Pananetugri Fund

The Pananetugri Fund

Presentation

The Pananetugri Fund was created in response to the realization that governments and various technical and financial partners often treat the issues of young women and girls as general youth and women issues. The majority of challenges related to development and the complex needs of young women and girls are thus overlooked. The rare programs that attempt to address the issues facing young women and girls unfortunately show very little innovation in their approach and do not take into account local realities. This translates to a lack of satisfactory results despite decades of interventions. In addition, many emerging women and girls associations find themselves excluded from available funding opportunities because of overly rigid selection criteria or because their actions do not fall into the domains of intervention imposed by international donors.

The Pananetugri Fund is the first young feminist fund in West Africa managed by young women and girls. It is intended to support the organizational and institutional development of groups/organizations of young women and girls towards the implementation of concerted and innovative actions for deep social change in favor of their rights. Flexible, this Fund is intended to accompany young women and girls organizations that are excluded from traditional sources of funding. Indeed, the Pananetugri Fund adopts a flexible approach to grant-making that promotes the construction of a philanthropic culture that values equality, social justice and respect for the rights of women and girls. It offers an opportunity to create a platform dedicated to feminist activities that enable the development and promotion of leaders who impact their communities through change and social transformation. For donors removed from our francophone West African region, this fund also represents a secure and sustainable mechanism that guarantees the redistribution of resources to local young women and girls groups/organizations.

Guidelines

The Pananetugri Fund is open to groups/organizations newly formed or in the process of being formalized and managed by young women and girls in francophone West Africa. It is intended to be flexible and accessible and, as such, is open to a wide range of interventions led by and focused on young women and girls. Although the Fund does not impose any specific priority or domain of intervention, we do have guidelines for applicants. Hence, in order to be considered, project proposals submitted to the Pananetugri Fund must meet one of the following criteria:

Contribute to transformational actions and services in favor of young women and girls;
Foster the development of a favorable context for the wellbeing of young women and girls.

For more information on eligibility criteria or the Pananetugri Fund in general, we invite you to consult the Frequently Asked Questions section.

2021 Grant Application
2021 Call for Proposals 2021 Application Form

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ section is dedicated to potential groups/organizations, candidates and potential donors. We encourage groups/organizations to carefully read the guidelines before submitting a proposal.
Questions are sorted by topic and the page is updated regularly.
If you have additional questions that are not answered below, please send them to:
proposal.ipbf@gmail.com.

Why the Pananetugri Fund?

Funding is one of the main challenges faced by groups/organizations of young women and girls in francophone West Africa because it is difficult for them to meet the requirements of traditional private or public funders. Unfortunately, when it comes to financial resources, our francophone West African region remains marginalized. Very few organizations working specifically for young women and girls are visible. These organizations suffer from a lack of financial resources, which hinders the implementation of actions in their favor.

Governments and traditional technical and financial partners often conflate issues specific to young women and girls with general women and youth issues. These actors tend to be more focused on sexual and reproductive health and on the provision of contraceptive services and interventions to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Thus, the majority of issues relative to the experience and the complex needs of the girl child in terms of adolescence and her physical and hormonal development are overlooked. We witness a situation where young girls, preteens and young adults are left to their own device and become vulnerable to multiple issues in an increasingly violent and dehumanized world.

In light of this, the Pananetugri Fund was set up to support groups/organizations of young women and girls in their institutional development and in the implementation of concerted and innovative actions for a profound change in our societies in favor of young women and girls. This Fund, through its flexibility, will also help remote and less experienced organizations of women and girls to access traditional funding opportunities available at the national and international levels.

Eligibility

Who is eligible to apply?

The Pananetugri Fund for young feminists is an inclusive fund dedicated to organizations or groups led by girls and young women under 40. We support newly formed local or national organizations and groups, or those in the process of being formalized that are led by young women and girls in francophone West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo).

As funding opportunities available in francophone West Africa are limited and inaccessible to most inexperienced young groups/organizations, we seek to fill the existing funding gap for young feminist activists.

Who is not eligible to apply?

At the moment, the Pananetugri Fund is only accessible to groups/organizations from francophone West Africa, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo. Organizations from non-francophone West Africa and those from other regions of the world are not eligible to apply to this Fund. Also excluded are organizations in francophone West Africa that are led by men. Lastly, we do not provide grants to individuals, nor do we award scholarships.

Are applications in formats different from the one proposed by IPBF (e.g. videos) accepted?

No, applications in other formats are not accepted. Only applications submitted in the required format will be considered.

Are multi-year grants awarded?

The Pananetugri Fund will not provide multi-year grants in its first years of operation.

What is a young women and girls organization?

A young women and girls organization is an organization founded and run by young women and girls. The age range we target is 15-25 for girls and 26-40 for young women. These are organizations where young women and girls lead, control and manage the organization in the long-term, illustration of their participation and active role in strategic decision-making. Whether it is legally registered or not, the organization or group must be composed of more than 75% young women and girls and be active in the promotion of human rights in general and those of young women and girls in francophone West Africa in particular. For organizations that aren’t registered, the grant could be a jump-start for the formalization of the organization.

What projects are eligible for funding?

As a flexible and accessible Fund, our grants are open to a wide range of interventions addressing the needs of young women and girls. The Pananetugri Fund will not impose pre-determined funding priorities or domains of intervention. However, in order to provide guidance to applicants, the Fund has guidelines in accordance with IPBF’s first two strategic axes. As such, proposals should meet one of the following requirements:

Contribute to the implementation of transformational actions and services in favor of young women and girls;
Foster the development of a favorable context for the promotion of young women’s and girls’ wellbeing.

We expect groups/organizations to be thorough and objective in their project proposal budgets. We provide grants for organizational and institutional development. Costs related to the purchase of computers and printers may be taken into consideration.

Are emergency grants available?

For its first years of operation, the Pananetugri Fund will not provide emergency grants.

Application Assessment Process

When will grant applications be assessed and how will applicants be notified of final decisions?

Funding decisions should be announced within three months of the call for proposals closing. All applicants will be notified of the status of their application in writing.

How are applications assessed?

The Fund Team first proceeds to a preliminary assessment of proposals against eligibility criteria to ensure that applications are complete and eligible. Given the Fund's limited capacity, incomplete applications, i.e. those that do not meet the criteria set out in the published call for proposals or that do not meet eligibility criteria, will not be considered beyond the pre-assessment stage. Applications that meet the eligibility criteria will then be assessed by the Evaluation Committee against evaluation criteria published in the call for proposals.

How are projects selected?

Proposals that are selected after the pre-selection phase are reviewed by the Evaluation Committee based on the priorities and objectives of the Fund. They are then submitted for approval to the Evaluation Committee according to pre-selection rules until funds are exhausted.

How are young women and girls involved in award decisions?

The Fund Team and the Evaluation Committee (EC) are made up of resource persons as well as young women and girls who are committed feminists and members of groups/organizations in which they hold leadership positions. As members of the Fund Team and the Evaluation Committee, these young women and girls participate in the entire grant-making process, from the evaluation of applications to the final award decisions.

What is an incomplete application?

All applications undergo an initial screening by the Fund Team to ensure that they are complete and eligible for funding. For an application to be considered complete, all required information must be entered in the form and all required attachments included, as indicated in the Call for Proposals. Any application that does not meet these requirements will be considered incomplete.

What is the role of IPBF’s technical team in the grant-making process?

The IPBF technical team approves the decisions of the Evaluation Committee.

Funding

Is it possible to start working on my project and incur expenses before my application is approved?

All costs incurred prior to the approval of an application and the signing of an agreement will not be eligible.

Where can I find other funding opportunities that could help my organization?

For more information on other funds for young women and girls organizations, please visit https://www.genreenaction.net/Repertoire-des-donateurs-financant-en-Afrique.html

You can also visit:

in this platform, you can search opportunities according to your interests, your geographical area or simply by key word.

https://www.ficemea.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Bailleurs-Mondial.pdf

presents a matrix of potential donors, organizations and institutions.

Is it possible to change the start date of the project if the date indicated has passed before the application is approved and the grant awarded?

All organizations whose applications have been approved will be able to change the start and end dates of their projects.

Can IPBF sign a partnership agreement with an organization even if it does not involve financial support?

Yes, IPBF can sign such a partnership agreement with an organization. We are aware that a partnership does not necessarily have to be financial; it can be technical or strategic.

Reporting Requirements

How will projects be monitored and what are the reporting requirements?

A field visit will be conducted before the grant is awarded. During the implementation phase, a financial report and a narrative progress report will be required. A final financial and narrative report will also be required at the end of the project. Groups/organizations will benefit from technical support, and special attention will be given to newly established groups/organizations.

Donations

Why contribute to the Fund?

There are at least three good reasons to become a “donor-donor” for the Pananetugri Fund:

You adhere to innovative and ambitious projects, particularly unifying for an entire population of JFFs in the French-speaking West African region who do not have access to traditional funding systems ;
Your help is multiplied because it is an entire system that you are helping to change: the patriarchal system ;
IPBF guarantees anonymity or visibility to its donors, according to their wishes. If you choose visibility, your name or that of your organization will be highlighted during fund actions.

Also, all donors will receive a full annual report on actions carried out in the field thanks to their resources made available and will also be kept informed of IPBF news.

Can donors choose which young women and girls organizations they would like to fund with their donation?

The Evaluation's Committee is the only one allowed to decide on projects to be funded. Therefore, a donor cannot designate the organization to which their donation should go. However, the donor can propose a general domain of intervention or the country toward which their contribution should go. The decision to award grants rests solely with the Evaluation Committee.