Energy and Environment Partnership Southern and East Africa announces opening of its 12th and 13th Call for Proposal

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Capital Markets in Africa — As a challenge fund, the Energy and Environment Partnership Programme with Southern and East Africa (EEP S&EA) is seeking high-quality applications for projects in the two regions that can contribute to the reduction of poverty by promoting inclusive and job-creating green economy and by improving energy security while mitigating global climate change. EEP is jointly funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (lead donor), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) while the EEP Coordination Office (ECO) is hosted by KPMG. 

The partnership supports projects in Botswana, Burundi, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. 

The overall objective of the Programme is to reduce poverty through inclusive and job-creating green economy and improved energy access and security in the Southern and East Africa regions while mitigating global climate change. The immediate Programme objective is to achieve greater access to sustainable energy services through the fast tracking of RE/EE project demonstration and deployment, including through technological learning and private sector investment. Each EEP S&EA project supports these Programme objectives.

EEP Southern and East Africa Opens Simultaneously Two Funding Windows for Early Stage (CfP12) and Market Ready (CfP13) Projects. Both Windows Are Now Open For First Proposal Submissions.

Deadline for the submissions is April 25^th, 2016 at 10h00 (South African time, GMT +2)

The applications for both windows are sought in two stages: 1) first application stage (current stage), based on which successfully ranked applicants are invited to submit 2) second application stage, the final project proposals.

First stage applications will be screened in terms of key criteria, including of the following types: a) technical scope b) business idea  c) development impacts and climate change mitigations d) finance and capacity of the applicant and e) regional aspects. 

When preparing the application, it is of high importance to explain how the proposed project fulfils the following eligibility conditions “six rules”  as clearly as possible: 1) Clear development rationale and an economic rationale, 2) Clear demonstration of additionality, 3) Clear sustainable development outcomes, 4) Minimisation of market distortions, 5) Credible contribution to achieving systemic market impact, and 6) Incentives that are aligned with commercial partners. These are the criteria that the applicant needs to adhere to for having the opportunity to obtain EEP funding (please see Application Guidelines for details).

The Guidelines also address so called “red flags”, which are topics and conditions that cannot be funded by the EEP.

In addition, specific attention needs to be given to the following cross cutting characteristics; gender, poverty reduction, innovation and difficult markets.

For the projects selected through CfP12 and CfP13, the project implementation period starting in August 2016 is limited to 15 months.

CfP12 – Early Stage projects 

The projects supported in CfP12 can be “last-mile” feasibility studies, pilot or demonstration projects. The scope of this Call for Proposals (CfPs) is limited to projects that deal with the development phase of renewable energy and energy saving/energy efficiency projects. The proposed project must comprise of activities that are part of a cycle leading to further investment and sustainable commercialization. The maximum grant allocation for a selected CfP12 project can fall in the range € 100 000 – 300 000 with a co-financing requirement a minimum of 30%.

CfP 13 – Market ready projects

The projects supported in CfFP13 are scale up to commercial operation, replication of commercially proven concepts to new markets (nationally or internationally) and rejuvenation of existing renewable energy and energy efficiency generation projects. Market Ready is to offer financing to projects that have a particularly strong possibility for raising other (commercial) sources of finance for project implementation, replication and/or scaling up. As concrete outputs, this result area will be characterized by the development of bankable renewable energy and energy efficiency demonstration of project proposals that involve technological, financing or business model innovation. The maximum grant allocation for a selected CfP13 project can fall in the range € 200,000 – € 1,000,000 depending on the project scope and level of verifiable co-financing brought in by the project.

Detailed information on the two Call for Proposals, as well as the online application tool, can be found at the Programme’s website at http://www.EEPAfrica.org