Strategic grants support work in any of the ENCISS identified thematic areas. Read more about the five thematic focus areas of the ENCISS programme.

What are they for:

• Projects influencing policies in favour of excluded people, especially women, young people and people with disability
• Projects increasing the level of interaction and involvement of civil society and district level structures
• Projects encouraging the participation of poor and excluded people in decision making and policy monitoring
• Projects increasing the dissemination and communication of shared learning and information among state, civil society and citizens.

Strategic grants are a multi-annual grant for a period of two years and are renewed annually based on performance. In addition, strategic grants are given to support programmatic activities that are in line with organisations' existing strategies.

Eligibility criteria

ENCISS supports well established CSOs at the national and district level that can demonstrate a track record in engaging social policy processes. You must show evidence of engaging multi-stakeholder processes with state and non-state actors. All organisations must be registered local CSOs and government agencies in good standing.

• Track record of active public policy engagement in Sierra Leone
• Acquired competencies in relevant thematic focus of the organisation
• Annual reports for two consecutive years
• Demonstrate a good organisational governance system
• Evidence of a clear organisational strategy
• Regional/national presence
• Demonstrate good financial systems
• Networks/coalitions should be governed by an Memorandum of Understanding or framework of engagement
• Organisation systems and procedures:
   

1. An organisation or institutional strategy that shows the development and aims of the organisation and an accompanying budget. 
2. A three year multi-annual work plan/programme/activity plan and an accompanying budget. 
3. Two previous annual statements of accounts, audited by a suitably certified person or entity; 
4. Financial and administrative systems should be capable of reporting on the total budgets of the organisation
5. Copy of legal registration in Sierra Leone (national or district registration) 
6. Overview of governance structure including contact details of board members and an organisation chart or organogram, policies and procedures manual
7. Annual activity report for the pre-ceding year