Fundraising for Agricultural Networks

GFRAS on Tuesday, June 18 2024 held a webinar discussing Fundraising for Agricultural Networks. This activity was attended by participants from sub regional and country fora of GFRAS. RASSEA also attended and participated in this activity.

Dr Carl Larsen, executive secretary of GFRAS explains the importance of fundraising activities and how to best strategy them. When raising funds, it is important first to understand the big picture of the activities to be carried out, the impact on stakeholders, including the benefits for potential funding. Carl also mentioned the importance of clarifying ambitions, reviewing resources, external mapping, capacity building, and after that explains about how to write good proposals.

During the discussion session, issues and views emerged and developed, such as that currently funding is available mostly for research projects advertised by national bodies, not for knowledge management activities. In addition, the priorities of national agencies may differ from those of extension networks. On the other hand, small amounts of funds are difficult to obtain, donors want large proposals (millions) which are not needed and cannot be managed by our network.

RASSEA in this discussion expressed the view that in fundraising we need more colleagues in the network who have negotiation skills that will help in fundraising. Identifying potential donors and submitting portfolios also becomes very important. Establishing initial partnerships with potential partners is also something that needs to be done, including in order to understand the donor’s perspective/priority areas.

This activity is very useful for opening perspectives regarding the best strategy for raising funds for the Agricultural Network and also being able to experience the best experiences from each participant from various countries. In relation to this, RASSEA has developed resource mobilisation framework to finance programs and activities. (RA).