Deadline: 11-Aug-2025
UN Women Sierra Leone is inviting applications from three women-led or women-focused civil society organizations (CSOs) to participate in a capacity-strengthening initiative. The selected CSOs will play a key role in empowering other organizations to more effectively advocate for women’s rights and drive progress toward ending violence against women and girls (EVAWG) and harmful practices (HP).
These three organizations will implement programs supporting women and girls in the districts of Moyamba, Falaba, and Kailahun. UN Women will provide tailored training and guidance to help them deliver impactful results. The focus will be on building the capacity of grassroots women’s rights groups, reinforcing the women’s movement as a powerful force in advancing gender equality and eliminating violence.
Another key objective of this initiative is to promote changes in gender norms, attitudes, and behaviors at both the community and individual levels. This includes support for women’s economic empowerment as a means to prevent violence and harmful practices.
The available budget for this initiative is USD 100,000, and the project is expected to run for approximately one year, with completion by the end of July 2026.
The overall goal is to ensure that all women and girls, especially the most vulnerable, can live free from violence and harmful practices. The project seeks to strengthen the women’s rights movement and enhance the influence of CSOs on policies and practices aimed at EVAWG and HP.
Key outputs include expanding opportunities for CSOs to share knowledge, partner, and advocate for gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE), and supporting them in using social accountability mechanisms for stronger advocacy. It also includes strengthening the capacity of groups that represent women and youth facing multiple forms of marginalization to design, implement, and monitor effective EVAWG and HP coordination programs at both district and national levels.
Implementing partners will also be responsible for developing a performance monitoring framework, including specific performance indicators, in collaboration with UN Women within the first two months of the project.
To be eligible, applicants must be local women-led organizations (WLOs) or women’s rights organizations (WROs) with a governance structure, active bank account, valid legal registration in Sierra Leone, and an operational presence in at least one of the following districts: Western Area, Kailahun, Moyamba, or Falaba. They must also have implemented programming related to ending violence against women and movement-building within the last five years.
Organizations that are not legally registered in Sierra Leone, are listed under UN Security Council sanctions, are under investigation for misconduct, or are government entities, UN agencies, private individuals, or private companies will be excluded from consideration.
For more information, visit UN Women.
