Small NGOs for whom UN-HABITAT’s Youth Fund best suits may still find it challenging enough to write a competitive proposal to secure this funding for their projects. The application guidelines of the Fund itself provide sufficient information on how best the proposal can be presented. However, FUNDSFORNGOS.ORG has some tips given here to assist unskilled organizations in completing the application form. These are unofficial tips and they do not guarantee any extra mileage to win the funding and we advise readers to use discretion while using them. The information given below is only to provide understanding about the application form.

The application form and other documents can be downloaded from this link.

Part A. Applicant Organization This section seeks to gain maximum information about your organization and specifically tries to understand how relevant it is in responding towards youth needs.

Ignore the A1. Project Identification (To be filled in by UN-HABITAT)

The A2. Size of the grant is where you tick the total amount requested for your project under the Fund. The Youth Fund only allows small grant limited up to $5,000 and the large grant will be anything between $5,000 and $25,000. It is important to plan out your project activities and buget first before you decide which grant suits you best.

The A3. Name of the applicant organization is where you fill in the complete name of your organization including the acronym used.

The A4. Contact information application organization should first tick on the region from where you are applying from. Make sure that you send your application to the right email of that region (this section should correspond to the right email of the region to which you are submitting your application).

Following this, fill in the name of your organization (again) with complete contact address, email, website, telephone and fax number (if any).

The A5. Mission of applicant organization: You need to refer back to your organizational vision and objectives to fill in this part. Do not list objectives, but rather define your vision of running your organization within a word limit of 50 words. Remember! The Mission of your organization not just explains the need for change but also demonstrates your commitment for that change.

The A6. Profile of applicant organization is where you tick whether your organization is an NGO or CBO or other. A CBO can be a registered or unregistered group, cooperative or federation. Make sure you also specify the reach of your organization: whether it is just local, or works all over the state or province or has its presence nationally or internationally.

The A7. Youth-led development  is a very important section of the application  form as it will define the relevance of your organization for youth-focused work. UN-HABITAT’s Youth Fund prefers to fund organizations led by young people between 15-32 years. But this can also mean that if young persons are actively represented in the governing/management board of the organization, it is still eligible to apply for the funding support. The Fund also encourages adults above the age of 32 years to work in partnership with youths (if organizations are headed by a senior person but has an active organizational board comprising of young people between 15-31 years, there are still high chances of participating in this competitive process). After ticking ‘yes’ in this section, make sure that you clearly define the process as to how young people are involved in running the organization.

The A8. Gender equality signifies that it is not just enough to have young people running the organization. They should also be equally represented by gender. This also needs to be explained as to how both young females and males contribute towards running the organization. There may be cases where an organization is run only by females focused on girls and young women. In such a case, this should specifically be justified as to why such an organization has been established.

The A9. Legal registration seeks information about when the organization was founded and registered. The years have to be mentioned in yyyy/mm format. The Fund is also open to receiving applications from organizations that are not legally registered. In such cases, they can collaborate with another legally registered organization and submit the proposal. More information about such a collaboration is sought later in the application form.

The A10. Bank account should be filled in with complete and accurate banking details for SWIFT transfer of funds and authorized account holders should also sign in this section.

The A11. Facilitating organization will specify whether the applicant organization, if unregistered, is collaborating with another registered organization to facilitate the grantmaking process. If this is applicable, then the following Part B. Facilitating Organization has to be filled in with details about the name, contact information, mission, profile, registration and back account. It seems that it is not necessary for the Facilitating Organization be to be youth-focused in this regard.

The Part C section of the application form seeks information about the project that is being proposed for funding support. The C1 – C3 sections of the project seek basic information  such as the project title, project location and the project duration. The location of the project should preferably be in a city or town with a population of not less than 10,000 people. The project duration should not be less than 12 months and the starting date should be proposed six months after the date of the submission of deadline of Youth Fund.

The C4. Requested grant will have the exact figure of the total budget proposed for the project. Please keep in mind that it should be either small grant less than $5,000 or large grant between $5,000 and $25,000.

The C5. Goal of the project should explain within 50 words as to the broader, overall, long-term aim to be achieved in the implementation of the project. Remember to present the goal with a focus on urban youths. While writing the goal, always remember that you are contributing towards a broad, long-term development. This could be “Empowering the urban youths” or “Mainstreaming youths in politics” or going by the application guidelines, “alleviating poverty among youth.”

In relation to the focus of your project, you can tick the relevant priorities of the Urban Youth Fund listed in C6:

* Promoting youth participation in urban governance
* Piloting innovative approaches to adequate shelter and secure tenure for youth
* Promoting entrepreneurship and employment for youth
* Supporting the development of youth networks on sustainable urban development
* Promoting partnerships between youth organizations and the local government or the private sector
* Promoting gender mainstreaming in urban youth development
* Documenting best practices in urban youth-led development

The C7 section demands the specific target groups and their numbers. If your project is about building the vocational skills of urban youths, then specify the number of youths to be trained in your project. Also, it is necessary to specify the age-group of these youths and how they are represented by gender. If the project works only with disadvantaged groups such as youths from minorities or economically backward class or disabled youths, this can also be specified and explained in this section.

If your project is about building the livelihood skills of the youths with vocational trainings, then the C8 section should be filled by specifying how many jobs will be created for youths.

The D1. Project summary  under the Part D. Project Description will have a concise but clear description of your project. Within 250 words, you need to explain what the project is. Ideally, you can summarize your project goal, objectives, location, duration in months, beneficiaries, activities and strategies. Do not list them out, rather write them in a flowing and connecting manner.

Under D2. Problem analysis, you need to explain as to why this project is necessary. In other words, you need to list out the problems or issues you have identified for young people in your area and on which you wish to implement the proposed project to address them. For example, if your project area has a large number of youths migrating to other places for low-skilled and low-paid jobs, you can highlight the lack of employment opportunities. If your project area is prone to conflict, then you can explain the problem of youths getting involved in excessive violence.

The D3. Outcomes will have the immediate changes that the project will bring about due to the intervention made by your organization. If your project is focused on improving the livelihoods of youths in your area, then the outcome can be highly skilled youths emerging out of vocational training classed carried out. If youths are to be involved in mainstream politics, then youths gaining increased understanding of politics and demonstrating interest to work constructively for advocacy. If youths are to be involved in non-violent activities, then the outcome will be the youths understanding peacebuilding tools and techniques in the area. Indicators can be used to evaluate the outcomes like number of youths participating in the training programmes.

The D4. Activities will list out the activities to be implemented under the project like baseline studies, training manuals to be developed, trainings to be carried out, awareness campaigns to be launched, youth interactive sessions etc.

D5. Outputs will list out the results achieved after implementing the activities. Please note that this section is different from D3. Outcomes and it could include the training manuals produced, reports documented, constructive activities undertaken by youths such as businesses set up by youths in a livelihood-oriented project, youth networks established in a youth mainstreaming project or peaceful negotiations led by youths undertaken in a conflict prevention project.

D6 Organizational capacity will explain how skillful your organization is to implement this project. This section should explain any previous experience of the organization to have worked on a similar project earlier. It can also list out the experienced staff and resources available with the organization to deliver the project.

D7. Risks will narrate the potential problems that can arise while implementing the project. In most cases, these risks or problems are external to the project and the organization has no control over them. For example, if the project is being implemented in a conflict-prone area, there are chances of social disturbances occurring from time to time and hindering project activities. The proposal has to explain how the project will overcome these problems.

D8. Innovation seeks information about the uniqueness of the project. This is important to ensure the high quality of your proposal. You need to specify how differently you are going to work this time and what kind of new experiment you will undertake to implement your project unlike previously or unlike other projects.

D9. Sustainability should demonstrate your planning for the continuation of the project activities after the end of the grant support. This can mean that you will raise additional resources from other donors to continue the project activities for some more time or it can also mean that you have strong established the project activities that they can sustain on their own like an economic activity.

D10. Partnerships, if applicable, will specify the local collaborations with governments, private agencies or other organizations to implement the project.

D11. Additional financing, if applicable, will give details about any other sources of funding for the project. It can include any other donor support or it can also include any contribution from the organization or the beneficiaries

The Part E. Background information should list out the previously implemented projects with details of donors, year of completion and the outputs achieved in addition to other details at E2 and E3.

“The application must be dated and signed by the project coordinator, legal representative of the applicant organization and legal representative of the facilitating organization (if applicable). A scanned copy of the signature page must be submitted as an attachment to the application. All compulsory documents for the applicant organization and facilitating organization (if applicable) must be attached for the application to be accepted.”

Logical Framework

The application guidelines of UN-HABITAT’s Youth Fund have given an example to help applicants develop the logical framework.

“The logical framework should provide an overview of the project’s goal, outcomes and key activities, the outputs of each activity, the timeframe for completing each activity and potential problems that must be overcome for each activity to be completed within the timeframe.

Example:

A youth organization is applying for a small grant from the Urban Youth Fund to alleviate poverty among young people. The organization plans to select 25 young people from an informal settlement and train them in entrepreneurship and help them register and set up small businesses.”

Budget

UN-HABITAT’s Youth Fund application guidelines have given an example that can be referred to while developing the project budget:

“The project budget should provide a detailed description in USD of how you plan to spend the grant for the proposed project. Each activity identified in the project’s logical framework should have a separate entry in the budget, clearly indicating the costs associated with the activity. Funding from other sources should also be clearly indicated. The breakdown of costs should indicate the different expenditure within each category and provide an overview of the total share of expenditure according to category.

Example:

A youth organization is applying for a small grant from the Urban Youth Fund to alleviate poverty among young people. The organization plans to select 25 young people from an informal settlement and train them in entrepreneurship and help them register and set up small businesses.”

Once the application form is complete and ready for submission, make sure that you have put in all the documents and completed all requirements as mentioned below:

“Compulsory attachments

Before submitting your application to the Urban Youth Fund, please make sure that the following documents are attached to the application:

Applicant Organization

* A signed and stamped official cover letter from the applicant organization
* A valid registration certificate;
* A detailed project budget in accordance with funding rules;
* A logical framework outlining the structure of the project
* A profile of the applicant organization including a description of the organization’s history, mission, management, membership and activities;
* A list of board members and management indicating their full name, age, gender, education and profession;
* A one-page CV of the project coordinator;

Facilitating Organization (if applicable)

* A valid registration certificate;
* A profile of the facilitating organization including a description of the organization’s history, mission, management, membership and activities;
* A letter of agreement between the applicant organization and facilitating organization indicating the roles and responsibilities of both parties.

Please name each attachment according to its content to ease the processing of your application.”

Download the complete application guidelines of the UN-HABITAT’s Youth Fund from this link.

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