REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS - Blood:Water Mission
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REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS
RFA No. WASH-RFA-02-2020
Blood:Water is an equipping agency that partners with African grassroots organizations to address
the water and HIV/AIDS crises. We do this by identifying Africa’s hidden heroes and coming
alongside their vision for change. We provide technical, financial, and organizational support so that
African civil society organizations have expanded reach and effectiveness in the communities they
serve.
Blood:Water is seeking Initial Applications from local African civil society organizations (CSOs) in
Eastern and Southern Africa for project grants responding to integrated water, hygiene and
sanitation issues in their communities as described in the following Request For Applications (RFA).
Project grants are paired with organizational strengthening in long-term partnership with Blood:Water.
This RFA will be open for submission from 1st March 2020 to 31st May 2020. Determinations will be
made and funding administered in 2021 and 2022.
1. Introduction
Founded in 2004, Blood: Water’s mandate was to provide relief to the AIDS and water crises through
holistic development. At a time when AIDS-related deaths were sweeping the continent and public
access to life-saving treatment and medical care for HIV were not a possibility, Blood:Water focused
its efforts on the AIDS response through expanding access to safe water as an intervention with
dramatic impact on slowing disease progression for those living with the virus. In the years since 2004,
the HIV/AIDS and water sectors in Africa have dramatically changed. In response, Blood:Water
developed a framework complementing bilateral funding mechanisms by positioning flexible private
philanthropy towards grassroots African CSOs responding to HIV/AIDS.
Since launching in 2004, Blood:Water has raised more than $37 million through the creative efforts of
tens of thousands of individuals seeking to make a difference in this dual crisis. Blood:Water has spent
the past fifteen years working alongside African organizations to bring clean water, hygiene and
sanitation, and HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support to more than one million people in twelve
countries.
Blood:Water believes that Africa holds the leadership, expertise, passion and resolve necessary to
address HIV/AIDS and WASH challenges within its communities. The Blood:Water model therefore
targets African led CSOs with multi-year community-focused grants paired with
organizational strengthening. Our mission is achieved through the following strategic objectives pairing
grant making and organizational capacity building applied through long-term partnerships:
Objective 1: To provide grants to local civil society organizations implementing programs
that respond to the HIV/AIDS and water crises in their communities.
Objective 2: To create lasting change by investing in relevant and need-based
organizational strengthening of our grantees.
Blood:Water chooses to work in partnership with African civil society organizations (CSOs) with the
end goal of maximizing impact in communities. Blood:Water believes CSOs embody entities born out
February 2020 1of communities, which pre-exist any external support and thus are likely to have a long-term presence
in the areas they serve.
As part of our partner selection process, Blood:Water is seeking Initial Applications from African CSOs
for project grants responding to WASH and HIV related needs in their communities, as described in the
following Request for Application (RFA), and located in the following selected countries only:
• Botswana
• Kenya
• Lesotho
• Malawi
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Rwanda
• South Africa
• Swaziland
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Zimbabwe
• Zambia
This document serves as a guide on preparing and submitting an application for partnership
with Blood:Water.
2. Grant Mechanism and Partnership Description
This RFA is for a Core Grant Partnership with Blood: Water. A Core Grant is the mechanism by which
partner organizations receive sizable multi-year funding, in 2 year grant cycles, to facilitate project
implementation as well as organizational and system strengthening. The Core Grant is the core or
default grant mechanism of Blood:Water’s grant portfolios.
All Core grants are inextricably paired with organizational strengthening. B:W defines organizational
strengthening as a capacity building process through which partner organizations improve their
organizational and technical capacities for the delivery of high quality programs. Built into the grant
itself, all partners will be required to participate in and implement organizational strengthening activities
that are identified through an organization wide assessment process at the beginning of each 2 year
grant cycle. Supplemental funding is provided to support the strengthening activities. The goal of the
Core Grant is to graduate strengthened, more financially and operationally viable African-led
organizations.
Core Grants are committed for a minimum of a two-year grant cycle with the possibility of renewal up
to a maximum of eight years, or four grant cycles. The last grant cycle has reduced funding levels from
previous years as a preparatory exit strategy. Renewal is subject to determination by Blood:Water’s
grants and relationship management processes.
3. New Partner Eligibility Criteria
Eligibility for Core Grants requires African organizations to meet the following criteria:
February 2020 2• Be legally registered and operational in at least one of the countries in this RFA, with at least
2/3 of its leadership and personnel being African nationals.
• Be a registered within a classification of a civil society organization. The most common
registration types include community-based organizations, faith-based organizations,
charitable trusts, non-governmental organizations, and limited company guaranteed.
• WASH and/or HIV/AIDS is missional to the organization demonstrated by the organization
already having technical and programmatic expertise in at least one of these two sectors as
relevant to the proposed project; HIV/AIDS and/or WASH being part of the organization’s
mission or programmatic strategies, or by the presence of technical leadership already
employed on staff.
• Demonstrated interest in organizational system strengthening for improved organizational
health.
• Must have prior track record managing a grant from an international organization totaling at
least 10,000 USD.
• Is not operating in a country with active conflict or war.
Use this to determine whether your organization is eligible to submit an application.
4. Initiatives Funded:
The following provides description of the initiative areas funded through this RFA for partnerships. It is
not exhaustive but provides a description and illustrative activities of eligible approaches and models.
4.1 Integrated WASH:
The integrated water, hygiene and sanitation programs we fund are those that expand access to safe
water, adequate hygiene and sanitation serving HIV affected families and/or high prevalence
communities through a variety of technologies and practices. Integrated approaches are those that
focus on all aspects of water, sanitation and hygiene, driven by need-based and contextualized
approaches rather than focusing on only one aspect of WASH. Appropriate levels of intervention to
serve target populations best include household(s), schools, and health facilities. Specific areas of
intervention supported within WASH include:
• Water Access: Provision is achieved through a wide range of technologies that are chosen
based on environmental, cultural, economic, and technical factors with the goal of optimizing
quantity, quality, access, and reliability. In many cases, a combination of technologies is
required to achieve these goals. The most common technologies utilized in an African context
are boreholes with hand pumps, mechanized boreholes, spring protection, rain catchment,
surface catchment, and household level filtration and treatment. Sustainability of water
provision is a fundamental, but distinct, component to water provision. Multi-stakeholder
approaches integrate relevant combinations of community, civil society, private sector, local
government, and international actors to address ownership and accountability. These
relationships are governed by water management plans that address technical and financial
responsibilities, as well as establishing appropriate levels of monitoring and evaluation, typically
5 years from installation or rehabilitation of a water point. Formation, training, and monitoring
of effective community level governance structures comprise the backbone of most water
sustainability efforts.
• Hygiene: Hygiene comprises both technological and behavioral components driven by
household and community level interventions that have preventive health aims. This includes
community training, household training, and use of local structures such as WASH committees
February 2020 3and community health workers to the drive uptake of positive behaviors. Effective models use
participatory methods that generate local ownership and leverage community
advocates. Specific hygiene interventions include hand washing, dish drying racks, garbage
pits, and latrines, nutritional interventions that promote access to adequate and diverse
nutrition including but not limited to kitchen gardens, agriculture for environmental
preservation, nutritional counseling and infant feeding, nutritional monitoring and livelihoods
activities that improve income status, build savings and expand access to credit with the goal
of preventative health and wellness promotion.
• Sanitation: Latrine technologies are both diverse and highly specialized, with the most common
including ventilated improved pit latrine (VIP), composting pit latrines, and pour-flush
designs. Sanitation promotion and adoption is tightly integrated with hygiene interventions and
similarly utilizes participatory approaches such as PHAST and CLTS, among others.
4.2 WASH and HIV/AIDS Integrated
WASH may be an entry point for programmatic models that link and reinforce other health messaging
targeting PLWHA, their health management and prevention plans. This RFA recognizes Integrated
WASH and HIV/AIDS as an initiative that can be specified in the concept note. This approach is not
required, however is recognized and the following provides some guidance to illustrative WASH efforts
with a direct integration of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support activities. It is strongly advised that
this only be explored if the organization has demonstrated current programmatic expertise in both
WASH and HIV/AIDS programming separately. This can include but is not limited to expanding access
to WASH for households directly affected by HIV/AIDS as part improving health, livelihoods and
nutrition, using WASH as a non-stigmatizing entry point for community HIV-prevention and support,
including uptake of HIV counseling and testing, treatment, and other biomedical prevention services
through linkages to health facilities.
5. Level of Grant Funding
This grant will not exceed 100,000 USD over a two the year grant cycle, allocated as 50,000 USD per
year. For the purpose of this initial application a proposed budget is not required. However, use the
funding limit to guide the development of the project concept and its intended outcomes.
6. The Application Process & Instructions
The below provides information and guidance the application process with instructions on:
• What comprises a complete application.
• Where and when to submit the complete application for consideration.
• What to expect from the vetting process after your submission is complete.
6.1 Preparing a Complete Application
Blood:Water does not receive full proposals as part of the initial application process. We have
developed a concept note to capture the most essential summary information of your organization and
the project you are requesting funds to cover. We require this together with some additional preliminary
documentation to identify partners which best meet Blood:Water partnership criteria.
To apply for a Core Grant, the following is required and comprises a completed application.
Please do not submit additional information that is not requested. This will not add value to
your application:
February 2020 4• BW Concept note: (template attached) completed as per the instructions and
submitted in word document format strictly. Make sure the concept note
template is completed in full, following instructions and word limits.
• Two letters of reference with contact information: Speaking to the credibility
of your organization by other donors, partners, beneficiaries or community
representatives
• Most recent audit report (no earlier than FY 2018): in support of your financial
accountability and management practices.
• Copy of registration documents: validating your legitimate operations in
accordance with local government.
•
NB: Incomplete applications will be disqualified from consideration. Applications that
do not follow all the instructions will also be disqualified from consideration.
6.2. Where and When to Submit:
Submission of complete and final applications must be made by email only. The concept note with
supporting documentation is due on or before close of business East Africa Time, 31st May
2020. Address the application as follows:
To: Africa Partnerships Team
Email: grants@bloodwater.org
Reference: WASH-RFA02-2020
6.3 RFA Questions & Clarifications:
Questions and clarifications on the RFA can be submitted to the same email on or before 20 April 2020.
Any questions sent thereafter will not be responded to.
6.4 Vetting Process:
After submitting the concept note, your application will be evaluated for the completeness of the
application and against the eligibility criteria as part of a primary shortlisting. This is likely to be within 45
business days of submission.
If your organization passes through the primary shortlisting process, you will be contacted on the next
stages of the process. The vetting process is a multi-staged process including reference checking and
site visits which is expected to extend through the 1st quarter of 2021. Determinations will be made
thereafter with funding to be initiated across the 2021 and 2022 calendar years.
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