Announcement of Call for Concept Notes RESET Plus Innovation Fund

Background

The RESET Plus Innovation Fund is a program financed by EU- Horn of Africa trust fund and managed by ICCO Cooperation  in collaboration with the  affiliated partner Fair and Sustainable (F&S).

ICCO Cooperation (ICCO), is a Dutch based organization with over 50 years of experience in leading market-driven approaches that are sustainable and scalable and empower the work of local civil society organizations (CSOs), agricultural producer organizations, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), companies, and government counterparts. Through our proven methodologies and approaches, which include public private partnerships, innovative financial instruments, and M&E, we help to create livelihood opportunities, promote food security, and increase resiliency. ICCO works towards a world in which people can live in dignity and well-being, a world without poverty and injustice.

The objective of the RESET Innovation Fund within the EU Resilience Building Ethiopia (RESET) programme is to foster innovative approaches in resilience-building that are generated from the grass-roots level and that complement existing interventions and strategic planning. The successful social innovations will be  incorporated in larger systems, policies, strategies and plans. Furthermore, this will support the medium and long-term growth and transformation of Ethiopia’s most at-risk population.

Objective of the call for Proposals

The purpose of this call for proposal is to provide a fair and competitive opportunity for interested eligible entities to submit concept notes for innovative fund support. In line with the objective of the EU RESET programme, the objective of this call is to provide financial support to innovative projects that can contribute for resilience-building sector in Ethiopia.

The activities under the Innovation Fund are expected to influence existing systems by encouraging development practitioners think out of their box and lessing  ‘business as usual’ ways of doing. Moreover, initiatives under this fund introduce and adopt new and appropriate methodologies, approaches, technologies and practices, in partnership with public and private stakeholders, including addressing the underlying social, cultural and economic causes of inequality in their respective societies.

The changes to be brought about by funded innovations are expected to particularly benefit youth and women from the EU RESET’s target populations.

The planned duration for projects to be funded under this call is for a maximum of 24 months.

Eligible entities to apply for this fund include: non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, including grassroots community based organisations such as cooperatives, women’s associations or youth associations/clubs, national universities or research institutions.

Under this call for proposals, partnerships are highly encouraged.  An entity can only be part of one application as a lead applicant and can be a part in a maximum of two applications as a co-applicant. In a specific cluster, it is not allowed to be part of more than one application.

Private sector organisations can apply, but only in partnership with non-profit organisations or institutions as listed above. Private sector organisations are not allowed to make a profit from the activities under this financial support.

All types of persons or categories/entities should be legally registered to operate in Ethiopia.

Geographical focus

The RESET plus innovation fund targets 41 pre-identified woredas in five regional states of the country. Namely;

• Amhara region, Waghimira zone (Sekota, Ziquala, Abergele, Sahla, Dehana and Gaz Gibla woredas)
• Afar region, Zone 1, 4, and 5 (Chifra, Adar, Ewa, Dewe, Telalak, Aysaita, Elidar and Afambo woredas)
• Somali region, Siti zone (Ayisha, Miesso, Afdem,  Erer, Shinile woredas) and Liben Zone (Dheka Suftu, Mubarek,  Dolo Odo and  Moyale(S) woredas)
• Oromia region, Bale zone (Dawe Kachen, Gura  Damole, Rayitu, Meda  Wollabu and Berbere woredas) and Borena zone (Dillo, Moyale (O), Miyo, Dire, Dehas and  Arero woredas) and
• SNNPR (Southern Nations,  Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region), Wolayita zone ( Kindo Koysha, Damot Pulasa, Boloso Sore and Diguna Fango woredas) and South Omo zone ( Hamer, Dasenech,  Gnangatom woredas)

RESET plus Innovation Fund Support

The financial support which Innovative Fund provides under this call ranges between €25,000 up to €500,000 per innovative proposal. All applicants will be required to request a grant amount within this range and in line with the lot category mentioned in the applicant guideline. Applicants also need to provide summary budget breakdown by major budget lines.
For those who are interested to apply, an application guideline and proposal formats can be accessed at www.innovation4resilience.org.

Only applications that focus on the identified thematic areas and strictly follow the application guidelines will be considered.

For interested applicants, ICCO Cooperation will also organize public seminars to give further clarification about the RESET Plus Innovation Fund call.

The first public seminar will be conducted on 28th October 2019 in Addis Ababa and from 29th October 2019 to 2nd  November 2019 in the eight clusters. All interested entities shall confirm attendance by registering through the following link: https://tinyurl.com/y4cys5jw.

The attendance confirmation will be before 25th October 2019 for both Addis and cluster level public seminars. Specific dates/time, venue and eventual changes will be communicated to the registered participants on the website: www.innovation4resilience.org.

The Closing date for Concept Note submission is December 16th 2019, 16:00. Please note that no concept document will be accepted after this deadline and all concept notes submitted after the indicated time will be rejected.

Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted. Full proposal date will be notified for only shortlisted applicants.

All applicants for the Innovation fund call for proposals are expected to submit only 5 pages of concept notes including a budget summary in electronic copy using email address innovation4resilience@icco.nl  with in the subject line: name of applicant companies/organizations – ConceptNote. Concept Notes without the appropriate formats (please see the application guidelines carefully) will not be considered for appraisal process.

Download:  Call Guidelines and Concept Note format.