AusAID’s New Civil Society WASH Fund Call for Proposals

The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) has launched a new funding opportunity for NGOs called the “Civil Society, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Fund. Under this fund, AusAID has allocated $97 million competitive grants program to support civil society organisations (CSOs) to deliver WASH programs in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

The WASH Fund seeks to enhance the health and quality of life of the poor and vulnerable by improving sustainable access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene.

Proposals are invited from both accredited and non-accredited Australian CSOs, as well as suitably experienced international CSOs (partnerships with national CSOs will be supported). Proposals will be assessed primarily on program quality and organisational capacity, with consideration also given to the need to achieve a balance of funding across regions.

Successful applicants will be required to implement activities over two phases. Firstly applicants will enter an inception phase of approximately four months during which time they will be required to further define and document their activity designs and implementation plans. A team of monitoring and evaluation experts will be responsible for producing document templates and will also provide technical assistance during the inception phase. The resulting products will form the scope of services for an agreement with AusAID for the four-year implementation phase of the activity.

CSO contributions to the evidence base will be enhanced by a Knowledge and Learning Component, which will have three parts:

• Innovation and pilot grants of up to AUD$100,000 per year for up to two years, available to CSO participating in the Fund, in collaboration with research organisations.
• Two Australian Development Research Awards Scheme research grants of up to AUD $400,000 per year for up to 3 years for research organisations with recognised expertise in WASH (the grants will be linked to the work of the Fund).
• Knowledge sharing and learning events such as regional workshops, webinars and an active website.

The deadline for submission of proposals is Friday 24 August 2012 at 14:00 hours Australian Eastern Standard Time (GMT + 10). For more information, visit this link.