Grant Management
To operationalize MEET’s mandate and objectives, a grant facility was set up to enable communities to access financial resources for environmental projects and programs.

MEET’s grant process is demand-driven and guided by clear grant application policies and procedures. However, MEET reserves the right to issue a Call for Proposals to direct funding to strategic issues or hotspots. The grant policy outlines the grant objectives and provides information about priority grant activities, prequalifying criteria for recipient applicants, and technical and social criteria to be considered by eligible grantees.

The grant application procedures provide an overview of the application and screening process. MEET manages a rigorous three-tier screening process to ensure that decision-making around grant selection is transparent and credible projects with the potential to achieve results are awarded, thus eliminating fraud and corruption. The Secretariat is responsible and accountable for managing the full project cycle. The cycle begins with the receipt and administration of grant requests in the form of short concept notes (download here) or full project proposals templates(download here).
Key Grant Thematic Areas
1. Urban Areas (with a focus on Waste Management)Inadequate waste management capacity, practices, and infrastructure are leading to the accumulation of waste in all urban centers, causing serious environmental and social consequences, including heightened flood risk and threats to public health from water-borne and vector-borne diseases. Under this thematic area, MEET will support projects that seek to minimize the detrimental impact on human health and the environment arising from poor waste management and to improve the management of waste in accordance with the National Waste Management Policy. Projects should be framed within the concept of the Circular Economy and contribute to a green economy. Illustrative activities include but are not limited to:

• Managing urban food waste (organic) streams to achieve zero-waste cities
• Innovative ways to eliminate, recycle, reuse, and/or recirculate plastic items and plastic packaging
• Strengthening and increasing participation in Community-Based waste management approaches to waste segregation that promotes recycling
• Information, education, and communication initiatives that influence behavioral change towards waste management

2. Mountain and Landscape Restoration (with a focus on Natural or Assisted Regeneration)
The Global Forest Watch estimates that from 2001 to 2021, Malawi lost 290kha of tree cover. From 2013 to 2021, 82% of the tree cover loss occurred within natural forests. In light of this trend, Malawi committed to the Bonn Challenge in 2016.

The Bonn Challenge is a global goal to bring 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes into restoration by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. Malawi pledged to restore 4.5 million hectares by 2030. Under this component, MEET will support projects that seek to regain ecological functionality and enhance human well-being across deforested or degraded landscapes through natural or assisted natural regeneration in accordance with the National Forest Landscape Restoration Strategy. Projects submitted under this thematic area should also address natural resource governance issues within the targeted landscapes.

Illustrative activities include but are not limited to:

• Strengthening and enhancing the participation of local leaders, communities, and other stakeholders in forest governance to ensure accountability and transparency in decision-making for sustainable forest management
• Testing and developing new innovative models for forest management through nature-based enterprises and community-based nature tourism
• Forest management restoration interventions, including fire and coppice management that focuses on natural or assisted regeneration to encourage the regrowth of natural forests on hills, mountains, and river banks.

3. Wetlands
The mission of the Ramsar Convention, of which Malawi is a signatory, is the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world. Under this component, MEET will support projects that promote the preservation and restoration of wetlands and sustainable use of their resources by maintaining their ecosystem services.

Illustrative activities include but are not limited to:

• Projects that educate and communicate on the importance of preserving the ecological integrity of wetlands
• Promote the conservation and enhancement of Wetlands
• Promote ecosystem-based approaches to support wetland management, planning, and governance processes