Deadline: 7 April 2019

THET has announced a call for applications for its Start-Up GrantsProgram.

These grants form part of the third round of the Johnson & Johnson AfricaGrants Programme, and offer the chance for UK institutions working in the fields of Essential Surgery and Anaesthesia, or Community Health, to form health partnerships with their counterparts working in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Africa Grants Programme (AGP) supports the training of health workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Funded by Johnson and Johnson (J&J) and managed by the Tropical Health and EducationTrust (THET), the AGP engages partnerships between organisations in the UK and Ireland, and their counterparts in Africa.

Target Areas

• Essential Surgical and Anaesthetic Care: This stream will focus on reducing morbidity and mortality from conditions requiring surgical intervention and/or enhancing patient safety as a result of improved anaesthetic care through the training of relevant health workers. The aim of this stream is to improve the access to, and availability of, quality essential surgery and anaesthetic care (particularly for maternal, neonatal or paediatric surgical conditions). Partnerships should be institutions working on these areas, and should use the fundingavailable to carry out a needs assessment to discover priorities in their focus country or area.
• Community Healthcare: This stream will focus on increasing the availability and quality of essential healthcare (including attended births) and health information to underserved populations, including women and children, by training those who work and serve on the frontline of healthcare systems. The stream will support the establishment of partnerships focused on the training of cadres working in the community (Clinical Officers, Community Health Workers, etc.), which are aligned with the national strategy and policies incountry. Partners will work at the rural and district level, and generally outside of the central hospital systems.

Geographic focus

There are 13 focus countries for this round of the AGP:

• Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia (including Somaliland), Togo

Funding Information

Grants are available for periods of between six and twelve months, and will begin from 1st June 2019 onwards. All project activity must be completed by 31st August 2020. Grants are available from £5,000 to £10,000.

Eligibility Criteria

The core requirements for the Africa Grants Programme 2019-20 Start-Up Grants are as follows:

• Grant recipients are based in eligible countries
• Applicants must show demonstrable commitment to forming a long-term Partnership
• The partnership must be new, or have been working together for 6 months or less
• It will be expected that the start-up grant will fund a needs assessment. The results of this needs assessment will form part of the reporting
• Based on the outcome of the needs assessment, the partnership may be formalised with a
• Memorandum of Understanding and an initial health systems strengthening activity may be completed. While the nature of these may not be explicitly finalised before completion of the needs assessment, these can be included in the budget
• Project budgets cannot exceed £10,000.

How to Apply

Applicants should complete their grant application form collaboratively and submit this, along with letters of support from each of the partners, in one email at the address given on the website.

For more information, please visit https://www.thet.org/resources/agp-2019-2020-start-up-grants-application-form-2/