Apply for NCE Grant
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON THE NCE GRANT FUND BEFORE COMPLETING THE APPLICATION FORM
Aim
The Namibian Chamber of Environment Fund (NCEF) seeks to improve the quality of life of Namibians by empowering civil society and particularly its Members to care for their natural resources, to derive benefits from these resources and to promote responsible environmental stewardship within the context of sustainable development.
Objectives of the Fund
- To support initiatives that promote environmental conservation and the protection of indigenous biodiversity, habitats and endangered species;
- To improve peoples’ livelihoods and quality of life through sound environmental management and sustainable use of natural resources;
- To promote best environmental policies and practices, including rehabilitation;
- To support efforts to prevent and reduce environmental degradation and pollution;
- To build environmental skills and capacity in young Namibians;
- To support collaboration and synergy across the environmental sector, the sharing of best practice, and access to information;
- To provide catalytic seed and ‘gap’ funding to credible ideas and initiatives; and
- To monitor and evaluate progress and outputs to ensure optimal performance and value for money from each investment both at project and institutional levels.
What does NCEF seek to do?
- Provide grant funding of up to N$250,000 per project per year to successful applicants for projects that further the Aim and Objectives of the Fund, for a project duration of a maximum of 24 months. In exceptional circumstances grants of more than this amount and for longer periods may be considered;
- Support and promote mainly civil society engagement with sound environmental stewardship, protection of landscapes, habitat and indigenous species, through capacity building, empowerment, collaboration, planning, implementation, research, monitoring, information dissemination and reporting;
- Support and promote initiatives that aim to democratise environmental management and that strive to involve and build skills of young Namibians;
- Be catalytic, innovative and, where appropriate, provide supplementary support to ongoing programmes, and encourage co-financing approaches in support of the Aim and Objectives of the Fund.
What types of projects/activities can be funded?
The following types of “Core” projects/activities can be funded by the NCEF:
- Natural resource management projects (e.g. wildlife and biodiversity conservation, integrated land use planning and management, sustainable forestry, savanna and drylands management, wetland and fisheries conservation, and coastal and marine conservation)
- Natural resource based enterprises that improve peoples’ livelihoods (e.g. community-based natural resource management, tourism, crafts, sustainable resource harvesting and value-adding; and more efficient use of natural resources)
- Promoting best environmental policy and practice (e.g. natural resource management and use, economic and commercial activities using or impacting on natural ecosystems and indigenous species)
- Institutional/capacity development (infrastructure and organisational) projects, through implementation of one or more of the above types of core activities. Capacity-building on its own will not be supported.
The following types of “Cross-cutting” activities can be supported by the NCEF, as part of a project addressing one or more of the above Core activities:
- Environmental information, educational and awareness creation programmes (e.g. building environmental information systems, providing credible and accessible information, awareness campaigns, support to environmental education centres, excursions for children, production of materials)
- Applied research projects (including conventional research, monitoring and evaluation, traditional knowledge, student attachment support)
- Projects pertaining to environmental health (e.g. water and sanitation, clean-up campaigns, pollution)
- Specialist services (e.g. legal advice, Environmental Impact Assessment, conflict resolution, land surveying).
- Projects pertaining to the urban environment (e.g. sustainable urban development, cleaning of urban areas, urban safety, recreation facilities, green space planning, local Agenda 21)
- Targeted short to medium term skills development programmes (e.g. internship programmes, short courses, special technical training – but NOT attendance for individuals at conferences)
- Networking and communication programmes (e.g. arranging of relevant workshops, symposia or information sharing activities to facilitate broader collaboration, strengthen capacity, share best practice and improve conservation effectiveness)
What key elements should be in an application for funds?
Note: the on-line application form will lead you through the process.
- The applicant must explain the relevance and significance of the project to justify why the project is important and should be funded. The applicant should demonstrate how the project will make a positive environmental, social and/or economic contribution.
- The application must clearly explain the higher order goal(s) that this project proposal is contributing to, i.e. what is the ideal desired final outcome?
- The applicant must then clearly explain the Objectives, outputs and outcomes that will be achieved by this project.
- The applicant must set out the Activities planned to achieve each Objective, to ensure that the outputs and outcomes are achieved.
- An application must be in line with the core objectives of the fund and include as many cross cutting issues as appropriate (building skills and capacity in young Namibians is particularly important for this Fund).
- The application must be accompanied by an implementation plan that sets out a time line of Activities per Objective, states when outputs will be completed, when outcomes will be achieved, when progress will be reported (technical and financial reports) and when grant payments will be required.
- The application should also be accompanied by an outcomes- or outputs-based budget that sets out what funding is needed per Activity. The technical and financial reporting should be aligned, as the disbursement of funds should be linked to reporting against project milestones.
- The budget should specify total project cost and show all co-funding – both obtained and sought.
- The application must explain the social setting of the project in terms of its acceptance by communities, authorities, etc.
- The proposal should mention all stakeholders and partners, and the roles that they will play.
You may either enter the information on your project directly into the Application Form below or, prepare your application as a word document, using the headings provided in the attached template and then copy and paste your text into the appropriate sections of the Application Form.