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APC Environmental Justice and Sustainability Grants: Request for proposals

Esta chamada está disponível em português aqui.

Update: The closing date of this call has been extended to 31 May 2022.

This call is for environmental justice and sustainability activities aligned with APC’s Strategic Plan 2020-2023 and is addressed to APC organisational members from the APC Environmental Sustainability Group. This grant is supported by APC’s Sida grant and is made available to members located in countries included in the OECD Development Assistance Committee’s list for 2021.

The call will remain open until 31 May 2022 or until all funds have been allocated. The maximum allowed budget for each proposal is USD 7,500 for individual proposals and USD 15,000 for joint proposals. The total available funding is USD 100,000.

1. Background and context

APC's roots are anchored in the environmental movements of the 1980s and 1990s. The APC Environmental Sustainability Group was formed by members, partners and staff of APC who are committed to collective action and activism for environmental justice and preservation of the Earth. The Group is building our collective capacity to work in solidarity with environmental defenders and movements for environmental justice, and to mitigate the negative and intersecting socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the internet, digital technologies and the digital economy.

This is a pilot grant that APC is implementing to explore participatory approaches and practices for its grant-making strategy. It is addressed to APC organisational members that participate in the work of the APC Environmental Sustainability Group. The priority framework for this grant is guided by the environmental sustainability outcome (Outcome 6) of the APC Strategic Plan 2020-2023 and the specific priority focus has been set through a participatory decision-making process with members.

2. Grant priorities

The granting priority framework is set by APC Environmental Sustainability Group action plan, which has been collectively developed by the group members and APC staff via a participatory, open and iterative process. Specifically, it is based on the impact objectives established under Outcome 6 in the APC Strategic Plan 2020-2023 as follows:

a. Impact objective 1: The APC network’s collective action and activism in response to the climate crisis in solidarity with environmental justice movements are strengthened.

b. Impact objective 2: Transformative practices, models and systems for environmental justice are identified, developed, adopted and promoted among the APC network.

c. Impact objective 3: Policies and regulatory frameworks that govern the design, production, use and disposal of digital technologies mitigate negative impacts and promote environmental justice and sustainability.

Within the granting priority framework, members were requested to highlight specific focus areas according to their local context and needs. The specific focus areas that have been identified are the following:

  • Capacity building
    • Reduce negative environmental impact of digital technologies
    • Digital safety and care
    • Awareness of the proper management of electronic waste.
  • Socio-environmental justice models
    • Accountability for social and environmental rights in design, development and use of ICTs
    • Introducing technologies from rural, Indigenous, Black and traditional communities as alternatives to predatory, capitalist development.
  • Addressing racism and colonialism by supporting Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty and rights
    • Developing legislation to guarantee sovereignty
    • Confronting inequalities of access to the internet
    • Fostering community communication activities.
3. Eligibility

APC members who wish to apply for this grant must comply with the following requirements:

  1. You are an APC organisational member based in one of the OECD DAC list countries (non-“OECD DAC list members” can participate as collaborators in joint proposals).
  2. You participate in the work of the APC Environmental Sustainability Group (you are subscribed to the group’s emailing list by the time of publication of this call).
  3. Your application budget is up to USD 7,500 per individual proposal or up to USD 15,000 for joint proposals.
  4. You cannot apply for more than one grant during this grants cycle. You cannot apply both as a leading organisation for one proposal and a partner for a different (joint) proposal.
  5. Only APC organisational members in good standing can avail of APC grants. This means that you must not owe APC any of the following: a) dues or other outstanding funds, b) contractual work paid for but not yet delivered, c) financial or narrative reports from activities supported by APC during the previous year, including travel supported by the APC Member Exchange and Travel Fund (METF). In the case of joint proposals, all members should be in good standing.
4. Selection

The selection of applications to be funded under this grant is being made by an assessment committee. Members of this committee are appointed individuals from the APC Environmental Sustainability Group who have expressed their interest in participating.

Five members of the committee are randomly selected from the pool for each round (once per month) of proposal assessments. Each member assesses the submitted applications according to the assessment criteria (attached to this call) and the committee comes together as a whole to collectively decide on the applications that will be funded.

5. How to submit your application

This is a rolling call, open from July 2021 to 31 May 2022. Applications can be submitted at any time until the end of the call or until all funds have been allocated. There are two phases in submitting your application:

Phase 1: Peer feedback

Before submitting your application you need to publish a concept note about your project for your peers to review and provide their feedback. To do this, you should send an email to the APC EnvSus group emailing list, attaching your concept note and adding a subject in the following format:

Subject: PaGES - organisation name

You can leverage the feedback you will receive from your peers to improve your proposal, or even discover an opportunity to jointly apply with some other peer working on a similar theme as you.

Phase 2: Submitting your application

You can submit your application two weeks after you have published your concept note for the peer feedback phase. To do this, you need to log in to the APC subgrants platform (https://subgrants.apc.org/user), locate the Environmental Justice and Sustainability Grant call, and apply. With your application you need to have completed the budget template for your proposal. You will be requested to upload this template to your application form.

6. Assistance with submitting your application

If you have lost your password and cannot log in to the subgrants platform please view this short video. If you still cannot access your account, please contact rox – at – apc – dot – org. For any other inquiries related to the application process please contact apc.envsus.fg – at - apc – dot – org.

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