Small-Scale Initiatives Program for Civil Society Organizations in North Africa (PPI-OSCAN)

As in the rest of the Mediterranean region, there are a number of environmental challenges facing the four North African countries concerned: Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, which have vast wealth in terms of biodiversity and natural resources. This wealth is threatened by several factors, the increase in tourism and population growth, which lead to an overexploitation of natural resources and increasing pressure on ecosystems with, in addition, the impacts of climate change.
The PPI-OSCAN program is based on the Small-Scale Initiatives Program (PPI) financed by FFEM in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2005, with which it shares a very similar approach, technical content and institutional and operational set-up. However, it takes into account the specific contexts of the four countries.

The project is based on five components:

• Small-scale projects related to biodiversity conservation and development, sustainable natural resources management and the mitigation of the impacts of climate change.
• Administrative, technical and financial capacity building for CSOs.
• Networking among CSOs and capacity building for dialogue with governments.
• Capitalization on and dissemination of experience.
• Monitoring and overall management of the program.

IUCN-Med, the beneficiary of the FFEM grant, acts as a central operator by handling the management of the overall coordination of the program and the administrative and financial management of all its components. The financing of small-scale projects (Component 1) is subject to financing agreements signed between IUCN-Med and the beneficiary CSOs. 

• Support field projects related to biodiversity conservation and development, sustainable natural resources management and the fight against climate change. The program plans to finance some 40 small-scale projects led by young CSOs in the four beneficiary countries;
• Build the administrative, financial and technical capacities of CSOs via training actions and support for the implementation of small-scale projects;
• Promote networking among CSOs and their participation in forums for dialogue with governments;
• Capitalize on and disseminate experiences at the national and regional levels.