With 32 years of experience making and managing thousands of high-impact sub-awards to local civil society organisations, with funding from Grand Challenges Canada, the Packard Foundation, Open Societies Foundation, and USAID/Nigeria, the dRPC emerged as Nigeria’s leading intermediary non-profit. Over the years, the local non-profits supported by the dRPC worked mainly in areas of:- girls’ education; universal, primary and women’s health; good governance, humanitarian response and security; and livelihoods and economic empowerment. Local non-profits funded by the dRPC are resilient, flexible, and accountable and are stewards of donor funds with high levels of fiduciary responsibility.

All local NGOs awarded sub-grants by the dRPC are required to participate in the dRPC’s CSO capacity-building training program on the following modules:

• financial and project management;
• inclusive development and community engagement;
• policy and legislative advocacy and communication; and
• monitoring, evaluation and impact story telling

 In making sub-awards from donor impact investments the dRPC is committed to ensuring that its sub-granting processes are transparent, accountable, and fully compliant with donor regulations. The dRPC’s guiding sub-awarding policy serves as a framework for the effective issuance and management of sub-awards, aligning with both donor requirements and global best practices. The purpose of the dRPC’s sub-awards policy is to establish clear and consistent procedures for awarding, managing, and closing subgrants. The policy aims to:

• Ensure Compliance: Adhere strictly to the funders’ rules and regulations, minimising financial and programmatic risks.
• Promote Fairness: Guarantee that all sub-awards opportunities are made through an open, competitive, and merit-based process.
• Strengthen Partnerships: Build strong relationships with sub-awards by fostering trust, transparency, and mutual accountability.
• Achieve Programmatic Goals: Ensure that subgrants directly contribute to the successful implementation of dRPC’s and funders’ program objectives.

The 7-key principles guiding dRPC’s sub-awarding processes are: transparency; accountability; competitiveness; risk-based management; capacity building; localization; and cost effectiveness.

Objectives of dRPC’s Sub Granting Process

The primary objectives of dRPC’s sub-granting process include:

• Supporting Program Goals:

dRPC’s uses sub-awards as a strategic tool to implement funders’ programs by engaging eligible organisations that have the technical expertise and community reach needed to achieve specific project objectives.   

•  Ensuring Financial Accountability:

Financial integrity is at the core of dRPC’s sub-granting policy. The Finance team of the dRPC  ensures that:

• • Sub-awards maintain sound accounting systems in line with donors’ procedures and systems
  • Funds are disbursed according to approved budgets.
  • Financial reports are verified for accuracy and completeness.
    
    
• Promoting Transparency:

dRPC ensures all sub-awards are processed through open and competitive mechanisms while also open to donors’ sole-source recommendations.

Key actions include:

• • Publicizing Requests for Applications (RFAs) widely.
  • Using objective evaluation criteria during proposal reviews.
  • Maintaining clear records of how sub-awards are selected.
    
    
• Building Capacity of Sub-awards:

Recognising that strong partners are critical for effective program implementation, dRPC provides:

1. • Pre-award training assessment.
   • Ongoing technical assistance in 4 core areas, such as financial management and monitoring and evaluation (M&E).
   • Post-award support to ensure compliance with public authority regulations and to foster continuous improvement.

With over thirty years of sub-award management experience, the dRPC has the skills, systems, talent, and competencies to position local NGO sub-grantees to deliver on approved goals and objectives in a risk-averse and high-impact manner.