail before December 3, 2007. A positive decision may include certain conditions (e.g. adaptations to be made in the proposal or budget, further clarifications needed) and the signing of the contract may be postponed until such conditions have been met.

PROPOSAL FORMAT

 1.    Cover page (1 page)

The cover page should indicate:

  • Title of the project

  • Name, postal address, tel/fax of the applying organisation (the institution that will coordinate and administer the RUAF-CFF contribution to the project)

  • Name of the person responsible for the technical and administrative coordination of the project and his/her email address and telephone number

  • Names and postal addresses of participating organisations

  • Total budget of the project (in national currency and Euros)

  • Contribution requested from RUAF-CFF (in national currency and Euros)

  • Total own contribution of the participating organisations (in national currency and Euros)

  • Contributions from third parties (in national currency and Euros)

  • Estimated duration of the project (in national currency and Euros)


2. Summary (in English) (1 page)

In the summary you briefly describe the key problem(s) attended by this project and the main results expected from this project as well as the activities through which one intends to realise these results.

 3.    Backgrounds and Justification (max 2 pages)

In this section you describe why this project is needed:

  1. What are the problems or potentials that will be attended by this project?

  2. Why it is important to work on these issues; and what exactly do you expect to learn from it?

  3. Who are the intended beneficiaries (type, number and location) of the pilot project and how have they participated in the formulation of the proposal?

  4. What is the context in which this pilot project is undertaken; to what other activities (already implemented or to be implemented) the pilot project is related?

 4.    Objectives / expected results  (max 1 page)

This section describes what you hope to achieve:

  1. What are the results expected of this pilot project?

  2. How will the results of the pilot be used, for what purpose and by whom?

  3. What are the factors that may influence the success of this project negatively (e.g. project assumptions that might fail)? What do you plan to do in each of these cases (contingency plans)?

  4. What will be done to secure that the project results are maintained after the termination of the pilot project?

  5. What possibilities do exist to replicate the pilot project at a larger scale?

 5.    Strategies / Activities (max 3 pages)

Here you will describe through which activities you intend to realise the objectives and explain how the intended beneficiaries will participate in the implementation and evaluation of the pilot project. This section should also make clear that a gender positive working methodology and what will be done to secure active participation of women. 

Please add a timetable.

 6.    Participating organisations (max 2 pages)

In this section the participating organisations will be described:

  1. What will be their contributions to the project (refer to the activities mentioned above and indicate their financial and in kind contributions)

  2. List the names of the personnel of each organisation that will be coordinating the contributions of their organisation in carrying out the pilot project and describe their expertise of relevance for this pilot project

 7.    Project coordination and administration

In this section you describe:

  1. How the project will be coordinated and decisions will be taken

  2. How the project expenditures and the contributions by all project partners will be administered

 8.    Project monitoring and evaluation

In this section you explain:

  1. How you plan to monitor and evaluate the progress and results of the pilot project and how the various project partners and beneficiaries will participate in this process.

  2. How you will ensure that optimal use is made of the lessons learned in this pilot project

 9.    Budget

In this section you present the budget of the pilot project, specifying the own contributions of the participating organisations, the contribution requested from RUAF-CFF and the contribution expected from third parties. An explanatory note is required for each budget item included in the budget, explaining what exactly is covered under this heading and how you arrive at the estimated amount per budget item.

 

For further details contact:

Mr. Takawira Mubvami
Urban Agriculture Programme Coordinator
tmubvami@mdpafrica.org.zw