Family and Community Action Grants In partnership with the Government of Uganda, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through their implementing partner UPHOLD, developed an innovative and competitive grants application program for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). Valued at approximately 9 billion Ugandan Shillings (over US$5 million), this is the first large-scale integrated HIV/AIDS, health and education grants scheme in Africa. The grants, called Family and Community Action grants, will increase the number of CSOs in Uganda benefiting from USAID funding, with technical support from UPHOLD.

Family and Community Action Grants The grants will enable organizations to achieve programmatic results that promote the quality, availability and effective use of social services and other key behaviours in direct partnership with families and communities. Cross-cutting health, primary education and HIV/AIDS technical priorities are four key themes that UPHOLD believes CSOs are effectively able to impact: Family Dialogue and Decision-Making for Effective Use of Social Services; Prevention and Mitigation of Gender-Based Violence; Consumer-Provider/Community-Facility Relationships; and Delivery of Social Services at Household and Community Level.

Partnership with Local Government UPHOLD and Local Governments defined needs for 88 Family and Community Action grants in the areas of health, education and HIV/AIDS based on district priorities and plans. Together, UPHOLD and Local Governments specified needs in the health sector that included child health and integrated reproductive health; in primary education, the needs focused on community involvement in education; within HIV/AIDS, the needs focused on prevention and mobilizing communities to use available services. In addition to determining technical needs and locations for grants, Local Governments were actively involved in the technical review and short-listing of candidate grantees. The results are applications that meet district needs and are owned by Local Governments.

Grants Application Process USAID, through UPHOLD, launched the application process in July CSOs responded to the request for applications in overwhelming numbers; 625 applications were submitted for the possible 88 grants. UPHOLD provided applications through local government offices, UPHOLD Regional Offices, or the website and received completed applications at any of the UPHOLD offices by the submission deadline of September 3, UPHOLD endeavoured to make the process fair and transparent at all stages. During the application period, pre-recorded programs on 10 radio stations that reach 20 UPHOLD-supported districts explained specifics of the grant application form and answered commonly asked questions to ensure that all applicants received the same information.

Grants Review Process Phase 1 UPHOLD Regional Offices confirmed that applicants met basic requirements, including applications that focused on eligible districts, in the correct technical areas, with appropriate budget requests and that the organizations held current registration, and approval to submit applications from the local government, etc. A Technical Review Panel then reviewed applications that met these basic requirements.

Grants Review Process Phase 2 To ensure fair-play and transparency, Technical Review Panels comprised of Local Government officials, UPHOLD staff, and representatives from CSO fora, with USAID officials where possible, reviewed applications from each district.

Grants Review Process Criteria to select grants, as stated in the Request for Applications, included: Project Description Management Capacity/Past Performance Partnership Reasonableness of Costs Relative to Results Monitoring and Evaluation Applications that scored highly in these areas were sent to the UPHOLD head office in Kampala.

Grants Review Process Phase 3 UPHOLD used recommendations from the Technical Review Panels to select "best and final" applications.

Grant Awards USAID, through UPHOLD, has begun the process of awarding grants. Grants for HIV/AIDS projects have been prioritized to reflect their urgency in national development. Grant awards for health and primary education activities will begin in February 2005.

Grant Awards Grant awards will benefit a large number of CSOs and communities in Uganda. As partnership was a key criterion for selection, each award reflects an average of at least three recipient organizations. For example, of first 19 approved grants, include 59 implementing organizations.

Planned Activities To ensure that all stakeholders are adequately informed on progress made, UPHOLD will be conducting Members of Parliament briefings as well informative meetings with District / Local government and CSO partners at regional level. UPHOLD has also put in place an Information line ( ) to provide the general public with an opportunity to access additional information on the awarding of the CSO grants.