Matching Grants Modality for Urban Community Resilience Programming
Guide for Designing and Implementing Matching Grants for Urban Climate Resilience Action
Coastal Cities and Extreme Heat Project (CoCHAP)
Table of Contents
Overarching Principles of Matching Grants 2
What are the ways to match COCHAP grants?. 3
How to evaluate and implement matching grants?. 3
Matching Grants Proposal Template 6
Introduction
The Coastal City Resilience and Extreme Heat Action (CoCHAP) Project aims to build climate resilience of urban communities, particularly to extreme heat and coastal threats through expanding risk knowledge and strengthening local action in Bangladesh (Bagherhat and Sathkira), Indonesia (Medan and Surabaya), Honduras (San Lorenzo, Nacaome, Choluteca) and Tanzania (Tanga and Unguja in Zanzibar). The duration of the Project is September 2022- August 2027.
Under the Urban Climate Resilience Action component of COCHAP, a matching grant model will be implemented to support the city resilience coalitions to design and implement urban community resilience actions against the prioritized coastal hazards. This modality can also be adopted for the design and implementation of the extreme heat actions under the Project.
This guidance note provides a framework and operational modalities for the National Societies (NSs) in designing and implementing matching grants in each country. The National Societies and their coalition partners are expected to use this framework as a starting point and develop their own process relevant to the local context. However, some of the critical elements that are indicated below are expected to be applied in all countries to ensure consistency and accountability.
The National Societies will ultimately be responsible for setting the processes, coordinating among the coalition members, with IFRC, American Red Cross and the Climate Centre, implementing, and supervising the grants, and reporting on the results according to the COCHAP Project Agreements.
Why “Matching Grants”?
Matching grants are one of the three pillars of COCHAP urban community resilience action; (i) NSs co-leading city coalitions with the local governments (ii) co-designing solutions to address priority risk identified collectively through the city-wide risk assessment process, and (iii) implementing these solutions through a competitive matching grant process.
The intentional design of the COCHAP allowing the development of solutions locally by the communities and the city stakeholders (as coalition members) provides an opportunity for locally led action and create ownership. The matching grant modality enhances this through mobilization of local resources and prioritization of sustainable solutions.
The main premise of this modality is to encourage the NSs and the city coalition to conceive city level solutions, rather than small scale community level interventions as much as possible. It is true that many city level solutions require large scale investment and funding that are beyond the budget amounts available to NSS through COCHAP. However, it is also true that without addressing the systemic nature of urban risk, it is hard to reduce the growing risks that are faced by the underserved urban communities.
Finding a balance between going to scale and practical action will require innovative approaches. In this model, all the coalition members are expected to contribute to the city solutions that are agreed upon. Some of these can be integrated into city investment plans or ideas can be developed to make the existing investment plans risk informed, climate smart and sustainable. Collaborative efforts matching grants often lead to stronger partnerships and relationships between coalition members and enhance an organizations’ visibility and credibility with the public.
The process outlined below aims to enable the city coalitions to think at scale and kick start a city level action that can be replicated and continued after the Project ends.
Overarching Principles of Matching Grants
The overall approach of the COCHAP Matching grants is flexible, allowing the development of solutions locally according to the needs and priorities. However, there are a set of overarching ground rules and principles that all of the implementing National Societies and their coalition partners are expected to apply to all of the matching grants to ensure accountability and smooth implementation. These are:
- The COCHAP matching grant funds can only be granted to the coalition members. The National Societies are expected to have a role in each grant.
- The grants can only be used to fund a portion (maximum 60%) of the bigger scale solutions that are developed by the coalition members. The remaining parts are expected to be covered by the local governments and the city coalition members in ways described below.
- The total amount of available funds to cover all the grants is limited to the amount set for this purpose in the approved budget of COCHAP for each National Society.
- Minimum and maximum amounts of individual grants are to be determined by the National Society and the local government as the co-leads of the city coalition[1].
- The grants can only be applied for proposals that are based on the agreed solutions by the city coalition and are aligned with risk assessments.
- Depending on the number and quality of the proposals received and total amount of grants awarded, multiple runs of award process is allowed provided that all the grants are completed in accordance with the Project Agreement with NS in each respective country.
- The evaluation criteria below will be applied to all grants in each country. National Societies can only add to the list if needed.
- The National Societies will adhere to accountability and transparency standards of IFRC throughout the grant planning and implementation process.
What are the ways to match COCHAP grants?
There can be many different ways to enhance COCHAP funding, some of them are summarized below. The members of the city coalition can also come up with their own ideas about how to contribute.
In-Kind
In-kind contributions are valuation of the contributions in different ways, including but not limited to technical expertise and time of staff and volunteers, policy support, advocacy, promotion, providing venue for workshop, training and meetings etc. Enabling actions such as changing the laws and regulations can also be considered as in-kind support IF they are linked to a specific resilience action.
Similarly, changes and/or improvements in city planning and investment processes and standards, or any other resulting actions by the local governments can be considered as in-kind support IF they are linked to a specific resilience action.
Investment in infrastructure:
The investment plans of municipalities, local governments, city service providers or national government agencies can be considered as another kind of in-kind contribution IF these investments are essential to the solutions e.g. building a road, drainage system, allocating land for green/open spaces/parks. Long-term investments of this kind can go beyond the COCHAP period as an in-kind contribution.
Donation and cash contributions:
Although not required by COCHAP, you can consider either receiving cash contributions or starting a donation campaign to contribute to matching grants. Private sector and/or NGO partners who are engaged in COCHAP activities could potentially be interested in contributing in cash.
How to evaluate and implement matching grants?
The following are the basic steps to follow in preparing for and implementing and monitoring the grant process:
- Planning and preparation
- Complete the solution phase including organization of co-design workshops and identification of key solutions by the coalition members.
- Set up a review and award committee. Make sure to include one staff member of either of the American Red Cross or IFRC or Climate Centre to provide technical advice and recommendations.
- Plan the process with timelines, the selection criteria, financial and procurement processes (see guidelines below).
- Confirm budget allocations, with minimum and maximum amounts for individual grants.
- Finalize the proposal template (Annex 1) and application process and announce it. Organize information meetings for city coalition members to clarify the process.
- Reviewing and awarding grants
The evaluation criteria below will be applied to all grants in each country. National Societies can only add to the list if needed.
The proposals will be submitted by the coalition members. Each proposal can potentially be submitted by sets of different members and:
- Aligns well with the aims/objectives and budget allocations of COCHAP.
- Identifies actionable solutions to address challenges that are prioritized by the city coalition members and the communities targeted Has potential to deliver impact and strengthen local resilience capabilities of the target communities and the location e.g. neighborhoods/wards.
- Presents a coherent structure of contributions by members of the city coalition: leadership, management, types of collaboration and clearly defined roles for each main activity e.g. implementing, supervising, coordinating etc.
- Provides a delivery model suitable to the context, effective and with a reasonable budget and clear timeline.
- Promotes continued engagement with stakeholders to nurture collective action and mutually beneficial relationships.
- Procurement and Financial Procedures:
- Items that cannot be funded under the COCHAP grants budget: In line with the COCHAP Project Agreements with the National Societies, following items cannot be funded through the funds for COCHAP:
- Large scale construction
- Vehicles
- Equipment including laptop, phone, tablet and camera (small equipment could be eligible if it is an essential part of the solution)
- Any maintenance cost e.g. of equipment or facilities.
However, these types of expenses can be funded by the local governments, municipalities, national/local service providers, other NGOs or private sector, as per the approved project proposal.
- Procurement process:
Each National Society will apply their own procurement process making necessary adjustments to accommodate the “Matching” feature of the grants. In cases where there are no existing provisions or regulations to apply, the National Societies will seek advice from the IFRC and American Red Cross.
- Financial Procedures:
Each National Society will apply the financial procedures and requirements as stipulated in the COCHAP Project Agreements.
- Implementation and Reporting:
The National Societies will ultimately be responsible for setting the processes, coordinating among the coalition members, with IFRC, American Red Cross and the Climate Centre, implementing, and supervising the grants, and reporting on the results according to the COCHAP Project Agreements.
Specific to the matching grants, it is expected to produce an inception report and a final report for each grant. Additionally, the National Societies will
- develop case studies for a selected 2-3 matching grants.
- Develop a learning plan describing how the learnings will be documented and used.
Matching Grants Proposal Template
Please complete below information following the template and submit your proposal by […] to [department, email]
Descriptive short title:
Project lead: (Organization, name, role contact number, email)
Project Partners:
Describe the coalition members who are part of this proposal. Add support letters to demonstrate commitment. Presenting a support letter from the local government will be an asset.
Case for support
- What is the project going to do? Why is this the best way of doing it, and why is it significant? Describe how the city-wide risk assessment has informed the proposal.
- Describe how the project addresses the systemic nature of urban risk.
Project description:
- Aims and objectives
- Targets
- Description of project activities, and timeline
- Contributions from Coalition members
- Roles and responsibilities (among the coalition members -RACI)
Impact:
- Explain the intended consequences of the project (social, technical, economic).
- Geographical coverage: Who are the urban communities being addressed in the short and long term? How can you increase the chances of reaching a city-level impact rather than community level?
Budget:
The budget will clearly show the matching contributions and their value in monetary terms as much as possible. Please indicate the value to the communities where the monetary value is not possible to set. e.g. introducing new laws or building standards for adaptation to climate change.
Risk management:
Describe briefly potential disruptions and risks in implementing the proposal and explain how you will address them.
M&E and Learning and plan
How is learning going to be incorporated throughout the process? How will the project be evaluated?
[1] The intention here is setting some boundaries to prevent too many small projects or just one too big project. For example, you can decide that grant amounts will be min. 5,000$ max. 100,000$.