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).
WORTH
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:
- Financial support: EUR 10 000 to EUR 20 000 per recipient.
- Technical support, Virtual inception/acceleration week (hosted by AfriLabs), Provision of embedded technical expertise through the engagement of civic tech specialists.
- Thematic support: Provision of thematic expertise on democracy support, African Union governance & continental policy-making.
- Marketing, communication & showcasing support –Facilitation of access to decision-makers at the African Union level as well as the international development community.
- Peer-to-peer learning & networking- Facilitation of exchange between recipients and other members of related civic tech ecosystems.
ELIGIBILITY
- 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
DEADLINE: January 16, 2022
To apply and for more information visit here
