Deadline: 9 May 2019
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking applications for a program entitled “Support to Civil Society for advancing Citizens’ Participation, Government Accountability and Rights Protection”.
The goal of the IDEA project is to seek to advance civil society advocacy in Sri Lanka. The purpose of the program is to ensure that Sri Lanka has a vibrant and diverse civil society that empowers citizens to advance democratic values of citizen participation and government accountability on a range of governance and reform issues. To achieve this, it will support civil society advocacy to advance chosen reforms, protect and promote rights, improve the enabling environment for civil society in Sri Lanka and strengthen organizational capacity and sustainability of civil society organizations in the country. The program will place special emphasis to integrating gender and diversity considerations and inclusion of youth.
This Annual Program Statement (APS) for grants is issued as a part of ‘Increased Demand and Engagement for Advocacy (IDEA)’ project implemented by Management Systems International (MSI) in Sri Lanka.
Grant Information
- Grants to be awarded under this APS may vary in size from USD 25,000 to a maximum of USD 50,000.
- MSI anticipates reviewing applications on a periodic basis and issuing multiple grants under this APS during the funding period till 9th May, 2019.
Focus Areas & Sub Issues
- Good governance sub-issues:
- Fostering active citizenship and government transparency by building upon initiatives like Right to Information, Open Government Partnership and other mechanisms at national and local levels, ensuring that awareness and utilization of these mechanisms become more broad-based and their benefits felt by many, including women and youth.
- Combating corruption by addressing the culture of impunity, asset recovery and fostering greater citizen engagement with institutions like Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).
- Campaigning for reforms for greater transparency and participation like the National Audit Act, the Assets and Liabilities Declaration Act and improving implementation of laws on participatory budget preparation, and policy and practice changes in public sector procurement and financial management.
- Promoting “clean politics” and electoral reforms that are inclusive and gender-sensitive and that ensure better democratic behavior and outcomes.
- Encouraging greater participation, visibility, inclusiveness and safety of women and disadvantaged groups in governance and reform initiatives.
- Rights protection and rule of law sub-issues:
- Ensuring promotion and protection of fundamental rights, such as freedom from fear, due process, equality before the law, integrity of person, liberty and freedoms of expression, assembly and beliefs. This includes working on addressing issues like torture, detention, militarization, disappearance, land rights, hate speech and violence against religious minorities.
- Improved redress and accountability mechanisms through active citizenship, advocating for legal and institutional reforms and accessing the judiciary, independent commissions such as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Police Commission (NPC) and Right to Information Commission (RTIC).
- Inclusive and transparent development and economic policy, ensuring that the government’s recalibration of economic policies is transparent and is developed inclusively and accountably with marginalized stakeholders, including women and youth.
- Advocating for and encouraging effective implementation of full set of transitional justice commitments including the recently set up OMP. This may be through analysis, advocacy, and CSO watch groups, as well as well by providing gap-filling support.
- Addressing the differential impact of rights violation on women and making rights protection and promotion gender sensitive through analysis and grounded advocacy
- Gender equality and improving the rights of women sub-area include:
- Addressing gender-based violence in a systematic and structured basis in collaboration with responsible government actors
- Improving the status of women at home and in public life and reducing discrimination through legal and policy reforms.
- Fostering greater inclusiveness and leadership of women in local economic systems and governance systems including through economic empowerment.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must be Sri Lankan organizations with a recent history of implementing activities in the focus areas of this APS.
- Applicants can be any organization with legal personality in Sri Lanka that is not a public sector or a for profit private sector institution.
- Such local organizations may be registered under a variety of statutes, such as, not-for-profit companies, societies, trusts, cooperatives, independent trade unions, professional associations, and community based organizations.
- They must also be responsible, law-abiding organizations with a record of business integrity.
- Grant funds awarded under this APS cannot be used towards any profit by the grantees.
- Applicants can propose to work with smaller locally based CSOs and community based organizations, registered or informal.
How to Apply
Applications should be submitted via given website.
For more information, please visit USAID.