The AEWA Secretariat is calling for applications from African
countries for the Small Grants Fund cycle 2010. The deadline
for submission of project proposals is 30 April 2010. For
more information on the Small Grants Fund and to download
the Operational Guidelines and necessary application forms,
please click here.

As decided by the Parties at their fourth Meeting (MOP4)
in 2008, for the first time, the AEWA core budget 2009-2012
foresees 20,000 € per year towards Small Grants projects
in Africa. In addition, the Secretariat received a voluntary
contribution from the Government of France earmarked for
additional Small Grants projects in African countries
enabling the Small Grants Fund to become operational as
of 2010.

Since the AEWA Strategic Plan 2009-2017 (under Objective
5) aims at activating the Small Grants Fund and disbursing
at least 100,000 € annually to developing countries
for the implementation of AEWA in the long term, the Secretariat
hopes to be able to maintain the Small Grants Fund on
the basis of an annual cycle as well as being able to
extend the call for tenders to other sub-regions of AEWA
in future. This will however depend on further voluntary
contributions in the coming years.

Contracting Parties were requested through Resolution
4.7 to provide financial resources for the
successful and efficient operation of the Small Grants
Fund. The AEWA Secretariat would therefore like to make
a strong plea to all Contracting Parties and partner organisations
to seriously consider supporting the AEWA Small Grants
Fund through a voluntary contribution, either to enable
future cycles or in order to extend the current cycle
to additional projects or other AEWA sub-regions.

The AEWA Small Grants Fund was established by the first
Meeting of the Parties to AEWA in 1999 to facilitate the
implementation of the Agreement in developing countries
and countries with economies in transition. At its second
session in 2002, the Meeting of the Parties reiterated
its conviction that a Small Grants Fund could become an
extremely useful tool to facilitate the implementation
of the Agreement; however, due to the lack of funds, it
was not able to become operational until MOP4.

If you wish to support the AEWA Small Grants Fund with
a voluntary contribution please contact the AEWA Secretariat
at aewa@unep.de.

For more information please see: