Why this is different from a loan application
Uganda produces a fraction of the farmed fish it needs, prices are climbing faster than most household budgets, and the organisations best placed to change that in their own districts are usually the ones least able to access capital.
Catalyst East Africa works with community-based organisations, cooperatives, faith-based groups, schools and district partners to make them credible applicants for the funding that aquaculture and food security projects require.
Commercial finance for a fish farm requires land you can document and a substantial cash contribution, and it requires the farm to generate enough to service the debt from its first years of operation. For a great many community organisations, one or more of those is out of reach.
Capital that does not have to be repaid on commercial terms changes the arithmetic entirely. A project funded through grants, concessional finance or a blended package has to cover its running costs — a very different and much more achievable test.
Accessing that capital is a discipline in itself. It is the discipline CEA has practised since 2011.
What we do
- Organisational assessment — a clear verdict on whether you are fundable today, and a plan if you are not
- Governance strengthening — constitution, registration, board, banking, controls and records
- Land documentation support — the most common reason applications stall
- Technical feasibility coordination — arranging the independent engineering and water assessment funders require
- Proposal development — concept notes, theory of change, logframes, budgets and monitoring frameworks
- Funder identification and submission management
- Post-award compliance and reporting
Our position on suppliers
CEA works alongside commercial partners in the aquaculture sector, including organisations with which CEA shares individuals in common. We disclose those relationships in writing.
CEA does not require any organisation it advises to use any particular supplier. We will tell you when we think a project is wrong for you, and we will say so before you have spent anything. Our value to funders depends entirely on our willingness to do that.
Who this is for
- Community-based organisations and cooperatives with land and a food security mandate
- Women's and youth enterprise groups
- Secondary schools with agriculture programmes
- Faith-based organisations running feeding or nutrition work
- District partners and local government facilities
- NGOs adding a productive asset to an existing programme
Who this is not for
Organisations looking for a guaranteed grant, a quick approval, or someone to write an application they have no capacity to deliver against. Funders check delivery capacity, and an award your organisation cannot administer is worse than no award at all.