Equipop, believing in the collective strength of its partner associations to accelerate social and political change in West Africa, has developed two new flexible and innovative financing mechanisms in recent months: the Innovation Fund and the Organizational Development Support Fund.
These two complementary funds enable local organizations to increase their capacity to implement relevant and innovative collective actions with high potential for social and political change, as well as to strengthen their organization in order to improve the quality of the actions carried out and reinforce their position at the national and sub-regional levels. The financial support offered by Equipop through these funds is closely linked to ongoing technical support. For example, collective projects financed by the Innovation Fund are incubated through the Equipop Lab incubation labs, and associations financed by the Organizational Development Support Fund have previously been assisted with quality assurance and organizational self-assessment using the SCAN quality assessment tool adapted and developed by Equipop based on the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) framework.
The Innovation Fund
The Innovation Fund mechanism gives partner associations the flexibility and time they need to collectively develop projects through knowledge sharing and multi-stakeholder consultation. It enables them to develop projects that are relevant to the specific challenges of their national contexts, promotes ownership, and facilitates the implementation of actions. Six projects are currently being funded by this Innovation Fund as part of the Change Lab project, with the aim of improving the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of young people through social and political mobilization. With a budget of €840,000 for this project, the fund is currently financing one collective project per country in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, and Senegal for a period of approximately 18 months, from 2019 to 2021. Each project is led by a consortium of national associations. Following a call for applications in each eligible country, committees composed of associations from the Alliance Droits et Santé network specializing in SRHR, members of youth and women's movements, and Equipop selected the consortia.
Administrative and financial support prior to projects through the organization of an audit to verify the eligibility of CSOs for the fund and before the final financial reports are submitted.
Technical support for CSO consortia working on social and political mobilization projects related to DSSRAJ, youth, and women's rights.
Technical support during the project to facilitate monitoring and capitalization.
The Organizational Development Support Fund (OD Fund)
The Organizational Development Support Fund (OD Fund) supports its partners' initiatives in their efforts to structure, professionalize, and continuously improve. The governance of this fund is also participatory, with local associations actively contributing to the selection of projects to be funded.
At the first allocation committee meeting, 13 priority improvement projects were funded for a total amount of over €88,000. A second allocation committee meeting will be held in 2019.
The projects funded are of several types: development of a development plan, implementation of a communication strategy, support for the mobilization of financial resources, implementation of a human resources management policy, development of an advocacy strategy, capitalization of activities, strengthening of the monitoring and evaluation system, acquisition of accounting software, etc. These are all actions that can be key to the development and smooth running of an organization, but which many associations are unable to carry out due to a lack of specific funding and time to devote to them.
This new financing mechanism, which breaks away from traditional models of financing local civil society in West Africa, promotes the emergence and development of a strong civil society whose voice counts in accelerating social and political change.
