Initiators for eligible projects: The call for proposals is open to legal persons which the FFEM can support within the scope of its mandate: civil society organisations, governments, local authorities and communities, public institutions, research bodies, the private sector, foundations, international organisations.
Geographical area: Eligible countries are all those listed as recipients of publicly-funded development assistance via the OECD DAC, with priority given to the African continent.
Multi-country and regional projects are eligible.
Who can respond to the call for project proposals?
The call for proposals is open to legal persons which the FFEM can support within the scope of its mandate: civil society organisations, governments, local authorities and communities, public institutions, research bodies, the private sector, foundations, international organisations.
Which countries are eligible?
Eligible countries are all those listed as recipients of publicly-funded development assistance via the OECD DAC, with priority given to the African continent.
Multi-country and regional projects are eligible.
What are the eligibility criteria for financed projects?
Projects can be based around the “One Health” approach - in accordance with the definition given by the One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) - through an environmental gateway, in other words responding to one or more environmental issues which impact not only on ecosystem health, but also on the health of local wildlife and populations, and thus reducing all these impacts to a minimum. In this sense, projects are sought which integrate as their main gateway an environmental or environmental health problem, and which are not solely or mainly focused on human or animal health connections. Specifically, they may be projects seeking to prevent and/or mitigate factors which negatively impact these three aspects, such as sources of pollution (chemical, arising from physical or biological agents, mechanical, thermal, light or noise), and/or remediation projects. These projects may draw upon the recommendations formulated in the Guidelines of the One Health joint action plan from the Quadripartite of UN agencies (WHO, WOAH, FAO, UNEP).
In addition, projects proposed must address the implementation, in one or more eligible countries forming part of the call for project proposals, of one or more of the international environmental accords, and of the FFEM’s strategic priorities, particularly in relation to the theme “Circular solutions and combating pollution”.
In effect, through this call for project proposals, the FFEM hopes to particularly support projects tackling the issue of pollution reduction, a cross-cutting topic that strongly impacts on the challenges of ecosystems, human and animal health as well as on the climate, and so deliver a holistic response to the Triple Plantary Crisis (climate, biodiversity and pollution).
For example, projects could address the following themes:
- reducing the use and impacts of inputs, phytosanitary and veterinary products, including antibiotics and synthetic chemicals;
- reducing the use and discharges of heavy metals, solvents, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) ;
- reducing, and providing ecologically-sound management of, dangerous wastes including plastic, electrical and electronic waste, waste containing POPs and heavy metals, etc.;
- combating all other sources of pollution of soils, water and air.
The following sectors could be contemplated, inter alia: agriculture, fishing and aquaculture, transport, industry and mining - especially placer mining - and waste management.
Proposals must explain how the project addresses the holistic “One Health” approach.
In addition, they must demonstrate to what extent the projects will be co-constructed with local and/or national actors, and in a cross-sectoral way.
Projects that simultaneously address multiple Sustainable Development Objectives (SDGs) will attract special attention.
Proposals must also meet FFEM eligibility criteria, namely:
- contribution to global environmental conservation,
- contribution to local sustainable development in one or more developing countries,
- innovative nature,
- illustrative and reproducible nature for upscaling of the project/programme
- post-project economic and financial sustainability,
- ecologically and environmentally globally viable
- social and cultural acceptability, particularly through local adoption,
- appropriate institutional framework,
- monitoring and evaluation arrangements.
For each proposal, special attention will also be paid to:
- the theory of change,
- the partnership dimension
- the taking into account of inequalities (including of gender), women, young people and vulnerable populations,
- the sharing of lessons learned from the project,
- the sustainability of financing and co-financing.
Which innovations are targeted?
Innovation as defined in the FFEM strategy means the implementation of new technologies, new ways of working and new methods.
According to the OECD definition (Oslo Manual, 2005), there can be innovation in terms of products, processes, organisation or deployment, in particular in relation to public policy and financing. Innovation can be radical or progressive and must be recognised as such, beyond a simple invention. It thus forms part of the process of change that it triggers.
For the FFEM, the innovative nature of a project can be assessed only in the light of specific analysis of the project and/or of the local area, on the basis of the geographical, socio-economic, political, institutional, and ecological context, and the innovative way in which the project envisages triggering change to benefit the environment and sustainable development.