The African Union Civic Tech Fund for innovative civic tech initiatives (EUR 10-20,000 per recipient)

Application Deadline: 16 January 2022

The African Union Civic Tech Fund is a pan-African competition that aims to accelerate innovative civic tech initiatives that have the potential to lead to citizen-led transformative action across the African continent. This rests on the recognition that there is an acute need for meaningful participation by African citizens in addressing and solving governance and development challenges across the continent.

The overarching policy framework for the African Union Civic Tech Fund is Africa’s Agenda 2063 as well as other key policy documents associated with the African Union Shared Values agenda, such as the ACDEG or the African Youth Charter. Initiatives should therefore provide innovative solutions to solve problems of citizen participation, across a number of relevant areas:

• Participation in public space & public discourse;
• Electoral cycles and elections;
• Rule of law & orderly transfers of power between governments;
• Democratic culture and political pluralism;
• Responsive, transparent and accountable governance;
• Peace and security (where it impacts democratic governance);
• Human, economic and sustainable development (where it impacts democratic governance).

Eligibility Requirements

The organisation must be a legal entity;

● The organisation must be registered in an African Union Member State;

● The organisation must be able to sign a service contract agreement (as opposed to a grant contract agreement);

● The organisation must not be bankrupt or being wound up nor having its affairs administered by the courts;

● The organisation must not have received an adverse audit opinion, either by its own auditors or its donors’ auditors;

● The organisation must have policies in place and/or practices in place to guarantee the ethical management of personal identifiable information;

● The organisation must not have been the subject of a judgment for fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organisation or any other illegal activity.

Geographic focus

The Fund will seek to provide funding and support in any African Union Member State within the limits of its capacity. The Fund will not provide funding in any country which is under sanctions by the African Union at the time of investment.

Costs

The Fund will cover a global amount for each service contract, broken down in the necessary costs to deliver the agreed results. Such eligible types of costs include:

● Staff costs and expert fees;

● Travel and subsistence costs;

● Purchase costs for equipment and/or software applications;

● Costs of consumables;

● Costs of service & supply contracts;

Ineligible costs include:

● Debts and service charges;

● Provisions for losses, debts or potential future liabilities;

● Purchases of land or buildings;

● Currency exchange losses.

Support Package

Aside from the financial support, the Fund will provide selected initiatives with additional technical support according to their identified needs.

In sum, the support package looks as follows:

1. Financial support

○ EUR 10 000 to EUR 20 000 per recipient.

2. Technical support

○ Virtual inception/acceleration week (hosted by AfriLabs).

○ Provision of embedded technical expertise through the engagement of civic tech specialists.

3. Thematic support

○ Provision of thematic expertise on democracy support, African Union governance & continental policy-making.

4. Marketing, communication & showcasing support

○ Facilitation of access to decision-makers at the African Union level as well as the international development community.

5. Peer-to-peer learning & networking

○ Facilitation of exchange between recipients and other members of related civic tech ecosystems.

Application & selection process

The following provides an overview of the application and selection process from the publication of the guidelines to the start of implementation.

Indicative timeline

• Publication of guidelines 25 November 2021
• Formal launch & information session 25 November 2021
• Deadline to submit proposals 16 January 2022
• Preliminary award decision by Selection Committee : February 2022
• Negotiation, finalisation & award March 2022
• Implementation April – September 2022

For any further questions, please feel free to write an email to [email protected]

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the African Union Civic Tech Fund