The Challenge Fund for a Just Transition (CFJT) is a program executed by an alliance led by Hivos that aims to contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts by creating sustainable decent jobs for more than 10,000 young women and men through the green transition process of countries in North Africa.

To this end, the outcomes of the program are:

  1. Enable 25 Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) contributing to the green transition and their micro clusters to scale their businesses
  2. Increase the technical capabilities and financial resources of SGBs and local intermediaries to leverage more commercial and non-commercial financing
  3. Incentivize systemic change towards decent and inclusive employment by providing evidence-based, proven, business cases highlighting the commercial opportunities of a just and green transition.

Accordingly, Hivos is implementing a growth management program for 25 green companies. The program’s main objective is to assist those companies in adapting their strategies, business models and operations to achieve scalability and a sustained rapid growth.

What the project offers

The project offers capacity building workshops and technical assistance of top sector technical and business experts. Support will include:

  1. Technical support related to:
  • Diagnostic of business operations
  • Developing the firm’s strategic growth plans
  • Improving performance, quality control and assurance
  • Re-designing or enhancing the firm’s business models and operations to prepare for sustained growth and scalability
  • Networking with key markets players including potential buyers, suppliers, NGOs, universities, and other key stakeholders
  • Networking opportunities with the four countries of program operation (Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, & Tunisia)
  • Raising commercial and non-commercial funding
  • Environmental impact reporting training
  1. Financial Support (grants disbursement)

[Who should apply?

We are targeting companies registered in Morocco, Egypt, and/or Tunisia or have operations in the target countries via a local partner for at least one year prior to applying to the program, with the following criteria:

  • Demonstrated revenue track record of selling products or services that contribute to reducing carbon emissions, enhancing climate resilience or climate adaptation (i.e., sustainable agriculture and food production, recycling and waste management, sustainable water management: efficient irrigation, desalination, waste-water reuse, renewable energy, sustainable transportation, eco-tourism, resource efficiency), for at least three (3) years.
  • Demonstrated revenue growth potential year-on-year.
  • Employment of at least 10 direct and indirect labor and with a clear plan to increase employment (targets at least 30% additional direct and indirect labor within 2 years)
  • Integrated micro businesses in the supply chain (i.e. micro suppliers & distributors, small enterprise customers, service providers)
  • Commitment toward inclusion of women and youth (particularly in recruitment of staff, senior managers, and board members)

Structure of the timeline for the call for applications

 

Timeline call CFJT

The timeline dates are set depending on the country of the applicant (See the application form below).

Selection process

The selection committee will be composed of Hivos and its partners in the designated countries. The scoring process will be applied based on 4 main sections of the applications as follows:

  • Market Growth Potential: This section describes the market current status and potential growth of the applicants from a niche market to a more volume operation.
  • Environmental Impact: This section focuses on describing any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, resulting from a the company’s activities, products, or services.
  • Employment, gender, and micro-business scale up potential: This section is dedicated to describe the employment development of the company/firm and the its potential employability growth.
  • Motivation: This section describes the motivation of the company to participate in this specific call for application, and what added value the project can provide to the company.

Application form

We advise applicants to prepare answers to the questions before starting to apply online. The application process additionally requires the applicant to sign in into a Google account in order to be able to upload the requested documents as well save the progress of the application when needed.

Applications for companies operating in Algeria
Please contact us: cfjt@hivos.org

Applications for companies operating in Morocco

Application form for companies operating in Egypt
This call for applications is currently closed

Application form for companies operating in Tunisia
This call for applications is currently closed

Frequently Asked Questions

For any questions related to technical abbreviations or words, please refer to the glossary below. 

  • If the company is operating in Egypt/Tunisia/Morocco, but it is not registered there, the company should have a local partner registered in Egypt/Tunisia/Morocco for at least one year prior to the application to this call (e.g., Distributor Contract, Joint Venture Agreement etc.).

  • Both full-time and part-time job should be counted.

  • It depends on the country you apply for. Each country has 2 languages to choose from to apply.

    • For Egypt: English / Arabic
    • For Tunisia & Morocco: English / French

  • The call is targeting green small growing businesses registered in Morocco, Egypt, and/or Tunisia or have operations in the target countries via a local partner for at least one year prior to applying to the program, with the following criteria:

    • Demonstrated revenue track record of selling products or services that contribute to reducing carbon emissions, enhancing climate resilience or climate adaptation (i.e., sustainable agriculture and food production, recycling and waste management, sustainable water management: efficient irrigation, desalination, waste-water reuse…, renewable energy, sustainable transportation, eco-tourism, resource efficiency), for at least three (3) years
    • Demonstrated revenue growth potential year-on-year.
    • Employment of at least 10 direct and indirect labor and with a clear plan to increase employment (targets at least 30% additional direct and indirect labor within 2 years)
    • Integrated micro businesses in the supply chain (i.e. micro suppliers & distributors, small enterprise customers, service providers)
    • Commitment toward inclusion of women and youth (particularly in recruitment of staff, senior managers, and board members)

    Ideation stage projects are not eligible for this call.

  • A selection committee has been set in each of the three countries including Hivos and the implementing partners of the project’s consortium.

  • The selection committee in each country will inform the companies about their application state after the end of the selection process. The timeline of the selection process differs from one country to another. Please check the timeline of the application process in the application form related to the country you will apply for.

  • The technical assistance to be provided is going to be determined based on the results of the needs assessment to be conducted for the selected companies. The project offers capacity building workshops and technical assistance of top sector technical and business experts. Support will include:

    • Diagnostic of business operations
    • Developing the firm’s strategic growth plans
    • Improving performance, quality control and assurance
    • Re-designing or enhancing the firm’s business models and operations to prepare for sustained growth and scalability
    • Networking with key markets players including potential buyers, suppliers, NGOs, universities, and other key stakeholders
    • Networking opportunities with the four countries of program operation (Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, & Tunisia)
    • Raising commercial and non-commercial funding
    • Environmental impact reporting training

  • Exact funding amount will be decided after the company is selected, based on: (1) the feasibility of the proposed scale up plan, (2) the results of the needs assessment to be conducted for the selected company, (3) the organizational capacity, and (4) the green decent job creation/improvement potential of the applying company.

 

Glossary

  • Carbon emissions are a by-product of burning fossil fuels (such as oil, gas, and coal), of burning biomass, of land-use changes (LUC) and of industrial processes (e.g., cement production). It is the reference gas against which other GHGs are measured and therefore has a global warming potential (GWP).

  • Climate change mitigation is a human intervention to reduce emissions or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases. Mitigation measures are technologies, processes or practices that contribute to mitigation, for example, renewable energy (RE) technologies, waste minimization processes, sustainable water management, sustainable agriculture and food production, and public transport commuting practices.

  • Climate change adaptation is the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects, to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.

  • Climate resilience is the capacity of social, economic, and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity and structure while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning and transformation.

  • Decent jobs involve opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for all, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.

    See: International Labour Organization (2022). “Decent Work."

  • Green jobs are decent jobs that contribute to, preserve or restore the environment, be they in traditional sectors such as manufacturing and construction, or in new, emerging green sectors such as renewable energy and energy efficiency. Green jobs contribute to improving energy and raw materials efficiency, limiting greenhouse gas emissions, minimizing waste and pollution, protecting and restoring ecosystems, and adapting to the effects of climate change.

    See: International Labour Organization (2016). “What is a green job?”

  • Indirect labor refers to the employment created through economic linkages in society or jobs that were created because of the change in the situation of the suppliers and distributors of the targeted sector or area.

    See: USAID (2016). “Job creation assessments."

  • Micro businesses are businesses that employ between 2 and 8 persons and that, in the framework of the current call for applications, have a direct relationship with the applicant enterprises in one of the following formats:

    • Micro Suppliers: Defined as networks that provide SGBs with needed material that enables them to produce their end product on a bigger scale.
    • Micro Distributors: Defined as networks that enable the SGB’s product to reach a wider market, in a lot of cases under this approach it will include the Bottom of the Pyramid Markets where conventional distribution channels do not operate effectively.
    • Micro Business Clients: These are other micro businesses who are identified as direct clients to the SGB, however are struggling to purchase the services of the SGBs due to the absence of financing facilities or hesitancy to purchase the SGB’s service.

  • Micro clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected businesses, suppliers, distributors, and service providers creating direct and indirect synergies among them.

    See: USAID (2008). “Value chains and the cluster approach."

Note: Carbon emissions, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and climate resilience definitions are taken from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.