APFED Showcase Programme 2008
Send your innovative environmental project proposals!
Asia Pacific Forum for Environment and Development (APFED) is a regional group of eminent experts that aims to address critical issues facing Asia and the Pacific region and to propose new models for sustainable development.
To promote sustainable development in the region, APFED launched the APFED Showcase Programme as one of the main activities. This Programme is supported by the Ministry of Environment Japan.
The APFED Showcase Programme, grants up to US$ 30,000 to Asia Pacific projects that demonstrate innovative approaches. To date, 24 projects in 18 countries had been supported for their novel approaches to development. This year we are pleased to announce another round of selection of proposals to be endorsed by the Programme.
The Showcase Programme aims to support projects that promote innovative policies, measures, and actions for sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region as recommended by the APFED Final Report. These innovative activities supported under the Showcase Programme shall be shared among various stakeholders in the region through the APFED Good Practice Database.
The examples of innovative activities as defined in the APFED Final Report are:
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Innovation in relation to policies
To pilot innovative policies that lead to behavioural changes by people in a defined direction, such as integrated transportation planning and establishing special environmental zones for innovative policies -
Innovation in relation to technologies
To analyse the feasibility of emerging technologies for prevention, mitigation or adaptation purposes under specific conditions, such as new sources of water, eco-industrial parks, and eco-restoration initiatives. -
Innovation in the encouragement of social practices for sustainability
To enhance social capacity for sustainable development by encouraging new and creative social practices conducted by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and/or stimulating partnerships between CSOs and other stakeholders, such as rural-based industries with support from the urban community, local eco-currency, participatory composting, joint management of protected areas, and inter-university credit systems.
The Showcase Programme is expected to address implementation barriers such as uncertainty regarding the impacts of innovative actions and resistance from certain stakeholders, and to examine the feasibility of the innovative practices in one country/region and their applicability to other countries/regions that have different political, social, economic or other conditions.
Under the Showcase Programme, a grant of up to US$30,000 can be provided to each sustainable development project to showcase innovative approaches to support the development, implementation, monitoring, and information dissemination of innovative policies, measures and actions for promoting sustainable development in the region. The granted funds may be used to support stakeholder consultations, feasibility studies, pilot scheme experimentation and demonstration. It is a prerequisite that the proposed project aim to generate tangible outcomes in changing behaviours and business practices toward enhancing sustainability, and improving environmental performance. Mere literature review, report writing, and meeting organisations without showing any intent to make immediate behavioural changes and improve environmental performance shall be disqualified under the Programme.
While the project implementing organisations assume primary responsibilities for monitoring and self-evaluating project implementation and preparing reports thereon for submission to APFED, the projects shall be complementarily monitored and evaluated by one of the member institutes of the Network of Research Institutes for Sustainable Development (NetRes) established under APFED. For each of the approved projects, a NetRes institute shall be assigned to support the implementation of the project. The funds shall be channelled through the designated NetRes institute after the completion of a contract between the NetRes institute and the project implementing organisation.
It is expected that the project shall be implemented with good will and a spirit of partnership so that the outcome of the successfully implemented project can be registered in the APFED Good Practices Database. The Database is intended to disseminate information on good practices for promoting sustainable development in the region with a view to facilitating the replication of such successful initiatives.
Eligibility of applicants
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The organization and project site(s) are in Asia and the Pacific region ("Click here to see eligible countries")
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An applicant must be a representative of an organisation that has been properly registered under the laws of the country for more than three years as an organisation working continuously for the promotion of sustainable development in a country in the Asia-Pacific region.
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The organisation must have sufficient capacities to implement the proposed activities.
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An organisation that fails to show its legal status and to present its recent annual report including financial statements at the time of concluding a contract shall be disqualified from receiving funds under the Programme.
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Applicant has never obtained funding from APFED Showcase Programme in the past.
Eligibility of projects
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Projects must demonstrate innovative policies, measures, and actions including community empowerment and technology application with a view to promoting behavioural changes toward achieving sustainable development and generating positive impacts on environmental performance in Asia and the Pacific.
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The concrete outcome must be demonstrated in terms of behavioural or environmental performance. In other words, the experimentation and demonstration of pilot schemes are essential components of the project. Therefore, mere literature review, report writing, or organisation of meetings and study tours per se shall not be eligible.
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Projects must not have been implemented yet or must be at the very early stages of implementation. The incremental component for improving environmental performance within the ongoing or completed projects makes such a project eligible for the Programme.
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The project implementing organisation must have already secured core funds including in-kind contributions to support the implementation of the APFED Showcase project.
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Projects must be designed to be implemented in partnership with other relevant organisations and stakeholder groups as well as NetRes institutions.
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Projects must aim to demonstrate impacts that are measurable within the project implementation period.
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The project implementation period shall be from 6 months to 24 months.
There are the five thematic priority areas of APFED according to the APFED Final Report, namely (1) freshwater; (2)marine and coastal resources; (3)energy and air; (4)land management including urbanisation, rural development, forest, and biodiversity; (5)waste/3R, chemicals. Among these priority thematic areas, additionally weighted scores may be given to the proposals that address climate change and/or 3Rs (facilitating actions to reduce, reuse, and/or recycle materials and to foster sound material cycle and circular economy ) for 2008 showcase projects.
Note: We welcome the proposals which cover the thematic areas other than the designated priority areas for 2008.
The proposal must be written in English, following the proposal format attached as “Appendix I”. It must provide all information requested. Proposals with incomplete information will be disregarded. Reference documents can be submitted as attachments to the application.
Application Form
Submission deadline
All the proposals must be submitted to the APFED Showcase Facility Secretariat at the following address either by post, email, or fax. All proposals should be received by the Showcase Facility Secretariat before 10 June 2008.
APFED Showcase Facility Secretariat
c/o Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP/ROAP)
United Nations Bldg., Rajdamnern Ave. Bangkok 10200, Thailand
Email: unep-apfed@un.org
Fax: +66-2-280-3829
Notification of successful applications
The APFED Showcase Facility Secretariat shall only notify the successful applicants of the selection result by email or postal-mail. The selection results shall also be announced on the APFED and UNEP ROAP website. It is expected that the final selection results will be announced in September 2008. The APFED website shall carry updated information.
Further inquiries
| For any further inquiries concerning the Showcase Programme, please contact: Ms. Aretha Aprilia UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (UNEP/ROAP) e-mail: unep-apfed@un.org, fax: +66-2-280-1029 |
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Ms. Yatsuka Kataoka Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) e-mail: apfed@iges.or.jp, fax:+81-46-855-3809 Website: http://www.apfed.net/showcase/ |
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