UNEP Special Programme Elearning Platform

The Special Programme (SP) provides funding to governments for projects aiming to strengthen chemicals and waste management.

More specifically, the SP’s overarching goal is to provide financial support to developing countries and countries with economies in transition to enhance their sustainable institutional capacity to develop, adopt, monitor and enforce policy, legislation and regulation toward effective Chemicals and Waste Management.

In order to be selected for funding, all projects submitted to the SP should be characterized by the elements depicted below.

The Special Programme Trust Fund may provide support from US$ 50,000 to US$ 250,000 per project proposal, including possible administration fees and monitoring and evaluation and financial audit. In exceptional circumstances, an applicant country may request up to a maximum of US$ 500,000.

SP applications must include a beneficiary contribution of at least 25% of the total requested amount to the total project budget. So if a country is asking for USD$100,00 from the SP, it must contribute with an additional USD$25,000 - bringing the total budget of the project to USD125,000 This contribution can be in cash or, most often, an in-kind contribution which means that is it in the form of staff time or covering meeting logistics etc. The Executive Board may reduce that percentage, commensurate with consideration of the specific national circumstances, capacity constraints, gaps and needs of the applicant.

Yes – according to the relevant financial rules and regulations there are caps on a few budget classes.

1. Personnel and contractual services costs – 50 per cent of total budget;
2. Specialised and technical equipment – 10 per cent;
3. Administrative fees – maximum of 5 per cent;
4. Monitoring, evaluation and audit– should not exceed USD 15,000 in total.

Projects should be fully completed within three years.

The fourth round of applications has a mandatory deadline of 17 April 2020

The Executive Board of the Special Programme works in English and all project applications therefore must be submitted in English.

The complete set of application forms can be downloaded here: https://www.unenvironment.org/explore-topics/chemicals-waste/what-we-do/special-programme/applying-funding-through-special

The SP secretariat has provided 2 types of guidance for project applicants, available for free and at any time: 

• Downloadable PDF available on the SP secretiat's website
Freely available SP Elearning Course
• see course syllabus here 
• sign up to take the course
• login to the course if you have already signed up