Our Small Project Grants Scheme

We operate a Small Grants Scheme to fund projects in Sierra Leone. The project funding is primarily used to help us achieve our objectives and help make progress in Sierra Leone.

Our Recent Funding Activities

Last year, we provided funding to civil society groups on the Local elections in a bid to promote a fair and peaceful election. We also funded programmes on local councils to help promote better participation in the local political process and ensure accountability. Besides supporting a media monitoring team, we also provided funding through the Independent Media Commission (IMC) for the training of journalists on the media code of ethics and the principles of good journalism. We have also supported some Government Offices with essential office equipment to enable them carry out their functions efficiently and effectively. We are funding a Parliamentary monitoring project that reviews the activities of Parliament in a bi-monthly newsletter distributed to key stakeholders.

In collaboration with the Justice Sector Development Programme (JSDP), we are funding Prison Watch Sierra Leone to help ensure compliance to standards and to promote the rights of women and juveniles held in Sierra Leone's prisons, police cells and borstal homes.

Our Objectives

Our four main Strategic Departmental Objectives of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office lie at the core of our Small Grants Scheme. These are:

• Counter terrorism, weapons of proliferation and their causes
• Prevent and resolve conflict
• Promote a low carbon, high growth economy
• Develop effective international institution, above all the United Nations and the European.

On a broader perspective, we hope to make progress on the following:

• Increased observance of human rights and the rule of law
• An effective and accountable Government that is making progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
• Better management of Sierra Leone's natural resources for the benefit of the people of Sierra Leone
• A sustainable and democratically accountable security sector

How to Apply

If you wish to apply for funding from us, please send a proposal to the Projects Officer, British High Commission, Freetown. You can also email us at freetown.general.enquiries@fco.gov.uk 

Please ensure to include in your proposal the following information:

• The purpose of the project
• The indicators of success - which will allow us to know if the project has met its purpose
• The outputs of the project - what will the results of the project be
• The activities that will be undertaken to achieve the outputs
• Background on your organisation and to the issue the project is addressing
• The projected budget required and a breakdown of how the money will be spent.

If you are successful in your project bid, you are required to submit both project and financial reports within one month after the implementation of your project. During the course of your project implementation, we would at least undertake one monitoring exercise to evaluate your project.

We consider all project proposals, but those that relate to one of our priorities are most likely to gain funding. As we receive lots of proposals, we cannot fund all of them. However, we encourage future collaboration if your proposal is not considered to help us achieve our objectives and help make progress in Sierra Leone.