In the next few weeks, there is a chance for charities working in the field of overseas aid to apply for DFID funding.

On 28 May, it became possible for charities and not-for-profit organisations to bid for a £4 million fund – the Community Partnership Window of the Global Poverty Action Fund.

Organisations, no matter what their size, which are working on projects aiming to reduce poverty, can make an application before 9 July 2013.

Locally we have a large number of philanthropic people and organisations. So I thought that there may well be people in the Chesham & Amersham constituency who are involved with such charities and organisations and they could look at this form of funding.

The bodies which are eligible are small, UK-based, not for profit organisations, with an average income of less than £1 million p.a. for the past 3 years.

The applicants do not have to be registered charities. Grants of up to £250,000 are available for new, time limited projects of up to 3 years’ duration. No match-funding is required for the Community Partnership Window.

Applicants should look at https://www.gov.uk/global-poverty-action-fund-gpaf.

The Global Poverty Action Fund helps people in the poorest parts of the world by bringing about real, positive change to help those most in need.

There has been some criticism that the budget for the Department for International Development has been ring-fenced. The underlying principle of DFID, though, is helping to tackle extreme poverty by driving economic growth and job creation.

Therefore it is helping people ultimately to lift themselves out of poverty and also, as these economies develop, building markets with which this country can trade.