Call for Concept Notes – Education for Refugee and Displaced Children and Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa

For notification of calls, please subscribe to our RSS feed.

You can access calls, get a heads-up on upcoming calls, and view closed calls and results from past calls.

The deadline to submit an application was Wednesday, April 14, 2021, 12 pm Eastern Time (ET)

Global Affairs Canada is launching a call for Canadian organizations entitled “Education for Refugee and Displaced Children and Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa,” valued at approximately $40 million over 5 years. Global Affairs Canada may fund any number of proposals or none, up to the maximum funding available.

This call is part of the department’s campaign ‘Together for Learning’ - Education for refugee, other forcibly-displaced and host community children and youth, which aims to promote quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for refugee, internally displaced and host community children and youth. Global Affairs Canada expects to fund a limited number of projects, valued between $5 million and $20 million each.

You must submit your application through the Partners@International portal before the deadline. Read all instructions on the portal carefully. If you are applying on behalf of a group of organizations that would sign the funding agreement with Global Affairs Canada, please ensure that each organization is registered in the Partners@International portal and has uploaded all required documents.

We will not accept late submissions. To ensure that technical difficulties do not prevent you from submitting your concept note on time, we strongly suggest that you submit your application at least 3 working days before the deadline of Wednesday, April 14, 2021, at 12 pm ET. Please read all portal instructions carefully.

The submission of a concept note is the first stage of a 2-stage application process. Funding will not be provided on the basis of the concept note alone. At the second stage, we will invite a limited number of proponents that best align with the objectives and parameters of the call to submit a full proposal. Be sure to review the instructions contained in the How to apply for funding through a call web page before beginning your application.

Objectives

This call is designed to increase access to education for refugee and displaced children and youth. Targeted capacity building, combined with small grants for core activities, locally driven education-related programming and policy engagement, would amplify the voices of refugee and internally displaced people (IDPs) and those of organizations that represent them and are led by them. Through innovative solutions, the call aims to increase access to quality education by providing additional funding for organizations that are best placed to understand the needs of their communities and are on the front lines of providing essential education services for refugees and IDPs. This call will enable dynamic partnerships between Canadian organizations, national organizations, host communities, and refugee-led organizations (RLOs) and IDP-led organizations. It will be an important contributor to the emerging evidence base and global learning on the role of RLOs and IDP-led organizations in directly enhancing education outcomes of refugee and IDP children and youth. Context-specific, locally driven solutions and conflict-sensitive design will be critical in ensuring the use of adaptive and responsive approaches that integrate risk management strategies.

The call has 3 core objectives:

facilitate organizational capacity building among local RLO and/or IDP-led organizations* working in the education sector to strengthen their empowerment and organizational effectiveness
provide grants** to local organizations, particularly RLO and/or IDP-led organizations, to strengthen gender-responsive education programming for refugee and internally displaced children and youth, particularly girls and adolescent girls, and ensure due diligence and monitoring of grants
amplify the voices of local RLO and IDP-led organizations working in the education sector, including women-led organizations, through their collective action with key education stakeholders, governments and host communities

* RLOs and IDP-led organizations are defined as community-based organizations (CBOs), including women-led organizations, working in the education sector that are either founded and/or led by refugees and/or IDPs as decision makers. While some RLOs and IDP-led organizations are officially registered with the host state, others cannot register due to legal barriers. Both registered and non-registered organizations can receive assistance within the context of this call. Organizations must be active in providing protection and assistance to refugees and IDPs, with their activities including but not limited to advice and programs on inclusion, integration, meaningful participation, education, empowerment and self-reliance.

** Grants can be used to fund:

core activities of the RLOs and IDP-led organizations that operate in the education sector
education-related programming in line with the RLO/IDP-led organizations’ mandate or objectives
flexible response fund for adaptive activities in the event of unforeseen events (i.e., conflict, health pandemic)

The call aligns with the human dignity, gender equality, and empowerment of women and girls action areas of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. Programming should advance gender equality in a fully integrated manner, apply a human-rights based approach, and examine how intersecting identity factors impact access for and inclusion of those most at risk of being left behind, including persons with disabilities, ethnic minority groups, 2SLGBTQI+ populations and other vulnerable groups.

The call also aligns with the Minister of International Development’s mandate letter, which charges the Minister with leading an international campaign to ensure that all refugee and displaced children can get the education they need and deserve, and with Canada’s commitment to the Global Compact on Refugees, including the Compact’s belief that comprehensive refugee responses require a wider set of stakeholders—including refugees themselves—working more actively together to advance durable solutions.

The call supports international assistance programming in the development, humanitarian, and peace and security nexus in order to address the specific learning needs of and vulnerabilities faced by children and youth during and after a crisis. Applicants must include a preliminary gender-responsive conflict analysis in the theory of change that identifies the drivers of conflict, analyzes gender dynamics and the causes of displacement. Applicants are also encouraged to include opportunities for environmental awareness-raising and environmentally sound and climate-resilient practices, where relevant.

Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy states that “…we will ensure that by 2021-22 no less than 95 percent of Canada’s bilateral international development assistance initiatives will target or integrate gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.” Priority will be given to concept notes that demonstrate full integration of gender equality (GE-02) and women’s and girls’ empowerment. Applicants must include gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) that identifies gender equality gaps and ensures that proposed solutions directly respond to the GBA+ analysis, across activities, outputs and outcomes.

Ultimate outcome

Under this call, your proposed project must contribute to the achievement of the ultimate outcome:

enhanced equitable and inclusive learning outcomes for refugee, internally displaced and host community children and youth, particularly girls and adolescent girls, living in select countries of sub-Saharan Africa eligible for official development assistance (ODA)

Intermediate outcomes

Your proposed project must also contribute to all of the following intermediate outcomes:

improved performance of local refugee and/or IDP-led organizations working on gender-responsive education
increased access to gender-responsive quality education for refugees and internally displaced children and youth, particularly girls and adolescent girls, enabled by refugee and/or IDP-led organizations
enhanced collective action of local refugee and/or IDP-led organizations (including women-led/rights organizations) to advance the right to gender-responsive quality education for refugee and internally displaced children and youth, particularly vulnerable groups

Note: You may refine the call’s ultimate and intermediate outcome statements to ensure they are grounded in the reality of your project design, making them more specific in terms of your project’s who, what and where. Refer to Results-based management for international assistance programming: A how-to guide to ensure that your outcome statements respect Global Affairs Canada’s definition of intermediate and ultimate outcomes.

In support of the theory of change in the concept note application form, please include a separate Logic Model (PDF, 91 KB) that visually depicts the outcome statements down to the immediate results of the theory and reflects the series of changes that are critical to achieving project success.

Additional information

Concept notes submitted under this call should also:

include dynamic partnerships of organizations to implement the initiative, bringing together diverse experiences, skill sets and local networks, including with other Canadian and national civil society organizations working on education-related issues for and with refugees and/or IDPs
empower and engage local voices, actors and community-based organizations, in particular refugee-led and IDP-led organizations, throughout the project cycle
pursue a learning agenda informed by research and monitoring and evaluation, and establish a community of practice with other successful applicants of this call, their partners and other relevant stakeholders. This community of practice, launched in coordination with the department, will contribute to evidence-based knowledge building in relation to approaches that improve educational access, quality and performance through gender-sensitive and disaggregated data on the education of refugee, internally displaced and host community children and youth

Organization eligibility

To be eligible, you must meet each of the following eligibility screening requirements and, where stipulated, provide supporting documentation. If your organization is submitting a concept note on behalf of a group of organizations that would sign the funding agreement with Global Affairs Canada, each organization (i.e. co-signatory) must meet all of the following requirements and provide documentation:

Your organization must be Canadian, which means for the purpose of this call that your organization is legally incorporated in Canada, established with an office and employees in Canada and can provide proof of legal status (e.g. a letter of incorporation) along with a Canada Revenue Agency business number
You must provide 2 separate financial statements for the most recent fiscal years (audited statements are preferred; if these are not available, the statements must be signed by a member of the board of directors of each signatory, by the board’s delegate or by the owner(s). Note: since financial statements usually provide comparative information from the previous year, these statements will be used to do a 3-year trend analysis
You must be registered in the Partners@International portal
You must provide an Organization Attestation (PDF, 105 KB) signed by the organization’s chief financial officer or a duly authorized board member
You may submit only 1 concept note under this call. The organization may also participate as a non-signatory partner on one or other applicants’ concept notes. Note: If your organization submits more than 1 application as signatory under this call, we will only consider the application with the earliest submission time stamp

If you do not fulfill all of the above requirements, your organization is not eligible to apply under this call. We will not pre-assess or comment on the eligibility of specific potential applicants.

Required project parameters

Carefully review the following parameters of this call and judge whether your project idea will fit. We will not respond to questions about the eligibility of your project idea. You must be able to answer “yes” to all of the following statements in order for your application to be considered for funding under this call, otherwise it will not be assessed:

Value: You are requesting Global Affairs Canada funding of at least $5 million and no more than $20 million
Duration: Your proposed project will last between 4 years and 5 years
Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy: Your proposed project is aligned with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy
Geographic alignment: Your proposed project targets one or more ODA-eligible countries among the following: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan or Uganda
- Applicants wishing to propose projects in ODA-eligible countries in sub-Saharan Africa that are not on this list of countries— and that have the highest concentration of refugees and IDPs—may do so with an accompanying justification aligned with the call objectives
Language: Your application package documents are complete and presented in either English or French or a combination of these 2 languages
Not-for-profit project: Your proposed project would not generate a profit for you or any other implementing organization
Locally driven concept note: Your organization proposes to work with local partner(s) in the country(ies) where the project would take place and has included information about them in the Local Partners – Information form (PDF, 133 KB). It is understood that the extent of details to be provided at the concept stage may be limited
Cost sharing: You and your co-signatory(ies) will provide at least 5% of the total eligible direct project costs over the life of the project in cash and/or in-kind in accordance with Global Affairs Canada’s Policy on Cost-Sharing for Grant and Non-Repayable Contribution Agreements
Engagement activities:In order to strengthen Canadian awareness and understanding of, and participation in, international assistance, including the Together for Learning Campaign, your project will allocate approximately 5% of the project direct costs to Canadian public engagement activities. These engagement activities should align with the Campaign and enable global and Canadian audiences, including diaspora communities, to better understand education challenges faced by refugee and displaced children and youth and should encourage them to take action to enable change. These activities would take into consideration the concept of behavioural change along a continuum of global citizenship, which includes the stages of:
- becoming aware and informed of international development issues
- deepening one’s knowledge on international development issues
- taking action and becoming actively involved in international development these issues
Possible public engagement activities could include advocacy toolkits and training for diaspora community advocates and other sector partners; a young leaders ambassador program to highlight refugee voices, social media campaigns, events, etc.

Ineligible public engagement activities include:
- fundraising
- annual general meetings
- partisan political advocacy or lobbying
- activities that take place outside Canada

Your project may also include:

Refurbishment: Refurbishment may be considered where necessary, such as core funding grants for minor upgrades to RLO and IDP-led organization offices or programming grants related to enhancing existing education infrastructure, including changing hardware, doors, windows and stationary furniture in laboratories or classrooms. The budget allotted to refurbishment activities should not exceed 5% of the total proposed budget.

For refurbishment activities to be approved as part of proposed projects, organizations will be required to demonstrate relevant previous experience in Section 2.1 of the concept note form and in subsequent stages of the project design. Construction of new facilities/structures will not be considered. All activities should ensure that appropriate expertise will be allocated to refurbishment and to corresponding environmental management aligned with Global Affairs Canada’s Environmental Integration Process.

Required project experience

Your concept note must demonstrate the required experience as described below to be considered under this call. One or more organizations among the signatory partners must provide 2 examples of projects in Section 2.1. of the application form. Project examples from non-signatory partners will not be eligible.

Collectively, the 2 examples must demonstrate the following:

demonstrate, in at least 1 project example within the last 7 years, at least 3 consecutive years of implementing an education-related international assistance project in fragile or conflict situations, including in refugee-hosting countries
demonstrate, in at least 1 project example within the last 7 years, 2 years of experience providing capacity building and sub-granting to local grassroots organizations, including ensuring due diligence and monitoring of grants

Note: At least 1 of the project examples needs to be in the proposed country/ies of intervention.

Additional guidance

Preference will be given to concept notes that:

include dynamic partnerships of organizations to implement the initiative, bringing together diverse experiences, skill sets and local networks, including with other Canadian and national civil society organizations working on education-related issues for and with refugees and/or IDPs
leverage additional funding sources to contribute to the proposed initiative, including through increased cost sharing beyond the minimum requirement of 5%
enable new or improved locally driven approaches and solutions that benefit and empower the poorest and most vulnerable, especially women and girls, including funds for meaningful and direct engagement of local refugees and IDPs
include approaches to determine innovative solutions such as:
- mapping and co-creation with local actors and organizations in identifying capacity-building needs, project planning and implementation
- systemic approaches to understanding constraints and enablers in strengthening local education programming
- application of behavioural insights and digital delivery methods in amplifying the voices of local refugee-led and IDP-led organizations
- conflict-sensitive and adaptive management techniques including risk monitoring, crisis modifiers, flexible response funds for unforeseen crises
- any solutions that address development problems and gender equality more effectively than current approaches

How we assess your concept note

Concept notes submitted under this call will first undergo an eligibility check to verify that they meet all organization eligibility requirements and required project parameters identified on this call page.

Next, concept notes will be assessed to ensure that applicants demonstrate the required project experience. Organizations that do not meet the required project experience will not be further assessed. You will be notified if your organization is found to be ineligible or if it does not meet the project experience requirements.

Concept notes that meet these requirements will proceed to merit assessment based on the following assessment criteria:

Rationale for the initiative

The development challenges and human rights issues that the project is planning to address are clearly described, along with the expected impact on poverty reduction
Gender equality is placed at the centre of poverty reduction efforts
The project is aligned with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy
The project is aligned with the priorities (including Sustainable Development Goals), strategies and plans of Global Affairs Canada and regional, institutional or local countries

Gender equality

The design responds to the preliminary gender equality analysis
The project design is based on an assessment of significant gender equality impacts
The theory of change, including risks and response strategies, addresses gender equality barriers and inequalities
Gender equality best practices are applied in the project design
The gender equality gaps, inequalities and barriers relevant to this project are identified
The concept note demonstrates an understanding of power dynamics at the local or sub-national level and how best to close the identified gender gaps, and considers the intersectional dimensions of inequality and discrimination

Human rights

It is clear which human rights are being advanced by the project
There is evidence of a preliminary human rights analysis reflected in the project design and theory of change
The project will strengthen the capacity of actors to fulfill, promote and claim rights

Environmental sustainability

Appropriate environmental measures have been incorporated into the project’s design and planning to mitigate negative environmental effects and promote positive environmental effects

Managing for results

The theory of change guiding the project design from ultimate outcome to activities, (including associated assumptions, risks and contributing factors) is clear, realistic and logical

There is evidence that the applicant has incorporated lessons learned and best practices into the project design
There is a description of how the intermediaries, beneficiaries (rights-holders) and other stakeholders (e.g. Canadian academic institutions and local authorities and institutions) will be meaningfully engaged in the design, development and implementation of the project
The description of strategies and efforts, including flexibility in program design, for ensuring sustainability of results are practical, realistic and comprehensive
Any innovative elements in the project design are identified, and an explanation is provided regarding what the innovation is, how it differs from existing approaches and why the innovative element should lead to better results or effectiveness than an existing approach

Responding to risks

There is a clear description of the risks that could have the greatest impact on the achievement of the expected results, taking into consideration human rights, safety and security of beneficiaries, environmental sustainability and gender equality (with special attention to the impact of COVID-19, local sensitivities and threats, including the possibility of a backlash against working on the gender equality barriers identified)
The proposed response measures and mitigations are comprehensive, appropriate and well designed to reduce the impact and/or likelihood of the identified risks

Organizational ability relevant to the initiative

The past project examples demonstrate significant and relevant technical experience, success in delivering results and ability (expertise and experience) to carry out a project of the proposed size and nature

After we assess eligible concept notes for merit, we will invite a limited number of organizations whose concept notes align best with the objectives and parameters of the call to submit a full proposal. Selection and funding decisions will be made based on an assessment of a full application package only. An invitation to submit a full proposal is not a guarantee of funding.

Invited applicants will have approximately 8 weeks to submit a full proposal after they receive an invitation letter from Global Affairs Canada.

Available resources

Before you begin, we encourage you to consult the many online resources that are available to help you develop your application package.

How to submit your application package

In order for your concept note to be considered in this call, you must submit your complete application package to Partners@International by 12 pm ET on Wednesday, April 14, 2021.

Your application package must include all of the following documents:

call for concept notes form (PDF, 346 KB) (completed form, with Validated label showing on first page)
2 separate financial statements for the most recent fiscal years from each signatory (audited statements are preferred; if these are not available, the statements must be signed by a member of the board of directors of each signatory, by the board’s delegate, or by the owner(s); note also that since financial statements usually provide comparative information from the previous year, these statements will be used to do a 3-year trend analysis)
completed Organization Attestation form (PDF, 105 KB) (separate forms for each organization that would sign the funding agreement with Global Affairs Canada, if applicable)
completed Local Partner(s) - Information form (PDF, 133 KB)
completed Logic Model form (PDF, 91 KB)

Accessing and using PDF forms

Use only Adobe Reader/Adobe Acrobat and Internet Explorer to work on the standardized PDFs to be submitted with your application package. If you use other software, you may not be able to validate the form or submit it, or the data you enter may not appear once submitted to the department, and the application will be considered ineligible.

If you are having difficulty downloading the forms, it is generally due to the type of software you have (or do not have) on your computer. Please read and follow the help instructions. If you have all the correct software installed, download the form to your desktop and open it directly in Adobe Reader; otherwise, other software installed on your computer may try (and fail) to open the form using your default settings.

Questions on using the Partners@International portal

Please read and follow all the instructions for using the Partners@International portal (linked on the right side menu). Do not open multiple windows within the portal as this may cause technical problems.

Do not try to register or submit at the last minute

It may take up to 10 business days to register your organization. If you encounter technical difficulties while trying to register or submit a concept note, send an email to partners-partenaires@international.gc.ca.

Note: During the last 2 weeks before a call closes, the service standard for replying to your enquiry is 3 business days. Technical support for the portal is only available Monday to Friday from 9 am to 4 pm ET.

Webcast

A webcast took place on March 16, 2021 to go over key information of this call. You can request a copy at correspondance.pid@international.gc.ca. The webcast is available in French and English. It will be available until we close the call on April 14, 2021.

Language selection

Search