Tanzania is one of the countries with fast growing economies in Africa. Its economy relies on the climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture, livestock, fisheries, trade, tourism, and manufacturing. In addition, Tanzania is a very biodiversity-rich country hosting six out of twenty-five globally known biodiversity hotspots. This biodiversity richness is threatened by several drivers and pressures from anthropogenic activities such as habitat conversion, loss, degradation and fragmentation, and over-exploitation of species. The three IKI Small Grants projects, selected out of 450 applications, will contribute to tackle these challenges.

About the launched projects

The project ‘Empowering female fish workers for participatory coastal management’, implemented by Sea Sense, focuses on addressing marine biodiversity loss in selected coastlines of Tanzania. The project works towards mainstreaming marine biodiversity conservation and protection in local governance systems. Through capacity building at a local level, coastal communities are empowered to become agents of change for marine biodiversity.

The project ‘Developing risk awareness through joint action for the middle Msimbazi river’ aims to increase the adaptive capacity of local communities who live in poor quality housing in low-income informal settlements, prone to floods. The project works to increase the residents’ capacity to take action to mitigate the impact of severe weather on lives and property. In particular, the project aims at improving accessibility, understanding and mobilisation on the importance and use of weather and climate information. The Centre for Community Initiatives (CCI) developed and implements this project.

The third project works on strengthening multi-stakeholder cooperation in addressing climate change on the southern part of Tanzania where climate change seriously affects agriculture production. The project ‘Multi-stakeholder climate action plan in Njombe’ is implemented by Southern Highlands Participatory Organisation. SHIPO aims to increase awareness and participation of local stakeholders in implementing jointly agreed climate change and environmental conservation activities.

Six hundred and eleven – that is the enormous number of applications submitted for the fourth International IKI Small Grants Call for Proposals! The call closed in March 2023, and the IKI Small Grants team will now look at each of the 611 applications. All complete project applications will undergo a technical and legal/ commercial evaluation. 

Compared to the third Call for Proposals with its 477 applications, the current  Call witnessed an increase of more than a quarter. Even if the reasons can only be guessed, one thing is clear: interest in funding for small projects is high!

And that applies to all continents: The three countries with the most submissions are Kenya, Indonesia, and Colombia. Various regions are represented in the top 13 with Nepal, Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, India, Ghana, Mexico, Malawi, and Peru.

Funding areas: major differences

There are major differences in the funding areas to which the applications are assigned: Around half of the projects submitted want to be active in the area of adapting to the impacts of climate change, followed by mitigation of GHG emissions, conserving biological diversity, and conserving natural carbon sinks/REDD+.

Towards the selection of projects

What are the next steps after the evaluation of the projects? In close consultation with the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the Federal Foreign Office, the IKI Small Grants team will select the best project ideas. Only after completing the selection process, all applicants are informed whether their application has been selected for funding.

Are you planning to apply for the 4^th call for proposals by IKI Small Grants? Are you interested in tips and tricks for formulating your project outcome, outputs, and indicators? Then take a look at our short tutorial. This video offers insights about the key criteria when formulating your project objective and project results.

The video gives a quick overview of the current international standards of results-based logical frameworks. It explains how to formulate outcome, outputs, and indicators. Following the instructions may also increase your chances of being selected in the current call for proposals. The video includes an example that reflects projects currently implemented under IKI Small Grants. On this basis, you can discuss with your team how your project can achieve its project objective and outputs in the most logical and effective way.

We also recommend our 1-hour webinar on the logic of results-based project management. Find the recording here:

Please feel free to share the recordings with others!

From 30 November 2022 to 15 March 2023, small organisations are invited to apply for funding of climate and biodiversity projects.The call for proposals is addressed to small regional, national, and local organisations based in ODA-eligible countries (except for current and potential EU member candidates except for Ukraine). IKI Small Grants provides funding between 60,000 and 200,000 euros and is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Government.

Ambitious project proposals should focus on one or more of the following IKI funding areas:

• mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions
• adaptation to the impacts of climate change
• conserving natural carbon sinks with a focus on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
• conserving of biological diversity

Small-scale projects on climate and biodiversity action worldwide

Under the IKI Small Grants programme, many projects are to be selected in the coming years via international calls for proposals and funded with up to 200,000 euros each. Three calls for proposals have already been implemented, and more than 90 projects in over 40 countries have been selected so far. You can find an overview of the different projects in our project section.

Implement local initiatives and strengthen the organisations behind them

After passing a one-stage selection procedure, the selected organisations are accompanied and supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, which implements the IKI Small Grants Programme on behalf of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the Federal Foreign Office. IKI Small Grants aims at strengthening the capacities of the implementing organisations. In addition to the individual support offered by GIZ during the project implementation, all applicants are supported in measures to further developing their organisation’s capacities.

In this year’s call, IKI Small Grants further explicitly encourages applications that refer to the current UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, promote gender equality and/or engage youth.

Further information including the funding information and application guidelines can be found at our application section.

Are you an organisation that has been selected for funding by IKI Small Grants? Are you interested in the current international standards for the results chain logic model? If you want to know how to draft a results chain logic that perfectly fits small scale projects, we highly recommend our latest webinar session.

The IKI Small Grants webinar on results-based project management was held on 23 November 2022. Over 30 organisations from all over the world participated. The webinar featured some crucial knowledge about the current international standards of results-based project management. It explained how to formulate outcome, output, and indicators, using on-ground examples that reflect projects currently implemented under IKI Small Grants. Furthermore, using break-out sessions and open forums it offered plenty of exchange and peer-learning opportunities between the different implementing organisations.

Being able to draft a results chain logic from scratch, understanding its value for project management, and reporting is a crucial step for organisations entering the climate and biodiversity sector.  Especially the information on “SMART” indicators are the key to an effective results chain logic model. The information covered by the webinar can be used for future project proposals and thus help to obtain international funding.

 IKI Small Grants further recommends different learning sessions from the digital learning platform atingi. The Platform provides plenty of professional trainings ranging from monitoring and evaluation, reporting, and fundraising including further sessions on results chain logic. The platform is free to use and available through the following link: atingi.org

Please feel free to share the webinar with whoever might be interested.

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The IKI Small Grants Programme has selected 25 climate and biodiversity projects in its third international call for proposals. Each project will receive between 60,00 and 200,000 euros of funding. 

Small sub-national, national, and regional organisations based in an ODA*-eligible country were invited to apply directly for funding to implement local or regional climate change and biodiversity projects. Out of 475 applications from all over the world, 25 particularly ambitious and sustainable projects in 18 countries were selected for funding. 

The selected projects’ total funding volume is 3.5 million euros and includes projects in the funding areas of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to the impacts of climate change, conserving biological diversity, and conserving natural carbon sinks with a focus on REDD+.  

Many projects strengthen particularly vulnerable groups and explicitly aim to improve the situation of women and youth. For example, a project in Kenya aims at equitable access to climate-related information and adaptation tools for women farmers. In Nepal, a sustainable business environment for clean cooking stoves will at the same time reduce greenhouse gas emissions, firewood consumption, and strengthen local women cooperatives. The upscaling of climate-smart agriculture models is the goal of a project in Mexico, where indigenous knowledge is passed on to students to reduce vulnerability to climate change and improve the communities’ livelihoods. 

IKI Small Grants is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Government and is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Since 2022, IKI is implemented by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) in close cooperation with the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) and the Federal Foreign Office (AA). 

*ODA = Official Development Assistance 

From July to October 2022 we’re delighted to offer to all our grantees a series of PR webinars conducted by the UK-based technology company lightful, dedicated to helping nonprofits understand how they can better use their digital channels. The online training contains three webinar series of three sessions each:

1. Build your Communication Strategy
2. Unlock the potential of social media
3. Showcasing impact through Video

The learning helps organisations to build an effective digital communications strategy and to engage with a wider audience through social media platforms. With direct actionable advice from the lightful team, the attendees learn how to set goals, understand their audience and finally create engaging video content. The interactive training series contains peer learning and one-by-one counseling with little homework in between the sessions.

“The PR webinar was so educative and interactive, I promise to attend more sessions with you.” reported one of the participants after the first webinar session.

If you are interested in participating please contact IKI Small Grants PR Team: iki-small-grants.pr@de. We are looking forward to the sessions to come!

All complete project applications will be subject to a technical and legal/commercial evaluation.  In consultation with the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the Federal Foreign Office, IKI Small Grants selects the best project ideas. The IKI Small Grants Team of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is responsible for this assessment. After completing the selection process, all applicants are informed whether their application has been selected for funding.

About half of the project applications were received from actors in Africa and one third from actors in Asia. Latin America represents about 20 per cent of submitted project applications.

Actors and organisations from all over the world suggested a wide variety of activities. The proposed topics range from environmental education and low carbon mobility to energy efficiency and agriculture. Most are characterized by concrete measures at the local level.

High interest in all four funding areas

Organisations from all over the world submitted 220 proposals addressing the funding area adapting to the impacts of climate change, while more than 80 proposals focus on mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Around 50 proposals are designated to work on forestry and more than 110 on biodiversity conservation.

Thus, the funding areas adaptation and mitigation unite more than 70 per cent of the submitted projects, while the other third includes project ideas in the forestry and biodiversity conservation sector.

Among other things, organisations want to support rural development measures, promote sustainable agriculture, or focus on vulnerable population groups such as women and children in climate-relevant training programmes.

Together with the projects of the first two calls, IKI Small Grants will soon fund about 100 projects worldwide.

Please find further information on IKI Small Grant’s in our About section.

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Sharing and acknowledging solutions in the fight against global climate change and biodiversity loss is a crucial step in promoting and sustaining the work of organisations. Knowledge platforms are a powerful tool in this regard. Moreover, they also offer the opportunity to exchange with experts and practitioners in the region so that synergies and networks can be created.

On 17 February 2022, the IKI Small Grants Webinar on Knowledge Platforms tackling climate change and biodiversity loss took place. Over 60 organisations participated. The webinar addressed the topic of sharing and enhancing the visibility of project results, experiences as well as tested solutions. IKI Small Grants was able to engage experts from PANORAMA and weADAPT , who not only presented their platforms and communities but also provided valuable input on knowledge management.

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PANORAMA is a partnership initiative to document and promote examples of inspiring, replicable solutions across a range of conservation and sustainable development topics. WeADAPT provides an open forum on climate adaptation issues, enabling practitioners, researchers and policy-makers to access credible, high-quality information and share experiences as well as lessons learned.  

Additionally, the video of IKI Small Grants’ latest webinar shares hints on finding suitable online platforms for climate and biodiversity actions and presents how to use and contribute to them. In this context, the current UN Decades as well as the Global Resilience Partnership were also raised as significant references.