Humanitarian OSM Team/Open Mapping Hub West and Northern Africa/Community/Community granting
Program Overview
The West and North Africa region is composed of 24 countries, at various levels of development of their OpenStreetMap (OSM) communities. We have the countries where there is no reported presence of communities, those where there is a little organized community, and finally the countries where the community is structured around a representative organization. Where organizations exist, they carry the objective of contributing to the growth of OSM mappers by providing an enabling environment. These organizations, which bring together people with strong technical skills, also have important managerial skills, especially with the training program implemented by the WNAH. An important remaining gap in the different countries is the availability of financial resources to implement a medium or long term development program.
Aims of the Grants
The WNA Hub granting program aims to :
- Help the open mapping community in the Western & Northern Africa region with the resources needed to grow their communities;
- Enable the development of leadership skills of local leaders of OSM Communities by providing support and mentorship;
- Improve the governance and operation of the organizations supporting the development of OSM at a country level;
- Broaden the ways in which open mapping and data is used and advocated for in the region.
Approach to application development
The WNA Hub strives to support OSM community expansion across the region. To ensure applicants are supported in their project proposal, the Hub will provide ongoing support and feedback throughout the proposal development process.
This process will kickstart with a 90 minute Proposal Development Clinic to walk you through our expectations. This webinar will be an opportunity for you to hear about what the hub expects from applicants, budget requirements, and selection criteria. From here, applicants can evolve their project proposal, and work with Hub staff to continuously improve and iterate proposals until they are in a strong position for funding.
We expect applicants to take feedback onboard and demonstrate a willingness to co-create, collaborate and show a clear intention to apply things they learn during the proposal development process.
Eligibility & Selection Criteria
Applications are open only to organizations and communities across ten (10) hub focus countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo.
Organizations seeking funding must meet the following technical criteria:
- Must be legally and locally registered organizations including OpenStreetMap communities, Community Based organizations (CBOs), Civil Society organizations (CSOs);
- Must demonstrate accountable leadership including governance and financial management systems;
- There should be a clear match between the goals of the project and the organization’s goal;
- Must include a detailed and realistic budget (See Budget Notes p. 4);
- Must include a detailed and realistic project plan that captures the activities you plan to conduct.
Applicants can apply for up to $10,000 in project funding, and those selected will have taken the technical criteria listed above into careful consideration. All proposals must include a project plan and a budget that adequately reflect proposed activities.
What costs are eligible?
Eligible costs are largely determined on a grant-by-grant basis, and could include, but are not limited to:
- Equipment for mapping and community support (GPS devices, mobile phones, laptops and other technical resources, etc);
- Costs associated with communication (internet, cell data, website costs etc);
- Transportation (to and from events, field mapping excursions etc);
- Event logistics (inclusive of meeting/working space rental, workshop resources, projectors, refreshments / food for event participants etc);
- External technical in leadership/management for key community leaders;
- Cost for trainings targeting new community members, or price for most actives contributors are also in the scope of the grant;
- Costs pertaining to the formal registration of the community;
- Administration costs can be included in the budget, however, this will need to align with the overall budget requested (generally expected at an average of 10% of the overall cost of the project) .
What costs are not eligible?
- Equipment that does not align directly to mapping project needs, or may not contribute to the long-term sustainability of the community (for instance applications for vehicles will not be considered);
- Costs towards hiring a consultant to support project implementation ;
- Travel expenses that do not align directly to mapping project needs (for example costs towards attending a conference);
- Sub-grants or cash advances to other organizations ;
- Salaries, stipends or costs associated with personnel.
Project Principles
In every grant application, we expect you to consider the following project principles by implicitly stating what you will achieve. Depending on the amount of funding that you are applying for, your project might focus on a few of these principals but consideration of all principals must be evidenced in your application.
- MOVEMENT BUILDING & COMMUNITY GROWTH
Evidence of local citizens/community involvement in the project (including engagement of underrepresented groups)
- COLLABORATION
Potential to initiate strategic partnerships and bring different stakeholders together for success and scale
- KNOWLEDGE SHARING
Learning and information sharing among community members
- SUSTAINABILITY
An organisation’s capacity and expertise to continue the activities after the end of the grant funding
- OPEN IN MIND
All grant applications must show that a special consideration has been made for the “Open” aspect of the community. This includes a transparent governance that involves all the community members and keeps all of them informed on what is ongoing in the community. Place should be made for each official member, with the right skills to take part in the implementation of the activities. Criteria for members involvement should be clearly stated for transparency in the operation of the organization.
Budget Notes
We ask all applicants to carefully revise your budgets to align with the following criteria:
- Please ensure your budget currency is in $USD (United States Dollars);
- All applicants must transpose their budget into this budget template ;
- Please note: on the ‘Partner Detail Budget’ tab, you must provide a detailed breakdown / costing rationale to support all the cost categories in the budget;
- You are encouraged to add tabs on this template to breakdown the costs you’ve included as lump sums on the detail budget. For example, if your proposal includes training costs, you can provide an additional “Training” tab that breaks down the cost element for each of the training you propose, such as: name of the training, target participants and related costs.
- All applicants must provide budget justification notes on the relevance of each of the cost items in this particular project;
- Indirect Costs will be negotiated with you if your project is funded. Where organizations do have already existing Indirect Costs Rates, the rates can be used and a policy framework supporting the same, submitted alongside the application.
- Please note that administration costs can be included in the budget, however, this will need to align with the overall budget requested (generally expected as +/-10% of the overall cost of the project);
- The total amount of the budget must not exceed 10K USD.
Milestones, Targets & Expectations
All applications must carefully consider all of the Hub’s Project Principals in alignment with the amount of grant monies being applied for.
Please use these examples as a guide to defining the result chain of your project.
You will be expected to attend training sessions, apply your learnings to your project proposal, and work collaboratively with the hub for successful project implementation. You will also be required to submit regular financial, qualitative and quantitative reports throughout the project period.
Timeline
- Application window - applications that meet the technical criteria can be submitted via the application form: 03 - 22 Oct. 2022;
- Results - groups are notified of funding: 29 Oct. 2022;
- Contracts / agreements are signed : 5 nov. 2022;
- Disbursement : 15 nov. - 30 Nov. 2022;
- Project kick off! 1 Dec. 2022.