Background

The Small Grants Program (SGP) is part of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) initiative to promote sustainable energy security among South Asian nations. The program forges linkages with and extends financial aid to competent NGOs, academic institutions, and research establishments to address rural & regional issues related to energy availability / sustainability, longterm rural enterprise development and, productive mainstreaming of underserved sections of society through community capacity building programs. The first phase of the program was conducted from 2002 to 2006. In its current phase, the Small Grants Program is being implemented by WII and PA Consulting Group. The Program is spread across India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

Objective

WII played the part of the Program Administrator, and was therefore crucial to the regular progress and evaluation of the project. WII acted as an interface between PA and the project grantees. In its capacity as the Program Administrator, WII was responsible for preparation and circulation of request for application (RFA), screening and evaluation of proposal in conjunction with PA, and project monitoring and evaluations of ongoing/completed projects through field visits and regular correspondence with the project grantees.

A total of 42 projects innovative projects were sanctioned under the project