Deadline: January 22, 2022
Applications are open for the African Union Civic Tech Fund 2022. The African Union Civic Tech Fund is a pan-African competition that aims to accelerate innovative civic tech initiatives that have the potential to lead to citizen-led transformative action across the African continent.
This rests on the recognition that there is an acute need for meaningful participation by African citizens in addressing and solving governance and development challenges across the continent.
The overarching policy framework for the African Union Civic Tech Fund is Africa’s Agenda 2063 as well as other key policy documents associated with the African Union Shared Values agenda, such as the ACDEG or the African Youth Charter. Initiatives should therefore provide innovative solutions to solve problems of citizen participation, across a number of relevant areas:
- Participation in public space & public discourse;
- Electoral cycles and elections;
- Rule of law & orderly transfers of power between governments;
- Democratic culture and political pluralism;
- Responsive, transparent and accountable governance;
- Peace and security (where it impacts democratic governance);
- Human, economic and sustainable development (where it impacts democratic governance).
Benefits
- Financial support
- EUR 10,000 to EUR 20,000 per recipient.
- Technical support
- Virtual inception/acceleration week (hosted by AfriLabs).
- Provision of embedded technical expertise through the engagement of civic tech specialists.
- Thematic support
- Provision of thematic expertise on democracy support, African Union governance & continental policy-making.
- Marketing, communication & showcasing support
- Facilitation of access to decision-makers at the African Union level as well as the international development community.
- Peer-to-peer learning & networking
- Facilitation of exchange between recipients and other members of related civic tech ecosystems.
Eligibility
The Fund will focus on the provision of support to not-for-profit and for profit organisations (e.g. social enterprises) acting within the civic space & the civic tech ecosystem Particular attention will be paid to digital solutions that benefit women and youths as target groups..
- The organisation must be a legal entity;
- The organisation must be registered in an African Union Member State;
- The organisation must be able to sign a service contract agreement (as opposed to a grant contract agreement);
- The organisation must not be bankrupt or being wound up nor having its affairs administered by the courts;
- The organisation must not have received an adverse audit opinion, either by its own auditors or its donors’ auditors;
- The organisation must have policies in place and/or practices in place to guarantee the ethical management of personal identifiable information;
- The organisation must not have been the subject of a judgment for fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organisation or any other illegal activity.
Evaluation Criteria
- Relevance to the priorities
- Technical viability of the suggested civic tech initiative & operational capacity of the implementing organisation
- Added-value elements
- Expected impact on proposed target groups
- Sustainability
- Cost-effectiveness
Application
The online application form is available. Only applications submitted via the online application form will be considered.
Upon submission of the proposals, applicants will receive a confirmation that their proposal has been received. If such a confirmation is not received, please get in touch with [email protected].
Click here to submit a proposal
For more information, read the guidelines and visit AU Civic Tech Fund.
