Call for Proposals, Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation, India

About Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation:

Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation is an independent society set up by the Government of India to foster and facilitate civil society action in partnership with government for transforming the livelihoods and lives of people in areas such as the Central Indian Adivasi belt, which would be the initial geography of focus of the Foundation. The aim is to support grassroots level action towards empowerment of people, particularly the Adivasis and scaling up of approaches that are innovative both in terms of programme content and strategy. Innovation can be in myriad directions – technology, social mobilisational approaches, local institution building, architecture of partnerships, management techniques etc. , invites proposals from prospective partner organizations.

About the proposal: 

The geographical focus of the proposals should be the central Indian tribal belt in the states of Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat. A list of focus blocks is attached. Proposals must be for projects to be implemented in these blocks, which have more than 20% Scheduled Tribe population.

A concept note introducing BRLF is attached. The note provides an indicative list of thematic areas for which proposals are sought.

All proposals would require four elements:

• Leveraging resources from government flagship programmes and/or banks
• Co-financing by at least one other donor (Of the total project cost supported by BRLF, at least 20 per cent must be co-financed by some other donor. This does not include the cost leveraged from government flagship programmes and/or banks or the contribution of local communities)
• Focus on tribal, especially women’s empowerment
• Capacity building activities of CSOs/PRIs/government officials/village youth/women groups/federations

Indicative outline of the proposal: 

1. Introduction of the organization and its work (its origin, core area of operations, outreach, major achievements, governance & management system)
2. Record of funds mobilized by CSO through government and non-government sources in the past
3. Description of the proposed project area and the target communities (including table indicating number of families to be covered new/old)
4. Profile of the problem(s), key issues/challenges project seeks to address through the intervention
5. Project goal and objectives 
6. Outline of activities, outputs and outcomes with clear timelines (LFA to be attached with the proposal)
7. A justification of how this fits into the approach and priorities of BRLF
8. CSO past experience in handling similar interventions/approaches in any other area
9. Proposed implementation strategy (institutional arrangements, collaboration with various stakeholders, community participation, government involvement,role of PRIs in the proposed project)
10. Demonstrate in what way you regard your approach as innovative and how this could go towards improving the quality of implementation of government flagship programs
11. Project budget along with details of leverage and co-finance (breakup of sources and amount of leverage and co-finance, indicating the amount which is assured and the amount which will be raised during the project tenure)
12. Year wise breakup of the BRLF budget indicating HR, capacity building and project management cost
13. What are the risks (technical/ social/ financial/ any other) that might affect the project implementation?

Each proposal could be for 3-5 years, covering a minimum of 15,000 families.

Programme expenditure:

BRLF support would be for meeting the core costs of partner organisations, including professional, administrative, capacity building and logistical costs. Programme expenditure would need to be met by leveraging from government programmes and/or banks.

Eligibility: 

BRLF partners must be organisations with an established track record and demonstrated experience (at least 5 years) and capacity of high quality work on sustainable rural livelihoods, people’s mobilisation and building people's institutions with a focus on tribals, especially women.

The applying organization should be registered under section 12A of Income Tax Act 1961. Organizations should not have been blacklisted by any government department or donor agency. Applicants should have an annual turnover of at least Rs.25 lakhs in any year in the past three years along with properly documented financial and organizational systems in place for discharging their responsibilities under the project. Organizations with a smaller budget may be considered if they are part of a network which seeks funding support from BRLF.

Organisations seeking BRLF support must also demonstrate their capability and willingness to work with Gram Panchayats (GPs). This may be reflected in a resolution of the GPs which they intend to work with, formally inviting them to extend support to the GPs in implementing projects. This resolution should be submitted along with the project proposal.

Other documents to be submitted:

An organization profile should also be submitted along with the proposals, which helps to establish the claims of the organization. The profile should contain information on:

1. registration status
2. FCRA status (if any)
3. registration under Section 12-A of Income Tax Act
4. major grants received from different sources in the past three years
5. current organizational budget
6. annual reports of the past three years
7. copies of audited statement of accounts of the past three years
8. details of members of the Executive Committee/Governing Board, giving names, address and contact details as also diversity profile of governance, showing representation of under-represented sections of Indian society
9. brief profile of team members executing the project

How to apply:

A covering letter from the Chief Functionary (bearing her signature) addressed to the Chief Executive Officer of BRLF should accompany the proposals. Proposals may be submitted by email to Zulfiquar Haider, CEO, BRLF at bharat.rural@gmail.com along with scanned copies of the above documents.

Apply by:

The BRLF Call for Proposals is an ongoing process. The process will remain open till we find we have reached the limit to what we can support in any given year. At that point we will announce that the Call for Proposals stands closed.

Note: BRLF will acknowledge receipt of proposals by email. It will also intimate the organizations about the next steps, providing reasons for its decisions at each stage, in alignment with the policies it adopts for selection of projects and partners to support. However, on no count will BRLF be held liable to any claims of damages or compensation on account of not supporting any project. BRLF further reserves the right to close the discussion on proposals.

Please download the call for proposal, BRLF-concept note and list of focus sub-districts from below.