The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) in Trinidad and Tobago has been operational for 16 years. In that time the programme has supported more than 70 projects to influence positive national change in the GEF focal areas. This project seeks to address a number of critical issues, for which two local NGO?s, Asclepius Green (AG) and Veni Apwann (VA) have collaborated to submit a joint proposal.
The joint proposal focuses on the following four components:
1. Undertake an evaluative study of a selection of previous SGP grantees to document the lessons learned through print and/or electronic forms.
2. Improve the project implementation capacity of grantees through intelligible information brochures.
3. Create awareness and stakeholder buy in through documenting project implementation in 2012 through seven monthly press articles as well as an information brochure on UNDP/GEF/SGP funding opportunities and application procedures.
4. Provide induction training on project implementation for current grantees.
The first key issue addressed by the project is the fact that the attendant archives, programme members, and network of former grantees (FG) represent a significant resource from which to develop lessons learnt (LL) regarding the implementation of positive environmental and social change.
Distilling workable LL from such a wealth of information is challenging. In the process of generalisation, the meaningful nuances of individual experience are often lost. The loss of this nuance means that LL are rarely relevant to practitioners in the field. Alternatively, capturing the nuance of individual experiences often precludes the rigorous use of institutional criteria that allow for the calculation of summative effects.
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The second key issue addressed by this project is the limited capacity of current grantees to implement and report on their projects according to UNDP, GEF, SGP principles and guidelines. In the past many grantees have perceived the administrative and reporting requirements as tedious and an impediment to their organisation and project implementation.
The third key issue is the currently low level of public awareness on UNDP, GEF, SGP?s support to CSOs as well as low exposure of grant participating CSOs.
Veni Apwann (VA) and Asclepius Green (AG) are two small national NGOs that specialise in supporting organisations engaging with such complex challenges. The unique and diverse blend of formal and informal experience and training of our organisations? members makes them unusually well suited to facilitate the development and dissemination of clear, meaningful LL, create awareness and sensitisation and built organisational capacity.
We propose an intervention that would first see the collaborative development and application of quantitative and qualitative selection criteria to identify and analyse first 15 and subsequently 5 candidate case studies in increasing detail. This approach centres on a collaborative workshop where we would facilitate the co-creation of evaluation criteria and LL with UNDP programme members and a selection of invited FG. In the final phase, the results will be disseminated to a wide audience of stakeholders including government agencies and prospective grantees. This collaborative approach ensures first that the projects? results are relevant to GEF SGP priorities and to the experience of prospective grantees and second, community participation and sustainability of the project results into the future.
Two brochures, one focusing on the UNDP/GEF/SGP focal areas, principles and application procedures and a second containing intelligible information and guidelines related to the successful implementation and administration of UNDP, GEF, SGP projects will assist current and future grantees to fully capitalise on the offered opportunities. The grant related principles and guidelines must be presented in an easily intelligible way to ensure that project management and administration is not seen as a hurdle and burden but as a means of smooth project implementation. The primary target audience for these brochures are new grantees.
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Monthly feature articles in national newspapers/magazines will highlight the activities of current grantees, creating on one hand public awareness and at the same time pride and the feeling of ownership for the beneficiary organisations.
Three induction workshops for current grantees will notably increase their capacity to implement projects smoothly and comply with required reporting standards.
The total GEF SGP request amounts to 49,959.00 USD inclusive of contingencies.
This project represents a rare opportunity to reflect creatively on past challenges and successes and turn those experiences into recommendations with tangible immediate and long-term benefits to the national community of concerned citizens engaging with challenging problems in our rapidly changing world.