dRPC awards grants to 17 Nigerian NGOs to bridge USAID funding gap

The development Research and Project Centre (dRPC) has awarded N5 million each to 17 Nigerian non-profit organisations (NGO), under its NGO Support Initiative (NSI), launched to mitigate the impact of recent funding cuts by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Backed by the Ford Foundation, the initiative is designed to sustain the work of local civil society organisations in the face of such disruption.

Speaking during a welcome address at the award ceremony in Abuja on Monday, the Executive Director and Founding Member of dRPC, Judith-Ann Walker, said the NGO Support Initiative reflects the organisation’s long-standing commitment to strengthening Nigerian civil society.

Ms Walker explained that dRPC has been supporting local organisations since the early 1990s, with a focus on nurturing, enabling, and building their capacity to thrive.

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According to her, the current initiative was launched not only to provide financial support but also to ensure long-term growth through mentorship and peer learning.

“Nurturing and enabling and strengthening Nigerian civil society organisations is our mission, it is what we believe in and it’s what we do as our piece of work,” she said.

She noted that although the initial plan was to select 10 organisations, the quality of applications received led to an expansion of the first cohort to 17 NGOs ,each receiving N5 million in funding along with capacity-building support.

Planned to run for three months, she said the intervention combines financial support with mentorship from experienced CSO leaders, aimed at strengthening the capacity of participating organisations and enabling them to continue their work despite the current funding challenges.

She urged participants to demonstrate the impact that small grants can have on their communities, stressing that continued support, including a second cohort in September, would depend on how well the current recipients utilise the opportunity.

Significance of funding

In January, US President Donald Trump announced the suspension of foreign assistance channelled through the USAID, a major donor to numerous development programmes in Nigeria and other parts of the world.

The funding freeze disrupted many civil society activities, forcing several NGOs across the country to scale down their operations.

The Director of Programmes at dRPC, Stanley Ukpai, said the US government terminated 83 per cent of USAID programmes globally, resulting in the cancellation of over 5,200 contracts, many of which supported services related to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria treatment.

Mr Ukpai said that in Nigeria alone, more than 1,000 jobs were lost due to the funding cuts, significantly affecting development efforts across multiple sectors.

According to him, the NSI was created as a direct response to these widespread losses, with the goal of reducing the impact on affected communities.

“This is why the dRPC is responding to bridge these gaps and cushion the substantial disruptions across sectors such as health, education, and economic development,” he said.

Process Selection

The NSI Assessor, Obashina Ogunbiyi, said the selection process for the grant followed a rigorous multi-stage review that prioritised capacity, gender inclusion, and impact.

According to Mr Ogunbiyi, the dRPC received a total of 495 applications after announcing the call for proposals across various media platforms.

From this, 139 valid entries were shortlisted from across the country.

He explained that a five-member assessment panel, made up of past grantees of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation–anchored by dRPC ,through the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale (PACFaH@Scale) project, was responsible for evaluating the shortlisted applications.

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Mr Ogunbiyi, who is also a past grantee of the dRPC, said the assessment criteria were designed to ensure the selection of impactful, gender-inclusive, and feasible proposals.

“We used different criteria in coming up with these 17 successful applicants. These organisations must have at least 50 per cent of their management as females”, he said.

“We also looked at their capacity to actualise what their proposals said, and the potential impact of those proposals on women and communities.”

He added that the assessors saw their role as a way of giving back to the civil society ecosystem that had once supported their own growth.

About dRPC

dRPC is a Nigerian NGO that works with civil society groups through policy research, training, funding, and technical assistance.

Its activities focus on gender equality, women’s empowerment, education, health, and social justice, with particular attention to women-led and grassroots organisations.