CEF Operating Framework and Guidelines

1. Introduction

The International Land Coalition, is a global alliance of intergovernmental, governmental and civil-society organizations (CSOs). The Coalition works together with the rural poor to increase their secure access to natural resources, especially land, and enable them to participate directly in policy and decision-making processes that affect their livelihoods at local, national, regional and international levels.

The Land Coalition created the Community Empowerment Facility (CEF) as one of its primary instruments for strengthening the capacity of the poor to gain and maintain access to productive resources.

CEF is a catalytic cofinancing facility that assists the capacity-building of civil-society organizations and supports their innovative approaches and initiatives. It also lays the groundwork for replication or scaling up of successful CEF projects through follow-up investment. The results of CEF-supported activities are expected to heighten the interest of other donors. These activities illustrate the central role of improved access to land and related assets in overcoming poverty. CEF also disseminates the knowledge arising from successful projects.

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2. Objectives

The goal of CEF is to enhance the ability of the poor and their organizations at local, national and regional levels to gain and maintain access to productive resources (land, water and other natural resources) and to the tools and processes required to manage them, including knowledge, technology, institutional models and finance.

Proposed activities must contain within their objectives:

• strengthening the negotiating abilities of the rural poor - recognizing the particular needs of women and indigenous peoples - so they can gain access to and control of land, water and other natural resources and associated support services; and
• promoting representation of these groups in local governance with respect to the above areas.

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3. Areas of Activity

Activities supported by CEF are expected to fall primarily within one or more of the categories listed below. However, the Land Coalition will consider proposals outside these categories that offer alternative and innovative ways for achieving the overall objectives of CEF. Activities are expected to include, inter alia:

• gaining access to land and protecting existing rights, including settling the tenancy rights of landless workers or peasants to land they are cultivating, and facilitating land registration and the legal certification of land titles by promoting tenancy options such as land sales, resettlement, restitution, leasing and sharecropping;
• providing and protecting access to water rights, strengthening water-user associations of small farmers and tenants or sharecroppers, communal irrigation, sustainable management of water resources, including cost recovery, operation and maintenance, and investment;
• furthering participatory management of common-property resources, including establishment and protection of user rights and titles, maintenance and conservation, and related institutional arrangements;
• gaining access to support services such as extension, inputs, credit and marketing, and to other services necessary to the sustainable management of resources. Such services should contribute towards strengthening the skills of community organizations;
• promoting conflict resolution within and between communities with respect to land, water and other natural resources;
• enhancing participation of the rural poor - recognizing the particular needs of women and indigenous peoples - in local governance and decentralization arrangements for the management of land, water and other assets, and in relation to the provision of public goods and services; and
• supporting people-to-people exchanges to facilitate the replication or scaling up of successful organizational models and institutional innovations in the above-mentioned areas.

Within the areas of CEF activity, the following qualifications will be applied:

• Land literacy and education on resource rights must involve not only educational or awareness activities but also concrete actions to resolve specific constraints at the community level.
• Research and information-gathering and dissemination activities cannot be considered as stand-alone projects. However, a CEF project may require an element of research within the overall plan in order to achieve concrete actions, outputs and results.
• Conservation and rehabilitation of natural resources may be considered if a distinct connection can be shown to improving the security of access or tenure.
• Projects with a legal focus must demonstrate their nature and outcomes in terms of secure access to natural resorces or to those services necessary to make land productive, such as training, technology, credit and markets.
• Land purchases will be considered only on an exceptional basis.

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4. Eligible Beneficiaries

CEF is a demand-driven activity of the Land Coalition. It is available exclusively to civil-society organizations - CSOs.

The Coalition recognizes that the term civil-society organization embraces many different non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and groups within a society. Based on its niche, the Land Coalition views civil society as including, inter alia, organizations of farmers, producers, women, indigenous people, agricultural workers, landless people, pastoralists, forest users and fisherfolk, including community-based organizations and NGOs, their representative bodies, networks and movements.

CSOs already involved in other activities or projects of the Coalition may submit proposals. However, they will not have preferred access to CEF. All submissions will be considered on an impartial basis.

Southern, national and local CSOs are the priority target organizations of CEF. Northern and international CSOs/NGOs may be accepted where they have existing partnerships with the southern, national or local CSO and their distinct value added is evident, or where there are unique circumstances justifying the need for a lead role by a northern or international CSO/NGO.

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5. Selection of Eligible Civil-Society Organizations

This section outlines factors that may be used to assess an applicant CSO to ensure that it has the characteristics the Land Coalition considers necessary to undertake CEF activities. While the following factors will be considered, they will not be used as a checklist of compulsory requirements:

The CSO should be registered in accordance with relevant laws as a non-governmental organization. Where this is not the case, CEF may decide to provide support through a joint venture that the CSO establishes with a sponsoring organization acceptable to the Land Coalition.

The CSO should have a democratic and transparent organizational structure; demonstrated technical capacity to implement the activity(ies) proposed; record of experience in implementing similar activities; demonstrated financial and reporting capacity; sufficient facilities and equipment; appropriate management and leadership; and knowledge of the local situation and relationship with the target communities.

The CSO should be:

• committed to the 'knowledge and lessons learned' aspect of CEF;
• impartial in the implementation of its activities;
• experienced in participatory methodologies;
• capable of mobilizing local resources for development;
• responsive to the changing needs of the community;
• skilled at building local organizational capacity; and
• committed, as appropriate, to a multi-stakeholder approach to the design and implementation of the activity(ies) proposed.

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6. Prerequisites for Communities Empowerment Facilities Support

Community empowerment, while beginning with community participation, is a more holistic process for building social capital. Community participation is therefore a basic prerequisite from the outset. Among other indicators of community engagement, submissions to CEF must include a letter from community leaders that describes the nature of their leadership group and confirms that they have an agreement with the proposing organization, if other than themselves, to act as a link to CEF for the purpose of the proposed activity(ies). The letter will explain the involvement of their community(ies) in all aspects, from the feasibility stage through the elaboration of the project proposal in which the role of the community in operations, monitoring and evaluation will be elaborated.

This letter will also outline the role of the community in the management of funds to be provided by CEF.

CEF support will be provided on the basis of proposals indicating:

• a clear link to the areas of priority interest of CEF;
• participatory modes of decision-making;
• capacity to provide leadership suited to the dynamics of the community involved and to the wider socio-political context affecting participation by the rural poor in decision-making;
• innovations that will produce lessons to further the building of knowledge in the areas of focus of the Land Coalition;
• adherence to high standards of transparency;
• operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness;
• level and composition of co-funding; and
• accountability for results and finance.

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7. Co-Funding

CEF is a co-funding facility. It is not able to finance the full cost of any proposed activity. The level of co-funding and the source must be identified in the proposal. Both financial and in-kind contributions should be identified.

CEF is a catalytic mechanism. As such it expects that small grants, used strategically, can make a difference, especially since CEF can finance activities that other donors might not be able to support.

While single grants may be up to USD 100 000, grants at this level are expected to be the exception. The Project Advisory Committee has established an indicative framework in which 60% of the funds will be for projects of USD 50 000 or less, with up to 40% for projects in the range of USD 50 000-100 000.

The CEF policy is to provide one-time grants only. The activity, however, may be multi-year. CEF will not support activities that involve recurrent costs unless the source of income from beneficiaries or other supporters is confirmed. CEF may consider the provision of a further grant to a CSO only in rare situations in which the results achieved from the first grant have a uniqueness that substantiates further CEF support.

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8. Process for Requesting Funding from the Community Empowerment Facilities

The procedural steps to be followed will be:

1. When approached by an eligible CSO, the Land Coalition provides information to guide their submission of a request for funding. The organization provides their organizational profile and outline of their experience at this time.

2. The CSO presents a 3-5-page project concept paper describing the proposed activity, with an indicative budget and the letter from the community(ies) involved if different from the proposing organization.

3. Within 4-6 weeks, the Secretariat of the Coalition will assess the project concept paper and inform the CSO whether or not they are invited to submit a fully costed project proposal.

4. Fully developed proposals should only be submitted after the Secretariat confirms in writing that it is favourable to the initial concept paper. The Land Coalition accepts no responsibility for uninvited project proposals.

5. When a concept paper leads to an invitation for a full proposal, this implies neither pre-approval nor a commitment to fund the proposal.

6. Those invited will be informed of the deadlines for submission based on the calendar of forthcoming meetings of the CEF Project Advisory Committee.

7. If submitted according to the deadlines provided, the Secretariat will inform the CSO if their proposal has been cleared for consideration by the committee approximately four weeks prior to the next meeting. At this time, CSOs whose projects have not been cleared will be informed of the reasons. The decisions of the CEF Project Advisory Committee will be final.

8. Once the committee approves a proposal, the Secretariat will immediately inform the CSO and prepare the co-funding agreement.

9. The agreement will be sent to the proposing organization for signature and returned to the Secretariat for countersigning by the coordinator of the Land Coalition.

10. Receipt by the CSO of the countersigned copy of the co-funding agreement from the Coalition marks effectiveness for use of the co-funding. In exceptional cases, the Secretariat may approve expenditures between the time of approval by the Project Advisory Committee and the effective date of the agreement.

11. The Secretariat activates the payment and reporting schedule as set forth in the agreement.

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9. Presentation

CEF co-funding proposals must be presented in English, French, Spanish or Arabic and follow the guidelines presented in this document.

Project concept papers and fully developed proposals should be submitted to the Office of the Secretariat of the International Land Coalition in a printed version on the letterhead stationery of the proposing CSO, followed, wherever possible, by an electronic version. The latter should be sent to info@landcoalition.org. Electronic circulation of proposals to the CEF Project Advisory Committee, whose members are located throughout the world, promotes cost-effectiveness in the review and approval process. This in turn results in lower administrative costs, thus maximizing the CEF funds available to projects.

Concept papers can be presented in the form most suited to the proposing organization. However, they should address the factors outlined in the sections of this document describing eligible beneficiaries and selection of eligible CSOs. In addition, the papers should feature:

• project purpose;
• subject or problem to be addressed;
• sectoral and geographical scope of the intervention;
• beneficiaries and parties involved, directly and indirectly;
• pertinent public policies and the role of government;
• particular relationship of the activity(ies) to CEF;
• total cost, amounts provided by other donors and the community (cash and in-kind), and amount requested from CEF; and
• time period of the activity(ies).

Project concept papers must not exceed five pages. Longer papers cannot be considered.

Project proposals should follow the format guide included. It is important to include details of the collaborating organizations and authorities. Proposals must contain an itemized budget specifying overall costs, local resources (including in-kind), and the requested contribution from the Land Coalition. Proposals must not exceed 20 pages. Longer proposals cannot be considered. Annexes may be added to the proposal.

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10. Deadlines

The Secretariat of the Coalition will endeavour to be timely in its response. Project concept papers can be forwarded at any time and the Secretariat (info@landcoalition.org) will endeavour to reply within a period of 4-6 weeks.

When the Secretariat invites a fully developed project proposal, it will indicate which of the forthcoming meetings of the Project Advisory Committee will consider it. The Secretariat will indicate the deadline for receipt of the proposal.

The Project Advisory Committee will meet at the end of March, July and November. The committee may be convened more frequently if this schedule could restrict the start of a project that is time sensitive.

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11. Collaborating Partners

In order to ensure that activities being financed by CEF are implemented effectively and efficiently, the Land Coalition may request one of its national or regional partners to oversee and support the recipient CSO.

The main functions of these collaborating partners would be to:

• advise and assist the CSO with appropriate implementation support as a service provider;
• oversee the use of CEF funds and alert the CSO and the Secretariat to any emerging problems and possible preventive or corrective options;
• assist in collecting and documenting lessons learned for dissemination by the Coalition; and
• assist in monitoring and evaluating the project and its impact.

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12. Governance and Administration

CEF is an integral component of the overall programme of action of the International Land Coalition. Its policies and procedures are established, monitored and evaluated by the Coalition Council. CEF is operated under the authority of a Project Advisory Committee, comprised of five partner organizations. Its members are appointed by the Coalition Council and the Secretariat.

The committee shall meet at least twice a year. Decisions of CEF are final and confidential. Proposals will not be reconsidered.

The Land Coalition web page, at www.landcoalition.org, will be updated regularly to inform organizations interested in applying to CEF of the nature and location of currently funded projects.

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