Tactical Fund - UPDATED
Bid Round is open for Financial Year 2015-2016
The Programme Team in Brazil is inviting submissions of project proposals to the Tactical Fund.
The Tactical Fund supports the objectives and priority areas of the Foreign Office´s larger Prosperity Fund. Areas of work and criteria follow the Prosperity Fund´s Strategy.
Brazil is a priority country for the UK and an eligible recipient country of Official Development Assistance funds, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) criteria - DAC. The UK seeks to broaden and deepen cooperation with Brazil across the prosperity agenda, given not only the scale of the country but the size of the opportunity. Prosperity is now one of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO’s) three priorities. The purpose of the FCO’s Prosperity Fund is to contribute towards the policy goal of creating the conditions for sustainable global growth. They are: 1.Sustainability: We work for a secure transition to a low carbon economy, resilient energy markets and promoting science and innovation as solutions to global challenges. 2.Openness: We support work towards an open, transparent and strong rules-based international economic system (RuBIES). 3.Opportunity: We promote education and innovation as drivers for growth, help create opportunities for British businesses abroad in areas where they have expertise and can contribute towards sustainable global growth. 4.Reputation: We work to build international awareness of UK strengths, values and increase the impact of British companies abroad.
The Prosperity Fund Strategy focuses on areas where the UK is a world leader and has high quality policy and commercial expertise to offer Brazil. This ensures the best outcomes for Brazil at the same time as delivering UK policy and commercial objectives. Innovation is mainstreamed through all the Prosperity Fund areas and stands as the key UK offer across all the sector policies. The use of innovative approaches and policies of UK’s reputation is required.
Brazil Programme Prosperity Fund
The Brazil Programme Prosperity Fund serves as a catalyst to deliver high-level, concrete policy outcomes. In Brazil, the Prosperity Fund is strategic for delivering the FCO’s objectives as outlined in the Brazil Country Business Plan (CBP). The long term objective is for the UK to have a broader and deeper cooperation with Brazil across the Prosperity agenda, with a particular focus on global economic cooperation, energy, science and technology, sport, education and culture. In bilateral terms, Brazil sees the UK as its most compelling European partner.
In 2014, the Brazil Network created the Brazil Prosperity Campaigns as a concentration of efforts to deliver these strategic priorities in Brazil. The Brazil Programme Prosperity Fund strategy supports the campaign policy objectives through programme work. The campaigns are: Education, Energy, Infrastructure, 2012 Olympic Legacy, Business Environment, and Inward Investment. The Conditions for Growth, the Country Business Plan Objectives and the Brazil Prosperity Campaigns mentioned above are aligned and jointly guide the programme objectives. Therefore, below are the programme objectives to be considered for project work in the Financial Year 2015/16:
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Climate Change and Sustainability. To secure a low carbon future, cooperate on climate change towards a binding global agreement, strengthen climate policies and demonstrate co-benefits of climate action (including fiscal and market instruments, greener procurement and financing), develop low carbon sectors (e.g. agriculture, forestry, construction, transport, industry, urban development, waste management) as well as improving efficiency and benchmarking resource/carbon use. (Main Condition for Growth: Sustainability)
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Energy. To deepen engagement with energy producers, both bilaterally and in multilateral fora, and encourage conditions that enable the necessary investment in transitional oil and gas, promote price transparency and reduce volatility, encourage low carbon growth and improve the reliability of energy supplies. Build support for open and effective international energy markets and by promoting the take-up of alternative energy sources and more efficient consumption of energy. (Main Conditions for Growth: Sustainability and Openness)
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Infrastructure and Urban Development. To reduce barriers for infrastructure opportunities and programmes and improve the delivery of local government’s public policy by supporting the development of more transparent tendering processes and facilitating the provision of UK expertise to local and state governments. Also, in line with UK expertise on urban design and smart cities, promote sustainable and innovative urban development in Brazil particular in areas such as sustainable transport, sustainable waste management, and sustainable construction. (Main Conditions for Growth: Reputation and Openness)
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Education and Knowledge. To consolidate the UK as the third top destination of choice for higher education in Brazil and build on the success stories of the Science without Borders Programme (SWB) and Newton Fund prospective ideas. (Main Condition for Growth: Opportunity)
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Business Environment. To reduce costs and barriers, and increase opportunities to create a more stable, predictable, efficient business environment, that is integrated into a transparent, strong rules-based international economic system. This is a cross-cutting subject with the aforementioned areas and is targeted to: tax, trade, transparency, finance. (Main Condition for Growth: Openness)
Eligibility
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Project proposals must contribute directly to the Programme Strategy, supporting at least one of the key areas: Climate Change & Sustainability, Energy, Infrastructure, Education and Knowledge, and Business Environment.
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Fund is ODA (Official Development Assistance), hence, the primary beneficiary of the project proposal submitted to the Tactical Fund must be Brazil (included in the OECD DAC list), in line with DAC criteria.
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Project proposals must be submitted in the Project Bid Form. / Annex: Activity Based Budget Model.
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We are looking for practical interventions that will lead to a real and timely difference to decision-making.
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Proposals can deliver an activity, such as; research, analysis, seminars, events, missions or workshops, as well as a small scale project (up to £ 30,000). Both should lead to specific and measurable action.
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Proposals should outline impact. We want to know what changes the project will bring about.
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Demonstrate that the project will produce sustainable outcomes.
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Project should not be a standalone. Thus, it could build on previous projects or serve as scoping study or reference for on-going or follow up projects.
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Demonstrate that host governments have been consulted and are supportive. In case they have not, the project proposal should explain how the project has sufficient buy-in from the necessary stakeholders to deliver expected outcomes.
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Project proposals should trigger action, and results should be sustained after project completion. Experience has shown that an effective way to do this is to support the implementation of regulatory frameworks, building capacity, translating evidence or analysis into action plans, and working in partnership with host government.
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Activities based budget must contain detailed description of each activity and should comply with FCO Value for Money and Procurement Procedures.
Process
A Project Selection Board composed by members of the British Embassy Network will evaluate and select project based on the DAC appraisal criteria and fit with eligibility criteria above.
Timetable
The Tactical Fund Board has been postponed to the 16th of June, Tuesday. You will have a feedback on that by the COB 18th of June.