Nature for Water Facility launches a Call for Proposals

Deadline Date: March 21, 2024

Donor Name: The Nature Conservancy

Grant Size: Not Available

https://nature4water.org/offerings/call-proposals-window

The Nature Conservancy has launched a call for proposals to provides technical assistance to local organizations seeking to drive watershed health via at- scale deployment of Nature-based Solutions.

Water security – defined as ensuring an adequate amount of good quality water is available – is a global challenge. The water they use every day is directly dependent on the landscapes through which it flows, yet nearly half of global drinking water sources are significantly degraded. Compounding factors, such as population growth, climate change, and poor planning are only further exacerbating water insecurity. By 2025, almost 70% of the world’s population is expected to be living in water-stressed areas.

From the experience, investing in watersheds, catchments and river basins, using Nature-based Solutions (NbS) typically requires a long-term programmatic approach. They call this a ‘Watershed Investment Program’. The term ‘Watershed Investment Program’ is deliberately meant to embrace a wide variety of related categories, including watershed management programs, water funds, river basin management programs, catchment management programs, etc. and encompasses initiatives designed to deliver water security benefits by deploying a defined portfolio of NbS interventions within a specified service area. However, organizing Watershed Investment Programs is complex, interdisciplinary, and requires substantial expertise to be successful. This is where the Nature for Water Facility can help.

Nature for Water hosts a call for proposals bi-annually.  This call is designed for partners working at a watershed, basin, or catchment scale to solve water quantity, quality, or other water security problems. Nature for Water specializes in co-designing Nature-based Solutions (NbS).  The services page outlines the phases they use to develop a Watershed Investment Program (WIP) following a collective action framework.   If this sounds like support you need, keep reading.

A partnership managed by The Nature Conservancy and Pegasys, N4W is composed of a diverse international team featuring expertise in hydrology, GIS, ecology, governance, stakeholder engagement, finance, and project management. They aim to deliver effective hand-in-hand support to local organizations across the program development lifecycle from preparation to implementation.

The service offering includes a regular Call for Proposals, where winners receive pro-bono technical assistance to advance their local program.

Eligibility Criteria

• To qualify for sponsored support, submissions must comply with the following basic conditions:
  • Submissions must be made before the specified deadline on their website and in this document. Submissions made after this time will not be evaluated.
  • Submissions must be adequately completed; all questions are mandatory except for questions (3) and (20).
  • Submissions must be made in English or Spanish.
  • The Applicant’s nominated “Local lead” must be fluent in one of their currently supported languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish or French.
  • The Applicant’s program must be located in: Africa, Europe, North America, Central America & Caribbean, or South America. These are the only supported regions for Sponsored Engagements given their current staffing model.
  • In terms of the Applicant’s organization / consortium, please note:
    • The Applicant must be a legitimate entity with a healthy tax status, that can readily enter a formal agreement with them.
    • Strong preference will be given to Applicants / Consortia that include water authorities, government agencies, river basin organizations, and utilities responsible for managing bulk water resources, providing water treatment, and addressing flood risks.

For more information, visit Nature for Water Facility