Deadline: 30 July 2019
The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) has announced an initiative to advance public participation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
The 2019 MENA Public Participation Initiative will provide grants to support local civil society organizations (CSOs) as they seek to develop or reform laws and policies to provide for greater CSO participation in policy and legislative processes at the national, regional, or local level.
Type of Activities
The types of activities that ICNL can support include (but are not limited to):
- Advocacy campaigns for new laws, regulations, and policies to advance public consultation or public participation, including initiatives to enhance access to information;
- Multi-stakeholder meetings to co-develop laws or policies;
- Activities to improve implementation of existing access to information laws, decentralization laws, and other laws related to public participation;
- Activities to support the creation of new participatory mechanisms such as public hearings, consultative councils, petitions, motions, or public consultation standards, etc.;
- Trainings or technical assistance to build the capacity of government officials to fully and justly implement a public participation law or policy;
- Trainings or technical assistance to mobilize CSOs to use existing public participation mechanisms or to help prepare CSOs to engage in policy and legislative processes;
- Public awareness campaigns about the importance of public participation and how individuals can take advantage of existing participation mechanisms;
- Dialogues and policy debates at the local, regional, or national level on priority topics;
- Formation of coalitions of CSOs to support engagement in and achieve impact on national-level policy and legislative processes; and
- Support for CSOs as they develop strategies to build new relationships or leverage existing relationships between CSOs and officials at the local and municipal levels to advocate for national-level change.
This list is merely illustrative and ICNL strongly encourages applicants with innovative ideas and approaches not described above to apply.
Eligibility Criteria
The MENA Public Participation Initiative is open to organizations from Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Morocco and Palestine.
Selection Criteria
Applications will be evaluated based on the following factors:
- Compliance with eligibility requirements and application procedures;
- Demonstrated commitment of applicant to promoting public participation;
- Quality of proposed project, including the innovativeness of the proposal, the proposed methodology/design, feasibility of the project (e.g. activities are targeted to achieve stated results, and anticipated results are realistic and attainable)
- Likelihood that the proposed project will advance public participation at the national, regional, or local level;
- Sustainability of the proposed project beyond the grant period;
- Proposed budget and apparent value for money; and
- Inclusion of reasonable indicators to measure project success.
Application Instructions
To apply for a grant, applicants must submit the following items in English or Arabic:
- Application coversheet
- Proposal (no more than five pages);
- Resumes/CVs of leading project staff;
- Background information about the applicant organization or educational institution (e.g. website links or informational materials);
- Line item budget (from $5,000-$15,000)
Content of Proposal
Proposals should be no more than five pages and should include the following information:
- A description of applicant’s proposed project;
- Applicant’s experience in working on legal reform, the rights to public participation, access to information, or other civic space related issues;
- Existing initiatives by the applicant or other entities dealing with similar or related issues. Where applicable, the plan for ensuring complementarity between the proposed project and existing initiatives;
- An overview of the proposed project, including a description of proposed activities, outputs, and outcomes;
- The proposed activity plan and timeline for the project;
- Specific goals, their feasibility, and how results will be measured (including a monitoring and evaluation plan);
- The plan to sustain the impact of the project beyond the grant support.
Please also attach a line-item budget (which does not count toward the 5-page limit for the proposal).
How to Apply
Interested applicants can apply by completing the application coversheet and submitting it, along with all required documents by email at the address given on the website.
For more information, please visit http://www.icnl.org/programs/global/fellowship/index.html
