The Siemenpuu Foundation provides project funding to NGOs and networks in the South mainly through seven cooperation programmes.
The cooperation programmes in India are run in partnership with the SADED and NAA networks as well as the Tamil Nadu Core Team. The Indonesia cooperation programme is coordinated together with an advisory board comprised of local environmental activist experts whereas the Mali programme is run together with Mali Folkecenter - Nyetaa. The Mekong Energy and Ecology network was chosen as the Foundation’s partner in the Mekong region, where the cooperation programme started in 2009. Within the Latin America programme, the support is channeled through the Brazilian Amazon based Aliança dos povos da floresta, Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean, Acción por la Biodiversidad and the World Rainforest Movement networks.
In addition to the funding allocated through the cooperation programmes, the founding organisations of the Siemenpuu foundation may propose Siemenpuu funding for their Southern partners’ activities. Other timely projects or activities of particular interest to the Foundation’s future development are funded on a limited scale. Application opportunities related to this type of funding will be announced when available (we do not accept project proposals without having called for them).
Project funding practices: a learning process
The Siemenpuu Foundation started providing project funding for environmental activities of NGOs, civil society movements and networks operating and based in developing countries in 2002. Up until the beginning of 2010 the Foundation had provided funding to 325 projects in over 50 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Initially funding was administered through a continuous open application process. Southern NGOs could submit their project proposals freely provided the implementing organisation and the project idea met general and administrative criteria set by the Foundation. The information about the application possibility was spread mainly via the internet.
As the number of applications received became unmanageable and the Foundation gained more experience as a funding agency, a strategy was drafted for 2005-2008 in order to limit the thematic areas of the applications to be processed. The thematic focus areas chosen were:
- lobbying and information-sharing on environmental issues,
- promotion of ecological democracy in forest and forest land issues.
The strategy also introduced the possibility of developing more comprehensive cooperation programmes instead of supporting incongruent individual projects. The idea was to establish a longer term and more in-depth relation of cooperation with selected local civil society actors. These partnerships would enhance the Foundation’s understanding of local environmental contexts as well as improve the impact of the support given by Siemenpuu. Cooperation partners could further inform relevant grassroot actors on the possibility of funding. In addition, a more focused application possibility would reduce the administrative workload for both applicant and Siemenpuu.
The first cooperation programmes were launched in India, Mali and Indonesia in 2006.