Overarching Criteria

The following important concerns apply to all the work we fund.

We will support work which is intended to improve the overall well being of communities, groups and people. The works may be in one or more thematic area, whether health, education, governance, livelihoods, empowerment, or any other which assists them to deal with the immediate causes of their vulnerability but begins to look at the longer term factors that need to be addressed to help them get out of it.

Works proposed by NGOs for funding should fit in well with the NGOs own long term perspective plan. The justification for taking up such work should be clear and it should reflect the concerns of the communities. Communities should have played a core role in developing the ideas with the NGO.

More specifically, PHF will support work which results in an empowered community; which helps them address the factors that cause their vulnerability, and provides them an opportunity to look for long term solutions to their problems either by strengthening themselves or influencing policy that works in their favour.

Local Self Government Institutions

We see the involvement of Local Self Government Institutions comprising both the panchayats (in rural areas) and the municipalities (in urban areas) as an essential sustainability mechanism for all the work that we fund. PHF will encourage NGOs to search for and develop the essential linkages between the work that they propose to implement and the role that the panchayats / municipalities play. Within every situation where this is possible, PHF will fund the enabling activities that facilitate the institutions of local self government to become stronger and more vibrant.