Deadline: 26 April 2019

The French Embassy in South Africa is currently inviting applicants for its 2019 Civil Society Development Fund (CSDF) with an aim to support capacity development of South African civil society organisations.

The Embassy of France through the civil society development Fund seeks to fund innovative projects aiming at building the capacity of communities to advocate their rights, to contribute to local public policies and to reinforce the accountability of local governments towards citizens.

Co-financed and co-ordinated initiatives that support gender equality and women’s empowerment will be prioritized.

Funding Priorities

The CSDF provides funding to South African organisations implementing micro-projects within the two broad funding priorities:

• Promoting respect for human rights, especially those of women, children and LGBTI persons.
• Improving local governance, public participation and access to services with a specific focus on sustainable development of communities, skills development, job creation, and social cohesion.

Through this funding, the French Embassy seeks to support:

• A “bottom up approach”, where organisations design and implement their own strategy.
• A “coordinated approach” where preference is given to initiatives co-financed by South African and foreign stakeholders, including European Union member states and their implementing agencies, United Nations agencies and French CSOs.
• A “coherent strategy” – the programme follows the principles of the European Union Charter on Local Governance and contributes to the goals of the French-South African cooperation strategy which is based on South African priorities.

Grant Information

The CSDF can provide up between €30 000 to €40 000 per project.

Duration

The maximum duration of the project is 24 months.

Criteria

• Only projects whose terrain of activity is within South Africa are eligible. Priority is given to co-financed initiatives that support gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Only registered not-for-profit civil society organisations (CSOs), networks or coalitions based in South Africa and with at least a 3 year experience in the sector are eligible to apply for a CSDF grant. This includes non-governmental organisations (NGOs), academic institutions (including think-tanks), faith-based organisations, community-based organisations and trade unions.
• The applicant organisation is required to have sustainable and stable foundations in terms of finance, human resources and project management.
• The Embassy of France only contracts with legally constituted institutions. In cases where applications are received from alliances, coalitions, networks etc. that are not legally constituted and registered, the Embassy of France will contract with the lead organisation and require the consent of the other members of the coalition/network/alliance.

How to Apply

Concept notes must be submitted via email at the address given on the website.

Eligible Country: South Africa

For more information, please visit https://za.ambafrance.org/CSDF-Call-for-proposals-2019