APPLICATION ARE OPEN FOR THE GLOBAL HEALTH ADVOCACY INCUBATOR FUNDING.

 FUNDING ALERT!
ADVOCACY FUND CALL FOR APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

The Healthy Food Policy Advocacy Fund, part of the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), is currently accepting new applications through Monday, September 4th, 2023.

About the Healthy Food Policy Advocacy Fund

The Healthy Food Policy Advocacy Fund provides critical support to help advance promising legislative or regulatory efforts on healthy food policy. The purpose of the Advocacy Fund is to support the adoption of evidence-informed healthy food policies by investing in timebound and strategic campaigns, and in doing so, grow both the food policy evidence base and a global network of advocates. Advocacy Fund grants are intended to support urgent, short-term campaigns in response to needs and opportunities related to healthy food policies.

Areas include

~ Taxes on sweetened beverages and/or ultra-processed food

~ Front-of-package warning labeling (FOPL)

~ Restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy food and beverages

~ Healthy food environments and food procurement and service policies in the public sector, including schools

The Advocacy Fund may also be used to block harmful policies that are not informed by the best available evidence and/or free of conflict of interest and that would set negative precedents and undermine effective food policies.

Since the Advocacy Fund launched in 2020, there have been important programmatic and policy achievements, such as

~ Expanding the Food Policy Program’s geographic scope and population impact;

~ Supporting the approval of evidence-informed food policies in 5 countries;

~A comprehensive healthy food policy law covering FOPL, marketing, and the school food environment in Argentina; and

~ FOPL in Uruguay and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax policies in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Ghana.

The Advocacy Fund provides strategic and technical support to grant recipients as they execute their advocacy campaigns. Learn more about the GHAI approach here.

The Advocacy Fund is managed by GHAI and funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Who Can Apply

The Advocacy Fund provides grants to legally registered not-for-profit entities based in low- and middle-income countries. Advocacy Fund grants are available for fast-breaking policy opportunities and/or campaigns to improve healthy food policy. Applicants should meet the following criteria:

Applicant must be working on a specific policy objective that is concrete and ideally achievable within approximately 12-18 months.

Policy objectives may be national or subnational and could have broader regional or global influence.

Applicants must demonstrate that the grant will help address an opportunity and that there are clear benefits or reasons for the need to secure funding.

Applicants should preferably focus on a specific policy campaign rather than working across multiple policy priorities.

Applicants with experience in carrying out advocacy campaigns for policy change are a plus.

Key Considerations to Guide Your Application

GHAI recognizes the benefits of working in a coalition or collaborative manner and therefore encourages joint applications from organizations with a common policy goal. At times, GHAI has been able to fund the work of coalitions of 2-4 organizations via 1 or more funded grantees in the same country/region.

GHAI also encourages novel/innovative approaches to address food policy priorities. If there is a novel/innovative element to your proposal, please be sure to describe this in your application.

When assessing concept notes, GHAI will consider the following criteria:

Quality of the proposal

Geography and population size

Timebound political opportunity

Strength of organization(s) (i.e., advocacy and institutional capacity)

Innovation of approach and/or policy

Number of organizations supporting the campaign (coalition work is highly encouraged, when relevant).

Who Cannot Apply

The Advocacy Fund will not accept:

Applicants based in high-income countries.

Applicants based in any of the Food Policy Program’s Focus countries (Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, and South Africa).

Applicants that currently receive or have received funding within the last three years from any manufacturer or wholesaler of ultra-processed foods or sugar-sweetened beverages or from any entity that represents the interests of this industry.

Applicants focused on research or policy evaluation.

Finally, applicants should note that grant funds cannot be used to support or oppose candidates for elected office.

Note: Organizations from Ethiopia, Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Philippines, and Thailand (priority countries of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Cardiovascular Health (CVH) Program) can apply and will be evaluated by GHAI through the formal review process and referred to the CVH Program for their consideration on potential funding.

How to Apply

All applicants should fill out the concept note form on the online platform located HERE. Please ensure all fields are complete and submit no later than September 4, 2023, 5 pm EST.

Please find a Word version of the Concept Note HERE so that you can draft your responses before submitting them to the online platform.

For general questions regarding the Advocacy Fund, including the application process, please contact healthyfoodpolicy@advocacyincubator.org

Review Process

All concept notes are assessed and scored by a committee of external reviewers who are food policy advocates and researchers. Decisions on submissions, as well as invitations for a full proposal will be issued between November and December 2023.