Deadline: 30 September 2019

The Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) project has announced a call for proposals supporting the expansion of existing nature-based women-led enterprises for exponential impact.

For 25 years, SGP has been promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment as a critical cross-cutting element of its work. However, women continue to participate in labour markets on an unequal basis with men: women are paid less than men, bear disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care work, work in vulnerable, low-paid, or undervalued jobs, and are more likely than men work in informal employment.

Given that nature-based businesses – such as those involving the land, forest, garden, or rural environment – are industries with significant growth potential and that a large portion of SGP projects include an element of entrepreneurship as an alternative income activity, many of them are led by women. To strengthen these efforts, SGP will pilot an innovation program to support the expansion of existing nature-based or “green” women-led enterprises, capacitate start-up women entrepreneurs with models and skills necessary for sustainable and effective nature-based business practices and contribute to building inclusive and sustainable businesses in Armenia.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a global partnership among 181 countries, international institutions, NGOs, and the private sector that aims to address global environmental issues while supporting national sustainable development initiatives.

The GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) was launched in 1992 following the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The programme is funded by GEF as a corporate programme and implemented by the UNDP on behalf of the GEF partnership, and is executed by the UNOPS.

SGP aims to deliver global environmental benefits in the GEF focal areas of biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, protection of international waters, prevention of land degradation, and elimination of persistent organic pollutants through community-based approaches.

Priority Themes

Priority will be given to projects that aim to do one or more of the following:

• Business management training
• Technical training
• Product development and design training
• Business development and business management counselling
• Marketing training
• Financial training and finance facilitation
• Business women’s networks and business networking – regional, national, and international
• Enabling and creating access to markets
• Ensuring support through the full value chain circle, including production and logistics
• Supporting regional startup businesses and vulnerable segments, such as women-led households, migrant families, Syrian refugees.

Budget and Duration

• As per the SGP Operational Guidelines, the maximum amount for each grant project should not exceed the limit of US$ 150,000 envisaged by the SGP for a strategic project.
• The winner will be asked to propose a combination of hard and soft interventions, where at least $100,000 will be allocated to investment into business development (procurement, construction materials, equipment, etc) and at least $50,000 to supporting the progress of the projects through organizational capacity building, trainings, mentoring and value chain support (marketing, export, packaging, logistics).
• The duration of each grant project shall not exceed 24 months, given the nature of projects.

Project Eligibility Criteria

• A constituency of emerging women-led small and medium enterprises/businesses
• Promotion and strengthening of second tier organizations that aggregate others such as women cooperatives, self-help groups, and associations
• Experience in building entrepreneurship capacity among vulnerable groups
• Representation or strong presence in the regions of Armenia
• Experience in community-based social entrepreneurship
• Initiatives to establish local incubators in partnership with the private sector
• Proposed projects should be bold, innovative, and transformative, and have potential for replication and scaling up
• Emphasis is given to enterprises that are ripe for scaling up, building on success of the SGP and projects that could bring partnership and leverage additional resources
• Partnerships with local chambers of commerce, trade unions, large scale cooperatives, local public-private organizations and local incubators and accelerators for social good that can offer business advise to women-led enterprises are encouraged
• Consortiums and partnerships will be encouraged

How to Apply

Project concepts should be submitted via email at the address given on the website.

For more information, please visit http://www.sgp.am/en/News/60