SMALL-SCALE INITIATIVES PROGRAMME

  • The French IUCN Commitee

    The French IUCN Committee, set up in 1992, is the network of organizations and experts of the International Union for Conservation of Nature in France. The French IUCN Committee is in charge of managing the SSI programme.

Small-scale initiatives programme

The Small-Scale Initiatives (SSI) programme was set up in 2006 to support African civil society groups actively involved in biodiversity protection and climate change actions

 

Protection - Communities - Education - Environment - Biodiversity - Development - Climate

  • A programme to help civil society to :

    • Carry out field projects in West and Central Africa, Madagascar,            
    • Build up technical capacities for project processing, management and monitoring,
    • Strengthen a network for monitoring small-scale projects in West and Central Africa,       
    • Strenghten its capacities to influence local and global environmental policies,
    • Share and disseminate its experiences, lessons learned and success stories.

  • Two calls for projects are issued each year. 10 to 15 of the best projects are selected following each call.

    The FFEM contributes to a maximum of €50,000 for each project.

    The grant covers a maximum of 50% of the total cost when the project is co-financed by international agencies or NGOs, and up to 75% when it is co-financed by local sources only (populations, local NGOs, local government or local financial partners).

    How to present a project ?

Reasons for the SSI programme

  • What are the concrete goals of the SSI programme?

    Thanks to the SSI programme , civil society groups can concretely act in the field, improve their project management capacities and share their experiences. They also develop abilities to influence environmental policies in their countries. Civil society groups are then better equipped to access other funding sources.

  • Why in French-speaking Africa ?

    Historically, Africa is the main partner region for French cooperation. Furthermore, compared to many English-speaking countries, civil society groups in French-speaking Africa suffer from a lack of structuring and a lack of specific means to address conservation issues.

  • Why small-scale projects ?

    The projects are financed over a maximum period of two years. Each project receives €34,000 on average from the FFEM. Although these amounts are small compared to most international projects, often amounting up to several millions euros, they are very important to enable NGOs to efficiently carry out concrete actions in the field.

Last update in January 2013