The Big Lottery announced a new funding scheme for overseas communities today. This is aimed at Voluntary and community organisations who are working in partnership with NGOs overseas

The programme will offer funding of between £50,000 and £500,000 for up to 5 years for projects that "improve access to primary education, health care and natural resources, build sustainable livelihoods and support disadvantaged people to exercise their basic human rights". The programme will run from 2010-2015. Until the end of 2012 £25 million will be available with the budget from 2012-2015 to be decided later.

The press release is available from the Big Lottery website.

Further details are also available from the Big Lottery website. There don't appear to be any guidelines at present. However, it is worth downloading the Questions and Answers paper rather than just looking at the similarly named Questions and Answers page on the website; the paper is far more detailed.