Guidance

Global Poverty Action Fund (GPAF)

The Global Poverty Action Fund is closed to funding applications. Further announcements regarding funding opportunities are not expected before Autumn 2014.

From:
Department for International Development
Published
26 March 2013
Last updated
12 August 2014 — See all updates

This guidance was withdrawn on

This fund is now closed.

For DFID funding information visit the DFID Funding Finder

Overview

The Global Poverty Action Fund (GPAF) is a demand-led fund supporting projects focused on poverty reduction and pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through tangible changes to poor people’s lives including through:

  • service delivery
  • empowerment and accountability
  • work on conflict, security and justice

Projects will be selected on the basis of demonstrable impact on poverty, clarity of outputs and outcomes, and appropriate consideration of value for money and gender.

The next GPAF round will focus on MDG 1 - ‘Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger’, with a thematic focus on jobs and livelihoods. Concept note applications will be invited for projects that bring tangible change to poor people’s lives through sustainably raising household incomes and livelihoods. The round opens on Friday 29 November 2013, and funding will be available through both the GPAF Community Partnership and Impact windows.

What can be funded under this GPAF funding round?

Projects that lead to tangible positive changes to poor people’s lives in the form of:

  • increased household income
  • improved household financial and/or consumption resilience

Project approaches such as (this is not a comprehensive list):

  • initiatives focused on microenterprise development and making markets work for the poor eg improving market information, strengthening informal networks and other supportive institutions, and coaching
  • access to financial services supporting the creation of sustainable jobs and income generating activities (traditional and non-traditional), and savings schemes
  • skills training including technical skills to improve production, entrepreneurial and financial literacy skills

DFID does not pre-define the specific poverty criteria for beneficiaries, but is interested in initiatives for poor groups that are excluded from participation in economic growth and markets for various reasons, including ethnicity, gender and geography. GPAF applicants must present their own analysis of specific project contexts and the rationale for selection of beneficiary target groups, with reference to relevant MDG targets.

What cannot be supported under this GPAF funding round?

Projects focused primarily on other MDG areas such as health and education cannot be supported under this specific GPAF funding round. For example, projects mainly focused on the following areas could not be funded under this specific GPAF round:

  • access to and quality of general primary or secondary education
  • access to and quality of health services (including HIV/AIDS, major diseases, mother and child health)
  • changes related to environmental outcomes
  • access to and quality of water and sanitation services and hygiene education

However, other MDG areas may be addressed as components of projects if there is a clear and direct link between these components and the achievement of outcomes related to sustainable increases in household income and/or household financial or consumption resilience.

Criteria for GPAF applicants

There are 2 funding windows, the Community Partnership window and the Impact window. The summary criteria for the windows are below.

For full details and application templates will be provided with the guidelines for each window at launch.

Status Community Partnership window Impact window
Proposed Value (estimated) 10% of funding 90% of funding
Purpose Poverty reduction linked to MDG 1. Projects focused on bringing tangible change to poor people’s lives through raising household income and improving livelihoods. Initiatives focused on delivering results at community level. Innovative approaches considered suitable for scale up. Poverty reduction linked to MDG 1. Projects focused on bringing tangible change to poor people’s lives through raising household income and improving livelihoods. Initiatives focused on delivering results at greater scale. Innovative approaches considered suitable for scale up.
Risk appetite The GPAF balances higher risk for higher rewards from innovative work and lower risk for work to deliver tried and tested approaches. The GPAF balances higher risk for higher rewards from innovative work and lower risk for work to deliver tried and tested approaches.
Geography (countries where projects can be set up) Countries on the ‘Community Partnership Project Countries’ list (see Documents below) Countries on the ‘Impact Organisation and Project Countries’ list (see Documents below)
Grant size Up to £250,000 Max 2 grants per CSO (this includes grants from the Innovation window/Community Partnership window combined) Min £250,000 - max £4m. Annual value of grant less than 40% of CSO’s annual income. Max 3 grants per CSO
Duration Up to 3 years Up to 3 years
Matched funding Not required At least 25%. Proposals deemed to be technically strong would stand an increased chance of being successful if they demonstrate a level of match funding above the minimum 25%
Eligibility Small UK-based not for profit organisations with an average income of less than £1m per annum for the past 3 years Medium sized UK-based not for profit organisations (but no fixed upper or lower limit). Organisations receiving PPAs excluded. Locally registered CSOs in countries on the ‘Organisation’ section of the ‘impact organisation and project countries’ list (see Documents below)

Announcements

  • the Global Poverty Action Fund is closed to funding applications. Further announcements regarding funding opportunities are not expected before Autumn 2014
  • the Jobs and Livelihoods themed round opened on Friday 29 November 2013
  • the closing date for Community Partnership concept notes was 23:59 on Monday 27 January 2014
  • the closing date for Impact concept notes was 23:59 on Monday 20 January 2014
  • please see full lists of all previously awarded Impact grants (PDF, 173 KB, 14 pages) and Community partnership grants (PDF, 148 KB, 12 pages) (including previous innovation grants)
  • full details of all projects can be found on our Development Tracker

Responsible DFID department

The department within DFID that is responsible for overseeing the GPAF is

Civil Society Department, Policy and Research Division.

Enquiries about the GPAF

Management of the Fund has been contracted out to Triple Line Consulting Ltd (in a joint venture with Crown Agents):

Triple Line Consulting Ltd.
3 Princeton Court
55 Felsham Road
Putney
London SW15 1AZ
Telephone: 020 8788 4680

E-mail: GPAFenquiries@tripleline.com

Any questions about the fund should be addressed to Triple Line.

Community Partnership window documents

Impact window documents

Documents

Updates to this page

Published 26 March 2013
Last updated 12 August 2014 + show all updates

  1. Community partnership and Innovation awards list August 2014

  2. Revised Impact and Innovation grants awarded files added July 2014

  3. Summary amended to: The Global Poverty Action Fund is closed to funding applications. Further announcements regarding funding opportunities are not expected before Autumn 2014.

  4. Added: Uganda CSCF and GPAF Learning Workshop Report, May 2014 List of updated Community partnership grants June 2014 added

  5. Revised Community Partnership Grants list: May 2014 added

  6. Revised community partnership grant awards document added

  7. Revised version of logical framework guidance document added.

  8. Community Partnership: extracts from previous Concept Notes added Community Partnership round 3: concept note frequently asked questions January 2014 added Community Partnership Window funding seminar presentation: January 2014 added

  9. Updated Impact grants wards list and Community Partnership grants list - January 2014

  10. Community partnership and Impact window frequently asked questions december 2013 added

  11. Revised Community partnership guidelines added

  12. Revised Innovation and Impact grant awards added

  13. Impact window concept note form for round 4 added Community partnership concept note form round 3 added Impact guidance for applicants round 4 added Community partnership guidance for applicants round 3 added

  14. Updated version of "Additional guidance on Empowerment and Accountability" added Updated version of "Community partnership concept note strengths and weaknesses" added Impact and Community partnership: organisation and project countries files added

  15. Change to overview and additional information on new funding rounds

  16. Updated Impact grant awards and Community Partnership and Innovation grant awards November 2013 added

  17. Updated Impact grant awards list: October 2013

  18. evaluation strategy added

  19. Impact and Innovation grant awards lists updated September 2013

  20. Lists of all previously awarded Impact grants and Community partnership grants changed

  21. First published.

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