Administration services

Tender description

The Wales for Africa small-grants scheme is a flagship initiative of the Welsh Government’s Wales for Africa programme. The scheme enables individuals, community groups and organisations in Wales to access funding for small-scale projects that contribute to Wales’ delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and deliver benefits to Wales and Africa. The Welsh Government are looking for a distributive body to manage the small grant scheme from April 2018 to March 2021. This notice seeks to alert the marketplace to the procurement to appoint a distributive body to administer the Wales for Africa small-grants scheme on behalf of the Welsh Government. A minimum of 230 000 GBP, and up to 250 000 GBP, will be made available each year in small-grants, 50 000 GBP of which will be ring-fenced specifically for health focused projects. The contract value is up to 35 000 GBP per year, for 3 years. Additionally up to 5 000 GBP will be available for a mobilisation phase. The distributive body will be required to: — run at least 2 grant rounds every year, with the required systems in place to administer the first round from 1.4.2018, — develop a grant application process to be agreed in collaboration with the Client, including all application, monitoring and evaluation forms and guidance ensuring the scheme is accessible to all, — develop a set of criteria to enable all applications to be scored and the proposed activity monitored for successful applicants, to be agreed in collaboration with the Client, — develop an evaluation framework which will be built into the grant scheme from the outset, to be agreed in collaboration with the Client, — develop distinct webpages for the Wales for Africa small-grant scheme, which clearly identify that this is a Welsh Government scheme, to be agreed in collaboration with the Client, — provide an online application system that is simple, user friendly and accessible to all, — advertise the grant scheme through a variety of channels ensuring maximum take-up, particularly in advance of each grant round, — provide a degree of guidance and support to applicants on the application process and grant criteria, — put in place an objective, open, fair and transparent process for assessing applications, — receive process and score all applications to the fund in an objective, open, fair and transparent way and provide a ranked list of recommendations to the Client from which the client can choose who to fund, — ensure that all recommendations are made within the relevant timescales as agreed with the Client who will make the ultimate decision on all grants, — produce a report on each small-grant and each grant round outlining where the money has been allocated and the outcomes and impact delivered in Wales and in Africa, — ensure that individual monitoring and evaluation is undertaken for all projects supported through the scheme and reported to the Client, — raise awareness of the Scheme and its achievements, — deliver a fully bilingual grant-scheme with all materials, information and support made available in Welsh and English. The distributive body will demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the UN SDGs and a proven track record of administering similar small-scale, community focused, international development grant schemes. The distributive body will have experience and demonstrate an applied understanding of the international development sector in Wales.