Malaysia-UN SDG Trust Fund announces first call For proposals, offering USD3.6 Million for high-impact projects

Visit the Malaysia-UN SDG Trust Fund webpage here

The Malaysia-UN SDG Trust Fund, a collaborative initiative between the MySDG Foundation and the United Nations in Malaysia, supported by the Government of Malaysia, announces the launch of its 2023 Call for Proposals (CFP-2023). This first call for proposals aims to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across Malaysia, by focusing on groups and communities at risk of being left behind.

The CFP-2023 invites project proposals from UN agencies, Malaysian civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, and academia engaged in SDG implementation and advocacy. A total sum of USD3.6 million (approximately MYR 16,200,000 based on USD1= MYR4.50 exchange rate) will be disbursed to approved projects, enabling their impactful implementation.

In her statement on the launch of CFP-2023, Karima El Korri, UN Resident Coordinator in Malaysia, emphasized that "at this pivotal halfway mark to 2030, the Malaysia-UN SDG Trust Fund presents a unique opportunity to support impactful and innovative initiatives aligned with Malaysia’s foremost SDG priorities.”  She further added that “the Fund complements ongoing efforts of the government and various stakeholders to deliver on the principles, ambitions, and goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development."

The Fund envisions annual calls for proposals until 2030, aiming to support catalytic interventions targeting those at risk of being left behind, and promote partnerships and a whole-of-society approach. It seeks to create equitable and inclusive pathways that enable the realization of socioeconomic rights for people across all regions of Malaysia. Projects should prioritize local actions that enhance lives and livelihoods and deliver wider SDG gains for vulnerable populations such as the unemployed and informal sector workers, indigenous people, women, youth, people with disabilities, older persons, migrants, refugees, stateless and undocumented persons. The Fund is anchored in three thematic pillars - People and Prosperity; Planet and Peace; and Partnership, encompassing twelve priority areas.

Tan Sri Abdul Wahid bin Omar, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the MySDG Foundation, hailed the Fund as a “catalyst of SDG progress that leaves no one behind.” He called upon sustainable development champions to “step forward with innovative solutions that foster collaboration, engage community-based action, and generate tangible results.”

CFP-2023 welcomes project proposals seeking funds ranging from USD100,000 to USD500,000 (approximately MYR 450,000 to MYR 2,250,000 based on USD1= MYR4.50 exchange rate). Projects should have a minimum duration of six months and a maximum duration of 18 months, and adhere to the criteria detailed in the CFP-2023 brochure.

The CFP-2023 will be open from 1 June to 14 July 2023.

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Malaysia-UN SDG Trust Fund: three thematic pillars and twelve priority areas.

People and Prosperity

• Promoting an inclusive recovery from the COVID - 19 pandemic, addressing the poverty, nutritional and health challenges of affected and marginal and excluded groups (e.g., informal sector workers, the poor and vulnerable in peripheral regions including indigenous peoples, women, youth, migrants and refugees, undocumented persons, and persons with disabilities).
• Levelling up wider SDG performance in key human development domains across regions, focusing on communities in lagging peripheral areas. Expanding resilience through greater social protection measures, focusing on excluded and under-served groups and those in informal work.
• Addressing the specific human development needs of women at risk of being left behind.
• Promoting work opportunities to the poor and vulnerable, those in informal work and those in remote locations, via access to skills training, financial services, commercial credit, and to decent jobs.
• Addressing geographical and economic imbalances, especially those faced by communities living in remote locations, including by assisting them to unlock local comparative advantages (natural capital, sustainable exploitation of natural resources and products, enhanced tourism).

Planet

• Building the resilience of communities (groups and localities) at most risk to the impacts of climate change through active adaptation efforts.
• Tackling biodiversity loss, particularly for marginal communities which rely on the natural capital for their livelihoods.
• Assisting marginal communities to tackle land, sea and river pollution, which blights their living conditions.

Peace and Partnership

• Helping to build social and political cohesion between Malaysia's diverse communities.
• Enabling the realization of key socioeconomic rights by marginal and excluded groups (e.g., the poor and vulnerable in peripheral regions including indigenous peoples, migrants and refugees, undocumented populations, and people with disabilities)
• Enabling, within the law, the recognition of undocumented people and their social inclusion.

About MySDG Foundation:

Yayasan Matlamat Pembangunan Mampan Malaysia or The Foundation for Sustainable Development Goals Malaysia (MySDG Foundation) was established in 2022 under the Trustees (Incorporation) Act 1952 (Act 258). It is guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its core principle of leaving no one behind. MySDG Foundation provides funding through grants, in support of the achievement of the SDGs in Malaysia. In early 2023, MySDG Foundation entered into collaboration with the United Nations through the Malaysia-UN SDG Trust Fund, a breakthrough initiative aimed to support SDG-focused projects that address national priorities, promote a multi-stakeholder approach and implement innovative and inclusive SDG-solutions across Malaysia.  A key objective of MySDG Foundation is to strengthen its donor base, by mobilizing the continued support of the Ministry of Finance and raising funds and contributions from other donors within and outside Malaysia.