Deadline: Ongoing
The African Water Facility (AWF) offers grants of between €50,000 and €5,000,000 to water projects that need financial and technical help for implementation, or to meet the strict criteria expected by development partners and the global investment community. Occasionally, the AWF also provides grants to fund the implementation of small-scale pilot projects.
The African Water Facility (AWF) is a multilateral fund that provides grants and technical assistance to enable governments, NGOs and private-public partnerships to secure investments and implement sustainable water projects throughout Africa.
Core Areas
AWF focuses on the three core areas that are complementary and synergetic:
- Project Preparation
- Water Governance
- Water Knowledge.
The overall aim is to leverage all three of these areas to provide the framework and conditions necessary for sustainable projects to succeed and for the African water sector to thrive.
Eligibility
To be eligible to receive AWF grants or technical assistance, recipients must be regional member countries of the African Development Bank (ADB), political subdivisions or agencies working within these countries, or regional agencies or institutions concerned with water resource development in Africa.
This implies that the recipient could be:
- Central or local African Governments
- African municipalities
- NGOs and CSOs
- Community-based organizations CBOs
- Regional, sub-regional and sectoral organizations (e.g. Regional Economic Organizations, River Basin Organizations etc.)
In order to decide upon the eligibility of NGOs and Civil society organizations, they need to fulfil the following criteria demonstrating their credibility and track record in the water sector. Find out more.
Criteria for Project Funding
To be eligible for financing under the AWF, proposed activities and projects must come from a potential beneficiary and fall into one or more of the areas of intervention.
All the projects financed by the Facility should have clear performance indicators with good expected outcomes and clear targets.
In considering a request for financing, due considerations are given to the following:
- Political commitment of the country with respect to appropriate prioritization of the water sector such as inclusion of water as a priority within the PRSP or any Development Programme of the country demonstrating a clear indication of the importance accorded to the sector
- Relevant self-help measures being taken by the recipient
- the beneficiary should demonstrate the sense of ownership and commitment through active participation in the activities proposed for funding
- The beneficiary should have a credible record and shall also ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the institutions and investments through adequate operations and maintenance (O&M), cost recovery and budgetary support;
- What is the environmental and social impact ensuring sustainability?
- Clear indicators with defined targets are mandatory for all projects and programmes;
- The principle of beneficiary contribution is applied to all investments.
NOTE
There is no application deadline to request AWF funding. The AWF team of experts assesses the received funding requests throughout the year and transmits its evaluation and decision in due course.
The contributing donor countries are represented by Austria, Canada, European Commission, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, UK, Spain, Algeria, and Senegal.
For more information, visit African Water Facility Grants.
