Overview
Since inception in 2002, MATF has been offering competitive grants to institutions involved in generation and/or dissemination of proven agricultural technologies to farmers and other end-users. The key elements of the strategy adopted by the Fund have been facilitating linkages between diverse technology transfer practitioners, encouraging greater participation of farmers in technology transfer processes and using innovative cost-effective transfer approaches and methods in order to enhance the dissemination and use of existing viable technologies.

Concept Notes and Proposals
The MATF secretariat based in the FARM-Africa country office in Nairobi, Kenya, advertises a call for concept notes approximately once a year when funds are available. The most appropriate applicants are short-listed by an Advisory Panel (AP) comprising seven agricultural development experts from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda based on set criteria and are eventually invited to submit detailed proposals. MATF visits potential projects to assess the capacity of the applicants, their partners, and ensure that the projects are feasible. Successful projects receive grants of between £ 8,000 and £ 90,000 for a project that can last up to 3 years.

What We Fund
All projects exploring crop, natural resource management and livestock-related technologies (including bees and fish) are usually eligible for consideration. The fund prioritises projects which move beyond production and into value addition and access to markets. The technologies must have been tested under farmer conditions, yield impact within a short period of time and have the potential for scaling out. Examples may range from new crop varieties to innovative systems of crop or livestock management, post-harvest handling, processing, storage, Value addition and marketing. The fund encourages the participation of beneficiaries and inclusion of women in its approaches and methods.

Accountability
To ensure there is accountability, the AP members along with representatives from both donor organisations and FARM-Africa, provides support and strategic direction for the management of the fund.

Monitoring and Evaluation
MATF builds capacity of grantees in relevant areas, such as participatory monitoring and evaluation (PME) and financial management. Quarterly and annual reports are submitted by every project to the MATF secretariat. Grantee organisations and selected partners also participate in annual experience sharing workshops.

Field monitoring visits are undertaken annually by members of the Advisory Panel together with MATF monitoring officers. These provide valuable feedback, and learning is documented and shared among all partners through workshops, conferences, newsletters, booklets, videos and its website - www.maendeleo-atf.org. Impact studies and external evaluations are conducted within 6 months of the completion of each project. FARM-Africa carries out robust external mid-term evaluations and financial audits for all rounds of projects.

The Grant Making Cycle [Download and View Slide Show]