CALL FOR PROPOSALS #6 – ACF
Solidarity Fund for African Artists and Cultural Organisations (SOFACO)
Batch No. 4: Special Covid-19 / Individual Artists
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Support for creation and resilience to African artists facing the Covid-19 crisis
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS
Over the past few months, the entire world has been experiencing an unprecedented health crisis caused by the Coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19). This global crisis has resulted in paralyzing human activities, that could lead to predict immeasurable negative impacts on the development of the countries in the world.
In many African countries, the majority of creation, production and distribution centers are closed and artists are idle, with no prospects, many of them living between despair and disarray.
In such context, it becomes urgent and a priority to offer assistance and support mechanisms for artists so that creativity and artistic productivity do not stop, but also allow them to effectively resist the pandemic and preserve the socio-economic structure of the already fragile African creative sector.
In light of this context, the African Culture Fund / Fonds Africain pour la Culture (ACF) is launching this fourth batch of calls for projects, dedicated exclusively to individual artists, in the framework of the Solidarity Fund for Artists and Cultural Organizations in Africa (SOFACO), in order to support African artists who are severely affected by the harmful effects of Covid-19.
General eligibility conditions for funding requests
- Applicants eligibility
- Type of eligible projects
- Geographic Coverage
- Selection procedure
- Evaluation criteria
- Grant Agreement and disbursement modalities
- Indicative timeline
- How to Apply?
Applicants eligibility
To be eligible, candidates must meet the following requirements:
INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS:
- Be an artist with at least five years of experience, practicing and residing in Africa;
- Demonstrate a situation of vulnerability (or a shortfall) arising from the Covid-19 health crisis;
- Submit a project request for subsistence (food grant, health grant or professional grant) OR for assistance to creation (artistic creation or innovation within the context of Covid-19).
Documents to be provided by selected candidates only:
- An artist card or equivalent document (provide a copy of the card or equivalent document)
- A document showing your biography, your artistic career, your artistic approach and an overview of your artistic works (3 pages maximum);
- A letter of recommendation from at least one recognized reference person in the discipline you practice (pointing out the need and urgency to support you).
For this fourth call “Special Covid-19 / Individual Artists “, ACF supports requests in the following two categories of projects:
- Category 1: Applications for subsistence grants
These relate to food grants, health grants and professional grants
- Category 2: Requests for assistance to creation
These requests relate to artistic creation or innovation projects adapted to the context of Covid-19 in Africa
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*The Food grant is a subsidy to allow the recipient artist to meet his own immediate food needs and those of his family, in times of crisis. **The health grant is a subsidy to allow the artist who is victim of Covid-19 disease or the beneficiary organization including one or more victim(s) of the same disease, to pay for clinical treatments or pharmaceutical costs. *** The professional grant is an aid or a subsidy granted to a cultural organization as provisional payment of the salaries of its members or of the salaries lost or suspended due to Covid-19. ****The assistance to creation grant aid adapted to the context of the Covid-19 relates to any creation or artistic innovation whose realization adapts to the context of the Covid-19 pandemic or which allows the cultural organization to ensure the continuity of its activity despite the crisis. |
The present Call covers all African continent countries.
For any request made within the framework of this call, the amount to be granted by the ACF is 3,000 (Three thousand) Euros per individual artist.
The funding covers a period between 4 months minimum and 6 months maximum.
The selection procedure follows six (06) steps:
- Recording and filing;
- Administrative examination of requests;
- Assessment by the Award Committee (Jury);
- Approval of the list of selected projects;
- Reception and analysis of administrative documents from selected candidates
- Approval of funding allocation.
Applications will be assessed by an independent selection committee made of professionals working in the African cultural sector and knowledgeable of the artistic realities in the different African regions
The selection committee will assess the applications using four (04) criteria:
- Originality/innovation/creativity of the project or concept;
- Technical quality of the application;
- Financial quality of the project;
- Relevance to the current African or regional context and/or to the situation of the Covid-19 (situation of vulnerability of the artist compared to the Covid-19).
A Grant Agreement between the ACF and the grantee will be signed. The Agreement will include details on the activities to be carried out, the grant amount, the payment schedule and the reports.
The approved projects will be funded in two (02) installments:
- 80% of the grant, upon signing of the contract (pre-financing);
- 20% of the grant at mid-term, and upon presentation and approval of the narrative and interim financial reports.
Activities |
Deadline |
| Initial call | 05 November 2021 |
| Deadline for requests for clarification | 19 November 2021 |
| Deadline for clarification by the ACF | 25 November 2021 |
| Deadline for submission of proposals | 05 December 2021 |
| Release of the results of the assessment by the selection board | 20 December 2021 |
| Grant notification | From 20-22 December 2021 |
| Grant Agreement signing | Starting from 22 December 2021 |
Applicants must complete in full the form, which can be downloaded at the following link: https://www.africanculturefund.net/CALL-FOR-PROPOSALS-6-SOFACO-BATCH-4-APPLICATION-FORM.docx
They must then save the completed form in PDF format and send it to the African Culture Fund at the following two email addresses:
applications@africanculturefund.net AND africanculturefund@gmail.com
Applications can be submitted in English or French.
The deadline for submitting proposals is 05 December 2021 midnight GMT.
Incomplete files will not be considered.
The results will be published on the ACF website and social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).
Only successful applicants will be contacted by ACF. The latter will then have to provide all the administrative documents mentioned above.