1. The Cooperative Facility for Africa (Coop Africa) funded by DFID, is a partnership programme implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO) aiming at supporting the development and promotion of cooperatives in Africa.
2. The programme disburses three financial facilities called 'Challenge Funds' namely for: 'Services', 'Innovation', and Training'. All funds are accessible through a competitive bidding process.
3. CoopAFRICA Challenge Funds can support project proposals up to US$50,000.Two calls for proposals are organised per year from projects ranging from US$ 20,000 to US$ 50,000. Projects below US$ 20,000 can be submitted at any time of the year, under the "CoopAracA Small Grants" procedure.
4. It is highly recommended applicants enter into a formal partnership with an organisation (e.g. apex, college or business service provider) that has the proven capacity to support the implementation of the project.
5. Calls for proposals are open to 9 African countries, including Kenya, under a high competitive bidding. The first call was closed end of June 2008. 10 proposals have been selected from different countries in Africa out of 145 project proposals. For this first round, CoopAFRICA provided funding worth US$ 361,354 for those 10 selected proposals.
6. Organisations eligible for the Challenge Funds are:
- Challenge Fund for Services: all institutions having significant technical expertise on cooperative development to provide technical support and support services to cooperative stakeholders (e.g. guidance on market information, financial services, business planning, legal issues, etc.)
- Challenge Fund for Innovation: Primarily for primary cooperative societies, this fund aims at promoting new forms of cooperatives (e.g. shared service cooperatives, social service cooperatives, burial cooperatives, etc.)
- Challenge Fund for Training: all cooperative stakeholders (cooperatives and apex organizations, public bodies, social partners, NGO, etc.) with the objective of promoting capacity building services for the development of cooperatives (e.g. provision of updated cooperative curricula, staff training, development of training material etc.);
i) Poverty reduction through creation of decent work opportunities with a focus on young women and men;
ii) Incidence of child labour and its worst forms reduced; and
iii) Socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS at the workplace mitigated.
8. The ILO invites applications for the three above-mentioned challenge fund types.Those interested in participating should contact the Coop Africa Focal Point
Francis A. Munane,
Kenya National Federation of Co-operatives, P.O. Box 49768,
Nairobi,
Tel: (254) 20 55 71 34 Email: info@ knfc.co.ke
9. The deadline for the second call for proposals (i.e. above US$ 20,000) is 1st December 2008.
Below this threshold, proposals can be received at any time.
For more information, please consult the website: www.ilo.org/coopafrica
