Funding Criteria

THEMES
PROFOR funds activities that are relevant to the four thematic areas – livelihoods, finance, governance and cross-sectoral cooperation – and have good potential for significant gains in knowledge with high applicability to a wide range of situations.

Activities must also be in line with PROFOR donor priorities and have relevance to broader World Bank country programs. PROFOR’s request for proposals on priority topics provides more details on specific topics eligible for PROFOR support.

FUNDING CRITERIA
For each proposed activity, PROFOR considers the overall forest conservation and development outcomes, the sustainability of the work, the reputation and capacity of applicant organization, and ability to leverage additional funding. The PROFOR funding criteria provide more details.

HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL
Proposals are accepted and reviewed by the PROFOR Secretariat on a rolling basis.

A concept note for a proposed activity must be completed and submitted to the PROFOR Secretariat. The concept note provides essential information on a proposed activity's objective, implementation strategy, expected outputs and impacts, geographical focus, timing, and estimated budget. Concept notes are screened to verify that they meet the criteria to be eligible for funding (see above). Subsequently, proposals are funded on a priority basis of those that best met the criteria given the resources available to PROFOR. The Guidelines for Application for PROFOR Funding provide further details.

Concept notes are screened by the PROFOR Secretariat to verify that the criteria (see Guidelines above) for funding are fulfilled. The proposals are then circulated to issue area experts for feedback. Subsequently, qualifying activities are assessed by a quantitative evaluation methodology to determine and document which activities will be funded based on highest relevance to PROFOR’s objectives and resources available.

PROJECT CYCLE
PROFOR typically funds activities that can be completed in under two years. For approved activities, a contractual agreement is established between the World Bank as PROFOR’s host institution and the implementing entity. Recipients of PROFOR funds are required to submit periodic reports on the status of implementation of activities.