Small-Scale Initiatives Program (PPI 4)

 
Since 2006, FFEM has been supporting African civil society with the Small-Scale Initiatives Program (PPI), which finances small-scale projects (maximum EUR 50 K grant over a 2-year period) on the themes of biodiversity and climate.
 
There are two objectives: 

• Contribute to the protection of biodiversity and the fight against climate change by implementing concrete projects in the field;
• Strengthen African civil society on environmental issues in countries where it is historically not very active on these subjects.

Since the start-up, PPI has financed some 150 projects in countries in Central and West Africa (+ Madagascar and Mozambique). The evaluations of the three previous phases have concluded that the program was relevant, effective, efficient and fully consistent with the general orientations of France’s Official Development Assistance. In a context where Central and West African States have major difficulties in fulfilling their mission of environmental protection, local NGOs are today the only group of actors in this region able to work in the field over time, with low costs and a high level of efficiency. It is for this reason that it is proposed to finance a fourth phase of PPI for 2013-2016.
 

The PPI 4 project is organized on the basis of four components:                                          

• Capacity building for national NGOs in seven priority West and Central African countries (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire / Cameroon, DRC, Congo), by helping to formalize projects and conducting close monitoring-advice for their implementation. It also involves creating a network of competent national experts and coordinating exchanges between NGOs on the results of their actions and public policies, at the national and regional levels.
• Program management: it covers the launch of the two calls for projects, the preselection of the summary preliminary project fiches, then the detailed project fiches, the organization of the selection of the best projects, the financial and administrative management of the grants to beneficiaries, and the supervision and control of the achievements of the projects and the program as a whole. Monitoring-control missions are conducted in the field for the majority of ongoing projects (including PPI 3 projects which have not yet reached completion).
• Implementation of local projects selected by NGOs and/or local authorities for a duration of 2 years. It is planned to finance about 35 projects, seeking to focus on projects from the 7 priority countries, but without a predefined financial quota.
• Consolidation of the program: establish technical and financial partnerships with development partners who already support civil society organizations in Africa. This component also covers the communication and capitalization aspects. At this level, it is planned to establish a project database and produce a document which can be distributed on capitalization on the program.   
   

• The monitoring-control of projects is handled by IUCN-FC through field visits to meet project initiators, the beneficiaries of activities and assess the level of progress in the physical implementation.
• In the previous phase, IUCN-FC took the decision to stop a project if it had major deficiencies. The funds for the projects which were not committed are consequently reallocated to component 3 for the financing of other small-scale projects.
• The communication mechanism focuses on recurrent actions with a wide dissemination, reaching all audiences. In this respect, the formalization of partnerships with Radio France Internationale and Bayard Presse Group is a priority. As with PPI 3, PPI 4 is presented and promoted during national and international events on biodiversity conservation, with appropriate communication documents. At the completion of the phase, a capitalization document on 10 years of support for African civil society is published and disseminated.