15th Round of United Nations Democracy Fund + Useful Tips to Prepare a Successful Proposal

Deadline: 1-Dec-20

The 15th Round of United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) has launched to support projects that strengthen the voice of civil society, promote human rights, and encourage the participation of all groups in democratic processes.

The large majority of UNDEF funds go to local civil society organizations — both in the transition and consolidation phases of democratization. In this way, UNDEF plays a novel and unique role in complementing the UN’s other, more traditional work — the work with Governments — to strengthen democratic governance around the world.

Focus Areas

UNDEF supports projects that strengthen the voice of civil society, promote human rights, and encourage the participation of all groups in democratic processes. The large majority of UNDEF funds go to local civil society organizations — both in the transition and consolidation phases of democratization.

Proposals are subject to a highly rigorous and competitive selection process, with fewer than two per cent chosen for funding. Projects fall under one or more of eight main areas:

• Gender equality;
• Community activism;
• Rule of law and human rights;
• Youth engagement;
• Strengthening civil society interaction with Government;
• Media and freedom of information;
• Tools for knowledge;
• Electoral processes.

In this Round, UNDEF particularly welcomes projects that address challenges to civic space and democracy as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

• Initiatives which do not promote democracy;
• Initiatives filling a funding gap for on-going/regular programs and activities;
• Projects focused primarily on research;
• Projects that will be co-financed with other donors.

Funding Information

• Grant allocations will be of a minimum of US$100,000 and not exceed US$300,000 for any given project. Applicants must request an amount within this range. The majority of projects are granted no more than $250,000.
• UNDEF grants will be allocated for projects with default duration of two years.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible Beneficiaries
  • UNDEF funds projects implemented by non-UN organizations, not individuals, profit-making or government entities. Eligible applicants must be duly constituted nationally or internationally and have legal status.
  • At the project proposal stage, you will be required to indicate the type of organization applying for funding:
    • Civil Society Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations engaged in promoting democracy
    • Independent and Constitutional Bodies,
    • Global and Regional inter-government bodies, organizations and associations other than the United Nations
  • UNDEF’s priority is Civil Society Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations. The organization must be legally constituted. UN accreditation is not a prerequisite to apply for UNDEF funding. UNDEF encourages local CSO’s to submit high quality project proposals.
• Priority Countries and Regional Balance
  • Strong preference will be given to applicants from countries and regions where the challenges of democracy are more critical, such as countries emerging from conflict, new and restored democracies, the Least Developed Countries (as per the official classification of the UNOHRLLS), Low Income Countries (“Low Income Economies” as per the World Bank’s official classification based on Gross National Income per capita) and Middle Income Countries (“Lower and Upper Middle-income Economies”, idem).
• Local and Global/Regional Projects
  • UNDEF will invite proposals for projects that either take place in one country only (local) or occur in several specified states of a region or sub-region (regional) or intend to operate at the global level (global). UNDEF will reserve at least 80% of its programmable resources in each funding round for projects taking place in one country and will allocate no more than 20% to global/regional projects.

Assessment Criteria

• The project promotes the objectives of UNDEF;
• The project draws on the United Nations’ comparative advantage;
• The project will have a significant impact;
• The project will encourage inclusion of marginalized and vulnerable groups;
• The project will enhance gender equality;
• The project has strong prospects for successful implementation;
• The applicant organization has a strong track record;
• The project is technically sound in conception and presentation;
• The project represents good value for money;
• The project has strong prospects of sustainability beyond the project duration.

Project Management Arrangements

The vast majority of UNDEF projects are delivered directly by civil society organizations (CSO). In this type of project, the CSO is responsible for the overall management of the project and bears all substantive, financial, monitoring, and reporting and evaluation responsibilities.

In exceptional circumstances and where there is clear value added, the applicant might feel the need to partner with a United Nations Executing Agency. In this case, the UN agency will oversee and monitor the project and act as UNDEF’s agent for project oversight.

Should an applicant decide to work with a UN Agency, the applicant must seek the Agency’s prior consent before submitting their project proposal. The CSO must indicate in the project proposal the contact details of the person who has given this consent.

Budgetary considerations

UNDEF funds projects, not project implementers. Please note therefore that salary, contractual services and miscellaneous costs should be modest.

UNDEF will not give priority to project proposals in which:

• A substantial part (more than 20%) of the budget relates to institutional recurrent costs (e.g. rent, utilities) and/or personnel costs.
• Equipment and hardware purchases are too high in the context of total project costs (e.g. the purchase of vehicles)

These costs will impact on the assessment of the project proposal under the “Value for Money” assessment criterion (see § 5.6). All such costs must be itemized clearly and included under each budget category (e.g. salaries, equipment/hardware, miscellaneous).

Please note that UNDEF will add 10% to any grant in order to cover monitoring and evaluation costs. This added amount will not be disbursed to the grantee but retained by UNDEF from the outset. This amount will be capped at 25,000USD for projects over 250,000USD.

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)

All project applicants must monitor their own activities.

Proposals need to describe how project results/outcomes will be measured, what measurements will be used (outcome indicators, baseline, targets and monitoring tools) and who will be responsible for measuring them. All project proposals must allow for a rigorous monitoring and evaluation strategy that will be further detailed in the project document. Further monitoring and reporting details will be provided to successful applicants through the Project Document Guidelines.

Useful Tips to Prepare a Successful Proposal

UNDEF shares the following best practices to help you create a successful application:

Presentation: The higher the quality the presentation, the higher your proposal will score. You can get a good idea of what is required by viewing the project proposal guidelines. Complete all relevant information, but do not exceed the character limits in the proposal form. Ensure that the information is accurate. Write in plain English or French, avoiding jargon where possible. Use correct acronyms and website addresses. Write succinct sentences and avoid repetition.

Clarity: Clarity is the key to a successful proposal. The applicant must have a clear idea about what they want to achieve and a clear strategy for how to achieve it. You need to spell out the link between your overall objective and your expected outcomes — how these will translate your vision into reality. Lack of clarity cannot be disguised by the use of “buzz” words or other formulaic constructions; a successful design requires a logic that can be followed step by step. Brainstorm the ideas thoroughly before writing them down, but equally, agree on what specific steps are needed to make them happen, and in what sequence. Play the “devil’s advocate” and criticize the initial ideas until you have achieved a logical design.

Scoring and criteria: In UNDEF’s initial assessment of proposals, each project proposal is scored against 10 criteria. Since less than two per cent of proposals make it to the short-list, you need to score well on all the criteria to advance to the next stage. Make sure you demonstrate that your proposal satisfies each one:

• The project promotes the objectives of UNDEF
• The project draws on the United Nations’ comparative advantage
• The project will have a significant impact
• The project will encourage inclusion of marginalized and vulnerable groups
• The project will enhance gender equality
• The project has strong prospects for successful implementation
• The applicant organization has a strong track record
• The project is technically sound in conception and presentation
• The project represents good value for money
• The project has strong prospects of sustainability beyond the project duration.

Innovation: How can your proposal stand out from the others? The answer is innovation. That means a new idea, a new method or an original proposal. If the outputs of the project are simply more workshops to raise awareness, then your proposal is unlikely to distinguish itself. When you think of innovative approaches, ensure that the proposal is action-oriented, with concrete outputs listed in the proposal.

Democracy: UNDEF was established not simply to fund good causes or good people. Arguing that your cause is just and your people are worthy is not sufficient. UNDEF is a Fund to promote democracy and each proposal must be able to show how the funding of that project will advance the cause of democracy. UNDEF focuses on supporting the voice of civil society, and so the proposal must show how that voice will be strengthened, and how that, in turn, will strengthen democratic processes. The more direct the link, the stronger the proposal.

Budget: Give considerable thought to the budget. Make sure the budget relates to the outputs listed in the narrative part of the proposal. They understand that the budget is an estimate, so use rounded figures. UNDEF rarely funds the purchase of vehicles.

Timing: Please do not leave submission until the last few days. Given that the proposal window is open for six weeks, a well prepared applicant will submit well ahead of the deadline to ensure there is time left if something goes wrong. The later in the proposal process, the greater the risk that something may go wrong that cannot be remedied. And once the online proposal system is closed for the year, they cannot assist you. They have received dozens of “hard luck” stories about bad internet connections or electricity blackouts to explain why a proposal was late. The answer is to start in time.

The online application platform can face technical difficulties due to high volumes of applicants in the last few days before the deadline, it is the applicant’s responsibility to apply in advance to avoid missing the deadline, and UNDEF will not grant extensions.

You have read everything and still have a lot of questions…No worries! Read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section.

• When and Who Can: Apply for Funding
• How to Apply: Online Project Proposal System
• Technical Problems: Online Project Proposal System
• Project Proposals: Assessment and Selection
• Project Management: Arrangements and Monitoring

For more information, visit https://www.un.org/democracyfund/content/call-project-proposals