Global Community Engagement And Resilience Fund (GCERF)- Call For Expression Of Interest From Potential Grantees Of GCERF Funding In Nigeria

DEADLINE: 1ST OCTOBER, 2021
GLOBAL COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND RESILIENCE FUND (GCERF) 
CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
FROM POTENTIAL GRANTEES OF GCERF FUNDING IN NIGERIA

Background
The Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) is an independent, multi-stakeholder organisation established to serve as the first global effort to support local, community-level initiatives aimed at strengthening resilience against violent extremist agendas. Operating at the nexus of security and development, GCERF is committed to working in partnership and consultation with governments, civil society, and the private sector in partner countries to support national strategies to address the local drivers of violent extremism. GCERF strengthens community resilience by supporting local community-level initiatives to address the drivers of violent extremism that promote social cohesion, community agency, equal access to opportunities, and individual’s sense of purpose.

To date, GCERF has invested USD 8.9 million in eight grants, funding 27 local partners and reaching 366,501 direct beneficiaries. All grants have directly supported the third pillar of the PCVE National Framework and Action Plan to support local organisations and communities, and were in line with the GCERF Country Strategy Investment for Nigeria, the first update of which was approved by the GCERF Board in 2018. GCERF’s Round 2 programming followed its model of holistic, inclusive and sequential, working with individuals, developing local community structures and linking these to the state and national level framework

GCERF-funded programming in Nigeria over the past six years has met its primary objectives:

(1) contributing to keeping the north central states largely free of extremist group incursions;

(2) entrenching Preventing Violent Extremist (PVE) responses at the community level; and

(3) enabling the adoption of state-level policies to counter violence and empower young people.

Given these advances, the sustainability of a majority of activities. GCERF now proposes funding similar programming in the northwest to support communities and state actors there to increase resilience, reduce risks, and better resist extremist groups’ recruitment.

GCERF’s Investment in Nigeria
While the situation in the northeast of the country remains severe as a result of ongoing VE group territorial control, there are a number of large-scale security and PVE programmes running in this area (details are included in Annex 1). GCERF’s consultations and assessments demonstrate that its resources and support would therefore be better used to focus on states in the northwest, which are witnessing a surge in violence and an evolving threat from ISWAP and BH. These consultations, and the results of GCERF/GIS heat mapping, indicate that programming in the states of Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Sokoto is likely to have the greatest potential impact.

GCERF’s 2021-23 Investment Strategy for Nigeria was developed in alignment with the Global Counter Terrorism Forum (GCTF) Good Practice frameworks. It is informed by Nigeria’s PCVE National Framework and Action Plan, GCERF’s 2021-24 Strategy, and in-depth consultations and review across a range of stakeholders inside Nigeria. These activities were undertaken in close collaboration with local and national authorities, in-country donors and local experts, and communities to gain a shared understanding of priorities and ensure that GCERF’s Nigeria Strategy is fit for purpose and addresses real-time needs.

Call for Expression of Interest
GCERF, in collaboration with the CSM in Nigeria, is pleased to announce a call for expressions of interest for CSOs in Nigeria to develop a consortium and become a Principal Recipient (PR) of funding from GCERF’s Core Funding Mechanism (CFM).  Under the CFM, GCERF funds consortia of CSOs and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) to implement initiatives aimed at strengthening community resilience against violent extremism.

Consortium grants are managed and supported by the PRs who are the legal recipients of GCERF funding and provide funding to other consortium members or “Sub-Recipients” (SR).

In line with the Investment Strategy the focus of the investment will be:

Who:
As well as focusing on people identified as directly “at risk” in PVE programming, GCERF’s programming demonstrates that there is also a critical need to amplify protective factors (such as positive peer environments, formal support mechanisms, etc.). Creating “fertile ground” for PVE programming requires a whole-of-community approach. GCERF therefore proposes focusing on the following beneficiary categories to implement its approach:

• Un- or under-employed Youth (young women and men between 19 and 35)
• Religious, Tribal and Community Leaders (male, female)
• Governance Actors (Local Authorities, Security and Justice Actors, male and female)

Where:

• Kaduna
• Kano
• Katsina
• Sokoto

What:

GCERF will fund CSOs and local associations to implement programmes that enable prevention and resilience-building at community and state level.

How:

• Civil Society Organisations (CSO) support community leaders to work together to identify local PVE challenges and implement solutions.
• They provide training and resources to facilitate this.
• CSOs promote scaling and replicability of these activities by engaging with governance actors and through information sharing locally, at state level and at national level, and ensure that the largest number of communities possible are able to address ongoing VE challenges.

The overall aim of this collaborative working and planning approach is to enable PVE to have resources allocated to it and be integrated into wider service delivery (such as education and health through psycho-social care), ensuring communities are able to identify and address ongoing VE challenges once GCERF support ends.

Grant size 
GCERF plans to sign grant agreements with consortia before the end of quarter four of 2021 and currently has USD $2 million for this round of funding. In exceptional circumstances, GCERF may also provide grants to non-consortium Direct Recipients. GCERF may provide additional funding to selected consortia throughout grant implementation, based on availability of funding, identified needs per country, and the capacity of the consortia to successfully implement planned interventions.

Grant duration
The grants will be minimum 30 or a maximum of 36 months in duration.

Grantee
Each consortium should be led by a PR which will be responsible for providing subgrants to other consortium members (Sub-Recipients).

Expressions of Interest
Applicants are asked to demonstrate that they meet GCERF’s established pre-requisites and that they possess the required capabilities to be a PR of GCERF funding.

 WHAT HAPPENS AFTER POTENTIAL PRINCIPAL RECIPIENTS ARE SELECTED?
Once selected, a potential Principal Recipient is invited to develop and submit a Consortium Proposal (see note 8). The Secretariat will provide potential Principal Recipients with guidance and technical support in the development of its Consortium Proposal. All potential Principal Recipients that submit a duly completed Consortium Proposal will be considered by the GCERF Country Support Mechanism (CSM) (see Appendix 1 Preventing Violent Extremism: The Role of GCERF) for inclusion in its National Application for funding. Proposals within the National Application are expected to contribute to the relevant national strategy to prevent and counter violent extremism where they exist, and fall into the priorities outlined in the call for expression of interest and any additional guidance. A country’s National Application is submitted to GCERF’s international Independent Review Panel for review and a funding recommendation before submission to GCERF’s Governing Board for a funding decision. All potential Principal Recipients are then notified as to whether or not their Consortium Proposal has been successful.

What Is A Consortium Proposal?
A Consortium Proposal is a joint funding proposal from a Consortium for a clearly defined programme of work. The development of a Consortium Proposal is led by a potential Principal Recipient once it has been selected based on the assessment process. A Principal Recipient is responsible for engaging smaller organisations in its consortium to develop and implement successful proposals. GCERF provides detailed guidance on the format and content of a Consortium Proposal.

HOW TO SUBMIT AN EXPRESSION OF INTEREST
Use the templates provided in Annexes A – D. All Annexes must be completed for the proposal to be valid. Please do not provide additional documents as these will not be reviewed.

The full package of completed Expressions of Interest documents must be submitted electronically to call.nigeria@gcerf.org by 23:59 on October 1, 2021. The email should be marked as ‘EOI-NIGERIA – in the subject line. Failing to do so might compromise your submission.

Shortlisted applicants will be contacted to conduct due diligence.

ATTACHMENTS
Call for Expressions of Interest in Nigeria (Word)
Guidance Note for Theory of Change (ToC)
Grant Making Calendar (Excel)
ToC Flowchart Example (PPT)
Annex A- Application (Word)
Annex B- Past Projects (Excel)
Annex C- Budget (Excel)
Annex D- ToC Flowchart Template (PPT)