GRANT: Civil Society Facility - Call for Concept Notes

The Vietnam Civil Society Facility (VCSF) was established at the Embassy of Ireland in Vietnam to support grant funding to short and medium term interventions which have a demonstrated poverty impact or an influencing or testing value, and which are compatible with the Irish Aid Country Strategy Paper’s objectives for the period 2011-2015.
The overall objective of the Civil Society Facility is to strengthen the engagement of civil society organisations in support of specific poverty issues and policy formulation processes. The Civil Society Facility will support competitive proposals that contribute to the following objectives:
1) To strengthen the voice of poor communities and community-based organisations in local governance and accountability, oversight of public investment programmes and increased economic integration.  Particular attention will be paid to ethnic minority populations;
(2) To promote acceptance and empowerment of people with disability by increasing their social and economic integration;
(3) To promote the development of the civil society sector in Vietnam through capacity building and networking and collective action in research and advocacy and public.
There will be two funding rounds in 2012, in April and August.  Irish Aid is currently inviting concept notes for the first 2012 Funding Round. Applicants are requested to submit a concept note (max 3 pages in length in and in the prescribed format) and a completed Irish Aid eligibility checklist to irish.aid@dfanet.ie
The deadline for receipt of concept notes is 12.00 Friday 20 April, 2012.
Once concept notes have been appraised, short-listed applicants will be invited to submit a full technical proposal. Please note that only technical proposals submitted by invitation will be considered by Irish Aid.
For full details on the application process including guidance on the concept note format and eligibility checklist, please visit their website www.embassyofireland.vn
Irish Aid will hold two information sessions on the CSF Guidelines:
-         10h00-11h30 Wednesday April 4th, 2012 at the Embassy of Ireland, Fl 8, Tower B, Vincom Centre, 191 Ba Trieu, Hanoi.
-         9h00-10h30 Friday April 6th, 2012 at Disability Resource Development (DRD) 91/6N Hoa Hung, Ward 12, District 10, Ho Chi Minh city.
To register for participation, please email chi.nguyen@dfanet.ie by 30th March 2012, and indicate which information session you would like to attend.