Rationale
Strategic and inclusive partnership is a fundamental component to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
SEI Asia, with support from the Swedish government (SIDA), launched the Strategic Collaborative Fund Phase 2 (SCF2) programme in 2018 to enhance the current 2030 Agenda efforts in Asia and the Pacific. SCF2 aims to foster regional cooperation and policy dialogue for sustainable development and environmental sustainability, through capacity building, knowledge sharing and increased collaboration.
Human rights and gender equality are central to SCF2, as it champions regional and inter-regional collaboration for transboundary environmental policy development.
Objectives
From 2018 to 2022, SCF2 will create long-term partnerships to enhance policy development and institutional capacity building in Asia, under the framework of regional integration and the SDGs. It will hold strategic events that seek to build more effective regional policies that contribute to SDG achievement.
Components
Component 1: Inter-regional cooperation with China and Europe
Improving cooperation between ASEAN, China, and Europe is key in trade expansion and greater multilateral understanding.
SCF2 is using the China-ASEAN Environment Cooperation Forum (CAECF) and the Asia-Europe Environment Forum (ASEF) as platforms to facilitate policy dialogues and knowledge exchange between ASEAN, China and Europe to address regional sustainability.
Component 2: Regional cooperation within Asia-Pacific
SCF2 supports the ASEAN in increasing regional collaboration on key transboundary environmental issues, such as pollution, water governance, energy flows, natural resource use efficiency and climate change.
The project will provide support for initiating, organizing, and hosting events that highlight key issues that are linked to the 2030 sustainable development agenda. The goal is to build regional capacity to lead efforts toward collaborative policy development.
Component 3: Learning and capacity development
SCF2 will develop open online courses on gender equality and rights-based approaches to enhance institutional capacity and knowledge of regional partners. The courses aim to encourage gender, human rights and poverty reduction-centric policies on environmental and climate change issues and the SDGs.
Component 4: Programme management
SCF2 aims to improve project management through enhanced programme monitoring and evaluation and strategic communication. Partners will be assisted in identifying target policies and tracking new knowledge application in policy formulation.
This component will also support the institutionalization of gender and rights-based approaches into partners and participants’ current and future programmes and operations, as well as encourage improved efforts toward SDG and Agenda 2030 achievement.
Building Climate Resiliency in Asia through Inclusive Approaches
SEI seeks to support four proposals under this call that aim to tackle environmental and climate challenges through innovative regional policy dialogues with diverse stakeholders.
For detailed information refer to the 2023 Call for Concept Notes.
The four supported proposals will cover various streams that will lead to climate resilience building in Asia:
- Bridging climate finance gaps through inclusive approaches
- Catalysing biodiversity conservation through nature-based solutions
- Regional policy initiatives for circular economy transition
- Partnerships for climate actions
To this end, a bottom-up approach is encouraged to ensure participation from marginalized and vulnerable groups that are disproportionately affected by climate change and environmental degradation. The proposed activities should cover at least three countries in Southeast and/or South Asia with clear regional policy impact pathways.
Grant Details
SCF2 will support four proposals from consortiums that have at least three organizations, preferably from multiple countries in Southeast and/or South Asia. Each proposal should cover one of the four thematic areas. The budget for each proposal should not exceed SEK 500,000 and the proposed activities should be concluded by August 2023.
Selection Criteria
Criteria on grantees and consortium characteristics
- The application must be submitted in the form of the consortium of 3-4 organizations (including the lead institution).
- The consortium must comprise of at least one local/national grassroots organization representing marginalized and/or vulnerable groups.
- Multi-country partnerships are strongly encouraged for diversity, equal opportunities and regional collaboration.
Criteria of event design
- Provide evidence of regional-level outreach and scope in the Asia region (South and Southeast Asia), as opposed to a country-level event.
- Address one of the four thematic focus and its relevance to climate resilience and environmentally sustainable and inclusive development.
- Demonstrate how the event leads to positive impacts on gender equality, rights-based approaches and poverty reduction throughout the event’s rationale, design, implementation, and follow-up.
- Demonstrate how the event would target and benefit the citizens of the region, with particular attention to the poor, women and other marginalized groups.
- Ensure diverse participation including the public sector, private sector, civil society organizations, research and academic institutions, development partners and grassroots organizations.
- The event or series of events can be arranged either in-person format or hybrid mode with live streaming.
- Demonstrate proponents’ institutional capacity for organizing regional events.
- The event must convene diverse participation and gender balance of relevant stakeholders in the panels and participants.
- The proposed event must ensure regional outreach through popular media coverage.
- Demonstrate the linkage between the regional event’s expected outcomes and regional policy engagement (i.e., SEI Asia’s strategy and Sida’s regional strategy).
Criteria on event’s outcomes and impacts
- Focus on practical policy actions with concrete regional policy pathway and outcomes.
- Indicate which are the primary SDGs in focus, preferably limiting to two other SDGs, in addition to Climate Actions (SDG 13).
- Explicitly describe the assessment of relevant regional policy processes along with its significance and targeting approach.
- Showcase the linkage between the proposed event and your organizations’ mission and operations.
- Apply innovative approaches to enhance meaningful and active participation from policy makers and people with marginalized identities and/or in a position of vulnerability.
- Indicate strong potential to build partnerships across diverse stakeholders to tackle environmental and climate change issues in Asia.
Timeline
| Timeline | Note |
| 4 January 2023 | Launch of the call |
| 24 January 2023 | SCF2 Webinar and Online Networking |
| 15 February 2023 | Call’s deadline |
| 13 March 2023 | Announcement of successful proposals |
| March 2023 | Paperwork for contract and proposal revision |
| March – August 2023 | Event planning and implementation periods |
| 30 September 2023 | Final report submission due |
Submissions
All concept notes must be submitted via this online form by Wednesday, 15th February 2023. Please use our concept note template to make the submission.
To assist you in designing the proposed event, please refer to our guidance notes on Integrating Gender Equality and Human Rights in SCF2 Events and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning.
All queries regarding this call shall be addressed to [email protected].
Q&A Webinar:
![[Q&A Webinar] Call for Concept Note: Regional Policy Dialogues on Climate Resilience in Asia](https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/capture-1024x574.png)
2023 Partners
SCF is pleased to announce the selected consortium members to develop pathways to inclusive and equitable climate adaptation and mitigation policies, strategies and interventions through gender transformative approaches and amplifying local agency in Asia.
The National Land Coalition (NLC) Nepal
NLC is an International Land Coalition supported platform for people centred land governance and is a joint initiative of the multi-stakeholders working on land and resource related issues in Nepal.
International Land Coalition (ILC Asia)
ILC Asia is an integral part of global alliance works to realize land governance for and with indigenous peoples, landless farmers, pastoralists, women, and youth groups in 12 countries in Asia.
The Community Self-reliance Centre (CSRC)
CSRC is based in Nepal and has been campaigning for comprehensive agrarian reform and the land rights of working farmers and tillers for almost three decades. It hosts the NLC in Nepal.
Asia’s small-scale farmers live in precarious conditions that worsen the impacts of climate change.
Read three takeaways from a youth-led report calling for action towards a rights-based and gender-equal circular economy in Asia.
This report presents key policy recommendations conceived by youth and based on inputs from informal waste workers.
Small island communities in the Philippines reflect on their efforts to cope with loss of culture, identity and other intangible climate impacts.
This policy brief highlights the importance of minimizing food loss and waste, which accounts for some 30% of current global production.
Online courses
The integration of human rights and gender equality is central to the SCF2, as it champions regional and inter-regional collaboration for transboundary environmental policy development.
Through a collaboration with Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI) and Stockholm Environment Institute Asia gender cluster, evidence-based human rights and gender equality approaches are integrated into the programme implementation through capacity building such as direct coaching and providing open online courses.
This ensures that human rights and gender equality become central to regional environmental and climate change policy with the intent of achieving SDG integration.
Course 1: Rights-based approaches to environmental sustainability
Course 2: Gender, Environment and Sustainable Development
