Grant Programme Contributing towards Peaceful and Safe Societies

Deadline: 21-Dec-23

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a call for proposals for the grant programme “Contributing to Peaceful and Safe Societies”.

Objectives

• In summary, the Contributing to Peaceful and Safe Societies grant programme will:
  • support internationally operating civil society organisations that aim to contribute to the policy theme of security for persons and communities, and/or peacebuilding and conflict mediation;
  • thereby enable them to influence the policies of local, national, regional and international stakeholders working on these policy issues;
  • simultaneously encourage them to increase their knowledge of and experience with programming on one of these policy themes in fragile and conflict-affected states;
  • based on insights and evidence gained from an adaptive, locally led approach to development programming.

Purpose and Policy Themes

• The Contributing to Peaceful and Safe Societies grant programme aims to contribute to strengthening broader policy and programming on the following two policy themes:
  • Security for persons and communities: Within this policy theme, the Netherlands seeks to work with persons and communities that are experiencing insecurity (caused by individual or organised, armed and non-armed, state or non-state actors), by supporting them to apply nonviolent approaches to conflict prevention and resolution.
    • The Contributing to Peaceful and Safe Societies grant programme, within the security for persons and communities theme, aims to: contribute to programmes that support efforts by persons and communities to break violent conflict cycles and thereby reduce the levels of violence and fear of violence. These programmes include:
      • community security programmes, including efforts to enhance the interface between demand for, and supply of, security (through, for example, strengthening protection of civilians policy and practice);
      • programmes aimed at strengthening personal and community conflict management behaviour and mechanisms (through, for example, unarmed civilian protection).
    • For both types of programmes, the Netherlands is committed to gender-responsive and inclusive security mechanisms, mental health and psychosocial support, and the promotion of nonviolent conflict resolution pathways and infrastructures.
  • Peacebuilding and conflict mediation: Efforts in this policy theme enable stakeholders to contribute to sustaining peace in order to prevent the outbreak, continuation, escalation and recurrence of violent conflict. The topic of mental health and psychosocial support is of particular prominence in the Netherlands’ peacebuilding efforts, as they are instrumental for fostering trust and social cohesion in societies, which in turn are essential for sustainable peace.
    • Within the peacebuilding and conflict mediation theme, the Contributing to Peaceful and Safe Societies grant programme aims to: support programmes that enable stakeholders to contribute to conflict prevention and peacebuilding, in order to prevent violent conflict and support peace across the peace continuum. These programmes include:
      • Peacebuilding:
        • strengthening the social cohesion, trust and resilience of persons and communities;
        • improving the quality, coherence, effectiveness and conflict sensitivity of international support to fragile and conflict-affected states in order to achieve sustainable peace.
      • Conflict mediation:
        • conflict transformation and resolution at various levels, including third-party conflict mediation and local community dialogue and negotiation skills training.

Funding Information

• Applicants must apply for no less than €10 million and no more than €25 million in funding.
• The activities for which a grant is requested have a minimum duration of 91 months and a maximum duration of 96 months. Activities must commence no earlier than 1 January 2024, and no later than 1 June 2024.

Working Methods

• The Contributing to Peaceful and Safe Societies grant programme takes locally led development and adaptive programming as starting points for the way of working in fragile and conflict-affected states:
  • Adaptive programming incorporates continuous learning and feedback loops to enable purposeful learning and consequently make adjustments to the programming. This includes adjusting programming in response to changes in the context of the programme, as well as adjusting programming based on insights gained about its effectiveness.
  • Locally led development is the process by which local actors – including individuals, communities, networks, organisations, private entities, and governments – set their own agendas, develop solutions, and mobilise the capacity, leadership, and resources to realise those solutions. Locally led development touches on the ways in which applicants involve local communities in their activities and on how they engage and partner up with local organisations.

Guiding Principles for Activities

• The following guiding principles for implementing SRoL activities in fragile and conflict-affected states should be taken into account in the design and implementation of activities proposed under this grant programme:
  • Inclusivity: The activities contribute to the equal distribution of social and material benefits among social groups and categories, and to addressing the structural factors that cause and perpetuate exclusion and marginalisation of people in vulnerable situations in society. Inclusive decisionmaking, equal access to power and resources and a participatory approach are central. Activities should be gender- and youth-responsive: i.e., they should contribute to preventing increasing gender and youth inequality, and advance gender and youth equality. As such, applicants must apply a gender- and youth-sensitive lens in their programming, consistently consulting and involving women and young people in programming and policy influencing decisions, and eliminating barriers that may interfere with their meaningful participation in activities.
  • Conflict sensitivity: Activities should be designed to consciously avoid or minimise negative impacts on and unintended contributions to conflict, and equally consciously aim to positively impact on conflict dynamics and enhance opportunities for peace and inclusion. This requires the ability (i) to analyse and understand the operational context in which activities take place; (ii) to translate that understanding into consequences for interventions and interactions with that context; and (iii) to incorporate and update conflict sensitivity throughout the activity cycle. Given the importance the Netherlands attaches to the issue of mental health and psychosocial support as part of its engagement in fragile and conflict-affected states, it is important to include psychosocial dimensions and dynamics as part of conflict sensitivity when analysing and understanding the contexts in which activities take place.
  • Alignment and coordination: In many SRoL focus countries, and in fragile states in general, the SRoL agenda is carried out and implemented by a diverse group of actors working on similar issues. In order to avoid overlap and advance complementarity of efforts, it is essential that activities be aligned with broader national and international development strategies and programmes, so that their outcomes are more likely to be embedded in a broader set of relevant activities and more likely to create a catalytic and sustainable effect in the longer-term (results that are greater than the sum of their parts).

Eligible Countries

• The Contributing to Peaceful and Safe Societies grant programme is focused on the Dutch SRoL focus countries: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (Eastern DRC), Iraq, Yemen, Mali, Niger, Uganda, Palestinian Territories, Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia, and South Sudan.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for a grant under the Contributing to Peaceful and Safe Societies grant programme, organisations must satisfy the following requirements:
  • The applicant is an internationally operating civil society organisation (CSO/NGO), in the sense that it conducts activities in multiple countries.
  • The organisation’s activities focus explicitly on the policy themes central to this grant programme: security for persons and communities, and/or peacebuilding and conflict mediation. This must be evidenced by the annual accounts and/or financial statements submitted by the applicant.
  • The organisation must have a proven track record of at least ten years in implementing activities (including policy influencing) relevant to the policy theme for which the applicant is requesting funding (security for persons and communities, or peacebuilding and conflict mediation) in fragile and conflict-affected states (including SRoL focus countries).

Ineligible

• Not eligible for grant funding under the Contributing to Peaceful and Safe Societies grant programme are:
  • Applications on behalf of an alliance;
  • Organisations whose activities are not explicitly focused on security for persons and communities, and/or peacebuilding and conflict mediation. Organisations whose activities revolve primarily around development cooperation in a broader sense, such as poverty alleviation or the promotion of basic services such as health, education, housing or water, as well as organisations whose activities revolve primarily around humanitarian assistance, are therefore not eligible for a grant under this grant programme;
  • For-profit organisations;
  • Local and other authorities, intergovernmental organisations and organisations in which the government is the sole or majority shareholder.

For more information, visit Government of the Netherlands.