Harris Bokhari

Harris is a social entrepreneur, public engagement advisor and chartered accountant. He serves as a board member of Prince’s Trust Mosaic Initiative and as an ambassador for the British Asian Trust.

In 2012, in memory of his late father, Naz Bokhari OBE, Harris co-founded the Naz Legacy Foundation, which went on to receive the 2014 Big Society Award from the Prime Minister for their work with disadvantaged youth.

Harris founded Patchwork Foundation in 2010, recognising the vital need for a vehicle through which to promote the political and democratic engagement of under-represented communities. In 2018 he was awarded the Diversity Champion Award by the Cabinet Office as part of its inaugural National Democracy Week.

Harris serves as a member of the Mayor of London’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group, an Independent Member of the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service Committee and for Community and Voluntary Service Honours Committee – also sitting on the Diversity and Inclusion Group. He was awarded an OBE in Her Majesty’s 2015 Birthday Honours List for services to young people and interfaith relations; named as one of London’s most influential figures by the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 List; and awarded Imperial College’s inaugural Distinguished Alumni.

Professor Yadvinder Malhi FRS

Yadvinder Malhi is Professor of Ecosystem Science at the University of Oxford, Jackson Senior Research Fellow in Biodiversity and Conservation at Oriel College, Oxford, and Director of the Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests and the Oxford University Biodiversity Network.

His research interests have focused on the impacts of climate change and other types of change on the biosphere, and how the protection and restoration of the biosphere can contribute to mitigating and adapting to climate change. Much of his work has focussed on the tropics, and he has established a network of intensive study and monitoring of tropical ecosystems spanning Amazonia, Africa and Asia.

More locally, he has a strong interest in the many possible forms of ecosystem restoration in the UK and Europe, how such restoration can be scaled up, and how it can best contribute to biodiversity recovery and climate change goals.

Professor Malhi is former President of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Chair of Trustees of the Global Biodiversity Foundation, a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has authored or co-authored over 400 scientific papers on ecosystems and climate change.

These roles are not remunerated. These appointments have been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments, the process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The Government’s Governance Code requires that any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years is declared. This is defined as holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation or candidature for election. Neither Mr Bokhari or Professor Malhi have declared any activity.

A major annual scheme to replenish Lincolnshire’s beaches will get underway in June 2020, helping reduce the risk of flooding up and down the coast.

The Environment Agency’s £7m beach management scheme sees sand dredged from the seabed and pumped onto the beach to replace levels lost to the sea during the winter.

Replenishing this sand means the beaches – instead of hard defences like sea walls – take the brunt of the waves’ force and energy. This reduces the amount of damage and erosion to those hard defences, which help protect 20,000 homes and businesses, 24,500 static caravans and 35,000 hectares of land from flooding.

Deborah Campbell, east coast flood risk manager for the Environment Agency, said:

This vital work reduces the risk of flooding to homes and businesses on the coast, and we’re delighted it is able to go ahead in line with the government’s coronavirus guidance. All our staff, contractors and partners will practice social distancing and follow Public Health England’s guidance for safe working.

And as well as helping protect people from flooding, the work will also help maintain our beloved sandy beaches so they’ll be ready to welcome back locals and tourists alike, when it’s safe for visitors to return.

Meanwhile, while people remain at home, we’d remind you to please sign up for free flood warnings at www.gov.uk/flood to help protect your families if flooding is expected.

Over the next 6 weeks, more than 400,000 cubic metres of sand will be pumped back onto beaches between Saltfleet and Gibraltar Point, including Trusthorpe, Mablethorpe, Ingoldmells, Trunch Lane, Wolla Bank, Chapel Six Marshes and Hutoft, and local people who may be visiting their beach are asked to stay clear of the worksites.

The Environment Agency has been restoring sand levels on the Lincolnshire coast each year since 1994, and, while the work continues to be effective, long-term estimates suggest that the impacts of climate change will mean continuing to use sand alone as a method of managing flood risk will not be sustainable.

Therefore, the Environment Agency’s strategy for managing coastal flood risk between Saltfleet and Gibraltar has been under review for a number of years.

A new strategy has been developed, and, based on the results of a public consultation held last year, a number of options for managing the coast in the future have been taken forward. More information on the draft strategy can be found on our Saltfleet to Gibraltar Point and Lincolnshire beach management website.

The UK Foreign Secretary has announced the launch of the FCO International Programme as one of the elements for the UK’s global response to COVID-19 challenges.

The British Embassy Kyiv administers this support to Ukraine through our International Programme COVID-19 Enabling Fund 2020-2021. We invite proposals for project work through civil society organisations as well as government bodies, in all regions of Ukraine, in support of Ukraine’s response to the consequences of COVID-19.

The funding period is 15 July 2020 to 15 March 2021.

The deadline for submitting proposals is 17.00 (Kyiv time) on 15 June 2020.

The programme will focus on the following areas:

Anti-corruption

Intended outcomes:

• positive impact on law enforcement capacity to fight corruption at local level, in particular, related to COVID-19 procurement
• increased information in the public domain on COVID-19 procurement at regional level
• improved local self-government bodies’ service delivery and their response to COVID-19 as a result of reduced corruption, thus contributing to developing sustainable hromadas and successful roll out of decentralisation in Ukraine.

Fighting Disinformation around COVID-19

Intended outcomes:

• improved monitoring and analysis of disinformation around COVID-19 present in the Ukrainian media space and social networks *expose and reduce disinformation around COVID-19 in the Ukrainian media space and social networks, in particular, disinformation originating from temporarily occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea and from Russia.

Local economic impact of COVID-19

Intended outcomes:

• Ukrainian business associations, industry bodies and other civil society organisations are better able to respond to the needs of local businesses, particularly SMEs, in surviving the effects of COVID-19 and recovering after the crisis, including issues like supply chain transformation and/or development of new business models
• completion of regional pilots in one or more strategic regions of Ukraine, which can lead to dissemination of best practice across Ukraine. The project proposal should take account of activities by other donors and international partners and demonstrate how close coordination will be ensured.

Notes:

In this call for proposals, we will prioritise bids coming from civil society organisations but bids which involve working with government bodies may also be approved where there is a strong case. We welcome proposals for work in all regions of Ukraine, and regional pilots which could be scaled up later to become nationwide

Successful projects should have sustainable outcomes and should clearly identify the change that will be brought about. They may also build on projects by other organisations, complementing their efforts. All bids should make clear how they complement existing activities supported by other donors and international partners, and how work in the regions complements national level activity.

The maximum indicative funding for projects is £15,000. This may be in addition to co-funding and self-funding contributions; indeed this will be considered a merit. Our funding is for the UK financial year 2020-21 only (projects must be implemented and all payments made by 15 March 2020). Where appropriate, bidders are encouraged to describe how their project could be further scaled-up if additional funding became available.

Administrative costs (office rent, project management and book-keeper rates, utilities, communications, stationery, bank charges etc) must not exceed 8% of the total project budget. We are unable to fund academic courses or research, English language courses, the purchase of IT or other equipment.

The British Embassy Kyiv reserves the right to carry out due diligence of potential grantees, including seeking references, as part of the selection process.

Bidding is competitive and only selected projects will receive funding. The Embassy reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids without incurring any obligation to inform the affected applicant(s) of the grounds of such acceptance or rejection. Due to the volume of bids expected we will not be able to provide feedback on unsuccessful bids.

Bidding process

Bidders should fill in the standard Project Proposal Form above £10k (ODT, 56KB) (MS Word Document, 123KB) and include a breakdown of project costs in the ABB – Activity Based Budget Template (ODS, 10.2KB) (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 20KB). We will not consider proposals submitted in other formats. Budgets must be Activity Based Budgets (ABB), all costs should be indicative, in GBP (not Ukrainian Hryvna).

Successful bids must demonstrate strong strategic relevance to the areas of programme focus and have a clear focus on delivering change and sustainability.

Successful implementers should be able to receive project funding in GBP (UK pound sterling) and open a GBP bank account for the project. 85% of project funds should be spent before end of December 2020.

Proposals should be sent to the British Embassy Kyiv at Kyiv.Projects@fco.gov.uk by 17.00 (Kyiv time) on 15 June 2020. In the subject line, please indicate the area you are bidding for and the name of the bidder. We aim to evaluate proposals by end of June. Approved projects will commence in mid-July.

Evaluation criteria

Proposals will be evaluated against the following criteria:

• fit to programme objectives – the extent to which the proposal addresses the issues
• quality of project – how well defined and relevant the outcome is and how outputs will deliver this change
• value for money – the value of the expected project outcomes, the level of funding requested and institutional contribution
• previous experience – evidence of the project team’s understanding the issue and of its regional activities, ability to manage and deliver a successful project, through work done to date in the area or in related fields
• gender-sensitive approach – partners should identify the gender implications of the theme they are addressing, whether it will impact differently on men and women and how this is taken into account in the proposal. The proposals will be assessed by a mixed gender panel.

Further information