Frequently Asked Questions
This page will be updated as we receive questions.
Q. Will existing activities funded under the SDF and SSDPF continue to be funded through to completion?
A. Yes
Q. In the 'Eligible Organisations' section, there is mention of a 'full assessment of the capability of private sector
- how will they be assessed, and what are the details of the requirements for this assessment?
A. This is a topic that we are keen to receive submissions on to inform us as we operationalise the new programme. We have looked into similar assessments abroad, but would be interested to know if there are particular requirements that submitters feel should be assessed.
- how will we need to 'demonstrate the strength of their partnerships'?
A. Each application to the NZPfID would be looked at on its merits, alongside other aspects of an application. Factors that would/could be considered may include: length of time the partnerships has existed; strength of links between the organisations and staff within; the synergies between, and complementarity of strengths of each of the partners; the type of agreement that exists between the organisations (e.g. an MOU); what led to the creation of the partnership and whether there are known difficulties in the partnership since it has been in existence; whether the partners have successfully delivered initiatives previously; a clear outline of roles and responsibilities for Activity implementation and monitoring/reporting agreed by the parties. The absence of any one of these factors, however, would not preclude an application from proceeding.
Q. Under the 'Ineligible activities' section, there is mention of activities which are not eligible including those which 'principally benefit one company, a business owner, financer or investor or the activity'. Who's responsibility will it be to determine whether this occurs or not, considering this comment is referring to the making of profits?
A. This would be the responsibility of the applicant(s) (in determining whether to apply), the appraiser of the concept note / design, and the MFAT activity manager to monitor.
Q. In the 'Infrastructure/assets' section, what does "follow the principle that the development interest takes priority' mean?
A. This means that as part of the activity design, implementation and exit strategy, we would be looking for the backwards linkages created through the disposal of assets purchased or developed as part of the activity – i.e. maximising how those assets can be used to benefit the wider community in the long term/past the life of the activity, rather than just the implementing partners.
Q. How would applicants demonstrate that other funding sources (such as bank, official concessional finance, local development banks etc) are not the appropriate funding instrument?
A. This is something we are looking into as we operationalise this policy and would welcome submissions on this point.
Our initial thinking is that there may be activities proposed that would obviously lend themselves to funding through the likes of a bank loan, and where there would be sufficient and acceptable security for financial institutions to give this support.
We are asking applicants (including in-country partners) to do investigate what other funding is available and provide a rationale as to why they believe they would not be able to access funding based on the criteria for that mechanism. Some short paragraphs in an application providing this rationale would suffice.
Also, by including this in the policy, MFAT reserves the right to ask whether such avenues have been explored to ensure that the focus is funding development outcomes, ideally going beyond that which would already be easily obtained from another source.
