The Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) is a poverty reduction Programme of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) with ten participating borrowing member countries, which includes Grenada. Its mission is “To be a community development programme that supports education, water & sanitation, community access & drainage, and economic activities; through skills training, organizational development, infrastructure, and services”. The BNTF Programme seeks to provide resources to poor communities to improve access to basic infrastructure services, provide temporary employment, enhance economic activity through skills enhancement; and reduce beneficiaries’ economic and social vulnerability to risks that impact on income and well-being.

The BNTF is currently in the closing phases of its Ninth Cycle (BNTF 9), and the Government of Grenada anticipates receiving financing from the CDB under its Basic Needs Trust Fund Tenth (BNTF 10) Regional Programme. 

The three thematic areas for BNTF are as follows:

1. Education and Human Resource Development (including funding for livelihoods enhancement, citizen security, at-risk youth, and micro-enterprise development)
   1. Water and Sanitation Systems Enhancement
   1. Basic Community Access and Drainage

The BNTF now invites Government Ministries/Agencies, Government Organisations, Non-Government Organisations, Community Based Organisations, Community Leaders, Faith Based Organizations, Charities, and the Private Sector to submit sub-project proposals/concept notes. These will be screened in accordance with the Criteria for Selection of sub-projects in each thematic area, which will include the following considerations: gender equality, economic and social resilience, environmental sustainability, and renewable energy and energy efficiency, as set out in the examples provided below:

Education and Human Resource Development:

• Sub-projects that rehabilitate extend or substitute existing primary school and early childhood development building and facilities (excluding non-publicly owned schools) and the provision of furnishings and equipment;
• Sub-projects that provide funding for refurbishment or extension only of existing secondary schools including provision of special learning spaces and school facilities;
• Sub-projects that provide funding of school furniture, information and communication technology (ICT), supplies and appropriate equipment for the delivery of the curriculum;
• Sub-projects that provide funding for facilities that cater to disadvantage youth, community resource centres and sports facilities including the provision of equipment, and musical instruments;
• Sub-projects that provide funding for training of vulnerable persons, quality enhancement activities associated with local level training, career development, curricula implementation and teacher development related to sub-project;
• Sub-projects that provide funding for market-driven skills training including ICTs, microenterprise skills development and ancillary training support geared towards enhanced incomes and entrepreneurship. In close partnership with certified training institutions and providers, NGOs, the private sector and employers; including support related to trainers, course materials, tools, stipends, internships, apprenticeships, and course evaluation tools;
• Sub-projects that provide funding for training of stakeholders related to facilities operation and management, use of conservation and green building practices, environmental/gender analyses, integration of disaster risk management practices and use of low-maintenance building materials including relevant certification procedures;
• Sub-projects that provide funding for training for life enhancement skills and community capacity-building skills, including motivation and life coping/empowerment capabilities for vulnerable groups, leadership and decision-making, organisational/institutional support, and promotion of pertinent project proposal planning, development, cost forecasting performance monitoring and maintenance planning related skills;
• Capacity-building intervention for government institutions and non-government organisations in planning and monitoring;
• Sub-projects that provide funding for other skills development and capacity enhancement areas that meet the criteria of relevance in terms of expanding social inclusion of vulnerable and marginalised minority groups.

Livelihoods:

• Sub-projects that provide productive assets to the excluded poor and vulnerable (who otherwise could not obtain these) to initiate a livelihood providing (and/or income generating) activity;
• Sub-projects that facilitate access to small amounts of finance for the (unbanked) beneficiaries of BNTF livelihood programmes;
• Sub-projects that equip groups of ‘the poor’ – possibly especially women, the young, maybe reformed offenders and other disadvantaged groups – with the technical skills that enable them to generate sustainable income and improve their life chances;
• Sub-projects that equip groups of ‘the poor’ – possibly especially women, the young, and other disadvantaged groups – with the business skills that enable them to generate sustainable income and improve their life chances;
• Sub-projects that present the disadvantaged and excluded with a special, efficient, and benign operating regime and business environment that facilitates their commercial initiatives.

Water and Sanitation:

• Sub-projects that provide intake structures, water reservoirs and tanks, small water treatment facilities including training in the use and maintenance of the facilities provided, and also basic health and hygiene education;
• Sub-projects that provide supply and distribution lines to provide water to poor communities;
• Sub-projects that provide for the construction, upgrading and refurbishment of public baths/toilets/laundry facilities in remote or inner city communities;
• Sub-projects that provide for the construction of minor wastewater disposal unit, solid waste management facilities;
• Sub-projects that provide funding for training of vulnerable persons, including basic health and hygiene education;
• Sub-project that provide training to sub-project beneficiaries and project monitoring committees (PMC) in facilities management and maintenance, maintenance of infrastructure, water systems operation and management and conservation practices.

Basic Community Access and Drainage:

• Sub-projects that provide for the construction or rehabilitation of footpaths, rural roadways, small-scale drainage systems, footbridges, light vehicles access bridges and small-scale boat landings to improve river transportation;
• Sub-projects that provide measures to facilitate continuous all-weather usage;
• Sub-projects that provide training to sub-project beneficiaries and PMCs in maintenance of basic community access and drainage infrastructure.

Sub-project proposals/concept notes must be accompanied with an indicative costing not exceeding USD $700,000.00.  Consideration may be given to sub-projects costing up to USD 1 million where the additional USD $300,000.00 is provided by an eligible partner.

Submissions and inquires can be sent to:

Project Manager

Basic Needs Trust Fund Programme

GCNA Complex   

Kirani James Blvd

St. George

GRENADA

Tel: (473) 435-6802/6803    

Email: [email protected]

Following the assessment of submissions and use of the CDB-approved Prioritization tool, a short list of sub-projects will be generated for consideration under BNTF 10.

The BNTF reserves the right to accept or reject any sub-project proposal/concept note not withstanding its suitability within the set criteria. It will not be bound to assign any reason for its action on any proposal/concept note, and will not defray the cost incurred on the preparation and submission of sub-project proposals/concept notes.  Programme implementation is subject to the sufficiency of the assigned funding.

Deadline for Submission is 31^st January, 2021.