The Climate Bridge Fund (CBF) is inviting NGOs (registered under NGO Affairs Bureau of the Government of Bangladesh) to submit project ideas for this call.
The Climate Bridge Fund (CBF) is a trust fund established by Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) with support from the Government of Germany through KfW. CBF supports urban adaptation measures in the context of climate-induced migration.
The Climate Bridge Fund has been set up to “bridge” the financial gap from short-term project funding to sustainable provision of services and infrastructure for climate-induced migrants. The aim is to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable people in urban areas who are either displaced or are at the risk of being displaced due to the impacts of climate change.
The purpose of this Call for Concept Note is to select projects that contribute in strengthening climate resilient services and infrastructure in selected urban areas in Bangladesh. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) clearly mentioned that the people of coastal urban areas would face huge loss and damages due to rapid (e.g., flash floods, cyclones and storm surges) and slow onset events (e.g., sea level rise, salinity intrusion in ground and surface water) in not only Bangladesh but across the world. The risks of the slum dwellers who are socially disadvantaged people would further suffer if climate resilient services and infrastructures are not extended effectively or adaptation actions are not taken immediately. In addition to this the negative impact on women and people with disabilities and other more marginalised communities will even be further.
Through this call, the Climate Bridge Fund (CBF) aims to contribute in implementation of some of the key national climate change and development policy instruments including BCCSAP 2009, NAP 2022; 8FYP (2020-2025), Climate Change Gender Action Plan (ccGAP), The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979) and Perspective Plan (2021-2041) that critically recognize the need of addressing climate resilience in urban areas through improvement of services and infrastructures. The selected projects would also contribute to implementing the Paris Agreement, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Bangladesh.
Focus of the Call
Under this Call, CBF will support gender-responsive projects that contribute to strengthening the resilience of climate induced displaced populations (men and especially women, wherever possible with a specific focus on women/taking the specific needs of women into account), host communities and other vulnerable groups living in slums/informal settlements in selected urban areas of Bangladesh.
Funding Information
The total budget available for NGOs through this call is 49.34 million BDT.
Eligibility Criteria
All interested NGOs need to fulfil the following criteria to be eligible for funding. The Climate Bridge Fund eligibility requirements can be classified as: the proposed project ideas and the implementing organisation(s). The proponent should carefully consider whether they fulfil these criteria and have the capacity to implement projects of this nature.
Project-related Criteria:
Impact: Proposed project will contribute to the provision of sustainably operated, climate resilient and gender equitable services and/or urban infrastructure in order to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable people impacted by climate change.
Geography: Proposed project will be located in one or multiple urban slum(s) with a high share of climate-induced migrants and be targeted towards low income, vulnerable communities, including women and other marginalised communities living in the city corporation/municipality areas, where German Official Development Cooperation is active: Khulna, Barishal, Rajshahi, Satkhira and Sirajganj.
Bridge funding: Proposed project should fall in one of these three categories:
Continuance and scale up of successful pilot projects to guide these into financial sustainability
Innovative ideas that have potential for scaling up and self-sustainability
Contribution to longer term operations and maintenance of essential urban infrastructures, that would otherwise remain idle.
National plans and local planning: Projects need to be consistent with relevant national plans and policies, such as NAP as well as with local plans such as city or town master plans. Additionally, proponents must ensure that the city corporation and/ municipality authorities are supportive of the suggested project by consulting/sharing the proposed project idea with them prior to submission of the concept note.
Knowledge generation: Project contributes to generating knowledge on climate change resilient solutions in urban slums, on a broader scale.
Organisation-related Criteria
Track record: The applicant organisations must have prior experience of implementing projects of similar nature. Additional points will be awarded for prior experience of working in proposed locations, however it is not an exclusion criterion.
Budget size: The applicant organisations should have the proven capacity to handle a sufficiently large budget. Additionally, they must have experience of implementing at least two foreign funded projects in the past five years, each of which are at least the financial size of the submitted proposal.
Implementing capacity: The applicant organisations should have adequate human resources equipped with relevant skillsets, for quality implementation within the proposed timeframe.
Financial capacity: The annual budget of the applicant organisation (if more than one organization then the lead organization’s budget has to be mentioned) in each of the last three years should be at least five times higher than the financial size of the submitted proposal.
Own contribution: The applicant organisation(s) are willing and able to contribute to co-financing the project (not obligatory but would be appreciated).
