The TOPS Small Grants Program is a learning mechanism that generates, captures, disseminates, and applies the highest quality information, knowledge, and promising practices in development food assistance programming. Funded by the USAID Office of Food for Peace, the program aims to ensure that more communities and households benefit from the U.S. Government’s investment in fighting global hunger. Through technical capacity strengthening, engagement with the Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) Network, knowledge sharing events, stakeholder consultations, and a small grants program, The TOPS Program empowers food security implementers and the donor community to build stronger programs with lasting benefits for millions of the world’s most vulnerable people.
The TOPS Small Grants Program provides a streamlined and accelerated application, approval, and reporting process, enabling food security organizations to pursue creative ideas, take risks, and share vital knowledge and skills. The program has awarded Micro Grants and Program Improvement Awards (PIAs) between $50,000 and $100,000 to fund a wide variety of activities, including developing tools, conducting topic-specific learning events, designing and implementing new technical content, piloting practices, and collecting evidence to strengthen and improve the quality of food security programs.
The program has reached countries across the globe, gathering lessons and generating tools in various technical areas, including agriculture and natural resource management, commodity management, gender, knowledge management, monitoring and evaluation, multi-modality programming, nutrition and food technology, social and behavioral change, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). The TOPS Small Grants Program has emphasized activities that produce evidence-based results and recommendations to support others in the food security community in carrying out innovative or promising new practices, strengthening existing practices, and improving technical capacity.
Between 2010 and 2017, the TOPS Small Grants Program awarded 71 small grants to 32 different organizations involved in food security and nutrition activities, with a total of $4 million disbursed. The program received 165 applications and supported activities in 38 countries. The TOPS Small Grants Program has been instrumental in promoting excellence in food security programming, providing a unique opportunity for organizations to test innovative and creative ideas and share lessons learned from these experiences.
The program has focused on various technical areas, including monitoring and evaluation, where a guidance document on using Theory of Change for collaboration, learning, and adaptation was developed, and a conference was hosted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to share methodologies and best practices for using a Theory of Change. The program has also supported activities in agriculture and natural resource management, commodity management, gender, knowledge management, multi-modality programming, nutrition and food technology, social and behavioral change, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).
The TOPS Small Grants Program has been successful in overcoming obstacles faced by food security organizations, including resource constraints and restrictive funding processes. The program has provided a platform for organizations to pursue creative ideas, take risks, and share vital knowledge and skills, ultimately contributing to the improvement of food security programs and the reduction of global hunger.