The Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) is offering grants to support community-driven projects that promote sustainable development, gender equality, and human rights.
If you’re an innovator, change-maker, or social entrepreneur in Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, or São Tomé and Príncipe, get ready to flex your creativity and entrepreneurial spirit!
CFLI may provide the push required to realize your goals, whether they involve empowering women, preserving the environment, or creating more inclusive communities. Keep reading to know more about this amazing opportunity.
The Canada Fund for Local Initiatives Program Overview
The CFLI is a program that supports small-scale, high-impact projects in developing countries that correspond to Global Affairs Canada’s thematic priority areas for involvement. The initiative focuses on projects planned and designed primarily by local partners.
Projects are chosen and approved by the appropriate Canadian embassy or high commission. The CFLI also promotes strong bilateral relations between Canada and recipient countries and their civil communities by strengthening relationships and supporting local initiatives.
The typical CFLI contribution ranges between $30,000 and $60,000 (the maximum allocation amount for a CFLI-eligible project is $100,000). For equivalents in local currencies, use the currency converter. All contributions are made in Canadian dollars and then changed to the local currency.
Organizations Qualified to Apply for CFLI Assistance
Eligible recipients are:
- Local academic institutes work on local projects.
- International non-governmental organizations engaged in local development operations,
- Local nongovernmental, communal, and non-profit groups,
- Canadian non-governmental and non-profit organizations that concentrate on local development issues.
- Intergovernmental, multinational, and regional institutions, organizations, and agencies engaged in local development efforts,
How to Apply for the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives?
- All projects must be completed between the date of signing the Contribution Agreement and February 15, 2025.
- The deadline for submissions is May 10, 2024, at 23:59 (GMT+1). Applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered. Proposals should be submitted electronically to: [email protected].
- Only ideas submitted via the designated application form and accompanying the required budget document will be considered.
- The list of CFLI-authorized activities and costs provides more information on the types of activities and costs that are eligible for CFLI financing.
- Proposals must be written in English or French.
- Project proposals must explicitly respond to all questions on the CFLI project application form, including the obligatory gender-based analysis. The proposed project budget should provide a summary of the proposed activities and expenditures.
- A selection committee will review applications and approve them based on their merit.
- Project applications are kept on file at missions under Global Affairs Canada’s information management procedures.
- Projects lasting two fiscal years (April 2024 to March 2026) may be approved, based on the project’s objectives and activity complexity.
- Due to the enormous number of applicants, only the successful ones will be notified.
- Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) Project Application for Funding Form (.pdf, 249.15 KB)
- Help in opening PDFs on your computer.
The majority of CFLI financing will be allocated to local civil society organizations (including non-governmental organizations) and other institutions working at the local level.
Other institutions, such as international, intergovernmental, multilateral, and regional organizations, may be eligible for financing if they collaborate with local partners and work on local initiatives that align with the CFLI’s aims.
Similarly, municipal, regional, and national government institutions may get money if their programs are mostly local in scope. The CFLI is continuously seeking new projects that provide demonstrable outcomes.
Thematic Priorities
Every project must adhere to at least one of the following CFLI thematic priorities:
- Gender equality and empowerment for women and girls.
- Inclusive governance encompasses diversity, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.
- Peace and security, with a particular emphasis on conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and Children and Armed Conflict.
- Environment and Climate Action, emphasizing adaptation and mitigation, reduces plastic waste and pollution and encourages female and youth participation in these areas.
Gender-Based Analysis
In 2017, Canada implemented its Feminist International Assistance Policy, which promotes gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as the most effective means of reducing poverty and creating a more inclusive, peaceful, and prosperous world.
Under this guideline, the CFLI project application process now includes a gender-based analysis (GBA). The goal of this adjustment is to improve the gender equality outcomes of the CFLI program.
A GBA requires applicants to:
- Consult women and/or girls during the formulation of their project ideas.
- Ensure that the perspectives of those women and/or girls inform the project’s design.
- Consider how women, girls, men, and boys are affected differently by the problem their project aims to address, while also ensuring that the project does not create harm.
It should be noted that consultations may include, but are not limited to, speaking with women and girls from the local community, women and other individuals who work for civil society organizations that have worked in the local community, and female and male decision and change makers who are familiar with the area.
Inadequate completion of a GBA may impact the consideration of your application.
Qualifying costs
The following project costs qualify for CFLI funding:
- Accounting costs
- Administrative and overhead costs associated with the project (overhead should not exceed 15% of the total CFLI contribution).
- advocacy and lobbying charges
- Capital and/or operating expenditures associated with the leasing, purchase, and/or construction of infrastructure
- Lease or renting of automobiles Legal fees Medical costs Miscellaneous expenses related to the project Outreach, communication, and information dissemination costs. Publication costs Radio and television broadcast fees Research-related costs Salary costs, including stipends, related to the project Security expenses Training and capacity building expenses Translation and interpretation fees Operating, installing, and/or maintaining vehicles and equipment Website development and associated costs
- Civics training costs.
- Conference and event expenses
- The price of services received by recipients.
- Domestic travel expenses, utilizing the lowest fares feasible but not exceeding full fare economy class.
- Environmental Assessment Costs
- Facility charges,
- equipment rental, and/or purchase (only when the purchase is necessary to accomplish project objectives, demonstrates good value for money, and the receiver has a robust care-and-maintenance plan in place for equipment sustainability),
- Hospitality expenses, excluding alcoholic beverages
- Installation, maintenance, shipment, and transportation charges, including gasoline
- computers and communication gadgets.
The Costs Listed Below Are Not Eligible for CFLI financing
- Luxury items
- Direct fiscal backing for a government.
- Seed investment or microfinance.
- Nuclear technologies and infrastructures.
- Assistance to military or paramilitary organizations.
- Gifts.
- Core funding or recurring costs of an organization.
- Expenses incurred before signing the contribution agreement or after it expires.
