DFID Grant for NGOs for Provision of Girls’ Education

The UK Department for International Development (DFID) is offering funding to support support NGOs, charities and the private sector who can find better ways to provide education opportunities to marginalised girls in the poorest countries in Africa and Asia under the UK’s Girls’ Education Challenge.

The aim of the UK’s Girls’ Education Challenge is to enable up to one million of the poorest girls in the world to enter and stay in school and receive an education which will transform their future.

The first round of funding will be open across nine priority countries: Afghanistan, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.Funding of up to £30 million will be awarded through a competitive process to NGOs, charities and private sector organisations (including consortia of organisations) who can demonstrate innovative ways of reaching marginalised girls. These are girls who have either had no access to education or have dropped out of school early and have received limited opportunities to learn.

Any successful application will need to demonstrate new ideas and cost effective approaches to reaching girls in the most difficult circumstances. Proposed projects should complement existing support to education in that country (including DFID bilateral support), have agreement from state authorities and demonstrate sustainability beyond the life of the Girls’ Education Challenge. Funding from the Girls’ Education Challenge will be awarded on the ability of organisations to deliver results for girls.

A second round of funding, called the Innovation Pilot Window, for smaller scale pilot programmes (up to £2 million) will be launched later this year. Details will be provided on this website by September 2012.

The Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) has a two stage application process:

Concept note stage: The first step is the submission of the concept note form setting out the project idea being proposed for funding. The Fund Manager will assess eligibility and overall fit with GEC criteria, and then invite successful concept note applicants to move forward to the full application stage;

Full application stage: The full applications will be used by the Fund Manager and DFID to assess potential projects and select successful projects for funding.

The deadline to submit proposals for the first round is 8 June 2012. For more information, visit this link.