Capacity Development

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

Capacity Development is an integral part of IKI Small Grants: In addition to providing funding for projects at local level, IKI Small Grants aims to strengthen its partners and tapping potentials. Jointly with GIZ, each partner organisation identifies individual needs for capacity development – from acquiring specialist knowledge, skills and management expertise to optimising  organisational processes. In addition, GIZ country offices provide technical or administrative assistance in implementing the selected small-scale projects and funding programmes. The goal is to support the development of our partner organisations, its staff, and networks in order to foster them as agents of change for climate and biodiversity actions worldwide.

International Calls

The organisations selected through the ‘call for proposals’ are supported with various types of capacity building solutions: 

Individual capacity development activities: these activities are specifically tailored to the individual needs of each organisation. The needs are communicated in the project proposal and specific activities are defined during the application process.

Examples of capacity development measures might be advanced trainings on:

  • Carbon accounting methods
  • Conflict management
  • Fundraising and proposal writing
  • Presentation and negotiation techniques
  • Public procurement law
  • National budget and grant law
  • Internal control systems
  • Anti-corruption sensitisation

The activities are coordinated and implemented by the organisations themselves with professional and financial support of GIZ personnel in the respective countries of implementation and from the IKI Small Grants team in Berlin.

General information events: these events (mainly webinars) offer content that is of interest to the entire community of grant recipients, in some cases already during the application process: They provide specific information on professional and administrative topics, but also share important content on specific processes like the IKI Small Grants project development (logical framework and result chain) or the IKI Small Grants public relations guidelines. These events are organised by the IKI Small Grants team of GIZ in Berlin.

Networking activities: in order to integrate the activities of IKI Small Grants projects as best as possible into the respective national climate and biodiversity policies and to connect implementing organisations of these projects with other stakeholders and donors, the IKI Small Grants team also assists organisations in expanding their networks. To this end, GIZ draws on its national and international networks in all countries where IKI Small Grants projects are being implemented.

Funding Institutions

The context-tailored capacity development activities supported by the component ‘Funding Institutions’ focus on the administrative and technical support of selected funding programmes, where requested. Jointly with GIZ, each partner institution identifies relevant advisory services which are provided by the respective GIZ country office. Based on the individual request, GIZ may provide continuous on-the job support or be focused on very specific outputs. For example, GIZ may support a partner institution in developing and implementing the relevant process steps for a call for proposals. In another country, a partner organisation may require assistance in reviewing its environmental and social safeguards system as well as in developing relevant criteria for selecting the most-promising small-scale projects. This will support partner organisations to accelerate their potential in forwarding climate funds in a targeted and impactful manner and by lower transaction costs.

Advisory services of IKI Small Grants may include (but are not limited to) the following areas:

  • Design of calls for proposals (e.g., funding information, selection procedures, monitoring etc.)
  • Setting up a web-based outline procedure / application procedure / database
  • Incorporating gender aspects into the concept of the calls for proposals
  • Providing suitable Public Relations activities
  • Providing networking and learning spaces
  • Development/ Review of:
    • An internal process and quality management system
    • A monitoring and evaluation system
    • Anti-corruption policies
    • Safeguard standards
    • A knowledge management system