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The British Embassy invites all interested parties to submit their proposals for the Prosperity Fund Cuba for the 2016-17 period.

Documents

Project concept form MS Word Document, 56.5KB

Project proposal form: projects between £10k and £80k MS Word Document, 218KB

Project proposal form: over £80K MS Word Document, 215KB

Activity-Based Budget (financial breakdown) MS Excel Spreadsheet, 52.5KB

Detail

The deadline to submit the Project Concept Form is Tuesday 7 June 2016. Only successful Project Concepts will be invited to submit a full project proposal. The deadline to submit the full Project Proposal is Friday 24 June. All Project Concepts and the full Project Proposals submitted will be subject to a rigorous selection process by the Programme and Projects Board of the Embassy and by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London respectively. If your project concept or project proposal is successful, the Embassy will contact you.

Overview

The Prosperity Fund forms a small but integral element of the UK’s total Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment of 0.7% of GNI. It is primarily focused on ODA eligible middle income countries, contributing to poverty reduction and complementing DFID’s work in poorer countries. In this way, the Fund contributes towards meeting the new Sustainable Development Goals. ODA spend under the Fund will be fully consistent with OECD DAC criteria. This is the first time Cuba has received such funding. The Prosperity Fund will focus on supporting large-scale programmes linked to the FCO’s priorities.

Priority Areas

To achieve these objectives, the Prosperity Fund for Cuba will aim at promoting a long term and strategically planned programme of expert exchanges and training programmes in areas of mutual interest. The Fund will focus on the following priority areas, though it is likely that the strategic focus this year will be on financial and professional services . All project proposals should be able to establish a clear and identifiable link between the activities planned and the expected results:

Financial and professional services

• infrastructure financing
• public private partnerships
• debt markets
• financial sector and banking regulation
• anti money laundering
• promoting a favorable business environment
• efficient systems of procurement

Energy and renewable energy

• Renewable energy policy
• Policy development on biomass, solar and wind
• Improving electricity transmission, storage and distribution networks

Higher Education

• Support to develop quality evaluation mechanisms for higher education.
• Strengthen the link between academia and business and economic needs.
• Building capacity in English language education, technical and vocational education in key sectors (financial services, energy, tourism, agriculture, science and research, social entrepreneurship) and research collaboration between the UK and Cuba.

How to bid?

This process will be carried out in two stages: Concept Bid Stage and Full Bid Stage. Only approved Concept Bids will be invited to continue to the second phase.

1. Concept Bid Stage (deadline 7 June)

• Project Concept Form (MS Word Document)
• Activity-Based Budget (financial breakdown)

2. Full Bid Stage

• Project Form for projects between £10,000 to £80,000
• Project Form for projects for more than £80,000
• Activity-Based Budget (financial breakdown)

Each organization may present up to a maximum of 3 proposals.

The Prosperity Fund does not authorize the purchase of capital goods nor flight costs above economy class.

The final end date for the financing and execution of projects is 28 February, 2017, but we welcome projects that can be executed by the end of December 2016.

In all cases please send the Project Concept Form and the full Project Proposal to the attention of Ileana Carreño, Projects and Prosperity Officer at the e-mail address: ukincuba@fco.gov.uk

In the subject line of the email please indicate “Project Bid” and please include in the body of the message a brief reference to the organization and the project title.

Bids should highlight:

• Evidence of strategic fit to the Cuba Prosperity Fund priority areas.
• A clear and identifiable link between the activities planned and the expected results.
• A well-defined and specific aim of the proposal. The Embassy is particularly interested in proposals of a minimum of £ 50,000 and up to a maximum of £ 150,000, though budgets lower than £50,000 will be considered
• A detailed Activity-Based Budget (proposals with no ABB will not be accepted). It should be clear what a certain expense refers to. Vague or seemingly excessive expenditure items will be challenged.
• How the funds will be used during the execution of the project.

Who may bid?

Eligibility Criteria

In order to be eligible, your organization or agency must be a non-profit legal entity, a registered non-governmental or governmental organization, an academic or research institution, and must demonstrate that it has:

• Previous experience in project management
• Preferably previous experience working with international agencies/organizations
• Proof of legal registration
• Sufficient technical, financial, human and logistical capacity

How are projects monitored?

Once approved, and in accordance with what is set out in the Grant Contract that you will be asked to sign if successful, the implementing organization must submit quarterly reports and a final evaluation of the project. Within the monitoring work, due consideration should be given by the implementers to potential media coverage during the project’s activities, which will be carried out in coordination with the Embassy’s Communications Section.

The British Embassy reiterates its invitation to all interested parties to submit their proposals for the 2016-17 period.

Indicative Bidding Timeline

7 June 2016

Deadline for Implementers to submit Concept Bids to Programme Team

13 June 2016

Successful concept bidders invited by Embassy to submit Full Bids

27 June 2016

Deadline for Implementers to submit Full Bids

July (date to be confirmed)

Notification to Implementers announcing results of bidding and confirming approved projects

July-August 2016 (date to be confirmed)

Contracts and financial arrangements completed

August 2016 (date to be confirmed)

Deadline for start of projects

31 December 2016

Projects completed. Some limited flexibility may be possible to 28 February 2017.